Can't post coherently on this "reveal" until my head stops spinning around on my neck ~ ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

Ted Cruz first out of the 2016 gate
03/23/15 08:47 AM
By Steve Benen

The 2016 presidential race has arguably been underway for months, but it lacked an important element: officially announced candidates. That changed overnight, when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) kicked off his campaign with an announcement on Twitter, unveiling a 30-second video filled with stock imagines and a voice-over from the far-right senator.


Cruz will follow the Twitter announcement with a formal kick-off event this morning in Lynchburg, Virginia, where the senator will deliver a speech at Liberty University, a right-wing evangelical school founded by the late Jerry Falwell, a radical TV preacher perhaps best known for blaming 9/11 on Americans. The Texan’s speech is expected to begin around 10 a.m.

To get a sense of Cruz’s platform, the candidate’s campaign website is up and running, and he stakes out the positions most would expect him to embrace. The site also glosses over the fact that Cruz hasn’t actually accomplished much since joining the Senate two years ago – note the text that uses phrases like “fought for” and “sponsored.” (The campaign’s online presence also overlooks Cruz’s most notable exploit since reaching Capitol Hill: the senator took a leading role in shutting down the federal government in October 2013.)

Of course, as any presidential campaign gets underway, the first question is always the same: does the candidate stand a good chance at success? In the case of Ted Cruz, answering the question isn’t as straightforward as it is with his likely rivals.

For many political scientists, assessing a national candidate’s odds starts and ends with the kind of backing he or she can expect from the party establishment – and on this front, Cruz appears doomed. During his two-year Senate career, the Republican lawmaker has managed to annoy nearly all of his colleagues in both parties. Much of the GOP establishment sees Cruz as an arrogant and intemperate radical who doesn’t play well with others. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) once called Cruz a “wacko bird.”

But that need not be the end of the conversation. Benjy Sarlin noted, “As much as any politician in America, Cruz embodies the tea party movement that has defined the GOP in the Obama era.” I couldn’t agree more. Cruz embodies the Republican Party’s id, not only more than his White House rivals, but perhaps more than any other national figure in GOP politics.

There’s a sizable portion of the Republican base that wants a GOP standard bearer who never compromises, who never accepts concessions, who insists on an all-confrontation-all-the-time posture, who sees critics as enemies, and who’s doctrinaire on far-right orthodoxy on every issue.

Ted Cruz fits the bill with surprising ease.

To be sure, in recent generations, no Republican presidential hopeful has persevered in the face of establishment opposition, but let’s not forget that Republican politics has been radicalized in recent years to a degree unseen in the modern era. It’s quite easy to imagine Cruz celebrating the fact that the party establishment doesn’t like him, exploiting that opposition to rally support from right-wing activists who believe their party compromises far too much already.

Recent polling shows Cruz running sixth or seventh in a crowded GOP field, but let’s not forget that as a Senate candidate in 2012, he faced similar circumstances – right up until he sailed past the better financed candidates who enjoyed support from the Texas Republican establishment.

With that race in mind, it’s hardly outrageous to think Cruz could fare quite well in a state like Iowa, where social conservatives dominate, and sticking around for a while after some of the field thins out. He’ll be an adept debater, an aggressive attack dog, and benefit from a significant donor/activist base, which doesn’t care that Cruz has failed miserably to be an effective senator.

Watch this space.

Postscript: Team Cruz apparently hasn’t taken url registration too seriously. TedCruz.com leads to a page supporting President Obama and calling for immigration reform, which the Texas Republican strongly opposes, while TedCruzForAmerica.com redirects to the White House’s health care website. What’s more, TedCruzForPresident.com was recently purchased by someone who is not a fan of the senator.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ted-cruz-first-out-the-2016-gate

I have learned it is dangerous to "misunderestimate" ANY GOP/TPer ~ ~ they have no moral compass and will say/do anything to fit the moment ~ Sooz

12 ridiculous Ted Cruz quotes that show why the ‘proud wacko bird’ will never be president
Scott Kaufman / 23 Mar 2015 at 10:00 ET

As the clock approached midnight the day before he planned to announce his presidential run, Senator Ted Cruz’s official Twitter account informed Americans that there would be “some news you won’t want to miss,” which denizens of Twitter used as inspiration to create a “#TedCruzCampaignSlogans” hashtag campaign ridiculing the senator’s presidential aspirations.

