Squeezing Blood from Turnips: White Stumps for Votes in East Texas

Yesterday in looking at the early vote trends and seeing that there is definitely elevated interest in this mid-term election, much higher than in 2006, I came to the conclusion that, in the end, getting your base out to vote is going to be the key to winning an election this year.

And now, in an irony of ironies. I read this morning that the Bill White campaign is stumping for votes in East Texas.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“Republicans have carried the region in the race for governor since Democrat Ann Richards narrowly lost it to George W. Bush in 1994. This year, the GOP is blanketing the airwaves with ads tying local Democrats to an unpopular President Barack Obama.

“But White thinks he can again turn this swath of Texas — more culturally like the Old South than other parts of the state — into a political battleground.”

“‘A lot of Texas Democrats are coming back home in my campaign,’ White told The Associated Press. ‘We're going to be stronger than other statewide candidates in a long time.’”

Now it is one thing to be out there getting your base to the polling booth, and another thing to be out there hammering at persuadables and independent voters. One is a sure thing, the other is a little more iffy in getting positive results.

But it is a completely different thing to be out there in the middle of the last of the Old South trying to turn a region of Texas away from their approval of all things Rick Perry. A region of Texas that went for McCain/Palin in a huge, huge way just 2 years ago. Nacogdoches County, where Bill White and singer Robert Earl Keen visited this weekend voted 63.4% for McCain/Palin in 2008, exceeding the Texas statewide average by 8 points.

Well at least they spelled "African " correctly

This is a region of Texas that has actually gotten redder if that is at all possible. It is a region that has been home to redneck racists for years now. Signs like this appear in front of homes in this area of Texas. In short, Bill White is out there in East Texas trying to squeeze the blood out of a turnip. Ten days out from the General Election, and this is where the White Campaign has decided to concentrate its efforts.

I don’t know who is making this decision for Bill White, but I hope he or she continues their practice in political consulting by working for Republicans next time, because they are doing a smash-up job working for them this year.

“…And Stay Out of My Retirement Fund”

In speaking to a group of enthusiastic supporters recently, Bill White’s comment elicited an outburst from one among the crowd when he asked them whether they agreed with him that public resources shouldn’t be used by a political machine to elect the same person, year after year.

Here is a video clip of that moment:

I’ve mentioned it before, here, that Rick Perry uses the retirement fund for Texas’ public school teachers to reward his friends and cronies, but most of all to reward his campaign fund donors.

If you think that’s a really good idea, then you can do one of two things: vote for Rick Perry for another 4 years of this, or don’t vote at all. And if you really don’t care about how Rick Perry uses the retirement fund of teachers to benefit himself and his friends, if you don’t care at all, just don’t vote.

But if you think these acts should be made illegal, Bill White is your guy.

[Oh, and as an aside, I just noticed that this is my 2000th posting on this blog. Geez, I need a life.]

Bill White: A Candidate for Any Audience

I had the opportunity, yesterday, to see Bill White deliver his “stump speech” in two cities and in front of two very different audiences. I was amazed at the versatility of Mayor White.

I was amazed at his adaptability.

A “stump speech,” by definition is one where you speak the same lines in one city after another, in front of one audience after another. It’s kind of like delivering the same lesson to six different classes all day.

Kind of.

As an educator, I am aware that my teaching style, and what I say, varies throughout the day. And how I make my delivery very much depends on how my classes respond.

The content is the same, but the delivery is different.

Bill White, Democratic candidate for Governor of Texas, does that, too.

Witness his two speeches that I witnessed yesterday. The first speech was delivered in Fort Bend County in the hot sun outdoors in front of a middle class audience about 200 in number. It was an ethnically diverse middle class audience.

The other, delivered 2 hours later in Galveston, indoors in a cool hotel ballroom before about 800 Democrats, again a diverse middle class audience, carried a similar message, but you could see how the Galveston audience provided a different, shall we say, chemistry.

Bill White would make a fairly decent teacher, but more to the point, he will make an excellent Governor of Texas.

Early Vote Starts Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the first day of early voting. Avoid the lines on November 2nd, especially if you live in Harris County where someone burned up all their voting machines.

And here's a big thanks to Nick Anderson for one more reminder how Texans are being shorted by their governor who refuses to debate Bill White. Perry is afraid that he might lose more of the 7% who still don't know who they are going to vote for.

Seven percent.

I still cannot believe that there are more people who are still undecided in this race than there are people who vote for Libertarian candidates.

That is, there are more deluded people than there are delusional people.

Rick Perry’s Many Crimes and Misdemeanors

In the latest polling, 7% of Texas likely voters are still “Undecided” in the race for Governor of Texas. 

How that works given what we are all finding out about Governor Perry’s crimes and misdemeanors being revealed in the press is beyond me, but I suspect that these people are staying blissfully ignorant because reading the news or seeing it on television is not in their normal schedule.

Things are bound to turn around as the time for them to vote comes up, and they start to pay attention. My guess is that this 7% are finally going to be exposed to the brutal truth that their governor of the past 10 years is as crooked as a barrel of fish hooks.

As my gift to you, here is Texas Government Code Section 556.004:

§ 556.004. PROHIBITED ACTS OF AGENCIES AND INDIVIDUALS.

(a) A state agency may not use any money under its control, including appropriated money, to finance or otherwise support the candidacy of a person for an office in the legislative, executive, or judicial branch of state government or of the government of the United States. This prohibition extends to the direct or indirect employment of a person to perform an action described by this subsection.

