ThinkProgress: The Mess In Texas — Debunking Rick Perry’s ‘Texas Miracle’

ThinkProgress video

Having only entered the race last week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) has already jumped to the top of the GOP presidential field.

Fueling his momentum is the so-called “Texas miracle” — the myth that Perry’s governorship has led Texas to weather the recession better than other states, maintaining a healthy economy and brisk job creation.

According a the video produced by Think Progress, these claims are often built on incomplete analysis, or by cherry picking statistics while overlooking other relevant factors that fill in the full picture, which is a much more mixed and middling economic performance than he and his supporters would like you to believe.

National Science Foundation: No Evidence Supporting 'Climategate' Allegations

Making unsubstantiated allegations against thousands of climate scientists, many in his own state of Texas, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) claims that climate science is a “contrived phony mess” based on “so-called science” in a “secular carbon cult.” Speaking at a Politics and Eggs breakfast in Bedford, New Hampshire Wednesday August 17, 2012 Gov. Perry further said, “There are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data..."

In contrast to Perry's unsubstantiated allegations, three major UK investigations previously exonerated the so called "Climate-Gate" scientists of any wrongdoing. Pennsylvania State University also conducted its own investigation of "Climate-Gate" allegations against its own climatologist Michael Mann and dismissed them lacking any substance of fact.

Now, this week, the National Science Foundation has closed its investigation into Penn State climatologist Michael Mann after finding no evidence of scientific misconduct related to his research.

No direct evidence has been presented that indicates the subject fabricated the raw data he used for his research or falsified his results.

National Science Foundation
Inspector General report

Climate Daily: It is the latest in a string of investigations to exonerate scientists involved in the so-called "Climategate" email scandal.

Mann was a central figure in the fracas, where a sampling of correspondence from climate scientists purloined from a computer server at the University of East Anglia in Britain supposedly showed climate scientists colluding to fabricate data and smear critics.

But a successive series of investigations and inquiries since the emails were released in 2009 have exonerated the scientists. The final conclusion from the NSF's Office of Inspector General is no different [PDF; enter Case No. A09120086].

"No direct evidence has been presented that indicates the subject fabricated the raw data he used for his research or falsified his results," the report concludes.

Gov. Perry Struggles To Defend Abstinence-Only Sex Ed

After spending more federal abstinence-only education money than any other state in the country over the last decade, Gov. Rick Perry's Texas is left with the highest teen birth rate and fourth-highest teen pregnancy rate in the country.

Listen to Gretch Sanders of KUT News report on Texas teen pregnancy

Texas accounts for 8 percent of the U.S. population, but its teen pregnancies accounted for 11 percent ($1.2 billion) of the $10.9 billion cost to U.S. taxpayers in 2008. Of those 2008 costs federal funds paid 57 percent and state and local taxes the remaining 43 percent through Medicaid and other support programs. After the Republican controlled Texas legislature cut Texas Department of State Health Services and Medicaid funding in the 2011-13 state budget, teen mothers and their babies now have few support options.

According to the Austin American-Statesman, Texas received almost $18 million in federal "abstinence-only" funding in 2007, matched by $3 million in state funds in that year. But, by the summer of 2010, Texas was choosing to pass on $4.4 million in federal funds aimed at comprehensive abstinence-plus with fact-based safe-sex education for adolescents in the state, The Texas Tribune reported. The Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs consulted with Gov. Perry's office before deciding to pass on the federal sex education funds.

Last October, The Tribune's Evan Smith asked Texas Gov. Rick Perry why almost all Texas school districts focus on abstinence-only education when it doesn't to produce results. The only answer Gov. Perry would give is, "Abstinence works... it is the best form to teach our children."

According to the Texas Freedom Network, over 96 percent of Texas school districts taught abstinence-only in sex education classes in 2008.

When George W. Bush became president in 2001, he was a vocal proponent of abstinence-only sex education programs.

