Is It Any Wonder They’re Flush With Prosperity?
At an August 22 speaking engagement in New Hampshire, Governor Rick Perry declared, “We need to look at the states, which are lavatories of innovation and democracy.” The post Is It Any Wonder...
View ArticleThe Fallout From the Enterprise Fund
When one looks at the wheeling and dealing that went on with the Texas Enterprise Fund, my question is this: Why is it not an impeachable offense? These folks used the Enterprise Fund for their private...
View ArticleThe Next Four Years
Dear Governor-elect Abbott, Congratulations on having been elected the forty-eighth governor of the great state of Texas. I think you and your team deserve a lot of credit for a landslide victory that...
View ArticleFriday Afternoon Open Thread
Lots of news since I last checked in, from Texas and DC. We’ll have more posts next week, but in the interim, feel free to discuss the following, or anything else of interest, amongst yourselves. 1) On...
View ArticleWill Rick Perry Grant Clemency to Max Soffar?
How do you get mercy for a dying man on death row—a man who is also, by almost every account, innocent? You go to the governor. And around noon today, that’s just what the attorneys for Max Soffar...
View ArticleThe Arguments Against Obama’s Executive Action on Immigration
Much of the debate over Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration, announced Thursday, has been about his decision to act unilaterally rather than discussing the merits of the changes themselves....
View ArticleObama’s Immigration Action
The news that Barack Obama would take executive action on immigration made a big impression in Texas, a state that includes about 1200 miles of America’s southern border, about 2 million of the 11...
View ArticleFinally, A Real Governor
Greg Abbott is off to a great start as governor. He is doing exactly what a governor ought to do. He has started by addressing the major needs of the state, roads foremost among them, but also...
View ArticleThe Texas Legislature and Rick Perry Are Pro-Vaccination
The debate over whether or not parents should vaccinate their kids has raged for some time, but it’s become a hot-button political issue like never before in recent weeks: 123 active cases of the...
View ArticlePerry’s Second Chance at a First Impression
Polling in presidential races this early tends to have the Flavor of the Week feel – the candidate with the most favorable publicity tends to take the lead. Rick Perry has been trailing in these polls,...
View ArticlePerry Compares Middle East Troubles to Texas Border
In an apparent effort to restore his gravitas as a presidential candidate, former Governor Rick Perry delivered a tough foreign policy speech to conservatives this morning that compared problems in the...
View ArticleClinton and Perry are Birds of an Email Feather
As Texan George W. Bush’s eight years as president wound down in 2008, Bush told Politico that there was one thing he was looking forward to in a return to private life: “Emailing to my buddies. I can...
View ArticleBorder Security and Border Rhetoric
An interesting piece is out there this week on the Brownsville federal judge who blocked President Obama’s executive order on immigration brought to my mind, again, that the debate on immigration and...
View ArticleTexas Senate Votes for Local Control of Statewide Political Corruption
The Legislature this year is eager to do away with local control: city plastic grocery bag bans or the use of red light cameras, restrictions on tree cutting or the carrying of firearms on municipal...
View ArticleGOP Presidential Candidates are Banking Their Billionaires
The Republican presidential candidates are collecting billionaires like squirrels hoarding nuts for winter. And this cache of cash may keep at least several campaigns politically viable until the Texas...
View ArticleThe Race Is On!
Texas politicians have never been strangers to presidential ambition. Sam Houston ran for the White House twice, and in the decades that followed he was joined in the losers’ circle by such figures as...
View ArticleIs Rick Perry Running as the Liberal in the GOP Primary Field?
The slate of contenders hoping to be the Republican nominee for President in 2016 is as crowded as it gets. The list of already-announced candidates includes Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Ben...
View ArticleThe Meh Primary
With his good hair and new horn-rimmed glasses, Rick Perry woke up this morning hoping Republicans will give him a second chance at making a first impression. Perry has an announcement scheduled at...
View ArticleEverybody* Is Pumped for the Sequel of Perry for Prez
It’s official, y’all: Rick Perry’s name can be added to the list of Texans running for President—a list that includes Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Carly Fiorina (plus imminent-announcer Jeb Bush). The...
View ArticleRick Perry’s Race Speech
On July 2nd, giving a speech in DC, Rick Perry offered some blunt criticism of how Republicans have approached issues related to race, and called on his party to do better. The immediate reaction was...
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