Rick Perry’s decision to mandate HPV vaccines for sixth-grade girls back in 2007 has become a bone of contention on the campaign trail. Under the terms of Perry’s executive order, 12 year old girls in Texas were supposed to receive the Gardasil vaccine, which inoculates them against the human papillomavirus (HPV).

HPV is quite widespread, with approximately 50% of sexually-active adults acquiring it during their lifetime. However, according to the Center for Disease Control, in 90% of cases, the body’s immune system eliminates the virus without any adverse effects. But in the remaining 10% of cases, the virus can have serious side effects, including genital warts or cervical cancer.

It is because of the risk of sexually-transmitted diseases that many medical authorities recommend administering the HPV vaccine to all girls before they become sexually active. Even though the executive order was ultimately overturned by the Texas legislature, Perry’s attempt to impose the HPV vaccine by executive fiat is hard to reconcile with his promise to reduce the government’s role in people’s lives.

Fellow GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann criticized Perry’s decision, saying that “to have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat out wrong.” Even Democrats have joined in the criticism. During the 2010 election, they ran attack ads featuring menacing images of a needle poised to strike a young girl’s arm.

Perry’s decision also vexes social conservatives because inoculating girls against sexually-transmitted disease flies in the face of their support for abstinence-only sex education. Conservative Christian leaders were vocal in their opposition to the executive order, and their opposition was instrumental in convincing the legislature to overturn it.

Another issue with Perry’s support for the HPV vaccine is that Merck, the company that makes Gardasil, donated $30,000 to Perry’s campaign. The company also employs Perry’s former chief-of-staff as a lobbyist. Naturally, these close connections have given rise to claims that the Texas governor was acting more for the benefit of a major donor than the general public.

Although Michele Bachmann accused Perry of “crony capitalism,” he claimed that there was nothing untoward about the situation. “”If you’re saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I’m offended,” he replied. However, as noted above, Merck’s contribution was actually much greater than the $5,000 quoted by Perry.

Furthermore, Merck and its subsidiaries also contributed $380,000 to the Republican Governors Association once Perry took the helm of that organization in 2006. Now that Perry is coming under fire for his decision, he seems intent on distancing himself from it. During a recent debate, he admitted that, if he had to do it all over again, he would have approached the matter differently.

Meanwhile, his spokesman Mark Milner, accused Bachmann and others of staging histrionics in order to draw attention to themselves. “You have candidates out there that are trying to get attention and will throw outlandish accusations out there just to get their name in the paper,” Milner said. “What drove the governor on this issue was protecting life.”

Despite the Sturm und Drang that this has generated, Perry is still the candidate most likely to appeal to the right wing of the GOP. His social conservative credentials are still stronger than those of Mitt Romney, who is still struggling to overcome grassroots Republican opposition to Massachusetts’ healthcare law.

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Last Wednesday’s debate between Republican presidential hopefuls highlighted the sharp ideological divide between Texas governor Rick Perry and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as the two clashed over Social Security.

During the debate at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library, Perry called Social Security an unsustainable “Ponzi  scheme” and claimed that it gave young workers a false sense of security.

This echoes the arguments in his 2010 book Fed Up! in which he claimed that Social Security was unconstitutional and should be replaced with “retirement safety net that is no longer set up like an illegal Ponzi scheme, but rather will allow individuals to own and control their own retirement.” In recent weeks, Perry has also advocated transferring responsibility for Social Security to the states.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, came out in defense of Social Security, saying that its problems can be fixed. In particular, he advocates raising the retirement age and eliminating benefits for wealthy individuals. Perry’s decision to attack Social Security is a very risky move.

It has been an established part of the American political landscape since Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s, and politicians have traditionally been wary of attacking it because of its bipartisan support.

Writing to his brother in 1954, Republican president Dwight Eisenhower even went so far as to say that “should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.”

However, it is impossible to ignore the fact that Social Security is in danger. By 2023, forecasts predict that the income of the Social Security program will no longer be sufficient to meet its expenditures.

Predicted demographic shifts suggest that, by 2035, there will be less than three income earners supporting each retiree who receives Social Security benefits. Unless Congress acts, the Social Security Trust Fund could be drained by 2036.