Bush increased federal spending on abstinence-only education in U.S. schools, with the hope that it would reach $320 million a year. Federal abstinence-only education funding reached a maximum level of approximately $214 million per year before Bush left office in 2009. (graph)

Pres. Obama's 2010 budget cut federal abstinence-only sex education funding and called for $164 million in funding for a new fact-based teen sex education and pregnancy prevention initiative. The switch from "abstinence-only" to fact-base "abstinence-plus" programs included competitive grants for evidence-based programs, research and evaluation, and an authorization for $50 million in new mandatory teen pregnancy prevention grants to states, tribes, and territories. The budget eliminated funding for Community-Based Abstinence Education and the mandatory Title V Abstinence Education program.

Texas Teachers Blame Rick Perry For Increased Class Sizes

HuffPo: Texas students and teachers went back to school Monday, 10 days after the man they cite as the cause of their schools' funding-related woes announced he was running for president.

According to algebra and physics teacher Patrick Frasier, Gov. Rick Perry's (R) school budget cuts led to massive back-to-school confusion. In fact, until recently, Frasier wasn't even sure he could return to class this school year.

"All first-year teachers in my district were cut no matter what," he said. The bulk of them were hired back, but not before they polished their resumes. "We had no idea until the very end what was really going to happen," Frasier said.

Frasier said he switched from majoring in engineering to teaching at the University of Texas because he felt education was important work. He now teaches in San Antonio's Northside Independent School District.

He went back to class Monday and immediately noticed changes. Overall, he had 30 more students spread between his six classes than he had the year before.

"There's been a lot of talk about how this is the new normal," he said, referring to Perry's statements on school funding. "We're told we should get used to constant budget cuts."

Education observers worry that the massive funding cuts coming out of the most recent legislative session leave Texas schools at the top of a steep precipice. Under Perry's veto threat, the legislature chose not to pay for student enrollment growth, instead underfunding education by $5.5 billion -- despite access to the $9.4 billion in the state's reserve fund.

HOT HOT HOT! Austin Breaks Heat Record

Today Austin’s temps will soar back into the 100′s for our 69th day this year of over 100 degrees.

This will break a record that has stood since 1925 for the most days over 100 degrees, as we begin another round of heat advisories lasting through the weekend of 100+ degree weather. Since we’re going to not just be breaking the record, but adding several more days onto it (to a total of at least 73 or 74- assuming this is the last hot pattern we have in the next month), we may want to ask ourselves what is going on?

Drought map as of Aug 16, 2012

Well, we are faced with a La Nina weather pattern, bringing hot, dry weather to the Lonestar state. La Ninas have happened before and they’ll happen again- as evidence by the 86 year old record of 68 days of 100+ heat. For it to be hot in Texas in the summer is normal, but it’s not normal for it to be this hot for this many days.

Which brings us to climate change. Scientists theorizing about climate change decades ago predicted exactly what we are seeing now: slight upticks in temperature giving us more slightly hotter days. So, a day that would normally be 98 or 99 is now 101 or 102 due to the radiative blanket of the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

The Liberals’ Tea Party

Democracy for America has joined with Van Jones' new American Dream organization to promote nationwide community organizing activities -- at town halls, at their district offices, everywhere -- starting with a "Contract for the American Dream." As Netroots Nation 2011 keynote speaker last June Jones delivered fiery speech where he said of the politics of the hard right, “I’ve had all I can stand! I can't stands no more!” - invoking the old “Popeye” cartoons .

Listen to NPR's All Things Considered segment on former Obama Adviser Van Jones "Brews A Different Tea Party"

Jones envisions the new American Dream movement as a left-wing alternative to the Tea Party. Launched at a July 23 event in New York City, the American Dream Movement aims to restore the fight for economic justice to the center of progressive politics.

On Aug. 9, the movement put out its crowd-sourced “Contract for the American Dream,” a 10-point economic manifesto that called for new investments in education and infrastructure; higher taxes for corporations, Wall Street and the wealthy; and curbs on lobbyists. The contract was created by over 120,000 grassroots progressives working together at house parties nationwide in July and it includes ten featured goals to rebuild America:

Perry Fed Up With His Book "Fed Up?"

Texas Governor-turned-Presidential candidate Rick Perry is already fed up with his controversial political book "Fed Up " published just last November. Fed Up is a 240-page argument for ten amendment states' rights, which argues that everything from child labor laws to the Clean Air Act to Medicare violates the Constitution and states' rights. As it turns out, the many outlandish ideas Perry argues in his book are unpopular with a large portion of voters — so Perry’s campaign is trying to say Perry doesn't really believe the augments he wrote in his book.

