Sarah Palin at the Western Conservative Summit in Colorado: Not impeaching President Obama is an "affront to God", and "we are not gonna dethrone God and substitute him with someone who wants to play God" (VIDEO)

President Obama likes to play God sometimes, just in order to annoy Sarah Palin

By Patrick

Sarah Palin: Look, we know you are stupid and insane.

We know that you are a notorious rabble-rouser.

We know that you hate anyone who doesn't adore you.

We know that Democrats started to love you, because you have turned into their secret weapon.

There is a lot more we know about you.

It's not worth any more to spend lots of time and effort on what you do or say. Only if something you say is even more insane than usual it deserves to be mentioned, because it's entertaining and truly frightening at the same time.

The fact that there are some people who still listen to you is also proof that propaganda does work, regardless how primitive it may be. This should serve as a warning to anyone.

President Obama needs to be impeached? With you, Sarah Palin, as the "leader" of the impeachment movement? Really...?

Maybe it is time to remind the American people again to which conclusion the bipartisan legislative Branchflower-investigation came in Alaska in October 2008: That you, Sarah Palin, abused your powers as Governor:

Screenshot:

(Link to the full report)

Quite inconvenient, is it not?

But wasn't there something else? Yes, of course! After you, Sarah Palin, filed an ethics complaint against yourself, in order to bring the matter before the Alaska state personnel board, you had reason to rejoice: "New Troopergate report clears Palin" read the headlines on November 3, 2008, one day before the election. How wonderful for you!

However, why exactly did the "Petumenos Troopergate Report" exonerate you, Sarah Palin?

Well, of course! How should you possibly know or control what your husband Todd does? After all, he is a real man, and he does what he needs to do!

Therefore you should be eternally grateful to the nice Mr. Petumenos, who apparently believes that the Governor of Alaska is supposed to be some sort of brainless robot - oh, wait???

From page 27 of the Petumenos Troopergate report:

But, dear Sarah, I am already spending too much time on you again. After all, as the new secret weapon of the Democrats, we should now be grateful for you existence, LOL!

Finally, let me say that it was still sweet when Mr. Petumenos later, in 2010, determined in another case that were you guilty of breaking Alaska ethics laws (after you set up your legal defense fund, which was just a private slush fund).

What an excellent advocate of impeachment you are, Sarah Palin! (cough, cough)

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EDITED TO ADD:

When I wrote this post yesterday, I forgot one fascinating detail: In Troopergate, Sarah Palin's husband Todd was just a "private citizen", who apparently rather uncontrollably roamed around the great state of Alaska, bullying people in order to fire Trooper Wooten - and Sarah Palin was allowed to do nothing, according to Mr. Petumenos, and was also not liable for his actions.

However, this view on the facts changed completely, when another legal case was to be decided. As I reported at Palingates on June 24, 2010 in great detail, when it came to the question whether Sarah Palin could claim executive privilege for emails she sent to her husband Todd (who was just a "private citizen", remember), an Alaska court suddenly decided that Todd had to be regarded as an unpaid government consultant, and the communications with him therefore could remain secret:

Excerpts from the judgement (download the full judgement here):

Sarah Palin herself was very proud of this judgement - it was yet another win for her, for Sarah, the poor victim of the evil ethic complaints filers. That this ruling was in direct contrast to the findings of Mr. Petumenos in the Troopergate case, naturally did not bother her at. Back then, her lawyer Thomas Van Flein even celebrated this victory on Sarah Palin's facebook in a long post, in which he wrote:

In a well reasoned opinion, the judge explored state law, federal law (including an historical discussion on First Lady Sarah Polk, wife of President James K. Polk), and invoked a too rarely used legal principle – common sense – to throw out this lawsuit. In so doing, the court concluded that Todd Palin, as the First Gentleman, though unpaid, was in essence a privileged consultant to the Office of the Governor, and the court compared Todd Palin’s privileged consultations to First Lady Hillary Clinton, in which a federal court determined that the chief executive’s spouse “acts as the functional equivalent of an assistant to the President.” And, with state government employees assisting the first spouse, Todd Palin had a clear and obvious privileged consultative function and is analogous to a de facto state officer.

That's how things worked back then in Sarah Palin's amazing Alaska: You could move up from a "private citizen" to a "de facto state officer" in the blink of an eye.

But enough now! Let's present without further ado the short excerpt of the speech from yesterday in which Sarah Palin claimed that Barack Obama is an insult to God - and don't worry, the clip is not even a minute long:

(Clip of the complete speech here)

We are now eagerly awaiting God's press release in this matter.

Sarah Palin lost her Christian base with one sentence, and the world instantly has become a better place - Bonus: A real-life sighting of Sarah & Todd in Anchorage, and Levi's and Bristol's custody trial is now scheduled not just for one, but two days!

By Patrick

I am sorry that it took quite a while to put a new post up, but I guess we were just drunk with joy. Sarah Palin finally managed to make what I would call the biggest blunder of her entire career when she managed to annoy almost every true Christian believer with her now infamous "waterboarding = baptism" statement. This was such a horrid act of misjudgement that almost every US and non-US citizen who followed the story felt compelled to breathe a deep sigh of relief once again that this woman did not become the VP. God probably worked overtime in 2008 in order to prevent that. So thank you so much, God, whether you exist or not!

