GOP mega-donor Bob Perry, who helped finance 'Swift Boat' ads, dead at 80

Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle via AP, file

Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, seen here posing at the sales center at one of his Houston developments in 2002, died on Saturday. He was 80.

By Paul J. Weber and Will Weissert, The Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas -- Republican mega-donor Bob Perry never cared for the spotlight. But writing big checks and financing one of the most famous television ads ever in a presidential campaign made the Texas millionaire famous nonetheless.

A wealthy Houston homebuilder who shunned publicity while generously bankrolling GOP candidates ? and becoming a force in a new era of lavish spending in American politics ? Perry died over the weekend, said former Texas state Rep. Neal Jones, a close family friend.

Jones said late Sunday that Perry died "peacefully in his sleep" Saturday night. He did not offer further details.

"Mr. Perry was a wonderful friend to many all around the United States," Jones said. "With his passing we've lost a great patriot who has made a great difference in the lives of people all across the land. He will be sorely missed."

Perry was a fixture of GOP fundraising in Texas ? and nationally ? dating back to former President George W. Bush's Texas gubernatorial races in the mid-1990s. His largesse included giving $4.4 million in 2004 to the Swift Boat Veterans campaign that sought to discredit then-Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

Perry spent prolifically on politics but did so from a distance. He rarely gave interviews, skipped fancy fundraisers and was a mystery to even many of his benefactors.

Yet Perry couldn't avoid attention following his financing of the Swift Boat ads, which challenged Kerry's wartime service in Vietnam for which he received five medals. Some Democrats blamed Kerry's slow response to the criticism for sinking his candidacy.

Perry donated money to help start the veterans group at the urging of his friend John O'Neill, a Houston attorney who co-wrote "Unfit for Command," a book that questions Kerry's military service.

Bill Miller, an Austin lobbyist who Perry hired as a spokesman when scrutiny surrounding the ads erupted, said in 2004 that Perry's donation to the Swift Boat Veterans reflected his belief in the group's message.

"In my conversations with Bob, he just said, 'John contacted me, told me what he was trying to do, and it sounded good to me.' That's really the way he does it," Miller said in 2004. "People call him and pitch him, and if he likes what he hears, he'll write a check."

Perry was also a prominent financial supporter of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, but was not related. He was the founder of Houston-based Perry Homes, one of the largest homebuilders in Texas.

Last year alone, Bob Perry gave more than $18 million to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and organizations that backed his candidacy. That ranked him third among all Romney donors, behind only Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons.

Perry was also involved in state politics. Late last year, he gave $45,000 to George P. Bush, the 36-year-old nephew of former President George W. Bush who is now running for Texas Land Commissioner in his first bid for public office.

Perry's generosity extended to other statehouses, included in Wisconsin last year as Republican Gov. Scott Walker fought efforts for a recall. Perry donated at least $250,000 to help Walker keep his job, making Perry among the largest out-of-state donors.

Raised by a father who was a teacher and later became dean of students at Baylor University, Perry started his career as a high school teacher after college. But he switched professions in 1968 and established Perry Homes, where he made his fortune.

Related:

Money can't buy happiness, or an election

Builder who helped air 'Swift Boat' ads gives $3 million to pro-Romney super PAC

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This story was originally published on Mon Apr 15, 2013 5:21 AM EDT

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Venezuela's choice: Chavez heir or fresh start

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? Voters who kept Hugo Chavez in office for 14 years were deciding Sunday whether to elect the devoted lieutenant he chose to carry on the revolution that endeared him to the poor but that many Venezuelans believe is ruining the nation.

Across Caracas, trucks blaring bugle calls awoke Venezuelans long before dawn in the ruling socialists' traditional election day get-out-the-vote tactic. This time, they also boomed Chavez's voice singing the national anthem.

Nicolas Maduro was riding on Chavez's endorsement with a campaign largely silent on the issues but freighted with personal attacks that was otherwise little more than an unflagging tribute to the polarizing leader who died of cancer March 5.

