Rick Perry Sought State Profits from Selling ‘Dead Peasants Insurance’ on Teachers
August 26, 2011 No CommentAs Digby noted , this is the same scheme we saw from Walmart that Michael Moore featured in his movie, Capitalism: A Love Story . Apparently Texas Gov. Rick Perry thought selling “dead peasants insurance” was something he could con the states retired teachers into as well so Wall Street could profit from their deaths. Here’s more from the HuffPo — Rick Perry Sought State Profits From Teacher Life Insurance Scheme : Two weeks before Thanksgiving in 2003, top officials from Texas Governor Rick Perry’s office pitched an unusual offer to the state’s retired teachers: Let’s get into the death business. Perry’s budget director, Mike Morrissey, laid out a pitch that was both ambitious and risky, according to notes summarizing the meeting provided to The Huffington Post . According to the notes, which were authenticated by a meeting participant, the Perry administration wanted to help Wall Street investors gamble on how long retired Texas teachers would live. Perry was promising the state big money in exchange for helping Swiss banking giant UBS set up a business of teacher death speculation. All they had to do was convince retirees to let UBS buy life insurance policies on them. When the retirees died, those policies would pay out benefits to Wall Street speculators, and the state, supposedly, would get paid for arranging the bets. The families of the deceased former teachers would get nothing. The meeting notes offer the most direct evidence that the Perry administration was not only intimately involved with the insurance scheme, but a leading driver of the plan. It was a back-room deal at odds with Perry’s public persona as a career politician who had successfully sold Texans on his vision of minimal government intrusion. And it still is. Nearly eight years after the meeting, when Perry formally announced his run for the presidency in Charleston, S.C., he honed that vision into the perfect applause line: “I’ll promise you this,” he had said in his West Texas drawl. “I’ll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C. as inconsequential in your life as I can.” Read on… I guess Perry doesn’t mind that “big government” interfering in your life if it means they can make a profit from your death.
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UN warns of ‘grave breach of human rights’ if Travellers are forced to leave their homes as standoff over Essex site intensifies On one side stands the UN, two bishops, three rabbis, Vanessa Redgrave, activists from Sweden, and 400 Irish Travellers. On the other stands Basildon borough council, many local residents and the coalition government. The battle over the future of Dale Farm, a former scrapyard that has been home to 86 families for the past decade, will intensify this weekend prior to Wednesday’s deadline for the Travellers to leave the site or face forcible eviction. The UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination examined the case in Geneva this week and the UN’s special rapporteur on housing, Raquel Rolnik, has warned that the evictions could “constitute a grave breach of human rights if not carried out with full respect for international standards”. The escalating standoff illustrates the discrimination faced by Travellers and a national shortage of suitable pitches, according to supporters of the Dale Farm Travellers. For their opponents, the long-running dispute shows the inadequacy of the law to deal quickly with flagrant planning transgressions. On Saturday, activists from across Europe will form Camp Constant, a live-in protest on the greenfield site, close to Basildon, in an attempt to stop bailiffs bulldozing Travellers’ homes in an operation that could cost up to £18m. Basildon council has set aside £8m for the eviction with an additional police bill of up to £10m, subsidised by £4.65m from the Home Office if required. “For the government to pay money to make these people homeless is criminal,” Lord Avebury, a Liberal Democrat peer, said. “I can’t believe that my own government will persist with such a cold policy.” Travellers have pledged to create a non-violent human shield to protect 100 children on the site and stop the bailiffs, but the council, and some campaigners, fear violent scenes. “There is bound to be violence because bailiffs themselves are using violence to bulldoze their homes,” the Gypsy campaigner Grattan Puxon said. “We hope that people will respond to that peacefully and use a human shield, but people should understand that the violence will come from the bailiffs in the first instance.” Travellers own the land at Dale Farm but, while half the site is legal, residents failed to win planning permission to live on the other half. Dale Farm resident Mary Ann McCarthy said Travellers would move if the council helped identify alternative pitches nearby so their children can continue to attend the local school. One application for an alternative site has been rejected, while another is still to be heard. A last-minute injunction against the eviction will be heard by a high court judge next week, while Dale Farm will be visited by the actor Vanessa Redgrave, the Catholic bishop of Brentwood and the bishop of Chelmsford. The Right Rev Stephen Cottrell, the bishop of Chelmsford, said: “If evicting children is the answer then we must be asking the wrong question. Whatever the legality of the situation, instead of asking how can we get rid of these people we should be asking how we can help them find permanent and stable homes.” Redgrave said: “The UK signed and ratified the UN convention on the rights of the child. I am certain that the eviction of the Dale Farm Traveller families is illegal under international, mandatory, human rights conventions. I am appalled that such an eviction can be upheld by our government.” Stephen Horgan, the deputy leader of Basildon council, said it was “absolutely absurd” to accuse the council of discrimination against Travellers when Basildon provides more authorised Traveller sites than neighbouring councils. “We believe in housing all sections of our community and we’ve done that,” he said. “We’d like some of the local authorities around us who have done nothing for the Traveller community to pitch in.” According to the council, Dale Farm applications were rejected because the council enforces “without fear or favour” against anyone who builds on greenbelt land. “We have to protect our greenbelt in the south,” Horgan said. “We cannot say a particular ethnic group is allowed to build on the greenbelt and no one else is.” McCarthy said the Travellers were frightened and several were suffering serious health problems. “Everyone is feeling very sick,” she said. “We’re not bad people. We have no machine guns. We want no trouble. We just want to be left where we are or be found another suitable place to live.” The council said the eviction process would not be “gung-ho” and it would meet its “statutory homeless duty” and provide every resident with a council property in Basildon. According to McCarthy, the homes offered are “very run down”, and the Travellers want to continue living in traditional caravans and mobile homes. “That’s our culture,” she added. “The idea that vulnerable people will be left by the roadside is nonsense,” Horgan said. “These heartrending images have no basis. I can understand if Travellers don’t see their long-term future in bricks and mortar. In the short term, no human rights are going to be breached.” Communities Local government Housing Planning policy Local politics Liberal-Conservative coalition Liberal Democrats Conservatives Roma, Gypsies and Travellers Patrick Barkham guardian.co.uk
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More than 370 cars set alight so far this year with police saying some crimes are ‘politically motivated’ against gentrification When the owner of the Mercedes locked their car on Wormser Strasse, Berlin on Thursday night, they probably knew it was risky. More than 370 cars have been set alight in the city this year, with the flashiest models being the chief victims. But with police in Berlin promising to put 500 officersand a helicopter in pursuit of the arsonists, the Mercedes’ owner may have thought they could sleep easy. Especially since this was the chi-chi district of Schöneberg, just a few minutes walk from the KaDeWe department store, Berlin’s answer to Harrods. But no. In the early hours of Friday morning the elusive firebugs struck again and the Mercedes became the 371st car to be torched in Berlin this year. A few minutes later an Audi in nearby Keithstrasse became the 372nd. A spokeswoman for the police said that of the 372 cars torched in 2011, 155 were being treated as “politically motivated” crimes. “That can be for a number of reasons,” she said. “Sometimes it’s because the cars are particularly valuable, sometimes it’s the area they were parked in, for example districts where we know there are leftwing groups who are against gentrification.” She specified the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, which is historically a stronghold of the city’s angry left . So far only 13 suspects have been identified. Burning cars has long been a popular nocturnal pastime in Berlin, but the number of attacks this year has become a headache for the city’s administration. Until now the record year for car burnings was 2009, when 401 were set alight. Unless police quickly get a grip on the problem that record is likely to be smashed by the autumn. In a two-week period earlier this month 90 cars were targeted. It has become the hot campaigning topic for the city and state elections taking place in September. Even the chancellor has become involved, saying she is watching developments “with great concern”. One politician from Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party has even floated the idea of Berliners forming a Bürgerwehr, a sort of unarmed citizens’ militia. Burkard Dregger told voters that if the party triumphs in September he will kit out 1,000 volunteers with truncheons and handcuffs. The idea was immediately rubbished by Germany’s police union. “Bounty hunters belong in westerns,” representative Klaus Eisenreich told the newspaper Die Welt. “Vigilante justice is a real risk. Solving the crime of car burning is a job for the police.” Berlin is not the only city in Germany facing the problem. On Wednesday morning four cars were set alight in the usually more obedient city of Düsseldorf, and Hamburg has also seen a number of attacks. Germany Europe Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …More than 370 cars set alight so far this year with police saying some crimes are ‘politically motivated’ against gentrification When the owner of the Mercedes locked their car on Wormser Strasse, Berlin on Thursday night, they probably knew it was risky. More than 370 cars have been set alight in the city this year, with the flashiest models being the chief victims. But with police in Berlin promising to put 500 officersand a helicopter in pursuit of the arsonists, the Mercedes’ owner may have thought they could sleep easy. Especially since this was the chi-chi district of Schöneberg, just a few minutes walk from the KaDeWe department store, Berlin’s answer to Harrods. But no. In the early hours of Friday morning the elusive firebugs struck again and the Mercedes became the 371st car to be torched in Berlin this year. A few minutes later an Audi in nearby Keithstrasse became the 372nd. A spokeswoman for the police said that of the 372 cars torched in 2011, 155 were being treated as “politically motivated” crimes. “That can be for a number of reasons,” she said. “Sometimes it’s because the cars are particularly valuable, sometimes it’s the area they were parked in, for example districts where we know there are leftwing groups who are against gentrification.” She specified the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, which is historically a stronghold of the city’s angry left . So far only 13 suspects have been identified. Burning cars has long been a popular nocturnal pastime in Berlin, but the number of attacks this year has become a headache for the city’s administration. Until now the record year for car burnings was 2009, when 401 were set alight. Unless police quickly get a grip on the problem that record is likely to be smashed by the autumn. In a two-week period earlier this month 90 cars were targeted. It has become the hot campaigning topic for the city and state elections taking place in September. Even the chancellor has become involved, saying she is watching developments “with great concern”. One politician from Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party has even floated the idea of Berliners forming a Bürgerwehr, a sort of unarmed citizens’ militia. Burkard Dregger told voters that if the party triumphs in September he will kit out 1,000 volunteers with truncheons and handcuffs. The idea was immediately rubbished by Germany’s police union. “Bounty hunters belong in westerns,” representative Klaus Eisenreich told the newspaper Die Welt. “Vigilante justice is a real risk. Solving the crime of car burning is a job for the police.” Berlin is not the only city in Germany facing the problem. On Wednesday morning four cars were set alight in the usually more obedient city of Düsseldorf, and Hamburg has also seen a number of attacks. Germany Europe Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
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Theresa May consents to request from Met to ban all marches in Tower Hamlets and four neighbouring boroughs for 30 days The English Defence League’s plan to march through the capital next month has been blocked by the home secretary. Theresa May banned all marches in Tower Hamlets, east London, and four neighbouring boroughs in the capital for a 30-day period, following a request from Scotland Yard’s acting commissioner, Tim Godwin. The move comes amid fears of violence and disorder if the march was allowed to go ahead. May said: “Having carefully considered the legal tests in the Public Order Act and balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected, I have given my consent to a ban on all marches in Tower Hamlets and four neighbouring boroughs for a 30-day period. “I know that the Metropolitan police are committed to using their powers to ensure communities and properties are protected. “We encourage all local people and community leaders to work with the police to ensure community relations are not undermined by public disorder.” Nick Lowles, director of the anti-extremist campaign group Searchlight, said: “This decision is a victory for common sense. “The EDL clearly intended to use the proposed march to bring violence and disorder to the streets of Tower Hamlets. Their plan has been foiled.” He added: “We congratulate Theresa May and the Metropolitan police on their decision, as well as those ordinary Londoners who have joined with Searchlight and local community groups in opposing this divisive demonstration. “Legitimate protest is healthy. Violence and intimidation are not.” English Defence League London Theresa May The far right Metropolitan police Protest Police guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Theresa May consents to request from Met to ban all marches in Tower Hamlets and four neighbouring boroughs for 30 days The English Defence League’s plan to march through the capital next month has been blocked by the home secretary. Theresa May banned all marches in Tower Hamlets, east London, and four neighbouring boroughs in the capital for a 30-day period, following a request from Scotland Yard’s acting commissioner, Tim Godwin. The move comes amid fears of violence and disorder if the march was allowed to go ahead. May said: “Having carefully considered the legal tests in the Public Order Act and balanced rights to protest against the need to ensure local communities and property are protected, I have given my consent to a ban on all marches in Tower Hamlets and four neighbouring boroughs for a 30-day period. “I know that the Metropolitan police are committed to using their powers to ensure communities and properties are protected. “We encourage all local people and community leaders to work with the police to ensure community relations are not undermined by public disorder.” Nick Lowles, director of the anti-extremist campaign group Searchlight, said: “This decision is a victory for common sense. “The EDL clearly intended to use the proposed march to bring violence and disorder to the streets of Tower Hamlets. Their plan has been foiled.” He added: “We congratulate Theresa May and the Metropolitan police on their decision, as well as those ordinary Londoners who have joined with Searchlight and local community groups in opposing this divisive demonstration. “Legitimate protest is healthy. Violence and intimidation are not.” English Defence League London Theresa May The far right Metropolitan police Protest Police guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Gawker had a piece last night about the labor movement and the extent to which Labor is leaving the Democratic Party. “Probably the most stinging backstab national Democrats gave labor was when they had 60 votes in the Senate a couple of years ago but still couldn’t manage to pass card-check, a piece of legislation that would have made it easier for workforces to organize and which big unions considered their last big opportunity on the federal level to save private sector unionization from its rapid slide into extinction. The problem was that one Democratic senator, Blanche Lincoln — who technically represented the entire state of Arkansas but was essentially a voting lobbyist for the company Walmart — didn’t want it, and it died.. . Then this year, when teachers’ unions became public enemy #1 and the source of all deficit problems and earthly evil according to new Republican (and even some Democratic) state legislatures across the country, national Democrats barely opened their mouths. . .” What we’ve seen in many states is a witch hunt on the pensions and power of those who aim to collectively bargain. Whether it was the public employees in Wisconsin or the pension fight that is about to happen to public safety workers in Oklahoma, unions are in trouble. Maybe that’s why earlier this year the International Association of Firefighters decided that they’re not giving any money to federal elections anymore and instead are sending it down to the state level to help protect pension programs. Or why some unions plan to sit out the National Democratic Convention in North Carolina in 2012. Gawker quotes a Politico piece saying that the AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka plans to scale back their involvement with democratic candidates in the 2012 election. What’s discouraging in the Gawker piece are the comments that followed the “unions are getting screwed” theme: “Dear Unions, We feel ya. Love, The Gays. Dear Unions & Gays, Right there with you. Love, The Ladies Dear Unions, Gays, & Ladies, We share the same pain. Love, The Blacks Dear Unions, Gays, Ladies, & Blacks, It’s certainly been a couple of rough years, hasn’t it? Love, The Latinos Dear Unions, Gays, Ladies, Blacks & Latinos, Yeah. Love, The Poors It has been a rough year – a rough couple of years. The War on Women rages with cuts to federal family planning program for low-income women that provides birth control, anything Planned Parenthood related, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and testing for H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases. While there have been large steps forward for LGBT rights they have little to do with Congressional legislation and everything to do with funding for the Justice Department. The worst is the war on the poor. Ours use to be the party that launched the War on Poverty but today we’ve stood by and watched as Republicans work tirelessly for the corporations that line their campaign war chests. And sadly many Democrats want to be just like them. That’s right… I’m talking to you Dan Boren . But he’s not the only one. Republicans don’t win by taking over power and pushing us to the right – because eventually the pendulum swings back to the left (see 2006 and 2008). Republicans win by forcing our own party to move further to the right. I’m a big believer in winning in Red States, being competitive in Red States, and I fully support moderate Democrats. But “moderate” doesn’t have to mean you’re a racist, anti-women, homophobic, poor-hating corporate whore. It just means you frame things differently so your district can understand it. It means you you have to stand up to enraged tea party family farmers and explain to them that their subsidies come from the government that they hate. And be inspired by this. Because I agree… I’m tired of working for candidates who make me feel like I should be embarrassed for believing what I believe. I’m tired of getting them elected. And instead of saying excuse me you Leave it to Beaver trip back to the ’50s we’ve cowered in the corner and said .. “Please don’t hurt me!”
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The caricature of a parody of a made up know-nothing cowboy politician, Rick Perry is SURGING! Yes! There are Republican primary voters who are telling pollsters they’d vote for him! From Reuters : Thirty-three percent said they would vote for Perry, versus 20 percent for Romney. Bachmann had 16 percent support. The rest of the field was in single digits, with Gingrich at 8 percent, Paul and Cain at 6 percent, Santorum at 4 percent and Huntsman with 3 percent. But wait, remember back in April when Donald Trump was the front-runner? Mediaite reported : Trump polled at 26% in the survey, trailed by Mau-mauer Mike Huckabee with 17%, and recently-announced mainstream darling Mitt Romney with 15%. In a few short weeks, Trump has managed to completely eclipse former media fulcrum Sarah Palin, who is polling at just 8%, still better than Minnesotans Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty, who got 4% each. So there’s basically a third of Republicans who like ANYBODY who’s new to the race. They hate the field so much at this point that they just subscribe to the GOP flavor of the month. Who is it this minute? The governor of the state with the highest rate of minimum wage jobs in the nation. You know, the one that’s number one in executions and dead last in high school graduates . Nate Silver said it best the day Perry announced : enlarge Credit: Twitter The funny thing is that in all these dramatic polls – Romney is the steady one. It maybe the first time in his political career he’s been consistent .
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The caricature of a parody of a made up know-nothing cowboy politician, Rick Perry is SURGING! Yes! There are Republican primary voters who are telling pollsters they’d vote for him! From Reuters : Thirty-three percent said they would vote for Perry, versus 20 percent for Romney. Bachmann had 16 percent support. The rest of the field was in single digits, with Gingrich at 8 percent, Paul and Cain at 6 percent, Santorum at 4 percent and Huntsman with 3 percent. But wait, remember back in April when Donald Trump was the front-runner? Mediaite reported : Trump polled at 26% in the survey, trailed by Mau-mauer Mike Huckabee with 17%, and recently-announced mainstream darling Mitt Romney with 15%. In a few short weeks, Trump has managed to completely eclipse former media fulcrum Sarah Palin, who is polling at just 8%, still better than Minnesotans Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty, who got 4% each. So there’s basically a third of Republicans who like ANYBODY who’s new to the race. They hate the field so much at this point that they just subscribe to the GOP flavor of the month. Who is it this minute? The governor of the state with the highest rate of minimum wage jobs in the nation. You know, the one that’s number one in executions and dead last in high school graduates . Nate Silver said it best the day Perry announced : enlarge Credit: Twitter The funny thing is that in all these dramatic polls – Romney is the steady one. It maybe the first time in his political career he’s been consistent .
Continue reading …Attacks on Republicans like Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Sarah Palin that compare them to the Three Stooges are just a sign that the liberal media is getting worried that their champion Barack Obama stands a good shot of losing next year's election. What's more, any Republican who gets attacked as an intellectual lightweight should “wear it as a badge of honor.” That's what NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell argued during the “Media Mash” segment on the August 25 “Hannity,” after watching a clip of CNN's Jack Cafferty dismissing not just Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin but also their supporters, whom he said were “allergic to brains.” Watch the full “Media Mash” segment embedded below or listen to the MP3 audio here.
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