On August 6, 2011, Perry and right-wing evangelical leaders sponsored a prayer rally (http://www.youtube.com/user/RWWBlog?blend=22&ob=5 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JVgb53FaQo and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj-ysXNdBNQ) in Houston’s Reliant Stadium dedicated to “the One True God through his Son Jesus Christ” (http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/151502/texas_governor_rick_perrys_bizarre_fringe_mass_prayer_rally__what_happened_to_no_gov_meddling_in_religion?page=2). Perry’s message on the event’s website reads (http://theresponseusa.com/):

“Right now, America is in crisis: we have been besieged by financial debt, terrorism, and a multitude of natural disasters. As a nation, we must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles, and thank Him for the blessings of freedom we so richly enjoy.”

The Texas governor claimed on what is labeled as the governor’s website that

Pastor John Hagee of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, who has said God sent Hitler to hunt Jews so they would return to Israel, and Mike Bickle, director of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Mo., who has called Oprah Winfrey the harbinger of the anti-Christ, were solid Christians and sought only forgiveness and reconciliation of the world to his Jesus. However, the American Family Association (a recognized and designated organized hate organization http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/american-family-association and http://splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/the-hard-liners and http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2010/11/12927/ that has endorsed Perry for President is actually managing the big event and the web site where endorser portraits are published.

Perry ignores the rising tide of Christian terrorism crashing over the hills and valleys of the USA, suffocating and drowning the Bill of Rights, and washing away the ink from the Constitution as he rifles in on Muslims and other non-Christians and the terrorism that they unleash in retaliation against the evangelical extremism in the USA and their home lands. Christian terrorists in the USA (such as Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City), or in Norway (such as the Christian evangelical Anders Breivik in Oslo and elsewhere) have done as much damage as have Muslims in the Islamic world: from Iran and Iraq to Lebanon and Indonesia.

Fortunately, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the ACLU of Texas held a counter rally the day before Perry’s people called on their deity in their “God is Hate” fest. Featured speakers at the counter-rally “God is Love”, held at the Mount Ararat Baptist Church of Houston, were the Rev. William Lawson, founding pastor of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston, and the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United, followed by additional speakers representing a wide range of beliefs from the Houston community, for a person’s denominational affiliation (or lack of such a membership) was irrelevant: the celebration was for freedom of and from religion noting that diversity strengthens the character of a country, and to show the rest of the country and the world that there is still a respect for the Constitution of the USA and appreciation for diversity in Houston (http://familyfaithfreedom.org/ with coordinating links at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7680975.html and http://blog.chron.com/believeitornot/2011/07/perrys-prayer-rally-organizers-opponents-prepare-for-the-big-day/ with a recognition that the majority of the Founding Fathers who wrote the US Constitution were deists, and while Perry and the Southern Baptist Convention disavows and disallows women to preach and the evangelical Christians who support Perry’s usurpation of the US Constitution by casting aspersions on Roman Catholics, with the exception of the retired bishop of Amarillo, Jill Carroll of Houston noted: “Dorothy Ripley, the first woman to ever preach a sermon in the House, did so in 1806 in front of a big crowd that included President Jefferson and Vice President Burr. The first Catholic to give a sermon in the House did so in 1826 during President Adam’s term” at http://blog.chron.com/talkingtolerance/2011/08/religion-state-the-founders-rick-perry/).

The Jewish community of Houston hosted a counter rally in opposition to Perry’s decision to further divide the nation and isolate, especially, the Jewish community in Texas. The Anti-Defamation League, the event’s organizer and an activist group against anti-Semitism and discrimination, has defined Perry’s rally “misguided and inappropriate” for isolating non-Christians in his constituency and tangling his personal faith with his political office. “The governor’s message is dividing Texans along religious lines. Our goal is to educate the community why a union between government and religion is harmful to both,” said Martin B. Cominsky, ADL regional director. “It’s a reminder to all people, to Jews, to Muslims, to everyone, how risky this slope is” (http://regions.adl.org/southwest/news/adl-responds-to-perry-prayer.html). Commenting on a letter to Perry that reads in part:

Your invitation to join in a Christian prayer meeting suggests to non-Christians that they are outsiders. Coming from someone elected to serve a religiously pluralistic constituency, it is misguided and deeply insensitive. . .

…Our concern is in no way based on hostility toward religion. Rather, it is based on a deep belief in religious freedom. It is one of America’s greatest strengths. The best way to safeguard religious liberty for all Americans is for our government to keep its distance. We therefore urge you to reconsider your participation in and involvement with The Response event.’

(Read the entire letter at: http://www.adl.org/Civil_Rights/letter-Rick-Perry.asp).

signed by Southwest Regional Director Martin B. Cominsky, and North Texas/Oklahoma Director Mark L. Briskman, the two leaders noted that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL):

“cares deeply about religious freedom. As our letter says, the best way to protect Christians, Jews, Muslims, and worshipers of all faiths, as well as those who choose not to practice religion at all, is to avoid government endorsement and promotion of religion. We sincerely hope Governor Perry will agree with us.”

Perry did not agree. Openly, and at the prayer rally, Perry’s patent anti-Semitism was clearly bull-horned in his remarks. The Texas Governor’s rally of theological terrorism was one of exclusion, not inclusion. Perry’s god alone would be recognized, not the gods of other people. Allan E. Parker Jr., the organizer who referred to the rally as for “The One True God,” wrote that it would be “idolatry of the worst sort for Christians to gather and invite false gods like Allah and Buddha and their false prophets to be with us at that time” (http://www.projectlibertyusa.org/attorneys/allan-e-parker-jr/).

The hatred for the rights and beliefs of others were repeated by each of the speakers, with special scathing coming from

the mendicant mercenaries who established their own ministries to rake in tithes while the poor suffer: Eddie & Alice Smith of the Eddie & Alice Ministries of Houston, Mark & Lisa Longoria of My Father’s House of San Antonio, Dennis and Ginger Lindsey of Christ for the Nations who bilk millions in a quest to force conversions, Joe & Becky Keenan Senior Pastors Gulf Meadows Church of Houston, Cindy Jacobs CEO of General International of Red Oak TX, Jane Hansen Hoyet CEO of Aglow International, Jose & Magida

Hermida of Magida Hermida Ministries: Mujers con Poder, Rev. Carolyn Stovall Gilbert President and Founder, Missionaries With The Vision, and others, many of whom are being investigated for sexual irregularities illegal under different jurisdictions as well as skimming money from their ministries, and other crimes. What is startling is that most fundamental churches and religions reject women in any pastoral position

because of St. Paul’s injunction in 1 Corinthians 11:5 a

rephrasing of Deuteronomy 21:12, and with two Roman Catholic emeritus bishops on the panel both of whom are under ecclesiastical (and potentially civil) investigation, it is even more strange since popes

consistently have forbidden women to preach publicly or take part in such a meeting, although Benedict XIV (Heroic Virtue, III, 144, 150) wrote that anyone, including “women and heathens” can receive prophecy. Neither of the Roman Catholic bishops, Rene Henry Garcia of Corpus Christi and John W. Yanta of Amarillo, both of whom have retired after questions arose about clergy sexual abuses of young boys in their dioceses during their tenure (Corpus Christi sexual abuse at http://www.caller.com/news/2010/mar/08/lawsuit-alleges-abuse-by-deceased-priest/ and http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/03/corpus_christi_diocese.php and http://www.caller.com/news/2011/jul/12/diocese-of-corpus-christi-settles-sex-abuse/ , with Garcia objecting to the release of the names of pedophiles within the clergy:

“There is no need for a public announcement to be made that gives the name of the priest and the fact of the accusation and the suspension, and yet, all to often such a public announcement is made. Such public announcement by a diocese almost always results in media exploitation of the news in a sensational manner to the detriment of the Catholic Church and its priesthood ”

at http://www.sanctepater.com/2011/04/bishop-rene-henry-gracida-comments-on.html; for Yanta of Amarillo who failed to report sexual abuses, see: http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news13/2002_07_11_AmarilloGlobeNews_SuitAlleges_Rosendo_Herrera_4.htm and http://www.bishop-accountability.org/usccb/natureandscope/dioceses/amarillotx.htm and http://www.bishop-accountability.org/resources/resource-files/databases/DallasMorningNewsBishops.htm#yanta and http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/021804/new_yanta.shtml), at Perry’s prayer fest have any serious working knowledge of scripture or church dogma and doctrine, as if either of the bishops were at all knowledgeable on the literal passage allegedly written by St. Paul (1 Corinthians 14:34-35; as I have written elsewhere, this declaration is a forgery and added at least 100-200 years later, but I doubt any of the members have read my book on it; the Greek text reads and a marginally acceptable translation is: “Let the women keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but let them subject themselves, just as the Law also says. And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church: αι γυναικες υμων εν ταις εκκλησιαις σιγατωσαν ου γαρ επιτετραπται αυταις λαλειν αλλ υποτασσεσθαι καθως και ο νομος λεγει ει δε τι μαθειν θελουσιν εν οικω τους ιδιους ανδρας επερωτατωσαν αισχρον γαρ εστιν γυναιξιν εν εκκλησια λαλειν (a response to Genesis 3:16: אֶל־הָאִשָּׁה אָמַר הַרְבָּה אַרְבֶּה עִצְּבֹונֵךְ וְהֵרֹנֵךְ בְּעֶצֶב תֵּלְדִי בָנִים וְאֶל־אִישֵׁךְ תְּשׁוּקָתֵךְ וְהוּא יִמְשָׁל־בָּךְ׃ redacted into 1 Corinthians 11:3)” (NASB) they would know that the literal words are that women are to remain silent in any religious gathering—a reality that led to the ostracization of Anne Hutchison in New England (banished from Massachusetts in 1637).

