16 August 2011 PM: Rick Perry Follies and other topics

First, how about a bit of science. Bacteria can be engineered to kill other bacteria:

Nazanin Saeidi and Choon Kit Wong have found a new way of killing Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic species that thrives wherever humans are weak. It commonly infects hospital patients whose immune systems have taken a hit. It targets any tissue it can get a foothold on – lungs, bladders, guts – and it often causes fatal infections. To seek and destroy this threat, Saiedi and Wong have used the common lab bacterium Escherichia coli as a sacrificial pawn.

Their E.coli recruits produce a protein called LasR, which recognises molecules that P.aeruginosa cells use to communicate with one another. When LasR detects to these chemical signals, it switches on two genes. The first one arms the bomb. It produces pyocin, a toxin that kills P.aeruginosa by drilling through its outer wall and causing its innards to leak out. The second gene detonates the bomb. It produces a protein that causes the E.coli to burst apart, killing itself but also releasing a flood of deadly pyocin upon nearby P.aeruginosa.

Politics

Barack Obama: hitting hard on jobs! Haven’t we heard the saying “the Do Nothing Congress Won’t Do”?

Facts You hear conservatives lying about the marginal tax rates all of the time. Here is a bit of fact:

So, what is the opposition up to? Sucking up to the Tea Party?

Now there is Rick Perry. He is the one who is known for talking about secession. Sure, the right wingers will point out that he said this (one time):

Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday stuck by his earlier statement that Texas can secede from the United States — a far-reaching, legally questionable prospect that nevertheless drew Perry a fresh favorable mention by Rush Limbaugh, one of the nation’s leading conservative voices.

The idea of secession — which Perry did not endorse — surfaced suddenly Wednesday after Perry appeared at an anti-tax “tea party” at Austin City Hall, where some in his U.S. flag-waving audience shouted, “Secede!”

Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday there’s no reason to dissolve the United States’ ‘great union’ but that he can understand why Washington’s recent actions would make some want to.

According to The Associated Press, Perry suggested in response to a reporter’s question that Texans might at some point get so fed up with Democratic-led actions in Washington that they would want to secede.

“There’s a lot of different scenarios,” Perry said. “We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that? But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot.”

On Thursday, Perry called potential secession a “side issue of Texas history. … We are very proud of our Texas history; people discuss and debate the issues of can we break ourselves into five states, can we secede, a lot of interesting things that I’m sure Oklahoma and Pennsylvania would love to be able to say about their states, but the fact is, they can’t because they’re not Texas.”

A Perry spokeswoman said Perry believes Texas could secede if it wanted.

Sanford Levinson, a professor at the School of Law at the University of Texas at Austin, said that between the Texas Constitution, the U.S. Constitution and the 1845 Joint Resolution Annexing Texas to the United States, there is no explicit right for the state to return to its days as a republic.

Emphasis mine. (“thumb their noses”? By doing what, passing something with more votes??? Never mind that…)

But the above wasn’t the first time he mentioned secession:

Another thing: he is quick to rally the troops against threats…that don’t exist:

Rick Perry pulled a Michele Bachmann on Tuesday, passionately condemning a policy that does not actually exist.

This time round it was over farming issues. “If you’re a tractor driver, if you drive your tractor across a public road, you’re gonna have to have a commercial driver’s license. Now how idiotic is that?” perry told a Des Moines crowd. “What were they thinking?”

As it turns out, Perry’s claim is based off a false rumor that was circulating among farmers that the Department of Transportation recently put to rest. The Wall Street Journal reports that the confusion was over a federal review of a proposal by Illinois to require commercial licenses for farmers, but the DOT ultimately concluded — as Perry did — that “the common sense exemptions that allow farmers, their employers, and their families to accomplish their day-to-day work and transport their products to market” should not be tampered with by states.

“We have no intention of instituting onerous regulations on the hardworking farmers who feed our country and fuel our economy,” DOT Secretary Ray LaHood’s said in a statement responding to Perry’s claim.

And yes, Politifact rated this statement as FALSE.