Wednesday Morning Links

1. Gay marriage activists hope the Vermont legislature's decision to legalize gay marriage will provide impetus to other states to do the same. This is true at least in D.C., which voted to recognize gay marriages in other states. On the other side of the world though in Iraq, gays and lesbians find that their lives are endangered because of their sexuality.

2. Small towns, suckered by investment bankers who sold them risky municipal bond derivatives.

3. Peru's Ex-President Alberto Fujimora is convicted and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for human rights abuses that occurred during the war against Maoist rebels Shining Path.

4. More details on the prosecutorial misconduct that undid the Ted Stevens prosecution. And McClatchy has another article on Judge Emmett Sullivan, who has "declared war" on what he sees to be a rising tide of government prosecutorial secrecy, incompetence and malfeasance.

5. Texas Republican lawmakers find themselves at odds with Gov. Rick Perry over a number of issues beyond stimulus funding. Texas Republicans are apparently not as receptive to marching orders as Congressional Republicans were during the Bush administration.

6. Former Australian government officials and academics applaud Obama's commitment to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
Anne Applebaum says there are other more important priorities that Obama should focus on, but it seems to me that getting rid of nuclear weapons never seems to be worthwhile until somebody's threatening to use one. Why wait until we reach that point?

7. Michael Gerson, being a moron again, characterizes Obama as "the most polarizing President" in history. In fact, Obama is a broadly popular President among Americans, and is most vociferously opposed by a loud minority contingent of right-wing lunatics and Republicans who think the key to electoral victory is saying no to everything Obama proposes.

8. Al Franken emerges victorious in the re-count, but Coleman signals further appeals are on the way.

9. Student loan defaults are surging, which may increase calls for a student loan "bailout."

10. American intelligence officials warn that the United States' electrical grid has been infiltrated by hackers from China and Russia who may be looking to launch cyber attacks against the United States infrastructure in the event of military conflict. I remember a 2003 Frontline special warning of this very thing, a warning that appears to be coming true.

Morning Links

For your reading pleasure:

1. The Treasury Dept. is set to announce new regulatory controls over previously unregulated financial transactions.

2. The Pentagon says in a new report that China is seeking to boost it's military's power and effectiveness. China says we need to chill out. In the meantime, China prepares to force Tibetans to celebrate "Serf Liberation Day", the 60th anniversary of the Chinese invasion of Tibet.

3. 16 die in a Baghdad bombing.

4. American cities are dealing with an increase in "shantytowns" as the number of homeless rise. Hollywood producers Peter Samuelson wants to give them something better than cardboard boxes to live in.

5. Secretary Clinton bluntly admits that the failed U.S. war on drugs has contributed to rising violence in Mexico.

6. American taxpayers are paying for the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, if in a backhanded way.

7. New study says that most wrongful convictions in Texas stem from witness misidentification.

8. Lisa Falkenberg on Gov. Perry's stimulus fund logic (or lack thereof.)

9. The next American soccer star?

10. A question about student loan forgiveness tops the list at the new "ask the President" website.

Democrats Vow to Overturn Perrys' Decision on Stimulus Funds

It took about five minutes for State House and Senate Democrats to denounce Perry's decision to reject stimulus funding for an expansion of unemployment benefits and vow to change the law so that Texas is eligible for the additional funding.

The Stupidest Governor in America

Rick Perry, our poor state's idiotic governor, says he's thinking about not taking the over $16 billion in funds the state of Texas is projected to get under the stimulus package:

Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday he’s not sure the state should accept all of its projected share of federal stimulus money — $16.9 billion and counting by preliminary estimates — because of the “mile-long” strings that might be attached.

“In Texas, we actually know it is a good idea to look a gift horse in the mouth. If we don’t, we may end up with an old nag,” said Perry, who has been critical of such federal spending and voiced concern over whether the state could afford federal strings.

“One thing that concerns me is that dollars are going to come into Texas that require us to match those dollars, and then two years from now, those federal dollars won’t be there, but we will be on the hook to pay for those programs going forward,” Perry said.
According to a preliminary legislative analysis, economic stimulus provisions that affect the Texas budget could total about $16.9 billion.

