Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Sarah Palin Babygate flashback - February 15, 2008: When Sarah Palin was supposedly six months pregnant, but was also the slimmest person in the room!


By Patrick

Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy with Trig is a topic which simply is impossible to "forget" - although "officially", the faked pregnancy did never occur. The large majority of the media decided to bury the subject and branded it a "conspiracy theory" - but they were wrong, as we reported in great detail in the past. Sarah Palin did indeed fake her pregnancy with Trig, and many people in Alaska know it.

The days between Christmas and the new year are always a good time for reflection, so I am thankful that some of our readers highlighted in the comments of our last post a set of pictures which shows Sarah Palin, as well as her daughters, at the "Go Red American Heart Association" Luncheon in Fairbanks, Alaska, on February 15, 2008.

On February 15, 2008, Sarah Palin was supposedly six months pregnant. However, the public didn't know it at this point, because Sarah Palin had not announced her pregnancy yet. This happened only on March 5, 2008, when Sarah Palin announced to the great surprise of Alaskan journalists that she is seven months pregnant.

The journalists were flabbergasted, and not just them: In late 2009, I had a phone call with Republican politician Lyda Green, former Alaska Senate President, and talked to her specifically about Sarah Palin's pregnancy with Trig. Lyda Green told me that she herself was present in the room on March 5, 2008 where Sarah Palin announced her pregnancy, and Lyda Green said to me that Sarah Palin "did not look pregnant" on this day.

But the national media quickly buried the story, when lots of questions were raised about the pregnancy after Sarah Palin had been nominated as the Republican VP-candidate in August 2008. We have unique access to the "thought process" of the liberal media in this matter back in August and early September 2008, due to the leaked "Journolist-Emails."

Back then, influential journalists like Ezra Klein feared that the story could backfire - and the political consequences were their only concern, not accurate reporting:

Ezra Klein Aug 30, 2008, 10:15am

Seriously, folks? Best case scenario, what’s your outcome here: Her daughter, hounded by the tabloids, breaks down that it was her child, and her mother heroically took on the burden and welcomed the disabled boy as one of her own? Palin’s relationship with her children — however they may have come to her — strikes me as pretty far out of bounds. By all accounts she’s a wonderful mother, and devoted to her fifth son. Leave this be.

But Ezra Klein is wrong. Nobody "heroically took on the burden." Someone just wanted to find the easy way out of an embarrassing situation. Now, where the Palins have lied about this issue over and over again, in books and interviews, there is no way they would be able to "look good" if this came out. Bristol even claimed in her book that Levi took her virginity.

Oh, memories! For years we and others have been writing about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy, and in teamwork we for example discovered many damning pictures, unearthed incriminating emails, documented vicious attempts by Sarah Palin lawyers to shut down "babygate" critics, discussed laughable attempts by the Alaska media in 2011 to get rid of the pregnancy controversy, exposed Sarah Palin's unbelievable "wild ride" from April 17, 2008, reported when other people like Joe McGinniss and Andrew Sullivan raised questions about the pregnancy, and so forth. We also discovered that Alaskan journalists quickly got wind of the fact that Sarah Palin may have faked the pregnancy, and that they had already in 2008 heard from sources in Alaska that Palin's faked pregnancy was indeed a true fact.

But it was never enough.

The photos from February 15, 2008 are another piece of "circumstantial evidence." They were uploaded to flickr (click for link) by the American Heart Association, and they were uploaded only about three years after the event, on January 11, 2011. The "new" design of flickr is a real pain to use, and with the new design it is also hard to see when the photos were uploaded. However, looking through my files, I realized that I had already seen these photos quite a while ago and had also taken some screenshots, still with the "old" flickr layout:




So let's take a closer look at the photos of the Governor who was supposedly secretly six-month pregnant on February 15, 2008 (click on pictures to enlarge):

This photo is really amazing - six women, and the slimmest one is the Governor who is supposedly six months pregnant:


For the purpose of documentation - here is the Exif-data for this photo, viewable via flickr (the same is possible for every photo from this set):


More pictures from this event, posted by the America Heart Association:




Bristol, Willow and Piper were bored to death:


Look at this - Sarah Palin and "Miss Alaska" are the same size!


Sarah Palin supposedly is highly pregnant - but she is leaning with her belly against the metal podium:



Finally, from the same event - there you can see a woman who REALLY was pregnant, unlike the faking Governor:



Just for the purposes of documentation, here is a screenshot of the official schedule of Sarah Palin from February 15, 2008, mentioning the event in Fairbanks, obtained in early 2009 through a FOIA-request (click to enlarge):





Also, three days earlier, Sarah Palin's office told her what she is supposed to say in her speech, as usual (in this collection from page 61):




Interestingly, this event already made headlines in October 2008:

In addition to the commercial flights, the children have traveled dozens of times with Palin on a state plane. For these flights, the total cost of operating the plane, at $971 an hour, was about $55,000, according to state flight logs. The cost of operating the state plane does not increase when the children join their mother.

The organizer of an American Heart Association luncheon on Feb. 15 in Fairbanks said Palin asked to bring daughter Piper to the event, and the organizer said she was surprised when Palin showed up with daughters Willow and Bristol as well.

The three Palin daughters shared a room separate from their mother at the Princess Lodge in Fairbanks for two nights, at a cost to the state of $129 per night.

The luncheon took place before Palin's husband, Todd, finished fourth in the 2,000-mile Iron Dog snowmobile race, also in Fairbanks. The family greeted him at the finish line.

When Palin showed up at the luncheon with not just Piper but also Willow and Bristol, organizers had to scramble to make room at the main table, said Janet Bartels, who set up the event.

"When it's the governor, you just make it happen," she said.

The state is already reviewing nearly $17,000 in per diem payments to Palin for more than 300 nights she slept at her own home, 40 miles from her satellite office in Anchorage.

So this is our little reflective tale about a Governor who was supposedly highly pregnant, but who was also the slimmest person in the room. She fooled (almost) everyone - and she certainly fooled the national media, who already decided in the infamous "Journolist" email discussions from 2008 right after Sarah Palin's nomination as Republican VP-candidate that this highly inconvenient issue should be buried.

