When it comes to ObamaCare, it turns out that Democrats lied about, well, pretty much everything. “Millions of low-income Americans won’t receive coverage. Many workers at small businesses won’t get a choice of insurance plans right away. Large employers won’t need to provide insurance for another year. Far more states than expected won’t run their own insurance marketplaces. And a growing number of workers won’t get to keep their employer-provided coverage.”
Harping on a theme he’s harped on before, Mickey Kaus dinged Ted Cruz (again) for not opposing illegal alien amnesty with the single-minded focus Kaus thinks he should. (“You didn’t clap loud enough! Tinkerbell is dead!Amnesty is Alive!”) This criticism is misguided:
Mickey Kaus is a Democrat and an ObamaCare supporter, albeit an entirely more reasonable example of each than usually found, as well as an amnesty opponent. Thus dinging Ted Cruz for fighting ObamaCare rather than amnesty is basically saying “A Republican senator is fighting hard against a program I support but not fighting hard enough against a program I oppose.”
Those doubting Cruz’s opposition to amnesty should take another look at what he said about it back when I interviewed him in 2011:
Cruz fought and voted against amnesty when it was before the Senate, but now it’s before the House. Given that whole “bicameral legislature” idea, the issue is beyond Cruz’s legislative purvey.
While I won’t go so far as to declare amnesty dead (as some have), if only because the GOP establishment seems to have a limitless appetite for suicidal compromise, its chances this legislative session do look slim, and all that was accomplished without Cruz taking the leading role against it.
Given all that, Kaus continuing to harp on Cruz’s appears to be of an idee fixe on Kaus’ part than real criticism.
Today is the 20th anniversary of the Oslo Accords, which, as we all know, finally brought long-lasting peace and stability to the Middle East. “Decadal stasis points to the sterility of the Arab-Israeli diplomatic process.”
How often does Defensive gun use occur? “From about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year.”
PPP’s poll data showed Giron was in trouble, but they didn’t release the poll, ostensibly because they didn’t believe it. That may be the case, but their explanation is suspect, given they actually testified in court as part of the effort to get the recall effort thrown out. Also, they didn’t do Giron and the gun-grabber side any favors by suppressing the results (the Liberal Reality Bubble strikes again). Bonus: Pollster Twitter slap fight!
To a visitor from India, America looks like a classless society. “I’ve noticed that most Americans roughly have the same standard of living. Everybody has access to ample food, everybody shops at the same supermarkets, malls, stores, etc. I’ve seen plumbers, construction workers and janitors driving their own sedans, which was quite difficult for me to digest at first since I came from a country where construction workers and plumbers lived hand to mouth.” (Hat tip: Ace.)
Rep. Peter King of Long island is running for President. Expect GOP voters to greet his campaign with the same enthusiasm with which they greeted Jon Huntsman’s.
In The Atlantic, Molly Ball claims that amnesty proponents are winning August. And I wouldn’t count on it being dead when the Republican Establishment shows no sign of giving up it’s suicidal longing for it.
In course of discussing why Texas won’t turn blue anytime soon, Nate Cohn in The New Republic gives away the game as to why Amnesty is so vitally important to Democrats, saying the expect 300,000 more Democratic votes from Amnesty in Texas alone. For Democratic strategists, every illegal alien is just an Undocumented Obama Voter.
Whether it’s dead or not, it certainly won’t do any harm to call or write your Representative’s office and remind them that you categorically oppose amnesty in any way, shape or form. And it wouldn’t hurt to mention your support for defunding ObamaCare while you’re at it…
Lt. Governor David Dewhurst shakes up his re-election team with new hires, including Ryan Hecker of FreedomWorks and Eliza Vielma (AKA Twitter’s @misslizaface) will be handling social media. Given how poorly Dewhurst performed in social media in the Senate race, that’s probably a good move.
Lt. Governor candidate and Agricultural Commissioner Todd Staples takes a swing at Dewhurst’s leadership in a fundraising letter.
Attorney General candidate Dan Branch defends defense of marriage. Unlike Tom Leppert, Branch doesn’t seem to have played footsie with Dallas’ gay rights community, and indeed was an (unsuccessful) target for them to defeat in 2008.
Speaking of Branch, Facebook briefly yanked, then restored, one of his campaign videos. This one I think:
Which strikes me as well-produced, but pretty generic. Can’t see why any reasonable person would find it even remotely objectionable.
Sources tell me that Rep. Brandon Creighton gets into the Agricultural Commissioner’s race today.