(b) A state officer or employee may not use a state-owned or state-leased motor vehicle for a purpose described by Subsection (a).

(c) A state officer or employee may not use official authority or influence or permit the use of a program administered by the state agency of which the person is an officer or employee to interfere with or affect the result of an election or nomination of a candidate or to achieve any other political purpose.

(d) A state employee may not coerce, attempt to coerce, command, restrict, attempt to restrict, or prevent the payment, loan, or contribution of any thing of value to a person or political organization for a political purpose.

(e) For purposes of Subsection (c), a state officer or employee does not interfere with or affect the results of an election or nomination if the individual's conduct is permitted by a law relating to the individual's office or employment and is not otherwise unlawful.

Bill White Needs Texas’ Independent Voters

I’ve mentioned it here, and have seen an incredible story on it here, and I’ll say it again: Bill White is on the verge of winning the race for the office of Governor of Texas (despite what a majority of women seem to be set on doing in this election). Polls have the race between Bill White and Rick “Pretty Boy” Perry tightening up, and if you believe in the conservative slant of the Rasmussen Poll, they are closer than anyone thinks.

But there is still a whole host of undecided likely voters out there. Voters who label themselves as Independents, that is, vote for the man and not the party. Bill White thinks their indecision is mainly due to the fact that they are still unaware of Rick Perry’s opponent. They don’t like what Perry has done to their state, but don’t have a handle on who his opponent is, and whether he will do a better job than Perry has for average Texans.

Perry has done a great job for his friends, cronies, and friends of friends. Those are Perry’s safe votes – his base, if you will. Independents simply need to be convinced of that and that Bill White’s record of public service speaks for itself.

Independents are in the catbird’s seat again this year. It will be they that will decide this election. The time is now to get in touch with them. The time is now to let them know that while Bill White isn’t exactly another pretty face, he more than makes up for his “camera candy” opponent in getting the job done for Texans.

Early voting starts in a mere 3 weeks, October 18th.

Time to get serious.

Bill says so, too.

Rasmussen: Rick Perry By Six Points (So It’s All Tied Up)

I take special note of today’s Rasmussen Poll of the Texas gubernatorial race which now shows that Bill White has pulled to within 6 percentage points of being tied with Rick Perry as he seeks his unprecedented 3rd term as Texas’ governor.

Special note and a big sigh of relief.

Mainly because Rasmussen is notoriously biased in their polling for conservative candidates and causes. This is not big news. It has been known since Rasmussen became a business concern that conservative causes and candidates fared better in their polling.

From the New Republic:

“Rasmussen polling occupies an odd place in the political culture. In the conservative world, it is the gold standard. If you go to a conservative set on basically any random day, you'll see somebody touting a Rasmussen poll. … Rasmussen frequently asks unusual polling questions that produce results almost certainly calculated to demonstrate public support for the conservative position.”

Despite all of this, they report today that in their previous poll, Bill White had 41% to Rick Perry’s 49% only one month ago, and in February published widely ranging results where Perry had somewhere between 47% and 51% of the votes to Bill White’s 38% to 44%.

So even in the conservative-biased Rasmussen Poll, Bill White is gaining on Perry.

What does this mean? I think I have an answer.

First, look at less biased polls done prior to Rasmussen’s. The UT/Texas Tribune Poll released in mid month shows that Rick Perry leads Bill White by the same six percentage points, but their numbers were 39% Perry, 33% White. Yes, that means that excluding those clueless few who will still vote Libertarian, 22% of respondents still don’t know who they will be voting for.

Then if you look at a poll conducted earlier this year, during the summer, conducted by Public Policy Polling, showed White and Perry at a 43%-43% dead heat.

The data seems clear. Rasmussen finds less than 10% undecided in the same month that UT/TT finds 22%. Clearly their polling method served to make up the minds of some of their subjects. It also seems clear that 39% is all that Rick Perry can muster. Voters were given a choice of 4 candidates in 2006 and only a minority of 39% could agree that Rick Perry was their man.

39% seems to be a number that continues to dog Rick Perry.

But coming back around to the trend that even Rasmussen cannot ignore, even the ones that Rasmussen has polled, with their well-crafted ways of putting a question, have been shifting. Rick Perry’s base will always be there, but now we are beginning to see a leak that has sprung in Rick Perry’s dam. Republicans are having second thoughts.

My guess is that the 6 point difference at Rasmussen translates to a race that is all even. A tie whatever the percentage points.

And why is this? 

Slowly, and deliberately, Rick Perry voters are having second thoughts. Solid Republicans are seeing Rick Perry for the self-interested governor that he is and are turned off. What should be alarming to the Perry campaign is that while Perry’s image is tarnished, they see Bill White as a Democrat, but a Democrat that they can live with.

And the best thing I can tell these people is that while I am a Democrat, I regard Bill White as a candidate that I can live with as well.

This seems to reassure them.

Bill White Receives Houston Chronicle Endorsement

It was not a big surprise for me to find out today that the Houston Chronicle was the first major daily in Texas’ largest media area endorsed Bill White as Texas’ next governor.

It wasn’t a big surprise, but it was nice to see that Houston’s own daily stepped up first in what is about to be a chorus of demand for change.

Said the Chronicle:

“Texas can't afford four more years of Perry's leadership.”

“The governor has shown a distaste for dealing with budget details, fobbing them off on the Legislature and even suggesting in a recent news conference that Comptroller Susan Combs had better uses of her time than issuing deficit projections.”

