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?

Mission Impossible: Rand Paul to 'Engage' African Americans

by Sunnyjane

Here I come to save the day -- Mighty Rand is on the way!

(Image courtesy of DonkeyHotey via The Daily Kos)

 
Save Detroit and Bond With Minorities

Rand Paul's going to Detroit to -- I kid you not -- unveil his new legislative proposal to remove bankrupt Detroit and other economically blighted areas from poverty and the shackles of big government.  Uh huh, that's right: Another Republican who never held elected office before being swept into the U.S. Senate by old white people with safety-pinned tea bags on their XXL-sized clothing  in 2010, is going to set Detroit free!  (What the hell does Rand Paul know about this subject, anyhow?)

But never mind all that.  Sen. Paul's real mission is to unshackle African Americans from the Democratic Party.  That he might be an odd choice may have occurred to you, dear readers.  This is, after all, the same guy who believes that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 went a little too far in ensuring that minorities had unfettered access to the same rights that the cream-colored citizens of this country have always enjoyed.  Notably, the senator from Kentucky doesn't think that the federal government should tell businesses that it is against the law to discriminate against anyone who wishes to engage in legal commerce inside their establishments. 

Paul's comment so enraged Kentucky's Republican State Senate -- as well as Democrats, of course -- that the members immediately adopted a resolution declaring any form of discrimination to be inconsistent with American values.  The only African American senator said that Paul's "extreme belief" has made Kentucky "a laughingstock."


 The Ignorance of the Arrogant
 

OK, forget all that, folks.  This is my Etch-A-Sketch moment.

Picture this:  The Republican Tea Party is sending a Kentucky know-nothing/do-nothing quasi politician into a city that voted 98% to reelect President Obama last year.  His assignment: to convince Detroit's African American citizens that they will be much better off voting for the GOP in the future.

Yes, dear turkey eaters, the party that has voted to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act forty-seven times, has cut the SNAP program, wants to take a woman's right to choose what is right for her and her family away from her -- while depriving her of all contraception methods, of course -- refused to pass the President's jobs bill (and has not proposed one of their own), and made it harder for minorities to vote, expects to attract the African American vote!

Even Michigan Republicans hate the idea of an African American Engagement Office.  One said,  It sounds like we're 'separate, but equal' office in Detroit...it's absurd, offensive and pathetic. 

The Michigan Democratic Party was, of course, equally harsh, saying that the GOP has repeatedly proven they are so far out of touch, they can’t even see it. 

It will be interesting to see how Senator Paul's visit to Detroit turns out.  Stay tuned!

End Note

Book Review: 'Double Down -- Game Change 2012' (Part 2 of 2)

by Sunnyjane

I refuse to apologize for cheating to get on the NYT Bestseller list!

In 2007, Mitt Romney was told that he had to appeal to the far-right if he wanted to win the 2008 GOP nomination race against such luminaries as John McCain, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, Alan Keys, Duncan Hunter (whoever heard of this guy?), and Rudy Giuliani.  So he did -- but not very well.  After putting forty-five million dollars of his own money into a primary run that cost a total of one-hundred and ten million, he withdrew in February 2008 after losing Iowa to Huckabee and New Hampshire to McCain.

Two weeks after the 2008 election of Barack Obama, Romney was told by one adviser that he lost because he didn't tell his story of being a successful businessman and governor of Massachusetts, blah, blah, blah.   This adviser told him to spend the next couple of years writing a book, lecturing, figuring out who would back him, writing editorials, etc.   The advice was good; the results were not what Romney needed to project himself as what could easily be called Mr. Fix-It of the Economy and Everything Else That is Wrong with Obama and America.  Taking a page from Sarah Palin, he pulled some not-too-ethical shenanigans to get his book on the New York Times bestseller list; most of the books were purchased in bulk.  It was so obvious that the online Paper of Record -- which always awards a dagger to books purchased in bulk -- awarded No Apology two daggers. 