The current Texas Governor is determined to turn the USA into an Old Testament theocracy. To accomplish this, Perry, a member of Austin’s Tarrytown United Methodist Church, publicly states that he wants the US Supreme Court to put mandatory prayers back into public schools (http://www.firstamendmentjournal.net/news.aspx?id=4520). It is not a surprise at all is that the Texas governor, who spends hours fixing his hair (for which he earned the nickname “The Coiff”; http://www.opednews.com/articles/BECKWATCH-On-Rick-Perry–by-Kevin-Tully-101116-756.html and as the celebrated and insightful Molly Ivins (1944 – 2007) wrote, Perry is “all hat and no cattle” at http://whatwouldjackdo.net/2011/06/texas-where-reality-reason-and-decency-go-to-die.html, cp. http://www.albionmonitor.com/0012a/copyright/mi-rickperry.html and http://www.alternet.org/story/47484/www.texasobserver.org?comments=view&cID=506307&pID=499773), is startled (his word) by the fact that not all Texas students share his religious faith or zeal to spread the Gospel as he understands it.

Perry is especially worried that there are Texas families who are “not religious” and wants that changed immediately (http://www.firstamendmentjournal.net/news.aspx?id=4520). Perry banded with the discriminatory American Family Association (a recognized hate group http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/american-family-association), advocates of the radical Seven Mountains Dominionism ideology (that advocates killing LGBT people and to destroy all governments and take over the world to form a one-world Christian theocracy; it is a defined hate group: http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/03/29/student-group-at-harvard-sponsors-controversial-anti-gay-religious-speakers/) , and a litany of anti-gay zealots and End Times preachers (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fact-sheet-gov-rick-perry%E2%80%99s-extremist-allies) to put on his The Response (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/subjects/-response-prayer-rally) prayer rally.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is orchestrating an event that rejects both non-Christians and Christians who do not embrace the organizers’ far-right politics and religious fundamentalism, brought the pseudo-organization “Jews for Jesus” (made up of Christian fundamentalists: with Don Finto to “send revival” to Israel and for the Jewish people to “come to their own [Christian] Messiah [in Judaism, the “messiah” is a warrior who will overthrow foreign occupations and religions, which had been the worship of gods other than YHWH—this would include the worship of Jesus of his “God”” (http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/8/8/114844/0135, http://theresponseusa.com/honorary-co-chairs.php#endorsers). No negative comment came from the only “Jewish

rabbi” Martin Waldman of Baruch HaShem Messianic Synagogue. Waldman is not a true Jew but a Christian who claims Jewish heritage to “convert Jews to Jesus Christ.” Waldman is not accepted in the Jewish community as a legitimate Hebrew, and his congregation in Dallas, TX, is marginalized when attending his charade.

Houston-area clergy members have spoken out against the rally’s exclusive nature and the extreme figures involved in it, saying in a joint letter, “We are concerned that our governor has crossed the line by organizing a religious event rather than focusing on the people’s business in Austin” (http://www.secular.org/blogs/mike-meno/houston-clergy-join-protest-against-perrys-prayer-event). The Houston clergy wrote:

We believe in a healthy boundary between church and state. Out of respect for the state, we believe that it should represent all citizens equally and without preference for religious or philosophical tradition. Out of respect for religious communities, we believe that they should foster faithful ways of living without favoring one political party over another. Keeping the church and state separate allows each to thrive and upholds our proud national tradition of empowering citizens to worship freely and vote conscientiously. We are concerned that our governor has crossed the line by organizing a religious event rather than focusing on the people’s business in Austin.

We also express concern that the day of prayer and fasting at Reliant Stadium is not an inclusive event. As clergy leaders in the nation’s fourth-largest city, we take pride in Houston’s vibrant and diverse religious landscape. Our religious communities include Baha’is, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Unitarian Universalists and many other faith traditions. Our city is also home to committed agnostics and atheists, with whom we share common cause as fellow Houstonians. Houston has long been known as a live-and-let-live city where all are respected and welcomed. It troubles us that the governor’s prayer event is not open to everyone. In the publicized materials, the governor has made it clear that only Christians of a particular kind are welcome to pray in a certain way. We feel that such an exclusive event does not reflect the rich tapestry of our city.

The letter was signed by: Rev. Dr. Jeremy Rutledge, minister, Covenant Church, Alliance of Baptists/American Baptist Churches; Rev. Douglas Anders, conference minister, South Central Conference of the United Church of Christ; Rev. Paul Beedle, Unitarian Universalist; Rev. Dr. Ginny Brown Daniel, minister, Plymouth United Church, UCC; Rev. Beth Ellen Cooper-Davis, minister, Northwoods Unitarian Universalist Church; Rev. Michael Diaz, director of connections, Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church; Rev. Pat Farnan, Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church; Rev. Lura Groen, pastor, Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church; Rev. Teddy Hardy, minister, St. John United Church of Christ; Rev. Lori Keaton, United Church of Christ; Rev. Harry Knox, senior pastor, Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church; Rev. Janice Ladd, executive pastor, Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church; Rev. Dr. Becky Edmiston-Lange, co-minister, Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church; Rev. Mark Edmiston-Lange, co-minister, Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church; Rev. Mona Lopez, volunteer staff clergy, Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church; Rev. Laura Mayo, minister, Covenant Church, Alliance of Baptists/American Baptist Churches; Rev. Dr. Daniel O’Connell, senior minister, First Unitarian Universalist Church; Rev. David Pantermuehl, Grace United Church of Christ; Rev. Adam Robinson, assistant minister, First Unitarian Universalist Church; Rev. Ken Richter, senior minister, First Congregational Church, UCC; Rev. Bill Royster, United Church of Christ; Rev. Sam Schaal, transition minister, Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church; Rev. Robert Tucker, executive director, Foundation for Contemporary Theology; Rev. Ernie Turney, pastor, Bering United Methodist Church; Rev. Bonnie Vegiard, Unitarian Universalist. (Read more at: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7614497.htm#ixzz1UNnuRE5n.

A major problem with a Perry presidential bid is Rick’s repeated verbal

ejaculations that he wants Texas to leave the Union—Secession has been his battle cry for years. Before Perry makes his decision if he will run for president of the United States, Perry needs to decide if he wants to be a part of the United States, as back in 2009, during Perry’s bumpy reelection race against sitting US Senator Ann Kay Bailey Hutchison who has been embroiled in numerous scandals through her career in politics in Texas (cf. Ide, Arthur Frederick (1994). From stardom to scandal: the rise & fall of Kay Bailey Hutchison. Las Colinas: Monument Press), the governor told a Tea Party crowd:

“There’s a lot of different scenarios…We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/15/gov-rick-perry-texas-coul_n_187490.html).

Rush Limbaugh was a fan of Perry’s statements, and Texas Republicans, too, as Texas Republicans are nothing more than segregationist/racist old-time Dixiecrats (States Rights Democrats that included many KKK members who promptly switched to the Republican Party after the fear mongering of Sen. Joe McCarthy {R-WI}), who at times would side with the national Democratic Party—but that split with the election of a Roman Catholic to the White House who believed in and fortified a wall separating state and church. Perry later affirmed his stance, conjecturing:

“We are very proud of our Texas history; people discuss and debate the issues of can we break ourselves into five states, can we secede, a lot of interesting things that I’m sure Oklahoma and Pennsylvania would love to be able to say about their states, but the fact is, they can’t because they’re not Texas.“

While there is nothing in the US Constitution nor in the Texas Constitution allowing for secession, according to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Texas negotiated the power to divide into four additional states at some point if it wanted to but not the right to secede. One thing that Perry does have in common with the fundamentalist wing of politics in the USA is the belief that men have some inalienable right over a woman’s uterus, and a “god given right/obligation” to interfere with her freedom of choice as to what she will do with the uterus or any evolving cells clinging to its walls. Just like Republicans in Congress and around the country, Rick Perry’s opposition to “government intrusion” doesn’t apply to women.

Taking a leaf from the sordid writings of Martin Luther, Perry argues that a woman is the property of a man and as such it is the man who will make the decisions for her. Luther said of women: “. . . when women speak well, it is not praiseworthy. It befits them to stammer and not be able to speak well; that adorns them much better.” [WA, TR IV, no. 4081, pp. 121-122] “as women cannot be chaste nor pure as nature did not endow them with these attributes” [Letter to Three Nuns, Wittenberg, 6 August 1524, WA, BR III, no. 766, pp. 326-328] for “And who can enumerate all the ludicrous, ridiculous, false, vain, and superstitious ideas of this seducible sex? From the first woman, Eve, it originated that they should be deceived and considered a laughing-stock.” [Sermon on the Ten Commandments, 1516, WA I, p. 407] {All quotations are translated from the German original Werk by Martin Luther.}

Luther was the original evangelical fundamentalist, who wrote extensively that the one purpose of woman was to produce babies, and her highest good would be to die in childbirth; he had no time for women as preachers or pastors, citing: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. (1Timothy 2:12: γυναικι δε διδασκειν ουκ επιτρεπω ουδε αυθεντειν ανδρος αλλ ειναι εν ησυχια, in Luther’s bible, it is dulden wir, so werden wir mitherrschen; verleugnen wir, so wird er uns auch verleugnen; the passage is a redaction of 1 Corinthians 13:4 with Luther using Titus 2:5 as his reference since that passage has woman being stupid and capable of “maligning” the Law/word). This was not a part of Perry’s prayer fest, nor is it recognized in the original Methodist theology. Being a Texas Methodist, that means Rick is required to regiment the methodology of his wife’s life, labor, and love, as the inventor of his religion, John Wesley, did not allow women to “exhort” (preach) but required them to remain at home, and it was tempting Satan to invite women to a revival where they could stand up and “exhort”. His mother did not appreciate his chauvinism, as she was active in her church.

Wesley changed his mind by 1738, when he discovered the zeal of women, and by April 1742, the London Society “of Methodists” listed 66 leaders, 49 of them women. These women were highly visible as leaders, less visible but no less essential in their ministry of hospitality as they accommodated itinerant preachers travelling ceaselessly.

Given his evangelical background and mindset, Perry has pushed for a bill to require all women to have an ultrasound before they can get an abortion. Perry was convinced, initially, that it would sail through, but it proved to be the first major bill debated in the House, and was declared an “emergency” by Perry himself (http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/democrats-derail-sonogram-bill-at-least-for-a-1294019.html) but the Democrats (of which he was one originally) derailed the bill before passage. As Texas State Representative Carol Alvarado noted in that session, the bill’s author didn’t understand how intrusive his own bill was (http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/11098/hb15-a-transvaginal-ultrasound-wand-in-every-woman).

