Some of You Tea Party Folk Think Rick Perry’s the Answer?

If you’re a Tea Party member, or you have significant sympathies with them, I’d caution you against climbing aboard Rick Perry’s TransTexasCatastrophe. The Media is doing everything possible to paint this guy as a bronc-busting, cattle-roping, Texan, but in truth, there are more than a few things you ought to know about him. He’s no friend to individual rights, except in an election season, and he’s not really the trend-setter he’d have you believe. His record on jobs isn’t actually so swift as he’d have you believe, and he’s got less in common with the average Texan than he does with the Wall Street types with whom he prefers to consort. He’s no friend of Main Street, and he’s certainly no friend to real entrepreneurs, and for all his posturing as one of us, he isn’t, and it’s been quite plain. Those of you from outside Texas can be forgiven for mistaking Perry for a conservative. It’s assumed because he’s a Republican, and he’s from Texas, he must be. Let me now explain a bit of why this isn’t the case.

Friday I heard the increasingly estimable Mark Davis claim that you shouldn’t mind that Perry converted from the Democrat Party to the Republican Party because, as he points out, Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat too. Of course, this is a lie by omission, because what Davis doesn’t mention is that it was a long stretch of years between Reagan’s conversion and his arrival in California electoral politics. This isn’t the case with Rick Perry. He was Al Gore’s Texas Campaign Manager in 1988, and following the loss, immediately reversed course and ran as a Republican. I don’t know about you, but despite Davis’ rather disingenuous interpretation of Reagan’s conversion, painting it as just alike, I’m inclined to believe he left some details out intentionally.

Rick Perry has been a regular guest on Davis’ show on WBAP in the D/FW area for years, and to consider Davis anything like an objective or unbiased voice in this stretches all credulity. Frankly, I hope Limbaugh finds somebody else to be a regular fill in, because Davis is clearly in the tank for Perry, and it runs against Limbaugh’s general premise that he will take no position in a Republican primary, except in general terms on behalf of conservatism.

You may have heard some of Perry’s more recent statements about conditions along the Texas border with Mexico, and you might be inclined to believe Mr. Perry thinks more should be done. He even tried to repair his credibility on the issue by being broadcast on a live feed from a base of operations near the border for an interview on Greta Van Susteren’s show. If you believe that stage-managed bit of theater, I’m inclined to let you know right now that he’s relatively no more conservative in real terms than George Bush, which is to say on the matter of his statist, globalist reflexes, he’s no conservative at all. I’d hate it if anybody else broke the news to you, because I believe bad news is best delivered by a friend. Check out the following video for where Rick Perry really stands on issues of the border:

I realize there’s a tendency to overstate things in the name of supporting one’s position, but it’s really no exaggeration to suggest that Perry isn’t really very close in his thinking to Tea Party Members, not when measured against what he’s been saying since October 2010, but in what he has said all along throughout his career. He’s taken money and support from La Raza, ACORN, and other groups that advocate spending tax-payer dollars for dubious programs and projects.

He’s also a crony-capitalist. If you’re like me, that’s simply something you can’t abide. I love the free market, but Governor Perry’s revolving door between his staff and corporate boardrooms is a well-established phenomenon, and frankly, if you buy into his nonsense, he’s going to wind up exploiting your good intentions too. Companies like Merck and Cintra are more his style, and his staff has reflected this over the years of his gubernatorial reign.

You’ve undoubtedly heard about the Gardasil flap, and likely been willing to dismiss it as a fluke. That would be a serious and potentially tragic mistake. The most ridiculously egregious thing he may have done in his tenure as Governor of Texas was the proposed TransTexas Corridor. You may have heard of it, but may not have any details, so let me expound on that for a moment or two. This was the project that first enlightened me to Perry’s big government answers to all things. The upshot is this: It was to be a vast network of toll roads, but more, it would have included some form of light and heavy rail, pipelines, and all manner of things. On the surface, this might sound attractive, but as with any such project, the devil lies in the details.

The plan included 4400 linear miles of a toll road network, running parallel in many cases to existing Highways and Interstates already in existence. The corridor’s right of way was to be a full 1/4 mile wide. Simple math tells you that even ignoring junctions and interchanges, this would have consumed 1100 square miles of Texas’ territory. You might argue that while it’s a lot of land, Texas is a big state. That’s all well and good if the state already owns the land, but since it doesn’t, it was going to acquire it by use of eminent domain. Again, you might argue that building roads is one function for which eminent domain ought to apply, but once you look at the rules to be applied to this project, you might well conclude otherwise. Rather than basing their offers to property owners on free market value, they instead intended to limit it to “fair market value” as determined by a panel of cronies they would gin up for the chore.

This project actually proposed bisecting county and farm roads, and even property, dead-ending what are fairly important thoroughfares for the communities they serve. More, it would have bisected school districts and even towns along its path. Again, you might think that impossible until you understand that this was to be a closed system with few exits or on-ramps, only permitting access at major Highway and Interstate junctions. This threatened to destroy many rural communities, and they rose up against it. Once the details became clear to the public, it was quickly sent back for re-work, and eventually dumped.

Here were the things they didn’t advertise, but you need to know. It was supposed to be operate by a concessionaire, Cintra, for a period of 50 years. It was going to employ tolls of roughly $0.26 per mile. A geographical understanding of the scale of Texas immediately prompts the question: “Who on Earth would voluntarily pay to enter a closed-system roadway at that cost over the huge distances in Texas, when a free parallel alternative is just a few miles away in the form of an Interstate, or Highway?” Good question, and the answer is: Almost nobody. So how did they intend to make this work? In 2004,TxDOT applied to the USDOT for a waiver so that they could charge a toll on the existing I-35. The first leg of the proposed TTC system was called TTC-35, the leg that would run from Laredo to an undetermined point on the Oklahoma border. In other words, it was a corridor to nowhere, but in order to get you to use it, they were going to toll the free Interstate and let it fall into disrepair.

Opponents at the time argued that the existing I-35 corridor could be widened, and this was met with a dismissive rejection by Perry’s Transportation Commission. They said it couldn’t be done in a cost-efficient way. Your confusion at this statement matches that of the average Texan who realizes that this couldn’t possibly be true. How hard is it to add a few lanes here and there? Yes, you’ll have some eminent domain issues, but nothing on the scale of what the TTC proposed.

They also promised it would promote economic development, but what they kept concealed for a while, until they no longer could do so under the law, was that because it was a closed system, Cintra, the corporation from Spain that would build and operate it, would also have exclusive rights to all concessions along its length. More, due to the limitations on exits and on-ramps, it could never be shown how this colossal highway system would provide any sort of economic boon to anybody, because you wouldn’t be able to access most smaller towns from along its length. I’m sure you’ll agree with me that the fact that one of Perry’s top staffers was a former Cintra VP, and the fact that one of his own staffers had gone on to work for Cintra had absolutely nothing to do with Perry’s TTC plans. Right?

Ladies and gentlemen, if you’ve fallen prey to the hype about Perry, you may be forgiven, particularly if you’re not from Texas. You’re not aware, as so many here, that Perry isn’t the fellow he’s now being portrayed to be. He’s not a friend to the Tea Party, despite his seeming 2010 conversion, because much like his conversion in 1989, this conversion also seems to be one of convenience. I will assure you, this is most definitely the case.

Perry likes to put on an act about his conservative credentials, and his sympathies with the Tea Party, but if the truth is told, he’s no more one of us than the man in the Moon. You might want to let your fellow conservatives and Tea Party patriots know it too: We’re being hustled again.

Fair enough.

I'd rather debate on substance, even though retail politics is a game of style.

I think the reason Palin hasn't entered is that she believed Perry when he said he wouldn't: and hasn't yet prepared for him.

I also think that advisor of Perry's (the one who's a slimebag, and fat, and six-foot-four) has carefully studied Palin and adopted many of her positions *and* techniques: and Palin had been relying on that as her differentiator to lend credibility to her candidacy without a large set of $$$ backers).

But she's absolutely determined: and after the contretemps with the Perry fan and the on-again-off-again invitation of Christine O'Donnell, she's planning very carefully exactly *where* to land her torpedo to sink Perry with a single shot.

(She's faced far worse than a swaggering redneck bully in the last three years: and Perry is relying on the shock and awe of an astroturf blitzkrieg to promote an air of inevitability, backed by Te-hey-ax-ayns from all over chiming in, in a well-executed version of the Diamond Strategy. But it's all just astroturf: pandering to Mexicans will SINK him no matter what he claims about Texas and its economy. Texas as a state is as narcissistic as Obama is about himself: and Texans aren't quite bright enough to figure out, or honest enough with themselves to admit, that nobody else worships them in quite that same special way.)

Here's a photo from Texas A&M as published in The Texas Tribune which will cause trouble for Perry in the proper hands:

From Animal House to Storm Trooper in one easy lesson.

Cheers!

Why is it people just don’t get it.

Texas, (and I’m sure Ar. NM. CA?( enforcement?) are using state funds, state TAXPAYERS to try to secure their borders or fight the crimes of the invaders.

Now THAT to me is DOUBLE taxation. IF the Fedsd aren’t going to enforce the Law, Then Congress should reduce their budgets and return the money to the states for enforcememt.
Why do you think Holders Injustice dept fights state Laws so vigorously.
The last thing D.C wants is to lose the POWER axe they hold over the American Peoples necks.

When Sarah backed McCain I began to question her total committment to the Tea Party cause. Don’t tell me she owed McCain. I don’t think McCain ever intended to actually win the Election 2008.
She owed/owe him NOTHING. Some say oh she did it because he picked her. So she compromised as a PERSONAL favor to a RINO pol? How about a big donor? ETC ETC. Just my opinion. But at some point, I would like to see a candidate that does what they say. Perry is that candidate.

Most people don’t want her to run because they don’t think she can win or they just don’t like her. Every poll says the same thing.

Besides, is she really going to give up the perk$ of her new po$ition? Her 3 year contract with Fox is a $1 million /year. She’s not been forced to resign like Gingrich and Santorum did prior to them declaring. She also gets $100,000 per speech and her books, family reality tv contracts, etc are not going to pay as well if she’s settling for the POTUS salary.

http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/posted/archive/2010/04/26/how-much-money-does-sarah-palin-make-new-york-magazine-knows.aspx

http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/08/iowa-fairgoer-to-todd-palin-your-wife-sold-out/

As far as the 0bama/Keyes senate race, it’s not a circular argument regarding the outcome had there been an electable candidate run against him. Had he been defeated then he wouldn’t be in the WH today.

Most people don’t want her to run because they don’t think she can win or they just don’t like her. Every poll says the same thing.

Polls said the same thing about Reagan vs. Dhimmi Carter, much closer to the election than this, even after the primaries (no "noise" from competing contenders).

And before the "Sarah is no Reagan" -- she doesn't *have* to be: Barack Abyss Obaama is not ~~Jimmuh~~ Dhimmi Carter. The current crop of "hopey-changey" kids who voted for him, had never *really* known an economic downturn in their lives: and so by contrast, this one is all the worse (especially considering that they've been coddled and told how "special" they are, and now even Ivy League graduates cannot find jobs which require a college degree. Add to that the burden on student debt not dischargeable in bankruptcy...)

By definition, YES, YES, YES, a thousand times yes!

Read Going Rogue.

This is why she is speaking of running and holding office "with a servant's heart." It's not just a coded signal to the religious right; it's how she actually feels, and how she's really lived.

I don't think I mentioned that in post #408; maybe you got your wires crossed somewhere on that one?

Cheers!

Note he's not interested in closing the border....he can only permote "secure" the border because he wants his companies and industries on that border and elswhere to not have to deal with the drug thugs and traffic he lets in.

He's not permoting this for our nations safety...he's doing this for the gravy he gets off the border and the deals he's made for that area with Mexico.

Twink: OMG. The cluelessness of this post is beyond comprehension.

Twink you give far too much credit. That is near insanity. I am beginning to suspect that caww is an outright liberal. Only they think that far off the mark.

Poor people with insurance companies? What did I miss?

Oops! I jumped ahead in gleeful anticipation of Obamacare.

Seriously, though, I was poor growing up but we had health insurance through my mother's job. It covered those inoculation required by law for me to attend school. Those things not mandated by law were covered but only after the required copay and deductions had been met.

These shots cost $120.00 per injection and three of them are required. That $360.00 is not easy for a lot of people to pay. Like all required inoculations, the benefits are beyond calculation.