“Fortunately, voters have the opportunity to replace Republican Perry with former Houston Mayor Bill White, a Democrat with credentials as a successful lawyer, corporate CEO and public servant who demonstrated his management capabilities and hard-work ethic during a six-year tenure at City Hall.”

The choice cannot be clearer. Rick Perry is in the 24th year of political office and wants an unprecedented 3rd term as governor to do to Texas, and for his friends and cronies, exactly what he has done for them (and himself) in the past: getting rich off the backs of hard-working Texans.

The Chronicle is the first, but I predict right here and now that it won’t be the last major Texas daily to endorse Bill White.

On Shooting Straight in Texas

Last April when Governor Rick Perry murdered a coyote while on his morning jog, a jog entirely within Austin’s city limits, last April when Rick Perry aimed his 9 mm handgun that he was carrying on his belt while exercising and killed that innocent beast, it could be said that Rick Perry’s aim was true and his shot was sure.

As far as discharging firearms within Austin’s city limits, that is.

But now, when questioned about the looming budget crisis and all of the issues surrounding it, Rick Perry is firing away at just about every other thing but the one thing that has been behind the budget crisis: his habit of over-spending.

Rick Perry claims that he is an “expert” in all things budgetary. He claims this because he is Texas’ only 10-year governor. Indeed, all that proves is that Rick Perry is a poster child for term limits. But he is right in one way: having to face a budget crisis is not a new thing for him. As Texas’ only 10-year governor, this is Rick Perry’s second budget crisis, the first one having taken place in 2003. You know, the one that occurred back when the economy was singing along unaware of the upcoming and inevitable Republican-inspired economic collapse of 2008.

So this is Perry’s 2nd budget crisis. Amazing how those things just follow him around, isn’t it.

And back then, if memory serves, Perry’s state comptroller, Carol Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn was openly feuding with Perry who she called a “weak leadin', ethics ignorin', pointin' the finger at everyone blamin', special session callin', public school slashin', slush fund spendin', toll road buildin', special interest panderin', rainy day fund raidin', fee increasin', no property tax cuttin', promise breakin', do nothin' phony conservative.” Strayhorn kept the state’s dire straits from him making him look like the idiot that he really is.

So now that State Senator Kirk Watson has rightfully asked the present state comptroller for information on the state’s finances so that he and his colleagues could make informed decisions in next year’s budgeting process, Perry calls that “bizarre.” It seems he has learned his lesson from “Grandma” that keeping a tight lid on finance facts serves one politically very well.

But again, he shoots himself in the foot for looking every bit like the opaque truth smotherer that he is.

All of this is neatly summed up in a just-released video on Rick Perry’s press conference where he wildly shoots in all directions, leaving the best for the end, blaming all of his financial woes on that black president, Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic-led US Congress.

I tell you, if it weren’t for the fact that Rick Perry makes decisions that affects the lives of millions of Texans, I would be holding my sides in from laughter.

But this isn’t funny. Rick Perry needs a permanent vacation.

Rick Perry’s High Homeowner’s Insurance Premiums

Yes, when you pay your homeowner’s insurance, if you are like me, you pay it through your mortgage company in monthly installments.

That way you don’t really see the bill. You see it once a year. But because you pay it in 12 monthly installments along with interest, taxes and pay down of the principle, you don’t realize that the amounts you are paying for homeowner’s insurance are among the highest in the nation.

But this installment option keeps it all nearly invisible unless you are willing to dissect your yearly mortgage statement.

Yes, here in Texas where our homes are mainly built by immigrant labor and we have among the lowest $ per square footage building costs as a result, we pay the highest premiums and most people are unaware of that.

Thank your governor, Rick Perry for that.

Back to Basics has a new video that exposes Rick Perry and his campaign contributors for letting the home insurance industry become virtual kleptomaniacs on the legit.

Texans can’t afford high insurance rates. Texas can’t afford Rick Perry.

Bill White for Texas.

Bill White for Governor.

Poor Rick Perry

Poor Rick Perry. Just when he thinks he has landed on a hot button issue that is going to turn the tide against Bill White, someone reminds him that he is the one who is on the conservative side of the argument.

For months now Perry has been digging at Bill White’s foundations trying to undermine his image by exposing him for being the financial success that he is. Bill White didn’t spend decades in Austin exchanging political favors for shady financial dealings and campaign contributions. White got his fortune the old fashioned way. He earned it.

Or sometimes people threw money at him. What can I say? White is a Democrat, but not the most progressive Democrat I’ve ever seen.

But here’s the thing. This whole thing about how Bill White is tied to BJ Services (I know, it’s hard not to laugh at that name), an oil service company that is famous for, and some say infamous for, its thousands of frack jobs in the Barnett Shale is a lose-lose for Rick Perry.

First he simply used the relationship as a dig at Bill White earning $2.6 million while he was sitting on the board of directors for the oil firm. That didn’t have traction so last month, through this Texans for Rick Perry website Perry attacked Bill White’s affiliation with BJ Services (can’t stop laughing) for its water table polluting ways. From the website:

“‘Bill White is shamefully trying to use the fracturing industry to cover up the fact that the company that paid him more than $2.6 million – while he was mayor of Houston – is one of two companies Congress is investigating for admittedly pumping diesel and other dangerous chemicals into the groundwater,’ said Texans for Rick Perry spokesman Mark Miner. ‘Bill White refuses to be held accountable for the rogue actions of his company, which has already admitted to Congress that it has been polluting.’”

