Kinky for Perry
Aug 24, 2011 7:45 PM EDT
Kinky Friedman once ran against Rick Perry for the Texas governorship. So would the singer and writer vote for him for president? Hell, yes! The world’s most famous Jewish cowboy on why he wants to live in Rick Perry’s America.
BY Kinky the Great
Rick Perry has never lost an election; I’ve never won one. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with the world. On the other hand, I’ve long been friends with Bill Clinton and George W., and Rick Perry and I, though at times bitter adversaries, have remained friends as well. It’s not always easy to maintain friendships with politicians. To paraphrase Charles Lamb, you have to work at it like some men toil after virtue.


I have been quoted as saying that when I die, I am to be cremated, and the ashes are to be thrown in Rick Perry’s hair. Yet, simply put, Rick Perry and I are incapable of resisting each other’s charm. He is not only a good sport, he is a good, kindhearted man, and he once sat in on drums with ZZ Top. A guy like that can’t be all bad. When I ran for governor of Texas as an independent in 2006, the Crips and the Bloods ganged up on me. When I lost, I drove off in a 1937 Snit, refusing to concede to Perry. Three days later Rick called to give me a gracious little pep talk, effectively talking me down from jumping off the bridge of my nose. Very few others were calling at that time, by the way. Such is the nature of winning and losing and politicians and life. You might call what Rick did an act of random kindness. Yet in my mind it made him more than a politician, more than a musician; it made him a mensch.

These days, of course, I would support Charlie Sheen over Obama. Obama has done for the economy what pantyhose did for foreplay. Obama has been perpetually behind the curve. If the issue of the day is jobs and the economy, Rick Perry is certainly the nuts-and-bolts kind of guy you want in there. Even though my pal and fellow Texan Paul Begala has pointed out that no self-respecting Mexican would sneak across the border for one of Rick Perry’s low-level jobs, the stats don’t entirely lie. Compared with the rest of the country, Texas is kicking major ass in terms of jobs and the economy, and Rick should get credit for that, just as Obama should get credit for saying “No comment” to the young people of the Iranian revolution.

More to the point, could Rick Perry fix the economy? Hell, yes! Texas is exhibit A; Rick’s fingerprints are all over it. He’s been governor since Christ was a cowboy. The Lone Star State is booming. The last time I checked, Texas is kicking in a hell of a lot of the U.S. GDP. Unemployment is lower than the vast majority of the other states. Hell, we could probably even find a job for Paul Begala.


Kinky Friedman, left, listens to Texas Gov. Rick Perry during the 2006 Texas gubernatorial debate, Smiley N. Pool / AP-pool

As a Jewish cowboy (or “Juusshh,” as we say in Texas), I know Rick Perry to be a true friend of Israel, like Bill Clinton and George W. before him. There exists a visceral John Wayne kinship between Israelis and Texans, and Rick Perry gets it. That’s why he’s visited Israel on many more occasions than Obama, who’s been there exactly zero times as president. If I were Obama I wouldn’t go either. His favorability rating in Israel once clocked in at 4 percent. Say what you will about the Israelis, but they are not slow out of the chute. They know who their friends are. On the topic of the Holy Land, there remains the little matter of God. God talks to televangelists, football coaches, and people in mental hospitals. Why shouldn’t he talk to Rick Perry? In the spirit of Joseph Heller, I have a covenant with God. I leave him alone and he leaves me alone. If, however, I have a big problem, I ask God for the answer. He tells Rick Perry. And Rick tells me.

So would I support Rick Perry for president? Hell, yes! As the last nail that hasn’t been hammered down in this country, I agree with Rick that there are already too damn many laws, taxes, regulations, panels, committees, and bureaucrats. While Obama is busy putting the hyphen between “anal” and “retentive” Rick will be rolling up his sleeves and getting to work.

A still, small voice within keeps telling me that Rick Perry’s best day may yet be ahead of him, and so too, hopefully, will be America’s.

Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.

Kinky Friedman is a country music singer, politician, Texas Monthly columnist, the author of a successful mystery series, and was a candidate for Texas governor in 2006. His most recent book is Kinky’s Celebrity Pet Files. You can visit his website here.

For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.

Richard S. "Kinky" Friedman (born November 1, 1944[1]) is an American Texas Country singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician and former columnist for Texas Monthly who styles himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and Mark Twain.[2] He was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 election for the office of Governor of Texas. Receiving 12.6% of the vote, Friedman placed fourth in the six-person race.
Friedman was born in Chicago to Jewish parents, Dr. S. Thomas Friedman and his wife Minnie (Samet) Friedman. The family moved to a ranch in central Texas a few years later. Friedman had an early interest in both music and chess, and was chosen at age 7 as one of 50 local players to challenge U.S. grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky to simultaneous games in Houston. Reshevsky won all 50 games, but Friedman was by far the youngest competitor.
Friedman graduated from Austin High School in Austin, Texas in 1962 and earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 1966, majoring in Psychology. He took part in the Plan II Honors program and was a member of the Tau Delta Phi fraternity. During his freshman year, Chinga Chavin gave Friedman the nickname "Kinky" because of his curly hair.[3]
Friedman served two years in the United States Peace Corps, teaching in Borneo in Malaysia with John Gross.
By 1971, Friedman had formed his second band, Kinky Friedman and The Texas Jewboys, which many took to be a play on the name of the famous band Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. In keeping with the band's satirical nature, each member had a comical name: in addition to Kinky there was Little Jewford, Big Nig, Panama Red, Wichita Culpepper, Sky Cap Adams, Rainbow Colours, and Snakebite Jacobs. More conventionally named roadie Jack Slaughter and road manager/money collector Dylan Ferrero rounded out the crew and provided most of the driving of the "tour bus", a Cadillac with 10 year old expired license plates and a nasty predilection for going into a coma at the most inconvenient moment (but, according to Friedman, her talent lay in her ability to stop on a dime and pick up the change).
Friedman's father objected to the name of the band, calling it a "negative, hostile, peculiar thing",[6] which gave Kinky even more reason to choose the name.
Arriving on the wave of country rock following on from Gram Parsons, The Band, and the Eagles, Friedman originally found cult fame as a country and western singer. His break came in 1973 thanks to Commander Cody, who contacted Vanguard Music on his behalf. Friedman released Kinky Friedman in 1974 for ABC Records, then toured with Bob Dylan in 1975-6.[7] His repertoire mixed social commentary ("We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to You" and maudlin ballads ("Western Union Wire" with raucous humor (such as "Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in Bed". His "Ride 'Em Jewboy" was an extended tribute to the victims of the Holocaust.
One of his most famous numbers is "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore," a song in which Kinky verbally and physically beats up a drunken white racist who berates blacks, Jews, Greeks, and
"Oh, they ain't makin' Jews like Jesus anymore,
They ain't makin' carpenters that know what nails are for"
Other Friedman tunes include "The Ballad of Charles Whitman," in which Friedman lampooned Whitman's sniper attack from The University of Texas at Austin's Main Building tower on August 1, 1966. His cover of Chinga Chavin's "Asshole from El Paso", a parody of Merle Haggard's "Okie from Muskogee" is, perhaps, his most famous song.
In 1975, Friedman and his band taped an Austin City Limits show which was never aired. According to the show's executive producer, Terry Lickona, this is the first and only time in the show's long history that an episode went unaired. Lickona told the Austin Chronicle "I've seen it many times – it's a very popular party tape among friends. I think it was a great show, and it might be as offensive today as it was back then." [8]
In early 1976, he joined Bob Dylan on the second leg of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
Friedman was a musical guest on Saturday Night Live in October 1976.
Friedman claims to have been the first full-blooded Jew to take the stage at the Grand Ole Opry.
In February 2007, Sustain Records released a compilation of the songs of Kinky Friedman sung by other artists called Why the Hell Not.
On July 20, 2007, Friedman hosted the "Concert to Save Town Lake" to honor the memory of Lady Bird Johnson and her efforts to protect and preserve the shores of Town Lake in Austin, Texas.[10]
On April 27, 2011 Friedman launched his Springtime For Kinky Tour in Kansas City, Missouri at Knuckleheads Saloon[11] which includes dates in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky before heading towards the east coast. This will be followed by a tour of Australia with Van Dyke Parks.[12]
After his music career stalled in the 1980s, Friedman shifted his creative focus to writing detective novels. His books have similarities to his music, featuring a fictionalized version of himself solving crimes in New York City and dispensing jokes, wisdom, recipes, charm and Jameson's whiskey in equal measure. They are written in a straightforward style which owes a debt to Raymond Chandler. To date, he has written two novels that do not star the Kinky Friedman character: Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned and The Christmas Pig.
Friedman also wrote a regular column for the magazine Texas Monthly from April 2001 to March 2005 which was suspended during his run for governor of Texas.[13] In 2008, Texas Monthly brought his column back on a bimonthly basis.
Two books have been published collecting some of these nonfiction writings, as well as previously unpublished ones: 'Scuse Me While I Whip This Out and Texas Hold'em. He has also published a travelog (The Great Psychedelic Armadillo Picnic) and an etiquette guide.