Representative Carol Alvarado gave the Texas legislature an in-depth description of a trans-vaginal sonogram, which would be required for women eight to 10 weeks pregnant.

“This is not the jelly on the belly that most of you think, she said as she held up a vaginal probe.’This is government intrusion at its best’.”

The bill had no provision for victims of rape or incest. It did, however, give Perry more social conservative credentials to trumpet on the campaign trail. Overnight the Texas Governor became the protector of the “unborn” and even accepted that life began at conception and that sperm and ova were sacred forms of human life.

Perry was not a fanatic on everything when he was not in politics, nor serving in the US military. That changed when he returned to West Texas. When it came to money, votes, or men who accompanied him, he was ruthless and sought out that which would help him hold onto power.In addition to his changing concerns over government intrusion, Perry had a bit of a consistency problem where states’ rights are concerned. This returned when there was debate among the men in the Texas legislature—none of whom could become pregnant–but whom spent hours discussing abortion. Every male in the Texas legislature determined that he would decide what would happen if a woman became pregnant and what would happen to the woman’s body.Repetitively Perry proclaimed that he wanted Roe v. Wade overturned so states could decide for themselves (http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/08/01/rick-perry-wantsfederal-reign-abortion).

When it looked like he had a chance at the GOP nomination, Perry declared his support for a federal constitutional amendment that would overturn Roe and ban abortion nationwide. One thing about Perry is absolutely certain: he is never consistent, especially when it comes to abortion.

One of the reasons Perry is worried about the zygote/fetus is it could be a born-again Tea Party voter in the future. This was most likely if the incubating woman was white, evangelical, and Republican.”This is what democracy really is all about,” Perry said, signing the bill. (http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Gov-Rick-Perry-signs-voter-ID-bill-into-law-1398346.php#ixzz1SU7aNkib).

“It’s the integrity of every vote; that every vote counts. Today we take a major step in protecting the most cherished right of Americans.” Voting, however, was not seen as a right–save for Republicans.The bill that Perry signed makes “illegal voting” a felony. It also was an “emergency” item for Perry’s third term as governor.

Perry is not for open voting. He initiated the Texas voter ID card.

How draconian is the bill? Perry’s Voter ID bill requires a voter to present one of five forms of ID—a drivers’ license, military ID, passport, concealed handgun license, or a state voter ID card that Texas must provide. The state faces a budget shortfall of over $10 billion, but Republican Gov. Rick Perry declared voter ID a legislative emergency to help fast-track the bill. All this despite little evidence of actual voter fraud, and plenty to suggest that the laws will end up costing states millions of dollars that they don’t have.

Studies show that up to 11% of citizens don’t have a photo ID. Forcing voters to buy cards has made states the target of lawsuits claiming such costs amount to a modern-day poll tax. To solve the problem, many states now issue free ID cards, but it’s expensive. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that it is the elderly, African-American, and Latino voters who are most likely to vote without the types of identification that’s being required in the new legislation.

State Representative Dawnna Dukes summed it up succinctly: “I think it’s about disenfranchising groups of people who do not historically vote for the Republican Party,” when the bill was passed (http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/emotional-voter-id-bill-debate-ends-in-passage-1344311.html).

What is known is that there are fewer (if any) obstacles to vote experienced by the white and wealthy in Texas and their supporters: white evangelical Christian extremists. They tend to vote Republican/Tea Party Libertarian.

In a state like Texas, with a large immigrant population, voter ID is not a neutral issue, but rather another obstacle making it less likely people will vote. Like other governors around the country, Perry pushed for the voter ID bill despite a lack of any proof that “illegal voting” is actually a problem. What Perry also ignored is that most Hispanics were born in Texas or a border state (New Mexico and Arizona), and had been USA citizens for years, but the law was aimed at them as it is in Arizona, which has begun to see a migration of farm workers out of Texas in search of more hospitable habitats and governments. This directly has an adverse affect on the Texas economy.

Perry still believes that the Texas economy is blooming and growing rapidly; he doesn’t talk with the thousands of furloughed teachers, the mechanical workers looking for jobs, the secretaries waiting for a call for new employment or the underemployed and those who have been unemployed for more than one year.

Rick Perry likes to claim—and conservatives like to believe–that Texas’ economy is a shining beacon of hope for the country. And it is—if you like your hope low-wage, low-benefit and deficit-ridden. As former

Secretary of Agriculture and lifelong Texan Jim Hightower wrote:

“…Perry-jobs are really ‘jobettes,’ offering low pay, no benefits and no upward mobility. In fact, under Rickonomics, Texas has added more minimum wage jobs than all other states combined! After 10 years in office, Gov. Perry presides over a state that has more people in poverty and more without health coverage than any other.” (http://www.alternet.org/economy/151381/inept_texas_governor_rick_perry_calls_himself_a_%22miracle_man%22/?page=2):

Perry’s proclamation of Texas being a miracle state is a miracle only for the wealthy who feed off the labor of the poor, and is easily matched by the “miracle growth” of Mitt Romney who claims that Massachusetts did better when he was governor than there was any governor before or after him. More children are hungry in Texas than any other state, and with Perry constant banging against the rights of labor the situation will get worse.

Of course, that’s exactly the kind of job growth the country as a whole is seeing now, and it’s just fine with the big-money base of the Republican Party. As Joshua Holland wrote in AlterNet recently, even as Texas added those “jobettes,” its unemployment rate magically increased to 8 percent from 7.7 percent—and 23 states have a better employment rate than the miraculous Texas (http://www.alternet.org/story/151325/texas_is_a_shining_example_of_right-wing_governance_in_action_and_that’s_why_it’s_a_complete_basket-case).

So much for that economic miracle, for while Perry pretends to be the magician equal to Mitt Romney, both have been disasters at the financial helm of their ships of state. Texas’s economy is more of an example of the mess the entire country is heading for unless we see a dramatic change in priorities, but that is not likely with Perry as governor—and it would be worse if Perry was President. Perry messes with Texas on all fronts, and his assault on the economy is in keeping with his attack on education.

Perry’s idea of education is more in keeping with that at Plymouth Rock, than with any modern concept of learning; and the subject matter that Perry proposes is nearly antediluvian. A strong creationist, for the record when he speaks, Perry wants “Intelligent Design” to be pushed in public schools, and the often-repeated and verified theory of evolution downgraded. Perry is quoted as saying:

“Intelligent design is a concept that is gaining greater traction because it points to a notion that most people believe to be true: that we were created by an intelligent being who designed the human race with great detail and complexity. . . .” (http://www.tfn.org/site/DocServer/PerryLetter_ID_12.27.2005_r.pdf?docID=2621; cp. http://www.tfn.org/site/DocServer/PerryLetter_evolution_9.1.2005_r.pdf?docID=2622) Perry’s claim is totally untrue (http://scienceblogs.com/tfk/2011/05/zack_kopplin_rocks.php and http://cenlamar.com/2011/04/27/evolving-as-a-leader-an-extended-interview-with-zack-kopplin-part-three/ and http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/high-school-senior-leads-louisiana-fight-against-anti-evolution-law/2011/04/21/AFs8M4LE_blog.html and http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/laurilebo/4702/student_to_michele_bachmann%3A_%27presidential_candidates_shouldn%E2%80%99t_be_able_to_make_stuff_up%27/ with even the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty siding with the 17 year-old at http://www.bjconline.org/index.php).

To push his religious ideas as “facts”, Perry is demanding that the withering Texas Board of Education present ID alongside of evolution. Perry is quoted as noting:

“”I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution. The State Board of Education has been charged with the task of adopting curriculum requirements for Texas public schools and recently adopted guidelines that call for the examination of all sides of a scientific theory, which will encourage critical thinking in our students, an essential learning skill.” (San Angelo, Texas Standard Times online at http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2010/sep/11/this-series-examines-important-issues-to-texans/).

So determined is Perry to force all Texas children to learn creationism that the Texas governor appointed Don McLeroy, a Republican from College Station and a self-described “young Earth creationist” as chair in 2007 of the State Board of Education and pushed as scientific fact that the Earth is only 6000 years old, following a dating set by an Irish bishop more than one hundred years ago, but after the Senate refused to confirm McLeroy’s appointment in 2009, Gov. Perry appointed Gail Lowe, a Republican from Lampasas, as chair. Lowe was a McLeroy clone and voted with McLeroy that same year to require that students learn creationist arguments against evolution in their science classrooms. The majority of the Texas Senate refused to confirm Lowe’s appointment in 2011 (http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_religious_right_watch_rick_perry#CREATIONISM).

Texas teachers protest in Austin On March 12, 2011, thousands of protesters descended on the Texas state capitol grounds in Austin for a rally against a proposed $10 billion in education cuts to the state school system (http://www.texastribune.org/texas-education/public-education/thousands-protest-education-cuts-at-texas-capitol/). Representatives from 300 school districts, students, teachers, parents, and others marched and called on Perry to use the state’s “rainy day fund” to cover the shortfall in schools rather than lay off a projected 189,000 education workers. The officially nonpartisan rally was distinctly anti-Perry with chants of “it’s raining, it’s pouring, but Rick Perry’s snoring” and slogans like “Flunk Perry” plentiful and to be seen everywhere. The publicity surrounding the event provoked a press release from the Koch Brothers funded conservative activist group Americans for Prosperity that had been funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars into all states where unions were strong: destroying the public education system in Wisconsin and Indiana, and attacking union rights in Iowa and elsewhere.

Under the direction of the Koch Brothers, Americans for Prosperity called the demonstration a “front for unions” and “raising taxes.” Exaggerating reality and outright fabricating fiction, Americans for Prosperity’s state director, Peggy Venable, claimed in a statement: “Save Texas Schools is a liberal group posing as a non-partisan, education advocacy organization,” adding, “We can cut education spending without cutting instruction or teachers. But educrats are calling in all of their forces to oppose any education cuts.” Of course, the budget cuts came and are still coming with the loss of experienced teachers, the dumbing down of education, closure of schools and libraries, and rewriting history, science, and liberal arts (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903999904576470232177476242.html).

