Perry Breaks With a Fellow Texan: Bush

Perry Breaks With a Fellow Texan: Bush - AUSTIN, Tex. (NYTimes.com) — Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican contemplating a presidential run, shares many attributes with the last man who ran for president from here, his predecessor and onetime patron, George W. Bush. He has the same straight-legged Texas swagger; the down-home, clipped speaking style; the desert-baked conservatism.

But in recent years, Mr. Perry has broken politically with Mr. Bush, questioning his credentials as a fiscal conservative, accusing him of going on “a big government binge” and playing down some of Mr. Bush’s accomplishments in Texas in light of his own.

Mr. Perry’s public statements exposed a long-simmering rivalry that had been little known outside of the political fraternity here but underscores the rightward drift of the Republican Party since Mr. Bush was president. More acutely, Mr. Perry’s criticism holds potential peril and benefit for him should he decide to mount a presidential campaign, allowing him to establish an identity distinct from Mr. Bush but risking a guerrilla campaign against him by the former president’s inner circle.

Obama tries to stop execution in Texas of Mexican killer

Obama tries to stop execution in Texas of Mexican killer - (The Guardian) - President Barack Obama is attempting to block the execution in Texas on Thursday of a Mexican man because it would breach an international convention and do "irreparable harm" to US interests.

The White House has asked the US supreme court to put the execution of Humberto Leal Garcia on hold while Congress passes a law that would prevent the convicted rapist and murderer from being put to death along with dozens of other foreign nationals who were denied proper access to diplomatic representation before trials for capital crimes.

The administration moved after the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, brushed aside appeals from diplomats, top judges, senior military officers, the United Nations and former president George W Bush to stay Leal's execution because it could jeopardise American citizens arrested abroad as well as US diplomatic interests.

Leal, 38, was convicted in 1994 of the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in San Antonio. Few question that he was responsible for the killing but the Texas authorities failed to tell Leal, who was born in Mexico and has lived in the US since the age of two, that under the Vienna convention he was entitled to contact the Mexican consulate when he was arrested.

#AskObama : AFL-CIO's Twitter question for Obama: 'Where are the jobs?'

#AskObama : AFL-CIO's Twitter question for Obama: 'Where are the jobs?'

(By Michael O'Brien, The Hill) - A top labor union echoed Republicans in their question for President Obama ahead of his Twitter town hall on Wednesday afternoon.

"Where are the jobs?" the AFL-CIO asked Obama on its Twitter page, picking up on a refrain more typical of angry Republican lawmakers than labor groups.

Obama is set to take questions Wednesday afternoon over Twitter; a series of non-White House moderators will select questions for the president, culled using "#AskObama" as a hashtag.