Much of Governor Rick Perry’s political positions are becoming well known to those of us who are politically active. I have been researching into many of the GOP candidates that are running for the nomination. It is one thing to determine what a candidate stands for on the issues, it’s another to see what they have done in the privacy of their personal lives.

Very few of us completely agree on every issue that might come up in life. We have grown up with different life experiences and each of us react differently to those situations. To me, what a person does in relation to others without any prompting or political gain, says so much more about a persons character and beliefs than what they claim to believe in public. To whit, the reason for this article.

The personal history of Rick Perry is more diverse than what people might believe. The following is just a few brief glimpses into Perry’s long road he has toed to date. Nothing is more true than when Perry said “If you want to see God laugh, just tell him your plans.”

Rick Perry grew up in a very rural area of Texas, living and working with his parents, as most farming families do up till this day. Some of the early influences were the Boy Scouts and earning the Eagle Scout award, the 4H program, and learning to play the piano. All of this requires a person to have initiative and a work hard attitude.

Perry while at Texas A&M, joined the Corps of Cadets and was well liked and elected yell leader. He also sold books door to door to help pay for college. Vietnam was in the back of everyone’s mind at this point in time, as it was for Perry. He accepted a commission in the United States Air Force after graduating, completed pilot training, and flew tactical airlifts in Europe and the Middle East through most of the 1970s. He retired in 1977 as a captain and returned to Texas to work on the family’s cotton farm.

Colleagues of Perry during his tour have fond memories of him.

“People are assessing you from the moment you walk in the front door,” said Forman, an Abilene resident who served as an aircraft commander with the 772nd squadron. “You were dealing with massive personalities. All of us were extremely confident young men, and he thrived in that environment.”

“I remember he was slim, trim and in good athletic condition,” said William Alexander of Colleyville, another pilot who served at Dyess with Perry. “I thought he was a pretty sharp guy and dependable. Some (airmen) you had to worry about, but he was on top of things.”

Those times back then were easy compared to being governor of Texas. Texas National Guard and Reserve has been used to supplement military forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 10 years. Perry has had to comfort spouses and family that have lost loved ones who were killed in action.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry hugged Betty Martinez, the mother of fallen Army Pfc. John Edward Andrade, Sr. of San Antonio on Saturday, during a joint session of the Texas Legislature to honor fallen Texas servicemen in the House Chamber in Austin. Family members of fallen veterans crowded the House floor in a special joint session. State Sen. Brian Birdwell, who retired from the Army after being seriously burned in the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon, helped read the names of 96 service members killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For the returning soldiers, Perry has made it one of his top priorities to take care of them. Even while campaigning this September, Perry made time to attend the Lone Survivor Foundation’s Second Annual Gala.

“These are our precious sons and daughters; they are our flesh and blood,” Perry said. “We must take care of every last one of them. Organizations like the Lone Survivor Foundation are part of our helping meet that obligation, but the state has a role to play as well.”

For the members of the military, the return home can be every bit as trying as anything that happens on the battlefield, Perry said.

Gov. Rick Perry’s good friend, retired U.S. Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell and his dog, Rigby also attended the Gala.

Speaking of Marcus Luttrell, Gov. Perry has been there for him whenever needed.  After his therapy dog was murdered, Luttrell chased the perps down and held them at bay until police arrived to arrest them. Marcus ended up going to the Perry’s in need of support and comfort after his loss. The Perry’s offered Marcus an invitation to stay at their place as long as he needed to. Marcus has been an adopted family member ever since getting back from his traumatic ordeal in Afghanistan where he was the lone survivor of Seal Team 10.

Rick and Marcus spend time together to help raise funds to help others like Marcus coming back from war torn areas. They frequent the Texas Custom Choppers and raise funds by auctioning off a Harley Davidson Medal of Honor motorcycle signed by 17 Medal of Honor recipients.

Rick Perry has also taken the time to talk to those just going into the military.

As Perry mingled in the crowd following the townhall, he was approach by Joseph Buhr, an eighteen year old from Altoona, Iowa, who is set to enter basic training for the Marines in December. When he learned the young man would enter the Marines in one month, Perry put his arm around Buhr’s shoulder, drew him in, and whispered in his ear with a few words of advice.

