At Wednesday night’s Republican debate, Texas Governor Rick Perry said (when talking about mandatory vaccines for girls and women) “I will always err on the side of saving lives.” Later in the evening, he drew cheers for his record number of 234 executions, saying “Americans understand justice.” Video of death penalty exchange. Full transcript.

RANDALL WRAY, WrayR at umkc.edu Currently in New York, Wray, is professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He recently wrote the piece “With $300 Billion, The President Could Reduce Unemployment to Zero,” which was published by TruthDig and is available on Wray’s blog: http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com He said today: “President Obama gave a good,…

DAVID POTORTI, [in NYC] dpotort at gmail.com, ANDREA LeBLANC, aldvm at comcast.net, PAUL ARPAIA, paularpaia at mac.com Potorti, LeBlanc and Arpaia (who is recently back from Afghanistan) are members of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a group whose family members were killed in the attacks. The group recently issued the following statement: “The members…

HEIDI GARRETT-PELTIER, hpeltier at econs.umass.edu Assistant research professor at the Political Economy Research Institute, Garrett-Peltier is author of several reports on employment impacts of spending including “The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities” (with Robert Pollin) and “Pedestrian and Bicycle Infrastructure: A National Study of Employment Impacts.” She said today: “Many people…

McClatchy reports that “the bipartisan ‘super-committee’ of six Democrats and six Republicans has a goal of finding at least $1.5 trillion more in deficit reduction by Thanksgiving … will hold its first meeting on Sept. 8 [Thursday].” A coalition of organizations from both sides of the political spectrum recently released Green Scissors 2011, a report…

Reuters reports: “President Barack Obama unexpectedly asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday to withdraw a plan to limit smog pollution, handing a big win to business and Republicans…” BILL GALLEGOS, via Bobbi Murray, murratus at earthlink.net Gallegos is executive director of Communities for a Better Environment, which “organizes in working class communities of color…

MAX FRAAD WOLFF, mfwolff at aol.com Wolff is an instructor at the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University and senior analyst with Greencrest Capital. He just wrote a blog entry analyzing jobs numbers released this morning: “For the second time in monthly jobs report history we have created no new jobs.…

RAED JARRAR, jarrar.raed at gmail.com An Iraqi-American blogger and political analyst based in Washington D.C., Jarrar was in recently in Iraq. He said today: “This week, a U.S. diplomatic cable that was made public by WikiLeaks confirmed the news that in March 2006 U.S. troops handcuffed then executed eleven Iraqi civilians in Al-Ishaqi, north of…

AIMEE ALLISON, aimee at rootsaction.org Allison, co-executive director of Roots Action, said today, “Let big oil/coal pay for hurricane damage. Government welfare for oil, gas, coal, and nuclear should be eliminated. If cuts are to be made to reduce the national debt, they should begin with these kinds of subsidies, rather than in useful programs…

SARAH ANDERSON, CHUCK COLLINS, via Lacy MacAuley, lacy at ips-dc.org Anderson and Collins are among the authors of an Institute for Policy Studies report released today titled “Executive Excess 2011: The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging.” Among the findings: “The 25 tax-dodging CEOs the IPS report spotlights averaged $16.7 million in pay last year,…