They allowed Sarah Palin to continue to play the professional victim - up until today.

Finally, a reminder - this is what "six months pregnant" really looks like, in the real world, and not in the fantasy world of Sarah Palin:



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We wish everyone a lovely celebration for the new year! Viva 2014!


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UPDATE:

KAO made a brilliant comparison of two photos from 2007 and 2008, which are both dated by the photographer (also h/t to mellybel). On the second photo, Sarah Palin is supposedly five months pregnant. It truly was an invisible pregnancy!




Link to the photo from 2007

Link to the photo from 2008

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I still have a little bit of hope left that the media will eventually expose Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy, that they will expose her as the fraud she is.

Because ultimately, Sarah Palin still does a lot of damage to the liberal media. Not only got she Martin Bashir fired and has the power to make journalists (and others!) apologize. Not only that, but her usual "mantra" that the "lamestream media" cannot be trusted already did a lot of damage, because the conservative base was ready for this message. They don't want their right-wing heroes to be besmirched by "facts" or "logic" or "reason." They only want to believe in flawless right-wing heroes, who kick the butts of the liberals.

So her message that the liberal media simply cannot be trusted became incredibly popular. I am convinced that virtually any right-winger you talk to will tell you immediately that he/she won't believe a word that the liberal media says. This is also the work of Sarah Palin, because she hammered this message home like nobody else, with much more force than anyone else. She also did this, of course, in order to discredit any revelations about herself, coming from liberal sources. I would say that this strategy worked pretty well. Even some "liberal" journalists for example had difficulty to believe the revelations by Joe McGinniss in "The Rogue." They could not believe that "Saint Sarah" (Newsweek) actually wasn't a saint at all.

So possibly the journalists will realize in the end that they have only one choice (because Sarah herself will NEVER shut up): To finally write the truth about Sarah Palin.

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Palin-biographer Joe McGinniss"I think the Politicalgates archives are the best single available resource for anyone wondering why questions are still being asked about Sarah really being Trig’s birth mother." (from August 28, 2011)
Kathleen Baker, editor of Politicalgates, writes in the UK "Guardian" about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy: "Sarah Palin, unreliable narrator"
Read all posts at Politicalgates about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy with Trig - FOR THE COLLECTION, CLICK HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HEREHERE, HERE AND HERE.
Download the research paper regarding Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy and the role of the media, written by Brad Scharlott, Associate Professor for Journalism at Northern Kentucky University - CLICK HERE.

Brad Scharlott's revised version of the paper has also been published by "Business Insider."

Read the old post at Palingates about the faked pregnancy with the pictures still intact in hardcopy HERE.

Read the old posts at Palingates online HERE (useful also for watching the video clips which were published with the posts).

Listen to Sarah Palin's own description of her unbelievable "Wild Ride" from Texas to Alaska, which happened on April 17, 2008: Sarah explains how she decided to make the trip, despite of the fact that her "water broke" the night before.

In addition, please don't hesitate to watch the excellent video-documentaries about "babygate" which our reader Lidia17 created - HEREHERE and HERE.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Run-up to Christmas - December 23


By Patrick

It's Christmas time! We love it! The time of the year that even someone like Sarah Palin is not able to mess up for us, as hard as she tries! Kathleen and I are travelling this Christmas, and it already started very well. Fortunately we have good access to the internet, too. So we are ready for the run-up to Christmas!

There is one item I would like to share with you all- yesterday at Amsterdam Schiphol airport, there was a wonderful moment when an excellent female vocal group called "The Triolettes", three singers who specialize in classic swing arrangements, were singing Christmas songs for the travellers in the transit area. (UPDATE: This also was a TV-news story in the Netherlands). I made a sweet little recording, which you will surely enjoy, with 2 1/2 songs, so to speak. The little kids enjoyed it as well, as you can see! At the end, they sing "Let it Snow" and "Silent Night":




So that was a really nice surprise. Our travel went smoothly, we have bought our presents (just need to wrap them), and so we are almost ready for Christmas day!

Here at Politicalgates, politics is never far away. And did we ever have a more "political" Christmas than this year, what with all the fuss over a "white Santa" and with Sarah Palin neatly dividing the country into the real American god-fearing believers and the unreal American ungodly atheists?

Interestingly, a new poll was published a few days ago which clearly shows that for Americans, neither the "Happy Holidays" greeting nor the "white Santa" are actually a big deal. It turns out the 75% of Americans are not bothered whether they are greeted with "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays", and only 32% of Americans believe that Santa was "white."

PPP reports:

Christmas brings Americans together. 87% have a positive opinion of it to only 7% with a negative view, and 85-89% of Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike see it in a positive manner. (...)

Perhaps one reason Americans are less concerned now about the War on Christmas is that they're really not that concerned about the whole Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays thing. Certainly they prefer Merry Christmas- 51% say that's their greeting of choice to 8% for Happy Holidays and 41% who say it doesn't make a difference. But few Americans are actually offended by being told Happy Holidays- just 22% are with 75% saying it's not a big deal.

Of course there's a new issue dividing us this holiday season, and that's whether Santa is 'verifiably white.' Only 32% of Americans think he is, while 36% say he is not and another 32% say they aren't sure. The high level of indecision may be owing to only 43% of Americans saying they believe in Santa Claus to 50% who don't. Those numbers are down from 52% saying they believed in him a year ago, and surely some sociologist can explain to us what happened this year to make us lose our faith.

Sorry, Sarah! But we still wish you a Merry Christmas as well as Happy Holidays! :-)

In order to get into the Christmas spirit, there is one classic which is just great every Christmas - "Do They Know it's Christmas" by Band Aid from 1984:




Brings back memories, doesn't it?

We have to go to buy food for the Christmas dinner now, as we want to get this out of the way before dinner  with friends this evening. I conclude this little post with a great cartoon I found, featuring Sarah and Bill - see you again soon!


Friday, December 20, 2013

Politicalgates Recipes For Christmas 2013.

