Today's Teamster News 08.19.14

Teamster News
Michigan Teamsters Joint Council 43 President Nowak, Executive Board Re-Elected Without Opposition  IBT   ...Michigan Teamster local union officers who gathered at the Shanty Creek Resort in Bellaire, Mich. for Joint Council 43’s 2014 Fall Delegates Meeting voted unanimously to re-elect Joint Council 43 President Greg Nowak, Secretary-Treasurer Jim “Cinci” Cianciolo and the entire Executive Board to a new three-year term...
Trade
Awash In Coal, U.S. Imports Even More  Wall Street Journal   ...Coal imports surged 44% to 5.4 million metric tons during the first six months of 2014, compared with a year ago, according to Global Trade Information Services...
State Battles
Nebraska: Minimum Wage Increase to Be on Ballot  New York Times   ...A proposal to increase Nebraska’s minimum wage has qualified for the November ballot. The secretary of state’s office said Friday it had verified enough signatures. If approved by voters, the measure would increase the state’s minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2016 from $7.25 an hour, the same as the federal minimum...
California teachers union fears right-to-work law inevitable  Washington Examiner   ... the change might be inevitable based on various lawsuits that could reach the Supreme Court...
With close ties to sugar, Florida’s next House speaker admits taking King Ranch trip  Miami Herald   ...Crisafulli, who will become the most powerful man in the Florida House of Representatives this fall, has been a major beneficiary of the state’s sugar industry. During the past two election cycles, agricultural interests have contributed at least $200,000 to Rep. Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, and his political action committees...
How Much Of Wal-Mart Is Really Made In America?  Bloomberg Businessweek   ...At least one company, Kent Bicycles, has said it located a new factory in South Carolina because of the state’s right-to-work law. The chief executive noted that Wal-Mart had introduced him to South Carolina’s Republican governor, Nikki Haley...
Democracy A Casualty Of Voter-Suppression Politics (opinion)  Billings Gazette   ...When same-day voter registration and voting is being cut back, as pushed in Montana by the Republican Legislature, and evidence shows that the majority of late registrants do not vote the Republican way, no wonder many Montanans think someone is trying to stop them from voting because of where they stand philosophically...
6,000 Lack Proper Voter ID Locally  The Robesonian   ...More than 6,000 Robeson County (North Carolina) residents will have to get a voter ID if they they want to vote in the 2016 General Election...
War On Workers
Blame Employers, Not Workers, for Any Skills Gap, Economist Says  Wall Street Journal   ...The “obvious solution” to “virtually all the skill problems reported by employers is to increase training and produce the skilled workers they want themselves.” Much of the evidence in support of a skills gap could be explained by employers who are no longer willing to train their employees or raise salaries, and instead want to be able to hire people with exactly the right skills–and on the cheap...
Average cost of raising a child hits $245,000  CNN   ...To raise a child born in 2013 to the age of 18, it will cost a middle-income couple just over $245,000, according to newly released estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up $4,260, or almost 2%, from the year before...
Feds: Red light camera firm paid for Chicago official’s car, condo  ars technica   ...The former chief executive officer of Redflex, a major red light camera (RLC) vendor, has been indicted on federal corruption charges stemming from a contract with the City of Chicago...
Worker Killed In North Side Industrial Accident  KSAT   ...A man in his 60s was killed Monday when a 3,500 pound sack of fracking sand fell on him...
Efforts Advance To Stabilize The Schedules Of Part-Time Workers  Kansas City Star   ...The movement to support “schedules that work” for employees includes a bill by that name, introduced this summer in the U.S. House and Senate, that would let employees request changes to their work schedules “without fear of retaliation,” among other things...
Money in Politics: Rising in Intensity as a 2014 Election Issue  Huffington Post   ...candidates all over the country, in red states as well as purple and blue, are taking up the fight against money in politics, to take the country back from the Koch brothers, Wall Street, and the big business interests that run things right now...
Miscellaneous
Community Health says data stolen in cyber attack from China Reuters   ...Community Health Systems Inc (CYH.N), one of the biggest U.S. hospital groups, said on Monday it was the victim of a cyber attack from China, resulting in the theft of Social Security numbers and other personal data belonging to 4.5 million patients...

