Cruz Blues

Ted Cruz is starting to make himself unwelcome in DC and elsewhere. This is one ego maniac who people are shunning everywhere. Well, except for Sarah Palin, but then, yeah, that makes sense.

 

Today TEA Party Virginia governor-wannabe Ken Cuccinelli actually fled the room rather than share the stage with Ted Cruz. He is like a Typhoid Mary of TEA Party politics these days. Cuccinelli, by contrast, is sane.

 

And today I traced it all the way back to when Ted Cruz derailed himself. Yes it does go back to where he said Obamacare could be defunded - but it couldn't - but people didn't actually start laughing with derision at Cruz until his now-famous reading of Dr. Seuss.

 

It all proceeds from there. So in celebration, here is a Half Empty collection of the best cartoons from the internet, a collection that I am calling Cruz Blues.

Well That’s Just Discreditable

I learned a new word today. The word is “discreditable.” I read it, looked it up at dictionary.com and then used it in a sentence. That word is made mine, now.

 

I found it when I read that the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Texas Congressman Randy Neugebauer for “conduct that reflects discreditably upon the House.”

I saw the incident that CREW took offense to on MSNBC yesterday. It really was crass and arrogant, but those are Randy’s two middle names. Here is the clip that I got from HuffingtonPost.

It has more content than what I saw which was cut down. The guy in the bike helmet laid into him pretty well, don’t you think? I don’t know why he was so calm, and maintained decorum because Neugebauer clearly did not.

Anyway, CREW makes a valid point in their complaint, one I’d like to quote:

“Rep. Neugebauer’s conduct violates House Rule 23 which requires all members of the House  to conduct themselves ‘at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House.’ This ethics standard is considered to be ‘the most comprehensive provision’ of the code. When this section was first adopted the Select Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the 90^th Congress noted it was included in the Code to deal with ‘flagrant’ violations of the law that reflect on Congress as a ‘whole’ and that might otherwise go unpunished.”

Neugebauer is unapologetic for this behavior. Yesterday on a Lubbock AM talk radio show Neugebauer twisted the whole thing around, blaming the park service for keeping “honor flights” from visiting the WWII veterans memorial, something that, quite to the contrary, they were doing. He also falsely claimed that he told her that she should be ashamed of the Park Service, when clearly he was bullying her about being ashamed.

CREW is making a federal case out of this exchange, literally, and my hope is that he gets his butt kicked over this one.

In For the Win

Wendy Davis is going to run for Governor of Texas.

 

That's what she said in a mass email message that I got from her today. I imagine I got on her list because I remember sending her an email message with a personal anecdote on abortion rights because they needed on-topic material for her to read in her filibuster last June.

 

Don't know if she used it. It wasn't terribly inspiring but it was a true story.

 

Which I'm not going to share here, thank you very much.

 

I've been dubious about her chances recently because the GOP is so strong in this state and the people we need to come to the polls and vote just won't do that. But I just read this article and I think I am now less "Half Empty" about her chances.

 

Her polling shows that she trails her probable Republican opponent, Greg Abbott by 8 percent, but most of those polled have no opinion.

 

No opinion? Texans have no opinion about whether to vote for a Democratic state senator, and a woman to boot, and an old white man who is only marginally successful in his job as state attorney general?

 

No opinion? None?

 

Then there is hope.

 

When Ann Richards pulled out on top back in the 90's and beat Claytie Williams by 3 points it should be remembered that she started out 27 points below Williams. Wendy Davis has the same kind of tenacity that Ann Richards had. Wendy Davis is anything but a pushover.

 

And because of this Wendy Davis has nationwide name-recognition. 

 

But Greg Abbott? Who's Greg Abbott? Oh, yeah he's the straight man teamed with Lou Costello sometime back.

 

Letters, We Get Letters

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A Congressman named Legion

Lots of people are making a lot about how Ted Cruz is single-handedly bringing the government to its knees as a government shutdown looms large on the horizon. But I just found out that Carnival Cruz is not the originator of this foul idea.

 

The original thought came from a congressman from North Carolina.

 

A Tea Party congressman who has served all of 8 months in that august body.

 

His name is Mark Meadows and he comes from western North Carolina. But we all know what his real name is, don't we? His name is Legion for they are many.

 

I discovered Mark Meadows at this CNN page.

In August, while lawmakers spent time in their districts, Meadows wrote a letter to his Republican leaders suggesting they tie the dismantling of Obamacare to the bill that funds the government for the next year.