It’s not for nothing that they chose to ridicule Cruz, as he has said and done plenty in his short time in office that’s worthy of it.

1. “‘Net neutrality’ is Obamacare for the Internet”

In November of last year, after President Barack Obama announced his support for “net neutrality,” Cruz had no choice but to come out against it, tweeting “Net Neutrality’ is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.”

2. “Instead of nominating a health professional, he nominated someone who is an anti-gun activist”

In an interview with Candy Crowley, Cruz claimed that the president’s pick for surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, wasn’t qualified because of statements he had made about the Second Amendment.

3. Obama just a “social worker” who wants to put ISIS “on expanded Medicaid”

In an appearance on Fox News’ Hannity, Cruz complained that United States military leaders were taking too many cues from the president. “It’s not our job,” he said, “to be social workers in Iraq and put them all on expanded Medicaid. It is our job to kill terrorists who have declared war on America and who have demonstrated the intention and capability to murder innocent Americans.”

4. “It is the job of a chaplain to be insensitive to atheists”

Speaking at a home schooling convention, Cruz said that “we have never seen an administration with such hostility to religious faith. Last year, there was a chaplain in the Air Force up in Alaska who wrote in a blog post the phrase ‘There are no atheists in fox holes.’ He was ordered by his supervising officer to take it down. I guess it was deemed insensitive to atheists. I kind of thought it was the job of a chaplain to be insensitive to atheists.”

5. “I didn’t threaten to shut down the government”

After leading the GOP charge to shut down the government, Cruz repeatedly claimed that he had nothing to do with the GOP shutting down the government.

6. “I will renounce any Canadian citizenship”

After speaking to Donald Trump about a possible run for the White House, Cruz admitted that he was born in Calgary, Canada. However, he told The Dallas Morning News that “I will renounce any Canadian citizenship. Nothing against Canada, but I’m an American by birth and as a US senator I believe I should be only an American.”

7. “I expect them to start quartering soldiers in people’s homes soon”

At the 2013 Values Voter Summit, Cruz said Obama was intent on violating the entire Bill of Rights. “You look at our Constitution, you look at our Bill of Rights, this is an administration that seems bound and determined to violate every single one of our Bill or Rights,” he said, adding “I don’t know that they’ve yet violated the Third Amendment, but I expect them to start quartering soldiers in people’s homes soon.”

8. “Gay marriage” leads to Christianity becoming “hate speech”

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Cruz said that “if you look at other nations that have gone down the road towards gay marriage, that’s the next step of where it gets enforced. It gets enforced against Christian pastors who decline to perform gay marriages, who speak out and preach biblical truths on marriage, that has been defined elsewhere as hate speech, as inconsistent with the enlightened view of government.”

9. “I am a very, very proud wacko bird”

Responding to a statement by Senator John McCain that his opposition to immigration reform made him a “wacko bird,” Cruz to CBS News that “if standing for liberty and standing for the Constitution makes you a wacko bird then I am a very, very proud wacko bird.”

10. “I have never seen a Hispanic panhandler”

On Fox News Sunday in 2012, Cruz told host Chris Wallace that, “in my life, I have never once seen an Hispanic panhandler. In our community, it would be viewed as shameful to be out on the street begging.”

11. “Your world is on fire!”

At an event in New Hampshire last week, Cruz said “the Obama-Clinton foreign policy of leading from behind — the whole world is on fire.” When a little girl replied, “the world is on fire?” Cruz responded by saying, “Yes! Your world is on fire!”

