Page 1 of 337 1234567891151101 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 8425
  1. #1
    Thailand Expat
    Humbert's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Last Online
    08-01-2024 @ 01:10 AM
    Location
    Bangkok
    Posts
    12,572

    2016 Republican US Presidential Candidates





    Meet Ted Cruz the freshman senator from Texas who is intent on making a name for himself and advancing his political career through the use of the same tactics used by Senator Joe McCarthy. Cruz, in the recent Chuck Hagel confirmation hearings, accused senator Hagel, without evidence, of 'receiving compensation from foreign enemies'. Lies and character assassination as a justifiable tactic in pursuit of ideology are not a new tactics for the right wing but are we entering a dangerous new age where such tactics are acceptable and unchallenged?


    WASHINGTON — As the Senate edged toward a nasty filibuster vote on Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be defense secretary, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, sat silent and satisfied in the corner of the chamber — his voice robbed by laryngitis — as he absorbed what he had wrought in his mere seven weeks of Senate service.

    Mr. Hagel, a former senator from Mr. Cruz’s own party, was about to be the victim of the first filibuster of a nominee to lead the Pentagon. The blockade was due in no small part to the very junior senator’s relentless pursuit of speeches, financial records or any other documents with Mr. Hagel’s name on them going back at least five years. Some Republicans praised the work of the brash newcomer, but others joined Democrats in saying that Mr. Cruz had gone too far.

    Without naming names, Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, offered a biting label for the Texan’s accusatory crusade: McCarthyism.

    “It was really reminiscent of a different time and place, when you said, ‘I have here in my pocket a speech you made on such and such a date,’ and, of course, nothing was in the pocket,” she said, a reference to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s bloody pursuit of Communists in the 1950s. “It was reminiscent of some bad times.”

    In just two months, Mr. Cruz, 42, has made his presence felt in an institution where new arrivals are usually not heard from for months, if not years. Besides suggesting that Mr. Hagel might have received compensation from foreign enemies, he has tangled with the mayor of Chicago, confronted the Senate’s third-ranking Democrat on national television, voted against virtually everything before him — including the confirmation of John Kerry as secretary of state — and raised the hackles of colleagues from both parties.

    He could not be more pleased. Washington’s new bad boy feels good.

    “I made promises to the people of Texas that I would come to Washington to shake up the status quo,” he said in e-mailed answers to questions in lieu of a speaking voice. “That is what I intend to do, and it is what I have done in every way possible in the responsibilities that have been granted to me.”

    In a body known for comity, Mr. Cruz is taking confrontational Tea Party sensibilities to new heights — or lows, depending on one’s perspective. Wowed conservatives hail him as a hero, but even some Republican colleagues are growing publicly frustrated with a man who has taken the zeal of the prosecutor and applied it to the decorous quarters of the Senate.

    Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said that some of the demands Mr. Cruz made of Mr. Hagel were “out of bounds, quite frankly.” Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, issued a public rebuke after Mr. Cruz suggested, with no evidence, that Mr. Hagel had accepted honorariums from North Korea.

    “All I can say is that the appropriate way to treat Senator Hagel is to be as tough as you want to be, but don’t be disrespectful or malign his character,” Mr. McCain said in an interview.

    Democrats were more blunt.

    “He basically came out and made the accusation about money from North Korea or money from our enemies, and he just laid out there all of this accusatory verbiage without a shred of evidence,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri. “In this country we had a terrible experience with innuendo and inference when Joe McCarthy hung out in the United States Senate, and I just think we have to be more careful.”

    Mr. Cruz, a Canadian-born lawyer who won an upset primary victory last year, is adamant in his own defense. He said his focus at hearings had been on policy, not personality. With Mr. Hagel, whose nomination is set for a Senate vote the week of Feb. 25, he said his request for financial disclosures were backed by 24 other senators. As for his statement that Mr. Hagel may have received honorariums from nefarious sources, “the suggestions I have made in my arguments have been merely to raise examples for why I believe Senator Hagel’s financial disclosure is so important,” he said.