Oops. Who oversees all of these companies doing frack jobs in the Barnett Shale? Rick Perry ultimately, but mainly his three Railroad Commissioners, Republicans all. Rick Perry, in attacking his opponent on an environmental issue, not only shot himself in the foot but also earned him a gentle reminder from the people in the natural gas industry on July 19th:

“‘Inaccurate statements made in the heat of a campaign ill-serve this important objective and the equally important goal of promoting broad public understanding of the extraordinary commitment and care our community takes every day to ensure we do our work in a safe and responsible manner,’ America's Natural Gas Alliance , an industry group, wrote in a July 19 letter to Perry.”

In other words, this is the natural gas industry telling Rick Perry to watch which way he’s shooting. He may be lobbing shells at Bill White, but it is the natural gas industry that is right now under the microscope in Washington, DC.

Prompting, of course, Rick Perry to stop bashing Bill about BJ and re-aiming at his favorite target, the Washington DC interlopers – on the very same day he received the above gentle reminder:

“‘I am a very strong advocate of hydraulic fracking. I've got great concerns that the federal government is trying to regulate that aspect of our drilling industry. It would basically shut down the oil and gas industry for hydraulic fracking to be outlawed or frankly, allow radical environmental interests to come in and have a say on how it should or where it can be used by the federal government.’”

“‘I think the state of Texas is doing an appropriate job and I think we're doing a pretty good job of making sure that companies that have misused the technique are being punished appropriately,’ Perry said.”

Leaving me to wonder whether this appropriate punishment is being meted out to all of the companies that “have misused the technique” or whether that is simply being applied only to companies that his political opponent has been associated with in the past.

Because when you try and find out where and when the Texas Railroad Commission is actively monitoring, catching and punishing frack job abusers, all you hear is the sound of crickets.

Rick Perry, Racism, and Mirrors

Rick Perry called Bill White a racist the other day.

It was a really odd comment to make, but Governor Rick Perry went ahead and made it anyway.

To answer Bill White’s oft-repeated tagline, that “we need a governor who's a servant, as opposed to Rick Perry, who wants to be treated as master,” Rick Perry’s spokesman played the race card.

From the Austin American-Statesman: 

“Perry campaign manager Rob Johnson said White's comments to an African American audience in Dallas were "insensitive" and "racially motivated.”

Apparently no one checked the BS meter when they decided to put that one out there.

Bill White has been using that tagline for weeks now. He says it to all of his audiences, not just ones that are heavily attended by African-Americans.

He says it to Texans.

But the Perry campaign pounced when White repeated the line to a luncheon attended by mainly African-Americans, and got one of his Railroad Commissioners, Michael Williams to affect moral outrage over this “simply ignorant and offensive” remark.

Williams is African-American.

But it didn’t work. People pretty much saw it for what it was, ginned up moral outrage that itself reflected back on the Perry campaign. It wasn’t insensitive and racially motivated when Bill White delivered the remark to a Corsicana audience of Texans, nor was it so when he laid it out in front of a Palestine audience of Texans. But when Bill White said it to a Dallas audience of Texans it became racially charged and insensitive.

Because Rick Perry noticed that those Texans were special. State Rep Garnet Coleman said it best and also more diplomatically than I want to say: 

“The governor needs to stop trying to use African Americans as a wedge for his divisive and partisan political campaign.”

I’ll say. Rick Perry revealed that if you scratch below the surface you discover the undeniable fact that Rick Perry is, himself, a racist. White spoke the tagline to Texans, Perry saw White say it to African-Americans, and then propped up one of his minions, also African-American, to parrot his remarks.

That is, when Rick Perry leveled his accusatory finger at Bill White and called him a racist, he didn’t realize that everyone else who saw him do that also saw that Perry was staring into a mirror.

It Depends on What the Meaning of the Word “Is” Is

Remember that one? That was The Big Dog’s response to a fairly direct question in his Q&A over the Monica Lewinsky affair, an obfuscation that worked for awhile, until that is, someone produced the blue dress (aka the smoking gun).

I was reminded of that today when I read the end of this Jason Embry article in yesterday’s Austin American-Statesman.

You see, Bill White’s campaign is circling what is looking more and more to be a Rick Perry smoking gun. They have made their case that in two land deals on the same Horseshoe Bay property, deals which had Perry’s BFF involved both times, Rick Perry personally profited to the tune of a half a million dollars.

The plot thickens when we learn that Perry’s BFF is a founding investor in Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corp., and that in 2006 the company applied for a $2.5 million grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund, a cash cow that Rick Perry personally controls that is used to attract business to Texas. They wanted to expand by building a plant in the San Antonio area.

Only they fell on hard times and had to lay off workers, so the deal fell through and no grant was given to Perry’s friend’s company.

Bill White’s campaign charged that Perry tried to use the TEF to help his friend, and Perry’s said no, it doesn’t count if the deal falls through.

So if, say, I give a gun to a guy who tells me he wants to use it to shoot his wife, but then he changes his mind and doesn’t shoot her, that makes my gift perfectly OK. No crime, no foul, right?

Wrong. Foul, but no crime.

But wait, it gets better and this is where The Big Dog’s remark comes into play.

Bill White’s campaign has “papered” Rick Perry’s office with public information requests seeking paperwork on the TEF’s vetting of companies who apply for a TEF grant. They are saying that Sino Swearingen wasn’t properly vetted. But while Bill White’s campaign did receive lots and lots of data about companies that received TEF grants, they did not receive information on Sino Swearingen.

