This Indictment Of Rick Perry Is Unbelievably Ridiculous (says a liberal writer)

New York Magazine (bit tip o'the hat to Twitchy) ^ | 08/16/14 | Jonathan Chait

[jocon307]

They say a prosecutor could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich, and this always seemed like hyperbole, until Friday night a Texas grand jury announced an indictment of governor Rick Perry. The “crime” for which Perry faces a sentence of 5 to 99 years in prison is vetoing funding for a state agency. The conventions of reporting — which treat the fact of an indictment as the primary news, and its merit as a secondary analytic question — make it difficult for people reading the news to grasp just how farfetched this indictment is.

[nhwingut]

This was a Bush family political hit, it was outsourced by the Austin DA to Bush family political appointees. Read about McCrum bit.

Mike McCrum was nominated as a US Attorney by Barrack Obama. No one is nominated by Obama unless they are hardcore Democrats. Period.

His nomination was held up by Republicans who would not confirm him. Repubs would not hold up a independent minded attorney. They knew he was dangerous.

McCrum's nomination just withered on the vine. After more than a year, McCrum said his law practice "dwindled to almost nothing" -- so he withdrew himself from consideration.

Clearly he has blamed the loss of income on Republicans.

You don't think he is a partisan Democrat?

[jocon307]

“...that’s some serious grassy knoll right there.”

Good turn of phrase, I might borrow that one day!

[FlingWingFlyer]

Ridiculous is what DemocRATS do best! Look at the sewer this country has become. The ‘RATS did that. It’s ridiculous.

[jocon307]

So, let me see if I have this right. The guy who got this indictment was maybe going to get to become the US Atty, but his dem sponsor dropped him because the two R senators liked him?

Two comments, one, it seems he should be ticked off with the dems and, how come that derailed it? Do they need all kinds of sponsors? Couldn’t Obama have picked him anyway?

But, at this point he’s shown himself to be a hack among hacks, so perhaps it is to the good he did not obtain a more powerful perch.

[babygene]

I guess I don’t see how a governor vetoing something can possibly be criminal...

[jocon307]

Yeah, I think that’s the main point Chait is trying to make here. There was another post at Twitchy, even David Axelrod tweeted that he thought this was pretty flimsy. (My paraphrase, but I think I got the gist right.)

I know this is a political hit job, but just in general we need to stop criminalizing everything we disapprove of.

Like Bloomberg’s campaign to ban big soda, or the more than 2 or 3 parents who have been arrested and charged with neglect for a. letting their child play in/walk to the park unsupervised, b. forcing their child to walk home as a punishment, etc. Or the little school children who have actually, in some really extremely stupid cases, been ARRESTED for misbehaving. (And I think that last derives directly from the criminalization of what were once normal discipline that the teachers, etc. might mete out themselves.)

I remember watching something on TV about Pol Pot in Cambodia. And I swear at one point they had some video and it seemed to show about 1/2 the country marching the other 1/2 the country to their doom at gunpoint.

And I thought, well, yeah, but that’s basically what happened there.

It’s really not a good way to run a nation.

[jmaroneps37]

Thanks for the comedy relief. Sometimes it helps to laugh at a moment like this.

[TigerClaws]

No one disputes that Perry is allowed to veto measures approved by the Legislature. But the left-leaning Texans for Public Justice government watchdog group filed an ethics complaint accusing the governor of coercion because he threatened to use his veto before actually doing so in an attempt to pressure Lehmberg to quit.

...

Texans for Public Justice
[link to www.tpj.org]

[link to info.tpj.org]

Foundation support was provided by:
The Piper Foundation
The Open Society Foundations
The Sunlight Foundation
The Winkler Foundation
Good Jobs First
Contributions from individual Texas donors.

SOROS IS BEHIND IT.

Good Jobs First is an organization founded by The Rockefeller Foundation, The Ford Foundation, and works with the Industrial Areas Foundation (founded by Saul Alinsky.)

Open Society Foundations
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

The Sunlight Foundation
[link to www.discoverthenetworks.org]
fndid=5377&category=79
“Noteworthy funders of SF include the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundations (owned and controlled by George Soros), the Pew Charitable Trusts, Pro Publica, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Rockefeller Family Fund, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.”

Good Jobs First
[link to www.goodjobsfirst.org]

[link to www.goodjobsfirst.org]
“Good Jobs First gratefully acknowledges the support of the Rockefeller Foundation,
which funded this organizing manual and the participation of community organizers in
the second of our labor-community “boot camps” described in the Introduction and the
chapter on the common elements of successful campaigns.

We also gratefully acknowledge the Ford Foundation for enabling community organizers
to attend the first boot camp and both the Ford and Surdna Foundations for their
support of our work on smart growth for working families.”

[Pilsner]

It’s worse than people realize. Under the “theory” of this case every Texan who ever threatened to vote for or against a politician in an attempt to influence the politician’s official acts, committed a felony.

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, and the Bushes were behind this:

Defense lawyer, DA spar at contempt hearing (Mike McCrum faces 6 months in jail)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3193647/posts

The Bushes also framed Harding over that Teapot Dome deal (oil! Follow the money!), and before that, they got Teddy Roosevelt to run against Taft to tip the election toward Wilson (that’s the reason for the Perot Payback), and made their first billion selling to the War Department in the Civil War which, you guessed it, they managed to arrange. Also, they sank the Titanic.

[jocon307]

Wow, it’s no wonder people don’t like them!

[usconservative]

Not only is the DA a drunk, she’s also stupid.

Not only is she a drunk and stupid, I bet Lazamataz wouldn't even hit it .....

[kanawa]

Clickable link to TPJ financial report (page 11)

http://info.tpj.org/pdf/Public%20Justice%202013.annual%20report.pdf

Board of Directors

Craig McDonald, President McDonald is the Director of Texans for Public Justice

Andrew Wheat, Secretary A journalist by training, Wheat has written for numerous
progressive publications including the Nation, the Multinational Monitor, Texas
Monthly and the Texas Observer. Wheat is employed as Research Director of
Texas for Public Justice.

Tom “Smitty” Smith, Board Member Thomas “Smitty” Smith is an institution among
progressive Texas advocates. Smitty has been employed as the director of the
Texas Public Citizen office since 1985. Prior to that he worked with Texas Rural
Legal Aide and as a staff member in the Texas Legislature.

Margaret Justus, Board Member Margaret served as assistant press secretary to
former-Governor Ann Richards. She also served as Texas spokesperson for the
1996 Clinton-Gore campaign and remains active in liberal politics in Texas.

Thomas Tobin, Board Member Tobin is former national organizing director for
Public Citizen’s Washington office. He currently is V.P. of Development for Global
Impact, a consortium of progressive charities focusing on poverty in the Third World.

[Lazamataz]

After all this time you’ve known me and you would say something like THAT.

[PA Engineer]

FR’s are dupes if they think the Dems were the one’s pushing this.

You should be thankful breathing is part of the autonomic nervous system.

[DRey]

Texas should move the capitol out of Austin.

It was originally in Washington on the Brazos (Houston-ish), but the Sam Houston haters and other idiots moved it to Austin. Would never be moved back, of course, but OMG what a tectonic shift that would be for Texas Dems. Fun to imagine.