In any case, her Christian base is now virtually gone, and this is something which really will hurt Sarah's marketability in the future, as she in my opinion was destined for some sort of role within the religious crowd. She tried that in the past with some success, and presented her unique breed of real and fictional tales for example to the "Woman of Joy" conference in Kentucky in 2010 (read the transcript), and just recently she hooked up with disgraced Christian "leader" Ralph E. Reed in order to collect her usual hefty speaking fees. 

But I think she can forget about this now for the most part. Her credibility in the Christian movement has now been damaged beyond repair, and the beautiful thing is that she did this all to herself. It was not the "lamestream" media, it was not some pesky blogger, or anyone else, it was Sarah herself, believing that it would be a good idea to be inspired by a moronic and offensive "right-wing bumper sticker":

Or maybe it was one of her "speech-writers" who got inspired. In any case, Sarah was the one who said it, and then even doubled down on this remark afterwards, so that's good enough for us.

This is the kind of headline we patiently waited to see:

So Sarah Palin's "walk to oblivion" now has been accelerated significantly, and it already seems certain in my view that Sarah Palin will be remembered by historians as somebody who said some silly, silly things and therefore was unfit to remain in politics. Which would be a shame, because there is so much more to Sarah Palin. She is also somebody who was more or less successful in hiding several huge "private secrets", and I am convinced that these secrets, which have never been "officially" acknowledged, kept her from running in 2012. Sarah knew that she would be unable to dodge questions about her pregnancy with Trig, as well as other issues, and rather dropped out, after having undertaken great efforts to prepare her candidacy, for example with yet another ghost-written book, and even with an ambitious propaganda film (which was panned by every film-critic in the country).

This theory of mine is also supported by one of Sarah Palin's own emails, the famous message in which she SCREAMED about, well, being subjected to the rumours of Track not being Todd's son, including the very revealing statements: "....this is the type of bullshit lie about family that WILL keep me from running for Governor"... "I WILL PULL OUT OF THE RACE BECAUSE IT'S NOT WORTH IT..."

Complete message:

From: Sarah

To: Scott Heyworth Cc: Todd Palin

Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 10:19 AM

Subject: Todd's son

Scott:

Todd just told me you had spoken with him awhile back and reported that some law enforcement friends of yours claimed some dumbass lie about Track not being Todd's son? This really, really disgusts me and ticks me off.

I want to know right now who said it, who would ever lie about such a thing... this is the type of bullshit lie about family that WILL keep me from running for Governor. I hate this kind of crap. I thought it was bad enough that my kids have been lied about recently regarding illegal activities that they had NO part in whatsoever. But a stupid claim like one of our kids isn't fathered by Todd?

I want to know NOW what this latest b.s. is all about because I want to get to the bottom of this garbage rumor mill. People who lie like this may know me well enough to KNOW THAT I WILL ALWAYS PUT FAMILY FIRST, AND IF UGLY LIES LIKE THIS ARE BELIEVED BY ANYONE AND ADVERSELY AFFECT MY HUSBAND AND KIDS... I WILL PULL OUT OF THE RACE BECAUSE IT'S NOT WORTH IT - AT ALL - TO LET MY FAMILY BE VICTIMS OF DARK, UGLY POLITICS LIKE THIS. Sarah

I always thought that we can really take Sarah on her word there.

Whatever her reasons were not to enter the 2012 primaries, Sarah Palin always is her own worst enemy. One could rely on her inability to understand that words can have consequences, as hate and rage dominates her world-view.

A reader at Gawker posted a remarkable comment about his experience with Sarah Palin at CPAC 2013, and it really summed up pretty well why Sarah Palin is truly frightening:

OK so here is my Sarah Palin story. I went to CPAC in 2013 to cover it, yes, as a journalamist, for a bloggy thing, and I had press credentials, and I partied with the young conservative libertarian nerds, and I gawked at the many obviously, seriously mentally ill attendees, like the 50-something maybe possibly one-time long ago beauty queen in a Flag themed majorette uniform, including red, white and blue be-starred cowboy boots, and I sat through the speeches given by the whole pantheon of wingnut conservative assholes, (even got my picture taken with Santorum) including Gingrich, Rand Paul, and others whom I have forgotten, probably PTSD.

Alone among them, Sarah Palin emitted palpable waves of evil. Santorum is pretty bad, because he might be the craziest of them all, but she is by far the most evil. Most of them seemed like average schmucks saying their lines on stage because they had figured out how to make a living through rabble-rousing and demagoguery. Not good people, but average corrupt venal people, consistently above average maybe only in egotism.

But Sarah Palin was noticeably different. She made my skin crawl, gave me the shivers. She is a diabolically evil hateful shrill cunt. She wants to kill, she feeds on the hate she delights in whipping up. I had press credentials and sat among the journalists in the front row. When she started her speech one of her first things to do was point us out, point her fingers at the press in the room and start on with her awful screeching "I see the LAME-stream media is here, what lies are you liars gonna tell huh? Lets give the lame stream media people a welcome, hey everybody," and suddenly the crazy fucking yahoos in the audience were booing and baying for blood and I was genuinely afraid, and she was just so fucking pleased, so tickled, by her power to come that close to inciting a riot. She is, truly, genuinely, a vile, vile, evil human being.