Today's Teamster News 08.17.13

Waste Workers in California Vote to Become Teamsters  IBT   ...Drivers and mechanics at Waste Management in Carlsbad, California have voted overwhelmingly to join Local 683 in San Diego. There are approximately 80 workers in the bargaining unit...
Teamsters End Representational Campaign at American Airlines  IBT   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters yesterday announced an end to the year-long campaign to represent aircraft mechanics and related personnel at American Airlines...
AMR-US Airways Merger Limbo Puts CEOs to Workers on Hold  Bloomberg News   ...About 1,000 white-collar employees with jobs on the block at US Airways Group Inc. (LCC) and American Airlines (AAMRQ) got a temporary reprieve when the U.S. government sued to block the carriers’ planned $14 billion merger...
Allied Selects Black Diamond/Spectrum As Winning Bidder; Teamsters, Others Object  IBT   ...On Thursday, August 15, Allied Systems completed two days of an auction for its assets at a law office in Wilmington, Delaware. The company (Allied) declared the winning bid to an acquisition company formed by Black Diamond/Spectrum, over a bid by Jack Cooper Transport, whose employees are represented by the Teamsters...
Striking Teamsters at Lake Transit vote to return to the job  Lake County News   ...A day after they failed to get intercession from the Lake Transit Authority Board in a labor dispute, striking transit workers voted to immediately return to work. The striking members of Teamsters Local 665 voted to return to work unconditionally in order to restore full service yesterday...
BLET to Conduct Advanced Local Chairman Workshop, October 20-26  BLET   ...The BLET Education & Training Department, in conjunction with the BLET Arbitration Department, is proud to host an Advanced Local Chairman Workshop scheduled for October 20 through October 26, 2013...
McDonald's, Walmart Feel The Pinch As Low-Income Shoppers Struggle In The Slow Recovery Reuters   ...From Wal-Mart Stores and Gap to Macy's and McDonald's, chains that cater to middle- and lower-income Americans, say they are feeling the pinch of an uneven economic recovery...
Mexico-L.A. drug ring hid meth, heroin in pipes on big rigs, feds say   Los Angeles Times   ...Federal prosecutors unveiled indictments Thursday against 57 members of an alleged drug trafficking ring that authorities said smuggled cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine from Mexico to Los Angeles, using hidden compartments and PVC piping that were further concealed in tractor trailer axles. Firearms have also been transported...
That awkward moment when an American-made beer company gives away a Made in China hat at a baseball game in the nation's capital  manufacture this   ...One has to wonder why a company that takes care to brand itself as Made-in-the-USA would sponsor Made-in-China souvenirs...
Unions sue to block SunRail contractor  Orlando Sentinel   ...Two unions filed a lawsuit Thursday objecting to the state's attempt to side-step an agreement from 2009 to use federally certified union workers in construction of the signal system that will guide trains on the $1.6 billion SunRail commuter line...
Mass. legislature tackles minimum wage issue Telegram & Gazette   ...As many as half a million of the lowest paid workers in Massachusetts could be getting a raise next year if a proposal to increase the minimum wage as high as $10.50 an hour is approved by the Legislature — or by a 2014 statewide voter referendum being urged by unions, community organizations and individuals, and supported by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren...
North Carolina law takes war on voting rights to a new low   Washington Post   ...In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision, that gutted of the Voting Rights Act, it’s difficult to say which of the many recently passed voter-suppression bills constitutes the greatest threat to that most sacred of American freedoms: the right to vote...
Pennsylvania Voter ID Law Barred From Enforcement In November Election By Judge   Huffington Post   ...A state judge issued an order Friday that is expected to block enforcement of Pennsylvania's strict voter-identification law in the Nov. 5 general election...
NorCal mayor demands bank drop foreclosure lawsuit  Associated Press   ... Richmond plans to "seize" underwater loans from banks, reimburse them at market value, and then resell the cheaper loans to the original homeowner at current mortgage rates...
California attorney general announces $750M refund from Canadian utility Powerex  Sacramento Bee   ... the Canadian utility was buying California electricity, shipping it to Canada and then exporting it back to the state at huge markups...
Judge: Special prosecutor will review Perry veto  Associated Press   ...A Texas judge said Thursday he plans to have a special prosecutor review allegations that Gov. Rick Perry abused the powers of his office and broke the law over a veto that cut funding for state public corruption investigators...

