Rick Perry vs World

23 September 2007

Disingenuously yours

In 2001, when President Bush took office, the national debt stood at a little less than $5.75 trillion. About the time of Cornyn's [speech against tax and spend] earlier this month, the debt passed $9 trillion, an increase of $3.25 trillion, or 56 percent.

One might note that 1 trillion of that deficit growth is due to inflation. Since the Chron appears to be criticizing Cornyn for cherry-picking facts, perhaps they should not cherry-pick facts themselves.

The conservative Heritage Foundation, decrying the debt, provided a handy illustration to help Americans grasp the enormity of how much we owe. The $9 trillion — $78,683 for every household — would buy: a quarter of the nation's 125 million houses; three new cars for every household; or one latte for every American every day for 21 years.

I love how the only time the Chron quotes a conservative thinktank is when it can be used to attack Republicans. But they are right, the debt is huge, and now consumes almost 10% of our federal budget -- more than half of what we spend on defense (17%)!

As Cornyn noted in his press release, Congress, at Bush's request, in 2001 and 2003 cut taxes significantly. Those tax cuts — in the same years the United States was attacked by al-Qaida and invaded unrelated Iraq — coincided with the steep climb of the national debt, the result of a policy of borrow and spend.

Economists peg the tax cuts at about 25% of the deficit growth. Why then, does the Chron choose to focus on tax cuts?

"Borrow and spend." I think I've heard that phrase before. Oh yeah, it's a Democratic talking point.

If Cornyn worries about spending, he need look no further than the senior U.S. senator from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison. Nearly every day, Hutchison's office announces grants and other funds she has secured for this state and the Houston area: for research at the University of Houston and Rice University; for improved regional security; for police training; for mass transit in Houston and Galveston; for training minority leaders in math, science and military technology, at the expense of the Air Force, etc.

If Cornyn worries about spending, Kay Bailey's pork barrel is probably the last thing he should worry about, given what a tiny percentage pork barrel spending is of the federal budget. However, the spending that is worth worrying about is all social spending; the Chron editorial board tends to favor that.

This was a very confused and disjointed editorial (even moreso than the parts I quoted). It only seems to make sense to me if the Chron wanted to obliquely attack Cornyn and Bush.

Posted by Evan @ 09/23/07 06:29 PM | Comments (0)

Only 60? EE doesn't draw so well for funders, I guess.

Shelby Hodge, Chron:

The ladies who lunch, on break from their jobs, addressed a serious issue — presidential politics — at Polo's last week when 60 women turned out to hear Elizabeth Edwards speak on the presidential campaign.

During the fundraiser for her husband, John Edwards, the candidate's wife signed copies of the updated edition of her book Saving Graces and talked about the campaign. Guests included State Rep. Ellen Cohen, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Alison Bell, Beth Sanders Moore, Sheridan Williams, Dancie Ware, Kristi Schiller, Ileana Treviño, Kristen Nix and Melissa Eiland.

I'm guessing Mrs. Strayhorn isn't planning a run as a Republican any time soon. Heh.

Posted by Evan @ 09/23/07 05:47 PM | Comments (0)

Gardner Selby talks to Fred Thompson consultant Rich Galen while Fred was in town visiting Dell:

We can't tell yet. We're doing fine in the polls. Given early polls, you'd rather be first or second rather than seventh or eighth.

Given that, Newt Gingrich has a great theory about how people vote and why people respond to polls different than they do when they actually go and vote. People vote the way men buy cars. If you think or I think I need a new car, I might drive a Jaguar or a Hummer or a Maserati if I can find one, whatever.

And if you ask me after I drove it, did you like that car? "Oh yeah, that was a great car." (A pollster's conclusion:) "Galen likes Hummers." ...

And that's what happens when people are asked by a pollster if the election were held today, (who would you support)? If I was going to buy a car today — yeah. But I'm not buying a car today, so I can say whatever I want.

But when the day comes that I do buy the car and I have to actually write the check, I drive out with a Windstar because that's the right car for the family.

So Howard Dean was leading, was the (Democratic) nominee presumptive in December 2003, and four weeks later he came in third.

Galen doesn't mention -- and the Statesman doesn't provide the context -- that he is a Newt Gingrich confidante.

Anyway, while there's something to Newt's theory, I'd say that the reasons Dean didn't win the Donk nomination have more to do with the law of diminishing returns and Iowa. That is, the way Dean campaigned, it was easy to get to a certain level of support, but very difficult to get to 50+1. Combine that with Iowa being a Dean-unfriendly state and Dean's post-Iowa meltdown, and those have more explanatory power than Newt's hypothesis.

Posted by Evan @ 09/23/07 05:13 PM | Comments (0)

21 September 2007

The Telegraph article linked on Drudge:

President Bush may like to be seen as a swaggering tough guy with a penchant for manly outdoor pursuits, but in a new book one of his closest allies has said he is afraid of horses.

Vicente Fox, the former president of Mexico, derided his political friend as a "windshield cowboy" – a cowboy who prefers to drive – and "the cockiest guy I have ever met in my life".