MySanAntonio.com: Few phenomena are more depressing than watching the national media ramp up to speed on a subject with which you are somewhat familiar. The shotgun vetting of Texas Gov. Rick Perry fits that bill.

For Rick Perry, It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity

The newest meteor to streak through the Republican primary skies is, of course, Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

But for Perry, it could be a pretty fast fall back to Earth. Fully feeling the heat of the national media spotlight for the first time, Perry has quickly shown his supporters that the thing that they should worry about most is not the heat — but his stupidity.

Even many of his fellow Republicans denounced his statements about Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s quantitative-easing possibly being an act of “treason.” Among others, Bruce Bartlett, a former Treasury Secretary under Republican President George H. W. Bush, called Perry an “idiot.”

An 11-year-old boy who appeared to actually know the answer asked Perry about the age of the Earth. Perry said he didn’t know. I believe him. Perry then seemed to disavow evolution and give some credence to the theory that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. Come on, I have ties older than that. And Mr. Perry had the bad timing to do this the same week that scientists announced that they believe they discovered fossilized, single-cell organisms in Western Australia that could be about 3.4 billion years old.

Perry’s disavowal of evolution, geology, biology, and all that point-headed science mumbo-jumbo will probably not sit very well with GOP moderates, independents, swing voters or those who have ever been to school, read a book, or watched a show on the History Channel.

Perry also had the singular misfortune to be ranting about how climate change is a scam the same week as stories were published about how farmers in Texas have suffered more than $5 billion in crop and livestock losses associated with a record drought and record high temperatures.

Low Taxes On The Rich Create Jobs: ‘That’s So Baloney’ Says H&R Block Co-founder

In an interview with the Kansas City Fox 4 News station, multimillionaire Henry Bloch — co-founder and chairman emeritus of the tax preparation company H&R Block and a registered Republican — said that “the wealthy have a debt to this country. They can afford to pay it and they should.” He added that the Republican push to protect tax breaks for millionaires in order to promote job creation is “baloney“:

“That’s so baloney,” Bloch said. “Rich people don’t create jobs. Companies create jobs.”…”You probably pay a higher rate than I do… and yet my income is probably many times what yours is,” Bloch said to FOX 4 Reporter Rob Low.

America’s current tax system forces people making $50,000 a year to pay a higher rate than hedge fund managers making $2.4 million an hour. Warren Buffett penned a New York Times op-ed, declaring that America’s super-rich have been “coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.”

Lamenting the numerous tax loopholes and special breaks afforded to billionaire investors, Buffett noted that in his entire career, even when capital gains rates were as high as 39.9 percent, he never saw anyone “shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain.”

“While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks,” Buffett wrote. “My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.”

Several Republicans have scoffed at Buffet’s proposal, including the multimillionaire Mitt Romney and billionaires Charles and David Koch.

Senior Obama Adviser David Axelrod Dismisses Question Of Disenchanted Liberal Base

Appearing on ABC’s This Week on Sunday Aug. 21, 2011 senior Obama adviser David Axelrod rejected Michael Moore’s assertion that the president loses votes when he “moves to the right.”

“Are you aware of how profoundly disappointed so many of the president’s supporters are?” ABC’s Jake Tapper asked on behalf of Moore. “Do you realize that each time the president moves to the right, he picks up no votes and loses many? Or do you cynically believe that because these people have nowhere else to go, they’ll end up voting for Obama?”

From ABC’s This Week, broadcast Sunday Aug. 21, 2011

“Well, first of all, no one is cynically moving one way or the other,” Axelrod replied. “The president is not moving left or right; he’s interested in moving the country forward.”

“And all of these things are part and parcel of a strategy that is completely opposed by the other side, who want to go back to the same trickle-down, deregulation. You know, the same mantra we heard in the last decade that led up to this problem we’re hearing again. I think that this is such a profound choice that the president’s supporters and independent voters and people across this country will rally, because the future will be determined by this debate and the path we take.”