Tag Archives: Texas Politics

Ted Cruz Pulls Ad Featuring Porn Actress

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The latest in a series of increasingly lame ads for Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) has turned out to feature an actress that appeared in soft porn movies including Carnal Wishes, Milf, Deviant Whores, Confessions of a Lap Dancer and Insatiable Desire.   Cruz’s campaign confirmed late Thursday that it had pulled a commercial slamming Florida Sen. Marco Rubio over illegal immigration after discovering that Amy Lindsay had previously appeared in pornographic films.   For her part, Lindsay, who grew up in Houston and graduated from UT-Austin with a degree in Journalism, describes herself as a Christian conservative and a Republican and tweeted her disappointment with Cruz pulling the ad.

Damn, Red finally had an excuse to watch a Ted Cruz ad.

Photo from @amylindsayLA

Ted Cruz Bullies Way to Victory in Iowa

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Red knows that Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) won the Iowa Caucuses last night edging out billionaire Donald Trump by about 4%.  Cruz is riding a wave of support from the evangelical base of the GOP.  His entire campaign seems to be aimed at convincing everyone that he is among the most religious men on the planet and that only Ted can save our country – indeed perhaps humanity –  from the evils of  . . .  well, anyone but Ted.  This son of an immigrant come to save our country from immigrants.  This smartest man in every room come to tell us exactly how smart he is.

Somehow Red just can’t get his head around the fact that 28% of people anywhere think that Cruz would be a good choice to lead their neighborhood property owners association much less this country.    What is it that these voters like about Ted?  His plan to raise their taxes while providing huge tax cuts for the wealthiest?  His bellicose foreign policy plans that call for what would likely be an unending war in the Middle East – not that we don’t already have that thanks to the Bush family?  His winning personality that has resulted in not a single one of his fellow Senators endorsing him?  His blatant narcissism?  His persistent lies on  many topics?  His frying bacon with an automatic weapon?  His misleading and near fraudulent mailings to voters? His failure to follow simple campaign disclosure laws? His plans to lead the GOP over a cliff?

Please tell Red, he wants to know.

Is there Anything Ted Cruz Doesn’t Lie About (cont.)?

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Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) is turning to desperate measures to win in Iowa.  The junior Senator from Texas is apparently afraid his campaign is in serious danger of implosion without a bravo showing in the Hawkeye State.  The smell of desperation was apparent when the Tea Party hero’s campaign sent out the following mailer to Iowa voters.

You are receiving this election notice because of low expected voter turnout in your area. Your individual voting history as well as your neighbors’ are public record. Their scores are published below, and many of them will see your score as well. CAUCUS ON MONDAY TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE and please encourage your neighbors to caucus as well. A follow-up notice may be issued following Monday’s caucuses.

If that weren’t misleading enough, the mailer also included a chart with the name of the voter and his or her neighbors and their voting “grade” and “score.”

Voter registration and voter history records are public records distributed by the Iowa Secretary of State and/or county election clerks. This data is not available for use for commercial purposes – use is limited by law. Scores reflect participation in recent elections. 

This is wrong on so many levels.  First, it was specifically designed to look like an official government document.  This raised the ire of Iowa Secretary of State, Paul Pate, who issued his rejoinder.

 Today I was shown a piece of literature from the Cruz for President campaign that misrepresents the role of my office, and worse, misrepresents Iowa election law. Accusing citizens of Iowa of a “voting violation” based on Iowa Caucus participation, or lack thereof, is false representation of an official act. There is no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting. Any insinuation or statement to the contrary is wrong and I believe it is not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa Caucuses.

And if that weren’t enough, Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker has done some more investigation and it appears that the voting scores given to the targeted voter and his or her neighbors were simply made up by Cruz staffers.

After looking at several mailers posted online, I was more curious about how the Cruz campaign came up with its scores. On all the mailers I saw, every voter listed had only one of three possible scores: fifty-five per cent, sixty-five per cent, or seventy-five per cent, which translate to F, D, and C grades, respectively. Iowans take voting pretty seriously. Why was it that nobody had a higher grade?