12. “Green Eggs and Ham”

During his “filibuster” of the Affordable Care Act, Cruz took time out to read his daughters a bedtime story. “I don’t get to read it that often because I tell them, ‘Go pick the books you want to read and I read it to them,’” Cruz said on the Senate floor. “But since tonight, girls, you aren’t here, you don’t get to pick the book, so I get to pick Green Eggs and Ham.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/12-ridiculous-ted-cruz-quotes-that-show-why-the-proud-wacko-bird-will-never-be-president/

“I will renounce any Canadian citizenship”

And we're still waiting, arsehat. The sooner you do it the sooner the quality of Canada's citizens improves.

Josh Marshall today re-published his original comments from September 2013 about Ted Cruz [just a few months after Cruz was elected to the Senate] ~ seems Cruz's public persona IS the real Ted Cruz ~ ~ Sooz

Me & Ted
By Josh Marshall Published September 23, 2013, 11:13 AM EDT

You may have noticed I don't particularly like Ted Cruz. That's not because of his politics, which probably obviously I disagree with in almost every particular. It's him. I've wanted to do a post about this because it turns out Ted and I have a history, though one I didn't even know about (or perhaps remember) until after he was elected.

Last year, I heard there was a Tea Party guy running for Senate in Texas named Ted Cruz. I didn't think a lot about it (since it wasn't a competitive race in the general) or have any sense I had any connection to him. But then after he was elected I started noticing and thinking, wow, this guy seems like a royal jerk.

And at some point my wife said, "You don't remember?"

Well, it turns out Ted and I went to college together. And not just we happened to be at the same place at the same time. We were both at a pretty small part of a relatively small university. We both went to Princeton. I was one year ahead of him. But we were both in the same residential college, which basically meant a small cluster of dorms of freshmen and sophomores numbering four or five hundred students who all ate in the same dining hall.

My wife meanwhile was also in the same residential college and she was actually Ted's year - Class of 92. [In case you're wondering, no, my wife and I haven't been together for 25 years. We knew each other in college but only got together as a couple a dozen years later.] She totally remembered Ted and basically as a conceited and fairly nerdy jerk.

But the weird thing was I didn't remember him. And the context here is that I have a really good memory. If we meet after twenty years, I'm far more likely to remember you than vice versa and I'll probably remember little details about you too. I don't forget a lot of stuff, especially people. But I didn't remember the name or the guy I was seeing on TV.

As it turned out, though, almost everyone I knew well in college remembered him really well. Vividly. And I knew a number of his friends. But for whatever reason I just didn't remember him. When I saw college pictures of him, I thought okay, yeah, I remember that guy but sort of in the way where you're not 100% sure you're not manufacturing the recollection.

I was curious. Was this just my wife who tends to be a get-along and go-along kind of person? So I started getting in touch with a lot of old friends and asking whether they remembered Ted. It was an experience really unlike I've ever had. Everybody I talked to - men and women, cool kids and nerds, conservative and liberal - started the conversation pretty much the same.

"Ted? Oh yeah, immense a*#hole." Sometimes "total raging a#%hole." Sometimes other variations on the theme. But you get the idea. Very common reaction.

But that wasn't all. Before retelling this or that anecdote, there was one other thing that everybody said, "A really, really smart dude."

Among other things, it was a mystery to me how and why this guy had made such a strong impression on so many people but I'd just missed or forgotten him. Here's a story about Ted's college years from last month in the DailyBeast. I remember the name and face of every other student mentioned. But not Ted. Maybe that's because I spent a lot of my sophomore year in kind of a fog. But it didn't stop me from getting to know lots of other people who arrived that year - like my future wife, for instance.

Here's the gist from that DB story ...


But there's more to the story. Because my wife didn't just go to college with Ted. She also went to law school with him. They were both in the same class at Harvard Law School. And it was actually from Harvard where she seemed to have the strongest and most negative memories of him. So I started asking Harvard classmates about him too. Same stories. Let's call it AASS. A#$hole, Arrogant, Super Smart.

The stories, well ... the stories. One of the best was one I heard early this year from a number of people. Here's the version I heard from an email back in February.


