If the Chinese Politburo were not so worried
about the inflation catastrophe that America is
throwing the world into, then they must be
laughing themselves silly at the sort of people
that America throws up by way of presidential
candidates -- and, of course, actual presidents.
Apart from Eisenhower perhaps, one has to go back
an awful long way before there were presidents
with their feet on the ground and all-round intelligence in their heads.
Keith
At 02:03 17/08/2011,Mike wrote:
-----Original Message----- From: Portside
Moderator [mailto:[email protected]] Sent:
Tuesday, August 16, 2011 5:44 PM To:
[email protected] Subject: [SPAM] Rick
Perryâs Unanswered Prayers Rick Perryâs
Unanswered Prayers By TIMOTHY EGAN Opinionator
The New York Times Blogs August 11, 2011, 8:30
pm
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/rick-perrys-unanswered-praye
rs/?emc=eta1 [Timothy Egan on American politics
and life, as seen from the West.] A few months
ago, with Texas aflame from more than 8,000
wildfires brought on by extreme drought, a man
who hopes to be the next president took pen in
hand and went to work: "Now, therefore, I, Rick
Perry, Governor of Texas, under the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of
the State of Texas, do hereby proclaim the
three-day period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to
Sunday, April 24, 2011, as Days of Prayer for
Rain in the State of Texas." Then the governor
prayed, publicly and often. Alas, a rainless
spring was followed by a rainless summer. July
was the hottest month in recorded Texas history.
Day after pitiless day, from Amarillo to Laredo,
from Toadsuck to Twitty, folks were greeted by
a hot, white bowl overhead, triple-digit
temperatures, and a slow death on the land. In
the four months since Perryâs request for
divine intervention, his state has taken a
dramatic turn for the worse. Nearly all of
Texas is now in 'extreme or exceptional'
drought, as classified by federal
meteorologists, the worst in Texas history.
Lakes have disappeared. Creeks are phantoms, the
caked bottoms littered with rotting, dead
fish. Farmers cannot coax a kernel of grain
from ground that looks like the skin of an aging
elephant. Is this Rick Perryâs fault, a slap
to a man who doesnât believe that humans can
alter the earthâs climate - God messinâ
with Texas? No, of course not. God is too busy
with the upcoming Cowboys football season and
solving the problems that Tony Romo has reading
a blitz. But Perryâs tendency to use prayer as
public policy demonstrates, in the midst of a
truly painful, wide-ranging and potentially
catastrophic crisis in the nationâs second
most-populous state, how he would govern if he
became president. "I think itâs time for us to
just hand it over to God, and say, â?God:
Youâre going to have to fix this,â" he said
in a speech in May, explaining how some of the
nationâs most serious problems could be
solved. That was a warm-up of sorts for his
prayer-fest, 30,000 evangelicals in Houstonâs
Reliant Stadium on Saturday. From this gathering
came a very specific prayer for economic
recovery. On the following Monday, the first day
God could do anything about it, Wall Street
suffered its worst one-day collapse since the
2008 crisis. The Dow sunk by 635 points. Prayer
can be meditative, healing, and humbling. It
can also be magical thinking. Given how Perry
has said he would govern by outsourcing to the
supernatural, itâs worth asking if God is
ignoring him. Though Perry will not officially
announce his candidacy until Saturday, he loomed
large over the Republican debate Thursday
night. With their denial of climate change,
basic budget math, and the indisputable fact
that most of the nationâs gains have gone
overwhelmingly to a wealthy few in the last
decade, the candidates form a Crazy Eight
caucus. You could power a hay ride on their
nutty ideas. After the worst week of his
presidency (and the weakest Oval Office speech
since Gerald Ford unveiled buttons to whip
inflation), the best thing Barack Obama has
going for him is this Republican field. He
still beats all of them in most polling
match-ups. Perry is supposed to be the savior.
When he joins the campaign in the next few days,
expect him to show off his boots; they are
emblazoned with the slogan dating to the 1835
Texas Revolution: 'Come and Take It.' He once
explained the logo this way: "Come and take it
- thatâs what itâs all about." This is not a
man one would expect to show humility in prayer.
Perry revels in a muscular brand of ignorance
(Rush Limbaugh is a personal hero), one that
extends to the ever-fascinating history of the
Lone Star State. Twice in the last two years
heâs broached the subject of Texas seceding
from the union. "When we came into the nation in
1845 we were a republic, we were a stand-alone
nation," says Perry in a 2009 video that has
just surfaced. "And one of the deals was, we can
leave any time we want. So weâre kind of
thinking about that again." He can dream all he
wants about the good old days when Texas left
the nation to fight for the slave-holding states
of the breakaway confederacy. But the law will
not get him there. There is no such language in
the Texas or United Statesâ constitutions
allowing Texas to unilaterally "leave any time
we want." But Texas is special. By many
measures, it is the nationâs most polluted
state. Dirty air and water do not seem to
bother Perry. He is, however, extremely
perturbed by the Environmental Protection
Agencyâs enforcement of laws designed to clean
the world around him. In a recent
interview, he wished for the president to pray
away the E.P.A. To Jews, Muslims, non-believers
and even many Christians, the Biblical bully
that is Rick Perry must sound downright
menacing, particularly when he gets into
religious absolutism. "As a nation, we must call
upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented
struggles," he said last week. As a lone
citizen, heâs free to advocate Jesus-driven
public policy imperatives. But coming
from someone who wants to govern this great
mess of a country with all its beliefs,
Perryâs language is an insult to the founding
principles of the republic. Substitute Allah or
a Hindu God for Jesus and see how that polls.
Perry is from Paint Creek, an unincorporated
hamlet in the infinity of the northwest Texas
plains. Iâve been there. In wet years, itâs
pretty, the birds clacking on Lake Stamford, the
cotton high. This year, itâs another sad
moonscape in the Lone Star State. Over the last
15 years, taxpayers have shelled out $232
million in farm subsidies to Haskell County,
which includes Paint Creek - a handout to more
than 2,500 recipients, better than one out every
three residents. God may not always be
reliable, but in Perryâs home county, the
federal government certainly is.
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Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2011/08/
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