Today's Teamster News, 06.04.13

Fire at Chinese poultry plant kills 119 workers  Washington Post   ...Officials in China say a fire at a poultry plant killed at least 119 people on Monday, with others trapped inside the slaughterhouse...
Behind the Rise in House Prices, Wall Street Buyers  New York Times   ...Large investment firms have spent billions of dollars over the last year buying homes in some of the nation’s most depressed markets. The influx has been so great, and the resulting price gains so big, that ordinary buyers are feeling squeezed out. Some are already wondering if prices will slump anew if the big money stops flowing...
18 Of America's Biggest Companies Using Tax Havens To Skirt $92 Billion In U.S. Taxes: CTJ  Huffington Post   ...Apple may be getting all the attention from lawmakers and the news media for its offshore tax practices, but a new report finds that other major companies are using similar tactics to avoid paying taxes on billions of dollars in profits...
This Is Capitalism Now: How a Coal Company Bilked 20,000 Workers Out of Health Benefits  Atlantic Monthly   ...Corporate America is coming for your retirement...
Students Petition Sallie Mae for Transparency and a Better Deal on Student Loans  Center for Media and Democracy   ..."Sallie Mae doesn’t exist to protect students, and they are not willing to work with students. They exist to profit off of us."...
Attorney general sues HSBC over foreclosures  Buffalo News   ...Thousands of New Yorkers have likely been denied a better chance to get their homes out from under foreclosure by HSBC Bank USA and its Depew mortgage operations facility, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is charging in a new lawsuit...
Why pay non-farmers farm subsidies?  Washington Post   ...The building is one of the finest on Central Park West. Celebrity residents. Park views. Units priced at up to $24 million. It is most definitely not a farm. But last year, the U.S. government sent $9,070 in farm subsidies to an apartment here. Even the woman who got that money isn’t exactly sure why...
Labor could hold keys to RI governor's office  Boston Globe   ...Support from organized labor could prove pivotal as three of Rhode Island’s best known politicians eye what’s shaping up as the most contentious governor’s race in decades...

Kansas Legislature Approves Higher Sales Tax, Lower Income Tax  Huffington Post   ...The Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature approved a permanent sales tax hike as part of a plan to replace the state's income taxes with revenue from increases in other tax rates...
Union accuses CTA of violating labor contract  Chicago Tribune   ...The CTA is violating a labor contract it signed in November with its largest union so the transit agency can save millions of dollars annually, leaders of the Amalgamated Transit Union charged Monday during a rally outside CTA headquarters...
Teamsters Appeal Court Ruling on Mexican Trucks  IBT   ...The International Brotherhood of Teamsters yesterday asked for a rehearing on its challenge to the Department of Transportation’s cross-border trucking program...
Hoffa on Schultz: TX Gov's Veto of "Made in America" Ridiculous  IBT   ...In this video, Teamsters President Jim Hoffa says we need more products to be "Made in America," not fewer, and questions Rick Perry's decision to veto "Made in America" legislation...
Republic Fires Pilot Union Head, Draws Teamsters Ire  Aviation International News   ...Officials for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters charged Republic Airlines management last month with violating training rules and the recommendations of its FAA check airmen by firing the president of the carrier’s local Teamsters chapter, Craig Moffatt...
Drivers, mechanics at JBS Souderton to vote on union   Phillyburbs   ...Eighty-five employees at JBS Souderton, the meatpacking plant in Franconia, PA will vote Wednesday on joining Teamsters Local 830...
Teamsters Local 693 Endorse Rich David for Mayor  News Channel 34   ...Teamsters Local 693 announced their official endorsement of Republican candidate Rich David for Mayor of the City of Binghamton, New York...

Hoffa incensed by lack of support for 'Buy American' provisions

Texas Gov. Rick Perry thinks it's wrong for his state to buy American. But James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, says the former presidential hopeful isn't the only one missing a major opportunity to help put more people back to work.

Hoffa, speaking on MSNBC's "The Ed Show" Saturday, was incensed with Perry's decision last week to veto "Buy American" legislation. He said it was illogical to do so at a time when politicians are looking to create jobs. While leaders in other countries look to give their home-grown industries a helping hand, Perry and too many other U.S. lawmakers won't do the same for their own constituents, he stated.