 The letter read: "James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 58 that 'the power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon... for obtaining a redress of every grievance...'"

Meadows successfully convinced 79 of his colleagues to sign on to his letter. And he went further, leading a group of 40 lawmakers to demand that the continuing resolution, or the short-term government funding bill at issue, zeroes out funding for President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement so far.

 

The TEA Party is ruining our country. They represent the worst of us. They are mean, nasty, and vile lower life-forms. They represent other mean, nasty, vile, lower life-forms that don't seem to be going away anytime soon. They are amateurs. They are playing at politics and are poor players.

 

But being mean, nasty and vile is the order of the day and we are all going to have to suffer the presence of these imbeciles up to and until they do something really damaging.

Skinner is Better, Anyway

There’s this Italian pasta maker who has found himself in some hot water.  And that seems appropriate. Guido Barilla, CEO of Gruppo Barilla, the world-wide group of food manufacturers, went on an Italian TV show the other day and confessed to having an acute case of homophobia when he told his interviewer this:

“I would never do an advert with a homosexual family.”

Now why he said that I do not know. I have never actually ever seen an advertisement that featured a homosexual family. So he must have been trying to make some sort of socio-political point where none is needed.

In other words, he was being an a**hat.

Then he went on to say this about potential homosexual customers:

“If they like our pasta and our message they will eat it; if they don’t like it then they will not eat it, and they will eat another brand.”

He sounds confrontational.

How macho.
 

And guess what? Homosexual people around the world are organizing a boycott against not only Barilla pasta, as I know his product here in America, but all products of the Barilla Group. And guess what is better? There are those of us among the straight community that also object to his homophobia and who will join our gay brothers and sisters in this boycott.

So if you want to join in the boycott of not only Barilla products but all of their products and brand names you are welcome to. I went ahead at some difficulty to find out all of their brand names. Difficulty because that particular part of their website seems to be very, very busy just now.

• Barilla (where I live)
• Filiz (in Turkey)
• Misko  (in Greece)
• Vesta  and Yemina (in Mexico)
• Mulino Blanco  (???)
• Pavesi (???)
• Wasa (in Sweden)
• Harry’s (in France)

And I just checked out my pantry. No Barilla.

That Sam I Am...

So I hope all Texans who voted for him watched Ted "Carnival" Cruz orate from the well of the United States Senate yesterday.

 

Orate.

 

Lots and lots of people are talking today about how he, during prime time, opened a little skinny children's book written by Theodore Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) and read the entirety of his famous and delightful story, "Green Eggs and Ham."

 

I used to read it to my children at bedtime. I did it better than Cruz. I used voices.

 

Ted Cruz read "Green Eggs and Ham" to an empty chamber, and in the video I watched today, he feigned a full room as he talked, looking left, right and into the camera.

 

But in all the commentary, I have failed to see the most obvious truth about this story. The truth is, all you have to do is substitute the word "Obamacare" for "Green Eggs and Ham" and you have the story of the past, present and future of Obamacare vis-à-vis the American public.

 

Republicans just cannot stand Obamacare. Cannot. They would not have Obamacare in a house, and they would not have Obamacare with a mouse. They would not have Obamacare here nor there.

 

They would not have Obamacare anywhere.

 

And then, in the future, and maybe just to get all of us "Libtards" to shut up, they may just try some Obamacare.

 

Try it, try it, you will see.

 

Because when they try it, they are going to like it.

 

Ted Cruz couldn't have picked a better children's bedtime story than "Green Eggs and Ham" to illustrate the point that we have been making.

 

Try it. If you like Medicare, and you do, you're gonna love yourself some Obamacare.

 

 UPDATE: OK, all I have come across this evening is how Cruz is doing a Teddy Geisel. Fine. Think like me. It's the sincerest form of flattery, don't ya know.

Nope. No Shut Down This Time Either

Standup comic and political commentator Bill Maher came up with a great new verb the other night on his HBO show "Real Time." The new word is "blacktrack."

 

Blacktrack: v. The act of changing one's mind because President Obama has agreed with you.

 

Now the thesis to this post is that the much-anticipated government shut down on October 1st is not going to occur. A continuing resolution is going to pass and the mail will go on. And the reason for this isn't because President Obama agrees that a government shut down is a grand idea, so the reason the GOPers will change their tune isn't exactly blacktracking, but it's related.

 

See, Michael O'Brien over at NBC news has a good point. Should a government shut down occur, President Obama has an advantage. It is helpful to him for Republicans to shut down the government. Here is what he writes:

"But if Obama has at least one thing going for him heading into his battle against Republicans, it’s that poll after poll has shown that Americans don’t think that eliminating “Obamacare” is worth the cost of a government shutdown." 

"Republicans complain that it’s been Obama – not them – who is being inflexible in fiscal talks. But if the numbers are to be believed, a shutdown could reinvigorate Obama politically, and thereby likely decrease his willingness to cut a deal that is more favorable to Republicans. It could also strengthen his hand heading into next month’s fight over raising the nation’s debt ceiling."

All very good points. President Obama has everything to gain, and nothing to lose if the GOPers go through with their blackmail.

 

But this isn't blacktracking. It's related though. Maher calls it "pulling a one hatey."

 

Obamacare Defundopalooza

It's the last day of summer 2013 and the Republicans are threatening to drive my country over a fiscal cliff...again.

 

So to celebrate, we have assembled the official Half Empty Obamacare Cartoon Defundopalooza. Enjoy.

A Great Day for Republicans

Oh what a great day to be a Republican in America. Today every single solitary Republican in the US House of Representatives voted to take the food out of the mouths of 4 million children and seniors by voting to drastically cut the federal food stamp program, SNAP. It will now be harder for some of the poor among us to get a meal.

 

But they weren't done. This do-nothing congress has reformed itself and moved on to more pressing issues.

 

Like getting rid of the health insurance of 30 million Americans.

 

Well, to be honest, this is the 42nd time they voted to repeal Obamacare, but this time they did it with the authority that should fill each and every American with awe...and pride.

 

They linked defunding of Obamacare to a shutdown of the federal government.

 

You want Obamacare? Gimme your social security check.

 

You want Obamacare? Good luck seeing a doctor with your Medicare account.

 

And the best thing? They are asking for your contributions to continue this work. It's true. Reince Priebus sent me an email announcing these good works with a big green "CONTRIBUTE" link at the bottom of it so I can throw them my hard-earned money so they can continue these works that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World would most certainly approve.

 

Jesus Saves Tom DeLay

Well, good ol' Tom "Hot Tub Tom" DeLay got his felony conviction overturned by a Texas 3-judge appeals court today, and from a video you can see here, he is giving Jesus full credit.

 

"I just thank the Lord for carrying me through all of this."

 

But not one word of praise for Dick DeGuerin, his high-priced lawyer, or the two Republican justices on the 3-justice panel who overruled the Texas jury that found him guilty as sin. Jesus did all that.

 

...and later, reflecting on his future...

 

"...there's too much other things that the Lord wants me to do."

 

I just bet that not only Jesus has something for Tom to do, but Dick DeGuerin Probably has something that he wants DeLay to do.

 

Pay him.

 

So-called justice sometimes comes with a big price tag.

It's Constitution Day

Smile. Two hundred and twenty-six years ago today the United States Constitution was formally signed by members of the First (and hopefully last) Constitutional Convention. It was ratified by the requisite number of states the next year.

 

So today we celebrate Constitution Day.

 

You know, with all the beer, piñatas and unbridled revelry.

 

Oh, wait, that's  El Cinco de Mayo.

 

On Constitution Day we don't do a darn thing, do we?

 

Well, I am about to change that. You need to go and take this quiz.

 

And no, I didn't get a perfect score. I missed one. Had no idea which state eschewed the Constitutional Convention and guessed wrong.

There She Is...

While we sort through the events at the Navy Yard in DC, I want to make sure that some of America's finest racist bigots get their tweets repeated on this blog.

 

Nina Davuluri is the newly crowned Miss America. She is the 2nd straight Miss New York to be crowned the title.

 

And she is brown-skinned.

 

She was made in America, so to speak, but of Indian-American descent. Not native American, mind you, but Indian-American.

 

And America showed its true colors once again via the twitter. Ignorance is bliss, some say, but in this case all I can say is ignorance is the true shame on America.

 

Here are some tweets from some twits:

"Are you serious? The Arab wins? This is miss AMERICA, not miss Arabia. Miss Kansas is in the Army and is a country girl. C'mon."

 

"This is miss America, not miss Terrorist."

 

"A Muslim Arab won miss America. They blow your shot (sic) up and you crown them. You bitches backwards."

 

"nice slap in the face to the people of 9-11 how pathetic."

 

"This is Miss America, not Miss Muslim."

I hate it when the trailer-dwelling crackers speak to the world for the rest of us.  

 

 

 

 

My 14th Amendment Rights Trump Your 1st Amendment Rights

Social conservatives are taking a new tack in their never-ending quest to deny people of same-sex orientation their rights under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. You know, the one that says that we can't deny someone of their rights to equal protection of the law? The one that says that homosexual marriage cannot be denied to people because of all the legal benefits that marriage brings to people?

 

They have decided to use their right to the right of free speech as a wedge.

 

It devolves from a case that was decided in the New Mexico Supreme Court, where a gay couple was denied photographic services at their wedding because the photographer they asked opposed the very idea of same-sex marriage. They eventually found a photographer with a more tolerant point of view, but they took it to court anyway, charging that Elane Photography had violated a New Mexico state law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The Supreme Court agreed that they had been discriminated against and found for the plaintiffs.

 

Elane Photography are trying to take it to the US Supreme Court on appeal.

 

Their argument?

"...forcing them to take pictures of same-sex ceremonies violates their First Amendment rights by compelling them to engage in speech they don’t believe in."

That's a bit of a reach. Free speech violation? How is that a violation of free speech. How indeed, since they are being paid for their services?

 

Besides that, it really opens up a can of worms. What if I did not believe in stopping at signaled intersections? Does requiring me to do so violate my right to free speech? Or even better, what if I did not believe in evolution by means of natural selection? Does requiring me to teach it to eager young minds violate my right to free speech?

 

I think we all know where this is going. It's all about religious intolerance, isn't it? This aversion to all things gay is not about personal free speech, it's about retaining one's persecution rights on religious grounds.

 

And that won't work either.

 

What if, for instance, I was an evangelical Christian who believed that the Mark of Cain was clearly indicated on the skin color of African-Americans? That being the case, the descendants of Cain, that fratricidal sociopath, deserve to be persecuted. This reasoning on the part of the photographers would allow me to legally discriminate on account of race.

 

Indeed, this very reasoning pervades among some few religious bigots to this day.

 

Nope. That's a dog that won't hunt. But it is amazing to what lengths that these homophobes will go to in order to persist in their intolerant beliefs and actions. Even to the extent that it perverts the rule of law.

 

So who, in the end is the pervert? 

Gee, That's Too Bad...

I really liked Red Lobster.

 

I liked their specials.

 

I liked their cheesy biscuits.

 

Not as much as I like Tony's on the Redondo Beach pier in Redondo Beach, California. But when you can't have the real thing (great seafood), Red Lobster will do as a fair substitute.

 

But now they are out. I cannot in good conscience patronize Red Lobster again. Not until, and not unless they do a complete about face on their treatment of one of their Tennessee employees, a Ms. Tori Jenkins, an African-American waitress who works at a Franklin, Tennessee instance of the Red Lobster restaurant chain.

 

Ms. Jenkins had the misfortune to serve dinner to bigoted racists who objected to having their food handled by a black woman. And they made this fact obvious by including a tip of "None" and a total of "N****r" on the restaurant receipt.

As posted on her father's Facebook page.

 

And it caught fire and spread across the internet tubes.

 

So what does Red Lobster do? They suspended this woman with pay for "violating company policy." The spokesman for Red Lobster said that it was against company policy of "publicly posting a receipt."

 

A thing that Ms. Jenkins did not do. Her father did it. He probably posted from his phone with or without her knowledge or consent. Now if Ms. Jenkins' father worked for Red Lobster, I can see how he would be suspended, but the child should not receive the punishment due to the parent. And mark me, she is being punished. Suspending a waitress "with pay" is an insult. One cannot live on what a waitress gets paid. They make their living wages from tips. No work, no living wage.

 

No, Ms. Jenkins was not suspended for a violation of policy, she was suspended for serving bigoted racists. She was suspended because she is a black woman working for a company that does not like to get this kind of publicity. So they suspended her and made matters even worse.

 

No, I will not eat at Red Lobster ever again.

 

I don't even like the color red.

2E6 Bikers

Two Million Harley-mounted bikers were supposed to show up in DC yesterday to mark the 12th anniversary of 9/11 (or nine one one, as Congresstwit Bachmann says). That's a two with six zeroes behind it. That's 2 x 10^6 or 2E6 in scientific notation shorthand.