As a consequence of Sarah Palin's "baptism" statement, large parts of the conservative movement openly turned against Sarah, and it really could not have happened to a more deserving person. The people who were insulted as "RINO's" on a regular basis fought back, and the result was devastating.

Yes, it IS finally "safe" for conservatives to criticize Sarah Palin. Hallelujah!

Sarah Palin will of course not shut up, but she is done. I am absolutely convinced that it also will only be a matter of time until she will be seen as so unpopular and poisonous that even her endorsements will not be welcome any more. She simply annoyed too many people, burned too many bridges, and now has become a symbol of the overall decline of the Tea Party.

So what is left? Well, certainly a fascinating case study of a woman who was brought down by her well-known "dark soul" on the one hand and her inability to think before speaking on the other hand. This also in combination with an even more fascinating variety of highly embarrassing private secrets.

I find it incredibly satisfying that Palin was brought down by her own words, and that is unable to blame anybody else for her stupid remarks. This is the best outcome, as Sarah likes nothing more to portray herself as a victim.

I just wished that Joe McGinniss would still be amongst us to have seen this development.

I also would like to repeat a comment which I made on the previous post:

I am just loving the fact that it is SO OBVIOUS that the "moderate conservatives" now all seem to have "collectively" decided that the time has come to go after Sarah Palin, after all those years of being constantly attacked and smeared by the Palinbots. Now the "RINO's" want revenge, and they surely will get it. And you just KNOW that there is Karl Rove in the background, who surely uses all his influence to promote or even coordinate these attacks. After all, he is the master of background attacks, as he has realized that this is where real power comes from. I just love it.

Sarah Palin and the Tea Party have to be beaten. Even though some Democrats might like the idea to face these extremists in an election, I am convinced that the teabaggers are far too dangerous for the country, far too toxic and far too unhinged to be allowed to remain a viable force in politics. The "moderate Republicans" are right to go after them, and as long the teabaggers have influence, there can be no real progress in society whatsoever.

Very sorry, dear Democratic campaign strategists, but Sarah is a thing of the past.

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BONUS:

From our friends in Alaska, we still very frequently receive interesting messages, and "sightings" of Sarah and Todd are not that rare. Recently, we received a report about Sarah being on a flight from Phoenix to Anchorage, and the comment was: "She looked liked a Holocaust Camp Victim – emaciated."

Yesterday we received a new message, and now we at least have some proof that Sarah Palin is still eating food - even if this seems hard to believe... :-)

On Friday, May 2, Sarah and Todd were spotted in Anchorage at Costco - buying "junk food." The interesting thing here is that they both tried to hide while being in public, and Todd was hiding behind large sun glasses even in the produce cooler room (he's a big star, ya know...).

More from the report: "She reached over by me to grab some asparagus in the produce cooler and I turned to look straight at her - Her make-up looked baked on! And she looks so thin that she has no butt!"

Therefore, not only Sarah's career, but also her desire to chat to citizens in public apparently has suffered severely.

In addition, the fact that she was in Anchorage on Friday proved that she did not attend the Republican 2014 State Convention, which took place at the same time in Juneau. Yes, the days of "Sarah the politician" are truly over, and her demise is mostly mourned by the Democrats who now have lost an easy-to-beat opponent, who was also great for fund-raising.

Here is the high-resolution photo from the encounter on Friday in Anchorage (click to enlarge):

Close-up:

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BONUS 2:

Good news for Levi Johnston: The judge has scheduled the custody trial on two days, 30th and 31st July 2014! Following the evidentiary (preliminary) hearing on Friday, 2 May, the judge obviously thought that a lot of evidence will have to be considered. This looks like it could be bad news for Bristol who is just as reactive as her mother, and is likely not at all happy that Levi is determined to gain regulated access to his son.

Read our extensive previous reporting about Levi's custody case against Bristol, together with the complete trial documents.

Therefore, we have lots of pleasant news to report these days. Good things come to those who wait.

Thank you again, God! :-)

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2014:

The trial date got cancelled and was replaced with a settlement conference, which took place on Monday, September 8, 2014. According to the Alaska court records, a settlement was reached in the custody trial between Levi and Bristol. The details of the settlement are sealed, therefore we do not know the outcome.


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BONUS 3:

You might be a teabagger if…

- You think patriotism is measured by the number of guns you own.
- You vote for the candidate who is the hottest or has the biggest balls
- You think giving to charity means supporting the new girl at the local strip club
- Your father is also your cousin
- Your daughter is in fact your granddaughter
- You blame all of your hardships on Obama… Oops stubbed my toe… Obama’s fault!
- You are so desperate to insult that you take all of your faults and project them onto those you hate
- You think everyone who thinks differently is “scared”
- You try to qualify a racist statement you make by ending the rant with “just sayin”
- You have nothing good to say about a college education
- You own a confederate flag
- You think tax is a four letter word
- You think you are better than everyone else
- You have sociopathic and/or psychopathic tendencies
- You think scientists are the devil - You think religion trumps morality
- Your 15 minutes of fame is just another COPS re-run

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BONUS 4:

This is an absolute must-see! Veep Selina Meyer meets Veep Joe Biden - so good!