As my correspondent notes, Ted managed to distinguish himself as a arrogant a#@hole at Harvard Law School, which is an amazing accomplishment since the competition there for that description is intense. This is the story Jason Zengerle managed to confirm for his new article in GQ. And I'm glad he did. I've been wondering about how much of this to report out myself. But I felt like I had kind of a conflict of interest or maybe unfair advantage knowing so many of the people first hand.

At each stage, Ted did seem to collect a quite small but core group of friends/followers, mainly people who were deeply in tune with his politics (he was as rightwing on day one at college as he is today) and who took what most found to be his assholery as a form of take-no-prisoners conservative badassdom. Indeed, if you think this is an issue of whom I talked to, just like-minded people maybe, consider this: It perfectly mirrors what's happened over the last year in the Senate. Cruz has a small handful of followers in the Senate; but basically everyone else in his Republican caucus despises him.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Ted was a big, big deal in the hyper-competitive and - c'mon - somewhat ridiculous world of college debate. So again ... let's not even belabor it. "Ted?" "Unbelievable A#*hole."

Over the last few months I did some poking around too in Ted's last past his late 20s. Unlike his college and law school years when I had tons of mutual acquaintances I could go to, here I had fewer. But the gist was the same.

And this is why I've been saying since Ted Cruz replaced Michele Bachmann as the King of the Tea Partiers that the reaction to Cruz in the senate is simply the reaction Ted's gotten at least at every stage of his life since he arrived at college in 1988. An incredibly bright guy who's an arrogant jerk who basically everybody ends up hating.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/me-ted

Rather superficial, IMO.
So what if you think he's an arrogant arsehole. It's irrelevant.
What is important is whether he'd make a good president or not.
Pierre Trudeau was very arrogant, an arsehole to many people and somewhat abrasive to boot, yet he's rated as Canada's best Prime Minister... ever.

OTOH, Dubya is a very charming and gregarious individual.
How good a president was he?

How could anyone generally seen as "very smart" by so many be this DUMB? ~ ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

Five Conspiracy Theories That Ted Cruz Actually Believes
by Ian Millhiser Posted on March 23, 2015 at 10:08 am

The following list is updated from a 2013 ThinkProgress post responding to reports that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was considering a presidential run.

Shortly after midnight on Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) released a video announcing that he will seek his party’s nomination for the presidency in 2016. He will deliver his first speech as an announced presidential candidate at Liberty University, a conservative Christian school founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, Sr. According to the New York Times, student attendance at Cruz’s speech in mandatory.

Cruz, who famously led a 2013 fight to shut down the federal government in a failed attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act, could resonate with the segment of the GOP electorate that is inclined to believe outlandish conspiracy theories about global cabals, communists, and liberal billionaires. After all, Cruz is a member of this segment himself. Here’s a list of five conspiracy theories that this senator who wants to be president actually believes:


Cruz is the first 2016 candidate to officially announce their entry into the race, although others have taken preliminary steps.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/03/23/3637462/five-conspiracy-theories-ted-cruz-actually-believes/

I think that's a "done deal", oskar ~ I'll try to find something that confirms or denies that this morning ~

Sooz

Here it is.
Canada thanks you, Mr. Cruz.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ted-cruz-t ... -1.2671479

You definitely raise points to think about, oskar ~ but given Cruz's extremism on virtually everything, I don't see his asshole-ism as "superficial" or "irrelevant" ~ it's important for people to know this is nothing "new" for him and that he is intent on widening the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" ~

Sooz

Thanks, oskar ~

Sooz

Dear Canada:

Please keep your wacko birds from flying south. There are wacko droppings all over the place. Plus we already have more wacko birds than we can handle.

Sincerely,
John59

Beiber's next... and what will it take to get rid of Harper?

Anyway, my point was along the lines of, "How many people vote for Mr. X simply because he 'looks presidential'?"

If Presidential appearance is the criterion for election to the office, Cruz is deep shit.

