Tag Archives: Tea Party

Wonder What Ted Thinks of The Donald Now?

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Sen. Ted “Canadian Bacon” Cruz (TP-Texas) has practically fallen over himself in his attempts to alternately praise and avoid criticizing Donald Trump.  One might think that Cruz was positioning for a Vice-Presidential nod from the Grand Old Party, but that clearly is not his style.  And anyone willing to take the firebrand Cruz on as a second banana certainly gets what he deserves.

But a new poll commissioned by a group called the Texas Bipartisan Justice Committee shows that Trump is eating at Cruz’s house.  The Florida-based Gravis Marketing firm conducted the poll.  And it’s really bad news for TC.  In June, Cruz sat at 20% in the Texas Politics Project poll.  Now Trump is at 24%, while Cruz is 8 points back with 16%.  What will Ted do?

It’s even worse for JEB!!!!$$$$$? who is in 4th place with 9% behind a guy whose brother and father didn’t pave the way to the White House for him.  Meanwhile Rick Perry’s flagging hopes took another hit.  In June, Perry was a respectable second with 12%.  He now polls at 4% in the state that he ruled for 14 years.  It now seems only a matter of time until the fat lady serenades Rick with a rousing “Adios Mofo.”

Texas Border Town Has Reasonable Response to Illegal Immigration

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While GOP frontrunner Donald Trump continues to bloviate and propose absurd solutions to the undocumented alien problems in our country, others are trying to do something about the humanitarian crisis that unrest and instability in Central America is creating on the southern border.  The Guardian takes a long look at how McAllen has responded to the large numbers of Central American refugees that have landed in their midst.

While Trump and his ilk want to wash their hands of the problem by constructing a supposedly impenetrable wall and deporting lawful U.S. citizens, the reality is that much of the current crisis has been caused by families and children fleeing the widespread drug gang violence in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras.  And who is consuming those drugs?  And who is providing the guns that fuel the violence? Sensible drug law reform in the U.S. would go a long way towards solving the problem.  Stopping the flow of weapons into Mexico and Central America would probably help too. But that makes way too much sense to ever make into the Tea Party ranting that passes for public discourse in the GOP presidential battle currently being won by Trump.

Only Ten?

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Houston Press has published its list of the 10 most embarrassing Houstonians.  Try as he might, Red didn’t make the list.  At PIH we feel that any such list that does not include Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) is woefully inadequate.  Paradoxically, we feel that any list that has radical right-wing talk radio racist blowhard Michael Berry as the most embarrassing Houstonian is spot on.  No doubt the shameless self-promoting Berry will wear his No. 1 ranking as a badge of honor – a la Dan Quayle – someone of similar intellectual firepower.

Thanks for Nothing Katie Lang

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Hood County Clerk and Tea Party favorite Katie Lang explains why she cannot fulfill the duties of her office because of her religious beliefs.  If that is the case, she needs to step aside and let someone who actually can perform one of the essential duties of the office take over.

Oh, and by the way, Lang’s religious beliefs ended up costing Hood County $44,000 in her failed attempt to deny a marriage license to Joe Stapleton and Jim Cato.  In fairness, Hood was led astray by that paragon of legal virtue – Attorney General Ken Paxton – who encouraged Texas civil servants to violate the law.  Off the Kuff has the details on how the taxpayers of Hood County took it in the shorts because of Lang.

Cruz Going After JEB!!!!$$$$$?

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Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas), who has refused to criticize Donald Trump for attacking Mexicans, Gays, Weenies and  oh, my gosh Fox News, has finally found another GOP candidate that he is willing to use as a punching bag.  And it’s the doughy, sad sack, scion of the Bush dynasty – JEB!!!!$$$$$?  Cruz, who has refrained from uttering the dastardly accusation of being a RINO at JEB!!!!$$$$$?, is leaving that epithet for use by his supporters.  Cruz, however, is going after him with bacon-wrapped guns blazing. The Texas Tribune has the details.

Cruz, who wraps up his bus tour through the South today, has become increasingly critical of the former Florida governor “as a prime example of what’s ailing the GOP,” and his crowds are liking that message . . .

