Gov. MoFo says 'no thanks' to your money

That makes him a minority even among Republican governors, including Sarah Palin, Charlie Crist, and Arnold Schwarzeneggar.

How much more stupid can one man get?

Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday he’s not sure the state should accept all of its projected share of federal stimulus money — $16.9 billion and counting by preliminary estimates — because of the “mile-long” strings that might be attached.

“In Texas, we actually know it is a good idea to look a gift horse in the mouth. If we don’t, we may end up with an old nag,” said Perry, who has been critical of such federal spending and voiced concern over whether the state could afford federal strings.

“One thing that concerns me is that dollars are going to come into Texas that require us to match those dollars, and then two years from now, those federal dollars won’t be there, but we will be on the hook to pay for those programs going forward,” Perry said.

According to a preliminary legislative analysis, economic stimulus provisions that affect the Texas budget could total about $16.9 billion.

Perry didn’t say which programs he was referring to, and spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said his staff still is looking over potential allocations to Texas.

But even in Houston, people are finally starting to understand what a miserable failure the man is. One of the top comments from Chron.com readers at the story link is from "RepublicanForChange":

Texas ranks 49 out of 50 states in the number of children who do not have health insurance. Why? Governor Perry rejected billions of dollars in federal health care dollars because of a fear Texas would have to spend more money on children's health care. If Texas had committed those extra dollars, Texas would rank about 40th of 50 states in its health care spending for children, and Governor Perry thinks that is too much.

Governor Perry does not object to the University of Texas and Texas A & M spending a combined 200 million dollars per year for seven Saturday's of football entertainment, but he does object to spending even one more dollar on sick children. Rick Perry has made clear his belief that a child's "Right to Life" ends at birth.

See? Evolution isn't just a theory.

Update: Jason Embry via Phillip Martin reports that Governor 39% is already backtracking:

Gov. Rick Perry said today he will gladly accept federal stimulus dollars for one-time expenses, but he’s not anxious to embrace dollars for recurring state expenses.

“We need the freedom to pick and choose,” Perry told a group of small-business leaders in Austin. “We need the freedom to say, ‘no thanks’ if they’re trying to stick a bill on the people of the State of Texas just to expand government.”

Cornyn, Stanford, and Antigua

Zachary Roth at Josh Marshall's TPMMuckraker has it:

So we already knew that Allen Stanford -- the Texas banker charged by the SEC today with running an $8 billion "fraud of shocking magnitude" -- had some pretty impressive political contacts with both parties.

But it looks like his relationship with one of his home-state senators, Republican John Cornyn, may have been especially cozy.

According to Cornyn's Senate disclosure reports -- posted on the site Legistorm.com, which tracks privately financed trips by members of Congress -- the Stanford Financial Group paid for the Texas senator and an unnamed companion to take a November 2004 trip down to Antigua and Barbuda, the tiny Carribean nation where the company has its headquarters.

The three day trip is described by Legistorm as a "financial services industry fact-finding mission hosted by constituent company with substantial operations on site."

The site adds:

Sen. Cornyn discloses expenses for himself and a companion, but does not disclose the identity of the companion.

The total cost of the trip: $7,441.00

Stanford Financial was selling CDs with an 8.25% rate of return (not FDIC-insured, of course). Allen Stanford was a big donor to Texas Republicans, particularly John Cornyn and Pete Sessions, but as Roth notes, his contributions were bipartisan.

As for Cornyn's traveling companion, I frankly don't give a shit if he took a box turtle with him down to the Caribbean.

Cornyn is as god-damned corrupt as Tom DeLay, and to think we could have been rid of him four months ago is just too big a missed opportunity to be reminded of.

Update: Rick Dunham at Texas on the Potomac has more, including a smattering of the usual "Democrats did it too/the Chronicle has a liberal bias" reaction from the locals.

A public service reminder

... not to elect religious fundamentalists to the Texas SBOE:


And please remember this the next time Pete Sessions says that the tactics of the Taliban should be replicated in the United States Congress.

The gathering ubiquitousness of Facebook

I do it in the Facebook. Do you?

Last night I realized I have an addiction: I went through Annise Parker's Facebook group friending people I really don't know (but figured I would like to because of our shared interest in seeing her elected as Houston's next mayor). Facebook now gives me a warning when I friend someone, saying I am "abusing the system". I also acquired a conservative Bush-loving barnacle. He hasn't been blocked yet, but I'm ready with the shitscraper.

Hello, my name is Perry and I'm a Facebookaholic. But I only have three of the ten warning signs (#3, 5a, and 9 if you really must know).

Why Facebook is for (Us) Old Fogies:

1. Facebook is about finding people you've lost track of. And, son, we've lost track of more people than you've ever met. Remember who you went to prom with junior year? See, we don't. We've gone through multiple schools, jobs and marriages. Each one of those came with a complete cast of characters, most of whom we have forgotten existed. But Facebook never forgets.

2. We're no longer bitter about high school. You're probably still hung up on any number of petty slights, but when that person who used to call us that thing we're not going to mention here, because it really stuck, asks us to be friends on Facebook, we happily friend that person. Because we're all grown up now. We're bigger than that. Or some of us are, anyway. We're in therapy, and it's going really well. These are just broad generalizations. Next reason.

3. We never get drunk at parties and get photographed holding beer bottles in suggestive positions. We wish we still did that. But we don't.

4. Facebook isn't just a social network; it's a business network. And unlike, say, college students, we actually have jobs. What's the point of networking with people who can't hire you? Not that we'd want to work with anyone your age anyway. Given the recession -- and the amount of time we spend on Facebook -- a bunch of hungry, motivated young guns is the last thing we need around here.

5. We're lazy. We have jobs and children and houses and substance-abuse problems to deal with. At our age, we don't want to do anything. What we want is to hear about other people doing things and then judge them for it. Which is what news feeds are for.

6. We're old enough that pictures from grade school or summer camp look nothing like us. These days, the only way to identify us is with Facebook tags.

7. We have children. There is very little that old people enjoy more than forcing others to pay attention to pictures of their children. Facebook is the most efficient engine ever devised for this.

8. We're too old to remember e-mail addresses. You have to understand: we have spent decades drinking diet soda out of aluminum cans. That stuff catches up with you. We can't remember friends' e-mail addresses. We can barely remember their names.

9. We don't understand Twitter. Literally. It makes no sense to us.

10. We're not cool, and we don't care. There was a time when it was cool to be on Facebook. That time has passed. Facebook now has 150 million members, and its fastest-growing demographic is 30 and up. At this point, it's way cooler not to be on Facebook. We've ruined it for good, just like we ruined Twilight and skateboarding. So git! And while you're at it, you damn kids better get off our lawn too.

Update: They heard you. Dwight ...

Usually, I don't think businesses like Facebook have anything nefarious in mind when something like this happens, but ToS documents are complicated things. What may seem like innocent legal jargon to the corporate attorneys can easily become a public relations bombshell.

Just ask AT&T.

In this case, users were telling Facebook, "Hey, it's MY information, and when I say DELETE, it had better be gone." Facebook gets props for listening to the complaints and doing the right thing in the end, but it was a mistake that probably could have been avoided in the first place if its executives had read the ToS from their customers' point of view.