Education, health care, basic services are on the chopping block, Venable’s primary goal. Few Texans knew that Venable had been the director for the National Republican Party in 1984, served in the federal government for 15 years (White House Liaison to the US Department of Education for the Reagan Administration), sued the Texas Association of Counties in 2005, received over $72,000 from David Koch (Americans for Prosperity Foundation, 2007 IRS Return, Guidestar, August 2008, page 1) in 2007 to watch after his political interests, rejects global warming, claiming carbon dioxide is not a poison but makes crops grow (http://thinkprogress.org/green/2010/10/25/174825/afp-climate-deniers/ a call made by the Competitive Enterprise Institute that is also funded by the Koch Brothers), and wants cap-and-trade policies implemented including calling MoveOn.org as being controlled by the Communist Party. She has a BA in Journalism from Texas State University and has expressed disdain for public education.

Aside from the impact such layoffs will have on the economy, since a good chunk of the new jobs Perry touts as part of his economic miracle were in schools, there’s the actual impact on the state’s students (http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2011/07/texas-education-job-cuts-may-haunt.html). It’s not just public schools that take a hit—universities will see their budgets slashed and financial aid eliminated for 43,000 students (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7611061.html). It is because of government cutbacks that over 7000 high school students drop out of school every day throughout the USA (http://www.rense.com/general92/7000.htm).

One Texas school attempted to trademark its mascot and sell advertising space on its school buses and Web site in order to raise desperately needed cash. The New York Times called Perry’s impending cuts “the largest cuts to public education since World War II” (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/education/15texas.html?_r=2).

As Dana Goldstein noted, Texas is a right-to-work state where less than 2 percent of teachers are unionized (http://www.danagoldstein.net/dana_goldstein/2011/02/on-the-education-budget-and-the-crisis-in-the-states-or-what-does-money-have-to-do-with-good-public-.html). There’s no big bad teachers’ union to be the villain here. There are only honest workers about to be out of jobs, and kids—and the economy–suffering the consequences.

Sex education is even more Neanderthal in thinking and teaching in Texas than in any other state in the Union, this despite the fact that Texas has the nation’s third-highest teen birthrate (http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/07/26/2362222/texas-has-3rd-highest-teen-birthrate.html). Teen childbearing in Texas costs Texas taxpayers no less than $1.2 billion annually (http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/costs/pdf/counting-it-up/fact-sheet-texas.pdf). Despite this economic fact, a 1998 report from the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund (http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_public_schools_sex_education_jsdk_report_index) revealed that more than 96 percent of the state’s public school districts taught abstinence-only or nothing at all when it came to sex education. Gov. Perry, who opposes comprehensive sex education, continues to argue that young people need to pray when sexual “urges” take control and save their virginity for marriage or for Jesus.

Because of the over preoccupation of what Jesus thinks of teen sex among those unmarried (never mind that Jesus’ mother was not married at the time of his conception and birth, according to the Gospels that never suggest or state that she ever married, as marriage was not a way of life for the poor) the Texas Department of State Health Services, in consultation with the Governor’s Office, in the summer of 2010 ruled out the idea of applying for federal funding for programs that would present medical facts to students concerning sex and sexually transmitted diseases since the federal program mandates a section of the course discusses contraception as well as abstinence to prevent pregnancy (http://www.texastribune.org/texas-state-agencies/health-and-human-services-commission/texas-forgoes-federal-funds-for-sex-ed/; on the cost of sex education in Texas, read: http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/costs/pdf/counting-it-up/fact-sheet-texas.pdf). In October of 2010, the Texas Tribune asked Gov. Perry about abstinence-only policies on sex education (http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/2010-texas-governors-race/an-interview-with-gov-rick-perry/):

Gov. Perry: “Abstinence works.”

Interviewer: “But we have the third highest teen pregnancy rate among all states in the country. . . . It doesn’t seem to be working.”

Gov. Perry: “It works. Maybe it’s the way it’s being taught or the way that it’s being applied out there. But the fact of the matter is, it is the best form to teach our children.”

Interviewer: “Can you give me a statistic suggesting it works?”

Gov. Perry: “I’m just going to tell you from my own personal life, abstinence works. And the point is, if we’re not teaching it, and if we’re not impressing it upon them, then no.

Perry distorted the intent of the question (which was not to promote the notion that young people should be encouraged to have sex). Perry argued:

“If the point is we’re going to go stand up here and say, ‘Listen, y’all go have sex and go have whatever is going on and we’ll worry with that and here is the ways to have safe sex,’ I’m sorry, you can call me old-fashioned if you want, but that is not what I’m going to stand up in front of the people of the state of Texas and say that is the way we need to go and forget about abstinence.”

Perry has a real problem with sexuality and especially with homosexuality—especially as, over the years he served in Austin; he has repeatedly been accused of being a homosexual—with his Secretary of State Geoff Connor being his “alleged playmate” that his wife, Anita, caught him with in a compromising situation—causing him to yell at him over her office telephone the next day (http://www.examiner.com/democrat-in-national/is-rick-perry-gay-rumors-haunt-potential-presidential-bid). It is reported that Perry kept two chefs (at $10,000 a month) around the Governor’s mansion as they were “intimate friends,” and an exposé was released on Perry’s secret life by the Austin Chronicle on February 27, 2004, by Michael King (http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2004-02-27/198958/) in his article: “Naked City: The Real Sins of Gov. Perry”. One website noted: “A politically-connected attorney in Texas told me he has known about Perry’s gay side since the 1980s. And two district judges in Odessa told him that the rumor was always there when they served in the Legislature with Perry” (http://www.opednews.com/thoreau022704_texas_governor.htm) with Waco, TX, Representative Lane Denton also being identified as a boyfriend, despite having a wife (Betty Denton later served in Austin, sitting in her husband’s seat), and was tried and convicted for embezzling $67,000—but never spent time in jail thanks to “unknown sources” (http://www.dallasobserver.com/content/printVersion/2025195/).

Perry does have one idea of how to solve the “public school problem” especially when it comes to teen pregnancy: private school vouchers. If students go to private (parochial, in Perry’s terminology) they will not want nor have sex, and, therefore, there will be no babies born before there is a Christian marriage (Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and so forth marriages are not considered legitimate marriages among the fanatical fringe fundamentalist evangelical extremist Christian community of which Perry claims ownership)

Private School Vouchers, however, have been one of Perry’s biggest public policy failures as he has consistently been unable to pass a private school voucher scheme in Texas. Far from being devoted to private schools, he uses the private school voucher promise as a political ploy. In 1998, Perry won a tight election for lieutenant governor with the help of nearly $100,000 in direct donations (http://info.tpj.org/Lobby_Watch/perryll.html) from the family of San Antonio businessman James Leininger, a rock-hard Lutheran who carries all the hatred spewed by Martin Luther against the workers (read Luther’s Wider die räuberischen und mörderischen Rotten der Bauern), Jews (read Luther’s Von den Jüden und jren Lügen), and those that do not meet his rigid standard of evangelical fundamentalist Christianity, e.g. Luther’s Vor dem Antinomians (1539) being based on a corrupt reading of Acts 15:5; cp. Augustine of Hippo, Contra Faust, 32.13, (in short a religious terrorist who will spend money from his Kinetics Foundation to support right-wing programs and deny women the right of choice, the elderly of self-respect in making decisions for themselves, and the young from experiencing life—being identical to his grandfather Adolph who ruled with “an iron thumb” (http://www.texscience.org/reform/leininger.htm including http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2000-07-14/pols_feature3.html and http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/vol18/issue22/pols.leiniger.profile.html and http://www.mollyivins.com/showArticle.asp?ArticleFileName=990514_ed.htm and http://www.texasmonthly.com/mag/issues/2002-11-01/feature4.php and http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/01/02/010217_tort_reform.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/08/education/08HOME.html who is actually more corrupt than my own father, Herbert Frederick Ide, who bequeathed $1 million to Valley Lutheran School (enrollment 31) in Waterloo, Iowa, to teach Christianity and creationism {http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_a5731d24-01e6-11df-95ca-001cc4c002e0.html} at the expense of a real education, in laboring to impose their values on those who disagree with him) with a flair that matches Adolf Hitler, (http://www.tfn.org/site/DocServer/SORR_06_ReportWEB.pdf?docID=222, read chapter 2) the state’s most prominent supporter of private school vouchers.

Leininger also backed a $1.1 million last-minute loan to the Perry campaign that helped put the then-agriculture commissioner over the top in that election. Perry beat his Democratic opponent, John Sharp, by less than 2 percent of the vote.

Leininger has continued to be a generous funder of Perry’s campaigns and those of other voucher backers, but the Legislature has never passed such a scheme. (Leininger spent $50 million to fund a 10-year private school voucher scheme in San Antonio’s Edgewood Independent School District, with the hope that the Legislature would pass a publicly funded program during that period. He ended his funding in 2008.) In addition, Leininger and two other businessmen paid $40,400 to fly the governor (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6547566.html; and http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/2523682.html), his wife and top staffers on private jets to the Bahamas in February 2004. Leininger and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist accompanied the governor. Gov. Perry said the trip included “real, progressive conversation” on school finance issues.

During his campaign for lieutenant governor in 1998, Perry made varying statements regarding his support for private school vouchers. (“Perry tape reveals new voucher stance,” Houston Chronicle, 2/6/98; cf. http://www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/006030.html; no original link available; hard copy on file at TFN) In October 1997, Perry told the Houston Chronicle a voucher program should be small and optional for local school districts: “The real key is these decisions be made at the local level where the parents and the teachers and the local taxpayers and school board will be making these decisions and not be mandated from some central bureaucracy in Austin.”

Perry has always considered himself above the law, and being the longest sitting governor in the State of Texas, believes that the governor’s chair is his for life, a gift from his god, and that his word and will is not be challenged. When word reached Perry that some school districts would refuse to allow his voucher plan, the Texas governor did not mince words: “I will tell you point-blank that I will not allow a local school board to stop from allowing parental choice to happen in their community if it becomes the law of the land.” However, Perry’s voucher plans have been defeated by the Texas legislature twice: in 2007 and 2009.

The Texas Governor has not stopped with his assault on public primary and secondary education. He has equally turned his attention to the university system in Texas, demanding it be run for profit. Even his alma mater (he is an Aggie: Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University: Texas A&M), a land grant school, has come up with an insidious way to appraise, judge, and reward teachers: by subjective student opinions and how many students they attract (http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rick-perry-wages-an-assault-on-the-ivory-tower/2011/07/26/gIQAyfrvsI_story_1.html).

Academic excellence does not fit into Perry’s equation, and today only the private universities are turning out students of quality. Even in the universities, Perry is insisting on ID replacing evolution in the science classes; classics are to be “Christian based” and philosophers have to have been appraised by Aquinas or other Christian thinkers before their concepts can be discussed; most professors of philosophy and science reject such absurdities.

None of the Texas Universities were happy with the governor’s proposals. On May 3, 2010, nearly two dozen people who had been honored as distinguished alumni by the Association of Former Students of Texas A&M released an open letter to their fellow Aggies. It read, in part:

“Our concern is the result of the extraordinary level of political intervention in our university. . . . It is our observation that individuals, including the Boards of Regents, often misunderstand the fragile nature of academic prestige.”

There were no kind words for Perry who was seen as one determined to destroy the system that they had graduated from with distinction. The most sinister force that worked for Perry in watering down Texas education was the 11-campus A&M university system, whose chancellor, Michael D. McKinney, had served as Perry’s chief of staff, who posted a 265-page spreadsheet that calculated faculty salaries against their teaching loads and the research funding they brought in online. Those A&M professors who brought money into the University system via research grants had their names listed in black and those who “cost” the university in red.

In the fall, Robert M. Berdahl, who was the president of the Association of American Universities, sent a letter to McKinney, urging the chancellor to “resist these ill-conceived calls for ‘reform’ ” and issued a none-too-veiled warning that A&M’s hard-won membership in the elite organization of 61 top universities could be on the line. McKinney said in an interview that he considered the letter “completely out of line on Dr. Berdahl’s part. First off, my phone works.” He threw it in the trash, and abruptly resigned his academic position. Money was always more important than results or progress for Rick Perry and his supporters.

Before any candidate is considered, voters should first ask those running for office: “Where’s the money coming from?” This point is particularly imperative in the post-Citizens United age, and the US Supreme Court ruling

that gave birth of the new “super PACs”: groups that can accept unlimited donations from individuals and corporations to pay for political advertising and organizing, campaigns for office are getting expensive and someone’s got to be footing the bill. Most of the money now funneled into the treasure chests of far-right candidates is coming from the Koch Brothers and Koch Industries, especially those that are polluting the air, and especially the waters in Arkansas where Koch paper mills dump their waste in streams once alive with fish (http://www.peer.org/docs/ar/3_16_11_Coffee_Creek_Enforcement_Complaint.pdf?tag=contentMain;contentBody).

Since ads for Perry are already airing in Iowa before he’s even made up his mind to run, it’s worth a look at who’s paying for Perry propaganda. Jobs for Iowa, the PAC paying for the Iowa ads, was registered with the FEC on June 21, and funding is coming from Chris Gober, who was known as “the little boy who made good” and became a Texas lawyer who worked for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and received “donations” from those who wanted a closer contact with the Texas Governor, $100,000 from Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons and $500,000 from Texas homebuilder Bob Perry (no relation to the Governor; read more and watch the video at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/60352.html#ixzz1UTEEJlIb).

Its treasurer is Robert Jentgens, who formerly worked on Mitt Romney’s 2008 campaign. Also registered are Veterans for Rick Perry and Americans for Rick Perry, as well as Texas Tea Party Patriots PAC (though after Rick Perry’s primary challenge from the Tea Party-backed Debra Medina it might not be fair to assume that they have any interest in Perry). Americans for Rick Perry raised $193,000 in just eight days in June, the majority of which comes from Harold Simmons, who Dave Montgomery at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/01/2340008/rick-perrys-political-rise-fueled.html#ixzz1TnX7mmK7) called “a Dallas multibillionaire who is developing a controversial nuclear waste disposal site in West Texas.” Simmons, whose fortune Forbes estimates at $6.9 billion, “got taste for takeover tactics as a bank examiner. Bought Dallas drugstore in 1961 for $5,000 cash plus $95,000 loan; sold 100-store chain to Eckerd Corp. for $50 million 1973. Built publicly traded holding company Valhi with hostile takeovers. Now invested in titanium (Timet, Kronos), waste management (Waste Control Specialists), computer components (CompX International)” (http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/10/billionaires08_Harold-Simmons_HT3L.html). He has been quoted as saying, “everything is for sale–even the courthouse.” Perry idolizes Simmons.

They claim another $207,000 in July (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/30/rick-perry-supporters-rai_n_914042.html).

Montgomery noted:

“Environmentalists say that Simmons’ donations to Perry and state lawmakers helped fuel approval of the waste disposal site despite concerns over groundwater contamination, but a spokesman for the project said the application was rigorously vetted and approved only after added protections were included.”

Perry’s last election campaign, his third, generated more than $77 million in contributions, as Texas allows unlimited individual donations as well. Paul Blumenthal at the Huffington Post wrote that the Americans for Rick Perry PAC was the first time a super PAC had been used by supporters for a campaign that doesn’t, technically, exist yet. If Perry’s well-connected supporters in the energy and finance industries, among others, are this excited about him now, imagine the money that will flow if he actually announces (cf. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/01/rick-perry-super-pac-primary-states_n_914800.html and on Koch Brothers illegal contributions, that they admitted to making, read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/01/koch-industries-subsidiar_n_888996.html).

One of Perry’s biggest and wealthiest supporting groups is the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), a term coined by its intellectual godfather and richest benefactor who embraces the idea of a global Christian theocracy with no tolerance for those who do not swear total faith and allegiance to his Jesus Christ, C Peter Wagner. The NAR movement surfaced in the 2008 campaign, with a video of one of its most prominent practitioners, Kenyan witch-hunter “Bishop” Thomas Muthee (born c. 1955; he claims to have a Master degree but will not say in what subject nor from what university and there is no public record to substantiate his claim) who organized the Word of Faith Ministries (originally known as the “Prayer Cave”; on his wife and witchcraft (he has called for the stoning of any woman that he deems is a witch: http://www.alternet.org/news/145796/heads_up:_prayer_warriors_and_sarah_palin_are_organizing_spiritual_warfare_to_take_over_america;

read: Otis, Jr., George (1997). Twilight Labyrinth, The: Why Does Spiritual Darkness Linger Where It Does? Chosen. pp. 295–298.) that has made him rich, anointing Sarah Palin as a leader in the fight for turning the world away from democracy and to theocracy through her “prayer warriors”. The one-time/part-time governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin’s churches are actively involved in a resurgent movement and argue for a world war to convert all people to the faith of Muthee and NAR–a theosophy and ontology that was declared heretical by the Assemblies of God in 1949: http://www.alternet.org/rights/97939/weird_theology_in_wasilla%3A_a_look_inside_sarah_palin%27s_pentecostal_church/?page=entire and http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/25/us/politics/25faith.html. On Palin’s involvement in witchcraft and NAR theological terrorism, read (and see impeded videos) at:

Sarah Palin’s Churches and the Third Wave, Part One

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/5/0244/84583

Sarah Palin’s Churches and the Third Wave, Part Two with embedded video:

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/9/5/03830/11602

The video is also posted at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K_1Eit0pxM

It is heavily involved in Perry’s political campaigns (most of the NAR spokespeople are “former” homosexuals, such as Ted Haggard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKeZTJceyGE, cp. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdZIC-KzL7M&feature=related; on youth camps and training, watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTCHPn5qe5U&feature=related). On July 12, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow did a segment highlighting some of their more bizarre claims in a series of video clips including Perry’s concern about having sex with demons (http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/dangers-of-sex-with-demons-highlighted-by-perry-prayer-participant/69d4xzo; cf. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQbGnJd9poc and for Palin see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBPUnwXxB7s&feature=related who is a part of the NAR and in her political conversations talks about “prayer warriors” that is a code name for the NAR and refers to those who will kill by any means those who oppose the world theocracy that NAR envisions; Joiner claimed that Japan’s earthquake would “unleash demons” on the world in his video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13HWtFcmLzQ&feature=related; cp. http://www.truthalliance.net/Archive/News/tabid/67/ID/8072/Americas-own-Taliban.aspx). These included C. Peter Wagner (who has been condemned even within the Pentecostal movement as a person out of touch with the Bible and Christians: http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/11/pragmatic-peter.html) saying that the Japanese stock market collapsed because the emperor had sex with a demon (the sun goddess; see it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yIgZPTqUIc), another leading NAR figure, John Benefiel, calling the Statue of Liberty “a demonic idol” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd74y4hvdhs; he calls homosexuality an Illuminati plot against civilization for population control at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDDKdYUkF64&feature=related), and a third figure, Mike Bickle, calling Oprah Winfrey “a forerunner to the Harlot movement” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pFcFldh8lo), or, as Maddow put it, a “harbinger of the antichrist”. The NAR guides itself, within the evangelical Christian community, as preparing to wage “spiritual warfare” (a misinterpretation of Ephesians 6 that is discussing praying when there is a problem, not using guns to convert an opponent). C. Peter Wagner, founder of the World Prayer Center, built-in coordination with Ted Haggard and his New Life Church in Colorado Springs, was featured in an article by Jeff Sharlet in Harpers, May 2005, “Soldiers of Christ” (online at http://www.rickross.com/reference/fundamentalists/fund196.html), is often referred to by those familiar with the Third Wave as the ‘Pentagon for Spiritual Warfare.’ It features computer systems that store the data of communities around the world, mapping out unsaved peoples’ [sic] groups and spiritual mapping information for spiritual warfare. The greatest threat to democracy is Apostle Lou Engle who led the Family Research Council’s “Prayercast” (http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/everything-you-need-know-about-frc-prayercast) against health-care reform that he termed heathen, a Webcast featuring Republican Senators Jim DeMint (SC) and Sam Brownback (KS), and Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN) the latter who is certifiably mentally unstable or worse (http://www.politicalarticles.net/blog/2010/02/03/mentally-unstable-rep-michele-bachmann-invents-new-republican-healthcare-paranoia-liar-frank-luntz-okeefe-toxic-for-the-gop/ and where God told her to run for political office at http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/54001,news-comment,news-politics,michele-bachmann-the-woman-who-makes-sarah-palin-look-liberal and http://www.mnprogressiveproject.com/diary/5605/michele-bachmann-healthcare-reform-supporters-are-not-real-people that includes an insightful video of her inflammatory rhetoric), and a call for “martyrs” to die in defense of the “unborn” (http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/10/27/115813/98).

One of the reasons Perry recognizes and endorses the NAR, is because this spiritual group is committed to replacing democracy with a religious dictatorship, which it sees as a necessary prelude for Christ’s return to earth, and has endorsed Perry for President of the USA. The NAR has no interest in supporting, defending or furthering democracy.

The sole goal of the NAR is to create a religious dictatorship that is to be far more invasive and violent than even the Spanish Inquisition with “saved Christians” to be “ever militant” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiW67jrt5yI&feature=related). To meet the demands of the NAR and stand firm for the “Second Coming” Perry has become a fervent believer in the “end

of times” philosophical speculation of Tim and Beverly LeHaye who have turned to former crooner Pat Boone for support and interview on the television soap Praise the Lord once Jim and Tammy Bakker were released from the amusement park, and has followed their lead in denouncing “demons” while praying for the nation to “turn back to god.”

The NAR (that is compared with the Taliban of jihadist Islam: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2011/07/whats-the-big-deal-with-the-new-apostolic-reformation.html) openly denounce Mormonism and Roman Catholicism as demonic (and has been, in turn, denounced by numerous religious groups include other Pentecostals at http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/newapostolic.html#cpeterwagner), but, also, claims that all Protestant denominations are seen as impediments to creating one unified religious establishment that should in turn control all of society, entirely replacing America’s secular democracy, and bringing about their own version of “one-world government”. Perry wants to head this group.

The NAR explicitly articulates this philosophy in terms of what’s known as the “Seven Mountains Mandate” (see video at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385×338122), which seeks to establish Christian dominance over seven culture-shaping spheres of activity: business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, family, and religion. On one of Muthee’s several visits to Sarah Palin’s church the Wasilla Assembly of God church that is part of the Assemblies of God (Sarah Palin believes in witchcraft: http://www.alternet.org/rights/97939/weird_theology_in_wasilla%3A_a_look_inside_sarah_palin%27s_pentecostal_church/?page=entire), a Pentecostal denomination, he spoke for about ten minutes about the Seven Mountains Mandate that received start-up money from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (http://herescope.blogspot.com/2010/06/seven-mountains.html and http://www.reclaim7mountains.com/pages.asp?pageid=74130 where the website talks about a “battlefield” to wage a war to restore “Christian values”). It believes in executing homosexuals, requiring marriage of everyone (while ignoring that Jesus never married: http://www.petertatchell.net/religion/jesus.htm), and gives absolute control to the male over the female in all areas. Youth with a Mission (started by David Loren Cunningham, a man called “a false preacher” and “false prophet” by numerous evangelical groups including Pentecostals (http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/cunningham.html), who is aligned

with Bill Bright of Texas who became a millionaire feeding off of the branding Campus Crusade for Christ. Like the NAR, Bright’s ministry has been anything but spiritual: it has been a war not only for souls but minds, and total control over the individual. Bright, however claimed that his ministry was an elevation of “the Biblical principle of prosperity and peace with God above the message of repentance from sin as the primary motive for accepting Christ as savior. Without emphasizing Hell and the just requirement of the Law, Bright convinced his audience to accept the sacrifice of Jesus as the only way of receiving the blessings of God” (http://www.christianebooks.com/blindedbythebright.htm), now known in many places as CRU)—have become mercenaries in Africa and India, slaughtering those who refuse to convert to Christianity and NAR.

The goal of NAR and CRU are to take over the world and suppress, by force, all dissent so that everyone accepts the Jesus of the New Testament as a god—although the Jesus of the New Testament cannot be historically verified and has a split personality within the Gospels, and plays but a marginal role in the Epistles that changed Christianity into Paulinity. Contemporary evangelical extremism, especially as seen in the rhetoric and publications of NAR and CRU is centered solely around theological terrorism, following Matthew 10:34-35. A “call” is answered not only among those who sell religion, but politicians who use religion to gain votes and seats of power, from Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and others (Ide, Arthur Frederick (1985). Unholy Rollers: Televangelism and the Selling of Jesus. Arlington: Liberal Arts; Ide, Arthur Frederick (1988). Heaven’s Hustler: the Rise & Fall of Jimmy Swaggart. Dallas: Monument; Ide, Arthur Frederick (1987). Robertson: The Pulpit and the Power: plotting, planning, and pretending; Pat’s putsche for the Presidency. Austin, TX: AAP).

The goal of gaining dominion over all of society is primary, and as such spiritual warfare is called upon to drive out demons that supposedly stand in the way of this goal plays a central role in NAR thinking (for a rejoinder read: http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/orrel8.html and http://letusreason.org/pent13.htm where even Mel Gibson’s atrocity “The Last Temptation of Christ” is rejected, having been written by a nun sequestered in a sanitarium; see Ide, Arthur Frederick (2004). Crucifixion: what the Bible really says. Chicago: Sepore). There are, three levels to spiritual warfare, as Talk2action.org explains in their glossary of NAR terms (http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/8/6/135752/1937/):

Ground level spiritual warfare is casting out demons from individuals. It is to bring the world into a theocracy by organizing locally. It includes camps for training children and youth.

Occult level spiritual warfare is a confrontation with demons operating through witchcraft and esoteric philosophies (examples are Freemasonry and Tibetan Buddhism).

Strategic Level spiritual warfare is the highest level, dealing with confrontation of territorial principalities that control entire communities, ethnic groups, religions, and nations.

C. Peter Wagner argues that spiritual warfare involves going to the highest place in a city or nation, like a mountain top, and trying to bind “territorial spirits,” the high-ranking demons that rule over specific geographical regions. The idea is that — if their demonic grip is broken — then the people who live in that region will respond en masse to the gospel, and they will be freed of sinful strongholds, like witchcraft, lust and greed. The former professor of Church Growth at the Fuller Theological Seminary, writer, and teacher of faith healing, is notable for his assertions that Catholic saints bring honor to the spirits of darkness, and his promotion of the burning of their statues in Argentina and claims (unsubstantiated) of their subsequent burning. (Wagner, Charles Peter (1999). Hard-Core Idolatry – Facing the Facts. Wagner Institute of Practical Ministry Press [self-published], pp 38-40, and Marsden, George M. (1987). Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, pp. 292–295). All that is missing from this equation is the physical burning and torture of heretics, in keeping with the medieval theology and the arguments of Martin Luther and his later disciples: Adolf Hitler, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and Rick Perry, but Wagner guarantees that this, too, will happen.

While there are many evangelical critics of spiritual warfare and the NAR, and there is a great deal of material online, one supporter stands out: Bishop Michael S. B. Reid. Reid is the founder of Christian Congress for Traditional Values (CCTV). Born in 1944, Michael S.B. Reid (http://www.bishopmichaelreid.com/) resigned from the ministry in April 2008 after admitting to an eight-year extra-marital sexual relationship. Leaving his post as Pentecostal pastor at Peniel Church in Brentwood, Essex,, he became an evangelist to the rest of the UK and overseas, was a former police officer and insurance salesman. Reid took three degrees from Oral Roberts University (they are unaccredited), including an honorary Doctorate of Divinity (although he has never studied any aspect of theology or Bible, but relies on his own interpretation of inferior modern translations). According to The Guardian, Reid declared: “…gays are “filthy perverts”; Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are variously described in videoed sermons as “vile” and “foul heathens”. Christians who do not work, Reid said in one recording, should be allowed to starve. He believes in capital punishment, and he would pull the trigger himself; lethal injection is too good for them, he says in one church video (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2000/nov/15/religion.uk). Reid is a man prone to excessive violence, and unlimited hatred that he claims matches the hatred of his god and his god’s son waiting to storm out of heaven and conquer the earth in a final “end times” battle of brutality and bloodshed.

Reid was given the title of bishop in 1995 by the late Archbishop Benson Andrew Idahosa (b. 1938), who has had no formal education in theology and is self-ordained and self-trained Pentecostal preacher and founder of Church of God Mission International of Benin City, Nigeria, because of Reid’s strict fundamentalism and calls to have homosexuals executed. Along with his wife, Rev. Ruth Reid (who is also self-ordained and without theological training, she is ignorant in every biblical language and has difficulty with correct English, and is unable to determine the plagiarism that is rampant throughout her Bible), Reid has travelled globally and claims to have witnessed miraculous healings through his ministry. None of Reid’s miracles have ever been substantiated nor recognized even by Pentecostal communities.

Most recognize the Reids, husband and wife, to be frauds, in much the same manner as James Dobson and his wife Shirley, who preach hate and have turned Colorado Springs into a center of hate and loathing, are

distinctively unlike the reverends Joel Scott (born 1963, and described as having “a blinding white smile and perfectly coiffed hair”) and Victoria L. Ilof Osteen (born 1987) who is co-pastor of Lakewood Church Houston live luxuriously and enjoy life unlike their fellow frauds who hearken on retribution, judgment, and hate. While Joel Osteen argues that there is sin, he also intones that he is not a god and cannot judge the sin nor the sinner, but only give hope to the individual who comes to him for counseling. In many ways that shows his marketing skills he used to build his father’s Houston empire, and does not carry the baggage of confessional religion.

The Osteens are condemned by other televangelists and fundamentalists (http://www.forgottenword.org/osteen.html and referencing http://www.discernment.org/LeaventLakewood.htm and http://www.av1611.org/osteen.html) as the Osteens preach “positive poverty” (working your way out of debt) being the grace of poverty in Christ and they can fly First Class to vacations, resorts, conferences, and more as the Osteens operate a multimillion dollar ministry (http://www.suntimes.com/news/6843404-417/televangelist-joel-osteens-night-of-hope-coming-to-chicago.html; the Osteens have no theological training, Joel’s is in marketing which he used to promote his father John who was a Southern Baptist preacher before he became a Charismatic, who initiated the Osteen ministry) which inspires many to turn to him for his positive message (on October 14, 2007, Reformed theologian Michael Horton, told CBS “60 Minutes” that Osteen preaches heresy—put theology back into the Middle Ages complete with demons, devils, witches, warlocks and Satan).