 

And they ended up being about 1.999E6 short of their goal.

 

They applied for permits with the National Park Service to close some intersections around the capitol for their observance, but the NPS refused, citing the huge traffic snarls that might result, which in the end, was their intent.

 

And the bikers got their way anyway. An accident closed traffic lanes on the Outer Loop in Bethseda, causing traffic to back up for miles. Another rear-ended a pedicab.

 

I was wondering what the point of it all is, and I finally got my answer when I read this article at NBC. It seems that bikers fear change. Here's the quote:

"On their Facebook page, in all caps, the group said they will stand by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, adding that they're "against any fundamental transformation of America."

 

I know that 9/11 is a date to remember for the lives lost. But what has that got to do with opposition to transformational change that can and must happen in this country?

 

Could it be all tied in with the incipient transformational change of Obamacare which will go live in less than 3 weeks? I know it's subtle, and I know it's coincidental, but I really don't believe in coincidence.

 

Bikers Against Obamacare.

Bachmann, Gohmert and King on Muslim Brotherhood: What Could Go Wrong?

Michele “Bigot” Bachmann, Steve King “Kong” and Looney Louie Gomert have all doubled down on the Muslim Brotherhood in their unified support of the Egyptian People who are throwing off the yoke of the Brotherhood’s brutal oppression by their newfound freedom fighters, the … er…Egyptian Army.

 

After all, the Muslim Brotherhood has been our sworn enemy since they attacked the Pentagon and New York’s World Trade Center back on “Nine One One.”

And are we ever thankful that Bachmann drew that fine line of distinction that she is speaking as a member of the United States Congress of the United States of America.

We clearly could have mistaken her as a member of some other country’s United States Congress.

Oh yes, there is video

The Thing About Syria is...

There are no correct choices.

 

And there are no good outcomes

Irony

I love irony.

 

Two news items came across the internet tubes in the past couple of days about outcomes after a trial.

 

Ariel Castro was tried and convicted of all manner of crimes and sentenced to multiple life sentences.

 

And he lost his life.

 

George Zimmerman was tried and acquitted of killing another human being.

 

And he lost his wife.

 

Couldn't happen to a better pair of fellows.

On the Trainwreck Comment

OK I have one more thing to say about Pete Olson's Town Hall meeting the other night in Sugar Land, Texas and then I'll go and look for other fish to barbecue (because frying fish undoes all of the good things about that food).

 

I videoed Sneaky Pete over some intervals hoping to catch him talking about the AARP. It didn't happen naturally, but I did get this one short clip of him talking about Obamacare.

 

He talked about Obamacare a whole darn lot.

Get that? He asked his audience what they knew about Obamacare and some people correctly responded. Then he dismissed the whole thing with "no one knows." Guess he wasn't ready for correct answers to his question.

 

His thesis is that because news of the onset of Obamacare's open enrollment beginning on October 1st the program is doomed to failure. This is something that Senator Max Baucus brought up awhile back, that there was a dearth of information out there about how the ACA (Obamacare) is going to be implemented. The curiosity is how Sneaky Pete twisted Baucus' words when he cited Senator Baucus as being the senator who was now against Obamacare, and he was one of its chief proponents.

 

Pete cited Baucus' words that "Obamacare will be a trainwreck," quoting him out of context. The context was that if the ACA is not actively promoted to the citizenry, "I just see a huge train wreck coming down." Baucus still supports Obamacare. He just has concerns about promotion.

 

But that is how Sneaky Pete rolls. Lies and quotes out of context are his absolute strengths.

 

Now here is the truth. News of implementation of Obamacare is scheduled. It just hasn't happened yet. Someone down in DC rightly concluded that Americans have limited long-term memory. They do. And the proof is, if this is not true Republicanism would be a long-forgotten fancy. Timing is crucial. People are going to be informed, just not right now.

 

Take a look at this. They plan on spending millions in promotional ads.

 

Just not now.

 

But if you do want to know well in advance of what to do to enroll in the national healthcare insurance program, all you have to do is this: CLICK HERE.

 

I did. You can pre-register. Millions have already done this.

 

Thank you Pete Olson for reminding me to promote Obamacare to my 6 readers. I clean forgot about doing it.

 

(I can't believe this guy is a 3-term congressman. Wait, there was Kesha Rogers, twice. Of course I can believe he is a 3-term congressman)