Perry-Gate: The Record, Tues 23 Aug., with easy-to-see categories and hot links to stories!

[skip fox]

              Who Is Rick Perry?



THE RECORD

It would be useful to collect and have available an organized list of links to various controversies, accusations, hypocrisies, and investigations concerning Rick Perry in a single location at DU.

If you have links to important Perry stories, please post them in a reply to this message and I will add in the appropriate section (adding some as appropriate) and regularly update the entire in DU. I will give you credit and extend the list daily during the week.


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In General: Keeping Track of Perry:

DU's Ashling sent this fine overview link. A beautiful resource compiled by Katherine Haenschen as "Everything Everyone Thinks You Need to Know About Rick Perry" for The Burnt Orange Report, almost any investigation of Perry would do well to start here or consult this useful site early in the process.:
http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/11296/everything-everyone-thinks-you-need-to-know-about-rick-perry
The article with multiple hot links contains several sections: Perry Media Archives, Perry-Specific Micro Sites, Perry Important Reads, Perry Facts (in an easy-to-consult list form), and Perry's Major Speeches. A treasure trove! The archives section (archives of TX newspapers, weeklies, and monthlies on Perry) is invaluable for finding items on Perry's reactionary statements, misdeeds and potential misdeeds.


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Rick Perry on Social Security and Medicare:

From a Newsweek interview:
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.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/12/rick-perry-exclusive-newsweek-interview-calls-for-dismantling-social-security-and-medicare.html

CNN interview with Parker Spitzer (Nov. 4, 2010):
http://inthearena.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/04/perry-let-states-decide-social-security/

Perry hedges on Social Security (Aug. 15, 2011):
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61403.html

Time's appraisal Aug. 15, 2011:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2088599,00.html


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Rick Perry's 2004 refusal to halt the Texas execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was known at the time to be an innocent man, and the subsequent cover up:

Quick summary:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2011/08/16/rick-perry-cameron-todd-willingham-and-the-death-penalty

The original New Yorker article (Sept. 7, 2009):
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/09/07/090907fa_fact_grann?currentPage=all

Salon's summary:
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/06/25/cameron_todd_willingham_rick_perry

CNN on cover-up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpSn6rh4USE

Huffington Post's presentation:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/new-film-at-silverdocs-ex_b_883674.html

DU's lumberjack_jeff sent this Salon link on how Perry used the execution politically:
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/08/03/perry_willingham_survey


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Perry awarded his political donors huge contracts:


LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0816-perry-donors-20110816,0,7718310.story

The Young Turks's Cent Uygur on the Los Angeles Times article above:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x610048

Wall Street Journal on Perry's "Crony Capitalism" (Aug. 13, 2011):
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304760604576428262897285614.html?mod=wsj_share_tweet

DU's renate sent me this fine link to an 8.21.11 story in The New York Times (through the MSNBC site) on the issue of Perry rewarding his political donors:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44217977/ns/politics-the_new_york_times/#.TlKJhGHbidA


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Perry's Ties To Merek, makers of the HPV vaccine he promoted in TX:

Washington Post: (Feb. 21, 2007)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/21/AR2007022102025.html

Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304760604576428262897285614.html?mod=wsj_share_tweet


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Perry on TX secession: (April 15, 2009)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/15/gov-rick-perry-texas-coul_n_187490.html


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Perry's so-called "Jobs Miracle":

Houston Chronicle blog (July 21, 2011):
http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2011/07/ten-reasons-why-the-texas-economy-is-growing-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-rick-perry/

Daily Kos summary:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/16/1007494/-Rick-Perrys-Texas-miracle-is-built-on-minimum-wage-jobs


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Perry's mentor, Phil Graham, Exxon, financial collapse, etc. (a ripe area for investigation):

Thom Hartmann on YouTube:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x609867


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Perry's relationship to Rove:

Today's Washington Post contains a decent little summary of their presuptive history:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/does-rick-perry-have-a-karl-rove-problem/2011/08/16/gIQACSXGKJ_blog.html


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Perry's TX/Confederate licence plate conundrum and potential controversy :

Reuter's summary:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/16/us-plates-perry-texas-idUSTRE77F70P20110816?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FPoliticsNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Politics+News%29


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Perry's hypocrisy concerning federal aid for TX:

Yahoo posts a Time story:
http://news.yahoo.com/rick-perry-aggressively-pursued-federal-aid-now-decries-095000694.html

Huffington Post's Paul Blumenthal even details how Perry sought earmarks (which he decries today) and actively lobbied, through K Street, for federal funds for TX (8.17.11):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/17/rick-perrys-k-street-proj_n_929584.html


