This entry was posted on 9/13/2011 4:34 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
I'm assuming many, if not most, of my readers have to pay some sort of mortgage or rent every month for your residence.
So...I have kind of a personal question. I'm not trying to pry or anything but...What are you paying each month?
The reason I ask is that, well, I've been paying close to $10,000 a month, and that seems kind of steep to me, so I thought maybe if I checked with some of you guys and did a comparison of sorts--
What's that? You want to know if I live in a mansion. HA HA--not unless you count a 107-year old tumbledown rock farmhouse as a mansion. We don't even pay a mortgage on that place. We make land payments. The house was on the land when we bought it.
Oh! I see your confusion. No, I guess I wasn't being very clear. I don't PERSONALLY pay close to $10,000 a month on an Austin rental house, but as a Texas taxpayer, MY MONEY goes toward paying just that very rent, every month since 2007, for Rick Perry and his family.
You're asking if the governor's mansion in the state of Texas is that expensive to maintain...? The answer is no--but Perry doesn't deign to live in the governor's mansion.
He and his wife, Anita, decided it needed major renovations some years ago, so they moved out of the governor's mansion--which costs the state nothing per month--and into this 4,600-square foot, $1.85 million home that sits on 3.25 acres of prime west Austin real estate, complete with a heated pool and custom-designed gourmet kitchen (something the governor's mansion definitely did not have).
And while the governor's mansion was undergoing those renovations, it seems there was a mysterious fire. Damn near gutted the house. Fire investigators pegged it as arson but they never did make an arrest.
You can't make this stuff up. There's no need! Hell, this is TEXAS.
So, wouldn't you know? That meant the poor governor and his family had to keep living in that dumpy rental house until the governor's mansion could be repaired from the mysterious arson. That was five years ago. It must have been a REALLY bad fire, because apparently, the house isn't livable yet.
That means I--er, WE Texans--get to pay to MAINTAIN this little gem of a rental house, (over and above the rent of $8,500 per month), monies that we would not normally have to pay were the royal family--I mean, the governor's family--to actually live in the house the state already provides, like:
*$18,000 "consumables" such as cleaning supplies
*$1,001.46 for window coverings from Neiman Marcus
*$1,000 "emergency repair" of the governor's filtered ice machine
*$700 clothes rack
*$70 for a subscription to Food and Wine Magazine
*$8,400 to maintain the pool
*$44,000 lawn maintenance
Now, keep in mind that I'm taking these figures from an article that was published in 2010, so up to THAT point, we'd shelled out almost $600,000 for Perry's rent-house upkeep. And I'm not entirely sure that covers the salaries of the mansion personnel--the full-time and part-time chef, cleaning staff, and so forth. Six of them, I believe. There used to be more but Perry laid off the mansion manager when he got criticized for never making any austerity measures of his own.
And no, I'm not making this up. I told you! This is Texas!
Don't know what it has cost us, since then.
At first, nobody complained, because we were told it would only last for about a year. But then came that terrible mysterious fire. You know, you just can't help it when life throws you a curve ball, can you? I mean, a lot of people are losing their homes these days. I'm sure many of them are having to make do with a rent-house.
Perry says, not to worry--we're not paying for ALL of his expenses!
His fat-cat campaign donors have a separate fund called "Mansion Fund," and stuff like the cable bill--which costs hundreds a year due to "special events" and movies--gets picked up by the Mansion Fund, to the tune of close to a quarter-million so far.
This is helpful, since the governor's $150,000 a year salary isn't NEARLY enough to pay for his kingly lifestyle.
I'm telling you. You can't make this stuff up.
At the most recent GOP debate, Perry protested when Michele Bachmann accused him of his usual quid pro quo when it came to the executive order he signed that would force all parents in the state to have their 13-year old daughters vaccinated with the HPV vaccine--a new, relatively untested vaccine put out by Merck. Perry's chief of staff and advisor on this issue was a Merck lobbyist. After Perry signed the order, Merck PAC made a campaign donation to Perry of $5,000.
To Bachmann, Perry said, "I've raised $30 million. Merck made a donation of $5,000. If you think I can be bought for $5,000, I am offended."
Which raises an interesting question, Mr. Perry: If you can't be bought for $5,000, then what WOULD it take to buy you?
In fact, Merck has made MANY donations to Rick Perry over the past decade--some $28,500.
Can Rick Perry be bought for $28,500?
Considering the fact that he tried to ram through this state requirement with an executive order because he knew his conservative Republican statehouse would never go along with it--it IS a question worth considering.