Reid is a founder member of the Christian Congress for Traditional Values (CCTV) to monitor challenges to family life and traditional belief in the UK, and since its creation been involved in numerous sex scandals (http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/BRENTWOOD-Bishop-Reid-affairs/story-12623159-detail/story.html). In 2009, Reid was arrested for rape (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23742373-police-quiz-bonking-bishop-over-rape-claim.do and http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/BRENTWOOD-Bishop-arrested-rape/story-12640340-detail/story.html).

As for Reid’s academic ability, which is marginal, Reid is the author of Strategic level spiritual warfare, a modern mythology? : A detailed evaluation of the biblical, theological, and historical bases of spiritual warfare in contemporary thought (Fairfax, Va. : Xulon Press, c2002). The book remains a devastating Bible-based critique, in which he writes, regarding Strategic Level Spiritual Warfare (SLSW):

“There is no foundation in the Old Testament for this practice, nor any indication that the devil has any intrinsic power or authority. Satan’s only weapon is deception and his only sphere of influence that which God permits for His own eternal purposes.

“In the New Testament, the picture is similar; there is no evidence to suggest that Christians are called to engage in an on-going conflict with spiritual forces in the cosmic realm. The Scripture is quite clear in its teaching that Christ defeated Satan completely at Calvary and that Christians have been freed from his power.”

Reid sees this unscriptural ideology usurping God’s role and elevating mere mortals to a higher place – precisely the sort of thing that NAR’s leading advocates accuse secularists of doing:

“The whole focus of SLSW is on the devil and his demonic host … Man has become the fulcrum of redemption, holding the balance of power between God and the devil in the battle for the souls of men, and the gospel itself rendered impotent without the preliminary work of pulling down demonic strongholds … These are serious matters which call into question the very basis of the Christian faith.”

Reid has interesting friends. Interesting friends, and Reid’s admission is another blow to the International Communion of Charismatic Churches; former presiding archbishop Earl Paulk was last year engulfed in numerous sex scandals (he fathered a child with his brother’s wife: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1570079/Archbishop-fathered-child-with-brothers-wife.html), including allegations of sexual abuse

(the archbishop, his brother and the church were sued by Mona Brewer, a former church employee, who claimed Earl manipulated her into having a 14-year affair by telling her it was her only path to salvation; her claim was buttressed by the testimony of seven other women who made the same charges against the archbishop and his brother). Richard Roberts, meanwhile, was recently forced to resign from the presidency of Oral Roberts University over claims of financial mismanagement by Oral’s son Richard Roberts who used a university jet for his daughter’s pleasure while condemning homosexuality—knowing that his son, Randy Roberts Potts, is gay and now gives sermons denouncing his grandfather and father’s hypocrisy; http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/11/05/Oral_Roberts_Grandson_It_Gets_Better/ that includes a video; cf. http://barthsnotes.wordpress.com/2007/10/06/god-speaks-against-frivolous-lawsuits/ cp. The investigator, John Hagee, received a lavish salary for his “investigation” of corruption at ORU; http://www.rickross.com/reference/tv_preachers/tv_preachers7.html.

Hagee’s auditorship was criticized from the beginning, as critics complained that because Hagee family members were appointed as ministry officers, there was a “conflict of interest”, since they could all “determine their own salaries, benefits and other forms of compensation.” Another conflict was that Hagee enjoyed royalty payments on products promoted through the donation-funded GETV – a practice specifically forbidden by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability). Reid himself has long-standing links with Oral Roberts and ORU.

One of Reid’s friends is Ted Haggard who had a life similar to his own, but his preference was for young men (http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-29/us/lkl.ted.haggard_1_ted-haggard-head-pastor-church-staff-member?_s=PM:US. Haggard would state regularly that the twenty year old males would initiate sex, but he was helpless to stop it), rather than women.

Haggard’s male companions were at least of legal age. What brought Haggard to fame, outside of his male lover, was his association with the leader of the NAR Presiding Apostle C. Peter Wagner, a longtime Christian educator and graduate school mentor of Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church in California, and partnering with Ted Haggard, then pastor of the New Life Christian Church in Colorado Springs, to build the initial nerve center of the movement in Colorado Springs that has become the hub for the broken wheel of fringe groups of the radical right seeking the overthrow of USA democracy, alignment with Israel, and a worldwide theocracy with cells in all fifty states and over forty countries bent on world revolution and the overthrow of all governments (read: http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/1/20/131544/037).

Closer to the general thinking of Reid is Joe Barron, who was one of the 40 ministers at Prestonwood Baptist Church and staunch supporter of Rick Perry and his brand of evangelism. The Prestonwood Baptist Church is one of the largest churches in the United States with 26,000 members, and its ministers paid well as its treasury had ample means.

Barron was arrested on May 15, 2008 for solicitation of sex with a minor. He drove from the Dallas area to Bryan, Texas, allegedly in order to engage in sexual relations with what he thought to be a 13 year-old girl he had met online. The thirteen year-old girl was actually an undercover law enforcement official (http://blogs.wooeb.com/Brendan123456789/Post.aspx?postID=20744 and http://www.mahalo.com/joe-barron/). The like The Family of C Street in Washington, DC, the NAR excuses all infractions of immorality if committed by an “Apostle” or one “dedicated to the ministry.”

While the fundamentalists and evangelicals for Perry and his brand of Christianity have problems drilling for sex, Perry has little hesitancy to drill in other virgin areas: the Alaska tundra and even Texas’ forests and reserves. Obviously the governor of Texas has some oil connections for he is supported by the greatest oil barons of Dallas, TX, the Hunt Brothers whose duplicity is rivaled only by the Koch Brothers of Kansas, who robs South American nations of their oil by paying less than the going rate and selling it for a usurious profit. With Perry as a candidate, we’re almost certain to have more of the sort of pro-oil, anti-environment rhetoric that suffused Sarah Palin’s tenure on the Republican ticket.

When the BP spill was still churning oil into the Gulf of Mexico, Perry called it “just an act of God” (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36691.html) and warned against any “knee-jerk reaction” that might include things like halting deepwater drilling until the dangers could be assessed, arguing that such attempts to stop “the work of God” in exploring and pumping for oil would bring divine displeasure on the State of Texas and the nation. By defending the destruction of the ecology and rape of nature, Perry pious pronouncements received $129,890 from the oil and gas industry (http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2010/08/17/big-oil-money-at-the-state-level-mostly-goes-to-influence-the-public-not-the-politicians/) that he used to finance his last reelection campaign.

Each time oil prices rise, including in Texas, Perry glorifies his god and pontificates that increases in oil prices are good for the Texas economy (at least for the Hunt family) (http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2011/07/ten-reasons-why-the-texas-economy-is-growing-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-rick-perry/). The Hunt Brothers, as corrupt as the Koch Brothers played with fortunes in an effort to become increasingly more obscenely wealth. A huge endorsement by one of the world’s richest investors sent silver prices surging to a 10-year high Wednesday, on February 4, 1998, raising memories of a speculative binge that wound up trashing the metal. In 1980, the Hunt brothers of Texas tried to corner the market and drove prices from around $6 an ounce to a high of $52.50. But when the silver market collapsed just weeks after hitting its peak, the Hunt brothers were left with $1 billion in losses. This dimmed their zeal, but not in the area of religion or politics.

Perry told reporters that each time the price of gasoline jumps at the pumps new jobs are created (in the service and lower sector economy) and with it comes a rise in GDP for the state. The Texas governor totally ignores that when gas and oil prices rise it is a drain on the rest of the country, but that is irrelevant, Perry declares, as the primary concern must be the enrichment of “Texas [oil barons] and its people”.

Perry is not universally loved in Texas or the rest of the USA, especially not by legal (and illegal) immigrants. His record and words on immigrants (legal and illegal) are chameleon and change as does the wind, depending on his advisors prognostication as to his political chances for advancement.

Texas’ population has grown 20 percent during Perry’s time in office, and much of that growth has been immigration from Latin America, primarily from Mexico and Central American nations where labor is cheap and workers are willing to toil for pennies in the hot Texas sun; the number of Mexicans is being challenged now with an increase in migration from Perú, Columbia and Uruguay. Up until he began toying with the idea of a presidential run, Perry was a moderate on immigration and did not side with states more hostile to Latinos, such as Arizona, as Texas needed cheap farm labor.

Originally Perry criticized Arizona’s SB 1070 which put new roadblocks in the way of illegal Mexican immigrants. In fact, in 2001 he signed the state DREAM Act into law. That all changed when he decided he “might” run for President of the USA—a nation he despises and from which he wanted Texas to secede. Shani O. Hilton at ColorLines wrote, in explanation:

“…Perry’s apparently positioning himself to be a social conservative darling. On immigration, he recently revived a bill that would crack down on so-called ‘sanctuary’ cities — localities where the government prohibits police officers from asking about the immigration status of legally detained residents.”

(http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/07/rick_perry_positions_himself_for_gop_field_by_flip_flopping_on_immigration.html):

The sanctuary cities bill would allow police to inquire about immigration status of any person arrested or detained—even at a routine traffic stop. (http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/11261/base-rhetoric-rick-perry-sure-sounds-like-hes-running-for-president). Perry’s big business buddies opposed Perry’s proposed legislation, but Perry’s willingness to proceed with it, despite the fact that he will lose (at least temporarily) their support, is the clearest sign yet that he’s aiming for the national stage, especially as he tuned up his rhetoric on executions and same-sex marriages, hot topics that appeal to the most conservative and ill-educated folk in the USA who know little to nothing on human psychology of genetics.