On education, he supports higher pay for teachers and working to lower Texas's dropout rate.[19] He supports more investment in harnessing Texas's alternative fuel resources such as wind and biodiesel.[19] Friedman is opposed to the Trans-Texas Corridor since it relies on toll road construction. He feels that the TTC is a land grab of the ugliest kind, with land being taken from hard-working ranchers and farmers in little towns and villages all over Texas.[20]
On capital punishment, he previously summed up his position, "I am not anti-death penalty, but I'm damn sure anti-the-wrong-guy-getting-executed."[21] More recently, he has clarified his position: "The system is not perfect. Until it's perfect, let's do away with the death penalty."[22]
On illegal immigration, Kinky wants to increase the number of Texas National Guard troops on the border (from the current 1,500 to 10,000), impose $25,000 and $50,000 fines on companies that hire illegal immigrants and require foreign nationals seeking employment to purchase a foreign taxpayer ID card once they have passed a criminal background check. "Texas can no longer wait for our federal government to solve our illegal immigration problem," Friedman said. "These are steps that Texas can immediately take to help stem the tide of illegal immigrants penetrating our border
According to his official Web site,[20] Friedman's answer to the question "How does Kinky feel about abortion?" is "Kinky believes in a woman's right to choose." In person, he hedges his bet, saying "I'm not pro-life, and I'm not pro-choice. I'm pro-football."[25] On social issues he has supported gay marriage, answering an Associated Press reporter's question on the subject on Feb. 3, 2005, "I support gay marriage. I believe they have a right to be as miserable as the rest of us."[21] (Friedman himself has never been married.)
According to Cigar Aficionado magazine, Friedman plans to roll back "any and all smoking bans" if elected. One of his favorite quotes comes from Mark Twain: "If smoking is not allowed in heaven, I shall not go."[26] Friedman supports the decriminalization of marijuana, though he doesn't advocate making its sale legal. "I'm not talking about like Amsterdam," he noted, "We've got to clear some of the room out of the prisons so we can put the bad guys in there, like the pedophiles and the politicians."[
On August 9, 2007 the Austin American-Statesman reported that Friedman was considering another run for Governor of Texas in 2010. "I'm open to running", Friedman said, adding that he wouldn't make a final decision until after the 2008 elections.[28] On February 10, 2009 Friedman confirmed to the Associated Press that he was still interested in running.[29]
In an August 23, 2007 interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and a February 10, 2009 interview with the Associated Press, Friedman stated that if he did run in 2010, he would run as a Democrat, citing that "God probably couldn't have won as an independent" and that he was a Democrat all his life.[