(h/t Raw Story)

EDIT - It turns out that this is an extended version! Unfortunately, at the WHCD they only showed a shortened clip.

Watch the "long version":

In addition, President Obama was in stellar form as well!

Here is his extremely funny and witty speech:

NEW VIDEO: Rafael Cruz, father of Senator Ted Cruz, caught lying on tape about President Obama, trying to discredit Obama's Christian beliefs - Watch the video evidence! - UPDATES: Some inconvenient facts about Rafael Cruz

Rafael Cruz, father of Senator Ted Cruz, is a shameless liar

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

Proverbs 12:22

By Patrick

Junior Senator Ted Cruz recently got into a lot of trouble, as the mastermind behind the infamous "shutdown" which could have caused a global economic catastrophe, if the USA had defaulted (read: Debt Deadline Approaches: Here’s What Would Happen If U.S. Defaults).  

But there is also a second fact that political observers recently became aware of: Ted Cruz is not alone. If you want Ted Cruz, you also get his father Rafael Cruz, who currently tours the country, giving outrageous speeches in which he spews hate and lies. His primary target is President Obama, and just a few days ago, some particularly shocking quotes by Rafael Cruz were highlighted by David Corn at Mother Jones, in an article which thankfully received a lot of attention.

Quote from Mother Jones:

In April, Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), spoke to the tea party of Hood County, which is southwest of Fort Worth, and made a bold declaration: The United States is a "Christian nation." The septuagenarian businessman turned evangelical pastor did not choose to use the more inclusive formulation "Judeo-Christian nation." Insisting that the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution "were signed on the knees of the framers" and were a "divine revelation from God," he went on to say, "yet our president has the gall to tell us that this is not a Christian nation…The United States of America was formed to honor the word of God." Seven months earlier, Rafael Cruz, speaking to the North Texas Tea Party on behalf of his son, who was then running for Senate, called President Barack Obama an "outright Marxist" who "seeks to destroy all concept of God," and he urged the crowd to send Obama "back to Kenya."

David Corn quoted from a speech which Rafael Cruz gave to the North Texas Tea Party on September 12, 2012. The original clip with this half-hour speech by Rafael Cruz has subsequently been deleted from youtube. However, not only were some key excerpts for example shown at MSNBC, but a substantial portion of the speech is also still available on youtube.

Watch the report by Chris Matthews at MSNBC:

Interestingly, there is more: Although the whole speech from September 12, 2012 has now been deleted from the internet, I already downloaded the full clip even before David Corn published his article at Mother Jones. I did this in preparation for our own post about Rafael Cruz, which we published on October 3. Today I looked at this speech again in order to check whether there are more "nuggets" to discover. It should come as no big surprise that this effort was successful!

Rafael Cruz exposes himself as a shameless liar: While many of his "facts" are just "extremist opinions", which are difficult to "fact-check" in the traditional way, he also makes some factual statements about President Obama in this speech which are open for scrutiny. Rafael Cruz claims that Barack Obama never uses the word "Creator" when Obama recites the Declaration of Independence, and that he never uses the words "under God" when he recites the Pledge of Allegiance. These claims by Rafael Cruz are shameless lies, and the truth can easily be discovered. Apparently Rafael Cruz thought that his Tea Party audience is gullible enough to believe this nonsense (and they probably are).

Actually, Rafael Cruz gets it wrong in two different ways. He, the self-described great American patriot is apparently not aware that the Declaration of Independence uses the words "by their Creator", and not "by our Creator", as Rafael Cruz wrongly quotes in his speech. Apparently Rafael Cruz himself, who inexplicably became an American citizen only in 2005, which is no less than 48 years after he left Cuba, is not fully familiar with this important American document.

But most importantly, his main claims about President Obama are outrageous lies. Rafael Cruz just regurgitates with great conviction some long-debunked nonsense which seems to be pretty popular among radical right-wingers, as "RightWingWatch" already exposed in 2012 ("How Many Times Does Obama Have to Say 'Endowed by Their Creator' Before the Right Will Stop Lying?").

The truth is easy to prove. I created the following video clip, which contrasts the claims by Rafael Cruz in his speech on September 12, 2012 with the real quotes by Barack Obama (special acknowledgement again to RightWingWatch).

Watch:

Rafael, the bible does not like liars. Do you, an evangelical pastor, really act according to the bible? Or is it all just a political game for you? You should make up your mind, and fast.

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Further reading at Politicalgates:

Ted Cruz's father Rafael Cruz in taped speech: Suggests that Barack Obama is a "Muslim", says that Obamacare provides "suicide counseling" and that the "RINO's" should be replaced by "Constitutional Conservatives" - In earlier interview Rafael Cruz says that his son is "destined for greatness", and explains how he politically educated him

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The radical religious friends of Senator Ted Cruz: Anointed by Dominionists who want to "wage war to restore America to our Judeo-Christian heritage" - The overlooked religious extremism of the new rising star of the GOP

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UPDATE:

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!

Listen to the interview:

When you search for speeches by Rafael and Ted Cruz, you find that they very often spoke at events by "FreedomWorks." These fake conservative grassroot organizations are really the cancer of America. They are the secret armies of the billionaires, and today you don't need "real" armies on the streets any more, what you need is an "online army".

Wikipedia duly notes: "Volunteers - 600,000 online activists"

These are the kind of brainwashed people who leave these crazy right-wing comments on the internet everywhere.

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The "official" life story of Rafael Cruz is full of huge holes. We will continue to investigate.

Media outlets published in the past a number of very informative articles about Ted and Rafael Cruz. One of the most detailed is an article called "Cruz's life defies simplification" by the Houston Chronicle from October 2012. Some interesting details can be found there.

Quote:

He (Ted Cruz) was born in Alberta while his parents were working abroad as pioneering computer programmers in the energy exploration business. He obtained citizenship as a newborn through his American mother. Yet he favors building a border wall, boots on the ground and greater militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border.

He's opposed to the Dream Act to help immigrant children who arrived here illegally. Yet his father, grandparents and aunt emigrated to Texas and benefited from U.S. policy and programs that grant legal permanent residence to virtually any Cuban admitted to the U.S. after January 1959.

(...)

(Ted) Cruz insists he's looking no further ahead than November. If elected, that accomplishment would be a tribute to his father, who as a teenager arrived in Austin to attend UT with only $100 sewn in his underwear and washed dishes at 50 cents an hour to cover expenses.

"To have suggested to that 18-year-old boy washing dishes that his son might serve as a U.S. senator would have been unimaginable," Cruz said. "That's the opportunity America offers. That's freedom."

Both of Cruz's parents got scholarships that covered tuition but paid their own expenses in college. As a married couple, they co-founded two different seismic data processing businesses. They were working in Alberta oil fields when Ted was born in 1970, returning to Houston in 1974 when a slump hit and they sold their first company.

Interesting! So Father Cruz wasn't opposed to the government when he benefited from its policies.

Also, Daddy Cruz in reality got a much softer start in the USA than he wants his Tea Party audiences to believe. He boasts about the apparent hardships he faced after entering the USA at any given opportunity with his "I started off as a dishwasher" tale.

However, that students in the USA get their tuition paid and then have to work to cover living expenses strikes me as pretty normal. I heard a lot of these stories in the past. Our readers, many of whom have studied decades ago, can certainly provide more insights.

There is definitely much more to discover about Rafael Cruz. There are many, many open questions. We will keep digging!

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UPDATE 2:

For a long time, Ted and Rafael Cruz were silent when others published false stories about how Rafael Cruz "escaped Fidel Castro" - which completely distorted the truth.

In 2011, the "Dallas Morning News" didn't let them get away with this apparent "lying by staying silent" (h/t BanditBasheert):

But what the stumping GOP Senate candidate hadn’t clarified, until asked by The Dallas Morning News this week, was that his father departed for the U.S. in 1957, more than a year before Fidel Castro came to power.

“Y’all know my heart,” Ted Cruz told the Austin Republican Women last month. “My dad fled Cuba. He was imprisoned and tortured as a teenager, and came to Austin penniless, seeking freedom. The reason I’m running is simple. He fled oppression once. And you have my word that I’ll fight every day to protect freedom here, so that none of us have to flee oppression a second time.”

Cruz hasn’t incorrectly described when his father fled from Cuba, as has U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. According to the Washington Post, Rubio said on three occasions since 2006 and on his official Senate website that his parents came to the U.S. after Castro’s forces overthrew Batista in January 1959. They actually arrived here in May 1956, the Post said.

Cruz, though, has remained silent as journalists and political activists incorrectly placed his father among the many Cubans who left the island nation after Castro took power, rather than as someone who fought on the same side as Castro to topple a rightist dictator, though he departed for Texas before the revolution succeeded.

“He was a guerilla, throwing Molotov cocktails and blowing up buildings,” Ted Cruz told the Austin American-Statesman for a profile published in January 2006.

Earlier this month, Liberty Institute president Kelly Shackelford introduced Cruz to 3,000 Christian conservatives at the Values Voters Summit in Washington, D.C., as “the next great conservative hope.”

“He’s the combination of the intellectual skill and principle of [Utah GOP Sen.] Mike Lee and the story, the personal story of a Marco Rubio — his dad having escaped Fidel Castro, came into the United States, working as a dishwasher,” Shackelford said.

Last month, a Houston Chronicle political blog described Cruz as “a Cuban American whose family escaped from Castro tyranny.”

In an interview Monday, Cruz professed not to be aware of confusion about when his father, Rafael Cruz, left Cuba.

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President Obama Speaks Live Today About The Situation In Syria - Full speech and transcript

By Kathleen

Today at 1: 15 pm EST President Obama will speak to the United States nation regarding the situation developing in Syria. 

As President Obama's address is likely to have long standing implications for the people of Syria I am leaving a live feed here on the blog so that readers have the opportunity to comment as the President speaks in real time. 

I will update the post later.

UPDATE:

Here is the clip with the full speech by President Obama:

Full transcript (h/t honestyingov):

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. Ten days ago, the world watched in horror as men, women and children were massacred in Syria in the worst chemical weapons attack of the 21st century. Yesterday the United States presented a powerful case that the Syrian government was responsible for this attack on its own people. Our intelligence shows the Assad regime and its forces preparing to use chemical weapons, launching rockets in the highly populated suburbs of Damascus, and acknowledging that a chemical weapons attack took place. And all of this corroborates what the world can plainly see — hospitals overflowing with victims; terrible images of the dead. All told, well over 1,000 people were murdered. Several hundred of them were children — young girls and boys gassed to death by their own government.

This attack is an assault on human dignity. It also presents a serious danger to our national security. It risks making a mockery of the global prohibition on the use of chemical weapons. It endangers our friends and our partners along Syria’s borders, including Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq. It could lead to escalating use of chemical weapons, or their proliferation to terrorist groups who would do our people harm. In a world with many dangers, this menace must be confronted.

Now, after careful deliberation, I have decided that the United States should take military action against Syrian regime targets. This would not be an open-ended intervention. We would not put boots on the ground. Instead, our action would be designed to be limited in duration and scope. But I’m confident we can hold the Assad regime accountable for their use of chemical weapons, deter this kind of behavior, and degrade their capacity to carry it out.

Our military has positioned assets in the region. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has informed me that we are prepared to strike whenever we choose. Moreover, the Chairman has indicated to me that our capacity to execute this mission is not time-sensitive; it will be effective tomorrow, or next week, or one month from now. And I’m prepared to give that order.

But having made my decision as Commander-in-Chief based on what I am convinced is our national security interests, I’m also mindful that I’m the President of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy. I’ve long believed that our power is rooted not just in our military might, but in our example as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. And that’s why I’ve made a second decision: I will seek authorization for the use of force from the American people’s representatives in Congress.

Over the last several days, we’ve heard from members of Congress who want their voices to be heard. I absolutely agree. So this morning, I spoke with all four congressional leaders, and they’ve agreed to schedule a debate and then a vote as soon as Congress comes back into session.

In the coming days, my administration stands ready to provide every member with the information they need to understand what happened in Syria and why it has such profound implications for America’s national security. And all of us should be accountable as we move forward, and that can only be accomplished with a vote.

I’m confident in the case our government has made without waiting for U.N. inspectors. I’m comfortable going forward without the approval of a United Nations Security Council that, so far, has been completely paralyzed and unwilling to hold Assad accountable. As a consequence, many people have advised against taking this decision to Congress, and undoubtedly, they were impacted by what we saw happen in the United Kingdom this week when the Parliament of our closest ally failed to pass a resolution with a similar goal, even as the Prime Minister supported taking action.

Yet, while I believe I have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization, I know that the country will be stronger if we take this course, and our actions will be even more effective. We should have this debate, because the issues are too big for business as usual. And this morning, John Boehner, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell agreed that this is the right thing to do for our democracy.

A country faces few decisions as grave as using military force, even when that force is limited. I respect the views of those who call for caution, particularly as our country emerges from a time of war that I was elected in part to end. But if we really do want to turn away from taking appropriate action in the face of such an unspeakable outrage, then we just acknowledge the costs of doing nothing.

Here’s my question for every member of Congress and every member of the global community: What message will we send if a dictator can gas hundreds of children to death in plain sight and pay no price? What’s the purpose of the international system that we’ve built if a prohibition on the use of chemical weapons that has been agreed to by the governments of 98 percent of the world’s people and approved overwhelmingly by the Congress of the United States is not enforced?

Make no mistake — this has implications beyond chemical warfare. If we won’t enforce accountability in the face of this heinous act, what does it say about our resolve to stand up to others who flout fundamental international rules? To governments who would choose to build nuclear arms? To terrorist who would spread biological weapons? To armies who carry out genocide?

We cannot raise our children in a world where we will not follow through on the things we say, the accords we sign, the values that define us. So just as I will take this case to Congress, I will also deliver this message to the world. While the U.N. investigation has some time to report on its findings, we will insist that an atrocity committed with chemical weapons is not simply investigated, it must be confronted.

I don’t expect every nation to agree with the decision we have made. Privately we’ve heard many expressions of support from our friends. But I will ask those who care about the writ of the international community to stand publicly behind our action.

And finally, let me say this to the American people: I know well that we are weary of war. We’ve ended one war in Iraq. We’re ending another in Afghanistan. And the American people have the good sense to know we cannot resolve the underlying conflict in Syria with our military. In that part of the world, there are ancient sectarian differences, and the hopes of the Arab Spring have unleashed forces of change that are going to take many years to resolve. And that’s why we’re not contemplating putting our troops in the middle of someone else’s war.

Instead, we’ll continue to support the Syrian people through our pressure on the Assad regime, our commitment to the opposition, our care for the displaced, and our pursuit of a political resolution that achieves a government that respects the dignity of its people.

