China calls Ted Cruz bill a 'political farce'

by Nicole Gaouette, CNN
7:07 PM ET, Tue February 16, 2016
CNN Politics

Washington (CNN)Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz drew fire from a new quarter Tuesday, when the Chinese government tore into the Texas senator for a bill he pushed through the Senate last week.

The legislation would rename a part of the street across from China's embassy after a pro-democracy activist jailed by Beijing. It would effectively change the embassy's address to "1 Liu Xiaobo Plaza," after the Nobel Peace Prize winner serving an 11-year sentence in part for publishing an anti-Communist manifesto calling for political freedoms.

China's Foreign Ministry blasted Cruz's bill as a "political farce" and warned that it would have serious repercussions for its relationship with the U.S if it were to pass the House and become law. The measure cleared the Senate in a unanimous voice vote on Friday.

Victoria Coates, Cruz's national security advisor, told CNN that the candidate understands the U.S. has strong ties to China and that he doesn't want to be "overtly antagonistic."

But she said Cruz feels that human rights have been ignored "since the beginning of the Obama administration, since Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton went to Beijing in February 2009 and said we were going to have a separate track for human rights. The Chinese said they interpreted that as human rights on the back burner."

The tiff comes as President Barack Obama meets in California with Southeast Asian leaders, in part to discuss increasingly assertive Chinese moves in the South China Sea and reassure China's neighbors that the U.S. is committed to protecting their interests in the region.

RELATED: Terrorism on agenda as Obama hosts Southeast Asian leaders

"If the relevant bill is passed into law, it will cause serious consequences," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement, which also called Cruz's bill "contrary to the basic norms" of international relations.

"We demand the U.S. Senate stop promoting the bill and hope the U.S. executive authorities put an end to this political farce," the spokesman said.

A White House official, speaking anonymously to discuss sensitive issues, dismissed Cruz's bill as a "stunt."

"While we continue to impress upon China the imperative of respecting human rights and releasing Liu Xiaobo, as well as other political prisoners, we do not believe Sen. Cruz's ploy to rename a street in Washington, D.C., is an effective way to achieve either goal," the official said. "In fact, legislative stunts such as this complicate our efforts."

Read more at: http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/16/politics/ted-cruz-china-embassy-dissident-street/

Ted Cruz Feb 2016   REUTERS-Rick Wilking

Firefighters Slam Ted Cruz For Claiming To Be Their Champion While Opposing 9/11 Health Bill

Amanda Terkel
Senior Political Reporter, The Huffington Post
02/03/2016 10:36 pm ET

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- A powerful firefighters union went after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) Wednesday for claiming to be their defender and champion in his Iowa caucuses victory speech.

"What Ted Cruz did the other night in his Iowa victory speech is disgusting," said Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters. "He said he embraces fire fighters and the dangerous work they do, says he’s our friend and calls himself a great patriot. But when it came time to actually have the backs of fire fighters across the U.S., he was AWOL. Cruz is the worst kind of politician who will say or do anything to get elected."

That anger stems from Cruz invoking the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the work of the first responders in his remarks Monday night, when he said he would be different from President Barack Obama.

"To the police officers, and the firemen and the first responders, the heroes who rushed in to burning buildings instead of out of burning buildings -- the last seven years of having a president, having an attorney general that demonizes you, that vilifies you, that sides with the criminals and looters instead of the brave men and women of law enforcement -- that will end on Jan. 20, 2017," he said.

But what irks Schaitberger is that Cruz opposed reauthorizing the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which provides health care for those same firefighters and first responders.

More than 72,000 people are monitored by the 9/11 health program, and 33,000 ailing responders rely on it for treatment.

"He left the 9/11 responders behind," Schaitberger said. "If those are Ted's values, we don't like them. He's the epitome of saying one thing to get votes, then doing another."

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ted-cruz-firefighters_us_56b2a2b1e4b08069c7a615c6

Chris Carlson AP Photo 2/3/2016

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) invoked firefighters and 9/11 in his Iowa victory speech Monday night. 

'Natural Born' Issue for Ted Cruz Is Not Settled and Not Going Away

by Pete Williams
NBC News
Jan 19 2016, 3:01 am ET

 While the nation's legal scholars differ over the exact meaning of the Constitution's requirement that a person must be a "natural born citizen" to become president, they're unanimous in saying Ted Cruz is wrong about an important point.

