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That is all.

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Texas needs a Democratic senator.  Badly.  There’s going to be an open seat so this is our best shot in years.

(Another heavy sigh.)

The Big Boy Candidate Pickers  (I think that’s copyrighted) have picked General Ricardo Sanchez.

He announced on May 11.  Today is June 16th, but when you Google General Ricardo Sanchez, this site is #3.

Good Lord, it’s been over a month and the guy still doesn’t have a website?

(Overly dramatic heavy eye rolling sigh.)

I went all the way to San Antonio to hear him speak, and I still don’t know how he stands on most issues.

Get the man a website, Big Boy Candidate Pickers.

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It would be hard to imagine anything meaner than using the hope of a cancer cure to fleece taxpayer money from the state of Texas.

Unless, of course, Rick Perry is involved.

Now, Texas has so many problems piled up that it’ll be two weeks before we have time to worry, but Rick Perry knows a thing or three about priorities.  Friends with money is Priority #1.

It seems that a couple of Rick Perry’s rich political contributing buddies put up $1,000 between them and formed a company that was gonna cure cancer.  They called it Convergen.  No matter that one of their other companies claiming to find a cancer cure went belly-up.  And no matter that they got turned down for grants at every door they knocked.

Texas Emerging Technology Fund

So they put in an application for a $4.5 million grant from Texas’ Emerging Technology Fund (which is also know as PPP – Perry’s Political Payback) and, by gawd, they got it.

The Austin American Statesman newspaper smelled a skunk and went to work trying to get open records about these guys being in cahoots with the Governor, and found out more than even they reckoned.

Among the findings:  Two of the 3 people on the Board of Directors never attended even one meeting.  Their application said they were going to raise $3 in private investment and $24 million from an unnamed partner which apparently didn’t pan out.  If the drug is successful, it will cost the consumer $60,000 to $100,000 a year, even though it was developed with public money.

Then comes the hanky-panky.  The wheeler-dealer here is a guy named David Nance.

Nance also has long ties to Perry, who has called him a close friend. Nance has contributed $100,000 to Perry campaigns since 2000.

Perry also steered $2 million in federal money to a foundation Nance ran after he left Introgen.

Perry’s management of the technology fund became an issue in last year’s gubernatorial campaign because of news reports that some grants have gone to companies tied to Perry’s campaign donors.

Even the Republican controlled State Lege put some reins on Perry’s ability to hand out state money to his contributors.  They know Rick Perry – he’ll steal a hot stove and come back for the smoke.

So you Republican go on ahead and beg Rick Perry to run for Governor.  He’s got more baggage than the trains station and a closet full of bones to fall out one at a time.

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Customer Brian sent a link that has entertained Juanita all morning.  It’s a time sponge, but it’s funny — and undoubtedly about Republicans.

White Whine

Enjoy!

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The national media is on this like green on grass.

… in December of 2000, when Perry was about to take over the governorship from president-elect Bush, he said something that could come back to haunt him. “Certainly, you are not going to see a great philosophical difference between Rick Perry and George Bush,” he said. “We share the same type of philosophy.”

Thanks to Carol for the heads-up.

And a little reminder from Molly and Virginia Mary —

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In a move opposed by almost every chief law enforcement officer in the State of Texas, the Texas Senate has decided that there are just too damn many Mexicans in Texas.

The bill, SB 9 by state Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, would deny state funds to entities that prohibit peace officers and employees of special districts from inquiring into the status of a person arrested or detained for the investigation of crime. It also expands the federal government’s Secure Communities initiative to all detention facilities, and codifies tighter regulations for applicants for driver’s licenses and state-issued IDs. Gov. Rick Perry added the measure to the special session agenda last week.

“This, of course, turns our already understaffed police departments into immigration officers, because apparently there is not enough crime in Texas to keep them busy,” Juanita comments.  “So while Jim Bob is shootin’ up the parking lot at The Mustang Lounge because Darlene danced with some outta town cowboy who needs to die for it, our police officers will be busy toting Jaime off to jail for minding his own business while washing dishes at Trudy’s Taco Plaza.”

“I have to suspect this bill would exclude undocumented workers who work at the Senate Republicans houses for dirt pay,” she smirks.

I am a fifth generation Texan.  One of my neighbors is a woman my age who is a sixth generation Texan.  She’s proudly Hispanic, and likes to say, “I didn’t cross the border.  The border crossed me.”  Now you tell me which one of us is going to asked to prove our citizenship in a traffic stop.

Today’s Vacation Bible School Verse for Republicans:  Exodus 22:21