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Perry's a $10,000/month rental house paid for by TX taxpayers:

DU's Ilsa sein a link to a Huffington Post item on Perry's expensive public housing running over $600,000 to date: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry has spent almost $600,000 in public money during the past two years to live in a sprawling rental home in the hills above the capital. . . ." :
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/17/rick-perry-rental-mansion_n_578311.html


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Perry's ties to religious extremists:

DU's Ilsa also sent links to Democracy Now's item on Perry's religious connections. The video, an interview with Texas Observer's Forrest Wilder, is everything you would expect from Democracy Now. The information is primarily on the New Apostolic Reformation's brand of radical evangelical Christianity with a very odd series of narrative beliefs (Christian takeovers, divine intervention through contemporary prophets and apostles, bringing Jews to Jesus to facilitate Christ's return, the End Times, etc.) Disturbing!
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/12/as_texas_gov_rick_perry_enters

The piece by Forrest Wilder (seen in the video above) in The Texas Observer (Aug. 3, 2011), "Rick Perry's Army of God," provides a more detailed picture (and disturbing: ceremonies with branding irons, Texas as the "Prophet State," Biblical government, etc.) of Perry's presumptive religious beliefs:
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/rick-perrys-army-of-god

Michelle Goldberg's piece for The Daily Beast, "A Christian Plot for Domiation?" lumps Perry and Bachmann's beliefs in a fairly quick, general summary:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/14/dominionism-michele-bachmann-and-rick-perry-s-dangerous-religious-bond.html

Or perhaps Perry's conversion to evangelism was political as The New Republic's Tiffany Stanley suggests in her "Rick Perry's Conventionally Timed Conversion to Radical Evangelism" (Aug. 17, 2011). But, of course, a fraudulent believer might be more dangerous than a sincere one:
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/93781/rick-perry-religion-evolution


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Perry's sexual hypocrisy:

Sara Jones's reports on Perry's relationship to the porn industry for Politicususa:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/rick-perry-coverage-gets-sexy_n_930377.html

Huffington Post's report on Perry's potential contact with strippers (17 Aug. 2011):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/rick-perry-coverage-gets-sexy_n_930377.html


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Gifts Perry accepted as governor of Texas:

In "Rick Perry's gifts: Boots, trips, medical tests," Kenneth P. Vogel and Lucy McCalmont for Politico (8.18.11) report that the gifts Perry has accepted as governor exceed $22,000 in value. They also note the source of the gifts are heavy political donors, one who gave Perry's children jobs, children, etc. They name names.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61670.html


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Investigation of Mike Toomey, Perry's Chief of Staff, in 2004:

DU's starroute sent this fine link to a 2.24.04 investivation of "Perry's Karl Rove":
http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/003048.html
starroute sent another 2004 in which Toomey's name comes up prominently:
http://info.tpj.org/Lobby_Watch/10-12-04_TRMTXLobby.html


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Lobbying in TX for social services privatization:

DU's starroute sent this 2007 story on lobbying in TX for privatization welfare &c. whose supporters "grossly underestimated the costs--and wildly exaggerated the benefits":
http://info.tpj.org/watchyourassets/hhsc/privatization.pdf


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Perry's position switch on gambling after junket:

Again DU's starroute gives us a new area for investigation. It turns out "Perry generally opposed gambling before he returned from a 2004 Bahamas junket with GOP powerbrokers, including Abramoff-Reed croney Grover Norquist. Governer Perry then proposed using slot machines to finance Texas schools." (It's a short mention in the 5th paragraph on this page):
http://www.alternet.org/story/31875/?page=4

DU's starroute sends more on the Bahamas junket with Norquist (in second to last paragraph):
http://www.alternet.org/story/31875/?page=4

starroute won't let up. More on Bahamas junket and ethical questions concerning:
http://www.tpj.org/2004/04/aas-editorial-questioning-ethics-of.html

Yet more (thanks, starroute) on the trip focusing on the fact it was paid for by others:
http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2009/07/perry-travel-paid-by-others/

[skip fox]