Chavez's longtime Chavez foreign minister pinned his hopes on the immense loyalty for his boss among millions of poor beneficiaries of a socialist government's largesse and the heft of a state apparatus that Chavez skillfully consolidated.

The governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela deployed a well-worn get-out-the-vote machine spearheaded by loyal state employees. It also enjoyed a pervasive state media apparatus as part of a near monopoly on institutional power.

Challenger Henrique Capriles' aides accused Chavista loyalists in the judiciary of putting them at glaring disadvantage by impoverishing the campaign and opposition broadcast media by targeting them with unwarranted fines and prosecutions.

Capriles' main campaign weapon was simply to point out "the incompetence of the state," as he put it to reporters Saturday night.

Maduro, 50, was still favored, but his early big lead in opinion polls halved over the past two weeks in a country struggling with the legacy of Chavez's management of the world's largest oil reserves. Millions of Venezuelans were lifted out of poverty under Chavez, but many also believe that his confederates not only squandered but also plundered much of the $1 trillion in oil revenues during his time in office.

People are fed up with chronic power outages, crumbling infrastructure, unfinished public works projects, double-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages and rampant crime that has given Venezuela among the world's highest homicide and kidnapping rates.

"We can't continue to believe in messiahs," said Jose Romero, a 48-year-old industrial engineer who voted for Capriles in the central city of Valencia. "This country has learned a lot and today we know that one person can't fix everything."

In Caracas, 59-year-old street vendor Jose Alzualde said he believed, however, that "Chavez's legacy should continue." He said Venezuela "needs a united country in order to advance. There are political divisions that should end."

Capriles is a 40-year-old state governor who lost to Chavez in October's presidential election by a nearly 11-point margin, the best showing ever by a challenger to the longtime president.

He showed Maduro none of the respect he had accorded Chavez. Maduro hit back hard, at one point calling Capriles' backers "heirs of Hitler." It was an odd accusation considering that Capriles is the grandson of Holocaust survivors from Poland.

"Capriles ran a remarkable campaign that shows he has creativity, tenacity and disposition to play political hardball," said David Smilde, an analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America think tank.

At his campaign rallies, Capriles would read out a list of unfinished road, bridge and rail projects. Then he asked people what goods were scarce on store shelves. The opposition contends Chavez looted the treasury last year to buy re-election with government largesse. It also complains about the steady flow of cut-rate oil to Cuba, which Capriles says will end if he is elected.

Venezuela's $30 billion fiscal deficit accounts for about 10 percent of gross domestic product.

Maduro, a former union activist and bus driver with close ties to Cuba's leaders, constantly alleged that Capriles was conspiring with U.S. putschists to destabilize Venezuela and even suggested Washington had infected Chavez with the cancer that killed him.

He focused his campaign message on his mentor: "I am Chavez. We are all Chavez" and promised to expand anti-poverty programs.

Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank said Maduro campaigned "ineptly," trying too hard to "replay the Chavez script" and alienating moderate Chavistas.

Whoever wins Sunday will face no end of hard choices.

Many factories operate at half capacity because strict currency controls make it hard for them to pay for imported parts and materials. Business leaders say some companies are on verging on bankruptcy because they are unable to extend lines of credit with foreign suppliers.

Chavez imposed currency controls a decade ago trying to stem capital flight as his government expropriated large land parcels and dozens of businesses. Now, dollars sell on the black market at three times the official exchange rate and Maduro has had to devalue Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, twice this year.

Meanwhile, consumers grumble that stores are short of milk, butter, corn flour and other staples. The government blames hoarding, while the opposition points at the price controls imposed by Chavez in an attempt to bring down double-digit inflation.

A 40-year-old lawyer who sometimes works with the government said as he walked with his wife and two small children to the polls in central Caracas that he was fed up and voting for Capriles.