"As a legal matter, the question is quite straightforward and settled law," Cruz has said. "People will continue to make political noise about it, but as a legal matter it is quite straightforward."

In fact, the experts say, it is neither settled nor straightforward.

It's not settled — because the Constitution does not define "natural born," a phrase that appears in the nation's founding document only once.

And though the federal courts have chewed on it from time to time, the U.S. Supreme Court has never officially said what it means.

It's not straightforward — because at the time the Constitution was written there were different ideas about what the phrase meant and competing legal theories about where the power to confer citizenship came from.

The meaning of the term is so unsettled that scores of constitutional experts have been writing about it in the weeks since Donald Trump made it an issue in the 2016 campaign.

To review, Ted Cruz was born in Canada in 1970, where his Cuban father was working at the time. But Cruz's mother was an American citizen, so under US immigration law, that made him an American citizen, too.

So he is citizen, yes, but does the Constitution require something more to be natural born? If not, why was the term there in the first place, instead of providing simply that a person had to be born a citizen?

The simple answer is, it's impossible to know for certain. The founders devoted little time to discussing it. One day the term wasn't in the draft Constitution. The next day it was, and that was just about that.

The emerging consensus of the legal experts, however, is that being "natural born" means becoming a citizen at the moment of birth, as opposed to achieving it later through the process of naturalization.

"Natural in natural born doesn't mean biological. It means naturally, that is automatically, happening without any further intervention," said Constitutional law Professor Jack Balkin of Yale Law School.
----
One lawsuit has already been filed over the issue, by a retired federal prosecutor in Texas who claims to be suing on behalf of all registered voters. It will almost certainly be thrown out. The courts don't normally permit lawsuits claiming such a diffuse and abstract claim of injury.

But if a county or state official somewhere refused to put Cruz's name on the ballot, concerned he's not natural born, then Cruz could sue, and the issue would be squarely before the courts.

Federal judges then would be required to delve into the same history and struggle with the same issues that have animated legal experts over the Trump-Cruz controversy.

They will confront, said San Diego's Ramsey, a clause of the Constitution that is "mysterious and ambiguous."

And anything but settled.

Read more at: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/natural-born-issue-ted-cruz-not-settled-not-going-away-n499226

Ted Cruz 2016

Sanders: Clinton 'in serious trouble'

By Eric Bradner, CNN
8:31 PM ET, Tue January 12, 2016 - CNN

(CNN)Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has an explanation for rival Hillary Clinton's increasing attacks on guns, taxes and more: Clinton is "in serious trouble."

The Vermont senator said Clinton is lashing out -- attacking him on guns, taxes and more -- because polls show their race having tightened in Iowa while Sanders has maintained a narrow lead in New Hampshire.

"Secretary Clinton and her campaign is in serious trouble," Sanders told reporters Monday after a campaign stop in Pleasantville, Iowa.

"And I think a candidate who was originally thought to be the anointed candidate, the inevitable candidate, is now locked in a very difficult race here in Iowa and in New Hampshire," Sanders said. "So obviously in that scenario what people do is start attacking. Suddenly Bernie Sanders is not a nice guy. That is not surprising when you have a Clinton campaign that is now in trouble and now understands that they can lose."

Sanders offered a similar take later at the Iowa Brown and Black Forum. When Sanders was asked if he has noticed that Clinton is attacking him harder and more often, he offered a mischievous "yes."

"It could be that the inevitable candidate for the Democratic nomination may not be so inevitable today," he said.

It's Sanders' antidote to Clinton's "electability" argument. His comment bring to mind her failure to capture the Democratic nomination in 2008, and allude to polls that show Sanders with a real shot at winning in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Sanders is benefiting from a base of supporters that is more enthusiastic than Clinton's -- and he got an unexpected boost from Vice President Joe Biden, who said Sanders has credibility on the issue of income inequality.

"Bernie is speaking to a yearning that is deep and real. And he has credibility on it," Biden said during an interview with CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger.

