Ted Cruz Archives

December 17, 2014August 20, 2019

Shenanigans By Sen. Ted Cruz Lead To Texas’ First Gay Federal Judge

Thanks to Sen. Ted Cruz, his home state of Texas now has it’s first openly gay federal judge.

The Senate confirmed three Texans Tuesday night for lifetime judicial appointments, capping an effort to fill vacancies in the state that have languished for years.

The nominees — U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman of San Antonio, Texarkana lawyer Robert Schroeder III and Sherman Magistrate Judge Amos Mazzant III — were approved by a voice vote on Congress’ final night this year.

Pitman, the first openly gay U.S. attorney in Texas history, will be the state’s first openly gay federal judge. The process was sped up over the weekend, when Sen. Ted Cruz forced action on the constitutionality of the president’s immigration policies. The move failed badly — but gave Majority Leader Harry Reid more time to set up votes on a slew of nominees in the final days of the chamber’s session.

Before that point, it was unclear whether the three Texans could be approved before Republicans take over the Senate on Jan. 6.

(h/t JMG)

December 16, 2014August 20, 2019

Even Pat Robertson Thinks Sen. Ted Cruz Pulled A Bone-Headed Move

Well, hell must have frozen over because for once Pat Robertson is speaking with clarity about the shenanigans Sen. Ted Cruz pulled this past weekend regarding the Senate passing the CRomnibus bill to keep the government running.

Normally a bill has to “ripen” for several hours giving Senators a chance to read and digest what they are going to be voting on. But that waiting period can be waived if all 100 Senators agree. This would have allowed a faster vote on the already approved House bill. But Ted Cruz threw a wrench in the works voting against waiving the period because he wanted to have a vote on the Senate floor denouncing President Obama’s executive order on immigration.

This opened a procedural door that allowed outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democrats the chance to pass over 20 nominations from the President that the Republicans have blocked for months.

One of those nominations that finally got passed after a year and a half hold was Vivek Murthy, a Harvard and Yale-educated doctor, whose nomination for Surgeon General had been on blocked based in great part by opposition from the gun lobby. Thanks to Cruz, he was approved by Senators 51 to 43 to confirm.

Christmas came early for the Dems thanks to the rookie move by Sen. Cruz.

And even Pat Robertson can see it.

November 16, 2014August 20, 2019

Sen. Al Franken: Net Neutrality Is About Leaving Something The Way It Already Is, Not Changing It

Sen. Ted Cruz recently wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that net neutrality “would put the government in charge of determining Internet pricing, terms of service and what types of products and services can be delivered, leading to fewer choices, fewer opportunities and higher prices.”

Because Cruz is so busy opposing anything President Obama would support, Cruz forgot to even read what “net neutrality” actually is.

Oh – Sen. Cruz also forgot to tell you that he has received tens of thousands of dollars from internet service providers who would love to be able to make companies pay more. Yeah, he didn’t mention that, did he?

Net Neutrality is the idea that everyone should have the same access to the internet, which is what has existed since we all got on the inter webs 20 years ago. Some internet service providers would like to be able to charge more for a “fast lane” to those who can afford it which would in turn slow down those websites with smaller budgets.

For instance, last year Comcast demanded that Netflix pay millions of dollars or they would throttle Netflix users stream making it more difficult to watch movies. During negotiations Comcast did just that until Netflix was forced to pay to get their subscribers back to a “normal” internet feed.

Read a simple explanation of the whole issue here.

Sen. Al Franken responded to Cruz’ inaccuracies like this on CNN:

“Obamacare was a government program that fixed something that changed things,” Franken clarified for Tea Party favorite Cruz. “This is about reclassifying something so it stays the same. This would keep things exactly the same that they’ve been.”

Watch the video below:

October 30, 2014August 20, 2019

Sen. Ted Cruz: I Love My iPhone Even If CEO Tim Cook “Chooses” To Be Gay

Sen. Ted Cruz didn’t miss his chance to say that he “loves his iPhone” even though Apple CEO Tim Cook has “chosen” to live a gay lifestyle.

Via Advocate:

During an interview with CNBC, Cruz was asked about the Bloomberg Businessweek story in which Cook addressed his sexual orientation publicly for the first time.

“Those are his personal choices. I’ll tell you, I love my iPhone,” Cruz said according to The Hill. He added, “Listen, Tim Cook makes his personal decisions, and that is his life. My focus is on the constitutional question of who has the authority to make decisions.”

It’s worth noting that Sen. Cruz is the coauthor of the State Marriage Defense Act, which would stop the federal government from invalidating state laws on marriage.

October 24, 2014August 20, 2019

Sen. Ted Cruz’ Chief of Staff Makes Bad Ebola Joke

Sen. Ted Cruz’ Deputy Chief of Staff, Nick Muzin, made a bad joke about Ebola basically blaming the disease on “Obamacare” of all things.

