Happy Birther Day to Senator Ted Cruz, the Cuban-Canadian-Maybe American

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is the darling of the Tea Party and one of their great hopes for the 2016 Presidential race. Cruz is also the son a foreign national (from Cuba) and an American mother - just like President Obama. However, Cruz has the distinction of the being born on foreign soil, in Canada - unlike President Obama, who was born in the state of Hawaii. And yes, it really is a state and yes, he really does have an official birth certificate.

Now Senator Cruz has released his birth certificate and it plainly states he was born in Calgary, Alberta in 1970.



And while Cruz has chosen to downplay this factoid up till now, the Dallas Morning News did some digging, forcing Cruz to grapple with his origins. And one thing has become abundantly clear - in order to run for national office and keep his Tea Party ties intact, Cruz will have to officially renounce his Canadian ties. The problem is, that can take from 6 months up to a year, and by then the GOP primary race will be lining up at the starting gate.

Certainly Cruz is eager to shrug off his similarities to Obama, and doesn't want his followers to see him as anything but Pure American. But Democrats who have had the idiocy of Birtherism shoved in their faces through two hard fought elections will be just as persistent in bringing up Cruz's status as "foreign born" from now until the GOP picks a candidate for President. Progressives will be more than happy to cast aspersions at the man who wants to repeal Obamacare, impeach the President, and shut down the government. What a gift for all of us to know that Ted Cruz is actually "less" American than Obama. Poetic justice, karma, call it what you will. What goes around comes around.

Happy Birther Day to You, Mister Cruz!



Dallas Morning News

“Generally speaking, under the Citizenship Act of 1947, those born in Canada were automatically citizens at birth unless their parent was a foreign diplomat,” said ministry spokeswoman Julie Lafortune.
For the first time, Cruz released his birth certificate Friday in response to inquiries from The Dallas Morning News.
Dated a month after his birth on Dec. 22, 1970, it shows that Rafael Edward Cruz was born to Rafael Bienvenido Cruz, a “geophysical consultant” born in Matanzas, Cuba, and the former Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson, born in Wilmington, Del.
Her status made the baby a U.S. citizen at birth. For that, U.S. law required at least one parent who was a U.S. citizen who had lived for at least a decade in the United States.

. . . “They can feel as American as they want. But the question of citizenship is determined by the law of the territory in which you were physically born,” she said. “It’s not up to the Cruz family to decide whether they’re citizens.”
As a Cuban, Rafael Cruz probably could have requested citizenship for his son, experts said. Even if he’d wanted to, the Cuban Constitution bans dual citizenship. And the chance to register the child passed long ago.
“The U.S. and Cuba have very similar legal patterns and requirements,” said David Abraham, a professor of immigration and citizenship law at the University of Miami.

The situation reflects the overlapping jurisdictions, said Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute, who called birthright citizenship common in English-speaking countries.
“If Ted Cruz was born in Canada, he is Canadian. He is American. He is a dual citizen,” he said.
. . . The relinquishment process is easy enough. It can take from a few weeks to a year. There’s a four-page form with a $100 fee. Applicants must appear before a special judge to prove they have citizenship elsewhere and aren’t engaged in fraud.

From Daily Beast

First-term Sen. Ted Cruz (R–Texas), who is already considered a 2016 contender, was born in Canada to a mother who was an American citizen and a father who was then a citizen of Cuba. It’s the exact same fact pattern: foreign birth, citizen mother, non-citizen father that birthers thought applied to Obama. The only difference is that this time it’s true.
The issue has already come up for Cruz earlier this week when ABC News asked Donald Trump, who has been perhaps the most prominent birther, whether the Texas senator was eligible. “If he was born in Canada, perhaps not,” said Trump. The real-estate millionaire and reality-show host went on to say, ”I don’t know the circumstances. I heard somebody told me he was born in Canada. That’s really his thing.”
. . . The irony is that the circumstances of Cruz’s birth almost perfectly mirror the scenario offered by birthers, even down to the fact that the Texas senator nominally entered the world a British subject by dint of being born in Canada in 1970.
The result is a delightful paradox. Any liberals who try to cast doubt on Cruz’s citizenship will likely be using almost the exact arguments they scorned when falsely applied to President Obama. And, of course, any birthers who defend Cruz while still insisting Obama’s tenure in the Oval Office is illegitimate aren’t just being conspiracy theorists. They are being hypocrites as well.

Votes Still Uncounted in Arizona as Arpaio Claims Victory

Good Grief - hundreds of thousands of votes are still uncounted in Arizona, which could affect all the election results including that of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the crazy birther. Reason: Most of the uncounted votes are from Latino voters who were the target of voter suppression techniques, such as forcing them to vote with provisional ballots that have to be checked individually. The ACLU is on the scene, and Harry Reid has chimed in on the situation. Stay tuned because this is far from over.


From Addicting Information

Nearly a third of votes cast in Arizona remained uncounted the day after the election. Most of them were probably cast by Latinos, organized and newly registered by multiple civil rights groups in the state to combat candidates like the notorious Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio.

On Thursday, the Secretary of State, Ken Bennett, announced the figures: 631,274 early and provisional ballots remained uncounted out of a total of 1.8 million votes. At least 350,000 of them are from Maricopa County (Phoenix metropolitan area), where Joe Arpaio has already claimed victory. Activist Randy Parraz, president of Citizens for a Better Arizona, told the Huffington Post, “We’re not conceding anything until every vote is counted. They’re just going to act like, ‘Oh, the election’s over, Arpaio wins.’ Hell no.”



Three Congressional races also remain in limbo. Although Democrat Rich Carmona originally conceded the Senate seat to Jeff Flake on election night, he changed his mind after hearing the unprecedented number of uncounted votes. On Friday, he sent this message to supporters: “We will take every necessary step to make sure all of our supporters’ ballots are counted.” Two U.S. House races are also too close to call until the remainder of the votes are tallied.

Protestors from a coalition of rights groups are maintaining a continuous presence outside of the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center. In a letter to the county recorder, Helen Purcell, the American Civil Liberties wrote that the “public confidence in the voting process” was at risk.

The situation has attracted attention all across the nation. Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid weighed in, issuing a statement of his concern: “All of the votes in Arizona must be counted promptly, accurately and equally. The uncounted votes in Maricopa County alone represent a major portion of the total votes cast in Arizona on Tuesday.” He also pointed out that this problem occurs just as the Supreme Court is ready to consider whether the voter protections in 1965′s Voter Rights Act should be scaled back. Specifically, the justices are being asked to rule that the part that prevents states from disenfranchising minorities is no longer relevant.

Obama Birth Certificate Button

I just got an ad for this in my email, LOL. It's the perfect pushback against Romney's sudden attack of Birther Mania.

Get Your Own Obama Birther Button for $5

There's really no way to make the conspiracy about President Obama's birth certificate completely go away, so we might as well laugh at it -- and make sure as many people as possible are in on the joke. Get your Obama birth certificate Made in the USA button today.

Rubio Out for Romney Veep

ABC News is reporting that Marco Rubio is probably out of the Veepstakes and isn't being vetted as a possible running mate for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

He has not been asked to complete any questionnaires or been asked to turn over any financial documents typically required of potential vice presidential candidates.
Although it is possible that Rubio may yet be asked to go through the vetting process, it has been nearly two months since Romney named his long-time aide Beth Myers to run his vice presidential search. The fact that Rubio has not been asked to turn over any documents by now is a strong indication that he is not on Romney’s short list of potential running mates.
Officially the Romney campaign has no comment. And Rubio has refused to make any comment when it comes to vice presidential questions.

This comes as no surprise to me, because as I blogged in detail back in May, The Donald Trump (who was travelling around with Romney on Honeymoon-in-Vegas week) said Rubio was too young and too ambivalent, and that same week ex-Att. General Roberto Gonzales told CNN that Rubio wasn't experienced or "wise" enough to run for Vice President.
But the real kiss of death was probably last Friday when Rubio was the first Republican to praise President Obama's decision to extend safe status to 800,000 illegal "Dreamers" who have been trapped in legal Limbo. This is too far left of Very Important Tea Party Birthers such as Joe Arpaio and Trump himself. Add to that this quote from Rubio's new book, American Son, in which Rubio writes:

Many people who come here illegally are doing exactly what we would do if we lived in a country where we couldn’t feed our families....If my kids went to sleep hungry every night and my country didn’t give me an opportunity to feed them, there isn’t a law, no matter how restrictive, that would prevent me from coming here.

How dare he write such a *gasp* compassionate and understanding sentence! That does not compute for the Romneybot equation of Big Fence Plus Self-Deporting Grandma equals Republican Immigration Policy. That doesn't add up with Sheriff Joe Arpaio arresting a 6-year-old illegal girl after Obama's new rule went into place. And it especially doesn't add up with Donald Trump's Obama Birther Conspiracy Theory.

This is actually an opportunity for Rubio. Being an "outsider" to the Romney campaign puts him in line with other mainstream conservatives from Jeb Bush to Arnold Schwarzenegger to George Will to. Sanity is a good thing, and Rubio will probably thank his stars someday that he narrowly escaped.

President Halts Deportation While Republican Heads Explode

Wonderful Day!!!

On Friday afternoon, Obama announced an executive decision that will halt the deportation of "Dreamers" - illegal immigrants who were brought to this country as children and who are now working or in school. He spoke in the White House Rose Garden about the fact that Congress and the Republicans have stalled out on the "Dream Act" that would have granted these young people a path to citizenship.

From CNN:

Those who might benefit from the change expressed joy and relief, with celebratory demonstrations forming outside the White House and elsewhere.

Pedro Ramirez, a student who has campaigned for such a move, said he was "definitely speechless," then added: "It's great news."

In a Rose Garden address Friday afternoon, President Barack Obama said the changes caused by his executive order will make immigration policy "more fair, more efficient and more just."

"This is not amnesty. This is not immunity. This is not a path to citizenship. It's not a permanent fix," Obama said to take on conservative criticism of the step. "This is a temporary stopgap measure."

Noting children of illegal immigrants "study in our schools, play in our neighborhoods, befriend our kids, pledge allegiance to our flag," Obama said, "it makes no sense to expel talented young people who are, for all intents and purposes, Americans."

This is the President at his finest playing multi-dimensional chess. The Latinos are jubilant that they can keep their jobs and finish their education; their families now have more hope than ever and a reason to stay politically active; the Democrats are thrilled that Obama is fired up about something that will also shore up the Latino vote; and Republican heads began to explode before he even finished his speech.

Chief Joe Arpaio, notorious birther, was sitting there on CNN even before the President began his speech, muttering to Wolf Blitzer that it wouldn't make his job any easier in Arizona and moaning "Why did he (Obama) have to go and do this? Why didn't he wait on the Surpreme Court?" referring to the fact that the Surpreme Court is about to rule as early as next week on Arizona's controversial law Senate Bill 1070 which would allow Arizona to have an "illegals round-up."

From USA Today

"The governor is optimistic that the heart of SB 1070 will be upheld and implemented," (Jan) Brewer spokesman Matthew Benson said. "The governor thought this was an appropriate time to revisit the issue and make sure Arizona law enforcement is as prepared as possible for partial or full implementation of the law."
SB 1070, among other things, makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally and requires an officer engaged in a lawful stop, detention or arrest to, when practical, ask about a person's legal status when reasonable suspicion exists that the person is in the U.S. illegally.
Federal courts halted that part and four other key parts of the law from being enforced. Brewer appealed to the Supreme Court to allow the entire law to go into effect.

Take that, Jan Brewer! :) Call off the police!

And take that, Mitt Romney - now Grandma won't have to "deport herself" back to Mexico, Honduras, or Cuba, as he talked about during the January Republican Debates. That was his far-right position pandering to the extremists, and it never sounded humane or convincing coming from Romney. Romney's etch-a-sketch will be shaking weekend as he tries to get back to the center and earn some goodwill from the 20% of Latinos who don't already see Obama as a better candidate.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, often mentioned as a possible VP for Romney, had some praise for Obama's move, but noted that it was only a stop-gap measure in effect for the next two years. He can hardly attack it too strongly or risk the censure of his own Latino constituents.

