Rick Perry’s response to Texas wildfires offers glimpse of leadership
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on September 7th, 2011 4:34 am by HL
Rick Perry’s response to Texas wildfires offers glimpse of leadership
With wildfires raging across his state, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) assumed a familiar role this week: crisis commander in chief.
His abrupt decision this week to cut short his presidential campaign schedule in South Carolina to oversee his state’s response to the fires offers a glimpse of a central aspect of his leadership style — and a look at what kind of president he would be.
Since Perry took office in 2001, four hurricanes have made direct landfall in Texas. Another, Rita, came by way of Louisiana and caused more than $11 billion in damage. And then there was Katrina, which plowed into New Orleans in August 2005 and pushed hundreds of thousands of evacuees into the arms of Texas.
Many in U.S. slip from middle class, study finds
Nearly one in three Americans who grew up middle-class has slipped down the income ladder as an adult, according to a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Downward mobility is most common among middle-class people who are divorced or separated from their spouses, did not attend college, scored poorly on standardized tests, or used hard drugs, the report says.
“A middle-class upbringing does not guarantee the same status over the course of a lifetime,” the report says.
Man who lost wife on 9/11 finds way to fill the void
Sixth in a series.
Rhonda was a big woman, and Floyd liked that. She was 5 feet 9 inches tall, with bold red hair and a plus-sized personality. If there’s a photo out there somewhere in which she’s not smiling, it has never been found.
Floyd Rasmussen met Rhonda Sue Ridge at a church dance on New Year’s Eve 1973, when she was just 17. He was 31, a Vietnam vet with three kids and an ex-wife. His first marriage was a casualty of war, and he’d spent a few years carousing in Southern California before finding religion. He’d become a Mormon. As he slid across the room, angling for the pretty redhead, he didn’t realize she hadn’t yet graduated from high school. He asked her to dance.
Teamsters’ Hoffa stands by Labor Day remarks about tea party
Tea party groups called on him to apologize, but Teamsters’ boss Jimmy Hoffa kept to the remarks he made at a Labor Day rally in Detroit on Monday in which he called on workers to “take out” tea party members.
“We didn’t start this war – the right wing did,” Hoffa said in a statement Tuesday. “My comments on Labor Day in Detroit echo the anger and frustration of American workers who are under attack by corporate-funded politicians who want to destroy the middle class. We’re tired of seeing good-paying jobs shipped overseas. This fight is about the economy, it’s about jobs, and it’s about rebuilding America. As I said yesterday in Detroit, we all have to vote in order to take these anti-worker politicians out of office.”
Michele Bachmann’s rise and fall in the 2012 Republican primary
In politics, things change fast.
Less than a month ago, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann sat atop the political world fresh off her win at the Ames Straw Poll.
Today, two new polls show Bachmann’s support badly eroding — a finding that when coupled with a Labor Day staff shakeup raise serious questions about her ability to recapture the momentum that shot her into the top tier over the summer.