Why?

Well, according to a Perry spokesperson, the White request was for information on companies that “received” TEF grants. They didn’t ask, she said, for information on companies that did not receive a TEF grant.

In other words, information on the one company whose investor’s dealings with Perry have come up in the press, that one company, did not get included.

To resume my unlikely analogy, that’s like asking me for the names of all the people whom I have given guns to, and I comply in all but one case, the case of the guy who changed his mind, because he didn’t actually use the gun.

Texas Governor’s Race Moved to “Toss-Up”

After living a few years here in Texas, you finally get used to how they do things. Like for instance during the summer. In the summertime in California you open all the windows in your house and you spend as much time outside as you possibly can. In Texas, during the summertime, you close all your house’s windows tightly and stay inside, looking out your windows from time to time to see whether it has stopped raining yet.

So it came as no surprise to me when, in 2008, while most of the rest of the country elected America’s first black president, Texas went the other way and voted for a guy that cheated on his wife while she was in the process of dying from cancer and the most unqualified running mate since Dan Quayle.

It didn’t surprise me at all. You come to expect these things after awhile.

So when I read today in the Washington Post, specifically in the column authored by Chris Cillizza called “The Fix” that he and a “senior political reporter” had moved the Texas gubernatorial race from “leans Republican” to “toss-up” I was similarly not surprised. Here’s a map that shows all of the toss-up states.

California and Texas are the same color.

I was not surprised because this mid-term election, after all, is supposed to be favoring the party that is not in power, we are told, and that is why the Republicans are all jumping around rubbing their hands in anticipation.

So while the national trend is to the right, or more likely, to the center, Texas shifted toward the left just inside of the 100 day mark until the General Election.

Here is what Cillizza says about the Texas governor’s race:

“Texas (Move from Lean Republican to Toss Up): Former Houston Mayor Bill White (D) has more money in the bank than Gov. Rick Perry (R) and polling shows the contest close. It's still Texas in a good Republican year, which should help Perry, but White is running an effective campaign to capitalize on discontent directed at the incumbent.”

Boy, I’ll say. Rick Perry presents a target-rich environment for Texans to focus their collective angst upon. Lately, the Bill White campaign has focused some attention on the media reports of Rick Perry’s Horseshoe Bay land deal, something I mentioned here. What is new in this is how the dots have all been connected now, and we see how making Rick Perry rich, despite a paltry salary that doesn’t even come close to a Texas football coach’s pay (or a Bell, California City Manager’s salary for that matter), is all related to getting appointments to the University of Texas Board of Regents.

It gives you a special insight in the current governor’s dedication to Texas’ system of higher education, knowing that he makes sure to stack the governing board of the UT system, with friends, lackeys and rich people who are not averse to parting with some long green to buy a state governor’s appointment.

It sort of redefines the term “public service,” doesn’t it?

Rick Perry For a 3rd Term as Texas Gov.: What’s Not to Like?

You really have to like Rick Perry. As the unelected Texas governor who took over for George W. Bush when he ascended to the US Presidency in 2001, and then as the re-elected governor who drew 29% of the popular vote, we have a lot to credit Rick Perry for.

Like for instance how Rick Perry nearly single-handedly got thousands of acres of prime Texas agricultural land confiscated through eminent domain so that a foreign-owned corporation could build and then toll on a ribbon of concrete he wanted them to build.

It was only caneclled when a bunch of short-sighted landowners and the public at large objected, and a general popular uprising was threatened that Perry had to abandon this far-reaching vision.

Like for instance how Rick Perry signed an executive order to require that thousands of eleven-year old Texas female schoolchildren  to receive a course of vaccinations for a strain of the Human Papilloma Virus or they wouldn’t be allowed to attend 6th grade.

After all, Merck, the maker of the vaccine stood to make a financial killing as a result of this executive order, and Rick Perry’s former chief-of-staff was then a paid lobbyist for Merck.

It was only brought to a screeching halt when the errant state legislature, fueled by outrage from parents from Beaumont to El Paso passed a bill nullifying Perry’s long-term vision quest for the health of all Texas children.

Like for instance how Rick Perry has helped keep Texas property values up, up, up by buying some lakefront property from a friend of his BFF for what seems to be $150,000 below market value, and then turned around a few years later to sell it to another friend of his BFF for what seems to be $350,000 above its appraised value.

Like for instance how Rick Perry appointed an earnest anti-science young-Earth creationist dentist to be chairman of the State Board of Education, which oversaw the revamping of the state’s K-12 science curriculum.

Only to have the State Senate vote not to confirm him in that office, but not until after some rather ill-deserved negative press tarnished the image of Texas from coast to coast, and some say, worldwide.

Like for instance how Rick Perry’s oversight on security in and around the Governor’s Mansion led to an unfortunate torching of same, resulting in his having to rough it in a rented Austin mansion and estate to the tune of $10,000 per month, plus plus.

Like how Rick Perry failed to commute the sentence of a self-described innocent father who lost his children in a fire, a fire that was laid at the feet of said father because of some really poor police forensics and laboratory work, and then acted to cover up that omission by appointing a foil to the Texas Forensic Science Commission which was in the process of reviewing that self-same botched forensics job.

Like how Rick Perry took $3 billion in federal economic stimulus money meant to ensure the continued employment of Texas’ teaching community, and used it instead to balance Texas’ budget.