"This country is being inundated and flooded with foreign steel, foreign iron, foreign products, and that's why we have so much unemployment in this country. What better than to have a bill that says buy American? What's wrong with having American steel, American iron, American things that go into what makes Texas strong or makes our country strong? ... it's incredible that he would veto such a bill."

Despite Perry's audacity, however, Hoffa said he was hopeful the Texas legislature would override the governor's veto this week. The House previously approved the bill unanimously, 145-to-0, while it passed the Senate by a 23-to-7 vote.

Hoffa said the Teamsters would continue their fight to stick up for workers both in Texas and across the nation. He noted there is a need to convince policymakers about the importance of supporting American employees especially during these challenging economic times.

"We fight this battle every day, we fight it in trade bills. There's a Trans-Pacific Partnership bill, guess what they want to do? Take out buy America. We fight the Pentagon, the military wants to take out buy America. What do they want to do, get their tanks from China? What are they thinking out there? And we have to basically make it stronger and mobilize people in the Congress and House and Senate, and the people, the good people of Texas, to make a stand to say, hey, let's buy American, let's put America to work, let's be proud of who we are."

One such opportunity to get more American workers on the job is to further invest in U.S. infrastructure by rebuilding roads and bridges, Hoffa said. He issued his support for President Obama's call to do so, saying it would benefit the entire nation.

Today's Teamster News 06.01.13

US Lawmakers Press Obama to Include Currency in Pacific Trade Deal  Reuters   ...Nearly 200 U.S. lawmakers have signed a letter urging President Barack Obama to insist on new rules against currency manipulation in a proposed trade agreement with Japan and 10 other countries in the Asia-Pacific region...
Walmart’s Shocking Threats And Employee Bullying Detailed In 27-Page Report  Opposing Views   ...Walmart continually asks Americans to consider what’s more important: justice for its workers or low prices for its customers?...
Catalonia firefighters were starting fires rather than putting them out this week during a demonstration held in Barcelona  Metro   ...emergency workers clashed with riot police while protesting over austerity cuts in the recession hit Catalonian capital...
Judge: Coal company can drop retirement benefits for 13,000 workers, Underwood says  MSNBC   ...Bankrupt coal mining company Patriot Coal will be able to void its agreement with the United Mine Workers union (UMWA) and stop funding pensions for retired miners, thanks to a ruling from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Missouri...
Pension bill stuns counties, could force tax increases  Tampa Bay Times   ..."Is that money going to FRS to actually shore it up? Or is it a long-term strategy to pressure those of us at the local level to say we can't sustain these increases?"...
New Jersey Passes Misclassification Bill; Gov. Christie Could Veto  Truckinginfo   ...Though the Teamsters-backed employee misclassification bill was passed Thursday by the New Jersey State Senate, opponents say they will continue to work to make sure the measure does not actually become law...
Kasich frustrating safety unions  Toledo Blade   ...Gov. John Kasich and Republican lawmakers are pursuing tax cuts and banking huge surpluses, according to police and professional firefighters, at the expense of public safety...
UW education dean warns school boards that ALEC seeks to wipe them out  The Cap Times   ...The model legislation disseminated by the pro-free market American Legislative Exchange Council’s national network of corporate members and conservative legislators seeks to privatize education and erode the local control...
Appeals court upholds voter ID law  WISN   ...A Wisconsin law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls is constitutional, a state appeals court ruled Thursday...
How Enterprise Zones Are Killing the California Dream  Truth-Out   ...(Teamsters) John Thomas and Hans Burkhardt  ... are now collecting unemployment, having lost their $22-an-hour jobs after their employers moved to take advantage of California’s enterprise zone plan…
Connecticut State House boosts minimum wage  CT Post   ...More than 106,000 of Connecticut's lowest-earning workers will see the current $8.25-per-hour minimum wage rise to $9 by January 2015...
Perry Vetoes "Buy American" Bill Approved 145-0 By Texas House  Opposing Views   ...Texas Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the “Buy American” bill, despite a unanimous bipartisan vote in the Texas House. The bill, which would have given preference to American-made goods...
Port Truck Drivers Take a Stand  WTOC-TV   ...WTOC-TV in Savannah, Ga., reports on port truck driver misclassification and how it impacts drivers and their families. Visit the Stand Up for Savannah! website for more information...
Teamsters Protect Nine-Hour Workday for CVS Pharmacists  Teamsters Joint Council 25   ...CVS pharmacists ratified a new three-year contract yielding raises and improved working conditions after Teamsters Local 727 representatives fought to protect the nine-hour workday from the management that wanted 12-14 hour workdays...
The Union Edge Reports On Durham School Bus Campaign  Union Edge   ...Teamsters Local 570 and Durham School Services drivers in the Baltimore area are standing up for safe school buses, respect and an end to wage theft. Hear what they have to say on The Union Edge radio program...
Dairy Workers in Washington Win With Teamsters  IBT   ...A unit of 30 drivers at Estenson Logistics, who voted to be represented by the Teamsters Local 690 in Spokane in late 2011, recently ratified their first contract...

