Chuckling Contentedly, Deep in the Heart of Texas
When Rick Perry flubbed his presidential chances so badly on the national stage, there were many among his supporters who were bewildered at his seeming inability to transfer his many successes in Texas to the national stage. Although just as frustrated as those folks were, some of us were not quite as baffled because there was a suspicion within us that Rick Perry simply didn’t want the job nor the heat and heartbreak it entails. There was a sense that Perry was simply contented with being the popular and longest serving governor of the world’s 14th or so largest economy. He was a big frog in a big luxuriant pond who didn’t really see any advantage to becoming a bigger frog in the admittedly larger, but stagnating swamp the first four years of Obama’s reign had produced.
If Perry did indeed self-destruct it was probably not consciously; but there’s an inescapable feeling that he certainly did not give it his best shot. He had to well know how contentious national governance had been for the last Texan president, George W. Bush, with such an unrelentingly hostile media, and that his own occupation of that office couldn’t really offer a future any sensible politician would eagerly embrace. Especially when he could just go back to Texas and bask in the role of being the popular, down-home, chief executive of one of the world’s most successful economies. Ask yourself, given that choice, what would you do?
So here we are many months down the road and Barack Obama is saddled with all the problems of an idling economy, a steadily rising China, a crumbling Middle East situation and a renascent Al Qaeda on the African continent, and where do we find Rick Perry? How about touring taxed-to-damned-near-dead California businesses, touting the hugely friendlier and vastly more favorable business environment in his flourishing Lone Star state than in Guv Moonbeam’s headed-for-default disaster which lamely still calls itself golden?
Similar enticing offers are being made to the many huge economic engines in New York and Illinois with the tempting message that not only will you be taxed far less in Texas, you’ll have legal protections against frivolous lawsuits and when you invest your hard-earned profits in your business, your home and your family, you can protect them with all the firearms you choose to have at hand because Texans damned well believe in the inalienable 2d Amendment right of defense of self, loved ones and property.
So you tell me who’s having more fun: a supremely confident Rick Perry who knows how to govern, out there in California gathering even more low-hanging fruit for an already flourishing Texas economy or that desperate amateur in the White House who’s spinning his wheels in an office he’s clueless to occupy? Perry’s walking the walk, adding jobs by the thousands while the guy who won the big contest is still just talking the campaign talk about doing something. Look at their respective pics: the loser Rick, the older of the two, has a little grey around the temples, unchanged from the campaign, while the victor is going big-time grey from forehead to neck nape and from one huge ear to the other. Somehow I think I can hear Rick Perry chuckling contentedly, deep in the heart of Texas.
And probably in his jaunts up and down the Left Coast as well.
Crossposted at American Thinker
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Economy
But Rick Perry racist…something rock…Texas…rich…Obama gives hugs…
Wow, that’s a fact I didn’t know about Texas, thanks Poetrooper. I think you’re right, he’s laughing all the way to the Governor’s office.
Just remember: robbers don’t rob the poor. Texas is a giant money vault waiting for the master criminals to come blow the door.
Remember Ma Bell.
Yeah, my nephew WAS a California state wildlife department employee, but they weren’t paying him enough to pay the bills and put food on the table, so he started his own business, and is doing very well, thank you.
There is something to be said for people who look at the world through unclouded eyes, as opposed to those who view it through rainbow farts. 🙂
Still has a crappy school system. Why raise your kids there? The State doesn’t want to invest money in good schools.
Gotta love Texas- The greatest nation on earth! I only partially kid, because Texas really is like a nation of its own. I just hope that those who move here from liberal shitholes looking for greener pastures don’t bring their dumbass voting habits with them. Gig ‘Em Gov. Perry!
@5
“If we compare national test scores in math, science, and reading for the fourth and eighth grades among four basic ethnic and racial categories — all students, whites, Hispanics, and African-Americans — Texas beats California in every category, and by a substantial margin. In fact, Texas schools perform consistently above the national average across categories of age, race, and subject matter, while California schools perform well below the national average.”