By Kathleen

It's time to get ourselves into the Christmas spirit and that means sharing our favourite festive season recipes with each other. 

Share your tried and tested Christmas recipes in the comments and I will choose some of them to feature in this post as an update. 

Here is a Christmas Florentine recipe that I came across yesterday while reading The Guardian Lifestyle section. It is super easy and perfect as a last minute homemade present or as a snack after your Christmas Day Meal (if you have any room left, that is). Warning. They are very addictive. 

Ruby Tandoh's cranberry and chocolate florentines recipe:



Makes 16

40g flaked almonds
80g unsalted butter
60g light brown soft sugar
Zest of 2 oranges
40g plain flour
A large a pinch of salt
100g dried cranberries
50g mixed peel
200g dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Toast the almonds on a baking tray for about 10 minutes, or until they have turned golden.


ruby bakes melting butter

While the flaked almonds are being toasted, melt the butter over a low heat. Add the sugar and orange zest, stirring to combine. Remove the almonds to cool, but leave the oven on.
In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, cranberries, peel and almonds, tossing to coat the fruit with flour. Add this to the butter mixture and combine.

Line a large baking tray with parchment. Using two teaspoons, heap small mounds of the mixture on to the sheet and flatten each one a little. Space them well apart, as they'll spread in the oven. You'll be able to make about 16 florentines with this recipe, so I'd recommend doing them in about three batches – the mixture won't suffer for waiting around.

Cook each batch for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of each florentine are lacy and golden brown. Let them cool for 5 minutes on the tray, gently pushing them into a more circular shape, then slide on to a cooling rack. They'll seem fragile, but as they cool the edges will become crispy while the centre remains gloriously chewy.


ruby bakes melted chocolate for the florentines


Break the chocolate into pieces, place in a bowl and heat over hot water until melted. Brush the underneath of the biscuits liberally with the chocolate and leave to set. You can always artistically drizzle any leftover chocolate on top, too, if you want.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

'Groundswell': Stirring the Pot of Congressional Dysfunction

by Sunnyjane

But before I do that, my king-sized Sippy Cup needs a Merlot refill!
It's no secret that the House of Representatives is the most malfunctioning organ in the body politic of the United States government.

There's a history, of course: In 2008, John McCain lost and Barack Obama won.  And things haven't been quite the same since.  The new President's first -- and last -- highly significant legislation to pass into law was the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, which he signed in March of 2010.

The Taxed Enough Already movement (the Tea Party) was already making noises about government spending and lower taxes.  Then they got co-opted by the shrilling extreme right and their message turned to social issues.  Thus, by the November mid-term election, they ushered in a bunch of the most contemptible anti-Americans ever to enter that hallowed chamber.  Thus we -- and John Boehner, who became the Speaker of the House -- were cursed with the most Do-Nothing legislative body in history.

Boehner not only has the Teabaggers to endure, he also has to put up with outside groups -- yeah, they're lobbyists, regardless of what they call themselves -- who threaten dire election consequences for Republicans who go against them.  So now, to steal a quote from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, they are engaged in a great civil war for the heart and soul of the Republican Party.  Or something like that.

Is it any wonder Boehner drinks?  (Oh, there's no truth to the rumor that Boehner limps because of an old football injury.  He actually fell off his stool in a sports bar.)

What is Groundswell and Why Does it Matter?

Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, wife of Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarance Thomas, is the maker and shaker of Groundswell, a super-clandestine group of far-far-right Tea Partiers who see the Obama administration through the foggy lens of tyranny!  That is not hyperbole, dear readers; this group consists of such teabagging luminaries as former ambassador (thank God) John Bolton, former (ditto) GOP representative Allen West, journalists (huh?) from Breitbart.com, and a top aid to Sen. Ted Cruz.  Are you getting the picture here?

As David Corn of Mother Jones reported last summer, the Groundswellers have launched a
30 front war seeking to fundamentally transform the nation.  How will they win this war?  With what they hope is persuasive messaging, of course.  Like Reince Priebus, it's not their policies that are losing voters, it's the message, stupid!  And they know their audience well, using phrases such as the low-information voters, writing their propaganda on a 4th grade level, and using images like Humpty Dumpty that voters can identify with to get their points across.  (How sad is this, I ask you!) 

Immigration Reform and the Spanking of Marco Rubio

I didn't mean to take a LEFT, honestly I didn't!
Groundswell has a lot of hissy-fit issues with President Obama and Democratic lawmakers, of course, but none is as critical to them as Immigration Reform: If we lose on immigration, we lose on every other issue. The key to defeating this bill is Sen. Rubio.

Marco Rubio was one of the Gang of 8, a bipartisan group assembled in late January 2013 to tackle Immigration ReformBeing from Florida and of Cuban ancestry, Sen Rubio seemed a perfect choice to take on this important task -- particularly in light of the stiff-arming the GOP got from Latinos in the November 2012 general election.   But the Republican was in a quandary, you see, because the teabaggers got him elected and they want nothing to do with immigration reform.  It is interesting (ahem) what Rubio did in March: he actually donated $30,000 from his leadership PAC to Jim DeMint's Senate Conservative Action group, which is closely connected to Groundswell!  

The Immigration Reform bill put together by the Gang of 8 was passed in the Senate in June.  However, Boehner said it would never be brought to the House without major redo because he thinks immigration reform should come in steps.  

My, my, my!

Groundswells' War on Karl Rove


Uber-GOP Strategist Karl Rove is pretty sick of his party losing winnable elections because the most unelectable candidates were selected to run against their Democratic opponents.  Still smarting from the 2012 election, in February Rove put together a group called the Conservative Victory Project, which plans to pick the most conservative candidate who can win.  (Translation: Forget about those Tea Party candidates like Christine O'Donnell, Todd Akin, and Richard Mourdock!) 

Groundswell, however, has an entirely opposite goal.  They'll most likely end up embracing such people as Tea Party extremist Dr. Greg Brannon of North Carolina, who is for all the most radical positions in America today.  To whit, he's against public education because it dehumanizes students; he doesn't believe that states have to follow Supreme Court decisions; he thinks that bipartisan compromises enslave Americans; he believes the late Jesse Helms was a modern hero; and he supports secession so that to achieve a free and independent Southern republic.  Oh, yes, and he's been endorsed by Sen. Rand Paul.