Today's Teamster News 10.24.11

Kasich continues push to preserve union law  Associated Press   ...In opposition to the law and the governor's appearance, 35 protesters gathered outside of the convention center, holding up signs with messages such as "Where are the jobs, John Kasich?" and "Stop the War on Workers..."
Scott and State Republicans Are on The Wrong Track (opinion)  The Ledger   ...Gov. Rick Scott and the supermajority of Republicans in the state Senate and House of Representatives have done an atrocious job of increasing employment here in central Florida...
Rick Perry’s Record On Jobs  Talking Points Memo   ...Over his eight years as Texas’ farmer-in-chief, Perry oversaw a loan guarantee program with so many defaults that the state had to stop guaranteeing bank loans to startups in agribusiness and eventually bailed out the program with taxpayer money...
Lack of jobs leaves more suburban, middle class sliding into poverty  Chicago Sun-Times   ...nearly 193,000 people who’ve been added to the ranks of the poor in Illinois since the Great Recession began and among the nearly 440,000 that have been added since 1999, bringing the state total to 1.73 million, according to the latest 2010 Census data...
Screw the Big Banks and the Corporate Welfare Pony They Rode in on (opinion)  Wauwatosa Patch   ...We spent $5 BILLION tax-payer dollars bailing-out Citigroup and Bank of America and what have we gotten in return...
Survey: Fewer US companies expected to hire workers as pessimism settles in  Associated Press   ...Nearly 85 percent of economic experts surveyed expect the economy to grow at a meager 2 percent or less over the next 12 months, according to the National Association for Business Economists...

Whoa! New immigrants took 81% of new jobs in TX

Texas Gov. Goodhair Rick Perry's presidential campaign this week boasted about a survey showing business executives think the Lone Star State has the best business climate.  

But a recent study by the Center for Immigration Studies shows Texas is not so great for American workers. Eight out of 10 of the jobs created in Texas since 2007 were filled by newly arrived immigrants, the study shows.

Now we take the CIS with a big grain of salt. It describes itself as an "independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization," which is generally code for "right-wing advocacy group." According to the CIS website,

It is the Center's mission to expand the base of public knowledge and understanding of the need for an immigration policy that gives first concern to the broad national interest. The Center is animated by a pro-immigrant, low-immigration vision which seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer welcome for those admitted.

Having posted all that, here's what the CIS study showed:

•Of jobs created in Texas since 2007, 81 percent were taken by newly arrived immigrant workers (documented and undocumented).

•Of newly arrived immigrants who took a job in Texas, 93 percent were not U.S. citizens. Thus government data show that more than three-fourths of net job growth in Texas were taken by newly arrived non-citizens (documented and undocumented).

•The native-born accounted for 69 percent of the growth in Texas’ working-age population (16 to 65). Thus, even though natives made up most of the growth in potential workers, most of the job growth went to immigrants.

•The share of working-age natives holding a job in Texas declined significantly, from 71 percent in 2007 to 67 percent in 2011.

•Of newly arrived immigrants who took jobs in Texas since 2007, we estimate that 50 percent (113,000) were undocumented immigrants.

•More than one out three (97,000) of newly arrived immigrants who took a job had at least some college.

Read the whole thing here.

Rick Perry. There he goes again.

Wonder what products he uses?

Gov. Goodhair is, um, dissembling about Social Security again.  Here's exactly what he said over the weekend, according to the Houston Chronicle:

It is a Ponzi scheme for these young people. The idea that they're working and paying into Social Security today, that the current program is going to be there for them, is a lie. It is a monstrous lie on this generation, and we can't do that to them.