[Chuck DeVore in NRO, March 2012]
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/293412/texas-vs-california-chuck-devore
@5-SIGO Texas has a higher graduation rate, 74.8%, than California, 71%, or that other great liberal bastion, New York, 73.5%. And while Illinois has an edge on Texas with a 77.7% rate, another unionized liberal mecca,Chicago, in its public schools, has a lower rate, 60.6%, than even the lowest state, Mississippi, 62%.
http://www.americashealthrankings.org/all/graduation
http://www.cps.edu/News/Press_releases/Pages/06_11_2012_PR1.aspx
So schools certainly aren’t an argument for companies not relocating to Texas From California, New York and Chicago, those places where Texas is most aggressively shopping.
Wierd thing is the Texas Governorship is relatively weak compared to other state Governors. The Texas constitution states the Lt Governor is the President of the Senate and has sole authority to create committees, appoint memberships, assign legislation to committees of his/her choice and a host of other statuary responsibilities. Texas is one of the few states that grants vast authority to the Lt Gov and this office is sometimes seen as the the more influential and powerful. Rick Perry BTW was Lt Gov when Bush 43 was Texas Gov.
Yet that’s not going to stop the MSM from proclaiming Perry’s trip a failure just because he hasn’t had any takers yet.
Gee, CNN, et al, you think that companies might, you know, TAKE MORE THAN ONE DAY before deciding to uproot?
Poetrooper:
The analogy that I take from this (and have for awhile now) is that these United states is starting to come apart in the manner that the Roman Empire did, with the City of Rome (Washington DC) becoming one sphere of influence, while Constantinople (Austin, Texas) becomes the Western capitol.
A divided United States between east/west is already here, although not in a true east/west physical divide. The correlations between Washington DC and the seat of federal power, and the Governorship of Texas (and some other states) is easily seen, with the latter becoming more and more powerful, while the former is increasingly mired in it’s own shit pile.
I don’t know how this will all shake out, but eventually I’m moving to Texas. I want to die in someplace civilized, that still respects both the Constitution, and the individual.
@10 Sparky-The liberal twits are whistling past the graveyard. Of course no company commits on initial meetings. That’s like screwing all night on your first date. But if the libs think Perry’s courting calls aren’t working, they should read this:
http://www.statesman.com/news/business/austin-seeing-interest-from-california-companies-d/nWNqQ/
And that’s from Texas’ most liberal news source, the Austin Statesman.
Of course the MSM is going to spin it. They went on and on about a racial slur that was painted on a rock before Perry even moved there. It didn’t matter to them that he immediatly had it painted over.
I disagree. Texas can lure a lot of companies, but Engineers with families, for instance, won’t move there if they are not confident in the school system.
Maybe those Engineers will be smart enough to do more research on the Texas school system than you did.
“Engineers with families, for instance, won’t move there if they are not confident in the school system.”
Can you not read, child?
Are you from California, a victim of its education system?
You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.
DC
I am not from Texas nor California.
Texas ranks last in high school diploma attainment.
http://www.texastribune.org/2010/07/26/why-does-texas-rank-last-in-high-school-diplomas/
Education spending is ranked 44th in the nation
http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2011/jan/31/wendy-davis/state-sen-wendy-davis-says-texas-ranks-44th-educat/
“Texas ranks last in high school diploma attainment.”
Your figures are from 2008, and represent “the percentage of adults with high school diplomas”.
Mr. Poetrooper’s figures are from 2012, and represent “the percentage of incoming ninth graders who graduate in four years from a high school with a regular degree”.
One of those sets of figures represents the current state of the Texas educational system, and one doesn’t.
You’re welcome.
But perhaps not here in Texas.
Do not ever malign my birth state. I may not live there now, but I was born there.
Hey Tracer,
Can you give me any intel on Tyler, Texas? I’ve been eyeing that area but would be interested in how leftist it might be. I know it’s a dry county, but I can get around that part.