(Public hullabaloo made him back down on the issue. Eventually.)
Political donation laws in Texas are so ridiculously lax that you can pretty much live like a king on campaign donations, and even ethics boards can be coerced into backing down when challenging you.
Over his years as governor, he has accepted 22 pairs of handmade, custom-designed cowboy boots (estimated cost per pair: $500), belt buckles, hats, cuff links, and at least nine high-dollar hunting trips.
Perry explains away all this largess by saying that he has a lot of friends.
And they're ALL RICH.
Rick Perry's "friends" have sent him and his family, by private jets, all over the world, from the Bahamas (where his traveling buddy, Grover Norquist, says he was an avid scuba diver) and Key West, to China, Sweden, France, Israel, and Qatar.
These trips are, ostensibly, to attract business to Texas and are paid for through a shady group known as Texas One, which is supposedly a fund set up to enhance business prospects in the state but which mostly seems to enhance Rick Perry.
Perry also does a great deal of "business" all over the United States, at such events as the Rose Bowl, NBA finals, football, basketball, baseball, and hockey games.
All paid for through Texas One.
As for this miserable Texas heat that has set this state on fire throughout the hottest summer in recorded meteorological history--with temperatures soaring above 120 degrees and some two or three months, in some areas, of daily temperatures over 100 degrees--why, there was no need for King Perry and his family to swelter!
I am SURE that meeting MUST have had something to do with Texas business and NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with Perry's impending run for president of the United States.
But I digress. I was discussing all of Rick Perry's many friends who fly him all over the world with his family, staying at five-star hotels and eating at top restaurants, traveling by private jets, and so on--who have, collectively, donated more than $100 million to Perry for his various political campaigns--a tad bit more than what he admitted on television during the latest GOP debate. ("$30 million"??? Really, Perry?)
In fact, almost HALF of the money Rick Perry has raised for his three campaigns for governor have come from donors who contributed $10,000 or more, including one guy who has so far given Rick Perry $2.5 million. Others have given a million or a measly half a million.
Don't think these are all rich Texans, either. Perry is serving a second term as chairman of the Republican Governor's Association, which has enabled him to cannily, and cunningly, accumulate rich donors from all over the country who have long been building up the coffers for him to run for president.
But. Rick Perry's rich friends all LIKE him because he is a friend to THEM, too!
Here's how it works:
*First of all, if you would like to have a seat on an influential board or commission in the state of Texas, it's EASY. All you gotta do is donate handsomely to the governor, and the seat is yours. (On the other hand, if you hold an influential seat on a board or state commission that was a gift from Perry, and you don't do as you are told by him, you lose that seat. Quickly.)
*Secondly: Let's say you want to build a radioactive waste facility, and other states are giving you grief over it. No problem! Just make a few LARGE donations to Rick Perry or his various little cloudy PACs, and before you know it, one Texas state law gets passed that overrules some pesky regulation or other that has tied your hands in other states; then, a second law gets passed that says that under the new law, they can only issue, say, ONE license. All ya gotta do then, is apply for that license! You'll be the only one, since nobody else knows about it! And VOILA! You've got your radioactive waste facility in Texas, which will earn you roughly $2 billion profit on your campaign investment.
*Third: Say you're willing to give the Perry kids a job in your company. And fly Rick Perry to various sporting events. And a few other things. And you've got some pretty heavy investment in that company. Before you can say, "Gig 'em, Aggies!" your company gets $2.75 million from the Texas State Emerging Technology fund--which happens to be overseen by, you know, Rick Perry.
Pay to play, baby.
That's just the general gist of it. If I went into complete detail, this blogpost would be 10,000 words long, and that's only because so much of what Perry does is behind closed doors and so we really don't know the full extent of it.
What we DO know is this:
Rick Perry has gutted the state of Texas during his years as governor.
While he has been quietly amassing a private fortune, living high off the hog on the state government trough, giving his family the high life in private jets and five-star hotels and 4,600-square foot rental homes--here is only ONE example of the high cost of having Rick Perry as the head of our state:
Most of you are aware of the tragic wildfires that have swept across the state of Texas during this record-heat summer. Since the spring--when our own small ranch burnt to the ground--more than 3.5 million acres have been destroyed by fires that continue to burn as of this writing.
The last fire, which was concentrated in the town of Bastrop, about 30 miles outside of Austin, has so far consumed more than 1,300 homes and more than 100,000 acres. The people there are devastated.