Only to see the subsequent lay offs and reduction in force of thousands of Texas teachers over the ensuing months. Heck, they probably deserved it. Isn't Texas' drop-out rate the second highest in the US?

Like how Rick Perry turned down $555 million in federal funds meant to extend the unemployment benefits of thousands of Texas’ unemployed, only to replace it with a borrow and spend program likely to cost the state up to 4 times as much as what the feds offered.

Like how Rick Perry obtained national attention – and some say derision – when he failed to grasp the lesson heaped on The South when they lost “The War of Northern Aggression” ending for all time the notion that a state can secede from the Union whenever it takes a notion to.

Oh, the list goes on and on.

Who can ever say that Texas deserved exactly what it got when it continually re-elected Rick Perry into one state office and then another for over two decades? Taking all of that into account, and all of Rick Perry’s accomplishments listed above, who can say that if Rick Perry is again returned to Austin Texas, at long last, will again get exactly what it deserves?

Bill White, anybody?

Rick Perry’s Solution to the High School Dropout Rate: A Study of Stunning Ignorance in High Office

Did you know that Governor Rick Perry has finally, once and for all, solved the onerous problem that Texas has in having the second highest high school dropout rate in the country?

My God the man’s a genius.

First Perry announced that someone in the legislature should file a bill that gives tax incentives to small business owners that allow employees without a high school diploma to get some paid time off so that they can get a diploma through night school or paid time off to study for a test to get their GED.

That’s what we call “the carrot approach,” a benign reward system. And this was a grand idea until it was pointed out, here for instance, that the program’s limit of 1000 individuals per year would merely scratch the surface of the hundreds of thousands who could benefit from Perry’s proposed plan.

No problem. Governor Perry is used to setbacks like this. The problem is apparently more acute and their sheer numbers perhaps require more Machiavellian measures.

Enter “the stick approach.”

Last Thursday, on July 15th, Rick Perry unveiled his latest initiative, one that he hopes will finally, once and for all, solve Texas’ very serious dropout rate. From KHOU’s website: 

“HOUSTON -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry says students who drop out of school shouldn’t be able to get a driver’s license and he called for new legislation to enforce his plan to keep kids in school.”

“‘If you are of high school age and you are not in a bricks and mortar or virtual school, you’re not going to get a driver’s license, it’s that simple,’ Perry said during a press conference Monday. ‘The fact is, a single drop out is too many, so we’ve got to continue pursuing sensible, proven options and give every Texan an option at a better life.’”

“Perry said the idea shouldn’t be considered punishment, but an incentive to stay in school.”

“‘It’s going to take a member of the legislature to introduce it and it’s going to take massaging to get it through the process, but I hope they see the incentive and the wisdom of using that incentive approach to keep our young people in either a virtual high school or a bricks and mortar high school,’ he said.”

Now first, before anyone goes off on Rick Perry for proposing this, proposing a law be passed that would seriously cut into individual freedom, a law that would put serious limitations on the social lives of countless Texas citizens aged 16 to 18, before you go and label Rick Perry a monster for proposing this new legislation, consider this:

Such a law has been on the books since 1989.

Texas Transportation Code, Title 7, Subtitle B, § 521.204: RESTRICTIONS ON MINOR

(a) The department may issue a Class C driver's license to an applicant under 18 years of age only if the applicant:

(1) is 16 years of age or older;

(2) has submitted to the department a driver education certificate issued under Section 9A, Texas Driver and Traffic Safety Education Act (Article 4413(29c), Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), that states that the person has completed and passed a driver education course approved by the department under Section 521.205 or by the Texas Education Agency;

(3) has obtained a high school diploma or its equivalent or is a student:

(A) enrolled in a public school, home school, or private school who attended school for at least 80 days in the fall or spring semester preceding the date of the driver's license application; or

(B) who has been enrolled for at least 45 days, and is enrolled as of the date of the application, in a program to prepare persons to pass the high school equivalency exam; and

(4) has passed the examination required by Section 521.161.

[Emphasis is mine].

One might excuse the governor his extreme ignorance if perhaps he didn’t have children. But Rick Perry does. My guess is that both of his children at one point, got a Verification of Enrollment form from their high school’s registrar so they could get a Texas driver’s license while attending high school.

Mine did.

The Bill White Campaign, upon hearing of Rick Perry’s bold new plan, issued this statement:

“‘Unfortunately for Rick Perry, this law has been on the books since 1989 and he's been responsible for enforcing it. Only a career politician would try to sell a law already in existence as his own slick new idea,’ said Katy Bacon, campaign spokesperson. ‘We need a governor who's actually going to work on the dropout crisis instead of dredging up election year sound bites.’”

I think in issuing that statement the White Campaign treated Rick Perry very humanely. After all, calling someone an ignoramus is a little harsh, and should be left to to bloggers like me. 

In their statement they implied that Perry must have known about the existing law. All he was doing was some slick electioneering because no one in the press was going to catch this. No one is going to recall that this is an existing program.

And in that last part they were right. No one caught it.

But what is truly tragic is that this has been the law of the land for over 20 years now, and it is abundantly clear that it has done nothing to curb the dropout rate. A rate that has risen since the bill became law.

Making it altogether clear to me at least that Rick Perry not only has no new ideas, but he also has no knowledge of things that have been tried, and failed. In short, Rick Perry exhibits, in this proposal, a shocking display of ignorance.