    “Comity does not mean avoiding the truth,” he added. “And it would be wrong to avoid speaking the truth about someone’s record and past policy positions, even if doing so inevitably subjects me to personal criticism from Democrats and the media.” ...

  2. #2
    I don't know barbaro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    on pacific ocean, south america
    Posts
    21,406
    Meet Ted Cruz the freshman senator from Texas who is intent on making a name for himself and advancing his political career through the use of the same tactics used by Senator Joe McCarthy. Cruz, in the recent Chuck Hagel confirmation hearings, accused senator Hagel, without evidence, of 'receiving compensation from foreign enemies'. Lies and character assassination as a justifiable tactic in pursuit of ideology are not a new tactics for the right wing but are we entering a dangerous new age where such tactics are acceptable and unchallenged?
    If Cruz is doing this - and I believe the OP - this "freshman" who has how much experience in the Senate? 1 month?

    Using these tactics will earn him a reputation as a buffoon - this is something the GOP has enough of already. Cruz is also rumored to be the poster child for the "Latino" push to attract more "Latinos" nationwide to the national GOP.
    ............

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat Boon Mee's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Last Online
    13-09-2019 @ 04:18 PM
    Location
    Samui
    Posts
    44,704
    Y'all should do yourselves a favor and review exactly what Cruz is saying. He's articulate and smart. This comparison with Joe McCarthy is ludicrous.


  4. #4
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    Cruz is of Latin and Irish descent- so he's only Latin in the same sense Obama is 'black'. Like Obama, his ethnic background can be leveraged to broaden his party's appeal to particular demographics, and also like Obama he has a blue chip educational background (Harvard & Princeton). Perhaps that is why this freshman Senator was appointed vice-chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee- the GOP is in dire need of fresh talent. Unlike Obama though, he seems to have blown it already. Even many of his colleagues are describing him as a clown.

    My best advice to Ted (who is still very much a greenhorn) would be to listen to the advice of Bobby Jindal. “We've got to stop being the stupid party. It's time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults.” It is this stoopidity which has driven many erstwhile reliable republican voters into the arms of the democrats- and lets face it, we know exactly how the likes of Ted Nugent are going to vote. You won't get anywhere by appealing to your lowest common denominator, on the contrary you will just hasten your demise. Time for a new tune.

  5. #5
    Thailand Expat Boon Mee's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Last Online
    13-09-2019 @ 04:18 PM
    Location
    Samui
    Posts
    44,704
    “I made promises to the people of Texas that I would come to Washington to shake up the status quo,” he said in e-mailed answers to questions, in lieu of speaking. “That is what I intend to do, and it is what I have done in every way possible in the responsibilities that have been granted to me.”

    So what's wrong with that?

    Obviously, the status quo is not getting the job done...
    A Deplorable Bitter Clinger

  6. #6
    RIP pseudolus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    18,083
    Quote Originally Posted by Boon Mee View Post
    Y'all should do yourselves a favor and review exactly what Cruz is saying. He's articulate and smart. This comparison with Joe McCarthy is ludicrous.

    There is a reason he is already being rideculed and debased in the main stream media; he is shining a light directly into the faces of the Dem and Gop leaders and saying "you're all the bloody same - a bunch of criminals protecting your buddies and family members".

    I hope he cracks on and becomes heard but in reality he will be pilloried by the press now and booted out. Shame.

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    Quote Originally Posted by Boon Mee
    So what's wrong with that?
    Insinuating, with zero evidence, that a former republican senator received money from North Korea (is if Chuck Hagel needs money)? There is quite a lot wrong with that booner, and it falls straight into the widening perception of the "party of stupid".

    It is certainly no way to achieve this-
    Quote Originally Posted by Boon Mee
    come to Washington to shake up the status quo

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat
    Humbert's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Last Online
    08-01-2024 @ 01:10 AM
    Location
    Bangkok
    Posts
    12,572
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang
    It's time for a new Republican Party that talks like adults.” It is this stoopidity which has driven many erstwhile reliable republican voters into the arms of the democrats
    ...He’s a prime illustration of what plagues the Republican Party and holds it back.