"But I can't say that openly because I could lose work," said the man, who would only give his first name, Marcelino.

"But we can't have fear," his wife, Lisette Ruiz, told him. "If Maduro wins everything is going to get worse."

Capriles said he will reverse land expropriations, which he says have ruined many farms and forced Venezuela to import food after previously being a net exporter of beef, rice, coffee and other foods. But even Capriles said currency and price controls cannot be immediately scrapped without triggering a disastrous run on the bolivar.

High international oil prices remain a boon for Venezuela, underpinning its economy. Chavez spent $500 billion to bolster social programs, trimming the poverty rate from 50 percent to about 30 percent.

But critics say the government has misused the oil industry, ordering the state oil company PDVSA into food distribution and financing of social programs while neglecting needed investment, causing production and refining to drop.

Venezuela's oil revenue is down from $5.6 billion five years ago to $3.8 billion in 2012, and PDVSA's debt climbed to $40 billion last year. The country even imports 100,000 barrels a day of gasoline from the United States.

___

Associated Press writers Fabiola Sanchez in Caracas and Vivian Sequera in Valencia, Venezuela contributed to this report.

___

Alexandra Olson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alexolson99

Frank Bajak on Twitter: http://twitter.com/fbajak

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/venezuelas-choice-chavez-heir-fresh-start-060843388.html

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Beyonce Bikini Pics: Hot! For H&M!

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Woods story, predictably, dominates CBS broadcast

Spectators walk past a leader board displaying Tiger Woods' two first two rounds scores before the third round of the Masters golf tournament Saturday, April 13, 2013, in Augusta, Ga. The score board reflects the 2-stroke penalty assessed to Woods for a drop in 2nd round of the Masters. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Spectators walk past a leader board displaying Tiger Woods' two first two rounds scores before the third round of the Masters golf tournament Saturday, April 13, 2013, in Augusta, Ga. The score board reflects the 2-stroke penalty assessed to Woods for a drop in 2nd round of the Masters. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

CBS announcer Jim Nantz led off the network's Masters coverage Saturday by describing what Tiger Woods did the day before on the 15th hole as an "innocent" and "absent-minded" mistake.

CBS devoted the first 12 minutes of its broadcast from the Masters entirely to Woods, who was given a two-stroke penalty earlier in the day for a bad drop that led to his signing an incorrect scorecard after his second round.

Woods' shot on the 15th hole of the second round hit the flag stick and bounced back into the water. He took his penalty drop 2 yards behind where he hit the original shot, a rules violation.

Woods was tied for 17th when the third-round broadcast started at 3 p.m. EDT, five shots off the lead. His story dominated the early coverage, and CBS didn't mention another player until 3:12 p.m., when it showed the leaderboard for the first time.

"A day of high drama at Augusta National Golf Club before a single shot was struck." was how Nantz described the scene.

The broadcast started with a live shot of Woods at the sixth hole and being applauded by the gallery.

From there, the network displayed the ruling that cost Woods two strokes but allowed him to remain in the tournament. It broke down what his three options were after his shot on the 15th hole on Friday ended up in the water, then aired a lengthy interview by Nantz of Fred Ridley, chairman of the Masters' competition committees.

Augusta National said it was Nantz who alerted Masters officials Friday that Woods' post-rounds comments were causing some doubts, leading to another review.

Woods had said after his round, "I went back to where I played it from, but went two yards further back and I tried to take two yards off the shot of what I felt I hit. And that should land me short of the flag and not have it either hit the flag or skip over the back. I felt that was going to be the right decision to take off four (yards) right there. And I did. It worked out perfectly."

"It was an innocent mistake," Nantz said, referring to Woods' actions.

Once CBS got through the initial wave of Woods coverage, it was largely business-as-usual, with cameras trained on an array of players over roughly the next 35 minutes. Then CBS again revisited the Woods matter, with analyst Nick Faldo ? a three-time Masters champion ? saying the way Friday's events transpired ultimately saved Woods.

Augusta National reviewed the matter Friday even before Woods' second round was complete and found no breach of rules. But when Woods said after the round that he chose to play his drop slightly farther back from where he played his original shot, Augusta National decided to review the matter once again.

"If this had all happened later at night, if somebody had called in late at night and then had gone back and reviewed everything, then in fact Tiger would be disqualified," Faldo said. "He would have signed for the wrong score. In a way, that helped him. They reviewed the situation, they decided from what they saw there was no infringement, but it was only after Tiger then said, 'Hey, I intentionally came back a couple of yards.'"

Faldo said he was surprised Woods did not know the rule, but added that he gave the world's No. 1 player "the benefit of doubt."

Earlier in the day, the Golf Channel's Brandel Chamblee said:

"The integrity of this sport is bigger than the desire to see Tiger Woods play golf today," Chamblee said. "I want to see Tiger Woods play golf. I have never seen anybody play golf like him. I want to see him make a run at Jack Nicklaus' majors record. I want to see that. But I don't want to see it this week; I don't want to see it under these circumstances. The right thing to do here, for Tiger and for the game, is for Tiger to disqualify himself."

Faldo agreed with Chamblee and didn't back down during the CBS broadcast.

"There was absolutely no intention to try to drop that as close to the divot, absolutely none at all," Faldo said. "So, in black and white, and that is the greatest thing about our game, our rules are very much black and white. You know, that's a breach of the rules. Simple as that."

Later in the telecast, Faldo's tone seemed more conciliatory.

Faldo reiterated that in his era, he thought most players ? when presented with a situation like the one Woods was in ? would either be disqualified or withdraw. But he stopped short of calling again for that to happen.

"We're in a new era now under new rules and even if they bring some controversy, Tiger is playing rightly under the new rules," Faldo said. "And myself and some of my old pros, we have to accept that now."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-13-GLF-Masters-Woods-CBS/id-8a8e4e77bcb14af6b722ad1b301c5d2d

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Korean Peninsula tense as anniversary of North?s founder nears

>>> last leg of his tour in asia as he continues to look for support to curbing north korea's nuclear program . chief foreign correspondent richard engel is live in seoul, south korea , with the very latest for us. richard, good morning.

>> reporter: good morning, lester. we are still here in seoul, and we are still waiting for north korea to test-fire at least one missile. we've been waiting now for days. is it hype? will it actually happen? tomorrow is a possibility. tomorrow is the anniversary of the birth of north korea 's founder. it is a time when there are traditionally military parades , military displays of power. it might happen then. the region remains on alert. so much so that one japanese official yesterday accidentally issued a warning to airports saying that the missile had already been fired, causing at least one airline delay. what you mentioned, however, on the diplomatic front, with secretary kerry in the region, could be the most significant development so far. the u.s. and china appear to be getting on the same page regarding north korea . both sides saying that there should be a resumption of negotiations, there should be work to denuclearize north korea . but north korea saying it will never give up its nuclear weapons . lester?

>> richard, thank you.

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RNC Doubles Down On Gay Marriage (ABC News)

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Verizon confirms 12-month Device Payment Plan for phones is launching April 21st

Look: we know many on Verizon aren't happy that the carrier has revealed plans to lengthen its upgrade intervals right as smartphone update season is hitting full stride. However, there may be a consolation prize. As of April 21st, "some devices" in its smartphone range, not just the existing tablets, will qualify for a Device Payment Plan that spreads out the full costs over the course of a year, letting those who crave the latest mobile hardware (presumably, you) upgrade without either having to sign a contract or pay everything up front. Sounds like a very UnCarrier thing to do, doesn't it? Not quite, unfortunately. The carrier tells us that these payments sit on top of existing service plans, not inside them -- the base service rate won't go down in year two. T-Mobile will remain the better bargain for anyone constantly replacing handsets, then, but those on Verizon will at least have a degree of freedom.

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