But we are the United States of America, and we cannot and must not turn a blind eye to what happened in Damascus. Out of the ashes of world war, we built an international order and enforced the rules that gave it meaning. And we did so because we believe that the rights of individuals to live in peace and dignity depends on the responsibilities of nations. We aren’t perfect, but this nation more than any other has been willing to meet those responsibilities.

So to all members of Congress of both parties, I ask you to take this vote for our national security. I am looking forward to the debate. And in doing so, I ask you, members of Congress, to consider that some things are more important than partisan differences or the politics of the moment.

Ultimately, this is not about who occupies this office at any given time; it’s about who we are as a country. I believe that the people’s representatives must be invested in what America does abroad, and now is the time to show the world that America keeps our commitments. We do what we say. And we lead with the belief that right makes might — not the other way around.

We all know there are no easy options. But I wasn’t elected to avoid hard decisions. And neither were the members of the House and the Senate. I’ve told you what I believe, that our security and our values demand that we cannot turn away from the massacre of countless civilians with chemical weapons. And our democracy is stronger when the President and the people’s representatives stand together.

I’m ready to act in the face of this outrage. Today I’m asking Congress to send a message to the world that we are ready to move forward together as one nation.

Thanks very much.

Mother Jones publishes the full, uncut leaked Mitt Romney clip from private fundraiser - The Obama campaign already turned Romney's blunder into hard hitting campaign-spot (VIDEOS) - The "47 percent" will turn into "50+ percent"

The "Death Team": Killing their own campaign, with a smile

By Patrick

We say "Congratulations!" to the journalists from Mother Jones, especially David Corn, who have delivered the final death blow to Mitt Romney's campaign. As you certainly all have seen by now, Mother Jones obtained the full clip from a private fundraiser after some snippets had already appeared on the internet. The remarks about the Chinese factory workers for example already received some attention, also at Politicalgates almost one month ago, but the full tape was still missing.

Well, thanks to the efforts of Jimmy Carter's grandson James Carter IV (read the details here), the full mystery tape finally saw the light of day - and what is better in the days of the internet than a really good hard-hitting tape in which a presidential hopeful flushes his campaign down the toilet!

The background story about the involvement of James Carter IV is actually very fascinating - as reported by MSNBC:

James Carter IV told NBC News in an interview that, starting late last month, he tracked down the source who took the secret Romney video via Twitter --  and then in a series of messages encouraged him to release the full tape to Mother Jones magazine.

After emailing his grandfather the magazine's story about the tape -- under the subject, "Huge campaign news," and calling it "my biggest story yet" -- the former president wrote back at 7:16 am Tuesday: "James: This is extraordinary. Congratulations! Papa."

"I'm proud of my role in being able to track him down," James Carter, 35,  said about the source who took the video. "I'm a partisan Democrat. My motivation is to help Democrats get elected. If there is anything I can find in any race, I try to do that."

But Carter also confirmed there is a personal side to the backstory of the campaign video: he was especially motivated, he said, because of Romney's frequent attacks on the presidency of his grandfather, including the GOP candidate's comparisons to the "weak" foreign policy of Carter and Barack Obama.

"It gets under my skin -- mostly the weakness on the foreign policy stuff," Carter said. "I just think it's ridiculous. I don’t like criticism of my family."

So thanks to the anonymous person who secretly taped this speech and who can be regarded as a true American hero, the US electorate now knows what Mitt Romney really thinks - for example that Mitt Romney has utter disgust for almost half the country. What I love about all this is the fact that no "Rove-spin" and no additional millions from shady activist billionaires will be able to fix this mess. Mitt Romney is not the person he purports to be in "public" - he is just a bad, uncomfortable actor when he gives his public speeches. Mother Jones thankfully revealed the "real" Romney - and the picture ain't pretty.

Today, Mother Jones finally published the full, uncut clip of Romney's speech. Here it is, in two parts.

Part 1:

 Part 2:

The Obama-campaign wasted no time and immediately produced a hard-hitting campaign-spot featuring Romney's remarks:

So congratulations again to Mother Jones, they have thoroughly deserved this epic scoop, as they have been hard on Romney's tail right from the beginning. But reports about missing tax returns and questionable investments simply cannot deliver the same blow as an embarrassing "raw tape" - and as a politician, you better watch what you say these days. The internet will watch you. Mitt Romney now learned this lesson the hard way, and he can soon continue to enjoy his tax-free millions, as he surely will never become the president of the USA.

In addition, take a look at Lawrence O'Donnells excellent take on Mitt Romney's extreme views (and watch mitt Romney's pathetic response):

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A short while ago, Kathleen discovered a blog called "Hope and Change" which is run by a person called Joe Markowitz. Kathleen loves his writing and his sharp thoughts, and I would like to conclude with an excerpt from Joe Markowitz's recent post about the Romney-tape, which he titled "The 47 Percent":

Romney’s division of the country into the dependents and the independents is wrong for an even more fundamental reason. You simply can’t divide the country that way. Like it or not, we are all dependent on the government. In many ways, the well-off might even be more dependent on government services than the less well-off. People who buy luxury cars still need to drive them on the public roads. Moreover, without a strong transportation network of roads and bridges and ports, built and maintained by government, companies would not be able to move their goods to market, or their workers to their jobs. Without public education, companies would not be able to obtain an educated work force, essential to their success. Who else is dependent on government? Let's talk about defense and other government contractors; and also subsidies to agricultural businesses and oil companies. And as long as Mr. Romney has brought up the Americans who pay no income taxes, we should not forget the favorable tax treatment for capital gains that allows multi-millionaires like Mitt Romney himself to pay a lower rate than many members of the 47%, who might not pay much in income tax, but do pay a hefty amount of payroll taxes, thus mostly paying for the entitlements that Romney decries.

Then there is the judicial system, where I have spent my whole career. Law enforcement benefits everyone. But who uses that public court system, and benefits from it, the most? In my experience, those with the most property to protect have the most need for courts that exist largely to protect property interests. We all rely on the enforceability of contracts, but that enforcement is more valuable as the stakes in contracts become larger. Take intellectual property as another example. Who benefits most from our country’s strong protection of patent, trademark and copyright? It’s not assembly line workers or low-paid service workers. It’s not even inventors and artists, who do benefit a lot, but not as much as pharmaceutical companies and computer and other advanced technology companies and agribusiness and media companies who obtain vast profits from these legal protections, furnished to them as a public benefit by the government.

Romney’s pitch to his wealthy donors would be more honest if he admitted that he is not really against government at all. Rather, he wants to maintain and strengthen those aspects of government that benefit the wealthy and those that benefit business. He wants to reduce the scope of programs that benefit the poor and middle class. But if Romney admitted his true program, he might find out that it’s not just the 47% to whom his program will lack appeal. It’s more like the 99%.

Open Post - GOP Convention Day Three. Romney and Guest Speaker

By Kathleen

It's almost over. John McCain has made his toxic warmongering rant. Ron Paul delegates have loudly stormed out of the convention because they are annoyed at a policy decision which stripped them of representatives.

Chris Cristie has had a makeover and gave his "choose me next" speech. Later Ann Romney told us that she is just a mom like you even if Mitt had to sell some shares in order to help make ends meet.

Two delegates who shouted at a black CNN camerawoman "this is how we feed animals" were ejected after also throwing peanuts and insults towards her. 

Paul Ryan lied and lied and lied and goodness knows how many angels lost their wings.

Fox cancelled Sarah Palin's convention coverage and she complained on Facebook that she had been robbed of the opportunity to thank John McCain for everything. 

Today the GOP called for even broader gun rights despite the fact that there have been many calls across the country to restrict the ownership of guns.

Many inches of column space have been devoted as to the identity of the mystery GOP speaker. The Daily Mail has revealed that Republican sources have indicated that the mystery speaker is none other than Clint Eastwood. Geoffrey Dunn in an article describes why it is that Eastwood is such an enthusiastic Romney supporter. Go on Clint make my day. Anyone but Sarah certainly gets my vote. 

Before he introduces the GOP Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio is set to lecture the country in which direction it should go. "Should America become more like the rest of the world or should the world become more like America". (And some people still want to know why Patrick and I as European citizens are involved with and concerned about American politics.) This guy really thinks that dreams that are impossible everywhere else are still possible only in America.........I guess that believing that dreams can come true certainly explains Rubio's view that Romney is the perfect role model who just makes everything better where-ever he goes. 

I think that Mitt Romney's speech tonight will certainly be an attempt at rescuing his character from that of someone who is regarded as untrustworthy, hypocritical and somewhat out of touch. Mitt's up against President Obama who isn't perfect but is much more transparent and believable than he can ever be. 

Finally if you haven't read it be sure to set time aside to read Matt Taibbi's ultimate expose of Mitt Romney and his associations to Bain Capitol. Taibbi sets out to show that Romney built his fortune on greed, debt creation and the misfortune of others. 

Democracy Now interviewed Matt Taibbi in which he points out that Romney is a hypocrite because his entire campaign is built on the idea that he is against debt when his entire fortune was built through the creation of debt. Taibbi wonders why journalists have not questioned Romney about the obvious contradictions:

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One of our readers sent us the following hilarious cartoons - many thanks!

More cartoons, on special request, found on "The Obama Diary":

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UDPATE (by Patrick):

Some of the most vicious and also most creative photoshoppers can be found at the "Something Awful" forums - their members used to annoy Sarah Palin a lot with "Trig" photoshops, and it is no surprise that they now started to create photoshops about Clint Eastwood and his chair (please note that new photoshops will be added constantly at "Something Awful"). Some of these photoshops are "too awful" to show them here - you need to visit "Something Awful" yourself in order to see them in their full g(l)ory. Here are some of the milder examples:

Here is the last one for this post:

Our amazing AzureGhost created a picture at our special request - Paul Ryan has been exposed as a complete liar in respect to his recent claim that he run "a sub-3.00 marathon." He therefore proudly earned his "4 Palins" and also earned the right to receive a very special composition!

Link to the picture: http://twitpic.com/apsx9k

OK, I "did a Romney/Ryan" and told a lie. Yes, there will be another great picture! AzureGhost provided us with another creation on special request, because it was more than obvious who was really sitting in the chair - a snarling Sarah Palin!

Link to the picture: http://twitpic.com/apu9r8/full