“He told me that if I don’t come across certain challenges along the road of life, I should probably step up my game a bit,” Buhr recounted to ABC News after the exchange. “In the Marine Corps, that actually means quite a bit. You do have to compete quite a bit to succeed in that career.”

“It means a lot coming from a guy who has been very successful in life and who has also been in the military,” Buhr said. “All the advice I can get about life in the military, it means a lot. I don’t take it for granted.”

Such has been Rick Perry’s philosophy in life. He has also shown great compassion and friendship to those he’s come across who were suffering. He met up with Heather Burcham who was suffering from cervical cancer after contracting HPV. Perry developed a close friendship with Heather, spending personal time taking her out to do things she never had done before. Towards the last days of her life, Perry spent one on one time with her, alone, without any fan fair, talking about things that were going on. Rick Perry also spoke at her memorial service. It is extremely moving.

I’m sure there is much more Perry has done that we don’t know about. I had a hard time finding much of what is posted here. I believe that you gain greater insight into a person’s character when you look at what they did when no one was looking. Just the small amount of what I have found out about Perry shows me a person of great character and integrity. It reminds me of a quote from Mark Twain.

“Let us endeavour to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”

I have been studying many of the Republican candidates that have been running for the nomination. I would consider myself just like many others out there looking for a leader type in the mold of Reagan who can lead us back out of the Obama morass of our economy, and the scary world war of radical Islamic fundamentals against the rest of the world. This time I believe that the 2012 election will be a turning point for the rest of the century for the USA.

When Herman Cain first jumped into the GOP race, I really liked what I saw when researching his background. It read like someone who excelled at everything he did. I have personally known several people who are like this. They are very self confident and quite intelligent. I thought to myself this guy would be great as President. I even sent him some money early on.

Now I’m not one to blindly stick to a candidate and excuse everything they do. I can understand within reason, why someone will do what they do. The key I’m looking for in a candidate, when it comes to them being President, is how they react to unexpected events. This shows their style of leadership. I learned while in the military that there are several styles of leadership and it depends on matching the leadership style to the position in order to be successful.

Mr. Cain’s style of leadership is to rely heavily on others to do the heavy work. This works well in the business world because as top dog you give the orders and everyone follows, or they are gone. That is the reason why Cain has been so successful in business. He never had to know all the minute details, just the overall direction. You can see this as he pushes his 999 tax plan.

The Cain tax reform proposal is very bold, comparatively as bold as Obamacare is for the Democrats. In today’s Coffee and Markets edition, they compare not only the Cain and Perry tax proposals, but the likelihood of the plans passing congress. Noting that our founding fathers made our government to be slow in change, the likelihood of Cain’s bold tax plan passing, as is, is near zero. It doesn’t mean it couldn’t pass. It just means I agree with Ben on his opinion. A poll was taken of the Cain plan and the Perry flat tax plan, which showed a majority like the flat tax idea, while only a minority backed the Cain tax plan. The Fair Tax, which I would love to have, has been submitted to congress as a bill for quite some time, but has never gone anywhere. This is Cain’s ultimate goal, which I applaud and support. As a realist though, I know it would take moving mountains in order to ever pass such a tax system.

Ben noted that Perry’s tax plan is more likely to pass as it takes the current system, simplifies it and then makes it optional. The key point with Perry’s plan, is how realistic are your chances, that if you are elected to the office of the Presidency, to pass your proposed changes. The details put out by the Perry campaign are complete. It gives me confidence that Perry and his team know what they are doing and would hit the ground running if elected. I’ve read Cain’s plan at his website, which has details but still leaves me with questions like where does 9-0-9 come in? What other carve outs are coming?

It takes the right leadership and temperament to deal with so many others who you can’t order around or fire. In government, saying you have the people behind you means you have a majority of politicians elected by the people who agree with you. Even then, we know there is a plethora of opinions within a party, with ego’s to back them up. What would you do to corral a majority to your vision? What is your leadership style in this kind of situation?

Obama was able to excite people and have them follow him to the ballot box. His leadership style and solutions, on the other hand, have been a near complete failure to what America has needed these last 3 years. Looking to this next election, we should not only look for someone who can excite people, but also has the right leadership style to be a successful President of the USA.

So while you might be getting a tingle down your leg, make sure to sit back and ask yourself… What kind of leader do we need as President?

Ed Rollings came out on Halloween with a shocker. He told ABC News Monday that Michele Bachmann has “run out of money and ideas” and can no longer expect to win in Iowa.

Ed Rollins, who left the campaign in September, said the Minnesota congresswoman had backed off earlier comments by her campaign that Iowa was a “must-win” state because she lacked the finances, campaign structure, and ideas to win the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

“She’s still saying the same things she said in the first the debate. There’s no substance. She says, ‘I’m going to repeal Obamacare.’ But she’s been saying that from Day 1. I told her: That’s your Tea Party speech, now you have to say what you’re going to do next.”

Um ouch? Rollins gave an excuse that he was getting old and his health wasn’t that good to be going around full time campaigning. With the latest revelation, he might have been referring to his stress level in dealing with Bachmann. Rollins goes on to explain in more detail.

Rollins said he left the campaign because he didn’t want to spend an Iowa winter “fighting with a candidate who wouldn’t listen and had no money.” The campaign should focus solely on Iowa, he told her, but he says she wanted to campaign early on in New Hampshire, Florida and South Carolina.

Now Bachmann is regretting having hired Rollins to help run her campaign. She is showing her hand as a heavy handed manager who tends to conflict with those she hires for their expertise. This usually ends up having your dirty laundry leaked to the public.

There’s been no love lost between Rollins and Bachmann in the weeks since he left the campaign. They’ve traded barbs in the media. Bachmann recently joked that she wished she had Googled Rollins before hiring him.

But Rollins, who took former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to victory in Iowa in 2008, said Bachmann approached him three four times for the job.

Michele Bachmann claims that her campaign can be revived despite her flaming out in spectacular fashion. I give that chance about a one trillion to one odd currently.

I actually believe Ed Rollins with him being so forthright. He has stuck a knife and fork into Bachmann’s campaign, and in so many words, is saying she’s done.

The liberal bloggosphere and newspapers are really busy lately. Rick Perry made a nearly 30 minute speech up in New Hampshire at a place called Cornerstone on October 29th. I watched it. I thought his appearance on Fox News Sunday was good. Rick Perry was even better!

If this is Perry getting his groove on, I can see Perry coming back in the polls by the time the primaries hit. Also make note Perry references to Herman Cain in the speech in a nice but comparative way.

Perry also released a 30 second ad that is really REALLY good. Perry finally is getting his message strait and it’s a good one. Very positive and still comparing himself to everyone else. Has Perry finally figured out how to be successful in this Presidential campaign. I think so and look forward to more of it.

Check out even more of what Rick Perry is doing at The Rick Perry Report.

The thought of “why can’t government run like a business” comes across my mind every so often. I was in the Air Force, and was able to observe the budget process up front and center. I was even in on a “shopping spree” near the end of the fiscal year. I also saw wasteful spending nearly across the board. Most of the waste was in the way we had to buy supplies and replacement items.

There were a few times where someone would come up with a new process or item that would save a decent amount of money for the military. This resulted from a program that rewarded people with a “bonus” based on a percentage of the savings estimated. This was a good thing and gave us an incentive to look for ways to save.

I started to look at why the budget process for all departments seem to push for wasteful spending, yet it’s possible to have a program within governmental departments that gives incentive to save money. The government budget process is one where at the beginning of the fiscal year, a certain amount of money is set for each department. This money then has to last all 12 months until the next fiscal year. This means the incentive is to only buy essentials at the beginning of the year and then scrape by to save for the “just in case situation”. At the end of the year, the money that is left over has to be spent, because if you have to return money, your new budget will be cut by that much. This incentive is terrible.

I propose to make a small change in this incentive. Why not make an incentive like private business has? A bonus at the end of the year based on performance. So how would this work?

The concept is actually pretty simple. Change the budget process in which each department can keep any extra monies left over, and roll it into the next years budget. This would start to build a “just in case situation” cushion the following years. The incentive comes by issuing a bonus to department employees based on how much money was saved over the budgeted amount. For example, if 10% is saved, then a certain bonus amount is given out, say mid December. If more is saved then a higher bonus is given. This simple incentive would have everyone looking for ways to save. I would also empower department heads the ability to let deadweight employees go (fired). A recent survey found federal government employees were more likely to die on the job than to be fired. That would change.

So I ask myself again, why can’t government be run like a business? With this kind of simple change, at least simple to me, it would be possible. It would work to freeze department budgets instead of the usual increase. It would also improve performance and efficiency at the same time increasing pay to employees. Yes I do know it wouldn’t be completely simple to implement, but I’m sure with the right people it could be possible.

Your thoughts / feedback?

The left wing out there has been up in arms ever since the Citizens United case came out with the ruling that corporations could spend money on politics just like everyone else. Ever since this ruling, the left wing has been calling on the US Congress and the President to pass legislation overturning the ruling.

A group of liberal activists formed a while after the TEA parties were making news into a group called, none other than, The Coffee Party. It started when Annabel Park posted a video she made to her facebook page saying there should be a group to be the opposite of the TEA party.

Well it’s been a couple of years now and their official “Coffee Party Facebook page” has a whopping 405k ‘likes’. In comparison just one of the TEA party groups, the Tea Party Patriots have over double that amount.

So now after two and a half years, it seems that the ‘Coffee Party’ wants to have it’s own march on Washington D.C. with what they call “Enough is Enough” Citizen’s Intervention protest rally on October 29. I really doubt that they will have that many people show up. It will probably be around 10-20k at most especially if the weather turns bad.

It does seem that there will be a corporate strike back rally by some “corporate” types just to egg on these liberal eggheads. I figured I would post this story since it relates to the #OccupyWallStreet protests that have been going on. I am not in any position to visit and record this display of liberal ignorance. Anyone that can or has contacts that can, might take their time they are willing to waste and check it out. It might be hilarious enough to use it as comedic entertainment.

In other news…

Greed and tempers are rearing their ugly heads as over $500k in donations have rolled in for the #OWS folks. The New York Post is reporting that those inside the #OWS that have been putting time on the ground are getting fed up with the “leaders” not spreading the dough.

“F–k Finance. I hope Mayor Bloomberg gets an injunction and demands to see the movement’s books. We need to know how much money we really have and where it’s going,” said a frustrated Bryan Smith, 45, who joined OWS in Lower Manhattan nearly three weeks ago from Los Angeles, where he works in TV production.

He’s just one of the people fed up with the ‘ruling class’. Now in order to get funds for things, people have to fill out ‘paperwork’.

“The other day, I took in $2,000. I kept $650 for my group, and gave the rest to Finance. Then I went to them with a request — so many people need things, and they should not be going without basic comfort items — and I was told to fill out paperwork. Paperwork! Are they the government now?” Smith fumed, even as he cajoled the passing crowd for more cash.

I can’t tell you how hard I’m laughing right now. But the best part of the story comes at the end of the article.

Some activists, like those in Pulse, the committee that represents Zuccotti Park drummers, are a bit worn out by all the collective activity.

Last week, on a rainy night, someone stabbed holes in many of the protesters’ drums with a knife, said Elijah Moses, 19, of Queens, a founder of the Pulse Working Group. Moses asked the General Assembly — the nightly meeting where protesters collectively vote on OWS decisions — for $8,000 to replace the drums, and build a small shed to lock them up.

“They said no — they turned us down. I’m really frustrated,” said Moses

I just love it when reality slaps these people right in the face. Will they learn? Doubtful.

Steve Wynn had another conference call in which he went on another rant about the Obama administration and a few other related topics. To say it was insightful is an understatement. Here is a synopses.

“I am watching my employees standard of living drop off because of deficits. I think that the American public is beginning to make the connection between deficits and their own loss of the standard…

I say right now that the Democratic agenda of spend and bribe the public has bankrupt this country, and until it stops, the citizens of this country are in for more hard times. And fancy speeches aren’t going to change that. Only a fundamental realization that citizens are going to have to take real, sophisticated responsibility for how we allocate the resources of this country.”

Wynn continued to make really good points in this rant. He also said the following:

And I think that’s probably just right because until there is a change, until this all stops, it’s only going to get worse, no matter what anybody says in some fancy speech, even if it is the president, it is going to get worse. People say we’re angry at the government for not compromising both sides. Well, we don’t really have a situation that lends itself to what reasonable people would call compromise. We’ve got a situation that requires a change. That is to say one side is right here and the other side is wrong.

Steve Wynn is a registered Democrat and has mostly given to Democrats in the past. It seems though this Democrat has been mugged by reality and it left a really bad taste in his mouth.

You can listen to the whole conference call and the write up over at ZeroHedge.com

New details keep emerging as both conservative and liberal bloggers keep digging into Romney’s recent stint as Governor of Massachusetts. It recently came out that Romney’s closest advisers were invited by the Obama White House to discuss how to help craft the act known as Obamacare, using the Romneycare template. It’s bad enough that Romney has advisers that are on the same page policy wise with health care as the Obama administration. Now it seems that there are more connections that don’t bode well.

It seems that Romney is still an AWG believer and supports CO2 caps. If this isn’t bad enough, Romney went to Holdren, yes this John Holdren who Glenn Beck referred to as one of the most evil men in America, to help design his strict greenhouse gas regulations while as governor.

As they say the Devil is in the details. Are we left to wonder if Romney wins the Presidency, will he just hire on all of Obama’s advisers and Czars? It’s bad enough that the Democrats are already coming out with their attack on Mitt Romney with a “which Mitt?” theme. I think Perry should alter his Obama-lite moniker of Romney to one of “Obama 2.0″

. . . that if he voted for John McCain, the Internal Revenue Service would go after the president’s political enemies — and they were right!” so says TheOtherMcCain.

I’ve seen the IRS go after people’s accounts and leave them with nothing to live on. This is the biggest reason why I really like the FairTax. The FairTax means that you don’t owe any money unless you buy something. The only tracking needed to be done by the government is the businesses that do retail to customers. Stories like the one above would be a thing of the past.

I don’t know much about the story linked above other than someone is in need of help. Several conservative blog sites have linked to it. I put in $5 myself. If anyone else wants to help out, that is up to you. Figured I would at least let people know and let you all decide whether to help out or not. Read through to the link to the original post for updates.

The HotAir October Candidate Survey was put out and the results are now up.

As many of us here know, the readership of HotAir.com is probably a bit more conservative than the general GOP base on average. The results of the survey though show just how fluid the race still is.

Herman Cain has bolted to the top of the rankings of all preferred candidates to 39% from a low of 3% last month. Among declared candidates, Cain has 58%. Romney is holding at 6%, up from… 5%. Palin for some odd reason is holding at 32% even after it’s becoming obviously apparent that she isn’t running. Even Christie is clocking in at 6%, which I guess some think no means yes. Bachmann has completely collapsed down to 1% after going off the deep end.

Which brings me to Perry. Perry shot up to 48% in the previous month. Now he’s down to 12%. The illegal immigration issue seems to be hitting Perry hard. I think the “don’t have a heart” comment topped off the issue and has people seeing red. I have seen him in personal interviews that I mentioned in a previous post, where he’s much better now, but he’ll have to do much more in order to gain back support he’s lost. Personally I would recommend to Perry to hire Frank Luntz and work with him on getting a simple strait forward positive message that the majority population is looking for in such depressing times.

Other stats though show an interesting picture. The male to female ratio seems pretty high for males. Although I do have to ask, is that normal, as the tendency of the parties is to have a so called “gender gap”?

The most interesting part of the survey is the “committed” question. So many indicate that they are “very committed” to their candidate of choice, yet month to month now we’re seeing huge swings on the conservative side of the candidates. I don’t think people are as committed as they think they are. This is more telling than all the polls so far in the race.

One last thing, there are candidates who are consistently not getting much support. As you see in the polling, all of the candidates on the RINO side are showing a ceiling to their support instead of a bottom.