Ted Cruz's Campaign Chairman is a FAKE 'War Hero' — Resume Contained Pack of Lies About Military Service

The Republican Party is thoroughly saturated with shameless con men like State Rep. Graham Hunt. (Facebook Photo)

By Travis Gettys
Republican lawmaker who’s serving as chairman of Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign in Washington state is either unwilling or unable to verify that he is a decorated combat veteran.

State Rep. Graham Hunt (R-Orting), who was elected in 2014 to the legislative seat to which he was appointed the year before, listed three medals on his official and campaign biographies that a military personnel center has no record of him receiving, reported The Seattle Times.

A military spokeswoman pointed out to the newspaper that the personnel center’s records are sometimes incomplete — but Hunt has been quietly deleting some details about his service record from online biographies since reporters have begun to press him for more information.

Hunt, who traveled out of state earlier this month to meet with armed militants who are occupying an Oregon wildlife refuge, says he was “wounded in combat” but has offered only vague details about what happened.

The lawmaker said he was knocked down by explosions but can’t remember where, and he also claims he cannot remember which units he deployed with to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hunt deleted a Facebook post in 2015 that showed a dramatic photo of a U.S. soldier consoling another that, according to a caption, showed the lawmaker after a 2005 mortar attack, with additional text claiming he “KNOWS THE SACRIFICE” and “STILL FIGHTING FOR OUR COUNTRY.”

“I think combat camera captured the moment pretty well,” the post said. “I surely have not forgotten that moment.”

The image, however, was an Associated Press photo from 2003 that showed two Ohio soldiers — but one of their U.S. Army insignias had been replaced with an Air Force staff sergeant patch.

Hunt later removed the post and said a campaign volunteer had posted it, but the lawmaker says he accepts “full responsibility” for the social media post.

The lawmaker deleted references last month to the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal after the newspaper questioned him about the awards — which military officials say do not appear on his service record.

He also stopped describing himself in the online biographies as a “combat veteran” of Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Birther-ism Comes Home To Roost: Ted Cruz is NOT Eligible To Be President - One Down, Eight More to Go

The Tea Party's Ted Cruz is getting stung by an issue invented by the Tea Party itself for use as a jingoistic and racist attack on Barack Obama: Birther-ism.  Ted Cruz is against "affirmative action" so he can't expect any "special treatment" that will allow him to become president of the United States. It should be noted that Donald Trump has recently refused to provide his own birth certificate and passport records for public scrutiny.

Tea Party bumper sticker with an anti-Obama 'Birther' Message (Photo by  brownpau).  'Birthers' at a pro-gun rally (bottom, right) tell President Obama to go back to Africa. (Photo by Fibonacci Blue)

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Ted Cruz is Not Eligible to be President

By Mary Brigid McManamon
Donald Trump is actually right about something: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is not a natural-born citizen and therefore is not eligible to be president or vice president of the United States.

RELATED STORY: Ted Cruz Produces Mother’s Birth Certificate after Both Parents Found on Canadian Voter List

The Constitution provides that “No person except a natural born Citizen . . . shall be eligible to the Office of President.” The concept of “natural born” comes from common law, and it is that law the Supreme Court has said we must turn to for the concept’s definition. On this subject, common law is clear and unambiguous. The 18th-century English jurist William Blackstone, the preeminent authority on it, declared natural-born citizens are “such as are born within the dominions of the crown of England,” while aliens are “such as are born out of it.” The key to this division is the assumption of allegiance to one’s country of birth. The Americans who drafted the Constitution adopted this principle for the United States. James Madison, known as the “father of the Constitution,” stated, “It is an established maxim that birth is a criterion of allegiance. . . . [And] place is the most certain criterion; it is what applies in the United States.”

RELATED STORY: Donald Trump Refuses to Release Birth Certificate and Passport Records

Cruz is, of course, a U.S. citizen. As he was born in Canada, he is not natural-born. His mother, however, is an American, and Congress has provided by statute for the naturalization of children born abroad to citizens. Because of the senator’s parentage, he did not have to follow the lengthy naturalization process that aliens without American parents must undergo. Instead, Cruz was naturalized at birth. This provision has not always been available. For example, there were several decades in the 19th century when children of Americans born abroad were not given automatic naturalization.

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"I believe in karma. As a reward for Cruz’s self-serving and cynical defense of the worst of Donald Trump, the billionaire bully has launched a birther movement to attack the Canadian-born Cruz as he rises at the polls."—Elise Jordan

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Article I of the Constitution grants Congress the power to naturalize an alien — that is, Congress may remove an alien’s legal disabilities, such as not being allowed to vote. But Article II of the Constitution expressly adopts the legal status of the natural-born citizen and requires that a president possess that status. However we feel about allowing naturalized immigrants to reach for the stars, the Constitution must be amended before one of them can attain the office of president. Congress simply does not have the power to convert someone born outside the United States into a natural-born citizen. Let me be clear: I am not a so-called birther. I am a legal historian.

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Ted Cruz Owns Up to Being A Child Abuser: 'I Spank My Daughters' — Big Media Won't Complain

NFL football player Adrian Peterson was arrested and suspended from the league for using a switch to discipline his son. But you can bet Ted Cruz will be mostly celebrated for spanking his daughters.

By Philip Bump
During a rally in Iowa on Friday evening, Ted Cruz made a joke that went over fine with his audience -- but was less popular once the wider world caught wind.

Replying to a woman who asked him about holding someone accountable for the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi in 2012, Cruz said that she was "exactly right." He criticized President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for "engag[ing] in deception" on the matter. Then he zeroed in on Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee for the presidency.

"We do know Hillary told her daughter Chelsea, 'Well, gosh, I knew it was a terrorist attack, while we were out telling the American people it wasn't,'" Cruz said. "You know I'll tell you, in my house, if my daughter Catherine, the five-year-old, says something she knows to be false, she gets a spanking."

He added: "Well, in America, the voters have a way of administering a spanking."

While it's never hard to find outraged people on social media, there was certainly an element of the response to Cruz's comments that struck a nerve. Former George W. Bush strategist Matthew Dowd, now a commentator for ABC, stated that Cruz was not "a real man" for using corporal punishment on his daughter. Others expressed similar surprise.

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Nobody is Safe From a Bigot: Donald Trump Goes 'Birther' on Ted Cruz - Suggest He's Not American

By Robert Costa and Philip Rucker
Donald Trump said in an interview that rival Ted Cruz’s Canadian birthplace was a “very precarious” issue that could make the senator from Texas vulnerable if he became the Republican presidential nominee.

“Republicans are going to have to ask themselves the question: ‘Do we want a candidate who could be tied up in court for two years?’ That’d be a big problem,” Trump said when asked about the topic. “It’d be a very precarious one for Republicans because he’d be running and the courts may take a long time to make a decision. You don’t want to be running and have that kind of thing over your head.”

Trump added: “I’d hate to see something like that get in his way. But a lot of people are talking about it and I know that even some states are looking at it very strongly, the fact that he was born in Canada and he has had a double passport.”

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'White Supremacist, Hispanic Surname' — Ted Cruz Courts the Bigot Vote: And Won't Criticize Donald Trump

Everything Ted Cruz said about Donald Trump and immigration this weekend was hot, flaming garbage

Illustration by DonkeyHotey.

By Simon Maloy
Last week I expressed my bemusement at the fact that none of the 2016 Republican presidential candidates had forcefully denounced billionaire racist and shriveled apricot Donald Trump for calling Mexican immigrants criminals, drug dealers, and “rapists.” For a party looking to boost its pathetically low share of the Latino vote in presidential years, it seemed like a layup – disagree with the frizz-topped bigot and demonstrate that, at a minimum, not all Republican presidential candidates view undocumented immigrants as dangerous criminals.

A number of those candidates apparently came to the same conclusion, and over the last few days they’ve attacked Trump and gone to great pains to say that he doesn’t represent the mainstream of the party. Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, and Mike Huckabee all hit back at The Donald’s grossly insulting remarks. Even George Pataki got in on the action.

There was one 2016 Republican contender, however, who pointedly refused to criticize Trump and even celebrated him for what he said – Ted Cruz. He appeared on “Meet the Press” this weekend and stood by Trump’s remarks, arguing that they’d had the beneficial effect of focusing people on immigration issues.