Anybody who has ever accidentally tuned in to a TV evangelist, and quickly changed the channel; Anybody who has ever opened the front door to find a vacuum cleaner salesman smiling at them, or a Jehovah's Witness offering them a free copy of Watchtower; Anyone who's ever been at a family gathering with an obnoxious inlaw who loudly enlightens everyone about who really brought down the twin towers and shot JFK...will immediately recognize Cruz when they hear him in the campaign trail. None of those people will vote for him, and neither will almost everyone else.

Probably brainwashed kids at Liberty U. will vote for him, if they get extra credit for it.

The more we learn, the worse it gets ~ ~ emphasis/bolding below is mine, and there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

The political salience of Liberty U
03/23/15 11:27 AM—Updated 03/23/15 02:25 PM
By Steve Benen

Sometimes, where a presidential candidate launches his or her campaign is every bit as significant as what’s said in the campaign kick-off. In February 2007, for example, Barack Obama began his journey to the White House where Abraham Lincoln denounced slavery a century and a half earlier.

“[I]n the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a divided house to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the United States,” Obama said.

The literal, physical place carried its own significance, and was intended to convey a thematic message to the country about what kind of candidate Obama wanted to be.

Similarly, eight years later, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) launched his presidential campaign this morning at Liberty University, an evangelical school in Lynchburg, Virginia, created by the late TV preacher Jerry Falwell. And this, too, carries its own significance, conveying a specific message about the Republican senator.

As longtime readers may recall, Liberty University is burdened with an ironic name. The restrictions placed on Liberty’s students are the stuff of legend – its code of conduct dictates that students are prohibited from seeing R-rated movies, listening to music that is not “in harmony with God’s word,” drinking alcohol, dancing, or kissing. Women on campus are prohibited from wearing dresses or skirts “shorter than the top of the knee.”

At one point, Liberty even banned students who wanted to form an on-campus Democratic Party group.

A couple of years ago, however, Liberty announced that students would be allowed to carry loaded firearms on campus.


The shift created a unique academic environment.

At Liberty University, students are far more likely to see someone carrying a semi-automatic than carrying a bottle of beer. Mini-skirts have been deemed inappropriate, but loaded handguns have been deemed entirely appropriate. Students can see an extended magazine, but they can’t see “American Sniper.”

And this is just the school. Don’t get me started on some of the jaw-dropping comments Falwell, Liberty’s founder, made during his notorious career. The list includes Falwell blaming the 9/11 attacks on Americans.

Cruz wasn’t just looking for a venue within driving distance of the D.C. Beltway. He saw symbolic value in choosing Liberty U, and the selection speaks volumes.

* Update: According to a National Journal report, student attendance at the Cruz event was mandatory. Students at Liberty who did not attend faced a $10 fine.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-political-salience-liberty-u#break

Ted Cruz is ... deeply delusional, at best ~ ~ Sooz

President Cruz is like George Washington, FDR, and Reagan defeating communism — says Ted Cruz
David Edwards / 23 Mar 2015 at 11:52 ET

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested on Monday that his presidency would be like George Washington in the Revolutionary War, Franklin D. Roosevelt fighting World War II and Ronald Reagan defeating communism all rolled into one.

Speaking at Liberty University in Virginia, Cruz told students that the United States needed a president who would stand “unapologetically with Israel” and a president who would “honor the Constitution” by defeating radical Islamic terrorism.

“These seem difficult,” Cruz admitted. “Indeed to some, they may seem unimaginable. And yet, if you look in the history of our country — imagine it’s 1775 and you and I were sitting there in Richmond listening to Patrick Henry say, ‘Give me liberty or give me death.’ Imagine it’s 1776 and we were watching the 54 signers of the Declaration of Independence stand together and pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to igniting the promise of America.”

“Imagine it was 1777 and we were watching General Washington as he lost battle after battle after battle in the freezing cold as his soldiers with no shoes were dying fighting for freedom against the most powerful army in the world,” he continued. “That too seemed unimaginable. Imagine it’s 1933 and we were listening to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tell America at a time of crushing depression, at a time of a gathering storm abroad that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

“Imagine it’s 1979 and you and I were listening to Ronald Reagan and he was telling us that we would cut the top marginal tax rate from 70 percent all the way down to 28 percent, that we would go from crushing stagnation to booming economic growth to millions being lifted out of poverty and into prosperity and abundance.”

