I know that tonight's posting may upset many people. That is fine because I am upset myself. Both at his lordship Governor Perry and his royal highness President Obama. It appears that they are engaged in a snubbing contest, and the losers are the people of Texas.
For starters, Gov. Perry made quite a show of refusing to accept some of the "stimulus package" money in 2009 -2010, with the statement that there were "too many strings attached" to this money, meaning of course that the federal government would have a lot of "say" as to how the money could be used. Then there was the "meeting with the President" Perry touted during his last re-election campaign. That meeting lasted about ten seconds, when Perry attempted to hand a letter dealing with border security to Obama. The Governor was instead passed to a low-ranking member of the presidential entourage, who simply tucked the letter away in his dress coat. Of course Gov. Perry published his literary classic "Fed Up," outlining "his" ideas about how to rein in the federal government (not based on his own actions in Texas, obviously). No doubt the sentiments Mr. Perry expressed did not go very far in endearing him to our President.
Gov. Perry has not been good for Texas for several reasons, but I will only deal very briefly with two of his actions that have alienated him from "the best interests of Texans." First, Mr. Perry was one of the loudest advocates for the "Trans-Texas Corridor" (a giant tollway) that would have been over a quarter of a mile wide and was envisioned to incorporate the huge superhighway, a brand new railway, and all utility lines or underground lines and pipelines. This disaster was to be built by a Spanish company that would have actual ownership of the tollway. This ultimately meant that a foreign company would be setting tolls and and receiving tax-based subsidies to help with expenses (which of course would have been covered by the tolls -sweet!). Second, Mr. Perry was also a very loud cheerleader for the Waste Texas Project...er...I mean the WCS Andrews radioactive waste dump, oops, disposal facility. Mr. Simmons, the major owner of WCS, made many "contributions" to various politicians and officials, including Gov. Perry. So, as you can see, I am no fan of ThreePete Perry. I wonder if he is going to try for four?
President Obama has not been any better for Texas. He has done nothing for border security, not even cheering loud for the Border Patrol. Somewhere or another he and the staff came up with information that "the boder is more secure than ever." Now, you can (and I HAVE) talked with front-line border patrolmen, and they will tell you that the border is NOT more secure than ever. The President cited information from 2010 statistics showing fewer arrests of illegal border crossers. The patrolmen will tell you that they have been told to make fewer arrests. That, along with the fact that many people attempting to cross Mexico to reach the border are killed along the way, and yes, there may well be fewer people ARRESTED for crossing the border. As we can read from the Mexican news sources, funerals along the border have not decreased at all. Even as I write this, more and more bodies are being dug up from a mass grave in northern Mexico.
The other situation in which the President has let his feeling about Texans be seen in painful clarity is his decision not to send emergency federal aid to the burned out areas of Texas. If you think I am wrong about this, then try to find where the President declared those burned out counties of Texas as national disaster areas. Of course, Gov. Perry was the person who was obligated by law to ask for this emergency federal aid (not to be confused with the "strings attached" federal stimulus money) so there was no surprise that the Governor's request was ignored. But in doing so, President Obama, as I said, showed his true feelings about ALL PEOPLE of TEXAS, whether Republican, Democrat, Liberaterian, Communist, or whatever. I don't know about you, but I think a President who truly works for the American People should be able to set aside his (probably justified) feelings about Gov. Perry, and come to the aid of the people of Texas. If you have watched or listened to the news, you know that there was no shortage of federal "concern" for the unfortunate people along the Mississippi corridor, and I am reasonably sure that PLENTY of those people DID NOT vote for Mr. Obama.
Yes, this may not be a popular blog, and many of you will not share my opinion of either of these two men. I just hope and pray for the good of the state of Texas that neither of these men serve another term in their respective offices. Unfortunately, the fact that Perry was re-elected twice does not speak very highly of Texas voters. We had alternatives. In Mr. Obama's case, he ran a campaign that filled his supporters with hope for change. He had perhaps the most political capital going into office of any president since John F. Kennedy's election. His inability to take advantage of this capital has been disappointing. I hope neither man is in power after the next election.
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