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Rick Perry's Secret Plan for Texas Border Security: "Ridiculous"

Rick Perry's Secret Plan for Texas Border Security: "Ridiculous"
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Native Texan, Political Hobbyist, Rick Perry Observer

Native Texan, Political Hobbyist, Rick Perry Observer
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Pop quiz:

Who has better hair than Sarah Palin, also seems to believe their proximity to another country makes them qualified to run a country and who, judging by the amount of untrue and contradictory statements they've said on the issue, might have a "secret plan" written on the palm of their hand?

If you guessed Texas Governor Rick "Most Likely to Secede" Perry, then you'd get an A+, which is a better grade than most Texas students are getting these days after Governor Perry's rejection of government funds destined for Texas classrooms.

Folks, it's serious down here. If you thought George W. Bush was bad, please consider the following: Governor Perry is the Joker to Bush's Lex Luthor.

In Perry's latest campaign stunt, Texans get to bear witness to a campaign move with tragic, costly repercussions. Perry is serving up Republican surf and turf -- anti-immigration and homeland security -- in a new "secret plan" to increase border security due to rising border crime rates. The only problem? As the McAllen Monitor reported Thursday, local police officials are saying that Perry's claims of spillover violence are "ridiculous." Even Republican Senator John Cornyn told reporters at one point during a conference call that "As far as the Texas border is concerned, we have not had spillover violence, per se."

The McAllen Monitor pointed out additional inconsistencies in Perry's quixotic efforts:

"How many Americans will have to die before our federal government takes serious action along the Texas-Mexico border?" Perry said in a statement issued Monday. "For years, they have failed in their vital duty to secure the border, resulting in escalating violence."
Meanwhile, during campaign stops as recent as last week, he continues to tout a 60 percent drop in border crime overseen by his administration.

If all this contradictory gunslinging sounds familiar, it's because we've seen this episode before. Remember The One When Iraq Had WMD's, even though everyone knew they didn't exist? There's no doubt that the situation in Mexico is dire and frightening. But playing off of Texans' fears, particularly when you're not actually doing anything else for them other than the occasional false conviction and execution, is getting old even to those living near the supposed "spillover" violence. From the Monitor:

Describing the border region as plagued by drug violence has needlessly scared residents of the area while contributing to misperceptions in the rest of the country about the realities in the region, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said.

"How can you claim that the crime rate in this whole area has dropped, while at the same time saying that crime is out of control?" he said. "Explain that to me."

Governor Perry needs to lose in November and, judging by these kinds of political moves, knows he might. He faces perhaps his first true challenge in Democratic nominee
Bill White, a former Mayor of Houston who organized over 100,000 volunteers in response to Hurricane Katrina.
While Perry was content to make inaccurate claims, White has seen the messes that our Texas GOP villains tend to make and, as his Katrina efforts have shown, has experience in cleaning them up. He took the time Thursday to phone up Secretary Napolitano to ask for more resources at the Texas border. "Secretary Napolitano told me this request would receive serious consideration," White said,
as reported by the Burnt Orange Report
. "She also told me she would give a similar response to the Texas Governor if he talked to her about it, which he has not." For Governor Perry, it seems, Texas's homeland security is worth a whole lot of rhetoric but not even a phone call.
Spread the word: Governor Perry has got to go. Otherwise, we'll have another four years of the Joker -- and that's nothing to laugh at.
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