Cruz also fondly recalled Reagan’s foreign policy: “The very day that he was sworn in, our hostages who were languishing in Iran would be released. And that within a decade, we would win the cold war and tear the Berlin Wall to the ground.”

According to the Texas Republican, all of those accomplishments seemed “unimaginable,” but they happened because of the “grace of God.”

“Compared to that, repealing Obamacare and abolishing the IRS ain’t all that tough,” Cruz opined. “I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to re-ignite the promise of America.”

“And that is why, today, I’m announcing that I’m running for president of the United States.”

Watch the video below from MSNBC, broadcast March 23, 2015.


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/president-cruz-is-like-george-washington-fdr-and-reagan-defeating-communism-says-ted-cruz/

Cruz IS delusional ~ posted without further comment until my blood pressure returns to normal ~ ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

Ted Cruz Launches White House Bid By Appealing To A Voting Bloc That Doesn’t Exist
by Alice Ollstein & Jack Jenkins Posted on March 23, 2015 at 1:07 pm Updated: March 23, 2015 at 3:07 pm

“Our God is greater. Our God is stronger. Our God is higher than any other!” crooned the band on stage at Lynchburg, Virginia’s evangelical Liberty University that opened for presidential hopeful and Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

Cruz, who announced his bid for the White House at the conservative religious college on Monday, peppered his speech with references to how much his Christian faith shapes his policy views.

“Our rights don’t come from man. They come from God Almighty,” he said. “And I believe God isn’t done with America yet.”

The thousands of students in the stadium Monday, who were required by the University to attend the speech, cheered when Cruz called on them to become part of his “grassroots army” of voters.

“Roughly half of born again Christians aren’t voting. They’re staying home,” Cruz said. “But imagine millions of people of faith coming out to the polls and voting our values. Think how different the world will be.”

Yet if Cruz really wants to appeal to the evangelical vote, he might need to change his tune on a few things — especially immigration reform, which he has a history of trying to block. For several years, polls have shown that the majority of evangelical Christians support a viable pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and evangelical leaders played a pivotal role during the nationwide push for comprehensive immigration reform in 2013.

Cruz paid lip service to immigration reform in his speech, asking attendees to imagine “a legal immigration system that welcomes and celebrates those who come to achieve the American dream.” But his words stand in stark contrast to his past actions: Since 2012, Cruz has threatened to block federal funding to assist with the recent border crisis unless President Obama ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program granting temporary legal presence to more than 550,000 undocumented youths; introduced an amendment to the 2013 Senate immigration reform bill that would have prevented undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. from ever becoming citizens; and even created a campaign ad celebrating his role in the execution of an undocumented immigrant.

Cruz might also run into trouble with many evangelical ministers over the issue of gun violence prevention. He trumpeted his support for gun rights in his speech, decrying “a government that works to undermine our Second Amendment rights, that seeks to ban our ammunition,” and advocated for a system “that protects the right to keep and bear arms of all law-abiding Americans.” But according to a 2013 survey conducted by the National Association of Evangelicals, 73 percent of evangelical leaders support increasing restrictions on guns.

These faith leaders, however, are likely not Cruz’s target audience. Both before and during his time in the US Senate, Cruz has embraced religious leaders who espouse extreme right-wing theologies and policies. He has publicly received blessings from pastors such as David Lane — who has called for evangelicals to “wage war to restore America to our Judeo-Christian heritage” — and David Barton, who has denied the legal separation of church and state and suggested the federal government should regulate homosexuality as an “unhealthy lifestyle.”

Cruz has also vowed to continue opposing marriage equality for LGBT couples, despite increasing support both in his party and nationally.