"It's relatively new for Hillary to talk about that," Biden continued, acknowledging that Clinton has "come forward with some really thoughtful approaches to deal with the issue" of income inequality.

"Hillary's focus has been other things up to now, and that's been Bernie's -- no one questions Bernie's authenticity on those issues," he said.

Read more at: http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/11/politics/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-in-serious-trouble/

Hillary Clinton - AP Photo John Locher

In Their Own Words: Why Bill’s ‘Bimbos’ Fear a Hillary Presidency

by Aaron Klein Dec. 28 2015
breitbart.com

As women’s issues become part of the 2016 presidential race, it may be instructive to  review recent statements made by some of Bill Clinton’s alleged female victims  regarding the ambitions of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Last week, Hillary accused Republican canddiate Donald Trump of having a “penchant for  sexism” in an interview with the Des Moines Register in Iowa.  The billionaire fired  back on Twitter: “Be careful Hillary as you play the war on women or women being  degraded card.”

Trump followed up with a second tweet, saying, “Hillary, when you complain about ‘a  penchant for sexism,’ who are you referring to? I have great respect for women. BE  CAREFUL!”

Clinton has sought to portray her campaign as one that is fighting for women’s rights.   On several occasions, she has tweeted about sex assault survivors’ right to be  believed, and awkwardly starred in a campaign ad in which she insisted that one must  always side with women who accuse men of sexual assault – a strange position given that  her husband was repeatedly accused of precisely that crime.

“You have the right to be heard. You have the right to be believed. We’re with you,”  Clinton said in the video, which she addressed to “every survivor of sexual assault.”

Since Hillary first announced her candidacy in April, my weekend talk radio program has  become a support center of sorts in which Bill’s female accusers tell their newly  relevant stories; a safe-space for these women to sound off about the way they were  allegedly treated by both Bill and Hillary. The theme that emerges is of an out-of- control, entitled husband, and a wife who was actively involved in covering up his  behavior, many times by allegedly targeting the female victims themselves.

Rape Accuser Juanita Broaddrick to ‘Evil’ Hillary: ‘Shame on you!’

First, there is Juanita Broaddrick, the woman who famously accused Bill Clinton of rape  and spoke out against Hillary’s candidacy on my show last month.
The notoriously media-shy Broaddrick said that Hillary tried to silence her. She  rehashed a meeting with Hillary in 1978, in which, says Broaddrick, the future First  Lady strongly implied that the alleged rape victim should not report her traumatic  experience.

“I think she has always known everything about him. I think they have this evil compact  between the two of them that they each know what the other does and overlook it. And go  right on. And cover one for the other,” she said.

Broaddrick said she “almost died” three months ago when she first heard about Clinton’s  campaign ad on supporting female victims of sexual assault.

Broaddrick responded: “Aaron, the only thing that I would like to say is I hope that  someday these two people, these people that I feel like are so evil, will be brought to  justice. … You know, if I can help in that, I will. But these are not good people for  America,” she said of Bill and Hillary.

Broaddrick was a nursing home administrator volunteering for then-Arkansas Attorney  General Bill Clinton’s 1978 gubernatorial bid when – she claims – Bill weaseled his way  into her hotel room. When she resisted his advances, she says Clinton suddenly kissed  her and the alleged rape took place.

She described the scene to NBC’s Nightline in 1999:
Then he tries to kiss me again. And the second time he tries to kiss me he starts  biting my lip. … He starts to, um, bite on my top lip and I tried to pull away from  him. And then he forces me down on the bed. And I just was very frightened, and I tried  to get away from him and I told him “No,” that I didn’t want this to happen, but he  wouldn’t listen to me. … It was a real panicky, panicky situation. I was even to the  point where I was getting very noisy, you know, yelling to “Please stop.” And that’s  when he pressed down on my right shoulder and he would bite my lip. … When everything  was over with, he got up and straightened himself, and I was crying at the moment, and  he walks to the door and calmly puts on his sunglasses. And before he goes out the door  he says, “You better get some ice on that.” And he turned and went out the door.

Broaddrick explained that for a long period after the alleged rape she was in a state  of shock and denial about what she says transpired.  After the trauma, she recalled  attending a private Clinton fundraiser at the home of a supporter, where she says she  was directly warned by Hillary.

