Rick Perry is so predictable.
Let’s skip over the fact Gov. Perry, a Texan (Strike One) and Republican (Strike Two), refused to read a report that raised serious questions about the guilt of Cameron Todd Willingham just before Perry allowed his execution to proceed for the deaths of his children in a house fire that reliable experts now say wasn’t arson but accidental (Strike Three). We’ll address that screwup some other time, after Mr. Perry announces his GOP candidacy for the presidency again.
Last month, Gov. Perry deployed 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to defend his state’s southern border against an invasion of children (Strike Four). (The 13th century “Children’s Crusade” immediately comes to mind; but historians tell us that’s an apocryphal tale that didn’t really happen, so we won’t go there.) Those troops are now going to food banks because Perry neglected to feed them (Strike Five).
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/National-Guard-troops-in-Rio-Grande-Valley-using-
(Disclaimer: The Texas National Guard now denies any of its soldiers actually went to the food bank. http://www.statesman.com/news/news/breaking-news/texas-national-guard-troops-use-border-food-banks/nhCDC/ Disclaimer of disclaimer: Of course, Gov. Perry commands the TNG, and tells them what to say, so what do you expect them to say? After all, this is the same Gov. Perry who sacked members of the Texas Forensic Commission, a state agency, just as they were about to issue a report saying Texas executed an innocent man when it put Mr. Willingham to death — Strike Six.)
This fiasco reminds me of another Perry fiasco a few years ago. After Gov. Perry and his GOP legislative allies slashed funding for their state’s volunteer fire departments by 85%, wildfires swept through the state, and Gov. Perry then went crawling to President Obama begging for $50 million of federal emergency assistance (Strike Seven).
Now let’s try to imagine what might happen if Rick Perry becomes president. After all, this is America, where even idiots can grow up to be president if they have the right connections (see, e.g., Bush, G. W.). First, we can expect a surge in federal executions of innocent people (Strike Eight), although I really don’t want to talk about that issue here, because it’s not really on topic; this piece is about starving Texas National Guardsmen. (Someday, I may post about how Stalin starved the Ukrainian, but not here.) Second, and here’s the main point of this article, after President Perry and his GOP allies in Congress gut the federal budget, the same way they gutted the Texas state budget, who will he go to for money when a crisis hits? (Say, for example, another Hurricane Katrina or Andrew?)
The United Nations? Putin? China? (Strike Nine)
Nine. That’s nine strikes against Perry off the top of my head. I’m sure I could find more with little effort. Most people go to prison for life after three. So he should be doing three life sentences by now, instead of running for president. Why do we make such allowances for politicians? Are they exempt from gravity and black holes, too?
And why do some people vote for the Rick Perrys of the world? I can’t explain that, because I don’t know. It’s more mysterious than the Higgs Boson. All I can say for sure is, this blog’s readers tend to be college educated, so I assume all of you know better.