What should be clear by now, if we have learned anything, is that you don’t solve Texas’ dropout problem by throwing money at other situations that are unrelated to the problem, and you don’t penalize people for being high school drops out by depriving them of legitimacy.

The high school dropout rate in Texas is like a disease. You don’t treat a disease by adding more unpleasant experiences to the list of symptoms; you treat a disease by attacking the cause.

In short, you do the kind of thing that Bill White began as Mayor of Houston: meet with dropouts face to face and convince them that it is in their own best interest to return to class.

What we need right now are thinkers, doers, and achievers. Bill White knows how to get things done. The very last thing we need in Texas right now is four more years of Ignorance in High Office.

White Beats Perry in Cash On Hand: Some Answers

In my previous posting on how Texas’ Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White has out-performed the fundraising machine known as Re-Elect Rick Perry, I sat in amazed wonderment over the fact that Bill White has $3 million more than Rick Perry has in cash on hand, but the question still begged: how did that ever happen?

Republicans are absolute geniuses at raking in the lucre from lobbyists and all manner of influence buyers. The GOP has a vice-like grip on the throat of power in Texas. They are the go-to people if you want to buy someone’s favor or interest.

So what happened?

Well as it turns out, as revealed here, two things.

First, as the Austin American-Statesman reports, Rick Perry paid the Chris Bell campaign a $426,000 settlement out of his campaign coffers earlier this year. This payment was, as it turns out a settlement that came out of a lawsuit that Chris Bell filed as a result of some pretty shady dealings that went on during the 2006 gubernatorial race that pitted Perry against Bell and two (or was it seven?) other gubernatorial candidates.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“Asked to explain why the Perry campaign settled with Bell, Perry spokesman Mark Miner said, ‘Due to the unnecessary cost and time factors of litigation, both parties have decided to pursue other strategies.’ He declined to elaborate on those other strategies.”

“Bell alleged that Houston homebuilder Bob Perry tried to hide a $1 million contribution to Rick Perry (no relation) late in the 2006 campaign by sending it to the Republican Governors Association, which then sent $1 million to Perry.” 

“Bell named the Perry campaign and the governors association in his lawsuit. Because the campaign did not properly identify the group on state finance reports, donors to the governors' group were not properly disclosed to the public, Bell alleged. Perry's lawyers have previously said that, at worst, Perry made a reporting error”

A “reporting error” that cost Perry over 400 large. It makes one wonder if this was indeed a “reporting error,” and there is no reason to believe that at all, but even if that were the case, how is it that in light of this “reporting error” Rick Perry is able to balance his checkbook let alone a state budget?

No, it is very clear from news of this settlement that wholesale exchanges of cash from one fund to another, not unlike the Tom DeLay ARMPAC/TRMPAC shenanigans that got DeLay indicted and then chased out of DC, are the kinds of things we are seeing still going on, only this time Perry cut his losses by settling.

Unfortunately it does show up rather glaringly when the January-June TEC filings went public this week.

According to the article, Bell is not finished here. Perry has bought himself out of the lawsuit but Chris Bell is still holding the Republican Governors Association feet to the fire.

“Bell is still suing the governors' group, alleging that it did not take all of the steps required by state law before contributing to Perry's campaign. The suit is currently before state District Judge John Dietz , an Austin Democrat.”

Maybe this explains part two of why Rick Perry’s campaign war chest has lagged behind Bill White’s. Cause and effect notwithstanding, it‘s probably no coincidence that Rick Perry’s campaign fund has yet to receive a contribution from the Republican Governor’s Association. It is, after all, not over for them yet. It is possible that they may have to withhold funds from Perry’s campaign in order to make a future settlement with the Bell lawsuit.

Bill White’s campaign doesn’t have that problem. The Democratic Governors’ Association has, in fact, made campaign contributions to White’s campaign, something to the tune of $1.5 million since February.

So there you have it. White is $3 million ahead of Perry, half of that from a contribution from the Democratic Governors’ Association that is unmatched in Perry’s campaign from the RGA, plus an unexpected outgo to settle a pretty embarrassing lawsuit out of court.

In evaluating the Perry campaign versus Bill White's things tend to "add up" in more than just the usual ways.

Bill White Campaign a Money Magnet?

I never thought I would live to see it. The January-June 2010 TEC filings are in and the totals show that Bill White’s campaign out-competed the Republican money machine that is the campaign to re-elect Rick Perry by three millions of dollars.

In their news release, White spokesperson Katy Bacon reports that in the 6-month filing period Bill White has become the money magnet that brought over 16,000 individual contributions that totaled just over $7.4 million. 75% of these donations were for $100 or less. 11,700 of these supporters, representing 73% of all of White’s donors, are brand new to the campaign donation scene.

The other 25% of White’s donors are the high-roller and PAC donations that are part and parcel of Texas politics. And yes, as a true believer in grassroots campaigns, I wish it were different, but Republicans wrote the rules here. The rules that they have recently written in Texas Limestone say that you can’t get your message out to Texas, with its 5 major mass media markets, unless you have the wherewithal to get that done.

This brings the Bill White Campaign fund total to a cool $9 million in wherewithal.

And according to the totals I have heard about, Bill White with his $9 million in campaign cash on hand has outstripped Rick Perry’s $6 million total cash on hand.

A table turner if there ever was one.

Perry vs. White: A Study in Education Contrasts

What are the two largest areas of state financial responsibility? Arguably they are just about evenly divided between public education and public health services. And today we see that Bill White and Rick Perry are measuring themselves against a scale of who has the best ideas to knock down Texas’ high school dropout rate.