And speaking of the Agricultural Commissioner’s race, Eric Opiela is evidently not only Joe Straus’ lawyer, but also managed (through some ill-advised emails) to hurt Republican redistricting efforts by making them easier to challenge in 2012.
On the Democratic side, Abortion Barbie inches closer to declaring her intention to lose to Abbott.
Over 1,100 patients were starved to death at NHS hospitals in the UK. Funny, I don’t remember that being mentioned in the Olympic tribute to how awesome NHS is…
Blue collar Americans having trouble finding jobs. I’m sure that has nothing to do with our ruling political elite’s decision to allow unlimited illegal immigration of unskilled workers…
Obama camapign workers convicted of voter fraud in Indiana. This was for the 2008 Democratic primary, so it will likely be many years before see starting seeing convictions for the Obama campaign’s various 2012 voting fraud efforts…
And speaking of Benghazi, Libya just let one of the suspected attackers walk. Thank God we have Obama’s smart, sophisticated diplomacy in the Middle East…
Contact your senators here to tell them you oppose both the Gang of Eight and Corker-Hoeven illegal alien amnesty bills.
Something like this:
Dear Sen. Cornyn,
Not only do I oppose both the Gang of 8 and substitute Corker-Hoeven illegal alien amnesty bills, but I support a filibuster of any “amnesty first” illegal alien legislation, will withhold all financial report support from the national Republican Party committees if it passes, and will support primary challenges to any Republican who votes in favor of it.
And now the traditional Friday LinkSwarm on Friday!
“Detroit is expecting its creditors to take less than 10 cents on the dollar for having been foolish enough to lend money to the collection of misfits, miscreants, and criminals who govern that poor city….The problem is that the same political leadership that brought Detroit to this sorry pass remains in power…Detroit cannot be trusted with its own money, it cannot be trusted with its creditors’ money, and it certainly cannot be trusted with federal taxpayers’ money.”
“The federal government has been spying and lying. The only comfort is that, apparently, it’s been largely incompetent at both.”
Daily Kos founder joins the chorus of liberal concern trolls saying Republicans had darn well better embrace amnesty or be doomed. It’s like Microsoft telling Goggle what it’s investment strategy should be.
And no, Republicans are not doomed if they don’t vote for amnesty.
In the amnesty proposal, it takes three DUIs before they consider kicking an illegal alien out of the country.
Gender studies professor and FBI most wanted sex offender Walter Lee Williams captured in Mexico. Not to be confused with awesome economics professor Walter E. WIlliams of George Mason University.
USS Enterprise (CVN-65), America’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, takes its final voyage.
Out on my ass? I guarantee it! (Also, I think The Men’s Warehouse’s problems are less “unable to connect with Gen Y” and more “nobody wants to wear a suit unless they have to and fewer and fewer men have to.” Go casual or go extinct.)
Now would be a good time to call and email you Senator (and your Representative) to let them know you oppose the “Gang of 8” illegal alien amnesty proposal currently being debated in the Senate, especially since it does less than nothing to secure the border, and makes hiring illegals more attractive than hiring Americans, since employers need not pay for their ObamaCare.
Now would also be a great time to contact anyone you know at the national Republican Party and inform them that you will not donate a dime to any national GOP committee if illegal alien amnesty passes.
Here’s Ted Cruz speaking against the amnesty proposal on the Senate floor:
Suppose you want the police to arrest you, but you aren’t quite ambitious enough to issue a death threat to the President. What to do? Well, How about:
Issuing a death threat to a sitting United States Senator (and his father, just for good measure)?
Leaving a message with the threat on the Senator’s office voicemail?
Asking for $3 million to “prevent the sun from blowing up?”
Doing all of this from your own home phone number?
All of the above?
Well, Nick K. Gates appears to be just that special kind of criminal dumbass since he left threatening messages against Ted Cruz at two of his offices under the name “Abolfanzi Akbori.”
The article makes Gates seem quite the prize:
In a June 10 interview at his Houston apartment, Gates told investigators he has spent 12 days in the Harris County Mental Health Center.
Gates has a prior felony conviction for attempted retaliation, where he threatened the life of a Houston police officer and his child after the officer arrested him for driving while intoxicated, according to the arrest warrant. He also was convicted on the DWI charge.
Upon further investigation, FBI agents in Austin learned that agents in Houston were investigating Gates for “threatening the life of a Houston based FBI agent.”
Authorities also learned that Federal Protective Services Houston had an open case on Gates for “sending inappropriate emails and making inappropriate phone calls” to the U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services case worker who handled his immigration case.
What a want to know is: With just a single felony conviction, wouldn’t our crazy, threatening felon be eligible for the Gang of 8 amnesty proposal?