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Rick Perry speaks the truth. Just ask him. When Time questioned Perry about his “controversial rhetoric,” including his claim that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme,” he didn’t shrink one bit. “There may be someone who is an established Republican who circulates in the cocktail circuit that would find some of my rhetoric to be inflammatory or what have you, but I’m really talking to the American citizen out there,” he said. “I think American citizens are just tired of this political correctness and politicians who are tiptoeing around important issues. They want a decisive leader.”
But just what kind of truths are they?
This is a familiar construction: Leadership requires candor. John McCain ran as a “straight talker” in 2000 and, to a lesser degree, in 2008. It’s also the line Barack Obama gave us in 2008, promising to tell uncomfortable truths and saying the way he talked told us something about the way he would lead.
But do voters really want truth—or merely a reasonable facsimile? In a time when the country is sick of duplicitous (or at least misleading) Washington politics, a “truth-telling” newcomer might be crushed in the mob of well-wishers. But usually these truths consist of forceful statements about uncontroversial propositions. That’s what Obama meant in 2008, and so far Perry is following a similar script. When a candidate makes so much of his candor while showing so little of it, he is engaging in the very sleight of hand that makes voters so thirsty for candor in the first place.
The immediate benefit of Perry’s claims is that they distract from what might be a political liability stemming from his remarks and past writings about Social Security. His proclamations of honesty are meant to show anyone just tuning in that he is merely under attack for being the one honest man in the race.
Your local weed dealers may be experiencing a drought. Law enforcement at the California/Mexico border uncovered nearly 30 tons of marijuana being run through a tunnel. The tunnel that looked like a mining company had set up shop. The tunnel was complete with “a rail system, lighting and ventilation”, according to CNN. There’s only one entity behind such an advanced drug trafficking apparatus that has gone UNSEEN right at the border between Mexico and America…we’re not going to say it. But a hint was given to CNN by Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John Morton: “Obviously this is a cartel and organized drug smuggling of the highest order.”
Definitely, Mr. Morton! A “cartel” of the “highest order” is in full effect when you can run a tunnel like this into the U.S….sight unseen. But, this tunnel is not any old tunnel. The tunnel spans 600 yards and stretches from one warehouse in Tijuana to one in San Diego. How is it possible that this immense operation was running right under our noses? And this is nothing in comparison to what Mexican authorities seized in Tijuana last month. La Policia nabbed 105 tons in Tijuana
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Paul Wall beat one of his fans in the head with his microphone during a concert in Texas.
Footage captured by TMZ shows the rapper performing with Slim Thug Sunday night at the Low Low Car Show in San Antonio when someone in the front row threw a middle finger in Paul’s face.
Paul can be seen exchanging a few words with the guy — right before the rapper winds up and beats him several times with his microphone.
The bird-flipper was tossed out of the show, according to TMZ, and so far, no police report has been filed.
Terry McMillan’s long awaited sequel to Waiting To Exhale is called Getting To Happy, and it arrives in bookstores September 7th. McMillan is coming to town on Wednesday, September 8th. She is doing a booksigning that night at the Free Library of Philadelphia, 19th and Vine Streets.
Vanessa Williams is geared up for the new season of Desperate Housewives. Williams is joining the cast along with Actor Reggie Austin, who plays her basketball player husband. The new season kicks off September 26th. Williams looks amazing in the promos.
Eric Benet’s new album, Lost In Time, arrives in stores in November. The first single is Sometimes I Cry. The album features Faith Evans, Chrisette Michele, Ledisi and Eddie Levert.
Now speaking of Whoopi, she has a new book coming out called Is It Just Me. In the book, Goldberg says what’s on her mind. Goldberg even talks about style saying she loves being comfortable. The book comes out in October. Goldberg recently had to leave the London production of Sister Act to care for her mom who had a stroke.
Despite a little confusion, the number one movie for the past week was Takers. Idris Elba, T.I., Matt Dillion, Paul Walker, Michael Ealy and Chris Brown stormed the box office taking in almost $21 million. I hear there will be a Takers sequel. Takers Co-star Idris Elba is going to be the Honorary Chairperson along with Jimmy Rollins at this year’s Philly’s Men
Either you believe in government or you don’t.
The current field of Republican contenders for president are hard at work to prove they don’t. The best government, they insist, will leave you alone to repair your own ruptured kidney while your neighbors bring you casseroles and cigarettes. In recent weeks, leading Republicans have made plain they don’t believe in government-run health care (lo, even unto death). They don’t believe in inoculating children again HPV (lo, even unto death). They don’t believe in government-run disaster relief (ditto, re death), the minimum wage, Social Security, or the Federal Reserve. There is nothing, it seems—from protecting civil rights to safeguarding the environment—that big government bureaucracies can’t foul up.
But there is one exception: killing people. These same Republicans who are dubious of government’s ability to do anything right have an apparently bottomless faith in the capital-justice system. Everything is broken in America, they claim—except the machinery of death.
At last week’s Republican debate, when asked whether he had ever lost sleep about the record number of executions that have occurred on his watch, Texas Gov. Rick Perry answered no. (The crowd whooped and cheered. Better in error than in doubt and all that.) “I’ve never struggled with that at all. The state of Texas has a very thoughtful, a very clear process in place,” Perry said. “When someone commits the most heinous of crimes against our citizens, they get a fair hearing, they go through an appellate process, they go up to the Supreme Court of the United States if that’s required.”
Perry’s confidence in the infallibility of Texas’ capital punishment system would be inspiring were it not for the empirical evidence. Of the 234 people executed in his 11-year tenure, Texas’ “thoughtful, clear process” resulted in what was almost certainly the execution of at least one innocent man—Cameron Todd Willingham—based on “expert” arson evidence that was complete junk, an informant who recanted his testimony, and a forensic psychiatrist who diagnosed Willingham based chiefly on his possession of an Iron Maiden poster.
Oh, and when Texas’ “thoughtful, clear process” for capital punishment created a commission to investigate flawed arson science used in criminal trials, Perry scuppered its work by removing and replacing three members, just as the commission was preparing to announce that the Willingham case had been tainted by error.
Another sign of the Texas system “working” was the execution last July of Humberto Leal Garcia, a Mexican national. Garcia was denied access to the Mexican consulate when he was arrested, as guaranteed by the Vienna Conventions. But Perry declined to spare him, even over the objections of the Mexican government, the Obama administration, and the International Court of Justice. It seems the system works wonderfully if you just ignore the law.
And, presumably, the system will be “working” again Thursday night, when Perry allows Duane Edward Buck to die, despite an unconstitutional racial taint at his sentencing hearing. (Update, Sept. 15, 10:48 p.m.: On Thursday night the United States Supreme Court stayed the execution of Buck so it could review an appeal in his case.) Buck, 48, shot his former girlfriend and her male friend in 1995. That is not in dispute. But at the sentencing phase of his trial, when the jury was to determine whether he should spend his life in prison or die by lethal injection, another so-called “expert witness,” Dr. Walter Quijano, testified that Buck’s “future dangerousness” was heightened because he was black.