Cruz has even prioritized protecting faith-based discrimination over the Tea Party values of combating government overreach and preserving local control. Just last week, Cruz unveiled a plan to overturn two Washington, D.C. laws — one that prevents discrimination against LGBT people in all schools in the District, and another that prevents faith institutions from retaliating against workers who have abortions. Local D.C. groups are calling the move hypocritical, noting that Cruz frequently rails against federal government overreach and for local control.

http://thinkprogress.org/election/2015/03/23/3637464/biggest-problem-ted-cruzs-efforts-pander-evangelicals/

“Our rights don’t come from man. They come from God Almighty,” he said. “And I believe God isn’t done with America yet.”

You got that right, Ted, and he's getting mighty pissed off at you rightwingnuts, warmongers, racists and bigots.

“Our God is greater. Our God is stronger. Our God is higher than any other!”

He was being crooned by a group of polytheistic pagans?????

I think all good Christians should be told!!!!

Or sold to the Romans... especially the white Christians.

I LOVE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT ... but did the sky fall? ~ is this Armageddon? ~ FTR, Cruz has no choice in this ~ the only choices Congresscritters get is either to be covered under a spouse's employment health coverage or to buy coverage on the federal exchange ~ the Cruz family has been covered by his wife's employment coverage [she is a managing director at Goldman Sachs!!!!!] but now must purchase their own insurance during her "unpaid leave" ~ I wonder if sacrificing her [HUGE] salary will qualify as an "in-kind" contribution to his campaign ~ ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

Ted Cruz embraces unexpected label: Obamacare customer
03/25/15 08:00 AM—Updated 03/25/15 08:14 AM
By Steve Benen

Political hypocrisy can be a tricky thing. A few years ago, for example, Republicans condemned President Obama’s stimulus package, the “Recovery Act,” even while pleading for stimulus funds for their states and districts.

This was not, strictly speaking, hypocrisy – GOP lawmakers opposed the endeavor that rescued the economy, but concluded that if the resources were available, they might as well take advantage. The problem was that Republicans said Recovery Act dollars were incapable of boosting the economy, unless the dollars were spent on their constituents – an intellectually dishonest posture.

All of which leads us to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and his embrace of an unexpected label: Obamacare customer.


Apparently, the senator and his family have enjoyed coverage through his wife’s private-sector employer, but because she’s taking an unpaid leave of absence, the Cruzes will do what millions of other Americans have done: take advantage of benefits available through the Affordable Care Act.

And on the surface, there’s nothing wrong with that. Like the Republicans who foolishly condemned Obama’s stimulus initiative, Cruz does not believe ACA benefits should exist, but so long as they do, the right-wing presidential candidate is comfortable receiving those benefits in order to help himself and his family.

Whether or not this constitutes hypocrisy is debatable. But either way, we’re left with the awkward realization that Ted Cruz wants the Affordable Care Act to stop helping your family and start helping his own family.

Indeed, Cruz, perhaps more than any political figure in the country, is consumed by an irrational, fire-breathing hatred for the health care reform law, which he’s determined to destroy at all costs, no matter the consequences. The Republican senator has presented an alternative approach, which can charitably be described as a bad joke.

Cruz’s opposition to the ACA defines him. It is the basis for much of his political identity. It wasn’t long ago that the senator boasted, “I’m happy to tell you now I am eligible for [Obamacare] and I am not currently covered under it.”

Given all of this, for the far-right Texan to “transition” to the ACA system that ostensibly disgusts him is, if nothing else, ironic. (Jason Millman added, “If he signs up on an exchange plan, Cruz won’t be taking the federal contribution, his campaign told CNN. So, in that sense, he’s sticking to his guns.”)

I’d just add that in the summer of 2013, the right launched an aggressive campaign urging Americans not to sign up for ACA coverage. Consumers were supposed to just take one for the team and go without access to medical care in order to advance an ideological cause. Remember the “Refuse to Enroll” campaign? How about the “Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom,” which at the time was “actively encouraging uninsured Americans not to sign up for coverage under the health care law”?

These were Ted Cruz’s allies. Two years later, it seems he no longer has any use for their message.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ted-cruz-embraces-unexpected-label-obamacare-customer

"destroy at all costs, no matter the consequences."

