PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE TED CRUZ'S POLITICAL PLATFORM

Cruz's platform: "Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim," by George Santayana

TED CRUZ LIKE BARRY GOLDWATER...NOT

You can imagine my astonishment when an Arizona newspaper journalist compared Ted Cruz with Barry Goldwater. Now I am a strict left side Progressive but I have tons of respect for Goldwater's style of politics, as well as the man himself. I was even there for his book signing of "Conscience of a Conservative" in Phoenix. And then I read on, it has to do with Goldwater's "crash and burn" presidential bid in 1964. Don't think the writer was portending exactly the same for Cruz but the likeness fits for me. A huge exception with Ted Cruz is Goldwater's hostility toward the religious right. There's more but in the context of this article, the whole thing sounds farcical.

FANATICISM IS INHERENT IN REPUBLICAN GENES

In his blog Robert Reich said, "The Only Way Left to Beat Republican Fanatics: Call Their Bluff and Go Over the Cliff." That was in 2012 when John Boehner couldn't convince the very right House Republicans to raise taxes even on millionaires. He added, "...that fits the fanatic's strategy exactly." In 2013, when Sen. (now Presidential candidate) Ted Cruz was instrumental in literally shutting down the government, one of his fellow Republican Senators in a meeting among several more Senators, including Cruz, said, “It was very evident to everyone in the room that Cruz doesn’t have a strategy – he never had a strategy, and could never answer a question about what the end-game was.” Yet the man still wants to be president.

WHY ARE PROGRESSIVES NON-VOTERS?

A 2007 Study found that non-voters are more economically liberal, preferring Barack over Mitt Romney 59% to 24%. Marginal voters, those affected by weather or election timing, are liberal. Among the 34 million registered to vote in 2010 midterms, 63.1% were Democrats. Liberals do benefit from high voter turnout, which can also be volatile. So, from this should we assume that liberals are lazy couch potatoes afraid of the rain who vote only when they see a crowd collecting at the polls?

MURDER IS MURDER-ABORTION IS...?

a

In Exodus, the Bible does say that if you do harm to a woman's baby, “then you shall pay life for life." On the other hand, 70% of the U.S. favors abortions, with many feeling that women's rights today are threatened by ideological extremists in the U.S. Senate. Pro-choice reports that "42% of women who obtain an abortion live below the poverty line. Twenty-seven percent are more than 100% below the poverty line." What about cases of rape, incest or the mother's health? It's reported that the latter three account for just 5% of abortions. But if 95% are purely for birth control...???

NRA USES HIGHER LEARNING TO SELL DEATH

If the NRA and its wacky leader, Wayne LaPierre, have anything to do with it, your kids will be packing heat in the college of their choice. The NRA is currently shoving legislation through in 16 states for this purpose, allowing guns to be carried on campuses. All this while college presidents, students and police chiefs oppose such legislation.

GOV MIKE PENCE SIGNS LAW AGAINST LGBT

Actor George Takei, who is gay, warns Gov. Mike Pence after signing Indiana law that will allow merchants in that state to deny service to the LGBT community. At the same time the NCAA shows concern over the legislation it feels could affect the men's basketball Final Four being played next week. There is also worry it will have an effect on Indiana tourism. As did Arizona for its law on immigration, Indiana deserves whatever it gets.

CAN ELIZABETH WARREN WIN?

It seems there are a lot of people clamoring for Elizabeth Warren to run, including the Boston Globe. But is she as electable as Hillary Clinton? You decide:

Warren supports Israel and sanctions for Iran.

Says terrorism is U.S. #1 responsibility.

On abortion she is pro-choice.

Warren supports passage of DREAM ACT and comprehensive immigration reform.

She supports ban on assault rifles and long magazines, as well as universal background checks, including gun show purchases.

Warren supports Obamacare and same sex marriage.

That should get you started with more information here.

GLENN BECK AND KARL ROVE BUMP DUMBHEADS

Karl Rove told The O'Reilly Factor that Glenn beck was leaving the Republican Party. He went on to say that the GOP is united on its philosophy. Yeah, sure! That makes you wonder just what planet this fruitcake has been living on.

