Lemkin

Rick Perry: Constitutional Scholar

Q:  The Constitution says that 'the Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes… to provide for the… general Welfare of the United States.' But I noticed that when you quoted this section on page 116 [of "Fed Up!"], you left 'general welfare' out and put an ellipsis in its place. Progressives would say that 'general welfare' includes things like Social Security or Medicare—that it gives the government the flexibility to tackle more than just the basic responsibilities laid out explicitly in our founding document. What does 'general welfare' mean to you?
Rick Perry:  I don’t think our founding fathers when they were putting the term 'general welfare' in there were thinking about a federally operated program of pensions nor a federally operated program of health care. What they clearly said was that those were issues that the states need to address. Not the federal government. I stand very clear on that. From my perspective, the states could substantially better operate those programs if that’s what those states decided to do.
Q:  So in your view those things fall outside of general welfare. But what falls inside of it? What did the Founders mean by 'general welfare'?
Rick Perry:  I don’t know if I’m going to sit here and parse down to what the Founding Fathers thought general welfare meant.
Q:  But you just said what you thought they didn’t mean by general welfare. So isn’t it fair to ask what they did mean? It’s in the Constitution.
Rick Perry:  [Silence.]
Q:  OK. Moving on [...]

Not Conservative Enough

danielholter:

A Come to Jesus Moment for American Religion

The Republican Party in the United States—15 months before the next presidential election—has already burdened itself with an array of front-running presidential candidates […] [and] it now seems a necessary qualification for the Republican nomination, at least at the present primaries stage, to be a born-again fundamentalist Protestant. Yet in the United States the majority of the electorate is not fundamentalist, evangelical or Protestant.

This last bit is key. If we assume that the economic situation gets no worse and, perhaps, even improves a bit between now and 2012, and we further simply take the polling of the GOP field as it stands today (giving the nomination to Perry in a walk), it’s very hard to see how he beats Obama. So: Perry gets crushed in the general election. In the inevitable “we lost because we weren’t conservative enough” aftermath, how exactly does one make that case? Because that’s the case that will be made. The “message of the American voter” in delivering a massive tidal wave of support to 2012-Obama will universally be seen to have been a clear, ringing demand for lower taxes on the rich, a dismantling of the social safety net, and that the poor and out of work should just go die in the streets already.

Perhaps you just blame Boehner. You’ve presumably lost some House seats (but retained the majority). Cantor wants to be Speaker, so you spin it as “Perry only lost because Boehner was too easygoing on radical urban liberal Obama.” Seems impossible that anyone would buy it, but then most of FOXnews’ more successful narratives seem pretty unlikely when viewed in the abstract.

(Source: azspot)

Perry's Millions →

Rick Perry has quite a nose for land speculation:

Discharged from the Air Force in 1977 aged 27, he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives seven years later, in 1984. At that time, the Perry family reported income of $45,000, largely from Mrs. Perry’s work as a nurse.

[…]

in 1993, there was a piece of ground that computer billionaire Michael Dell needed to connect his new house near Austin to city water mains. Dell neglected to appreciate the land’s importance. But Perry did discern it. He bought the land for less than $120,000 – then sold it to Dell two years later for a $343,000 profit. Uncanny.

[in the 2000s] A Texas real estate developer sells land to a Texas state senator – the senator who happened to represent the development’s district. The state senator sold the land to Gov. Perry. Gov. Perry then sold then land – back to the real estate developer’s business partner. Perry scored a profit of $823,000.

These are his real GOP bona fides: living the concept that political power is only to be used for enrichment of self and then, where possible, your richest and therefore most generous supporters, be they actual biological persons or the frequently GOP-personified corporate interests. The policy outcomes of this stance, whatever they may be, are entirely beside the point beyond their utility in enriching self or key supporters.
After all, the GOP goes out of its way to prepare the populace for the repeated failure of government, it delights every time a corruption scandal comes to light, and it uses said failures and scandals to further weaken the operation of government, sand the legislative gears, and generally hamstring government oversight, all to better enable their preferred uses of political power: enrichment of self and key supporters. There is no third thing. Anybody not already in on the deal can kindly go die in the streets.

"I’m sorry if I offended a congressman but the fact of the matter is I’m representing the American people out here"

— Rick Perry, apparently apologizing for publicly accusing Ben Bernanke of treason. That’d be Ben S. Bernanke, 14th Chairman of the Federal Reserve and most definitely not one of the several others apparently serving in government .

Diamond Rick Perry

Gail Mitchell:  You said Social Security was unconstitutional.
Rick Perry:  Social Security’s going to be there for those folks [currently receiving it]
Gail Mitchell:  But you said Social Security is unconstitutional
Rick Perry:  I don’t think I — I’m sorry, you must have... [and then stuffs his mouth full of popover]
Gail Mitchell:  ???
Rick Perry:  I’ve got a big mouthful [...] I’m sorry, sweetheart
Lemkin:  The old stuff-your-mouth-full dodge. This guy has a bright future in politics. That and this Gail Mitchell is tougher than any journalist on the bus.

"Rick Perry’s an idiot, and I don’t think anyone would disagree with that"

— Bruce Bartlett, former H.W. Bush Treasury official and Reagan adviser, minces words when asked his thoughts on Rick Perry. More evidence of Turd Blossom’s tentacles? Or just the party apparatus trying to help Perry out by appearing to denigrate his intellect while hedging bets against his inevitable defeat in a national election?
I’d say: A little from column A, a little from column B.

"You could greatly improve [your] understanding of finance by not reading the edit columns of US leading financial newspaper."

— David Frum, the last of the honest conservative thinkers. Being honest. About the WSJ and its rampant BS

Capital Gains Taxes make Baby Jesus Cry →

Just a few details on the beliefs of those involved in Rick Perry’s Prayer Rally:

Oprah is a sign of the Apocalypse: In his channel on GOD TV, Mike Bickle called Oprah a “forerunner to the harlot movement.”

Blackbirds are dying because of gay soldiers: Dr. Cindy Jacobs recorded a video declaring a connection between the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the sudden death of blackbirds in Beebee, Arkansas as a divine punishment. She also called “girl-on-girl kissing” a “plague on society” and asked divine forgiveness for the violation of a woman’s “natural use.”

The Statue of Liberty is a “demonic idol” : In various sermons, John Benefiel called the Statue of Liberty a “demonic idol.” He also expressed a belief that homosexuality is a plot contrived by the Illuminati “to limit the world population.”

Hurricane Katrina was divine retribution for the city’s “sin”: John Hagee

Gay rights movement from the “pit of hell”: Dwight McKissic denounced comparisons between the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement because the latter is a “satanic anointment…inspired by the anti-Christ” that comes from the “pit of hell.”

Jesus actually opposed the minimum wage: Influential pastor David Barton has made a name for himself by distorting Biblical text to support his claim that Jesus opposed the minimum wage and the capital gains tax.

Frankly, I don’t see how anyone could have a problem with any of this. All perfectly reasonable stances for any and all putative nationwide candidates whom Serious People are begging to get into 2012.