First, you have to agree on what the rate is. According to Perry, who appointed the state’s education commissioner, the figures at the Texas Education Agency are solid gold. And statewide, the TEA says that the dropout rate is 10.5%. According to nearly everyone else, this rate estimate is hopelessly optimistic. Nationally, according to just about every other measurement than the Texas official one, or in this specific case, Texas ranks just ahead of Mississippi in an annual dropout rate of 30.4%.

10.5% versus 30.4%.

You would think, then, that your plan to correct this depends upon which figure you are willing to believe. And in that you would be correct.

Perry, who must ascribe to the lower figure or label himself an incompetent fool who supervises a one-third annual dropout rate, has come up with a plan to encourage high school dropouts to return to school or obtain their GEDs: a business tax incentive.

I first read about that deal here.

He says it will only cost the state $15 million annually, and it will give businesses who allow their employees to go back to school or get their GEDs by giving them 2 hours per week paid time off to do that a $1500 per student tax credit.

Doing the math, that means Perry is willing to spend $15 million per year in order to get 1000 high school dropouts per year their high school diplomas, or the equivalent. Now if the state only had 1000 dropouts per year, that would plug the leak nicely wouldn’t it? Trouble is, even with Perry’s own accepted figures, that is a mere 1/4th of the total annual dropout rate.

Accepting the higher figure found here this figure is a mere 1/12th of the total high school dropouts – annually.

Clearly, Perry proposes to repair what amounts to arterial bleeding with a band-aid.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Bill White, has another more robust plan that seeks to plug the leak at its source. This is the educational equivalent, to use a BP oil blowout analogy, to drilling a relief well and killing the gusher at the source rather than attempting to fit a loosely fitting cap at the wellhead.

Bill White knows, because he listens to educators who have learned, that a person's valuation of education begins in pre-Kindergarten. The first of his 5-point education plan is to fund pre-K programs for more children.

This is key. Everything proceeds from there. As a matter of fact there is now enough data to identify probable high school dropouts as early as the 5th grade. If this kind of data is available, this gives teachers and districts a lot of time to institute corrective strategies.

White also outlined a strategy of direct intervention to go directly to the homes of students who do not return to school in the fall. Instituted in Houston, this resulted in the return of 8800 students to high school.

That’s nine year’s-worth of Perry’s program.

Finally, Bill White wants to take Texas off the High-Stakes Testing Standard that has become institutional since George W. was governor.

It. Simply. Doesn’t. Work.

Like it or not, all that has changed in education since the institution of near-complete reliance on TAKS not only for student achievement ratings but for district and campus accountability ratings, has been a change in emphasis from teaching writing, reasoning and critical thinking skills to teaching how to pass a multiple choice test.

Perry, having the ultimate supervisory responsibility with what is happening in public schools, must defend it all.

Must defend the indefensible.

And how does he do it? Perry does what he does best. Perry slaps lipstick on a pig and calls it beautiful and then throws a bone at business. A very small bone.

One can only hope that this latest can of spam issued by Perry will be seen by Texas voters for what it is: a laughable attempt to plug a hemorrhaging wound with a post-it note that says "lern gud".

White Campaign Earns “Pants on Fire” Award from Politifact

Well I warned about it here. The Bill White for Texas campaign made a serious mistake, I think, when they tried to argue that Rick Perry was shortchanging Texans by working only 7 hours a week in the first half of the year.

First, given that what the White Campaign was saying was entirely true, that Rick Perry only works at being governor for 7 hours a week, that’s not necessarily a bad thing if you are a Democrat.

Assuming a 40-hour work week, that’s 33 hours per week that Rick Perry is not working to drag Texas further and further down the hole that he and his party have dug for the state.

The more time Rick Perry spends reading his taxpayer-bought and paid for “Food and Wine” magazine, the less time he has to devote to further ruining the Texas system of public education. The more time that he spends tasting Merlot and eating spinach quiche, the less time he will spend devising ways to cut spending in essential services in order to knock down the looming $18 billion state budget shortfall.

But no, they kept it up and this was too much for the people at Politifact.

They knew better.

They knew what every teacher in Texas knows, that the salaries of state employees is online thanks to the Texas Tribune. You can go here and see who are the top-salaried people on the state payroll and Rick Perry doesn’t even make it in the top 25.

The top five people in Texas who bring home the biggest state payroll paychecks are as follows:

Mack Brown - $5.1 million per year

Richard Barnes – $2.15 million per year

Michael Sherman – $1.7 million per year

Thomas Tuberville – $1.5 million per year

Gail Goestenkoers - $1.04 million per year

Even Goestenkoers makes, on an hourly basis (40 hours times 52 weeks), more than the White campaign projects that Rick Perry makes.

Oh. Who are these five top payees?

Coaches. All of them are coaches. Hey, what the heck did you expect, anyway? This is Texas where they invented the term “Friday Night Lights.”

Indeed, you have to click down to the 11th page (at 25 names per page) in the Texas Tribune’s State Employee salary list before you come across the name Rick Perry.

Oops.

No problem. It was a nice try, just doomed to failure given those irritating things known as facts.

Really, to me, in running a campaign against Rick Perry there is such a target-rich environment that it is actually ill-advised to go out and gin up this criticism, especially when what Perry is being criticized for, not working for Texas, is actually a good thing.