Friedman prefers to smoke Montecristo No. 2 Cigars, the same brand once smoked by Fidel Castro. However, he also smokes Bolivars, noting that "Simón Bolívar is the only person in history to be exiled from a country named after him."[26] Friedman now makes eponymous cigars under the name Kinky Friedman Cigars.[36]
Friedman is given brief praise in Joseph Heller's 1976 novel, Good as Gold, in which a governor (meant to satirize Lyndon B. Johnson), tells the main character, Bruce Gold: "Gold, I like you. You remind me a lot of this famous country singer from Texas I'm crazy about, a fellow calls himself Kinky Friedman, the Original Texas Jewboy. Kinky's smarter, but I like you more."
Friedman is friends with Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and he has visited both at the White House. He wrote about his friendships with them in his November 2001 column ("Hail to the Kinkster"[13] for Texas Monthly.

Blut, Dready will love this news

"Never-Wrong" Pundit Predicts 2012 Win for Obama

American University professor puts 7-for-7 streak on the line in upcoming presidential election.

By Josh Voorhees | Posted Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011, at 4:04 PM EDT


History is on President Obama’s side as the 2012 elections approach.

And by "history" we mean Allan Lichtman, an American University professor who has gone 7-for-7 at predicting presidential elections since he developed his candidate-picking system roughly two decades ago.

Lichtman says that based on the 13 criteria he has used to correctly forecast every presidential election since Ronald Reagan’s re-election victory in 1984, Team Obama can rest easy. "Even if I am being conservative, I don’t see how Obama can lose," Lichtman told US News.

The college professor developed his system back in 1981 and published the rather basic formula in his book, The Keys to the White House. Basically, the "keys" test the recent performance of the party that is currently in the White House; according to US News, if six or more of them go against the party in power, then the opposing party can start picking out the bands they want at the inaugural ball.

"The keys have figured into popular politics a bit," Lichtman says. "They’ve never missed. They’ve been right seven elections in a row. A number that goes way beyond statistical significance in a record no other system even comes close to."

Here’s a brief rundown of how Lichtman scores Obama on the 13 criteria:

1) Incumbent party picks up seats in preceding mid-term. Point Republicans.

2) There is no serious challenger for the incumbent party nomination. Point Obama.

3) The incumbent party candidate is the sitting president. Point Obama.

4) There is no significant third party challenger. Point Obama.

5) The economy is not in a recession during the election campaign. Push (Lichtman declares this one “undecided.”)

6) Real per capita economic growth during the past term is at least equal to mean growth during the previous two terms. Point Republicans.

7) The incumbent administration pushes through major national policy changes. Point Obama.

8) There is no sustained social unrest during the previous term. Point Obama.

9) The incumbent administration has no major scandals. Point Obama.

10) The incumbent administration suffers no major foreign/military affairs failure. Point Obama.

11) The incumbent administration achieves a major success in foreign/military affairs. Point Obama.

12) The incumbent party candidate is charismatic. Point Republicans.

13) The challenging party candidate is not charismatic or a national hero. Point Obama.

Final score (again, we stress, on Lichtman’s scorecard): 9-3-1, Obama wins. US News has more on Lichtman's decision-making process here.

Atabey teams up with Blutarsky, and i get into the fray

Blut, Dready will love this news

i never told anyone that i am a supporter of Obama. i was the guy who called him a bum, for throwing Jeremiah Wright under the bus. he has done nothing revolutionary , nor creative, in American politics. he is just George Bush lite. the only reason he gets centerstage attention is that there is a vocal sector of angry white males, who cannot accept the fact that a black man is in the White House. therefore, he gets blamed if a bird hits a windshield. i can take the guy, or leave him, as i see nothing radical coming from his sector.