    A fascinating illustration, too. On the surface, he should be part of the solution: young, Latino, with a hardscrabble family story including his father’s imprisonment in Cuba and escape to the United States. But Republicans who look to him and see any kind of savior overlook much of what drags the party down, which isn’t merely or even principally the genealogy of their candidates. It’s the intransigent social conservatism, the whiff of meanness and the showy eruptions. It’s what Cruz, who rode a wave of Tea Party ardor to victory in Texas in November, distills.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/op...omer.html?_r=0

    Smart, well-educated and mean-spirited...just what the Republican party needs like a hole in the head.

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat Boon Mee's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Last Online
    13-09-2019 @ 04:18 PM
    Location
    Samui
    Posts
    44,704
    Heh...check this out. The latest faux Ted Cruz outrage: He once said the faculty at Harvard was infested with Communists!



    Communists in elitist liberal academia? That’s crazy talk!

    "Last week, Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s prosecutorial style of questioning Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for Defense Secretary, came so close to innuendo that it raised eyebrows in Congress, even among his Republican colleagues. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, called Cruz’s inquiry into Hagel’s past associations “out of bounds, quite frankly.” The Times reported that Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, rebuked Cruz for insinuating, without evidence, that Hagel may have collected speaking fees from North Korea. Some Democrats went so far as to liken Cruz, who is a newcomer to the Senate, to a darkly divisive predecessor, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, whose anti-Communist crusades devolved into infamous witch hunts.
    Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, stopped short of invoking McCarthy’s name, but there was no mistaking her allusion when she talked about being reminded of “a different time and place, when you said, ‘I have here in my pocket a speech you made on such-and-such a date,’ and of course there was nothing in the pocket.”

    Boxer’s analogy may have been more apt than she realized. Two and a half years ago, Cruz gave a stem-winder of a speech at a Fourth of July weekend political rally in Austin, Texas, in which he accused the Harvard Law School of harboring a dozen Communists on its faculty when he studied there. Cruz attended Harvard Law School from 1992 until 1995. His spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request to discuss the speech.

    Cruz made the accusation while speaking to a rapt ballroom audience during a luncheon at a conference called “Defending the American Dream,” sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, a non-profit political organization founded and funded in part by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch. Cruz greeted the audience jovially, but soon launched an impassioned attack on President Obama, whom he described as “the most radical” President “ever to occupy the Oval Office.” (I was covering the conference and kept the notes.)

    He then went on to assert that Obama, who attended Harvard Law School four years ahead of him, “would have made a perfect president of Harvard Law School.” The reason, said Cruz, was that, “There were fewer declared Republicans in the faculty when we were there than Communists! There was one Republican. But there were twelve who would say they were Marxists who believed in the Communists overthrowing the United States government."

    Senator Ted Cruz, Communists, Harvard Law School, and Joe McCarthy. : The New Yorker

    Joe McCarthy was right back in the 50's. Perhaps there wasn't a Red under every bed but they walk among us for sure.

  10. #10
    Thailand Expat
    Humbert's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Last Online
    08-01-2024 @ 01:10 AM
    Location
    Bangkok
    Posts
    12,572
    ^Thanks for doing my job for me. Another instance of the unguided Cruz missile's mouth running amok without offering any substantiating evidence.

    "I've got the proof in my pocket though".

  11. #11
    Thailand Expat Boon Mee's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Last Online
    13-09-2019 @ 04:18 PM
    Location
    Samui
    Posts
    44,704
    Quote Originally Posted by Humbert View Post
    ^Thanks for doing my job for me. Another instance of the unguided Cruz missile's mouth running amok without offering any substantiating evidence.

    "I've got the proof in my pocket though".
    So what you're saying is there's no commies at Harvard?

    Well, answered my own question in light of your Alma Mater. Univ. Of Wisc.
    Didn't get any more 'Red' than that back in your day...

  12. #12
    Thailand Expat
    Humbert's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Last Online
    08-01-2024 @ 01:10 AM
    Location
    Bangkok
    Posts
    12,572
    ^Liberals, left wing yes but Cruz said there were members of the communist party on the faculty who were working for the overthrow of the government. Do you have some proof of that in your pocket too?