Bush has called himself a "windshield cowboy" at least once, according to published media reports during his presidency.

So it's a dumb lead, but it's interesting that the UK center-right Telegraph has reporters who feel comfortable with that lead.

Posted by Evan @ 09/21/07 05:16 PM | Comments (0)

06 September 2007

Making himself look silly

UPI:

Former Texas gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman says he plans to run for the Democratic Party nomination for governor in 2010.

Friedman tried in 2006 to become the first independent to win the Texas governorship since Sam Houston.

"I consider myself a Democrat in the mold of JFK, (former Texas Gov.) Ann Richards and (journalist) Molly Ivins," Friedman told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram in a phone interview from his animal-rescue ranch in Kerrville.

I think we already found that Friedman doesn't have the discipline necessary to be a successful political candidate. Plus, he keeps making defining statements about himself that conflict (I can't imagine Richards or Ivins ever running as an independent). And I guess he now doesn't mind those Democratic bloggers that he obliquely called Satan in 2006's debate?

How many people run for office as a Republican, an independent, and a Democrat? Winston Churchill, he is not.

Posted by Evan @ 09/06/07 09:35 PM | Comments (2)

I like gold.

In noting below that Megan McArdle had a great sentence, I should've noted that the entire post is worth saving. The gold standard is not some halcyonic panacea.

Why some libertarians hew to the gold standard mystifies me. Hi Ron Paul.

Posted by Evan @ 09/06/07 03:15 AM | Comments (0)

Best sentence I've read all day. Megan McArdle:

Deflation can result in what's known as a liquidity trap, a concept pioneered by liberal economist John Maynard Keynes and best elucidated by liberal economist Paul Krugman back before he left economics writing to focus on his hatred of George W. Bush.

I've been fascinated with the notion that Krugman might win a Nobel because of his trade models. They're so facile. Clearly the place to be as an economist a few decades ago was trade. Apparently no one had done anything on it since Ricardo.

[I should note that I own one of Krugman's texts, which is surprisingly good.]

Posted by Evan @ 09/06/07 03:10 AM | Comments (0)

How to be Successful, by Michael Jordan and Lyndon Baines Johnson

Michael Jordan on being driven:

Use every little slight to drive you.

LBJ:

If you do everything, you win.

Sounds easy.

Posted by Evan @ 09/06/07 12:38 AM | Comments (0)

01 September 2007

The Guv moved out of the Mansion, so in the meantime he's off to Mexico City: Quoth the AP, as run by the HouChron:

Perry was in Mexico City on a trade mission intended to strengthen Texas and Mexico's economic ties through trade, investment and energy initiatives, especially renewable energy.

"I don't think this is that difficult of an issue if Congress would have the maturity to sit down and really discuss it and cut out all of the mean rhetoric and really talk about what is a solution to this issue," Perry told a news conference.

Regarding immigration reform, Perry highlighted the importance of developing a foolproof biometric identification system to track individuals and to ensure that they pay taxes and "live within our laws."

He suggested offering renewable, 24-month visas for those who follow such requirements and "incarceration and/or deportation" for those who do not.

He added that, under such a system, he would support a "free flow of individuals between these two countries who want to work and want to be an asset to our country and to Mexico."

He noted that a possible area of expansion for Texan businesses in Mexico is renewable energy, a subject he said he hoped to discuss during his meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon later Tuesday.

"The fact is that Mexico and Texas are going to need every source of energy that we can appropriately get our hands around, if you will, and to develop over the course of the next few decades," Perry said.

Perry said Texas is the leading producer of wind-generated energy in the United States and expects the field to grow by $13 billion in the next four years.

Perry launched into the discourse on renewable energy in response to a question that pointed out Mexico's constitutional ban on private investment in its petroleum resources.

Discourses on policy nuances? That doesn't sound like the media caricature of Perry.

Posted by Evan @ 09/01/07 07:39 PM | Comments (0)

Nick Lampson: In the Teamsters' pocket

Mittelstadt/Moreno, Chron:

The Teamsters Union and three public-interest groups asked a federal court Wednesday to block the Bush administration from opening U.S. roadways to Mexican trucks as early as this weekend.

The request to the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco for an emergency injunction marks the latest effort in a 13-year battle by the Teamsters to stymie cross-border trucking provisions ratified under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

But Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, and others in Congress said they remain concerned.

"I would hope that President Bush would reconsider what he's doing," said Lampson, who serves on the House Transportation Committee.

Sounds to me like the sort of thinly veiled stereotyping that liberals like him were supposed to get upset about. I know than Slick Nick Lampson wants to keep his liberal interest groups happy, but perhaps doing so on the back of Mexican truckers is not the best way.

What three "public interest" groups joined the union? Sierra Club, Public Citizen and the Environmental Law Foundation. All hardcore left-wing organizations, but all given the friendly moniker of "public interest." But I'm sure that Ms. Mittelstadt and Ms. Moreno would have been equally accomodating if the groups had been right-leaning.

Posted by Evan @ 09/01/07 07:36 PM | Comments (0)

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