Tells the story!

Texas is near the bottom among the 50 states in per-capita spending on health and human services, but it is a leader in outsourcing these functions to private contractors. Since taking office in 2000, Perry has pushed some of the nation's most ambitious outsourcing endeavors, going well beyond his predecessor, George W. Bush.

"We have a leadership that believes the private sector does things better," said Celia Hagert, senior policy analyst and privatization expert at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research group in Austin.

"Whether it's ideology or philosophy – simply believing that people shouldn't be on these programs in the first place – these things have combined to create a very stingy social safety net system in Texas."

I know. I worked for it for 27 months.

Fixed:

Texas is near the bottom among the 50 states in per-capita spending on health and human services, but and it is a leader in outsourcing these functions to private contractors.

Or possibly even "because." Anybody got any controlled studies on mortality rates and profit?

Mississippi we'd be dead last.

Another is in our support for (by means of things like salary, with the exception of major sport coaches and athletic directors) higher education.

Another, with no exceptions, is our ability to provide our public school students with textbooks not contaminated by superstition in the name of faith-based correctness.

Bush, and his follow-on, did so much to destroy what Ann Richards built here (and she was working up to getting us into the top 40 states instead of the bottom 10) that it's nearly unbelievable.

I am going to say this NOW: Palin or not, anybody who promotes the idea that Rick Perry ought to be US President -- EVER -- is FITH beyond redemption.