Seems the schools are good, and the property taxes are damned low compared to here in Maine. Plus, being halfway between Dallas and Shreveport is alright for me as well. Friends on both sides, as it were.
I’m just interested in the political climate there. I’m tired of living amongst the heathen left.
Tyler isn’t dry anymore! Since the end of December, you can now get take-away beer & wine there (still no spirits though – though those so inclined get around that the same way they got around the law prior to December).
As to “how leftist it might be”? Not very, at all. We used to live in Longview and Tyler was seen as more strait-laced and conservative than there.
Thanks, I am much relieved.
After the daughter graduates HS, I’m gonna pull up stakes and move to Texas. My folks came there in the late 1840’s, and settled in south of San Antonio. They fought with the 4th & 5th Texas Infantry in the ANV, then were forced off their lands some years after the war.
What about Alpine? And Denton County?
Go figure a Libtard would go directly to educational spending as though that equates to results. It doesn’t, so the less wasted on it the better.
Texas is awesome because it’s the antithesis of the Libtard ideology and instead of imploding on itself the residents are quite happy with it and with their state. Libtards are never happy with anything and always have to drag others down to their miserable existence at any chance possible.
SIGO appears to be lacking in both researching skills and reasoning. As for his researching, he tries to refute recent, objective data with with older information from a lefty source. Yes, I know the Texas Tribune bills itself as nonpartisan. Riiiggghhhttt! Their editor spent almost two decades at the helm of that liberal rag, Texas Monthly. And even the Tribune is honest enough to admit that many of those in Texas who have no high school diploma are immigrants from Mexico, both legal and illegal, who came to Texas not for an education but a job.
The other source SIGO cites is a liberal Democrat politician being quoted by a liberal website.
As for SIGO’s reasoning, he seems to equate spending money on education as an indicator of educational achievement and we all know how well that works, don’t we? The typical liberal response to improving education is to throw more money at the problem. That money has for the most part ended up in the hands of unionized teachers and then back in the campaign coffers of liberal Democrats.
That’s two strikes SIGO; sure you wanna try for a third?
Kansas and Oklahoma also good alternatives, just as conservative, attracting business through low taxation, and both have conservative controlled legislatures.
I have to throw my two cents in for Utah. A conservatively governed and legislated state…kindly keep your religious comments to yourself…just kidding. But Texas is the ONLY other state that I would live in.
Speaking of Chuckling contentedly:
http://newsbusters.org/leave-loser.html
“There comes a time a man’s section is his country…I stand with mine. I was a conservative citizen of the United States…I am now a conservative citizen of the Southern Confederacy.”
– Sam Houston – 1863
One of my favorite qoutes.
We plan on leaving Montana sometime in the next 12 months and head back to Texas. It’s getting way too liberal here for me. My brothers are there. My wife is from washington St. but wouldn’t live there again on a bet. I’m retired and she can go anywhere with her job. She fell in love with the South when they transferred us to Ga.(my home state). Just need to get the right price for our place here. Looking forward to getting back to the DFW area with my horses….and guns. It is easier to buy spirits there now than it used to be.
Why would you want to move to the Dallas neighborhood, move to Austin. Fight the tide of liberal BS coming in from the coasts as pretty soon what affects Austin will be affecting the rest of the state. I’ve already seen it with the no-smoking laws and no-refusal police stops. We need a conservative counterweight, so please, move to Austin.
And don’t forget to try the chicken.
San Antonio’s a good choice, especially for retired military. Current temp at 20:30 Sierra time is 60 degrees, a bit dry, but beats the hell out of snow up to your a$$.
Besides, got the best Tex-Mex food in the multi-verse and a bunch of micro-breweries.
What about Alpine?
Alpine? Long way from most anywhere, but home to Sul Ross University and college towns have their charms. If you like the rural life, this could be for you. The Davis Mountains are close with a UT observatory.
Good deer hunting.
Beats hell out most anywhere in Yankeestan.
Dark skies. Stars like dust….