Few Favorable Winds for USS Romney

Though it had been a foregone conclusion by the first of April, Mitt Romney safely secured the requisite number of 1,144 delegate votes to assure him of the GOP presidential nomination on May 29, 2012.  It had been a long, tiring, and very expensive primary, but Mitt and his staff were geared up and ready to make sure that Barack Obama would be a one-term president.  The campaign would make the election all about the economy, hammering Obama for his fecklessness and failures. They had every opportunity; the progressive left was unhappy that the President hadn't made more progress on his agenda, his most loyal 2008 supporters appeared to be having doubts, and the big money wasn't rolling in.  But in typical GOP style, they managed to screw it up royally because they had a bad candidate, a dysfunctional campaign, and lousy, out-of-touch messages for the broad spectrum demographics that makes up 21st Century America. 

A few of the, um, challenges that faced the Romney Campaign:

Maybe we shouldn't have outsourced our campaign literature to China.

The Ricketts Plan:   Things got off to a rather inauspicious start for the Romenyites -- or Boston -- as the campaign was sometimes referred to.   A little backstory: In February of 2012, Romney had said in a radio interview with Sean Hannity:  ...I'm not sure which is worse, [the President] listening to Reverend Wright or him saying that we must be a less Christian nation.  (Bold emphasis added.)  

This statement emboldened Joe Ricketts -- a wealthy and influential Republican supporter -- to authorize a highly secret ten million dollar, forty-page plan entitled The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama, which would play up the President's relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  On the same day it was printed up, a copy was handed to the Obama campaign by a mysterious brunette, which got it into the hands of the New York Times through a third party.  The message to the Romney campaign from the Obamans was simple:  that if [the Romney campaign] crossed the line when it came to race,  there would be a price to pay. 

When questioned by a reporter several days later if he stood by his February statement on Rev. Wright to Hannity, Romney uttered those immortal words:  I'm not familiar, precisely, with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was.
  
That Detroit Bailout Thingy: One of the things Mitt's 2008 adviser urged him to do was write editorials (op-eds) to start getting his

message out to the American public.  He took this to heart and in mid-November -- right after the election -- he wrote his opinion of the Bush-proposed bailout of the Detroit auto industry.  (President-elect Obama also supported the bailout.)

The New York Times was eager to print it and Mitt Romney was thrilled beyond words.  Unfortunately, the Times has a policy that only their editorial staff writes the title, and this one came out as Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.  Naturally, the Obamans took that line as one of their major campaign themes against Romney, and by October 2012, that archived op-ed had become the Number One most-read, most-emailed Times editorial, and the Romney campaign was never able to put a halt to what they felt was a dramatic misrepresentation of what Romney had proposed back in 2008.

The problems that faced Mitt Romney were far-ranging and politically damaging on practically every issue: his taxes (stored away in more than two dozen bank boxes), women, college students, Latinos, African Americans, the LGBT community, his gaffes, Ann's gaffes and petulance, the 47% debacle, the Etch-a-Sketch moment, his staffer telling reporters to kiss my ass, etc.  After his jaw-dropping  An-Idiot-Abroad trip to the UK, Israel and Poland, a former Bush staffer said, It almost feels like Sarah Palin is his foreign policy adviser.  Haley Barbour said that Mitt was an inept candidate ... incapable of connecting with voters, inspiring conservatives, or restraining himself from planting his penny loafer in his mouth.  That about sums up how most GOP party leaders -- and the GOP electorate in general -- viewed their 2012 candidate.

The Search for a Not-Sarah-Palin Vice President

Code-named Project Goldfish, Mitt's hunt for a suitable vice-presidential candidate began in April, headed solely by Beth Myers.  With a screw-you to political correctness, the final short-listers were given code names based on their weight, ethnicity, or location:   Chris Christie was Pufferfish, Tim Pawlewnty was Lakefish, Rob Portman was Filet-O-Fish, Marco Rubio was Pescado, and Paul Ryan was Fishconsin.  (No, I don't understand Portman's codename, either, but I have my suspicions.)

I'll do it MY way, or it won't get done.  And piss on you all if you don't like it!

In the interest of brevity, I will concentrate only on Pufferfish -- or Big Boy, as George W. Bush called him behind his back.  Chris Christie turned the vetting process into a nightmare for Beth Myers, who sent him the vetting package in early April, and wanted to have the complete process wrapped up by May 31.  There had already been issues between Boston and Trenton: Christie had told the campaign that he would not endorse Romney early, and that until he did, he didn't want them raising money in New Jersey.  He went for months telling his adorers and those big money guys that he probably wouldn't run, but they continued to try to persuade him.  This galled Romney, who was certain that he'd be the nominee -- whether the party wanted him or not.  Christie finally said he wasn't going to run, and became a Romney surrogate -- with mixed results.

To the Romney campaign HQ, Christie and his staff were overbearing and hard to work with, demanding in ways that would have been unthinkable from any other surrogate.  Trenton insisted on private jets, lavish spreads of food, and space for a massive entourage.  Christie was chronically behind schedule and made a habit of showing up late for  Romney fund-raising events.  

Because red-flag information had turned up on Christie during Myers' research into his background -- and some of his staff -- she asked very pointed vetting questions.  Trenton refused to answer many of them, whining Why do you need to know that? leading the Romneyites to assume that If they're not answering, it's because the answer is bad.  (Wouldn't the 2016 Democratic aspirants love to see that file?)

Racing Toward the  Finish Line

Yo, Chair!  You do realize that the GOP is full of rich, white, crazy old farts, don't you?

Conventions:  The two party conventions have been well covered: The Republicans' was good, the Democrats' was great.  Where the GOP's stars seemed to have been Clint Eastwood and Chris Christie (now that is a story worth reading!), the Democrats relied on Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton to light up the stars in North Carolina.  No contest!

Please proceed, Governor.

Debates: It's old news that Mitt Romney overwhelmingly won the first debate.  What is news -- but has been recently reported -- is that President Obama's performance was so bad that the campaign had to stage an intervention before the second debate.  You can't have a second debate like the first one, they told him.  It was that bad? asked the President.  Yes, they said, it was that bad. 

It's gonna be OK, Chris.  I'm here and I can help you.  Romney can't.

The Big Blow:  Superstorm Sandy, which ravished ravaged the state of New Jersey, left Romney off the political radar for nearly a week -- a period of time that just happened to be seven days before the election.  Instead, Americans read and watched non-stop coverage of the Republican Governor of New Jersey and the Democratic President of the United States working together as an empathetic non-partisan team to do everything they could to help the citizens and businesses of that devastated state.

Stuck in the mid-west, Romney wanted desperately to be a part of the hurricane recovery action:  Just get me to New Jersey, he told to campaign staff.  Find me a shelter where I can show I care.   They told him that it was impossible, but came up with another idea:  The campaign was making a last swing through Pennsylvania and there was a planned event only ten miles from Trenton, and surely Christie could take a little time to dash right over and appear with Romney on the stage.  The Governor kept telling them No, and finally screamed into the phone, Leave me the fuck alone!

It appears (to me) that Romney believed one roaring debate win and a couple of very well-attended rallies in the three weeks before November 6 could erase all the self-inflicted negative coverage he had received throughout the campaign.

Read 'em and Weep

No, Mitt, I don't mind at all that you've kept me up until after 2:00 AM

The networks (including Fox News) called the election for President Obama shortly after 11:00 PM, after determining that he had won all the battleground states except North Carolina.  Perhaps because Bush's Brain Karl Rove was having a major meltdown on Fox, declaring that it was much too early to project Obama as having won, it took almost three hours for Mitt to make his concession call to the President.  Or, perhaps Ann was hyperventilating so badly they couldn't get her to pull herself together -- I dunno.

Whatever, here's the end of the story:

The Inauguration of President Barack Obama, January 21, 2013

End Note

In a recent interview with Ann and Mitt Romney on CBS, the interviewer asked Mitt if he was mulling another run for the presidency. 

This was Ann's response:

Election night, 2012:  That's all, folks; we're done here.  Never again!

Book Review: 'Double Down -- Game Change 2012' (Part 1 of 2)

by Sunnyjane

If you liked Game Change, the book on the 2008 election by Halperin and Heilemann, you'll also like the 2012 edition on the campaign between President Barack Obama and former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney.  And if you're a political junky who wants to see the jaw-dropping backstage machinations of a presidential campaign, you're going to love this book.  I certainly did.

As Ezra Klein of the Washington Post wrote:  [It is] a joyous romp through the seedy underbelly of presidential campaigning.  ... It’s also a marvel of reporting. Any time three staff members met in a room to badmouth a colleague or a candidate, admitted to a moment of stress or self-doubt, ... John Heilemann and Mark Halperin appear to have been sitting in the corner, scribbling notes.

While Charles Pierce and Michael Kinsley didn't care much for the book -- or Mark Halperin, it seems -- the reports of Double Down's having been called supermarket tabloid trash is based on the insistence from Jon Huntsman, Sr. that he was not Harry Reid's source on the Romney didn't pay any taxes for ten years issue.

West Wing Woes

I wonder why nobody told me anything about having to fight pirates.

The President and his staff were not exactly doing the Happy Dance at the beginning of the 2012 general election cycle -- which started in 2011, of course.  And, despite her personal high approval ratings, the First Lady wasn't happy, either.  

Chicago, which is what the campaign headquarters was called because it couldn't be run from the White House, wanted Michelle Obama to be active in the 2010 midterms and in the 2012 general elections.  She agreed in 2010, reluctantly, because she didn't want to burn through her likability capital on congressional races and she hated being away from her girls over night.  The campaign accommodated her restrictions.  But she was more than willing in 2012 to help MY GUY, as she called the President, and raised ten million dollars in one quarter of the campaign.  She proved to be a real buck-raker, and Chicago was thrilled.  The First Lady was irritated with the President's staff, and didn't mind telling them about it.

The President wasn't pleased with his West Wing staff, either, and he did something about it.  Rahm Emanuel -- who easily succeeded in pissing off everybody -- had already left to run for mayor of Chicago.  David Axelrod (disheveled and disorganized) and Robert Gibbs (who seemed to be quite skilled at using the word fuck as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, etc.)  were sent to campaign HQ.  Bill Daley became White House Chief of Staff, which didn't turn out very well, and he was replaced by Jack Lew.  Lots of screaming, finger-pointing, and shakeups going on.

But President Obama was also unhappy with himself and his inability to deal with an obnoxious House of Representatives.  He had had to spend his time on issues ranging from birtherism to Osama bin Laden to rescuing two people from Somali pirates.  He thought his messaging was ineffective and sloppy.  In addition, he had a leaker on his staff, which really upset him.  

By May of 2012, he had his Bulworth Moment -- deciding that he was going to stop paying attention to campaign focus groups and tell the American people what he proposed and why.

That decision probably gave him a second term.

And Who Shall Lead Them?

Long before the Republican primary debates actually began in January 2012, the field was wide open  -- I counted as many as fifteen.  As had been said by many, Mitt Romney started campaigning for 2012 right after he lost the 2008 candidacy to John McCain.  But the establishment GOP did not want Romney -- they detested him -- and a bunch of others tried, in vain, to get each other to run.  Perhaps Haley Barbour, governor of Mississippi, was the most prescient when he predicted that if Romney ran, his weaknesses would attract a large, unruly field that would be bad for the party. 

Frankly, I think this group even exceeded Barbour's most dire predictions.

Is Rick Perry late again?  Oops!

Halperin and Heilemann share a lot of interesting insights into the personalities and foibles of the final 2012 Hopefuls, except for Ron Paul; there was little said about him.   So here are just a few examples of the less-than-stellar lineup of the Hopeless to become the 2012 Republican candidate for president.