Never mind that Rick Perry wouldn't know a Ponzi scheme if he fell over one. To help him understand the difference, Mother Jones came up with a great diagram.

The Strengthen Social Security campaign has a few choice words for the Texas governor as well. Here are the best ones:

Social Security is the opposite of a Ponzi scheme, which is a fraud, a deceptive promise made by a swindler that investors will reap huge returns. Social Security is a promise by the United States government, and a set of protections earned by working persons, that insures against lost earnings resulting from severe disability, retirement and death. And it delivers on that promise, which is why it is America’s most successful and popular federal program.

Like any system, Social Security can experience problems, but it can never go bankrupt. Its major source of income is from the contributions of workers and employers; as long as there are workers, Social Security will have income. Even if Congress took no action, Social Security can pay 100 percent of promised benefits for the next 25 years and more than three-quarters of benefits after that.

Rick Perry's "dead peasant insurance" scheme on teachers

If you saw Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story," you'll probably remember Walmart's dead peasant insurance scheme. The company took life insurance policies out on its workers and collected when they died.

A lot of companies do it. Walt Disney, Procter & Gamble and Hershey Foods (no shock there) are among the many companies believed to have bought dead peasant insurance. They do it to avoid paying taxes (no shock there, either) because the government doesn't tax insurance premiums or death benefits.

McLanahan Myers Espey, a law firm, explains how the term came about:

Winn Dixie Stores bought life insurance policies on approximately 36,000 of its employees, without their knowledge or consent, and named itself as the policies’ beneficiary. The insurance brokerage firm that placed the policies prepared two memos describing the deceased employees as “Dead Peasants.” These memos were part of the court’s record in a lawsuit in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that Winn-Dixie’s policies were a sham transaction for federal income tax purposes. The memos were later used by reporters.

Turns out Gov. Goodhair Rick Perry was trying to take out dead peasant insuance on retired Texas teachers. The Huffington Post reports that in 2003,

...the Perry administration wanted to help Wall Street investors gamble on how long retired Texas teachers would live. Perry was promising the state big money in exchange for helping Swiss banking giant UBS set up a business of teacher death speculation.

All they had to do was convince retirees to let UBS buy life insurance policies on them. When the retirees died, those policies would pay out benefits to Wall Street speculators, and the state, supposedly, would get paid for arranging the bets. The families of the deceased former teachers would get nothing.

It's actually a teensy bit more complicated than that even. AMERICAblog explains how it would have worked:

...(Perry) tried to create what sounds like derivatives — insurance-policy-backed bets — on the deaths of elderly Texas teachers.

Shares in those bets would then be sold to the giant European bank UBS, who would market them as investments. Perry and Texas would get a kind of "finder's fee" or creator's fee. UBS would get commissions on the sale. UBS hack Phil Gramm (of Gramm-Leach-Bliley) would get a fee for coming up with the scheme in the first place and pulling it off for his client.

And the investors would see cash if and when these elderly teachers triggering insurance payouts by joining the "choir invisible." To sweeten (hasten) the deal, Perry simultaneously proposed reducing health insurance coverage for these teachers. It came apart when the teachers refused to sign up.

Can't imagine why the teachers wouldn't go for it. 

Bank of America offers to buy Rick Perry

Here's a video of James Mahoney telling Texas Gov. Goodhair Rick Perry that Bank of America will "help him out" in his presidential quest. You may have noticed that the bank, a massive federal welfare case, is laying off 3,500 workers.

Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge asks,

Should we be surprised, frightened, disgusted or simply say "we knew it", that in the informal mixer just after Texas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry spoke at a Politics and Eggs breakfast in Bedford, New Hampshire, an unknown gentlemen approaches a casual Perry like an Ian Flemming character, and proceeds to dead drop the following: "Bank of America... We will help you out"... and silently moves on. At least we know now who is funding what, and whose interests potential future president Perry will be paid to defend.

As ThinkProgress notes,

Over the years Gov. Perry has benefited greatly from Bank of America’s financial support, and it appears that largesse will continue as he seeks the presidency on a platform of — coincidentally enough — bank deregulation. His gubernatorial campaigns have received $125,900 from Bank of America’s PAC and executives since 2003. During the 2010 cycle alone, Perry’s campaign received $30,160 from the bank’s PAC and executives. According to Texans for Public Justice, Bank of America has also given generously Republican Governors Association, which Perry led until recently and just happens to be his largest donor, contributing $4 million between 2001 and 2010.