Yes, that's right. (You can read more about it in my previous blogpost: Rick Perry, Writ Large.
He also cut the Texas Forest Service budget by one-third.
This means that, as so many hysterical families pointed out to those media outlets who bothered to ask: There were no TRUCKS. There was no MANPOWER. There was no EQUIPMENT to fight these fires.
They were gutted by Rick Perry, with the casual stroke of a pen, before he left for another huntin' trip. Or fund-raiser.
But the firefighters, many of whom lost their jobs in the budget-slashing pre-presidential campaign rampage of Rick Perry--did what they could to help.
And even after they showed up--at their own expense--to help out, they complained that Perry's budget cuts had kept them from getting proper training.
Not just that. Budget cuts also kept counties from FIRE PREVENTION tactics often employed during the dry Texas summers. Building fire-guards, for one thing.
In other words, not only could some of these fires have been stopped--with proper equipment and manpower--but they could have been prevented altogether, if not for Perry's maniacal insistence that the budget be balanced. Even if he did have to take federal Stimulus funds that had been earmarked for such things, and use them instead to make the numbers in the books add up.
Then, of course, pitch a fit in front of the TV cameras, blaming FEMA and the federal government for not responding as quickly as Perry seemed to think they should.
In other words: (1) He slashed the state fire-fighting budget 75% then (2) expected the federal government to make up the difference with FEMA and other assistance then (3) bitched that they weren't doing it fast enough and then (4) spent the rest of his on-camera time talking about how the federal government is useless and should, basically, be dismantled.
It's genius, really. He balances his state's budget on the federal government's back and the backs of suffering Texans, then runs for president on the strength of his state's balanced budget and his hatred of Big Government.
But--Just imagine what would happen if a PRESIDENT Perry slashed the FEMA budget by 75%. What then?
Never mind.
Bottom line: It makes Rick Perry look good in campaign ads, and that IS what counts, isn't it?
Texas ranks at the very bottom in areas such as education and health care, and at the very top in areas such as people living in poverty and infant mortality.
Now, one question which I am frequently asked is, "Why do you idiot Texans keep voting the man into office?"
That's easy. When you've got three hard-headed Texans running against the man instead of one, and not one of them drops out of the race no matter how bad their poll numbers, then that makes it a four-way race, which is how it has been the past two elections.
And Perry is able to win with only 39% of the vote.
Texas, by the way, ranks last in the country in voter participation.
This is probably because so many of the jobs that HAVE come about in this state in the past decade are minimum wage jobs, which means people are working two and three jobs in order to pay their mortgages and rents, because the state doesn't pay THEIR rent the way it does Rick Perry's.
So far, one of the perks of being Perry is never losing an election. Not once. Ever in his life, not even for agricultural commissioner. Or Aggie Yell Leader, for that matter.
Make no mistake--Rick Perry has spent the better part of the past decade building a power base of millionaires and power-brokers across the country. He will SAY anything, DO anything, BE anything to WIN.
I see an alarming trend among Democrats, progressives, liberals, and Independents, and that is that they don't take the man seriously. They take his cornpone aw-shucks shtick literally and think he's stupid. They look at his college grades from Texas A&M--not so great since he spent all his time on Corps of Cadets activities like Yell Leader and Bonfire--and assume it's proof-positive the man's an idiot.
Do so at your own peril, Dems.
This man is cunning, crafty, and craven. He makes George W. Bush look like a piker.
He's been coiled for years, like a rattlesnake, biding his time, building up his venom.
He promised Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison he wouldn't run for governor a third term, but as soon as she threw her hat in the ring, he struck--"suddenly" changing his mind, dispatching of her quickly in the primaries with his Tea Bagger rhetoric because it was a mid-term election for the rest of the country and turn-out was going to be low. In Texas, that means white seniors, mostly, who happen to make up the bulk of the Tea Party demographic.
Some think that same extreme talk would cost Perry the general election--yet another reason not to take him seriously. This is because they are assuming he won't soften up, change his colors, shuffle and smile and move more toward the middle when it suits his purposes.
This is based on the assumption that the man actually has principles.
I laugh.
The only principles Rick Perry has, is Rick Perry. He has engorged and enriched himself at the pork-trough of state funding and campaign donors while at the same time, impoverishing the state so that it would make him look better politically.
He likes the perks of being Rick Perry. He's a master manipulator at getting his hands on them.
And just imagine how much bigger and better those perks would be for a President Perry.