In Iowa, although voter-registration information is free and available to the public, voter history is not. That information is maintained by the secretary of state, who licenses it to campaigns, super PACs, polling firms, and any other entity that might want it. So was the Cruz campaign accurately portraying the voter histories of Iowans? Or did it simply make up the numbers?

It’s Ted Cruz for crying out loud!  Of course he made it up.  That’s what he does.

Image from bloviatingzeppelin.net.

Last Day to Register to Vote

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Today is the last day that Texans can register to vote in the March 1 primary elections.  While Red thinks that it is absurd that we don’t have same day voter registration, he understands that the rules must be followed.  You have until 5 pm today to hand deliver your voter registration application to your local county clerk’s office or put it in the mail to be postmarked today.  You can get the application at www.votetexas.gov.  Or find out if you are already registered here.

Cornyn Backing Criminal Justice Reform

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Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) has been fairly quiet of late – what with the junior senator from Texas sucking all the air out of the room.  But Cornyn (whom Red has taken to task in the past) is actually serious at times about his work as a senator representing not only Texas but the best interests of the nation.  Red speculates that watching Ted Cruz bloviate and bluster his way to national prominence has not set well with our silver-haired senior senator.  Cornyn appears determined to forge his own path to consolidating the considerable power he holds as the No. 2 “man” in the Senate and trying to get legislation passed – something that interests Sr. Cruz not at all.

In that light, Cornyn has taken on the considerable task of federal criminal justice reform by pushing a bill out of the Judiciary Committee that, among other things, would give federal judges more leeway in sentencing, end mandatory life sentences for three-time losers convicted of non-violent crimes, and establish programs to ease released prisoners back into society.

Cornyn faces opposition from other Republicans.  Cruz himself is opposed and as usual misrepresents what the proposed legislation would actually do.  “I don’t think what the justice system needs is additional leniency for violent criminals,” Cruz complains having apparently not bothered to actually read the bill.

For the full story on Cornyn’s efforts check out Mary Clare Jalonick of the AP.

Quote for the Day

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“Mr. Cruz needs to study old Ronald Reagan clips to understand the difference between having strong beliefs and being an insufferable jerk about them.”

Bret Stephens from What Ted Cruz Values in the WSJ.  A must read.

Our Poor Idiot Governor

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The Texas Observer chronicles Gov. Greg Abbott’s first year in office and it is a sad tale of incompetent leadership, right-wing bluster, Tea Party sycophancy, and an apparent desire to do anything but the job he was elected to do.

Abbott has won real national attention for precisely three things this year: his Jade Helm letter, his personal war against Syrian refugees, and his bonkers proposal to rewrite the U.S. Constitution, which we may properly call the Articles of Gregfederation. In each case, the primary effect of his actions has been to make us look kinda dumb.

Today in Texas History – January 22

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From the Annals of the Presidency –  In 1973, former President Lyndon Baines Johnson passed away in Johnson City at the age of 64.  After deciding to not stand for re-election, LBJ went back his ranch in Central Texas.  According to many, LBJ worked as hard at ranching as he had as a politician.  The presidential biographer, Doris Kearns, observed Johnson working on the ranch with the same level of intensity he had tackled work in the Oval Office. Each morning, Johnson would instruct his ranch hands to make a “solemn pledge that you will not go to bed tonight until you are sure that every steer has everything he needs. We’ve got a chance of producing some of the finest beef in this country if we work at it.  And if we treat those hens with loving care we should be able to produce the finest eggs in the country.” He ordered daily reports on the production of eggs. To Kearns, Johnson’s frustration with his hens’ egg production echoed the frustration he experienced in failing to conclude an un-winnable war in Vietnam.

The ranch work could not conceal the fact that LBJ was, in his own words, miserable.  His legacy of accomplishment as the creator of a “Great Society” and in passing the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was being overshadowed by the floundering war in Vietnam and the anti-war movement.