During campaign stops Monday and Tuesday in Tennessee and Mississippi, Cruz’s references to the former Florida governor, now a staple of the senator’s stump speech, often elicited loud booing, sometimes accompanied by scattered shouts of “Establishment!” or “RINO!” (Republican In Name Only). …

“We’re tired of losing,” Cruz said Tuesday when asked why he thought Bush’s name was drawing such strong reactions on the campaign trail. …

In an interview aboard his campaign bus Tuesday in Mississippi, Cruz praised Bush’s “candor” in a seemingly backhanded compliment.

“He has been quite candid in embracing amnesty, in embracing Common Core,” Cruz said. “Now those policy positions are dramatically out of step with Republican primary voters, but I have commended his courage of convictions that he sticks with his defense of amnesty and his defense of Common Core.”

Them’s Fighting Words.

Jade Helm 15 Update, Cont.

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Red was batching it this weekend and went looking for evidence of the imminent takeover of Texas by the United States – the country which more or less legally controls it already.  A few hours cruising in the Redmobile failed to discover anything remotely suspicious.  They must run and hide when they see Red coming.   Even the buzz on the internet is barely audible at this point.  The only real development was the arrest of 3 North Carolina men who are accused of trying to lure Army troops into a booby trapped camp in South Carolina.  Stars and Stripes has the story.   Hey, you buy a few illegal weapons, make some pipe bombs, exploding tennis balls and coffee can anti-personnel devices, then plan to draw in government forces and massacre them and the next thing you know the feds are all over your case.  What’s happened to freedom in this country?   So bury your guns now.  Don’t worry about encasing them in anything, just get ’em in the ground quick because the jack-booted thugs of the Federal government are coming to take away your women, children and most importantly guns.  Since there might be some issues with burying the women and children, Red recommends that you just put them in the cellar.  And if you don’t have a cellar, send ’em off to Grandma’s house.  That way you might get in a round of golf before Obama sneaks in and takes away your new set of Callaways too.

Vigilantly yours,

Red

Ken Paxton Ignores First Rule of Holes

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The news just isn’t getting any better for embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton who now faces possible contempt charges over his refusal to follow the law of the land on same-sex marriage following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling.  Paxton has put up roadblocks wherever possible to state recognition of same-sex marriage hoping no doubt to assuage to his Tea Party base in light of his other legal troubles.  Under the guidance of Paxton, the Texas Department of health has so far denied a terminally ill gay man a death certificate naming his legally wed spouse as his husband. AP reports on the brewing controversy in a federal court in San Antonio.

Judge Orlando Garcia ordered Paxton to appear in a San Antonio federal court next Wednesday after a Houston gay man was not provided an amended death certificate for his husband. The court order comes just two days after Paxton was booked on securities fraud charges.

The hearing is to determine whether Paxton and Kirk Cole, interim commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, should be held in contempt after potentially disobeying a July 7 court order barring the state from enforcing any laws “that prohibit or fail to recognize same-sex marriage,” according to the court order.

Garcia further ordered that state officials must provide an amended death certificate to John Stone-Hoskins of Conroe, who had filed court papers earlier Wednesday asking the judge to force Texas officials to place his name on the certificate for his husband, James Stone-Hoskins, who died in January. The two were married last year in New Mexico. 

He had argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision on gay marriage in June means his name should be placed on his spouse’s death certificate. The ruling required all states to recognize same-sex marriages, even those performed elsewhere, and overturned any legal bans.

The certificate listed James Stone-Hoskins as single and referred to his husband as a “significant other.” In court papers John Stone-Hoskins says he’s facing a terminal illness and wants to settle his estate and have state records recognize his marriage. He added during a news conference Wednesday that he should be able to inherit his spouse’s estate but cannot because the certificate doesn’t list him as the surviving spouse. Complicating matters was that his husband didn’t have a will when he died, according to court papers.

“This is about every same sex couple that’s going through or could go through what I’m going through now,” he said.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has said it’s reviewing the Supreme Court ruling to determine if changes must be made to death certificate documents.

“This involves taking a broad look at a variety of forms and vital records,” agency spokeswoman Carrie Williams said in a statement provided earlier to WFAA-TV in Dallas. “Our attorneys are working with the AG’s office on the analysis. We hope to finish the analysis in the coming weeks. Once we complete that analysis, we would make any necessary changes as soon as possible.”

 

Fifth Circuit Rules Texas Voter ID Law Violates Voting Rights Act

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The Dallas Morning News reports that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that Texas’ voter ID act violates section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.  The ruling, however, is narrow and neither a complete win nor loss for either side.  Red would support such a law if there was one iota of evidence that in-person voter fraud is a real problem.  Everyone who knows anything about elections in Texas knows the real hanky-panky occurs with the mail-in ballots and the current law does absolutely nothing  to prevent massive abuse in that regard.

The hard part of the ruling to swallow is the Fifth Circuit’s finding that the intent of the law was not to discriminate against minority voters.  Red understands that is tough fish to land, but come on . . . really?  Even in Texas, the GOP is scared because the angry old white men that are dying off are being replaced by young brown ones.  Gerrymandering will work for a while, but demographic destiny takes over at some point, and with the legacy that Patrick and Abbott are leaving, recruiting Hispanics and Blacks to the Grand Ol’ Party is going to be a tough sell. If they can cut minority voting by even a percent or two, then they might just hang on for a couple of more election cycles past their expiration date.

In an unanimous decision, a three-judge panel ruled that the controversial and Republican-backed measure violated Section 2 of the landmark civil rights law. The law has been part of a complicated legal battle for years.

But the victory was narrow win for opponents of the law. The judges also rejected a previous judge’s ruling that the law was passed with the intent to discriminate. The Fifth Circuit sent that portion of the lawsuit back to a U.S. district court.

The court wrote that, if the lower court finds in its review of the case that the voter ID Law only violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, it should find a solution that can still reduce the risk of in-person voter fraud and satisfy the legislative intent of the voter ID law.

“Simply reverting to the system in place before SB 14’s passage would not fully respect these policy choices — it would allow voters to cast ballots after presenting less secure forms of identification like utility bills, bank statements, or paychecks,” the court wrote in a 49-page opinion.

Texas could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, or the state also could ask the full 5th Circuit to review the case. But now, a fight over what exactly the complicated ruling means is more imminent.

Cruz, JEB!!!!$$$$$?, Paul In – Perry Out

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Three of the four GOP presidential candidates with ties to Texas made the cut for Fox News first national debate on Thursday.  Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas), JEB!!!!$$$$$?, and Sen. Rand Paul (TP – Curly Top) are in but former Governor Rick Perry is on the outside looking in.  Perry who, to his credit, has relentlessly attacked Donald Trump as a sideshow act, tried to make the best of his situation claiming that “One debate won’t make or break a candidate.”  Perry seems to have forgotten that one debate and one moment in one debate (“Oops”) broke his candidacy in 2012.  But in reality, Perry is getting more press out of missing the Fox debate than he likely could have generated from a scintillating performance – and how likely was that?

You Just Can’t Make this Stuff Up

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Sen. Ted Cruz (TP- Texas) apparently is feeling the need to jumpstart his campaign in first out of the box Iowa.  So what better way than to combine a popular pork product and assault weapons.  In a recently released video, Cruz is shown frying bacon by wrapping it around the barrel of a semi-automatic rifle.  The video was produced by IJ Review a conservative media outlet that also produced the classic “How To Destroy Your Cell Phone with Lindsey Graham.”  In the video, Cruz claims this is how we fry bacon in Texas.  After wrapping a strips of bacon around the barrel and covering them in foil, Cruz competently fires the weapon until the grease starts to drip onto the floor of the indoor rifle range.  Taking a small bite, Cruz remarks, “Mmm, machine-gun bacon.”

First, in Texas, we fry our bacon in a cast iron skillet until crispy.  Second, our mothers taught us to not make a greasy mess at an indoor rifle range.  Third, our fathers taught us to not defile our weapons by using them for unintended purposes. Fourth, we take gun safety seriously. Fifth, we enjoy the great outdoors and practice shooting there whenever possible.  Sixth, we don’t like stupid stunts that pander to the lowest common denominator. Seventh, Red is not going to dignify this nonsense by posting a link to the video.

If only he had used Canadian bacon.