Ted Cruz publishes facebook poll, then unwillingly creates one of the most powerful "pro-Obamacare" messages ever, as Americans tell Ted Cruz what they really think!

By Patrick

Notable political rascal Senator Ted Cruz, who himself receives luxury health insurance through Goldman Sachs, recently had a great idea for using the power of Facebook for political gain. Ted Cruz, who is famous not only for causing the $ 23 billion dollar shutdown, but also for his extremist father Rafael Cruz, on March 24 posted on facebook a simple question to his audience, writing:

"Quick poll: Obamacare was signed into law four years ago yesterday. Are you better off now than you were then? Comment with YES or NO!"

The Senator from Texas, who just recently declared that "Obamacare", the Affordable Care Act, is the "the most unpopular law in the country" and that Republicans still have a chance to repeal “every single word” of Obamacare, apparently believes his own propaganda and also seriously thinks that Americans believe what he believes.

But Ted Cruz was proven wrong.

In one of the most memorable political facebook moments ever, Ted Cruz received a clear overwhelming response from many American people, who said:

"YES."

He received more than 40.000 responses to his question, and I don't think that this number includes all the numerous, individual replies to these responses.

A look at the "top comments" reveals a general picture that Ted Cruz surely didn't expect. Yes, "Obamacare" is actually very, very popular, and many people are very thankful for this first step in helping to solve healthcare issues in the USA.

At least Cruz does not censor his facebook page like his close friend Sarah Palin has already done for years, but she might now fell compelled to give him some advice, you never know! :-)

Here are the first 49 "top comments", the screenshots were only taken a few minutes ago, for your viewing pleasure. The people have spoken, loud and clear, and Democrats should stop being insecure about the ACA. Yes, citizens want decent healthcare, and they also want Ted Cruz to shove off:

Trying to please his teabagging fans, Ted Cruz instead inspired a powerful response PRO Obamacare.

See also the earlier, very good report at "Addicting Info."

Thank you, Ted, for being so foolish, and thank you, Americans, for being so outspoken!

+++

BONUS:

In a new advert, Ted Cruz also says that he wants to "abolish the IRS."

Demagoguery at its finest.

Hail Anarchy!

WATCH:

Rand Paul: Pre-2016, He's Dumpster Diving and Trash Talking

by Sunnyjane

I did NOT have plagiarized sex with my hair!  That was my OWN idea!

There is a major chapter in Reince Priebus' 2016 Republican Tea Party playbook titled When You're Desperate, Just Spout Stupid Shit.   In Rand Paul's copy, this particular section has been referred to so often that it's become thoroughly thumb-spit-moistened and dog-eared. (I understand that the Centers for Disease Control is considering classifying it as an infectious disease carrier.)

Just one of about three hundred or so Republicans who are planning to run for president in 2016, Senator Paul (RTP-McConnellville) is searching high and low (mostly low) for a solution in need of a problem.  And because he's up against some tough competition for the top Tea Party spot in the Governors v. Congress Cretins race to the bottom, he intends to get the publicity he thinks he so richly deserves: I want to be part of the national debate, so whether I run or not, being considered is something that allows me to have a larger microphone.

So anxious is the senator for that larger microphone, that he actually gave a pre-taped response to President Obama's 2014 State of the Union address.  In it, he began with the Godhead we discussed in a recent post, Ronald Reagan.  I  kid you not!  If you're up for it, you can watch Paul's less-than-riveting rant for nine minutes and thirty seconds.  Personally, I decided I didn't have enough time left in my life to waste more than sixty seconds on him.

Obamacare:  BAD Thing!  Freedom to Die:  GOOD Thing!
 

Even though Ted Cruz has pretty much co-opted the Affordable Care Act for his own Down-With-Obama project, Rand Paul has had to take a stand against it, too; his Tea Party backers demand it.   Sen. Paul has said that Obamacare will kill women, kill seniors, kill children...oops, sorry, wrong Tea Party hack.  What he really said about the ACA was equally stupid:   Just because a couple of people on the Supreme Court declare something to be "constitutional" does not make it so.  The whole thing remains unconstitutional.  Gosh, why didn't the Democrats come up with that argument after the Citizens United decision?  Although it is definitely not true that President Obama injured his knee when he fell on the floor laughing at this statement, there may be some truth to the rumor that the Supreme Court has sent the esteemed senator a fifth-grade United States Government textbook with the chapter on Role of the Supreme Court in American Democracy prominently highlighted.

Since the upstanding Sen. Paul admitted to an audience in October 2013 that while he never lies or cheats, he sometimes spreads misinformation.  It's a great tactic.  Misinformation can be very important, it should come as no surprise that he spread a little misinformation about his son's being signed up for Medicaid against his will.  Turned out, not surprisingly, that it  was a lie.

Even weakling Wolf Blitzer, who rarely if ever challenges a Republican's veracity, pummeled Paul on his statements about the Affordable Care Act:  [President Obama is] making the point that if you have health insurance you're going to be healthier, presumably, because you'll be going to doctors. You're a physician; you understand that.  Senator Paul's response was a spin that's definitely snort-worthy: It doesn't necessarily equate. Now, good behavior, exercise, and diet may prevent illness. Going to the doctor doesn't necessarily prevent illness.  (Gosh, I don't believe I've seen the senator speak out in support of a similar initiative that is championed by the First Lady.  Hmmm...)  Besides, if this is his philosophy -- good behavior, exercise, and diet may prevent illness -- I wonder why he hasn't told his Medicare and Medicaid patients that these practices would prevent their glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration.  Perhaps then he could avoid accepting that awful government socialized medical insurance.

Paul's war on Obamacare seems to be a losing one, as the latest figures show that over three million people nationwide and more than two hundred and thirty thousand citizens of Kentucky have signed up, thirty-five percent of whom happen to be under age thirty-five -- a significant number for the push to insure young people.  In addition, six Republican-run states (Florida, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin) are expected to meet or exceed figures they had originally projected.         

Keep digging, keep digging...

Extending Unemployment Benefits Makes Jobless People Lazy

Go to hair school and I'll let you give me Mohawk.  I've gotta pow-wow with Native Americans.

When the Republicans left Washington in late December to enjoy their bounteous holidays with their families, they did so with a Let-them-eat-fruitcake disdain for 1.3 million Americans who, because they remain jobless due to the GOP's refusal to pass a jobs bill, are now without unemployment benefits. 

Using Tea Party Libertarian logic, Sen. Paul had no compunctions about this unfairness at all because ...the longer you have [unemployment benefits], it does provide some disincentive to work and there are many studies that indicate this.  And just which study did he rely on to back up his idiocy?  Welllll...he chose a paper by economist Rand Ghayad, who upon hearing this bit of news, said that Rand Paul was a colossal idiot had completely misread his work.  In a rebuttal article, Ghayad said, There's no reason to cut unemployment benefits.  People aren't long-term unemployed because they prefer getting benefits. People are long-term unemployed because there still aren't enough jobs. 

Well, at least he didn't plagiarize Mr. Ghayad's work, right?  And speaking of which...

I Challenge Thee to a Duel!

Too many laws and regulations!  Stealing other people's work shouldn't be a crime!

Like another Tea Party ignoramus we could easily name, Rand Paul hasn't learned to keep his mouth shut when he's called out for his political ignorance and his various transgressions.  And he certainly should not pick a fight with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow; that is one he'll never win.

Maddow has been all over Paul about his little plagiarizing habit, so much so that he'd like to shoot her or stab her -- if dueling were legal in Kentucky of course, because people who call him out are haters and hackers.  Maddow's response:  There is nothing wrong with the reporting.  You can try to make this about me, but how about addressing the substance?  Responding to the person rather than to the charge is a time tested tactic. Honestly, it is a symptom of immaturity in our political discourse that it's expected that this is part of the way he'll respond.

It has also come to light that for his book, Government Bullies, the senator lifted three pages almost verbatim from a Heritage Foundation paper without a proper citation. 

Snarling Little Ankle-Biter Goes After Beloved Big Dog

Before the interminable Benghazi hearings even began, little Rand Paul was hot-footing it around the country telling anybody who would listen that Benghazi should disqualify Hillary Clinton from ever again holding high office.  Then, during the hearings, he told her directly that If I were president, I would have relieved you of your post.  I'm not certain, but I believe I saw former Sen. Clinton stifle a grin.

Well, that whole thing didn't turn out too well for the GOP or Rand Paul, and it was delightful to read General David Petraeus's praise for the former Secretary of State:  Hillary Clinton would be a tremendous president. Like a lot of great leaders, her most impressive qualities were most visible during tough times. In the wake of the Benghazi attacks, for example, she was extraordinarily resolute, determined, and controlled.  Ouch!  That certainly must have put a crimp in Sen. Paul's colon.

Further demonstrating his acute economy of good sense, the flapping yapper has decided to attack the Big Dog.

The senator initiated this bit of argle-bargle when he decided that Bill Clinton's 1998 peccadillo with then twenty-five-year-old intern Monica Lewinsky was somehow germane sixteen years later.  It gets a little confusing here, dear readers, so bear with me: Randy thinks that is important now because the Democrats insist that the Republicans are waging a war on women and Bill's predatory behavior and being a serial philanderer and people who benefited when Bill raised money for their campaigns should be ashamed and should give it back and if they don't they have a lot of explaining to do because Bill used his authority to take advantage of a young woman in the workplace and even though he's not so sure what all of this has to do with Hillary running for president, it's hard to separate Bill from Hillary.  

Jesus!  Did you get all that?  (I continue to be perplexed by the GOP's definition of what is timely news and what is not.  Scott Walker seems to think that his emails from 2010 are old news not worthy of discussion, while Rand Paul thinks that the 1998 Monica Lewinsky issue is pertinent and must be rehashed immediately.)

While I cannot think of one person who condoned Bill Clinton's behavior, it's important to understand a little of Ms. Lewinsky's less than savory sexual history.  She was having an affair with a married man when she decided to become a political intern.  In fact, she told the wife of the guy she was screwing that I'm going to the White House to get my presidential knee pads.   So it's difficult to put her in the category of a sweet young thing who was an innocent being taken advantage of by a powerful man.  

Oh, you do remember that Rand Paul called Newt Gingrich, who had an affair with his twenty-seven-year-old intern at the same time he was trying to get Bill Clinton impeached, a sexual predator and a serial philanderer when Newt was running for president in 2012, right?  No, I don't remember that either.  Didn't happen.

Karl Rove, whom you will remember is trying very hard to keep Republicans from being verbally asinine (and losing the battle), said recently that Rand Paul spending a lot of time talking about the mistakes of Bill Clinton does not look like a big agenda item for the future of the country.  Snort!

But Reince Priebus, who's never been accused of being the sharpest pair of scissors in the tailor's shop, thinks it's all fine and dandy, telling Andrea Mitchell earlier this month, Hillary Clinton provides a lot of opportunity for us.  Everything's on the table for 2016.   

Trust me, that particular statement will come back to haunt the GOP during the upcoming presidential campaign cycle.  Everything's on the table for 2016 cuts both ways.

End Note

HELP!  I'm stuck ass-up in here, a rat is eating my face, and I still haven't found a scandal!

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!

Translation:  Sir, 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

Name and Shame the 39 House Democrats who Voted With the Republicans Against the Affordable Care Act

By Kathleen

Today the House voted for Fred Upton's "keep your plan" bill which would allow insurance companies to continue offering health-care plans that existed before the Obamacare rollout began and to offer new plans that are not compliant with the ACA. The bill, H.R 3350, was passed with the assistance of 39 House Democrats concerned that if they did not vote yes that it could be politically damaging for them in the 2014 election. 

The names of the 39 House Democrats who voted against the ACA (h/t to Politicususa) 

Ron Barber D AZ-2
John Barrow D GA-12
Ami Bera D CA-7
Timothy H. Bishop D NY-1
Bruce Braley D IA-1
Julia Brownley D CA-26
Cheri Bustos D IL-17
Jim Costa D CA-16
Peter A. DeFazio D OR-4
Suzan K. DelBene D WA-1
Tammy Duckworth D IL-8
Bill Enyart D IL-12
Elizabeth Esty D CT-5
Bill Foster D IL-11
Pete Gallego D TX-23
John Garamendi D CA-3
Joe Garcia D FL-26
Ron Kind D WI-3
Ann McLane Kuster D NH-2
Dave Loebsack D IA-2
Dan Maffei D NY-24
Sean Patrick Maloney D NY-18
Jim Matheson D UT-4
Mike McIntyre D NC-7
Jerry McNerney D CA-9
Patrick Murphy D FL-18
Rick Nolan D MN-8
Bill Owens D NY-21
Gary Peters D MI-14
Scott Peters D CA-52
Collin C. Peterson D MN-7
Nick J. Rahall II D WV-3
Raul Ruiz D CA-36
Brad Schneider D IL-10
Kurt Schrader D OR-5
Carol Shea-Porter D NH-1
Kyrsten Sinema D AZ-9
Filemon Vela D TX-34
Tim Walz D MN-1

The above representatives have sold out the voters who elected them. President Obama's administration 

has promised to veto the bill. A recent statement from the administration reads:

‘H.R. 3350 rolls back the progress made by allowing insurers to continue to sell new plans that deploy practices such as not offering coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, charging women more than men, and continuing yearly caps on the amount of care that enrollees receive. The Administration supports policies that allow people to keep the health plans that they have. But, policies that reverse the progress made to extend quality, affordable coverage to millions of uninsured, hardworking, middle class families are not the solution."

Some of the Democrat representatives, such as Pete Gallego of Texas, stated that voting yes for the bill was "the right thing to do" and "that you do the right thing and the rest takes care of itself." All I have to say is that voting yes will absolutely not remove that great big target that the republicans have put on his back. According to the DallasNews only hours after todays vote a spokesperson from the National Republican Congressional Committee said that Gallego's vote was "too little, too late". So Gallego's vote to go along to get along has already proved to have been futile. The other 38 Democrats are also likely to discover quite soon that they too have been bamboozled. I have no sympathy for them and we will see next year how "the rest takes care of itself." 

Please pass on the names.