Courting Iowa

Rick Perry turns to a cartoon ad to rip on Congress: But which career politicianis the real fox?

Congratulations, Rick Perry. You've set the bar so low with your recent Iowa ads that any spot that doesn't include an accidental rickroll has to be dubbed a winner.

Like the ad released on Wednesday, "Fox" — which features a cartoon fox. The spot takes Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul to task for being members (or former members) of Congress, ending in the rare debate moment where Perry seemed to complete a coherent thought about cutting congressional salaries and staffs, making the job "part-time."

Here's the grading metric: Does he open by hating on gay people in the military? Does he display cat-like reflexes in an awkward family photo? No? Success!

And yet this is the first sentence:

“The fox guarding the hen house is like asking a congressman to fix Washington: Bad idea.”

I just . . . who wrote that? It sounds the contents of a politically active fortune cookie. This is how analogies work, Perry campaign: "Asking a congressman to fix Washington is like a having a fox guard the hen house — it's a bad idea." See, I fixed all those tense issues and sentence fragments for you.

Grammar aside, are there people out there who think that the problem with Congress is that they accomplish too much? Does wanting a small government really mean that we won't even pay the people who are supposed to, you know, run it? And is anyone really going to buy this complaint from a man who defines the term "career politician"?

Then again, it's not like Congress needs the money.

Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Beyonce Super Bowl

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”

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