Perry’s favored pastime is determining when a convicted felon should die, after being sentenced by a court to death. Rick Perry has a unique place in USA history, as Perry has presided over the execution of 232 people; the previous record, 152, was held by the previous Governor of Texas George W. Bush. Like the junior Bush who never really held a job before taking over the presidency of the USA, Perry has never been worried about facts in a case, and has discounted all scientific investigation when there is doubt about someone convicted to die for a crime, as Liliana Segura wrote (http://lilianasegura.com/post/4839551250/the-fire-this-time):

“Outside of Texas, the name Cameron Todd Willingham did not mean much to most people until the fall of 2009. In a 17-page article published by The New Yorker magazine, a curious and brave woman, a brilliant fire expert, and an investigative journalist re-opened the case against this man who was put to death for killing his children. The ‘classic arson case’ was picked apart, revealed to have been based on junk science and a misguided sense of expert intuition. Proof of the flawed fire investigation had been rushed to Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole before the execution, to no avail. Five years later, the article uncovered new evidence to all but confirm what a number of people had suspected for years: That the state of Texas had executed an innocent man.”

Cameron Todd Willingham was neither god nor monster. Like Perry and the hundreds of prisoners whose death warrants he has signed, he was all too human. But his last words are now immortal:

“The only statement I want to make is that I am an innocent man convicted of a crime I did not commit. I have been persecuted for twelve years for something I did not do. From God’s dust I came and to dust I will return, so the Earth shall become my throne.”

(Read, also: http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_56756.shtml)

Perry’s utter lack of interest in examining the evidence of Willingham’s innocence shows us something about the man: calloused, uneducated indifference to facts and reality. Perry has become far worse than George W. Bush. Bush had no consciousness of right or wrong, but gave into political expediency on the instruction of those who controlled him (including his father George H. W. Bush). One of the most junior Bush’s first acts as governor of Texas was to reject clemency for a man who had severe brain damage and an IQ of 60, allowing the man to be executed the evening of his inauguration: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/659.

The Willingham execution was not the most controversial example of Perry’s execution mania. Worse was his indifference to a Mexican citizen, allowing Humberto Leal Garcia Jr., to be executed over the objections of the Mexican government, his own president, and the International Court of Justice (cf. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/02/opinion/la-ed-treaty-20110702). While George W. Bush, in 2005, ordered all states to comply with the international law mandating consular access to officials from their home country for foreign nationals, Rick Perry was the only one not to comply. As the world condemned Perry and Texas, Texas evangelicals and conservatives

rejoiced at Perry’s auto de fé as Rick’s supporters actively and vocally seek out death sentences, not just of criminals but of all whom they argue disgrace the “laws of [their] god”—from executing criminals in Texas to funneling Texas money to evangelicals in Uganda, Nigeria and other African nations to “kill the gays” (on Christian fundamental fanaticism, inaugurated by evangelical preacher Scott Lively and Rick Warren of Saddleback church of California is among the most bloodthirsty of evangelists who argues that there are more “Christians” in Africa than in Europe or the USA. (http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v24n4/us-christian-right-attack-on-gays-in-africa.html; he has given an apologetic response claiming that as a pastor he cannot speak out, but he does; read: Miller, Lisa (November 29, 2009). Pastor Rick Warren Responds to Proposed Antigay Ugandan Legislation Newsweek. Retrieved December 6, 2009), especially in Uganda, read: http://www.lgbtpov.com/2011/05/uganda-kill-the-gays-bill-and-the-christian-right-connection/; the attack upon those the radical right does not feel fit the mode of a Christian is focused on by the Uganda-based

Family Life Network – led by Stephen Langa (Executive Director of Family Life Network) with the goal of “restoring” traditional family values and morals in Uganda – teamed with two U.S. hate mongers from the Christian Right, Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively and Dan Schmierer of the ex-gay group Exodus International that demands that Parliament hunt down and slaughter anyone even suspected of being homosexual (http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v24n4/us-christian-right-attack-on-gays-in-africa.html); for excesses by Muslim fundamentalists, read: Jonathan Clayton, “500 butchered in Nigeria killing fields,” The Sunday Times (March 8, 2010) at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article7054630.ece).

Atlanta-based Pastor Fred Hartley of the Lilburn

Alliance Church and a strong supporter of Rick Perry and the Tea Party has been fund-raising for the ministry of Julius Oyet, one of the professed co-authors of the “Kill the Gays” bill. Republican preacher Lou Engle who created the hate group TheCall and has never studied theology, but brags unabashedly that he has Holy water running in his veins: “Wherever I go I spit, but it’s holy water”, has blessed Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich (http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/6/7/144847/9340), and claims that Kansas Senator Sam Brownback was his roommate for seven months in DC when staying at the Family bunker on C Street in the nation’s capital (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCKXFMqumlg), has led mass rallies at the Makerere University Sports Field in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, demanding that all homosexuals be put to death “even on mere suspicion of being homosexual” (cf. “helping incite near-genocidal antigay hatred in Uganda:” and http://www.talk2action.org/story/2009/12/20/224021/61 and http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/4/24/133020/140 and ) as “God” is the greatest of all terrorists:

“Where there is shedding of innocent blood, there is no atonement for the land. There is a blood pollution problem on America’s soil. The most “dangerous terrorist” is not Islam but God. One of God’s names is the avenger of blood. Have you worshipped [sic] that God yet.” (read the pdf at http://bound4life.com/shedding_of_innocent_blood.pdf).

Many see this ribald and ratcheted attack on basic rights as one more sign that Texas is leading the USA into becoming the Fourth Reich and will improve Perry’s chances to become President of the USA. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jul/08/rick-perry-texas-leal).

Same-sex Marriage—is a loaded issue, especially in Texas, but Perry is unique in his opposition to same-sex marriage, and to homosexuality (although most of the Texas LGBT community knows that he is a gay, albeit closeted for the most part, male). At one time he argued that same-sex marriages should be a state’s rights policy matter (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/23/rick-perry-gay-marriage-a_n_907685.html). Later he defined it as needing a US Constitutional amendment banning it altogether (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/30/rick-perry-gay-marriage_n_914060.html). Perry takes his most virulent homophobic rhetoric from Christian theological terrorist Rev. Dwight McKissic, senior pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas (http://www.operationrebirth.com/archive/dwightmckissic.html and cf. Austin, TX American-Statesman at http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/09/11perryside.html) who laments: “They have devil worship. They advertise ‘Sin City’ tours. They celebrate Southern decadence. Girls go wild in New Orleans,” — actually suggested that God sent Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans to “purify out nation” because of the supposed acceptance of homosexuality: (http://www.ethicsdaily.com/news.php?viewStory=6285)

During the anti-gay marriage campaign, Gov. Perry invited gay and lesbian military veterans returning home to consider living in another state. Perry proclaims that LGBT people living in Texas are “dishonoring Texas” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/12/AR2005061201433.html).

At best Rick Perry is a fraud; in reality he is a hypocrite who feeds off others, pathetically and pathologically lies, and plans on overthrowing the democratic order established in the USA. I move to Texas in 1977. I owned a house in Mesquite, TX, and watched the laying of the LBJ Freeway that was still a dream (the main thoroughfare was Loop 12). While walking through the field surrounding what would become Town East Mall, I mused on the latest letter threatening me and my property, having written a book entitled Evangelical Terrorism. (See: Ide, Arthur Frederick (1986). Evangelical Terrorism: Censorship, Falwell, Robertson, and the Seamy Side of Christian Fundamentalism. Irving: Scholars) which received a modest review in Playboy magazine in the same year. That review not only overwrought colleagues that I worked with, damning its appearance in the magazine—copies which they had complete with centerfold—but by local evangelical churches, and letters from elected officials warning me that my time was short.

On a Monday in 1987, I received a visit from a “cowboy”. Not knowing who he was, but that he was a Democrat from West Texas, I told I already had contributed the maximum I could afford, and asked him to leave. Later, I went to Albertson’s grocery story, ran into him again, and was surprised when he asked if I wanted sex with him. I told him, sharply, I did not want sex with anyone. He proffered me a photo, which for various reasons I kept in my Bible: the main reason being that I was writing a book on unwanted sexual advances. Twice more he found me: in spring 1988 and late fall 1988, and twice again I declined, explaining I enjoyed living alone.

On January 30, 1989, I took my mother on a shopping tour, and returning home found police in my home with no search warrant, no reason given as to why I was not allowed to enter my own home, and ordered to leave by Detective Robinson. Late that night, about six hours after the initial request for information, a fat cop from Mesquite produced a search warrant, and the police began to haul bags out of my home. I was ultimately told that some “middle teens” had broken into my home and “used” my bedroom, and found pornography.

The case was to be turned over to Dallas County District Attorney John Vance—not long intelligence but shorter or spirit. Later he would state that I wrote pornography as he found one book with three females holding hands (the title of the book is God’s Girls: the Ordination of Women in the Early Christian Church) which, I was informed, promoted lesbianism. When they found dated copies of Playboy, Playgirl, and Penthouse I was promptly labeled “trash” and informed that “Jesus will not accept you.”

Mom noted that the police claimed the boys came through the back door—and pointed at it—it was locked. Nothing was broken. They came through the window. Those who used my home for a private tryst, I learned, were Christopher Hitt and Kenneth Taylor, and did not live far from me. Later I was told that I could never publicly expose them or their names since they were underage; I promptly wrote, and later had published Guilty until Proven Innocent: the Illusion—Texas Justice Dallas Style (Las Colinas: Monument, 1991) where their names and full details appear on page 38.

On February 23, 1990, the Dallas Times Herald published a very short piece that I had been arrested; I read about my arrest while sitting in my cubicle at AAFES on Walton Walker Boulevard in Dallas. I never was arrested, but posted bond to fly to San Diego to give a lecture.

The DA wanted me to testify against Taylor, but Hitt was not mentioned. Leaving the courthouse, I ran into the same cowboy who made the same offer, and I gave the same reply. Later I would learn that he had been talking with the DA about the possibility I would expose the cover-up and somehow involve him and ruin his political career. I only knew him by the name of Rick, knew he had been a Democrat from Haskell and supported Al Gore in the 1988 primaries for president. What I learned latter was that he knew Christopher Hitt. For that reason I was not to testify against Hitt. I looked again at the photo the man gave me of his days at Texas A&M University.