Really, voters? Really? Are we going to continue to re-elect crooks, liars, cowards and snake oil dealers to our top state offices? Are we really going to turn a blind eye to Rick Perry's unlawful bullying and his reckless irresponsible management of state funds to the point he can run as a viable Republican Presidential candidate in the 2016 primary?
Are we sick of this mad nonsense yet?
It is like this. Our Governor has been indicted for a crime. For the abuse of power. Rick Perry said he did nothing wrong (does anyone remember Tom Delay?) but a grand jury disagrees. Rick Perry called his indictment a political witch hunt. Except the prosecutor is a G.W. Bush Republican appointee. Not all jurors were Democrats. Some of them don't even vote.
Bribery is bribery, Gov. And you, dude, are not above the law. Prosecutor says Perry makes mockery of justice system.
"I don't think there's any reason why Mr. Perry should be treated any differently from any other citizen who's required to be in court," special prosecutor Michael McCrum said of a request by Perry's lawyers that he be allowed to skip a pretrial hearing.
"He's asking for special favors, and as far as I'm concerned, he's not entitled to it," McCrum, a San Antonio lawyer, said in an interview.
Besides looking askance at Perry's courthouse booking rally, McCrum referred to him "smirking."
"I've never seen a defendant make such a mockery of our system of justice," he said.
Power corrupts.
The arrogant lawless one who wants to run for POTUS might be a crook in more ways than one. For it seems that a fund Rick Perry controls, the Texas Enterprise Fund, has doled out millions of dollars to firms and universities that didn't apply for TEF grants.
AUSTIN – The first independent audit of the Texas Enterprise Fund shows that the governor’s job-creating fund awarded $222 million — almost half the money granted — to entities that never submitted applications or specific promises to create jobs.
The 98-page report by the state auditor, released to lawmakers Thursday, paints a picture of a $500 million fund that, at least in its early years, gave away taxpayer money without a set evaluation process or a consistent criteria.
Early grants were awarded to companies or universities without their submitting formal applications, and some large projects were never required to create a single job — although that is the legislative mandate by which the fund was started.
Numerous contracts showed inconsistent requirements, weak compliance monitoring and led the auditor to state that it cannot verify many of the jobs or investments that were credited to the program.
It seems to me that the Texas Enterprise Fund became a cash cow for Rick Perry as a means to reward his donor cronies. Pay to play politics at the expense of Texas taxpayers. Way to go Rick. But this lack of transparency and abuse of taxpayer funded projects seems to be business as usual among Rick Perry and his donor cronies. After all, look at what they did to the taxpayer funded Cancer Institute CPRIT.
Critics have complained that the Texas Enterprise Fund was a loosely controlled treasure trove for Perry to dole out state money to favored projects. The audit did little to dispel that.
Had not Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis authored the bill requiring the audit of the TEF, this siphoning off taxpayer funds with no oversight would have continued. There is a reason why the Texas GOP favors small government. There aren't enough cops on the beat to keep up with the crooks.
It should be obvious to all why Texas needs Wendy Davis as its next Governor.
Alas, Rick Perry is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to charlatans, cowards and silver forked tongue snake oil dealers. Check out Wendy Davis's opponent Greg Abbott.
Cross posted on Texas Kaos.
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