  13. #13
    I'm in Jail
    Butterfly's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Last Online
    12-06-2021 @ 11:13 PM
    Posts
    39,832
    good commies are only at Harvard,

  14. #14
    Thailand Expat Boon Mee's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Last Online
    13-09-2019 @ 04:18 PM
    Location
    Samui
    Posts
    44,704
    Quote Originally Posted by Butterfly View Post
    good commies are only at Harvard,
    Believe there may be a few over at Columbia and Princeton as well...

  15. #15
    Thailand Expat
    Humbert's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Last Online
    08-01-2024 @ 01:10 AM
    Location
    Bangkok
    Posts
    12,572
    ^they are everywhere whoooo. hide under your bed. in fact, the number of actual communist party members in the US is estimated at under 20,000. a real big threat.

  16. #16
    Thailand Expat Boon Mee's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Last Online
    13-09-2019 @ 04:18 PM
    Location
    Samui
    Posts
    44,704
    Quote Originally Posted by Humbert View Post
    ^Liberals, left wing yes but Cruz said there were members of the communist party on the faculty who were working for the overthrow of the government. Do you have some proof of that in your pocket too?
    By definition, an avowed Marxist works towards the destruction of America's capitalist system.

    This isn't any new news. We've had commies in Hollywood throughout time (Sean Penn etc) and still do all over the country.

    More grist for your mill.

  17. #17
    Thailand Expat
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    38,456
    UT is not a particularly right wing campus booner- 'keep Austin weird' and all that. In fact, the Austin area is known as a staunchly liberal part of 'conservative' Texas. Aggie or Bob Jones Uni are more 'ideologically pure'- which also means, educationally, they are mediocre. Good schools tend to be concerned with what you know, not who you vote for or pray to.

    I suppose this 'guilt by association' trip may score some cheap points among the brainless end of the unwashed, but surely you know better- you have attended a campus, UC Sta Barbara. Yes, you have been tainted by hippies and Marxists, you are not to be trusted. Seriously, why do you persist with this trash, do you really think you can compete by volitionally trying to be 'the party of stupid'? Well lemme tell you, you cannot. Much though I like to take the pee out of the rw blogosphere, I do not use that as some sort of crutch to think that every American, or every republican, is stupid. Yet you, supposedly a graduate, feel free to impugn a graduate of any institute of higher learning on the implied suggestion that some of the lecturers were 'lefties', so therefore the graduate must be too. Come on, you are not that stupid- unless you have been lying about attending U/C. But if all you see fit to do is appeal to the stupid vote, the stupid vote you will surely get. And then, you will be stupid enough to complain about the results. Deja vu?

    The populist end of the GOP has become so stupid, they actively mistrust and lambast people who graduate from prestigious colleges. How stupid is that? But what can you expect from a party that sees a hockey mum as Presidential material. Incidentally- Ted Cruz is a Harvard & Princeton graduate, so he is clearly not to be trusted and we can not believe anything he says. Find a better, more representative spokesperson, y'know, 'one of us'. A truck driver or something. What happened to Joe the Plumber?
    Last edited by sabang; 23-02-2013 at 06:21 PM.

  18. #18
    In Uranus
    bsnub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    30,429
    Austin is actually the only place in Texas that I would consider living in. Definitely not a place that booners would like to hang out. To much culture.

  19. #19
    Thailand Expat Boon Mee's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Last Online
    13-09-2019 @ 04:18 PM
    Location
    Samui
    Posts
    44,704
    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    UT is not a particularly right wing campus booner- 'keep Austin weird' and all that. In fact, the Austin area is known as a staunchly liberal part of 'conservative' Texas. Aggie or Bob Jones Uni are more 'ideologically pure'- which also means, educationally, they are mediocre. Good schools tend to be concerned with what you know, not who you vote for or pray to.