New campaign slogan for the GOP

This sums up Ted Cruz's candidacy neatly ~ ~ Sooz

A very powerful reminder and very meaningful warning ~ Sooz

After the Sandy Hook kids were slaughtered, Ted Cruz was more worried about protecting guns
TBogg / 25 Mar 2015 at 05:10 ET

Before I get started, a reminder.

These are the names and birth dates of those who were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012:

- Charlotte Bacon, 2/22/06, female
- Daniel Barden, 9/25/05, male
- Rachel Davino, 7/17/83, female
- Olivia Engel, 7/18/06, female
- Josephine Gay, 12/11/05, female
- Ana M. Marquez-Greene, 04/04/06, female
- Dawn Hochsprung, 06/28/65, female
- Dylan Hockley, 3/8/06, male
- Madeleine F. Hsu, 7/10/06, female
- Catherine V. Hubbard, 6/08/06, female
- Chase Kowalski, 10/31/05, male
- Jesse Lewis, 6/30/06, male
- James Mattioli, 3/22/06, male
- Grace McDonnell, 12/04/05, female
- Anne Marie Murphy, 07/25/60, female
- Emilie Parker, 5/12/06, female
- Jack Pinto, 5/06/06, male
- Noah Pozner, 11/20/06, male
- Caroline Previdi, 9/07/06, female
- Jessica Rekos, 5/10/06, female
- Avielle Richman, 10/17/06, female
- Lauren Rousseau, 6/1982, female (full date of birth not specified)
- Mary Sherlach, 2/11/56, female
- Victoria Soto, 11/04/85, female
- Benjamin Wheeler, 9/12/06, male
- Allison N. Wyatt, 7/03/06, female

That is 20 children — most of them 6-years-old — and 6 adult teachers, administrators, and school workers who died trying to protect them.

Keep that in mind and remember that a lunatic named Adam Lanza stalked through the school with a high-powered weapon and slaughtered these people, most of them terrified children, shooting them multiple times and shredding their bodies at close range primarily with bullets from a gun that looked similar to this:

Bushmaster XM15Lanza also carried a Glock 20SF, proudly described by the manufacturer as offering “nothing short of massive firepower,” and a 9mm Sig Sauer which he never got around to using before he killed himself.

Adam Lanza’s mother was what might be considered a “gun nut,” reportedly bragging to her friends about her gun collection and taking her son, who had severe emotional and psychological problems, to gun ranges where he was allowed to practice shooting. In the end, it cost her her life when he shot her in the head before going on his rampage at Sandy Hook.

Which brings us to Ted Cruz, 2016 Presidential candidate.

Tuesday night, Megyn Kelly pressed Cruz on his brief tenure in the Senate, asking him, “What have you actually accomplished?”

Here is what popped into the mind — and then out of the mouth — of Ted Cruz , 2016 Presidential candidate:

“What we have accomplished in many of the instances is stopping bad things from happening. Remember the beginning of the second term of Obama. We had the horrible shooting in Sandy Hook. And President Obama didn’t come out and say ‘Let’s target violent criminals,’ which is what he should have done and brought together bipartisan agreement. Instead he used it as excuse to go after law-abiding citizens. Much of Washington was consigned, [saying] ‘We can’t stop this, the train is moving, get on board.’ I did everything I could to energize and mobilize the grassroots to stand up and protect the Second Amendment. And every single proposal of Barack Obama to undermine the Second Amendment was voted down on the Senate floor.”

Outside of being misleading — Adam Lanza didn’t become a violent criminal until after he shot his mother while she was still in bed — that may be one of the most tone-deaf responses I’ve ever heard from a politician.

His most notable accomplishment, after 26 people — 20 of them small children — were systematically tracked down and butchered, was that he fought to make sure that guns remained cheap, plentiful, and easy to obtain in America?

Ted Cruz is a sociopath.

And he wants to be president.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/03/after-these-kids-were-slaughtered-ted-cruz-was-more-worried-about-protecting-guns/