Good luck with this, Karl.

End Note



  

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Mitch McConnell: The Pesky 2014 Challenges He's Facing (Heh)

by Sunnyjane

 Did you say I'm facing a Democrat, a Tea Partier, and an Independent?  Gawd!
When Mitch McConnell easily won a fifth term in the U.S. Senate in 2008, the next six years were supposed to be, shall we say, orgasmic: make that uppity Barack Obama a one-term president, become Senate Majority Leader, elect a Republican president in 2012, and glide easily back to the Senate in 2014 with his turtle-smirk firmly affixed.

Needless to say, McConnell's highly arousing plan was a bit, um, ejaculation praecox.  President Obama is still the president, the Democrats still control the Senate, his disapproval rating at home is fifty-one percent, and he is up against a variety of challengers in the My-Old-Kentucky-Home state.

Curses!  Foiled again.

McConnell: The Tea Party is Ruining Conservatism! 

Isn't it awkward when you invite a bunch of crazy people into your home and they start ransacking it and trying to throw you out at the same time?  Well, meet the 2010 Republicans, those who decided to bring some of the most ideologically divisive individuals into their tent just to show President Obama a thing or two!  And then they continued it in 2012 -- don't know why, but Ted Cruz comes to mind.

Well, there's another Tea Partier who is anxious to take Mitch McConnell's job in the Senate in 2014 because he believes that the Minority Speaker is not conservative enough.  Meet Matt Bevin, whose political experience consists only of giving money to conservative politicians and the Republican Party of Kentucky.  Whoo hoo!  Now that's just top-notch governing experience for you.  (Shades of Rand Paul, whose only political experience before he Tea-Partied himself into the Senate was giving campaign speeches for his do-nothing father.

Of course, Mitch cannot be happy that his Tea Party challenger has recently been endorsed by Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund:  Matt Bevin is a true conservative who will fight to stop the massive spending, bailouts, and debt that are destroying our country.  He is not afraid to stand up to the establishment and he will do what it takes to stop Obamacare.  (He'll do what it takes to stop Obamacare?  Snort!)

The McConnell campaign sniffed their disdain by retorting, Matt Bevin now has the dubious honor of standing with a self-serving D.C. fundraising group that made its name by recruiting and promoting unelectable candidates that ensured Barack Obama a majority in the Senate. They clearly care less about Kentuckians than they do about their reputation for supporting laughably bad candidates.

So while Bevin is touting himself as THE conservative in the race, Mitch has to straddle the line between being ultraconservative and blaming others for being TOO conservative.   (I know, it's hard to keep up with these fools, isn't it?)  I'm sure we'll hear more about Mr. Bevin as the campaign gets hotter in early 2014; Mitch knows how to find out stuff about his enemies, you know.  Doesn't it make you giddy with anticipation of watching this freak show?

Obamacare's Roots and Branches  (It's Complicated)




While Mitch declares that the Republicans will not shut down the government again over the Affordable Care Act, he intends to get enough conservative butts in the Senate by 2016 to take Obamacare apart by it's roots and branches because it's hurting Americans, is a catastrophic failure, and is not fixable. 

Kentucky's Democratic governor, Steve Beshear, begs to differ, and went to Washington recently to say so -- rather strongly: There is a tremendous pent-up demand in Kentucky for affordable health care.  People are hungry for it.
 
It seems Governor Beshear is correct.  Citing statistics for Kentucky's exchange website, more than 550,000 people have visited Kentucky’s Obamacare site since its Oct. 1 launch. More than 180,000 have called into the healthcare call center, meanwhile, and about 69,000 people — 41 percent of whom are under the age of 35 — have signed up. 

And Then There's The Democratic Challenger 
     
Alison Grimes:  If Mitch McConnell had a kidney stone, he wouldn't pass it.
Although Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes will have at least two primary challengers, it is presumed at this point that she will become the Democratic nominee against McConnell in November.

She has a lot of good backing, including family friend former President Bill Clinton.  But as the Daily Beast pointed out recently, she's got to get out there and talk about what she stands for.  It seems that, at this point, she's been somewhat wishy-washy on several issues, including gay marriage and the Affordable Care Act.

We'll see.  Mitch McConnell -- the GOP obstructionist-in-chief, really needs to be retired from the United States Senate.

End Note

 

Friday, December 6, 2013

The GOP and Another Year of Doing Nothing -- But Expertly!

by Sunnyjane


Official conclusion:  NO HEART DETECTED.   And the year went downhill from there.

Thirteen months ago, Barack Obama won and Mitt Romney lost.  It was a humiliating loss, one that many in the GOP have not yet gotten over.  But National Republican Committee chairman Reince Priebus declared that his party would undergo a political autopsy to see how it could expand its base to be more, ahem, inclusive for those demographics that voted for Barack Obama.

About all that came out of that autopsy was that the Republican Tea Party's policy were sound, but the messaging was lousy.  Of course, shortly after that, Priebus told the party that it should embrace uber-conservative Mike Huckabee as its model.   Great message, Reince; that outta do it!

O GOP, O GOP, Wherefore Art Thou, GOP?

All clowns, regardless of race, gender, or religion are welcome to enter.
The Grumpy Old Partisan party is terminally ill and, no, it's not one of those conditions covered under Obamacare.  This self-inflicted malady is known as Policy Messaging in the Crapper and occurs when you allow the body politic to be overrun by any faction  -- however looney -- who just might vote for you or vote against you.  The losers who fawn over Sarah Palin are a prime example: they're the ones who think fine art is a tattoo of Jesus brandishing an AR-15.  

Full disclosure: I'd be against -- and write about it with glowing disgust -- almost any policy the GOP came up with.  The problem is, I have no earthly idea WHAT their damn policies are!  And I believe that this is exactly the issue:  they cannot announce a policy because of the sizable -- and divisive -- forces making it impossible to develop any significant policies.  So, in the absence of an agenda based on their plans to govern, they just say NO to anything the President or the Democratic-held Senate proposes.

