Rick Perry

In the case of fetuses and rich people, Republicans insist on the sanctity of life. But in the case of destitute people, infants who imprudently choose working-poor parents and struggling young adults – basically all riffraff unable to afford health insurance – the GOP says there’s nothing sacred about their stinking lives.

Let ’em die. The uninsured should be left to rot. more »

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GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s reaction to high unemployment is creepy.

During an interview with CBS reporter Jan Crawford last week, Romney smirked as he mentioned that unemployment has remained above 8 percent for 39 months. more »

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It wasn’t so much a vote as a proclamation of ideology last Thursday when Republicans filibustered Obama’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The rebuff had nothing to do with the person, Richard Cordary, who even more »

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Incredible but true: In a television interview, Rick Perry told the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators not to think about money so much. "Just find your passion," said Perry. "Stop thinking about money."

The other day Yours Truly co-hosted The Young Turks with Brian Unger, and in this segment Brian and I show the video and argue whether Perry is a shrewd re-framer of the debate, the last real hippie on Earth ... or just has a screw loose. Watch the video and decide for yourself - is the Governor a canny re-framer of political perceptions, a carefree spirit letting his inner love child out for a stroll, or speaking to us from a state of profoundly altered perceptions?

Video here. more »

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A few weeks after calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme,” Rick Perry claims he has just the plan to save the program. That is nothing but a monstrous lie.

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Back when they were teaching gun safety to my generation, there was a term for people who ran or jogged while carrying a loaded weapon. The term was "idiot." And back when we were learning basic geometry they had a book called Flatland that told a story set in a two-dimensional world. It was a place where everything was flattened and the people had no depth.

Welcome to Rick Perry's Flatland.

As Robert Borosage notes, Perry jogs with a handgun and reportedly shot a coyote that threatened his dog. Typical Republican overkill: You can scare off a coyote by throwing rocks at it. And speaking of overkill, the gun-totin' candidate's new flat tax proposal looks like a desperation move, a way to win some attention back from Herman Cain's headline-grabbing economic proposal.

"9-9-9," meet "SOS."

The political types tell us that a flat tax proposal makes for easy the messaging. It's simple, different, and it promises immediate relief from something most people hate (filling out tax forms). Hmm ... simple, different, and promises immediate relief. You know what else fits that description? Jumping off a bridge.

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Red's the designated Republican color, but the shades used for Wednesday’s GOP debate have never been glimpsed in nature. Ranging from scarlet to carnelian to a kind of raspberry-magenta blend, they would have induced psychosis in any self-respecting interior designer. They made the set look like a cross between Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and a Betsy Johnson dress catalog from the 1990s. And when the camera pulled back to reveal a stars-and-stripes pattern my first thought was, What have you done to my flag?

Come to think of it, that was my last thought, too.

The unearthly tones were appropriate, since the candidates seemed to be speaking from another planet. They certainly weren't on this one, where tax breaks have produced no jobs and deregulation's destroyed both the economy and the Gulf of Mexico.. But then, they weren't selling reality. They were offering a free-market science-fiction story, with special-effects economics that could have been designed by Industrial Light and Magic. Their reality is not yours, or mine, or that of most Americans.

But you know what? It may not matter. Sure, they were pushing economic hocus-pocus. But that hocus-pocus has cast its spell before. If aggressive steps aren’t taken to fix this economy soon, one of those candidates may be our next President.

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The media have portrayed Governor Rick Perry’s description of Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” at a recent Iowa campaign event as the latest extreme statement of an unconventionally candid, conservative presidential candidate. more »

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When somebody you think pretty highly of does something that seems crazy, the fairest thing you can do is ask them "Why the hell did you do that?" Kinky Friedman's somebody I've followed for years, first as the bandleader of the Texas Jewboys and then as an independent candidate for Governor of Texas. So when he seemed to endorse Rick Perry for President this week. I asked him why the hell he did that. We spoke by phone after his plane trip was cancelled by Hurricane Irene.

"Well, now, hold on," he says. "I don't exactly endorse people. I mean, I'm not some Tammany Hall boss." The next day he called me to clarify. "Did I 'endorse' him? We don't need to get all Talmudic here. We're taking a chance whoevever gets elected." Kinky's erudite and passionate, and disappointed enough in both parties to ask, "Where do you go to give up?"

"Politics is the most corrupt it's ever been. Apathy is a killer. And there's no Harry Truman to lead us. Roosevelt's people wouldn't even stand when Truman entered the room. But he made the tough decisions anyway. This President is always behind the curve, waiting so see how it's going to turn out before he acts."

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The stock market's plunging as of this writing, as the global economy reels from the destructive consequences of austerity economics. Yet in Washington, politicians are moving full speed ahead in their determination to impose a rigorous new program of... austerity economics.

What's wrong with this picture? more »

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