Broaddrick told me that a friend of hers who had driven the Clintons to the fundraiser  from the local airport informed her that “the whole conversation was about you coming  from the airport. Mostly from Mrs. Clinton.”

She recalled: “And so then about that time, I see them coming through the kitchen area.  And some people there are pointing to me. He goes one direction and she comes directly  to me. Then panic sort of started to set in with me. And I thought, ‘Oh my God, what do  I do now?’”

Broaddrick said Hillary approached her “and said ‘It’s so nice to meet you’ and all of  the niceties she was trying to say at the time.”

“And said, ‘I just want you to know how much Bill and I appreciate the things you do  for him.’ And I just stood there, Aaron. I was sort of you might say shell-shocked.”

“And she said, ‘Do you understand? Everything you do.’’’

“She tried to take a hold of my hand and I left. I told the girls I can’t take this.  I’m leaving. So I immediately left.”

Broaddrick recalled that “what really went through my mind at that time is ‘She knows.  She knew. She’s covering it up and she expects me to do the very same thing.’”

Kathleen Willey: Hillary ‘wrote the book on terrorizing women’

Kathleen Willey was a Democratic activist who, along with her husband Ed, founded  Virginians for Clinton, which supported Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 White House bid.

Willey became a White House volunteer during Clinton’s first term. She says she was  facing a tough financial situation, so she personally approached Bill about the  possibility of a paid position. Instead of offering to help her, Willey says she became  the victim of “nothing short of serious sexual harassment.”

Since Hillary’s campaign announcement in April, Willey has spoken out against the  Democratic front-runner during numerous exclusive interviews on my radio program.

“This woman wrote the book on terrorizing women, on terrorism,” Willey exclaimed in one  of those interviews.

Continued Willey:
Her tactics and the things that she set in motion against all the women like me, the  ones you have heard of and the ones you haven’t heard of, and the ones who are so  scared that they fled the country, are terrorist tactics like I’ve never seen before.

I went through them. I lived through them. And I know exactly what I am talking about.  She is the war on women. I don’t care what anybody says.

Willey refuses to watch as Hillary’s campaign accuses Republican candidates like Trump  of waging a so-called war on women.  In August, Willey announced the launch of a new  anti-Hillary website called A Scandal a Day.  A section of the site asks women who may  have been sexually assaulted by Bill Clinton to come forward.

Willey also wrote the forward to a recently released book by bestselling author Roger  Stone titled, The Clintons’ War on Women.

In an October interview, she sent a message directly to Hillary via my talk show:
“I am going to be shadowing you every single place you go to remind people, especially  young people, young women, college-aged students who don’t remember any of this. I want  them to know all about this. Because once they do they are not going to be real proud  of supporting her as the first woman president.”

“I am going to haunt her everywhere she goes,” Willey added of Clinton. “So she’s not  going to get rid of me ever until she disappears.”

“And I have plans already for New Hampshire,” Willey added, referring to the upcoming  Democratic party presidential primaries there.

Gennifer Flowers: “A joke that she would run on women’s issues”

Gennifer Flowers, who says she was Bill Clinton’s consensual mistress for more than 12  years, told me she fears a Hillary Clinton presidency.  In her only interview since  Clinton announced her candidacy, Flowers in October accused Hillary of being “an  enabler that has encouraged him (Bill) to go out and do whatever he does with women.”   Clinton admitted in a deposition to one sexual encounter with Flowers.

 “She always got things on the back of her husband. … I think it’s a joke that she  would run on women’s issues.”

I asked Flowers point blank what she thought of Hillary’s attempt to make women’s  issues a major part of her campaign. Flowers responded by saying, “You know, people  criticize me for talking about her because I had an affair with her husband.”

“And I don’t blame them for that,” she said. “I understand that. I understand that they  can be mad at me. I get it. I accept my responsibility. … But she’s never accepted her  responsibility at being an enabler. She’s been an enabler that has encouraged him to go  out and do whatever he does with women.”

“Woman’s rights. Ha!” Flowers added. “I personally have worked my tail off to get where  I am in the entertainment business, which has not been easy since the Clinton scandal,  by the way. … Hillary never put up a shingle and worked for her clients and built her  clientele. She always got things on the back of her husband. … I think it’s a joke that  she would run on women’s issues.”