Perry is almost certainly hoping that his strident criticism of Social Security will resonate with grassroots members who are eager to roll back the power of the federal government. He also seems to believe that the GOP needs to field a candidate who is diametrically opposed to President Obama.

“The point is we need to have a nominee that doesn’t blur the lines between themselves and the current resident of the White House,” Perry told an audience in Orange County, California on Thursday. If Perry continues down this road, he certainly won’t have to worry about being confused with Obama.

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Texas governor (and Republican presidential hopeful) Rick Perry has condemned a federal judge’s order blocking certain provisions of Texas’ controversial sonogram legislation.

The Texas law requires women who are contemplating an abortion to view a sonogram of their fetus. Furthermore, they must listen to its heartbeat. Their physician must describe its state of development, with particular emphasis on the presence of internal organs and limbs. It easily passed both houses of the Texas legislature, both of which are controlled by Republicans.

U. S. District Judge Sam Sparks ruled that the law was “unconstitutionally vague” and constituted an attempt to force doctors and patients to engage in government-mandated speech. In his judgment, Sparks said that “the Act’s onerous requirements will surely dissuade or prevent many competent doctors from performing abortions, making it significantly more difficult for pregnant women to obtain abortions.”

In addition, he found that the legislation “compels physicians to advance an ideological agenda with which they may not agree, regardless of any medical necessity, and irrespective of whether the pregnant women wish to listen.”

Sparks’ ruling prohibits the state from penalizing doctors who fail to comply with the act or women who fail to obtain the required sonogram within 24 hours of a scheduled abortion. Nancy Northup, President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, hailed the ruling as a “huge victory for women in Texas.” The Center is the organization that originally challenged the law in court.

“Politicians have no business telling doctors how to practice medicine or meddling in women’s private medical decisions,” she continued.

Gov. Rick Perry disagreed. “Every life lost to abortion is a tragedy and (the) ruling is a great disappointment to all Texans who stand in defense of life,” he said. “This important sonogram legislation ensures that every Texas woman seeking an abortion has all the facts about the life she is carrying, and understands the devastating impact of such a life-changing decision.”

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has announced that the state would appeal against Sparks’ ruling.

By coming out strongly in favor of the sonogram law, Perry is bolstering his credentials as a social conservative. His chief rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, on the other hand, has a reputation for being much more moderate on social issues. No doubt Perry hopes that his strident social conservatism will win him plaudits from the GOP faithful and catapult him to victory in the primaries.

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The federal courts could be in for a dramatic change if Texas governor Rick Perry wins the presidency. The Republican presidential hopeful is looking to curb the court’s alleged ‘judicial activism’ by ending the practice of appointing justices for life.

Under the US Constitution, federal judges (including Supreme Court justices) hold their seats for life and can only be removed after an impeachment trial in the Senate. Because their extended tenure allows them to shape judicial policy long after the president who appointed them has left office, their confirmation hearings in the Senate have become increasingly bitter in recent years.

In his 2010 book Fed Up!, Perry describes the Supreme Court as “nine oligarchs in robes” and calls for measures “to restrict the unlimited power of the courts to rule over us with no accountability.”

One of the measures that Perry briefly discusses is stripping justices of their life tenure. Instead, he supports a system where terms are staggered so that there is a retirement every two years or so. Each justice would serve for eighteen years, which would prevent any one president from being able to appoint a majority of the court.

Although Perry has cast his argument in terms of restraining judicial activism, others have called for an end to life tenure on medical grounds. In a January 2011 article on the the independent news site ProPublica, Joseph Goldstein highlighted the effect of senility and dementia on the federal bench.

He revealed that the percentage of octogenarians and nonagenarians hearing cases in federal courts has doubled over the past twenty years. Furthermore, forcing a debilitated judge off the bench is incredibly difficult. At present, it is usually done by behind-the-scenes peer pressure from fellow judges.

The last impeachment for mental incapacity was in 1803, and while it is possible for a federal judge to be forcibly retired due to permanent disability, this has only happened twice in the past twenty years.

Currently, there is a form of semi-retirement in place for federal judges. If a judge has reached the age of 65 and has served for at least fifteen years, they may elect to assume senior status, which entitles them to work part-time even though they have vacated their seat. They also continue to draw their full salary.

Although the scheme is designed to let elderly judges step aside with dignity to make room for new talent, its voluntary nature may undermine its effectiveness. Also, the idea of a judge handling any cases while suffering from a cognitive impairment tends to undermine confidence in the judiciary.

Although the majority of octogenarians and nonagenarians on the federal bench are almost certainly fit to serve, the question of what to do with judges who refuse to resign due to their declining faculties is one that will assume new urgency as the average lifespan increases.

In the end, it may be biology, not politics, that lends credence to Perry’s plan.

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Republican front runner Rick Perry was quick to criticize another stimulus plan, while offering no suggestions on how he plans to boost the economy. The Texas governor said on Monday in Tulsa, Oklahoma that no new economic stimulus package is needed to “get America working again.”

Perry said he would let his “guiding principles” as a fiscal conservative inform his policies if he were elected president. But, when asked for details, Perry resorted to general statements he has often repeated on the campaign trail.

“No. 1 is don’t spend all the money, you can figure out what that means,” Perry said at the Tulsa Press Club event also attended by U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. “You won’t have stimulus programs under a Perry presidency. You won’t spend all the money.”

Despite Perry’s strong stance against federal funds, his state benefitted greatly from the last economic stimulus package. Texas has used $17.4 billion in federal stimulus money In fact, Texas used the federal stimulus to balance its last two budgets.

Perry said the nation’s “entrepreneurial spirit” would create jobs and that his tax policies would allow Americans to keep more of what they earn. He said his tax system would be “light on job creators” and called for a more predictable legal system “that doesn’t allow for over-suing.”

“We have seen a clear thirst for leadership in this country,” Perry said. In his book — titled Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington — the Texas governor writes, “We are fed up with bailout after bailout and stimulus plan after stimulus plan, each one of which tosses principle out the window along with taxpayer money.”

Earlier on Monday, Perry’s focus was foreign policy. He said American military commanders should always control U.S. military forces abroad. “It’s not our interest to go it alone,” he said. “We respect our allies and we must always seek to engage them in military missions. But at the same time, we must be willing to act when it is time to act.

We cannot concede the moral authority of our nation to multilateral debating societies, and when our interests are threatened American soldiers should be led by American commanders.”

Although Perry did not say, he seems to be referring to NATO operations in Libya. The Libya operation is being run by a Canadian general from a NATO headquarters in Italy, but an American officer is the top NATO commander.

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Texas governor and presidential hopeful Rick Perry continued his criticism of social security at a campaign stop on Saturday. In Iowa, Perry called the entitlement program, “a monstrous lie.” In his 2010 book, “Fed Up!” Perry compared social security to an “illegal ponzi scheme” and suggested that it was unconstitutional.

While on the campaign trail in Iowa, Perry warned that President Obama has driven the nation’s economy into a ditch, arguing that his own record as governor qualifies him to lead the way out. “Instead of eliminating our economic crisis, he worsened it,” said Perry. “Instead of addressing the debt, he exploded it.” Perry stated that he has created 1 million jobs while he has been the leader of Texas. Of course, he did not mention that the majority of these jobs are minimum wage or government jobs. So much for limited government, huh?

Perry pointed out recent comments made by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that food stamps were helping to improve the economy by getting buying power into people’s hands.”Food stamps are not a solution, they are a symbol of the problem,” said Perry. “Today’s leaders see it differently.”

Perry sought to drive the problem home, noting that Iowa has suffered as well under the Obama administration.”Today, one in eight Iowans is on food stamps,” said Perry. “That is a testament to the widespread misery created by this administration.”

“It’s a statement that the state that feeds the world has so many people dependent on the government for food,” said Perry. “You have lost 12,000 jobs since the current resident of the White House took office,” said Perry. He again pointed out his allegedly superior record as governor.”Since I’ve become governor, Texas has created more than 1 million jobs, while the rest of the country has lost 2.5 million jobs,” said Perry. “We’ve got to stop spending money we don’t have,” said Perry. “I promise you this, I will work every day to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential to you as I can.”

Four hundred activists attended the picnic in Iowa. Rep. Ron Paul and Rep. Thaddeus McCotter of Michigan also attended the event, but Perry received the most attention.

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Texas Governor Rick Perry’s campaign is barely one week old, but has already seen its share of problems.  He used his book, “FED UP!” to answer a question at a campaign stop on day 2 of his new presidential campaign. However, the book with its radical ideas has plagued the presidential candidate on the campaign trail.

So, now his spokesman states the book is not a look forward to the future, but rather a description of the past. That is some interesting twisting.Last weekend, Perry did some more twisting at a campaign event in South Carolina comparing the Republicans struggle to lower taxes with the civil rights movement. Sigh.

“Listen, America’s gone a long way from the standpoint of civil rights and thank God we have,” Perry said. “We’ve gone from a country that made great strides in issues of civil rights, I think we all can be proud of that.

And as we go forward, America needs to be about freedom. It needs to be about freedom from overtaxation, freedom from over-litigation, freedom from over-regulation.

And Americans, regardless of what their cultural or ethnic background is, they need to know that they can come to America and you got a chance to have any dream come true because the economic climate is gonna be improved.”

Heading back to Texas for the first time since declaring his candidacy for president of the United States, Perry reportedly encouraged Texans to push back against criticism of the Lone Star State. According to the Associated Press, Perry said, “When the liberal pundits start trashing Texas … I want you all to stand up and say that dog won’t hunt.”

Meanwhile the Governor Rick Perry is sort of doing his governor type job by blocking Obamacare from being implemented in his state, a state with the highest percentage of uninsured residents. Now, there is a governor for you! Although Perry has stated that he supports a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, he is less clear about what alternatives he would support.

Texas has received various grants under Obama’s health care law to implement the health plan. But, when Republican state Rep. John Zerwas tried to move legislation to set up an insurance pool required by the national overhaul, Perry threatened to veto the legislation.

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Texas Governor Rick Perry has been everywhere recently, trying to convince the Republican Party that he would make a good leader. He uses his record as the longest continuously serving current U.S. governor, in Texas as proof for his case.

Perry states that the Texas economy is better than the national economy and that he would be able to fix the recession. Texas currently has an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent, while the national unemployment rate is 9.1 percent.

Perry’s state is in the middle of the ranking, 25 states have lower unemployment rates than Texas and 25 other states and Washington D.C. have higher unemployment rates. Between June 2009 and August 2011, 237,000 jobs were created in Texas but most of these jobs were in the government.

Although Texas is better than the national average in unemployment, the type of employment offered in Texas is poor. Texas has the highest percentage of workers paid at or below minimum wage at 9.54 percent. Texas ranks near the bottom of the union for healthcare. Twenty-two percent of children in Texas are without health care and 26 percent of all residents are uninsured. The national average is 17 percent.

Despite all of Perry’s outrageous comments and the poor ranking in his state, his limited plans for actual policy are a bit scary. In his book, “Fed Up!”, Perry suggested dismantling social security, calling it a ponzi scheme.

He thinks the federal government should not run Medicare and allow each state to decide if they want to have insurance for senior citizens or not.

Perry has suggested that the 16^th amendment be repealed which would no longer require Americans to pay income tax. Eighty percent of the government revenues comes from income taxes so without the 16^th amendment, it is unclear how Perry would pay for things like the
infrastructure, military or even the salaries of his employees.

In his book, he also criticized the 17^th amendment which allows for the direct election of U.S. Senators. His contradiction goes even farther when you investigate social issues. After New York legalized same-sex marriages, Perry said it was fine for New York because it should be up to each state.

However, he supports a federal marriage amendment which would outlaw same-sex marriages. So much for state’s rights and limited government. He is pro-life and, under his watch, Texas has made abortions harder for women to obtain.

He signed the Prenatal Protection Act in 2003 which defines a fetus as “human life.” He has limited late-term abortions and requires parental consent for minors to get an abortion. Just this May, Perry signed into law legislation requiring women to have a sonogram and hear the heartbeat before every abortion.

There are more Rick Perry social issues to examine. We will return to this matter another day. I am sure, in the meantime, he will keep us busy threatening government officials.

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Rick Perry, the Texas governor who entered the presidential race last weekend, has already started to make some strange remarks. The most obvious front runner has not stopped making stump speeches since entering the race. Unfortunately for Perry’s handlers, he likes to stray from his talking points.

During a stop in New Hampshire, Perry brought up border issues, stating that drones should be used in border patrol.  “Why not be flying those missions and using that real-time information to help our law enforcement?” He added, “Because if we will commit to that, I will suggest to you that we will be able to drive the drug cartels away from that border.”

Last year, Perry repeated his predator drone talk and also talked about deploying U.S. troops into Mexico to fight Mexican drug cartels. “I think we have to use every aspect of law enforcement that we have including the military,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC. “I think we have the same situation as we had in Colombia. Obviously, Mexico has to approve any type of assistance that we can give them.”

On Monday, Perry stated that it would be “treasonous” if Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke prints more money before the election. Perry stated during a speech in Iowa that if Bernanke “prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas.” Perry went on to say that if Bernanke printed more money, the act would be “almost treasonous in my opinion.”

He went on to say, “We’ve already tried this. All it’s going to be doing is devaluing the dollar in your pocket and we cannot afford that. We have to learn the lessons of the past three years that they’ve been devastating. The President of the United States has conducted an experiment on the American economy for almost the last three years, and it has gone tragically wrong and we need to send him a clear message in November of 2012 that new leadership is coming.”

Despite the immediate criticism via Twitter of Perry’s comments, he is refusing to back down. NYU economics professor Nouriel Roubini tweeted of Perry’s comments: “Perry’s Remarks on Bernanke are criminal. This Texan thug is making murder threats on the Fed Chairman.”

Tony Fratto, who served as Deputy Press Secretary to former President George W. Bush, also criticized Perry’s comments. Fratto tweeted: “Gov. Perry’s comments about Chmn. Bernanke are inappropriate and unpresidential.”

Perry was unapologetic on Tuesday. “I am just passionate about the issue and we stand by what we said,” said the Texas Republican during a stop in Iowa.

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Presidential contender Rick Perry has expressed his beliefs about intelligent design before, supporting  creationism as a theory taught in Texas classrooms. However, on Thursday, he was specifically asked his feelings about evolution during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.

“How old do I think the earth is? You know what, I don’t have any idea,” said the Texas governor when asked about his position on the issue by a woman and her son. “I know it’s pretty old so it goes back a long long way. I’m not sure anybody actually knows completely and absolutely how long, how old the earth is.”

Perry regarded evolution as “a theory that’s out there” and one that’s “got some gas in it.” He mentioned how both creationism and evolution are taught to students in public schools. He explained, “I figure you’re smart enough to figure out which one is right.”

Perry is not the first presidential contender to express doubt over a theory that most scientists believe. Earlier this summer, GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann expressed doubt about the theory of evolution.

“I support intelligent design,” she said after speaking at this year’s Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans. “What I support is putting all science on the table and then letting students decide. I don’t think it’s a good idea for government to come down on one side of scientific issue or another, when there is reasonable doubt on both sides.”

In 2006, Bachmann stated that some within the scientific community discredit the theory of evolution. “There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes, who believe in intelligent design,” she said.

Governor Perry was also asked about global warming. He wrote in his book, “Fed Up!” that doctored data was behind global warming. ”They know that we have been experiencing a cooling trend, that the complexities of the global atmosphere have often eluded the most sophisticated scientists and that draconian policies with dire economic effects based on so-called science may not stand the test of time,” Perry wrote.

He called former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his call to action on climate change, of being a ”false prophet of a secular carbon cult,”

In Bedford, New Hampshire on Wednesday, Perry suggested that politics is playing a large role in the global warming debate.”I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized.

I think there are a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects,” Perry said. “I think we’re seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change.

Yes, our climates change. They’ve been changing ever since the earth was formed. But I do not buy into, that a group of scientists, who in some cases were found to be manipulating this data.”

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