I have never had sex with that woman!  Those women!  I have never had sex with...anybody!

Herman Cain:  Best known for his 8.7 tax program.  Well, Herman didn't think it would suit for him to go around yelling 8.7-8.7-8.7, so he told his staff, Goddammit, we're rounding it up to 9-9-9!   He was, to say the least, one of the most unqualified of the Eight-Left-Standing bunch, and after persistent allegations (which he denied) about sexual misconduct, he quit the race.

And getting there is half the fun!

Michele Bachmann:  Shedding staff like yesterday's underwear, Bachmann gaffed her way through the primaries.  The stories about her migraine headaches must have brought on more: her staff once found her in a fetal position in her hotel room and had to take fast and dramatic medical steps to ease her pain.  She quit in January 2012, after coming in a dismal fourth in the Iowa caucuses.  Thus, the I'm such a loser! quote that has been reported recently.

Hmmm...I'll hit Mitt with my new word: Obamneycare.   It'll be a winner!

Tim Pawlenty:  According to the book, the former governor of Minnesota and the current Congresswoman (Bachmann) from that state ...shared a reverent evangelical faith and a biting distaste for each other.  (Bachmann considered Pawlenty a weak-kneed fraud; he disparaged her as "dangerous" and "insane.")  Pawlenty may well be a weak-kneed fraud, but he's certainly correct on his assessment of Bachmann.  In an effort to tie Obamacare and Romney's Massachusetts health care law, he had coined the word Obamneycare in a television interview.  However, when asked by the moderator during the June 13, 2011 debate why he had used the term, he backed off and refused to take the opportunity to slam his rival.  He resigned from the race the next day.  OK, I guess Michele is right: Pawlenty is weak-kneed.

Giggle, chuckle, tee hee: Whee doggies!  Pain medications are FUN!

Rick Perry:  The Texas governor's debate missteps, his questionable racial history, claims that he is gay, his evangelical background, and his unrepentant assertion that Social Security is a Ponzi  scheme are all well-known fodder on which the media chewed with delight.  However, what was not well known -- even to his staff -- was the seriousness of his back  surgery in July 2011.  The persistent pain and his regular bouts of insomnia, coupled with less than sterling debate performances, led him to resign from the race in January 2012. 

Noooo, I don't want to hear about your wife!  MY wife is the only one who can have an abortion!

Rick Santorum:  Not much new on Saint Santorum.  Try as he might, Rick could not stay away from harping on far-right, evangelical Christiansta social issues.  Former Nebraska governor Rob Kerrey was heard to say, Santorum: that's Latin for asshole.

I don't know...I guess...let me see...maybe.

Jon Huntsman:  The one issue I found most fascinating was -- to me, anyhow -- brand new.  It involves the ten-year  animosity between Mitt Romney and fellow-Mormon Jon Huntsman, Jr.  -- who incredibly, had never met before 2002.  Both wanted to be The Rescuer of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City; Mitt got the job, and both Huntsman, Jr. and Huntsman, Sr. were not at all happy.

Then, in 2008 when Romney was running to become the GOP nominee, Huntsman assured him he would endorse him, then turned around and endorsed McCain.  Romney was furious.  But Huntsman wanted badly to be Secretary of State and doubted that Romney would appoint a fellow Mormon to that position; thus, he pinned his hopes on John McCain.

Huntsman is a complicated fellow, prone to dark spells and with a dicey relationship with his father.  At times, it seemed to his staff that he didn't really want to run for president -- he just sort of wanted to be president.  I have the distinct feeling that Double Down reveals just a glimmer into the murky world of who Jon Huntsman really is.

And the Candidate is...

Heh...

End Note


Part 2 of this post will cover the presidential campaign and debates between the two candidates, as well as Romney's careful search for a vice presidential nominee.  That process  turned out to be a WHOA! type of thing.

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. 

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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