It seems he thought expanding healthcare coverage (Obamacare) somehow led to infectious disease (Ebola). Or at the very least, was funny.

I know, I know… find me some logic or humor in that.

Then, he deleted the tweet and followed up with this:

But not before the world saw it and screen captured it.

This is a man who advises Ted Cruz. This is a man who has a US Senator’s ear.

This guy most probably dreams of being at the White House someday.

Or, rather, did dream of such things.

A few responses from the Twitterverse:

(via Boston Globe)

May 24, 2014August 19, 2019

Sen. Ted Cruz: The Democrats in the US Senate are going to repeal the 1st Amendment

Sen. Ted Cruz loves to pretend to tell the truth even when he’s purposefully twisting it for dramatic effect and scare tactics. Read below from Right Wing Watch:

When Sen. Ted Cruz told the conservative pastors gathered at the Family Research Council’s Watchmen on the Wall conference yesterday that “the Senate Democrats are going to be voting on a constitutional amendment to repeal the First Amendment,” he was met with an audible gasp. He earned more gasps when he warned that this amendment would suppress the political speech rights of the “citizenry” and “muzzle” pastors in their pulpits.

We were surprised too. That would be news!

But then it became clear what he was talking about: Senate leadership is planning to hold a vote on a constitutional amendment overturning the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision and rulings in related campaign finance cases such as this year’s McCutcheon case, which have steadily eliminated the limits on election spending by corporations and wealthy individuals.

The amendment, written by Sen. Tom Udall, would give the federal government and states the “power to regulate the raising and spending of money and in kind equivalents” in elections, as it was allowed to do before the Supreme Court started dismantling campaign finance regulations.

So what the amendment would do is limit the amount huge corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals can donate to campaigns. The Citizens United decision has given those with enormous amounts of money huge power to sway elections.

So, unless a pastor runs a Super-PAC, they are not going to be effected in the manner that Ted Cruz seems to draw for his audience in this video.

What a douche. Note that he never mentions Citizens United or campaign donations. If you merely listened to this speech, you would walk away with the understanding that the US Senate is going to take away your freedom of speech or religion, WHICH is totally not going to happen.

February 19, 2014August 19, 2019

Sen. Ted Cruz: The Obama Administration is “hostile” to “traditional marriage”

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas says the Obama Administration is “hostile” to traditional marriage:

“This administration is the most hostile to traditional marriage administration this country has ever seen.

“The administration has been using the authority of the federal government to try to force states, to force federal recognition of marriages that state law prohibits.

“The Obama administration came into Utah and said, ‘We’re not going to listen to what the U.S. Supreme Court said. We, the federal government, are going to recognize marriages in the state of Utah and Utah state law explicitly does not recognize as marriage’ and that was really, in my view, an abuse of power.”

What’s interesting about this is perspective. Ted Cruz sees a “hostile” administration. I see people across America working to ensure equality for everyone.

The legalization of marriage equality has NO effect whatsoever on anyone’s “traditional marriage.”

None. None. None.

What Cruz objects to is the idea that the LGBT community, who has traditionally been forced to second class citizenship, is somehow finding it’s way to the same rights of other Americans.

The Senator is out making the rounds anywhere he can to help promote his doomed anti-gay State Marriage Defense Act which would, according to Cruz, “protect states from the federal government’s efforts to force any other definition upon them.”

You can listen to Cruz on right wing crackpot David Barton’s radio show below:

January 14, 2014August 19, 2019

Right wing blogger Bill Whittle: If you see California license plates, fire mortar rounds at them

Right wing blogger Bill Whittle had the crowd in stitches with this stand-up bit, speaking before Sen. Ted Cruz at a Tea Party rally where the Senator was the keynote speaker:

“I’ve said this several times in Texas before and I’ve said it to Mr. Cruz as a representative of the Texas government, I’ve said it to Gov. (Rick) Perry directly, and now I’m going to say it to you as individual Texas citizens. You will see a lot of cars coming west heading east on Interstate 10, and they’re going to have California license plates on them. Now, if you see these cars pull into rest areas or hotels or restaurants, that’s fine; wave goodbye, make sure they go out on the Louisiana end.

“But if you see them pull off into residential areas, you need to open fire on these vehicles immediately. Immediately. Not with 9mm or AR rounds; you need to put mortars on those things, you cannot take any chances.

“What’s the worst that could happen to you? I mean, honestly, this is Texas, right? You’ll stand in front of a Texas judge, (and) he’ll say, ‘Did you shoot up that car full of Californians?’ You’ll say yes, he’ll say why. You’ll say, ‘Well, your honor, they needed killing.’ And he’ll say, ‘We’ll strike a medal in your honor,’ and off you go.”

Isn’t that hysterical? Fire mortar shells are folks from California? Ah, hahahahaha…

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

I just can’t stop laughing it’s so not funny.

And violent.

(h/t JMG)