As the President said to Congressional leaders on December 4, You owe it to the American people to tell us what you are for, not just what you’re against.

Immigration Reform, Amigo?  No problemo!
Senor, mi papa es loco!  No se lo digas a nadie!
TranslationSir, my father is crazy!  Don't tell anyone!  The House says it will pass immigration reform -- probably not the Senate's version -- later next year.   See, if they pass it this year, or too early next year, the Latino voters they'd like to get into the tent might forget about it by the election in November.  Couldn't have that, now could we?

Frankly, they don't realize that they have at their fingertips the best argument against immigration reform: Rafael Cruz, father of Canadian Senator Ted Cruz (H/T Martin Bashir).  One could easily make the case that no one who is this spiteful towards our country, given the lies and crazy things he's spewing forth to his ignorant followers, should be granted citizenship.   But the GOP can pretty well expect their efforts to be a bust; Latinos know well who is responsible for wasting precious time on an issue that is near and dear to them, just as African Americans will not likely forget that Sen. Cruz said earlier this year  We need 100 more like Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate.

And leave it to John Boehner to kick himself in the ass by refusing to meet with the Fasting 4 Families group who camped out in front of the Capitol; even when they went to his office,  Boehner refused to see them.  Said his spokesman, The Speaker remains committed to a step-by-step process to fix our broken immigration system.

However, the President and the First Lady -- that would be the Obamas -- went to the Fasters and met with them in their tent.  Do ya see, John, why Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America?

  

Of course, John Boehner is behind the 8-Ball on this one: if he passes immigration reform he loses the racists; if he doesn't pass immigration reform, he's certain to lose the Latino vote.  Added to that, he could lose his Speaker of the House position when the 114th Congress convenes in January 2015; no doubt Eric Cantor haunts Boehner's wine-fueled dreams nightly.

(It's not that John Boehner drinks too much; it's just that he hates to enter the cocktail hour totally sober.)

Iran Nuclear Treaty Causes GOP Heartburn

Peace through diplomacy over war through stupidity.

While the rest of the world breathed a sigh of relief when Iran and six major powers around the globe agreed to a six-month treaty to keep that Middle East country from further developing nuclear weapons, with some sanctions restored, the GOP went -- in typical fashion -- absolutely batshit crazy.

The first to display his ignorance and loathing was John Cornyn of Texas, who decried the deal as an Obamacare distraction.

He is wrong, of course.  Now, you're hearing this for the first time, but I happen to be privy to the truth!  Yes, dear readers, this Politicalgates writer has had her ear to the ground and it so happens that it was not the Iran thingy that the President used to distract from the issue the healthcare website.  It was -- don't repeat this -- his clever manipulation of the calendar to ensure that Thanksgiving and Hanukkah occurred at the same time!


GOP: Healthcare Website is Obama's Katrina




It's very true that the healthcare website got off to a less than stellar beginning.  As of December 1, however, it seems to be working quite well, and many Americans are signing up.   That's good news for the entire country.  As of December 3, more than 1.5 million people have signed up.  According to a new report, the ACA is expected to cost billions of dollars less than originally projected.  Wait for GOP heads to explode.

And, President Obama has never uttered the phrases Mission Accomplished or Heckova a job, Brownie!

Something to think about before we leave this subject:  If the healthcare website works only 114 days next year, it will be longer than the House of Representatives will work.

End Note -- The 2013 GOP Sequester


Sunday, December 1, 2013

In new suppressed video at FreedomWorks-event from February 2013, Rafael Cruz describes in detail how he fought for Fidel Castro for four years, was "tortured", miraculously escaped the Batista-prison and then enrolled at university in Texas - BONUS: Rafael Cruz in speech from June 2013 about President Obama: "We need to get rid of this monster"

 Remember: Where Texas-Senator Ted Cruz is, his father Rafael is not far behind

By Patrick

During recent weeks, US media and US citizens made a new discovery: They have started to realize that Texas-Senator Ted Cruz, the darling of the Tea Party and potential GOP presidential candidate for 2016, has a very outspoken father with some rather peculiar views - as well as a rather mysterious background.

A larger audience was first introduced to the extremist views of Rafael Cruz by David Corn at Mother Jones through an article he published on October 31, 2013, in which he quoted and displayed some of the fanatic speeches by Rafael Cruz - who for quite some time already has been traveling the country giving one outrageous speech after the other. Rafael Cruz very often speaks at events organized by groups like "FreedomWorks" and "Heritage Action", groups which are the new right-wing political armies, assigned with the task of brainwashing the general population, and which surely receive handsome funding from right-wing billionaires.

At Politicalgates we have also reported extensively about Rafael Cruz, first in a post from October 3, 2013 in which we reported for example that Rafael Cruz in a speech to a GOP-audience strongly suggested that Barack Obama is a Muslim, and that he in an interview explained how his son Ted is "destined for greatness" and how he politically educated his son. Note: If you click on the videos in our post from October 3, 2013, who will see that the clips with controversial remarks by Rafael Cruz are starting to disappear from the internet rather quickly!

In a follow-up post from November 3, 2013, we revealed how Rafael Cruz was caught blatantly lying about President Obama, trying to discredit Obama's Christan beliefs - and we also reported some more rather inconvenient facts about Rafael Cruz, for example about his mysterious past.

We wrote:

The conservative non-profit organization "FreedomWorks" conducted a radio-interview with Rafael Cruz in February 2013, in which he explains in more detail his "official" life story: How he fought for Fidel Castro for four years (!), at the age of 14 to 18, how he was imprisoned and tortured, how he then somehow escaped to the USA, how he didn't speak English, still got a place at an university in Texas, then went briefly back to Cuba (?), but apparently was so appalled by Castro's version of communism that he promptly returned to the USA, disappointed about the "hope and change" that Fidel Castro had promised.

He conducted the interview with an ultra-conservative female host, who obviously thinks that government healthcare is the embodiment of evil, and who marvels how great it was how in the past when US citizens, after they got sick, first turned to their "families", then their "churches", then their "communities", and only then to the "government." Rafael Cruz, whose son Ted enjoys the luxurious Goldman Sachs-healthcare plan, immediately agreed with her. Oh, the good old days! Cruz also says in the interview that people turn into "slaves of the government" when they accept Government handouts or use any other services.

Daddy Cruz also has more incredibly original thoughts. He further says in the interview that that Democratic Party today follows "socialist policies", which are "not the policies which made America great." He also claims that America turned to Socialism when Carter was elected, and that Ronald Reagan then magically fixed the economy already in his first year. I guess Reagan waved his magic wand!

Now comes the follow-up to the follow-up. By coincidence we discovered another speech which now is apparently being deliberately suppressed by "FreedomWorks" - and in which Rafael Cruz speaks about his past as a fighter for Fidel Castro and about his move to the USA in great detail. However, this speech prompts even more questions than it provides answers - and was afterwards grossly misrepresented in a ludicrous manner in a tweet by the "FreedomWorks" organization.

This is what happened: While I searched youtube for new clips, I found a clip which was uploaded by a man called Paul LeBon. This clip contained excerpts from a speech by Rafael Cruz at an event by FreedomWorks which is very different from the clips we have seen so far - a speech in which Rafael Cruz extensively talks about his past, much more extensively than on other occasions. However, as much as a I searched, I could not for the life of me find the complete clip of this speech! Through extensive googling I finally found the clip embedded in a post on a right-wing blog in a post from March 3, 2013, and that was the only place I could find it anywhere.

When I examined the clip, I finally realized why this clip, although it had been posted on the official youtube-channel of FreedomWorks, was virtually impossible to find: It is now unlisted! Which means that it doesn't appear in the search engines, and without a direct link to the clip, you will never find it.

Screenshot:


Yes, I did indeed think twice about sharing it, but quickly realized that it would be considerate to share it with the public! :-)

I strongly believe that it wasn't unlisted right from the beginning, because more than 10.000 people have already watched it.

Here is the full clip, posted on the channel of "FreedomWorks":




Due to the fact that the content of this particular talk by Rafael Cruz is really unique and of great interest, Kathleen volunteered to spend a few hours transcribing the most important part of the speech. Thank you so much, Kathleen! :-)

Here is the transcript of this address by Rafael Cruz, which was apparently given on February 25, 2013 to activists from FreedomWorks in Washington D.C. :

RAFAEL CRUZ:

Thank you very much. Before I say anything else, I need to say thank you to Freedom Works. Without the passion, without the hard work that Freedom Works took into the race for Ted Cruz it would not have been possible. The biggest. most exciting, most energetic rally in the whole campaign was the one that Freedom Works put together at the American Airlines Center  with over 16,000 people. (applause) Thank you Matt (Matt Kibbe, CEO and President of Freedom Works).

So, without you this would not be possible. Today I had the opportunity of meeting people from North Carolina, and other places that told me  “We spent a lot of time on the phone calling for Ted Cruz”, so thank you.

I was born in Cuba and ah Cuba when I was in my early teens, Cuba ah became engulfed in a very bloody, very oppressive military dictatorship that began in 1952. I was thirteen years old. The dictatorship of Batista began killing everyone that disagreed with them. It was a military oppression. There was a lot of corruption. The mafia operated freely in Cuba and ah the military would come to any kind of establishment pretty much in the same way that the Chicago mobsters operated in the thirties with protectionism.

They would come into an establishment and say “Well Matt, you know, I don’t think your restaurant will pass health inspection.” And then this little sergeant would say “Well, you know, I’ve been thinking about going to Miami with my family for a week but it’s going to cost me $10,000.” And either Matt came out with $10,000 or this sergeant would close his place. And of course those who dared to oppose were killed. Thousands were killed. And of course as is happened with every revolution where do you think it started? It started in the high schools and universities.

So I found myself at fourteen years old involved in a revolution. And, ah, so, I spent nearly four years involved in ah sabotage, propaganda, and trying to collect ah weapons and training and so on and so forth. During this time a young charismatic leader rose up talking about “Hope and Change” (audience sniggers). His name was Fidel Castro and we all thought that he was the saviour of the country. So we blindly followed him and I did so for four years.

1957 I, ah, made the mistake of trying to recruit somebody who was a government informant. And so I found myself not in prison, because Batista tried to operate as if he was doing everything above the law,  I was in an army garrison. Not technically in prison but in a cell in an army garrison. Severely tortured, beaten half to death, in a little cell about seven foot by seven foot with nothing but a concrete floor  and about a thousand watt reflector on top. And they would beat me to a pulp to where nothing hurt, you were totally numb. They would throw you in that prison cell for about four hours. Now let me tell you, four hours later even your hair hurt and then they would take you out and do it again. And this went on around the clock for several days.

But, you know, God had other plans for my life. I thought that I was going to die because I had had friends who had been in the same position and a few days later had appeared dead in some street after being picked up by the army before. I truly thought I was going to die and that’s actually what gave me the strength to go through this torture.

I remember the last day, I got taken out of my cell at 2 o’clock in the morning, put in a jeep with four of these other soldiers, there was one with a pistol in his hand, there was another with a hand grenade, he had his finger on the ring, and they drove out of the army garrison and they said to me “Look, they’re going to kill you in the morning. We just wanted you to see the city for the last time.” And they drove around the army garrison. I guess they were figuring, what I figure is that they just want me to make a break for it so that they can shoot me. So I just sat very quietly in the jeep. They turned around, came back to the army garrison, and now actually, must have been God directing me because that was the right decision. That morning the colonel decided to turn me loose. They brought me to his office and he said “We’re gonna release you, but, if a bomb explodes anywhere in the city we’re going to pick you up.”

And I said to that colonel “How can I be responsible for what other people do?” He looked me in the eye and he said “I don’t care. If a bomb explodes in this city we’re coming to get you.”

Well I got home. My father took me home. I was eighteen years old and erm I had been home about an hour and a lady from the underground whom I didn’t know came and said “Look, you’re being followed. There are two people assigned to follow you around the clock in shifts of eight hours. She brought me to the window of the living room and she said “You see that guy in that corner, and that guy in the other corner, those are the two assigned to follow you now.” So I said “I want to go to the mountains” and she said “I’m sorry, it’s impossible.” Batista had at that time a very substantial raid. Had the mountains surrounded and she said that “The revolution says that the best thing you can do is to leave the country.” So that I would not jeopardize all the people who were involved.

So I figure, what’s the best way to get out of the country. I know, I’ll apply to a university in the United States and leave with a student visa. I wrote three letters, a letter to the University of Florida, a letter to LSU and a letter to University of Texas. UT was the first one to accept me and that’s how I became a Texan. (laughs and applause) So with my letter of acceptance from UT I went to the American Embassy got a four year student visa and then all I needed was a permit from the government to get out of the country. To the equivalent of the FBI or the KGB you could say. And a friend of the family who was a lawyer he bribed somebody in the government to stamp my passport.

So one morning, ah, with the car in the garage of my father’s house, I laid on the floor of the back seat, my father drove to Havana and I border, bordered a ferry boat to Key West. Landed in Key west with nothing but a few dollars sewn into my underwear. My mother was so afraid that they were going to steal my money, what several dollars my father could scrounge, that she sewed a pocket in my underwear. And I only had enough money for my bus fare to Austin and maybe to eat a couple of hamburgers along the way.

Got to Austin, went straight to the University office of student affairs and I said “Well here I am” Was a month before school started and I said “Well I need a job. I don’t have any money”  Well within twenty four hours they send me to the IRS and within twenty fours I had a social security number. A valid, legal social security number. And, because I needed to work to pay for my university. I couldn’t speak a word of English so the obvious job was being a dishwasher, you don’t have to talk to anybody to wash dishes.

So I got a job as a dishwasher, worked full-time, went to school full-time. And at the beginning of 1958, I learned English very quickly, I’d started speaking at different Rotary clubs around Austin, Texas, in favour of Castro. I still thought that he was the saviour of the country.

January 1st  1959 Castro takes over and I went back to Cuba that summer and I got the shock of my life. That same man that had been talking about hope and change now was talking about how the rich were evil, how they oppressed the poor, and about the need to redistribute the wealth. And, ah, along with that there were several things that were instituted by the Castro regime.

My mother was an elementary school teacher, she taught sixth grade and, ah, the Castro regime told all teachers that they had to teach Marxism in school. And my mother did something for which I am extremely proud. She walked one day into her sixth grade class and faked an attack of insanity. She began foaming at the mouth, screaming, running up and down the halls, pulling her hair in the middle of her classroom and so she was dismissed for reason of mental illness. And in her own words she said “I would rather suffer public humiliation than poison the minds of children with communist indoctrination.” And I’m extremely proud of that stand.

There are a number of very interesting points to note about this speech by Rafael Cruz - just a few examples, there are certainly much more:

- From age 14 to 18, Rafael Cruz was engaged in "sabotage, propaganda, weapons, training and so forth" for Fidel Castro - while he according to his own account never noticed that Fidel Castro was a Marxist.

- His claims about him being tortured by the Batista regime and his miraculous, virtually unbelievable lucky escape leave a lot of open questions and are not supported by any hard evidence.

- To escape the regime of president Batista, as a fighter for Fidel Castro, he chose to leave the country, and the "best way" he could think of was to apply to a university in the USA. In this context it should be noted that the USA only stopped supplying the Batista regime with arms in March 1958. However, Rafael Cruz left Cuba long before that point. According to a very detailed article in the "Dallas News", Rafael Cruz already arrived in the USA in 1957. Therefore it doesn't seem logical that the USA, who were the allies of Batista at this point, were the obvious country for Rafael Cruz to seek refuge. Again, more questions than answers.

- I found particularly noteworthy that Rafael Cruz then claims that he "started speaking at different Rotary clubs around Austin, Texas, in favour of Castro." Therefore, by his own account, he continued with the "propaganda" for Fidel Castro in the USA. His claim that he never noticed that Fidel Castro was a Marxist seems even more unbelievable in this context.

In any case, Fidel Castro's socialist/marxist sympathies were not exactly a secret. Fidel Castro said for example already in a speech in 1953 which I is available in full on the internet:

The five revolutionary laws that would have been proclaimed immediately after the capture of the Moncada Barracks and would have been broadcast to the nation by radio must be included in the indictment. It is possible that Colonel Chaviano may deliberately have destroyed these documents, but even if he has I remember them.

The first revolutionary law would have returned power to the people and proclaimed the 1940 Constitution the Supreme Law of the State until such time as the people should decide to modify or change it. And in order to effect its implementation and punish those who violated it - there being no electoral organization to carry this out - the revolutionary movement, as the circumstantial incarnation of this sovereignty, the only source of legitimate power, would have assumed all the faculties inherent therein, except that of modifying the Constitution itself: in other words, it would have assumed the legislative, executive and judicial powers.

This attitude could not be clearer nor more free of vacillation and sterile charlatanry. A government acclaimed by the mass of rebel people would be vested with every power, everything necessary in order to proceed with the effective implementation of popular will and real justice. From that moment, the Judicial Power - which since March 10th had placed itself against and outside the Constitution - would cease to exist and we would proceed to its immediate and total reform before it would once again assume the power granted it by the Supreme Law of the Republic. Without these previous measures, a return to legality by putting its custody back into the hands that have crippled the system so dishonorably would constitute a fraud, a deceit, one more betrayal.

The second revolutionary law would give non-mortgageable and non-transferable ownership of the land to all tenant and subtenant farmers, lessees, share croppers and squatters who hold parcels of five caballerías of land or less, and the State would indemnify the former owners on the basis of the rental which they would have received for these parcels over a period of ten years.

The third revolutionary law would have granted workers and employees the right to share 30% of the profits of all the large industrial, mercantile and mining enterprises, including the sugar mills. The strictly agricultural enterprises would be exempt in consideration of other agrarian laws which would be put into effect.

