# Might as well Pit Rick Perry.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [August 11, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392 "2011-08-11T23:25:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/21 "2011-08-16T15:13:57Z")

</div>

Remember _The Dead Zone?_ Rick Perry **is** Gregory Ammas Stillson!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/22 "2011-08-16T15:38:54Z")

</div>

> [@R.P.McMurphy](#):
>
> Bernake printing money? Read the fucking paper you moron. Don’t pray over it, read it. Last week the Fed said that they intended to keep interest rates at “near zero” through 2013. How is that “printing money”?

I thought that the Fed had two tools at its disposal, the Federal funds rate and the money supply. I don’t think that the two are tied together but it’s entirely possible that I’m misremembering my econ class from 25 years ago.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/23 "2011-08-16T16:51:33Z")

</div>

> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> Remember _The Dead Zone?_ Rick Perry **is** Gregory Ammas Stillson!

Oh, damn! You’re right! Where’s Christopher Walken when we need him? :eek:

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/24 "2011-08-16T17:04:04Z")

</div>

> [@R.P.McMurphy](#):
>
> Your comparison is asinine. You have made my point.

You have to sort of forgive **Mr. Moto**. He has a condition that forces the tu quoque matter in his hindbrain to be hyperactive, impairing higher cognitive functioning.

He famously countered Dick Cheney’s shooting of an old man in the face with the fact that Adlai Stevenson accidentally discharged a rifle in the attic and killed someone in another room, in 1912, when he was 12 years old.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/25 "2011-08-16T18:58:15Z")

</div>

Here’s Perry’s Texas Miracle:

1st in number of workplace fatalities  
1st in percentage of minimum wage or lower  
50th in Workplace Compensation Coverage  
1st in percent uninsured  
50th in Average Credit Score  
48th in Median Household Nnet Worth

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/26 "2011-08-17T16:46:54Z")

</div>

[Rick Perry’s Neocon Friends.](http://www.thenation.com/blog/162782/rick-perrys-neocon-friends)

[Rick Perry’s Polluter Cronies.](http://www.thenation.com/blog/162817/rick-perrys-polluter-cronies)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/27 "2011-08-17T17:09:47Z")

</div>

> [@Nars\_Glinley](#):
>
> I thought that the Fed had two tools at its disposal, the Federal funds rate and the money supply.

NOBODY expects the federal reserve! It’s three main weapons are the Federal Funds rate, the money supply, quantitative easing, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Trilateral Commission – wait, I’ll come in again…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/28 "2011-08-17T17:17:49Z")

</div>

> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> NOBODY expects the federal reserve! It’s three main weapons are the Federal Funds rate, the money supply, quantitative easing, and an almost fanatical devotion to the Trilateral Commission – wait, I’ll come in again…

Let’s hope they don’t start using the comfy chair.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/29 "2011-08-17T17:50:50Z")

</div>

> [@R.P.McMurphy](#):
>
> Is there a lower form of life than a Texas politician?

Yes, the people who support them.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/30 "2011-08-17T18:29:25Z")

</div>

Oh great. He’s taken the [one good thing he did](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rick-perry-reverses-himself-calls-hpv-vaccine-mandate-a-mistake/2011/08/16/gIQAM2azJJ_story.html?wprss=rss_campaigns/) and reversed it. Nice work, cowardly asshole. Someone should give him a hysterectomy. Or better yet genital warts.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/31 "2011-08-17T18:54:25Z")

</div>

Oh, lordy, **LavenderBlue**. I hadn’t heard that. Jesus, even if it was due to his cronyism with Big Pharma, at least he managed to (temporarily) overrule the hand-wringing social conservatives:

from LB’s link:

> [@](#):
>
> At a defiant news conference in May 2007, Perry chastised legislators for overturning the order; he was flanked by several women who had contracted the virus, including one who had been raped.
> 
> “I challenge legislators to look these women in the eyes and tell them, ‘We could have prevented this disease for your daughters and granddaughters, but we just didn’t have the gumption to address all the misguided and misleading political rhetoric,’ ” Perry said at the time.

Nicely phrased but ultimately hollow words. I can’t believe he’s capitulated now. People: we have a vacccine that _prevents cancer._ PREVENTS CANCER!! And all you can do is look at your 11-year-old daughter and think “Lahlahlah, she’ll never be a grown woman, and omg sex is bad!!11!”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/32 "2011-08-17T19:05:44Z")

</div>

> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> It’s going to be interesting to see whether he throws the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) under the bus. He [was a member](http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/07/13/rick_perry_sons_of_confederate_veterans) in the 1990s- it’s not clear whether he still is. For anyone unaware, SCV was a benign ancestry group dedicated to preserving Confederate historic sites and talking about the Civil War (originally it was to help provide for veterans, but the last ones died two generations ago). They admittedly were propagating the Lost Cause mythology for most of their existence but they were generally apolitical.  
> In the late 1990s-early 2000s they underwent a change and are now an ultraconservative group that not only has double downed on Lost Cause rhetoric but is about as close as you can get to being openly white supremacist/anti-government/pro-secession without being openly so (and many of its members are also members of groups that are openly so)- it was radical enough that some former presidents and many lifelong members of the group resigned.
> 
> So Perry can denounce them- which pisses off a whole lot of members of his base (because SCV is still hundreds of thousands strong with some influential members) or say “Yeah, I’m a member” and piss off many others, though admittedly some of the ones he’d piss off would never have voted for him anyway. It’s going to be interesting to see how he plays it.

I had no idea! As a Mississippian I’ve known a number of SCV members; my high school history teacher was one, and judging by his curriculum I bet he still is. What a shame…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/33 "2011-08-17T19:07:20Z")

</div>

I think the D in “Principles of Economics” says it all.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/34 "2011-08-17T19:34:06Z")

</div>

> [@R.P.McMurphy](#):
>
> Is there a lower form of life than a Texas politician?

Take that, Ann Richards!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/35 "2011-08-17T19:46:44Z")

</div>

Rove being roughly the [King Louie](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SBGuTeOnbQk/RvQDFoDl_SI/AAAAAAAAAbU/5O9Kh92XXPs/s400/king-louis.jpg)of the Republican Lands I have to play Bagheera and wonder what the old rascal is playing, but he’s, and not for the first time, [anti Perry](http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2011/08/16/rick_perry_on_ben_bernanke_calls_quantitative_easing_akin_to_tre.html).

> [@](#):
>
> “You don’t accuse the chairman of the Federal Reserve of being a traitor to his country. Of being guilty of treason,” Rove, who has clashed with Perry before, told Fox News (via TPM). “And, suggesting that we treat him pretty ugly in Texas — You know, that is not, again a presidential statement.”
> 
> Rove continued: “If Rick Perry were to be elected president he’d be saddled with Ben Bernanke who has a term. He’s an independent chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, appointed by president and confirmed by Congress and serves for a term and the president couldn’t even ask him to resign.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/36 "2011-08-17T20:10:51Z")

</div>

> [@MeanOldLady](#):
>
> Take that, Ann Richards!

Bill White, the last Mayor of Houston, was well-liked here. Had to leave the job because of term limits & went up against Ricky Boy–who refused to debate him–for governor. White is a Democrat; Texas cities tend to vote Democratic. Alas, he lost & returned to his successful business career. (Perry hasn’t had a non-government job since he was elected to the State Legislature in 1984.)

Houston’s current mayor, Annise Parker, is openly gay–made headlines nationwide when she won. But we wanted another smart mayor–& she went to Rice!

Hey, Kay Bailey Hutchison is not bad for a Republican…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/37 "2011-08-17T20:48:07Z")

</div>

People like that jerk are the precise reason I left Texas. People like that jerk at the precise reason I’ll never go back to Texas. People who support people like that jerk are the precise reason I support mass extermination.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/38 "2011-08-17T20:54:55Z")

</div>

> [@LavenderBlue](#):
>
> Oh great. He’s taken the [one good thing he did](http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rick-perry-reverses-himself-calls-hpv-vaccine-mandate-a-mistake/2011/08/16/gIQAM2azJJ_story.html?wprss=rss_campaigns/) and reversed it. Nice work, cowardly asshole. Someone should give him a hysterectomy. Or better yet genital warts.

It heartbreaking to me that in this day and age, in a 1st world country, there are a significant amount of people who are either stupid enough to think that the fear of HPV is preventing a significant amount of promiscuity, or that cancer is an appropriate punishment for it.

This one of those times I wish people did actually get punished in the afterlife.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/39 "2011-08-18T00:13:45Z")

</div>

They do. They get sent back. Good folks get out of the cycle, bad ones come back and go through again. Entry level. Naturally, after a while, assholes predominate.

Right now, I’m thinking the Perry blaze is going to fire up and burn out. Couple of weeks, a month, or some other half-ass savior, and adios, melonfarmer.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![El\_Gui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@El\_Gui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Gui)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392/40 "2011-08-18T00:24:18Z")

</div>

It appears that the board that approves specialty plates is equally divided between supporters and opponents of a Confederacy Plate. It is short one member and Perry gets to appoint them:

[http://www.courant.com/news/politics/sns-rt-us-plates-perry-texastre77f70p20110816,0,7781497.story](http://www.courant.com/news/politics/sns-rt-us-plates-perry-texastre77f70p20110816,0,7781497.story)

Wonder how that will fly?

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392.md?page=1)

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/might-as-well-pit-rick-perry/592392.md?page=3)
