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As is becoming increasingly apparent, Rick Perry is a traveling fool.

Reports say that taxpayers spent close to $1 million for security during 23 foreign trips taken by Rick over a seven-year period.  And, now that he’s running for President, it’s growing.

Bud, actually, if you live in Texas, Rick Perry’s travel expenses are none of your stinkin’ bidness.  Rick Perry wants lawmakers to sneak in a provision on the school finance bill that makes his expenses none of your stinkin’ bidness.  You think how he spends your money is your stinkin’ bidness?  It ain’t.

Rick’s travel records used to be open.

More detailed records used to be available; for example, records showed expenditures in 2005 for golf cart and scuba diving equipment during a trip to the Bahamas.

But, now we only get totals and Perry wants to amend the school finance bill to stop even that.

However, there is some sweet accounting justice in adding it to the school finance bill.  Every time Rick gets on an airplane, we lose funding for a teacher.

Me?  Bitter?  Nahhhhh ……..

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….. it’s that I hate thieving corporations who buy politicians.

Today, Andarko had to make good on the $17 million they stole from American taxpayers.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Kerr-McGee Corporation and their affiliates have agreed to pay the United States more than $17 million to resolve claims that the companies violated the False Claims Act by knowingly underpaying royalties owed on natural gas produced from federal and Indian leases, and numerous additional administrative claims,the Justice Department announced today.

I wonder if the Texas politicians they bought with that stolen money will return it now.

And if that isn’t enough to curl your hair, here’s a nifty little story about Harris county overpaying  $900,000 to UBS the very same month at UBS gave a $5,000 contribution to John Cornyn’s Leadership PAC.

No matter how cynical I get, I can’t keep up.

Thanks to Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen for the heads-up.

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Golf.  No, seriously, golf.  Now they think the game of rich white men is causing the downfall of America.

This weekend was the US Open.  An adorable 22 year old kid from Northern Ireland broke the course record.  His father worked three jobs to give his exceptionally talented son a chance to fulfill the kid’s dreams.

But that’s not the big story.  The big story among Republican circles is that the PGA and NBC hate God and provide an “example of left wing individuals trying to change the fundamental roots of this country.”

It seems that there was a patriotic introduction at the US Open with audio of kids reciting the pledge of allegiance interspersed with pauses and patriotic pictures.    A mistake in editing left out the words “under God, indivisible.”

The rightwing, being minorly sold on secession, was not upset about the word “indivisible” being left out, but boy howdy!, they are damn near certain that leaving out God means that this is another harbinger of the downfall of America.

I thought i was the only one who noticed that yesterday. It turns my stomach to see what damage liberals have done to this country. The removal of God from our society is awfully reminiscent of 1930s Germany, and Obama is the furher. Zeig heil

Okay, all you liberals get the hell off the golf course!

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As you’ve heard by now, Paul Ryan directly benefits from the budget he is pushing.

The financial disclosure report Ryan filed with Congress last month and made public this week shows he and his wife, Janna, own stakes in four family companies that lease land in Texas and Oklahoma to the very energy companies that benefit from the tax subsidies in Ryan’s budget plan.

But, this is just normal, everyday Republican congressional greed.  Where Ryan gets bonus points is his explanation of the situation —

Ryan’s office says the congressman wasn’t thinking about himself or the oil companies that lease his land when he drafted the budget blueprint that extended the energy tax breaks. “These are properties that Congressman Ryan married into,” spokesman Kevin Seifert said. “It’s not something he has a lot of control over.”

“Okay, that gives me a headache,” Juanita admits when told of this response.  “We suspect that Ryan Eddie Munster probably doesn’t control his wife’s … ahem …. holdings, but he does, in freeking fact, control where tax subsidies go.”

“Honey,” she carefully explains, “you may not own the target but you are the one who is  shooting the arrow.”

“I cannot believe that they pay people to come up with these responses,” she says.  “Heck, Buck Pochek would do it for a six pack and couple of lottery tickets, and Buck’s answers would be smarter.”

Thanks to David for the heads-up.

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Two weeks after Governor Rick Perry called for a Day of Prayer for Rain, here’s what we got —

The whole danged state is a’blaze.

And it appears that East Texas, Perry’s base, is going first.

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The Texas Republican Party has decided not to hold a presidential straw  poll this fall.  They had hoped to have one to “an effort to allow Texas Republicans to play a stronger role in picking their party’s candidate.”

But, alas, interest didn’t seem high enough.

“The staff felt that the lack of participants would severely hamper the party’s ability to ensure attendance and make it impossible to safeguard against a financial loss on the event,” the statement reads.

But, in the understatement of the week, the Austin-American Statesman wrote —

It’s unclear if the possibility of Gov. Rick Perry entering the presidential race played a role in the party’s decision.

No shoot, Sherlock.