On the day of Richard M. Nixon’s inauguration, Johnson watched sullenly as Nixon announced the dismantling of many of Johnson’s Great Society social programs.  The next day, Nixon announced that he had achieved the ceasefire in Vietnam that had eluded Johnson. Johnson had reportedly predicted that he would die if his vision of the Great Society died. The following day, while Lady Bird and their daughters were in Austin, Johnson suffered a fatal heart attack.  He is buried in a family cemetery at the ranch.  One can only imagine what he would think about the likes of Trump and Cruz.

Photo from the LBJ Library

Is There Anything Ted Cruz Doesn’t Lie About?

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Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) is now claiming that the “Washington Establishment” has determined Marco Rubio “can’t win this race” and consequently is “rushing over to support Donald Trump.” While campaigning in New Hampshire, Cruz laid down the following whopper:

“We’re seeing the Washington establishment abandoning Marco Rubio and unifying behind Donald Trump. And we’re seeing conservatives coming together and unifying behind our campaign. And if conservatives unite, we win.”

Exactly who is the “Washington Establishment” is anybody’s fair guess, but in Cruz’s opinion it seems to be anyone who doesn’t support him.  It seems to Red, however, that the WE is likely composed of current and former office holders that serve or served in the halls of Congress and elsewhere in good ol’ DC.

So let’s look at exactly how many current or former members of Congress have endorsed Donald Trump.   Fortunately for Red, he doesn’t have to look too far because the list is pretty damn short.  In fact, it’s not even a list because all of one – count him – one former Congressman, Virgil Short (VA) has endorsed Trump.  To give Ted the benefit of the doubt Red will also include one Jeff Lord, former White House associate political director for Reagan in 1987–88.  While Red is sure that Jeff is a great guy, Red doubts that Mr. Lord is swinging a big dick or a whole lot of votes towards the Donald.

And then we turn to Mr. Anti-Establishment himself.  How many current of former members of Congress has TC snared?  Drum roll please – 20 – including one former Senator!  Plus, Cruz has also snagged the endorsements of 7 former members of the Republican National Committee.  Curious how Mr. Cruz has failed to obtain the endorsement of a single one of his colleagues in the Senate, isn’t it?

But in Red’s opinion, the endorsement game is fought and won on the crazy celebrity battlefront.  Here, Trump is clearly coming out ahead with endorsements of such heavyweights as Mike Tyson (pun intended), Tia Tequila, Gary Busey, Dennis Rodman, Hulk Hogan, Ted Nugent, Lou “the Hulk” Ferrigno, and Wayne Newton.  Danke Schoen.

Poor Ted just can’t compete here, and thus is reduced to whining about the Washington Establishment.  What else can he do with a celebrity endorsement roster that features lightweights like Phil Robertson, James Woods and R. Lee Ermey?

Today in Texas History – January 19

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From the Annals of the Halls of Power –  In 1999, Rick Perry took office as Texas’ first Republican lieutenant governor since Reconstruction.  Perry’s long career in public office began in 1984 when he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat from District 64, which included Haskell County where his father had served as a County Commissioner.   Perry was well regarded as a Representative and served three terms.  He supported Al Gore for President in 1988.  But when George H.W. Bush won the Presidency, Perry was clearly attune to the direction the political winds were blowing in Texas, and he changed his party affiliation to the GOP.  In 1990, he narrowly defeated the popular incumbent Jim Hightower for Agriculture Commissioner.  With the help of Karl Rove he raised over $3 million and tarnished Hightower’s name – aided by a corruption scandal that enveloped 3 of Hightower’s aides.  Perry’s narrow win by about 20,000 votes pushed him into statewide prominence.   After serving two terms, Perry chose to run for Lieutenant Governor to succeed the retiring Democrat Bob Bullock.  Perry had a notable falling out with his previous top political strategist Karl Rove leading to the much-reported rivalry between the  Bush and Perry camps.  In the 1998 election, Perry eked out another narrow win with 1,858,837 votes (50.04 percent) to the 1,790,106 (48.19 percent) cast for Democrat John Sharp.