It’s no mystery why banking executives are rushing to give Perry their support. Of all the GOP candidates, Perry is the most fervently opposed to banking regulation. As Matt Yglesias pointed out, in his book Fed Up, Perry expresses the extreme view that all banking regulation and consumer financial protection is unconstitutional. 

No, we're not surprised. But we are disgusted.

Look closer at TX economy. It sucks.

There can be no doubt that Gov. Goodhair Rick Perry is another vapid corporate stooge running Texas. Perry actually appointed an Enron executive to the state Public Utilities Commission in exchange for a campaign donation of $25,000. 

But what's important about Texas is that shows us the tragic outcome of the corporate economic vision: lousy education, inadequate health care, shitty jobs. And just wait for that Nafta highway to wreak more damage on our country.

Here are a few facts about the Texas economy: The biggest industry in Texas is government. Texas jobs are crappy. And Texas ranks dead last in job creation.

This, from Economic Populist:

Texas is being declared an economic miracle. Yet anyone can quickly calculate a few facts on Texas. Guess which the largest industry in Texas was in 2010? Government. I kid you not, from the BEA:

In 2010, the largest industry in Texas was government. This industry accounted for 11.8 percent of Texas GDP and had 1.7 percent real growth. The second largest industry was mining, which accounted for 9.5 percent of Texas GDP and had 0.8 percent real growth...

Since January 2010 to June 2011, Texas has gained 505,100 jobs. Nationally, jobs gained are 1,792,000. Texas has gained 28.19% of the total jobs created. Seems like a lot, yet in determining what type of jobs we get, they are mainly crappy jobs. Trade, transportation and Utilities includes Retail trade, which are as a whole, low paying service type of jobs.

Writes the New York Times:

...if Mr. Perry were to win the nomination, he would face critics, among them Democrats, who have long complained that the state’s economic health came at a steep price: a long-term hollowing out of its prospects because of deep cuts to education spending, low rates of investment in research and development, and a disparity in the job market that confines many blacks and Hispanics to minimum-wage jobs without health insurance.

And ThinkProgress reports that Texas is dead last in job creation if you account for population growth. Writes ThinkProgress,

While over 126,000 net jobs were created in Texas over the last two and a half years, the labor force expanded by over 437,000, meaning that overall Texas has added unemployed workers at a rate much faster than it has created jobs. And although states like Michigan have lost jobs (29,200 since February 2009), the state’s labor force has shrunk by over 185,000 since then. As a result, while there are fewer jobs, there are significantly less workers looking for them

ThinkProgress also notes that jobs grew faster in Massachusetts than Texas between 2008 and 2010, jobs actually grew at a faster pace in Massachusetts than in Texas.

Meybe Gov. Goodhair should keep his yap shut about the Texas economy.

Perry, Scott AWOL at Kochfest during state emergencies

Hard to imagine that a governor would abandon a state during a disaster. Even harder to imagine that a governor would do it to attend a fundraiser by  union-busting, oil-speculating, thieving billionaires in order to figure out new ways to attack the middle class.

But that's exactly what Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Florida Gov. Rick Scott did last weekend. ThinkProgress has the story:

As Texas faced some of the worst wildfires in its history and a severe drought crisis that has caused the federal government to declare the entire state a disaster area, its governor was schmoozing with well-heeled conservative donors in Vail, Colorado at a retreat organized by the right-wing industrialist Koch brothers. Gov. Rick Perry (R) left his state without notifying constituents or the press and dodged inquiries into his whereabouts....Perry has spent the past two months complaining that the Obama administration has not been paying enough attention to his state’s fires.

Meanwhile, in Florida, days after declaring a state of emergency for his state’s own climate crisis, Gov. Rick Scott (R) disappeared over the weekend, failing to disclose his whereabouts in his public schedule and refusing to respond to numerous press inquiries. Yesterday, Scott finally admitted he left the state without informing his constituents to attend the the Koch summit. Florida press spent most of the past few days trying to track down the rogue governor while more than 300 wildfires continue to burn in the state...

That's leadership for you.