I think your support for Sarah greatly skews your judgement.

(She's faced far worse than a swaggering redneck bully in the last three years: and Perry is relying on the shock and awe of an astroturf blitzkrieg to promote an air of inevitability, backed by Te-hey-ax-ayns from all over chiming in, in a well-executed version of the Diamond Strategy. But it's all just astroturf: pandering to Mexicans will SINK him no matter what he claims about Texas and its economy. Texas as a state is as narcissistic as Obama is about himself: and Texans aren't quite bright enough to figure out, or honest enough with themselves to admit, that nobody else worships them in quite that same special way.)

You don't seem to care much for us Texans either. After visiting your personal page I consider this to be projection. You are pretty heavy on the narcism side yourself.

I wish you well in your world of fantasy.

Blah, blah, blah, St. Sarah is better than sliced bread, blah blah, blah...

Damn straight that Sarah Palin is no Reagan. Reagan had a long and successful career in Hollywood, two terms as California governor, president of the SAG and worked on exposing the communists in our midst before he was elected to two terms of the presidency. In that time he was instrumental in assisting the tearing down of the iron curtain and turning the Jimmy Carter malaise into optimism again.

Palin on the other hand quits to go for the money!

http://nymag.com/news/politics/65628/

http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/posted/archive/2010/04/26/how-much-money-does-sarah-palin-make-new-york-magazine-knows.aspx

http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/08/iowa-fairgoer-to-todd-palin-your-wife-sold-out/

I brought up the fact that had the R’s ran an electable candidate against 0bama instead of Alan Keyes, we would not be sitting here having this discussion because 0bama would not be in the WH now.

Failing to look at the facts outside the Palinista bubble is why you can’t see the facts that every poll clearly states that Palin would lose to 0bama by double digits. For those inside the bubble that means, the majority of people simply do not like her or believe she’s qualified to be the POTUS. I don’t dislike her but I do feel she is woefully inadequate to be the POTUS.

God bless our Constitution! It, like God, does not change! It is the same now as it was the day it was written!

It is? That's news to me. It would have been news to its framers, too.

I'm looking at the Constitution even as I write. If you assume the Bill of Rights as part and parcel of the original document, I'm looking at seventeen amendments that say, assuredly, that the Supreme Law of the Land has been modified, augmented, changed seventeen times.

But if you assume the Bill of Rights followed the original document---which it did (the Constitution sans amendments was ratified in July 1788 and went into effect the following March; the Bill of Rights was proposed formally in September 1789, ratified by the requisite eleven states by December 1791, and took effect the same month, and it would be quite revelatory to be reminded which states actually rejected which among the original amendments: four states originally rejected the Second Amendment, and one, Delaware, originally rejected the First Amendment)---then I'm looking at twenty-seven amendments that say, assuredly, that the Supreme Law of the Land has been modified, augmented, changed, twenty-seven times.

Most assuredly the Constitution, and God bless it indeed, is not the same now as the "day" it was written. (Come, come, you don't really think it could have been written in a day, do you? ;)

Which isn't the same thing as believing, as alas many do, that it's malleable to the point of being Silly Putty, as many treat it.

You don't seem to care much for us Texans either. After visiting your personal page I consider this to be projection. You are pretty heavy on the narcism side yourself.

Texans and Harvard grads are the only people I've had experience with who are confuse geocentrism with egocentrism, that is, they think the world revolves around them.

You can see all about the Harvard version from Obama; all about the Texas flavor from Perry.

If they'd tone it down, I'd tone it down.

BTW, it was a serious and considered judgment about Perry's strategy and tactics. Read up on The Diamond Strategy yourself.

Cheers!

You don't seem to care much for us Texans either. After visiting your personal page I consider this to be projection. You are pretty heavy on the narcism side yourself.

I keep my vanities there on my home page so I can find them again: I do most of my composing right in the "Your Reply" box and usually don't make a rough draft, nor do I save it as a word doc on my PC: which is why there are so many typos. Once I get the urge to write off my chest, I just want to post the dang thing. As Winston Churchhill said,

“Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public.”

Since I'm not in his league, it doesn't take writing a book to occupy my time: I've got my hands full with a mere vanity.

Cheers!

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