By calling voters "heartless," Perry personally attacked, on national television, 81% of the American people. The inference was that only Perry was Truly Worthy (b/c he had sucked up to Mexico).
(Snort) How easy it is to have a "heart" when you are using other people's money (tax dollars that buy votes, campaign contributions and re/election).
Americans are sick and tired of vote-crazed pols extorting tax dollars to giveaway to select voting blocs that the pols desperately needs to get re/elected.
As one FReeper insightfully posted: "I just hate a politician with his heart in the right place."
When he does that disappearing act, big-hearted Rick gets down to the real business of governance----enriching himself.
Senor Ricardo released his "holdings" the other day, but he sure left OUT a LOT----like for instance, that one of his multi-million dollar "political committees" paid for family trips all over the world. And what about his wife's "holdings?" She also worked for Texas government----for a non-profit that received "grants" from her husband, the Governor's, office. Just a coincidence, I'm sure (/snix).
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So how many political/personal slush funds does Senor Ricky have? This is what we know to date----could be many many more.
<><> “Texans for Rick Perry” committee is a $102 million slush fund he uses at will. Some PAC mega-donors paid in $100,000 each in order to influence Perry's official actions. Gov Perry paid for posh family trips to the Bahamas, Amsterdam, Madrid out of campaign contributions from his “Texans for Rick Perry” committee.
<><> Perry's "Make Us Great Again PAC" raised millions to flood Iowa, and other early voting states, with ads promoting their boy.
<><> At the time he was saying he WAS NOT running for president last year, Ricky's Super-Pac raised $55 million for a presidential race---in $2500 max per person/ $5000 max per corporate PAC contributions. Perry organizers would not say what the Perry presidential groups has raised to date.
<><> Perry bragged at the Tea Party debate that he raised $33 million for reelection that year and that he was "offended" at the inference that he could be "bought" with Gardisil mfg Merck's $5000 campaign donation. Merck funneled $5,000 to Perry as down payment for the Gardisil EO, but eventually gave Perry $400,000, a move that sparked outrage across Texas and, now, the nation.
<><> The $295 million Texas Enterprise Fund doles out millions of tax dollars to Perry supporters who then kick-backed to his campaign coffers. TESF also gave $20 million to Countrywide Mtge---the crooks at the heart of the US financial meltdown---- Ricky said the $20 million was to (cough) "create jobs."
<><> Perry raised funds for the Republican Governors' Association, and, in turn, Perry's 2006 campaign received two $500,000 checks from the RGA that he did not disclose as election law requires.
<><> His wife Anita Perry's $60,000-a-year salary at the Austin "nonprofit" "Texas Association Against Sexual Assault" comes indirectly from Gov. Perry's political donors, state contractors and companies that do business with the state or have issues before the Legislature. Of 37 major donors during Anita Perry's tenure as fundraiser, ONLY three have NO ties to the governor or state business. Anita Perry is paid from the "nonprofit" money pool that includes political contributions. TAAS also receives grants from state agencies AND the governor's office. Donating to the TAASA seems to be another way Perry dreamed up for those with an interest in state government to influence Perry. State grants to the "non-profit" could be easily laundered especially w/ Mrs P at the helm.
<><> One report called “The Governor’s Gusher,” documents 100 wealthy donors who “have sought corporate welfare, relaxed regulatory rules or other government favors” in exchange for their political largess in Texas gubernatorial races. A disturbing number of these profiteers made a fortune off government handouts or by bending or breaking regulatory rules.
<><> The $200 million Texas Emergency Technology Fund was created at Perry's behest in 2005 to act as a kind of public-sector venture capital firm, largely to provide funding for tech start-ups in Texas. Since then, the fund has committed nearly $200 million tax dollars to fund 133 companies. Mr. Perry told a group of CEOs in May that the fund's "strategic investments are what's helping us keep groundbreaking innovations in the state." A select few including Perry enjoy ultimate decision-making power over the fund's investments. Dallas Morning News found that some $16 million from the tech fund went to firms in which major Perry contributors were either investors or officers, and $27 million from the fund went to companies founded or advised by six advisory board members. The tangle of interests surrounding the fund has raised eyebrows throughout the state, especially among conservatives who think the fund is a misplaced use of taxpayer dollars to start with.
<><> Perry also has a pot of "inaugural committee" monies (bet that comes in handy).
<><> A recent bill pushed through the Texas Legislature benefited Waste Control Specialists, a company owned by #2 donor to Perry, Harold Simmons. Just days after the bill was signed into law, Simmons wrote a $100,000 check to "Americans for Rick Perry, " another of Perry's presidential PACs.
<><> Another donor paid Perry nearly $8 million in campaign contributions and sought and received his own regulatory agency called "The Texas Residential Construction Commission" in 2003.
<><> The Perry-Cintra-Giuliani connection. Perry used eminent domain to grab land from Texans to give to foreign country. Perry sold off Texas infrastructure to the highest bidder----to Cintra a Spanish company that employed his former staffer Dan Shelley. Shelley worked as a ‘consultant’ for Cintra (in 2004), became Perry’s liaison to the legislature during the time that Cintra was awarded the development rights to the $7 billion dollar Trans Texas Corridor (in 2005), then went back to work as a lobbyist for Cintra (in 2006).
<><> A 50-year concession was granted the TTF by the Texas Transportation Commission (ordered by Perry?).
<><> Dallas law firm---Bracewell & Giuliani LLP---- advised Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A., a Spanish transportation company, in its successful bid to develop Texas State Highway 121 into a toll road through Collin and Denton counties. The award to Cintra, approved by the Texas Transportation Commission, is the first privatization of a Texas toll road.
<><> Bracewell & Giuliani LLP is acting as project counsel to Cintra with respect to the 50-year concession granted by the Texas Department of Transportation. Cintra will pay a $2.1 billion upfront and annual lease payments totaling $700 million. "Cintra was awarded this project because of its proven expertise and competitive proposal," said Thomas O. Moore, partner with Bracewell & Giuliani. "This is the largest transportation deal of 2007. This is one of only five deals in the country."
<><> Bighearted Perry apparently has a heartfelt hand in furthering the UN’s Agenda 21 policies; Agenda 21's stated goals are to abolish private property and restrict mobility.
<><> And so on and so forth, ad infinitum, ad nauseaum.