The fourth revolutionary law would have granted all sugar planters the right to share 55% of sugar production and a minimum quota of forty thousand arrobas for all small tenant farmers who have been established for three years or more.

The fifth revolutionary law would have ordered the confiscation of all holdings and ill-gotten gains of those who had committed frauds during previous regimes, as well as the holdings and ill-gotten gains of all their legates and heirs. To implement this, special courts with full powers would gain access to all records of all corporations registered or operating in this country, in order to investigate concealed funds of illegal origin, and to request that foreign governments extradite persons and attach holdings rightfully belonging to the Cuban people. Half of the property recovered would be used to subsidize retirement funds for workers and the other half would be used for hospitals, asylums and charitable organizations.

Furthermore, it was declared that the Cuban policy in the Americas would be one of close solidarity with the democratic peoples of this continent, and that all those politically persecuted by bloody tyrannies oppressing our sister nations would find generous asylum, brotherhood and bread in the land of Martí; not the persecution, hunger and treason they find today. Cuba should be the bulwark of liberty and not a shameful link in the chain of despotism.

These laws would have been proclaimed immediately. As soon as the upheaval ended and prior to a detailed and far reaching study, they would have been followed by another series of laws and fundamental measures, such as the Agrarian Reform, the Integral Educational Reform, nationalization of the electric power trust and the telephone trust, refund to the people of the illegal and repressive rates these companies have charged, and payment to the treasury of all taxes brazenly evaded in the past.

I get the impression that Rafael Cruz liked socialism so much than he now wants his Tea Party audiences to believe, and my suspicion is also aroused by another rather surprising fact Rafael Cruz mentions at his speech at FreedomWorks: Rafael Cruz rather proudly explains in the speech how he got his "social security number" in the USA already two days after arrival. Well, Mr. Cruz, for somebody who now believes that US citizens are in danger of becoming "slaves of the government", you were surely very keen to benefit from the advantages of US social security!

I actually wonder whether these remarks by Rafael Cruz, which are not very much in line with contemporary Tea Party politics, and the fact that Rafael Cruz rather openly admits in the speech that he basically tricked his way into university in the USA were the reasons why FreedomWorks decided to suppress the speech.

Correct me if I am wrong here, but I have a hard time to believe that any US university would have accepted a student from abroad who doesn't speak a word of English.

But one of the most important contradictions in the account by Rafael Cruz in this speech from February 2013 to other accounts of his life becomes obvious when we compare a quote by his son Ted Cruz with the claims by Rafael Cruz, as reported by the "Dallas News" in October 2011:

He (Ted Cruz) said his father began fighting against Batista’s regime when he was 14, in 1953. When the elder Cruz was 17, he was imprisoned and tortured by Batista’s government, his son said. The next year, 1957, Rafael Cruz legally went to Texas on a student visa issued by the Batista regime, Ted Cruz said.

He went to Texas "on a student visa issued by the Batista regime"...?

Wait a moment! This sounded slighty different from when Rafael Cruz told the story in February 2013. According to his own account, Rafael Cruz fled Cuba because he was a persecuted pro-Castro figher against the Batista regime, somebody who was thrown in jail and tortured - and then escaped because a bribed official "stamped his passport":

So with my letter of acceptance from UT I went to the American Embassy got a four year student visa and then all I needed was a permit from the government to get out of the country. To the equivalent of the FBI or the KGB you could say. And a friend of the family who was a lawyer he bribed somebody in the government to stamp my passport.

I get the impression that Ted and Rafael Cruz haven't really "synchronized" their stories.


Another detail from the speech by Rafael Cruz caught my eye: Cruz said that he "needed to work to pay for my university." This remark strikes me as grossly misleading as well, considering the fact that the Houston Chronicle reported in a major piece about Ted Cruz and his father Rafael that Rafael Cruz actually had his tuition paid while he studied the in the USA.

It is important to have this particular speech by Rafael Cruz, which FreedomWorks obviously was not keen to promote any further, become part of the public record. He probably said more about his past in this speech than in hindsight it was advisable from his point of view.

It's absolutely unclear how much we can believe what Rafael and Ted Cruz are telling us. But one thing is certain: It has probably dawned on them that Rafael has said some unwise things in the past. The fact that clips of Rafael's speeches and interviews are disappearing from the internet at an alarming rate is an obvious sign that some very inconvenient facts and speeches are about to be purged.

To conclude the report about the speech by Rafael Cruz from February 2013, I present the "icing of the cake": When FreedomWorks tweeted this speech on February 25, 2013, they distorted the facts in a way which is virtually beyond imagination - they claimed that the militant pro-Castro fighter Rafael Cruz, who fled Cuba about two years before Fidel Castro came to power, was "being tortured and abused for his political beliefs during Fidel Castro's rule in Cuba":


 Well - say it ain't so, Rafael!

This certainly won't be the last which we will hear from Rafael Cruz here at Politicalgates.

The man who only became an American citizen in 2005, which is 48 years after he left Cuba, and who now tries to lecture Americans about how they should govern their country, and who uses lies and sinister distortions while doing so, remains the subject of great interest.

+++

BONUS:

Above, I mentioned that I found the clip from February 2013 originally through the youtube-account of Paul LeBron, who had posted excerpts from this speech. This man recently posted another very interesting clip featuring Rafael Cruz, which definitely receives a wider audience. This clip is an excerpt from a speech by Rafael Cruz from June 6, 2013, at Parker County Tea Party. There, in a very obvious way, he calls President Obama a "monster"

Watch:



There, Rafael Cruz says:

"Get rid of this monster that is trying to destroy the free enterprise system and trying to create a society where everybody is a serf to the government." Straight out of Karl Marx. All we got left is our honor. If we prostitute our honor, we deserve whatever we get. (...) We are going to retake the Senate, and and when we do that, we are going to be able to clip the wings of this out of control Obama monstrosity that is destroying us."

One thing I believe without any doubt: That Rafael Cruz is an expert on propaganda.I have seen him full of vicious propaganda, and many of his speeches have a frightening totalitarian tone.

Who, I wonder, is the monster?