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief. He is a New York Times bestselling  author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative  Radio.”  Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.

Read more at: http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2015/12/28/in-their-own-words-why-bills-bimbos-fear-a-hillary-presidency/

Bill Clinton - Patriot Update 2015

Russian Media Explodes With Vulgar and Racist Anti-Obama Rhetoric

[Blogger's note: I am beginning to like the Russians more every day... I figure the Internet will probably be taking this down, so here this shall remain forever!]

'Obama Schmoe,' monkey comparisons and 'chimney sweep' used to disparage American president

By Mikhail Klikushin • 12/15/15 1:46pm

Russian television has its own Bill O’Reilly. His name is Dmitry Kiselyov, and he is the host of his own weekly program News of the Week. This week’s heroes are Fox’s Ralph Peters and actress Stacey Dash, for the simple reason they “cursed” Mr. Obama last week. That’s good enough for Mr. Kiselyov.

“I am not going to clog your brains with the usual banalities by Obama,” was all Mr. Kiselyov said to his viewers last Sunday, after the U.S. President’s speech from the Oval office. Rather than reporting on the substance of the U.S. President’s policies, Russian media prefers stories on Mr. Obama making faces like ‘Grumpy Cat,’ or on his wife’s adoration of rap music or other easy-to-digest memes:

Barack Obama loves to act like a clown.

“U.S. President Barack Obama started to laugh when asked by The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart who the U.S. is bombing in the Middle East. It’s not his first appearance on the comedy show,” reported major Russian news agency RIA Novosti,

Barack Obama is lazy.

“During his presidency, Obama spent more than 1,100 hours on the golf course—or one-and-a-half months without breaks for sleep or food. He played golf 247 times during his presidency, breaking the record of Dwight Eisenhower who did it 210 times,” a major Russian tabloid reported.

Barack Obama is an idiot.

“Obama linked the spread of terrorism to climate change. At the same time, the American president expressed confidence that terrorism will be defeated.” Not having given any specifics on how to deal with the climate change, Mr. Obama cannot be trusted in the war against terrorism, concludes RIA Novosti.

Barack Obama is a liar.

“Together with [German Chancellor] Merkel and [Turkish President] Erdogan, Germans called Obama the liar of the year—39 percent called Merkel the biggest liar, 21 percent called Obama,” announced another Russian tabloid.

In other words, Russian media wants viewers to believe Mr. Obama is the anti-Putin. Mr. Putin is strong. Mr. Obama is weak. Mr. Putin is a doer. Mr. Obama is a talker. Mr. Putin fixes things. Mr. Obama ruins. Mr. Putin is a leader. Mr. Obama isn’t.

Mr. Putin is a macho alpha-male. Mr. Obama is a… what?

Mainstream media dodges this answer, leaving the task to pro-Kremlin propaganda that quickly and willingly provides it through videos like that of popular nationalist comedian Mikhail Zadornov, author of the widely known slogan, “Americans? But they are STOOOOOOOOOOPID!”

Instead, the answer is in the short and offensive motto: “Obama [is a] schmoe.”
In Russian, “schmoe” resembles the Yiddish “schmuck,” but with much stronger negative connotations.

“Obama schmoe” has recently become an all-pervading part of Russian pop-culture. There are “Obama schmoe” bumper stickers (in addition to others, like “Obama is bad” and “Obama is the devil”), and there are tee-shirts with pictures of Mr. Putin whispering into the ear of the embarrassed American President, “Obama, you are a schmoe.”

Read more at: http://observer.com/2015/12/vulgar-and-racist-anti-obama-rhetoric-inundates-russian-pop-culture/

(Photo: Twitter/WBStevens)

Christmas Trees - And Merry Christmas to all, including you atheists out there!

Apparently the White House referred to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees which prompted CBS presenter, Steven Levy, to write the these words. It applies to other countries as it does to America.  

(In 2014 this article was mistakenly attributed to  Steven Levy, recited on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary. - While that is untrue, snopes.com has validated that the components of this message are accurate... 

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/confessions.asp)

My confession:

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat...

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old  but there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking. In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school... The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Steven Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about.. And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not, just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.