    I suppose this 'guilt by association' trip may score some cheap points among the brainless end of the unwashed, but surely you know better- you have attended a campus, UC Sta Barbara. Yes, you have been tainted by hippies and Marxists, you are not to be trusted. Seriously, why do you persist with this trash, do you really think you can compete by volitionally trying to be 'the party of stupid'? Well lemme tell you, you cannot. Much though I like to take the pee out of the rw blogosphere, I do not use that as some sort of crutch to think that every American, or every republican, is stupid. Yet you, supposedly a graduate, feel free to impugn a graduate of any institute of higher learning on the implied suggestion that some of the lecturers were 'lefties', so therefore the graduate must be too. Come on, you are not that stupid- unless you have been lying about attending U/C. But if all you see fit to do is appeal to the stupid vote, the stupid vote you will surely get. And then, you will be stupid enough to complain about the results. Deja vu?

    The populist end of the GOP has become so stupid, they actively mistrust and lambast people who graduate from prestigious colleges. How stupid is that? But what can you expect from a party that sees a hockey mum as Presidential material. Incidentally- Ted Cruz is a Harvard & Princeton graduate, so he is clearly not to be trusted and we can not believe anything he says. Find a better, more representative spokesperson, y'know, 'one of us'. A truck driver or something. What happened to Joe the Plumber?
    You do blather on there sabang.

    Again, some of y'all haven't got one bit of humor in your souls. When I talk about 'balanced world view' and institutions of higher learning influencing young, naive minds it was tongue-in-cheek. Why else would I bring into discussion my Alma Mata? btw, yes, I really graduated from UC Santa Barbara and have Ronald Maximus's signature on the sheepskin but I was not 'tainted' by the great unwashed there. Back then you really could call them the party of stupid for burning down the local BofA branch twice to protest Viet Nam.

    But, the larger point here is what Ted Cruz was addressing in his admonishment that Harvard was infested with commies. It's the same in every University environment throughout the globe. While not overt communism it's a heavily left-leaning, progressive faculty that teaches the kids. Amazing some of them escape from that brain-washing with their ability to tell right from wrong, intact - Ted Cruz case in point.

    Now, you don't do yourself any favors making blatantly ridiculous statements such as 'Ted Cruz clearly cannot be trusted because he attended Princeton & Harvard' and you also cannot score any cheap points pandering to the low-information type voter for whom your rant here is focused. What is in discussion are ideological differences and it's a shame some posters take an elitist viewpoint...

  20. #20
    Thailand Expat raycarey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    15,054
    Quote Originally Posted by Humbert View Post


    .
    i recently heard a great line about cruz.....

    ted cruz is jim demint without the charm.

  21. #21
    Thailand Expat Boon Mee's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Last Online
    13-09-2019 @ 04:18 PM
    Location
    Samui
    Posts
    44,704
    ^
    Smarter than Demint.

    More lasting power too.

  22. #22
    I don't know barbaro's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    on pacific ocean, south america
    Posts
    21,406

    Jeb Bush

    Why am I starting a Jeb Bush thread?

    Because you and I will be talking about him a lot in the coming years.

    For video and article.

    Also, Cristie's snub is mentioned.

    I am not saying I support Jeb Bush. Personally, I do not think another "Bush" can be a President and probably for good reason.

    But Jeb is as smart as a whip. So much smarter, and a real conservative, compared to his disastrous and foolish brother, George.

    Jeb Bush: I won't rule out 2016 White House run 'but I won't declare today' - TODAY News

  23. #23
    Guest Member S Landreth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    left of center
    Posts
    20,590
    Oh that would be wonderful (for the Dems) if another asshole Bush thinks about running. I am sure most of the American public would welcome Jeb and his hispanic smuggling wife (rules are for ordinary people) into the political arena.

    Jeb has got about as much a chance of winning the presidency as my dog has.
    Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

  24. #24
    Banned
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Last Online
    31-08-2023 @ 11:38 PM
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    10,512
    Jeb Bush is the man but I think George P Bush is more likely to run in the future.




    AUSTIN, Texas -- George P. Bush, a rising star among Hispanic conservatives and the grandson of one president and nephew of another, has taken the first step toward seeking elected office in Texas.

  25. #25
    Thailand Expat helge's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,664
    Both Bush'es are electable, cause idiots/ignorants make up more than 50 % over there

    My opinion/experience

    No offence intended

Page 1 of 337 1234567891151101 ... LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •