Dear Mom...

(an email I just sent to my very conservative republican mother in Wisconsin)

I'm guessing yer gonna vote republican.

Please listen when I say Rick Perry is The Devil.


Not talking as a flaming liberal, talking as a woman with a child and a husband on disability and as a Texan. The man is dangerous- he's never won an election with a true 51% or greater majority- the most votes he's ever managed is 32%. Right now registered TEXAN republicans wouldn't vote for him for president- only 5% support him.


He cut $4 BILLION from schools- firing 100,000 staff members and closing over 1,000 schools at a time when Texas' population is growing and we already rate 49th in education. Thank God for Mississippi.


The TBOE- Texas Board of Education- appointed by him, is all rabidly anti-evolution and are working hard on getting "that E-volution out of our science classes and teaching the bible version instead". Seriously. Last year they also voted to remove Thomas Jefferson from texts as a "person of historical significance".


He ALMOST passed a law that every single 12 year old girl be vaccinated against cervical cancer- a vaccine that's since been proven harmful and in some cases fatal- I'm sure it was just a coincidence that he's a stockholder in the pharmaceutical company that marketed it.


Texas ranks high in teen pregnancy, illiteracy, and we boast the highest number of people employed at or below minimum wage and without health insurance in the nation. And before you say "all the 'illegals' are skewing the numbers", they're not. As an aside, for all the "wall off Mexico" crowd, immigration legal or otherwise from Mexico is down- way down. I guess Rick's a genius- all he had to do to stop immigration was to make Texas poorer than Mexico.


Can you find a job in Texas? Sure. But you can't live on it. It's common for a couple to have 4 jobs between them and be just scraping by, praying that no one gets sick or hurt because one good medical bill would mean homelessness. This isn't fantasy- it's hard cold fact for my friends, my neighbors, ourselves.


Rick Perry is so pro-life that he passed a law requiring women to view (with running commentary from a "counselor") a sonogram before getting an abortion. He also got cheers from the audience at the last debate for overseeing the deaths of 243 inmates- the highest number in the nation. Unfortunately, 41 of those have since been proven innocent...post-humously. Lets hear it for Pro Life *~*


The fires here in Texas lately? Last year Rick Perry did some cutting back on the firefighters' budgets- but only by *75%*


Actually- Rick has a "Governor's Rainy Day Fund" that has $3 Billion in it. That could've rented a shitload of airplanes that drop water...or could've kept a bunch of schools open. Good thing he's saving it for an emergency.


Finally, he's a firm believer in NO separation of church and state. I know this because he and other Texas lawmakers locked arms and CHANTED IT at a rally. There are already countries founded on that sort of theocracy- they're Muslim.


I love Texas the State. I've been here 18 years this December. It's a huge expansive beautiful place peopled with folks that have hearts to match.


Texas and her people are surviving in spite of Rick Perry, not because of him.


The only "Texas Miracle" is that we're even able to do that.