CRUZ: When it comes to Donald Trump, I like Donald Trump. He’s bold, he’s brash, and I get that it seems the favorite sport of the Washington media is to encourage some Republicans to attack other Republicans. I ain’t going to do it. I’m not interested in Republican on Republican violence.

CHUCK TODD: But rhetoric matters? Doesn’t rhetoric matter?

CRUZ: I salute Donald Trump for focusing on the need to address illegal immigration. The Washington cartel doesn’t want to address that. The Washington cartel doesn’t believe we need to secure the borders. The Washington cartel supports amnesty, and I think amnesty is wrong and I salute Donald Trump for focusing on it. He has a colorful way of speaking. It is not the way I speak. But I’m not going to engage in the media’s game of throwing rocks and attacking other Republicans. I’m just not going to do it.

Every syllable of every sentence of that response is hot, flaming garbage.

First of all, Cruz is joining in on what is apparently the new, fun game for prominent conservatives – credit Trump for saying things he didn’t actually say. Nothing about Trump’s comments bring any focus or clarity to the immigration debate. He called undocumented immigrants rapists. Trying to argue that he did anything else is making excuses for bigotry.

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Ted Cruz's 'Presidential Run' is a Total Fraud: His Campaign Is Just a Crazy Right-Winger's Attention Whoring

The next Republican presidential primary clown show has just begun

Illustration by DonkeyHotey.

By TBogg
Let us state for the record, on this day and at this time, that Texas Senator Ted Cruz will never ever ever EVER be President of These Here United States of ‘Murica.

In a field that will surely be chock full o’nuts, he may be the least appealing nut in the bowl. With the possible exceptions of escaped circus clown Donald Trump and ex-HP CEO turned feral mean girl Carly Fiorina, there will be no more absurd presidential campaign in 2016, or possibly until the end of life on Earth as we know it.

According to a recent CBS poll, only 23 percent of Republicans expressed interest in Cruz as president. In fact, the only person who polled lower was the worst thing to hit Louisiana since Katrina, Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has somehow managed to become a worse governor than Sarah Palin.

How is that even possible? (Hint: she quit and saved the state. Credit where credit is due, I always say.)

Cruz called the NRA-approved “shotgun” and jumped into the front seat of the 2016 GOP clown car on Monday, skipping the traditional exploratory committee phase which probably would have told him, “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown — and you’re a Canadian.”

All signs seem to indicate that, while Cruz is running, he’s not really “running,” so much as playing “don’t you forget about me” [throws fist in the air as he walks across football field].

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Senator Ted Cruz — The Republicans' Modern Day Joe McCarthy — Calls Net Neutrality 'Obamacare for the Internet’

Ted Cruz's tweets suggests he doesn't have the slightest idea of what net neutrality is.

Joe McCarthy (left): McCarthy is the thoroughly discredited senator who terrorized
America with his "communists are everywhere" delusions. Ted Cruz: He not only
looks like McCarthy, but acts as strange and uninformed as McCarthy. (Adapted by
DonkeyHotey from Wikimedia/Gage Skidmore)

By Jane C. Timm
President Obama on Monday came out with a full-throated defense of so-called net neutrality, advocating for new rules that would keep the Internet free from the influence of broadband companies seeking to control customers’ speed and access. But not everyone is a fan of Obama’s stand.

“ ‘Net Neutrality’ is Obamacare for the Internet,” Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted Monday in response to the president’s announcement. “The Internet should not operate at the speed of government.”

The Texas Republican’s tweeted criticism seems to betray an inherent misunderstanding of what net neutrality is. ”He’s searching desperately for a talking point,” says Free Press spokesman Timothy Karr. “He swung and he missed.”

Net neutrality advocates, meanwhile, were thrilled that Obama finally found his voice on an issue he has long pledged to support. ”The president who promised to take a back seat to no one on Net Neutrality has finally gotten in the driver’s seat. And he may have saved the Internet at the moment it was in the greatest jeopardy,” said Craig Aaron, president and CEO of the pro-net neutrality advocacy group Free Press, in a statement.

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