According to the Tea Party newsletter, Glenn Beck retorted, "“You guys [apparently KR conservatives] have the spine of a worm, the ethics of whores, and the integrity of pirates. My apologies,” he added, “to worms, whores and pirates.” I don't think any Progressive could have said it better.

A CASE FOR BANNING GUNS ALTOGETHER

Sorry, but the ghastly illustration is necessary to demonstrate that there are almost twice as many firearms suicides per year than homicides; 20,000 to 11,000. Here's my point, "The presence of a firearm in the home increases the likelihood of suicide by 300%, while the likelihood is even greater if the firearm is loaded and unlocked," according to Yale School of Medicine researcher, Kimberly Younkers.

If we persist in refusing to do anything about our mental health problem in this country, and we continue to lose 55 people per day to suicides because they can't get the help they need and turn to their gun as a last resort, maybe the only answer is to ban guns.

Think about it! 

WHERE ARE THE PROGRESSIVES?

Aljazeera America says, "The best way to create a progressive America is voting reform." We need "... to invest in unleashing the disgruntled progressive majority. A longer-term strategy for progressives should be to strengthen unions and boost turnout among politically marginalized populations."

Further, "If everybody in this country voted,” the economist John Kenneth Galbraith said, “the Democrats would be in for the next 100 years.” Pew Research found "Nonvoters preferred Barack Obama to Mitt Romney by 59 percent to 24 percent..."

Obviously you are there, you progressives I mean, so when election day comes you're just sitting there on your butt? Too damn lazy to go vote and bring this country back to a sane political state. Don't you see what you've done, just look at the Republican Congress. That should shame even the worst of couch potatoes.

Think about it!

EARTH NEEDS HELP FROM THIS LUNATIC!

California Gov. Jerry Brown said, “The man [Sen. Ted Cruz] betokens such a level of ignorance and a direct falsification of the existing scientific data, It’s shocking and I think that this man has rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office.”

FACE UP - RACISM IS REAL

All Howard Schultz was trying to do was discuss the race problem. A divisive issue for anyone, especially a large corporation, but all he got was criticism. What should have happened was the other major businesses across the country should have joined Starbucks and started talking about a problem that is the cancer of America.

DEFINITION OF A GUN NUT

A gun nut is the kind of individual that loves his or her gun(s) over the life of an innocent gun violence victim. They have no room for negotiations, period, only a demand that their gun rights not be violated in any way. A gun nut has a ring in the nose, pulled regularly by the NRA asking for money to fund an organization that is completely self-absorbed.  This person believes the 2nd Amendment is sacrosanct and completely untouchable, that the Founding Fathers had Wayne LaPierre's and the NRA's interpretation of this law in mind when it was passed in 1791. A gun nut swaggers into a Target or Kroger store with arrogance just to show that it can be done, sometimes masking a limited masculinity or femininity. Any conversation on firearms immediately prompts the comment, "Sounds like you're trying to take away my gun." Most likely many gun nuts maintain an arsenal at home alleging for years now the government takeover that is "just around the corner." There is possibly a gun nut on every block and if we could just get rid of these radicals, the solution to gun violence would be so much easier.  

NEW YORK GUN SHOP VIDEO PROMOTES GUN CONTROL

People came in to buy a gun and left disgusted with gun violence.

GOP "PARTY OF STUPID" BY ONE OF ITS OWN

I knew Richard (never call him Dick) Viguerie years ago when I was in the junk mail business. He was a simple broker of mailing lists consisting of conservative donors to various causes over the years. One of his employees told me once that Viguerie had exclaimed early-on that he had found a political hotbed of data that would someday help sway history. He was right. Using his names to fight what he considered the mainstream media then, Republicans were able to reach individuals that supported conservative causes and win elections. In my early days of junk mail, fund raising, as it was called then, was looked on as a step child and Viguerie was just another philanthropic data broker trying to make a living.

Richard began to put all those right-wing mailing lists together in a database that grew gradually in the beginning and then, once the GOP discovered the gold mine that Viguerie was creating, got on the band wagon while at the same time making the man very rich. Viguerie was one of the earliest in junk mail to discover just how valuable personal data could be in targeting the right household. Things like age, income, job description, where you lived as only a few. By using several of these selection factors, you could determine how much a person would give, when was the best time to reach them and how many times you could come back asking for more money.

But now he is taking on the mainstream Republican Party similar to how the Tea Party has reacted to House Speaker John Boehner and his gang of misfits. He claims their Presidential strategy is "insanity" and calls the GOP "the Party of Stupid." Rave on Richard and take the Grand Old Party down with you in 2016. Hey, 2014 was not a win for Republicans, rather a vote for change when no other choice was available. And Mr. Viguerie, who do you think Fox News supports, liberals? No matter that a majority of what they spew out is without fact, they are a huge voice in the media world. Did you forget them?

The conservative guru whines over Jim Lehrer's handling of the 2012 Presidential debates as if Mitt Romney would have been a debating challenger for Barack Obama under any circumstances. Viguerie has a new book out I will not help promote, thus, this new found publicity. It is noteworthy that a big promoter of the book is Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and president of Tea Party Patriots. Now that does it for me and the millions of progressive thinking Americans who want this kind of political garbage placed in the landfill. With a brief spurt of fame Richard (not Dick) Viguerie will go back to fund raising obscurity.

 

GUN CONTROL BUILT INTO 2ND AMENDMENT

Adam Winkler is a Constitutional Law Professor at U.C.L.A. and author of the book "Gunfight." He is an expert on the legality of gun rights and I have corresponded with him regularly on this subject. I asked him two questions recently: 1) Is there any constitutional law validity in the premise that based on the many revisions of the 1st Amendment, that the same could apply to the 2nd Amendment? I refer you to Barry Lyga's "Second Amendment Loopholes." 2) Do you see any loopholes in the 2nd Amendment that people like the Brady Organization or CSGV, or the individual American could pursue legally? His answer was not a direct response to the questions but more pointed to the issue of gun control.

First, he says he "wouldn't call them loopholes, but the Second Amendment does include space for legitimate gun control." I used the term "loophole" for its obvious meaning, "a means of escape or evasion; a means or opportunity of evading a rule, law, etc." However, Adam's answers are much more directed at the need for gun control. He continues: "There's some reference to gun owners being 'well regulated' in the text itself. Well, it's government that does the regulating. And we know that the founders who wrote the Second Amendment supported gun regulation, including gun bans, gun registration, and safe storage laws." Two direct hits on gun rights so should we call it quits here? No way!

Adam Winkler confirms the legal possibility of gun control with, “More importantly, the scope of the right as it has been shaped over the course of American history permits government significant leeway to regulate the right so long as the right is not nullified or destroyed.”

Seems to me like prohibiting assault rifles, requiring universal background checks and limiting open and concealed carry to only those with a specific need does not nullify or destroy the right of an individual to have a weapon in his or her home for protection as the Supreme Court recently ruled.

With these hard facts and a Constitutional Law Professor like Adam Winkler to back them up, why haven't the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence gone to court?

 

 

  

 

 

DID YOU VOTE?

Did you vote? Because if you didn't and you are a Democrat, you sure helped cause one hell of a mess! But then, 2016 is just around the corner.

VOTE TODAY

If you are of a mind, go to the polls and vote DEMOCRAT! if you aren't of a mind, at least go to the polls and vote!

DEMOCRATS CAN WIN TOMORROW AND HERE'S HOW

YOU HAVE TO VOTE. That's right, you have to get off your duffs and go to the polls tomorrow and vote. That is if you haven't already sent a mail-in ballot. I am a pessimist when it comes to Congress doing the right thing for the country, but whatever happens, the U.S. will be in much better hands with a Democratic Senate. Some surprises in the House would be nice to help put John Boehner in his place. It is beyond me how an American public can make its decisions on who to vote for with all the negative advertising backed by dark money. Of course the more sophisticated voters can see beyond this trash but most of us need some hard facts to decide and we're not getting them. Rome didn't fall in a day but I'll bet there are several similarities here in its decline.

IOWA ALERT - STOP JONI ERNST!!!

DON'T elect Joni Ernst

I lived in Iowa and know the majority of people who live there are not daft enough to vote for Joni Ernst. Yet, she is up 7% in the current polls and that is frightening to anyone that has both oars in the water. Some think the results could be based on assumed Republican votes that plan to vote for her opponent, Bruce Braley. I have done three blogs on this Tea Party lunatic you can see here, here and here. Ernst is a complete disgrace to Iowa talking about the ages-old Agenda 21 Conspiracy where the UN is planning to take away farms from Iowans and her idea to take up arms against the government. If there is any justice in the political system, and with the help of all the common-sense voters in Iowa, please send Joni Ernst packing and elect Bruce Braley to the senate.

Get out and VOTE tomorrow!

JOE BIDEN COULD SAVE OBAMA'S LAST TWO YEARS

V.P. Joe Biden

Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight has forecast some great results in past elections predicting Obama would beat John McCain in march of 2008. His prognosis has been correct significantly more than wrong, making him someone you want to follow into next week. He recently talked of the possibility of November 4, ending in a senate tie between Democrats and Republicans. And if that happens, who comes to the forefront to break that tie? Vice President Joe Biden. Joe may be outspoken and have gotten off some zingers, but he's solidly Democrat and staunchly backs the President. The Dems don't want to and may not have to settle for a split but should it happen, this is their cushion.

VOTE NOVEMBER 4!

HOW DEMOCRATS WILL WIN BIG ON NOVEMBER 4

Michael Tomansky in the Daily Beast says, "How Can Dems Be Losing to These Idiots?" in an article that expresses amazement that, "They are running against a party that is as intellectually dishonest and bankrupt and just plain old willfully stupid as a political party can possibly be, and they have developed no language for communicating that to voters." I have said it repeatedly in this blog, citing the Tea Party as the leaders of this revolution of idiocy. Tomansky points out the fact of how few ideas the GOP has to make the country better like nothing on the economy, on immigration or healthcare. For months their only campaign was to get rid of Obamacare, until they realized it wasn't working. Even then, a brainless Tea Party didn't give up on the issue.

Why haven't the Democrats gotten this across to voters? My thoughts are that they have been reluctant to come out of the shadows of a party and its electorate that are bulldozed constantly by the Republican fear, hate and negativity onslaught against a President who is different. Play that any way you'd like. From Mitch McConnell's statement he wanted to make Obama a one-term president to John Boehner's support of a Tea Party that outwardly hates Obama. Look back in history and it's tough to find this kind of bitterness toward any other President. Now, the election is only two days away and it's too late to get the ball rolling.

EXCEPT, if the progressives admit just how lax they have been about the whole situation and come out on November 4, in a crush of voting power that not only retains the Senate but takes back, or at least cuts the majority of the House to manageable numbers.

VOTE ON NOVEMBER 4!

LGBT STRIKE GOLD WITH TIM COOK

Apple CEO Tim Cook

This is what Tim Cook told Bloomberg BusinessWeek, "Let me be clear: I'm proud to be gay, and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me." I do not know his professed party affiliation but there must be some liberal leanings there and hopefully this will send the LGBT community to the polls next week to support progressive candidates. There are 9 Democratic Senate seats up this year at risk: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina and West Virginia. Losing the senate wouldn't be a catastrophe for Democrats but would certainly put a current bungling Congress on the way to potential disaster.

Nate Silver in FiveThirtyEight says if the Dems win all the states they're supposed to, and lose four seats in Alaska, Louisiana, Montana and West Virginia, plus picking up Georgia, they would maintain a 51 to 49 seat majority. Should it end up 50/50, there is V.P. Biden for a tie-breaker. Some long shots perhaps but it all comes down to whether a sluggish group of progressives decides to buck past trends and out vote Republicans.

ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF TEA PARTY DECEIT

The Tea Party email headline said, "BREAKING NEWS! Obama May Have Been Elected With Illegal Votes…" Further, "Blockbuster study backs claim illegal ballots behind Obama’s 2008 victory." All typical TP bullshit! It concerns a study from Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) that evaluates non-citizens that vote, which, of course, is illegal. The inference from the Teapublicans is that Obama would not have won the 2008 election without the votes of this group. The study says nothing of the sort but does point out just how close some congressional elections might be with these illegals voting. The total in question based on 11 million illegal immigrants in U.S. is 700,000 (6.4%), and even if all had voted for John McCain would not have swung the election to his favor. 

Read Jim Geraghty in The Campaign Spot and you'll see how blatant the Tea Party can be with outright lies.