Perry didn’t say which programs he was referring to, and spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said his staff still is looking over potential allocations to Texas.

One program that raised concern early on was funding for unemployment insurance that would be contingent on state changes allowing more jobless people to become eligible, Cesinger said.

Speaking of which, here's Phillip Martin on Perry's incredible short-sightedness over the program, and his flip-flopping on stimulus funds:

Key Point: a year ago, the state's unemployment fund had a surplus of $90 million. Governor Rick Perry stopped collecting the replenishment tax, and now 12 months later, our $90 million surplus is a $447 million deficit.

[...]

Governor Rick Perry is trying to have his cake and eat it, too. He's spent the last three weeks railing against the bailouts, but even he recognizes that to do so is wrong. However, it's not wrong because Texas deserves its money, or because its good public policy to maximize the use of state funds. No -- Perry has only flip-flopped on his position on the bailout because it is politically necessary to do so.

In other words, when Perry wanted to make some of his business constituents happy, he stopped collecting the tax that maintains the unemployment insurance fund. After piling up a nearly $500 million deficit he re-instated it. Then, to stake out his position as a "fiscal conservative" for the 2010 governor's race race by appealing to the hardcare nuts in the GOP, he balks at taking stimulus funds. Realizing that this appears to put his political future ahead of the interests of unemployed Texans, he permits his underlings to discuss how they'd use the funds. And now he tells us that maybe Texas won't take "all" of the funds.

Whatever. Don't doubt for a second that Texas won't take all the money we can get, because we need it. It's just too bad that we have a governor who thinks he can squeeze a few political points out of it in the process, while suffering Texans wonder where their next paycheck will come from.

UPDATE: I spoke too soon. Texans alone may not be cursed with a stupid and grandstanding governor more interested in his political fortunes than his people's welfare. Apparently Jindal is also worried about the secret "strings" that may come attached to the $4 billion allotted for his poor state. 

Kiss of Death?

Sarah Palin endorses Rick Perry over Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson. At this moment, Perry is trying to figure out if this actually helps him or not.

Keeping up with the Texas Youth Commission scandal

Vince over at Capitol Annex has it all covered. If you haven't been keeping up with it, go there and read his posts on the subject. It's shocking, horrifying, and enraging.

Vince points out the unliklihood of Perry not knowing about it in his latest post. It's an example of yet more incompetence and/or outright lying.

Seriously, let’s consider this: Dewhurst’s staff knew, Craddick’s staff knew, Perry’s staff knew, the U.S. Justice Department was involved, someone wrote a book about it, a Texas Ranger was investigating it, Dick Armey was writing his office about it, and still, Perry did not know?

Did he? Did he not? I'm sure we're all eager to find out.

Texas Dems and Gov. Perry

Texas Congressional Democrats, unhappy with Gov. Rick Perry for more than the most obvious reason, are in a position to demand some changes: (via TPM):

Gov. Rick Perry slipped into Washington and met secretly Friday with the state's Democratic House members, who gave him an earful about his role in redrawing the state's districts and the price Texas paid for
it.

Members described the meeting as frank and candid, at times testy, though never hostile. They said they reminded Perry, a Republican, that a redistricting plan he helped push through the Texas Legislature had cost their state possible chairmanships of the Agriculture, Homeland Security and Rules committees.

"We told him now that we are in the majority ... we control a lot of money," said Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi.

I think this is a good example of one of the consequences of the Democratic take-over that many (myself included) are not aware of. Republicans are still firmly in charge here in Texas, but Democrats in Congress are now in charge of billions of dollars that will be sent to Texas for various projects and services, and that kind of money means they're in the position to make demands on Perry...and have them met:

On the eve of the meeting, Texas lawmakers learned that Perry a few days earlier canceled $1.3 million in state contracts with private lobbying firms who represented Texas before Congress, said Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston.

Green, who worked to end the contracts, hailed the decision, saying taxpayers already pay elected officials to represent them.

Questions were raised about the contracts with Cassidy & Associates and Federalist Group because of the firms' ties to convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who is facing state charges in a campaign finance investigation.

I think Perrry saw the writing on the wall. Expect more of the same. It won't be big news (nobody benefits by shouting this stuff out to the national press) but things, they are quietly a'changin'.