My other choice is Fort Carson Springs, by Ulithi and Bracketville. Miles and miles of miles and miles. Good folks, easy life. Low taxes. Good beer and better food.
AW1 Tim, are you a member of the SCV?
My sister lives in Lindale, outside of Tyler, and the area doesn’t seem bad. Glad to hear that beer can be sold on Sundays now, though, it was ridiculous driving some thirty miles for a 12-pack. I bought my house in South Louisiana a few years back and am set on retiring down there. There’s just something about that area that appeals to this Virginian.
Unfortunately our school systems are trying to put a liberal bent on things – that’s why my son goes to Catholic School. When he did go to public school, in elementary, he qualified for a magnet gifted school, which was fine for its purppose, although he was bored there (gifted only means that the students tested above their level from across different school districts – along with “leveling” for racial differences).
As for the drop out rate and graduation rate? Hey, Texas needs ditch diggers, car washers, and dish washers.
Otherwise, Texas is a great place to live – tons of public land for hunting – next year my group plans to deer hunt with ARs only. Fishing is second to none. And we have Shiner beer!
The state is military friendly with low taxes and lots of bases. The downside is when we talk about going to the next big town, we’re talking a minimum of a 2 hour drive. And to cross the state? Well, that’s a full day of driving… at 75mph, which is legal as well!
Speed limit is 80 mph on the toll road between San Antonio and he Peoples’ Republic of Travis County (Austin) and out on I-10 between Ozona and El Paso.
Texas has its faults, but the balance sheet is in its favor.
A couple of things folks need to know if they are considering moving to Texas:
1. No state income tax, HOWEVER, higher property taxes than most states. The property taxes are what funds the education system.
2. Best education systems (from what I remember) are Bryan/College Station, Richardson, Plano, Tomball, North Houston, and Temple…could have changed though. The closer you are to the actual cities themselves, the worse the education system.
3. The Lieutenant Governor is indeed the most powerful individual in the Texas State government. The Governor, however, is key in that he appoints the board of regents to both the A&M and the Texas University systems. You’re witnessing that right now with the Texas President, Bill Powers, and his power struggle with the Texas board of regents.
4. Football. The pro teams and the college teams are almost symmetrical in terms of their current status. Dallas Cowboys = Texas Longhorns: An also-ran program run by an egomaniac who thinks that as long as he keeps throwing money at the problem that it will make it better. Houston Texans = Texas Aggies: The new and improved Texas program on its inevitable run towards a title (or six)
Some time back, my dad went to Lubbock to give a lecture on tent theater. He got sick, had to be hospitalized, so my mother and I went down there for a few days, she to accompany my dad on the plane back to keep him from boozing on the plane, and me to drive his +!@#*!#ing Pontiac Firebird with bad shocks back home.
While we were there, we had truly great food, but Lubbock is in west Texas and I didn’t get to do much nosing around to find things out, so I couldn’t go out to see the Marfa lights or any other interesting things.
On the drive back, I started at Lubbock, went straight across to Oklahoma, and realized that when you’re on the highway, there is NOTHING but sky and land around you, and if you have agoraphobia, it will freak you out. I don’t, but I made sure that obnoxious car had a tankful of gas and kept refilling at every gas station along the way. The food everywhere was absolutely great.
I wish I had been able to spend more time there. I guess I’ll just have to go pay an extended visit.
I’m bucking the trend. I’m going to retire in Alaska. We are a firmly red state. We have no income or sales tax. There are jobs. We have a balanced budget and a surplus. Plus the hunting and fishing is awsome.
Twist, check out The Big Woods in southeastern Texas.
http://www.bigwoods.net/
Ex-PH2, that looks good, but I’ll still take Alaska hunting and fishing over anything. It doesn’t hurt that I married an Alaskan woman and our honeymoon was spent halibut fishing.
Damn, Twist, you ever get tired of that woman, bet you could get a good price for her right here at TAH. Heh…
Twist married Mrs. Gorton?
Poetrooper, I wouldn’t trade her for nothing. By the way our honeymoon suit was a tent.