1. Tomorrow's version to contain an order of sections section:

Order of sections:
1. In General: Keeping Track of Perry:
2. Rick Perry on Social Security and Medicare:
3. Rick Perry's 2004 refusal to halt the Texas execution of Cameron Todd Willingham,
who was known at the time to be an innocent man, and the subsequent cover up:
4. Perry awarded his political donors huge contracts:
5. Perry's Ties To Merek, makers of the HPV vaccine he promoted in TX:
6. Perry on TX secession: (April 15, 2009)
7. Perry's so-called "Jobs Miracle":
8. Perry's mentor, Phil Graham, Exxon, financial collapse, etc.
9. Perry's relationship to Rove:
10. Perry's TX/Confederate licence plate conundrum and potential controversy :
11. Perry's hypocrisy concerning federal aid for TX:
12. Perry's a $10,000/month rental house paid for by TX taxpayers, the $600,000 total:
13. Perry's ties to religious extremists:
14. Perry's sexual hypocrisy:
15. Gifts Perry accepted as governor of Texas:
16. Investigation of Mike Toomey, Perry's Chief of Staff, in 2004:
17. Lobbying in TX for social services privatization:
18. Perry's position switch on gambling after junket:

[ProSense]

5. Thanks. n/t

[FrenchieCat]

2. Bookmarked!

Thank you very much! :hi:

[skip fox]

3. please send links to stories. I'll add tomorrow.

n/t

[ProSense]

4. Here are two

from Think Progress:

Just One Week Into His Campaign, Rick Perry Disavows His Nine-Month-Old Book

Perry Presides Over 235th Execution, Most Of Any Modern Governor

[starroute]

6. It's Phil Gramm (not Graham) and there's a whole lot out there

I don't know how far you want to pursue it, because it may be a distraction from Perry himself, but here are a few of the high points of Gramm's career:

- In the 1970's, when he was a economist teaching at Texas A&M, Gramm was part of a Heritage Foundation project to sponsor speeches promoting free enterprise. (http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/e/edwards-ideas.htm)

- Gramm was a Democrat when he first ran for Congress in 1978, but in 1982 he became a client of Rove's political consulting firm. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Rove) In fact, he was Rove's only Democratic client. (http://books.google.com/books?id=fN_l8jo8G-EC&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&dq=%22with+the+financial+support+of+one+of+the+state%E2%80%99s+Republican+aristocrats%22&source=bl&ots=WvHPeaaJWe&sig=_miSWuXN8AsAI_HnQ76dKUgez1g&hl=en&ei=iR5VTtbiOeHY0QHmrIGwAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22with%20the%20financial%20support%20of%20one%20of%20the%20state%E2%80%99s%20Republican%20aristocrats%22&f=false)

- Just days after his relection in 1982, Gramm lost his seat on the House Budget Committee for supporting Reagan's economic program. He then resigned from the House, became a Republican, and was re-elected to his seat in a special election in February 1983. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Gramm) He moved on to the Senate in 1984, after defeating Ron Paul in the Republican primary.

- But Gramm's real notoriety stems from his involvement in the deregulation of the late 90s during his final term as a senator. According to the Washington Post, "The Politico's Lisa Lerer reports that not only did Gramm author the 1999 legislation that repealed Glass-Steagall, the New Deal law restricting the speculative activities of banks, but after Gramm left the Senate, he lobbied Congress on behalf of the Swiss bank UBS when the banking lobby wanted Congress to overturn state laws restricting predatory lending and the issuance of mortgages to prospective home owners who could not afford them." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040102189.html)

- Much of Gramm's passion for deregulation may have had to do with his wife Wendy. According to Alternet, "In 2000, Republican Senator from Texas Phil Gramm pushed through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which not only banned federal regulation of these toxic poker chips, it also banned states from enforcing anti-gambling laws against derivatives trading. The bill was lobbied for heavily by energy/finance hybrid Enron, which would later implode under fraudulent derivatives trades. In 2000, when Phil Gramm pushed the bill through, his wife Wendy Gramm was serving on Enron's board of directors, where she made millions before the company went belly-up." (http://www.alternet.org/economy/146819/america%27s_ten_most_corrupt_capitalists/?page=2)

- In 2000, Gramm even boasted about having killed the Clinton administration's money-laundering legislation. (http://www.citizen.org/congress/article_redirect.cfm?ID=7188) Will Pitt mentioned this in a long post back in 2006, writing that "Clinton wanted to attack the financial underpinnings of the al-Qaeda network by banning American companies and individuals from dealing with foreign banks and financial institutions that al Qaeda was using for its money-laundering operations. Texas Senator Phil Gramm, chairman of the Banking Committee, killed Clinton's bill on this matter and called it "totalitarian." In fact, he was compelled to kill the bill because his most devoted patrons, the Enron Corporation and its criminal executives in Houston, were using those same terrorist financial networks to launder their own dirty money and rip off the Enron stockholders." (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1975019)

[skip fox]

7. Don't think this is directly helpful, since it doesn't help with Sevens directly.

But for those who want a background on Gramm (sorry about spelling, I'll fix) especailly as it might relate to Perry, these are great links. Hmmm. Maybe I could do an addendum at the bottom? I'll have to thnk.