“Today’s announcement will be welcome news for many of these kids desperate for an answer, but it is a short-term answer to a long term problem. And by once again ignoring the Constitution and going around Congress, this short-term policy will make it harder to find a balanced and responsible long-term one.”

This actually puts Romney and Rubio on the outs with the Immigration Hawks like Brewer and Arpaio, along with many other Tea Party and Birther types.
From Washington Post - Republicans Struggle to Respond

The problem with that strategy is members of Congress like Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).
King, one of the most outspoken Republicans on the issue of border security and illegal immigration, is now saying he will sue the Obama administration over the policy. While he agrees with Romney and Rubio that this raises issues of congressional prerogatives, he’s taking it a big step further.
“I’m prepared to bring a suit and seek a court order to stop implementation of this policy,” King said on Mike Huckabee’s radio show.
Other immigration hawks in the GOP were also quick to decry the decision.
“It rewards law-breaking,” said Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.). “And it’s deeply unfair to those who came to this country legally.”
The fact is that there are all manner of conservative members of Congress who are more than happy to prosecute this issue in the coming hours and days — even as Romney would rather not.

Need more proof that Republican heads are 'splodin'?

How about this - a rude reporter for the conservative website Daily Caller broke Press Corp etiquette by shouting out President Obama as he was speaking. The President was steaming mad and told him off, then walked away at the end without answering any questions. Hopefully that jerk will never darken the White House Rose Garden again, and I noticed by the end of the speech that he seemed to have an entourage of Secret Service Agents standing right behind him. So long, guy.

Just fun times all around for political watchers and especially Democrats.

Via Daily Kos

just know that Neil Munro, a reporter for the right-wag Daily Caller, attempted to interrupt President Obama while he was making an announcement on his new immigration policy this afternoon. The President wasn't having any of it, smacking down Munro and then telling him, "The next time I prefer you let me finish my statements before you ask a question."

Birther's Remorse: Coffman Warns Others to Drop It

It's really quite funny when Republicans try to shift so far to the right extreme that they fall off a limb. That recently happened to Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colorado). He said he didn't believe President Obama was really born in the United States, and now he is eating crow for breakfast. You have to laugh - it's beyond overdue for this to happen. The press should have called out every one of these birthers long ago, and I guess they tried. But now we've got Republicans themselves waking up like a drunk with a hangover saying "I said what? Oh, I didn't mean it . . . let's just move along . . ."

TPM: Coffman on his Birther Rant

“If I had to do it over again I think I would have said, ‘Let’s move from this birther question, the president was born in the United States, period,’” Coffman said in an interview with local station K-HOW. “‘Let’s just move on and let’s focus on the issues that are going to win this election. And secondly, let’s not ascribe this to those who oppose us that they’re any less Americans than we are.’”
A week earlier, Coffman had said at a fundraiser: “I don’t know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don’t know that. But I do know this, that in his heart, he’s not an American. He’s just not an American.” He quickly issued a press release walking it back, but shunned follow-up questions on the incident. On Tuesday, he repeated the same statement, “I misspoke and I apologize,” five times to a television crew that approached him after an event, offering no further explanation.

Coffman told K-HOW on Thursday that he regretted suggesting the president was anything other than American, and repeatedly emphasized that suggesting as much was also bad optics. The host asked Coffman whether he was “speaking from the heart” when he made his initial incendiary remarks and simply recanted “for political reasons.”

It was only a few days ago that Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett had to take to the airwaves to apologize for embarrassing his state after he harrassed the State by threatening to drop Obama from the November ballot - can you imagine? A sitting President not allowed on a state ballot just because some jerks (or racists) feel he is illegitimate? Luckily someone had a little talk with this nutcase.

From Huff Post:

"If I embarrassed the state, I apologize, but that certainly wasn't my intent," Bennett said Tuesday during an interview with radio station KTAR, adding that he was just trying to "help as many Arizonians as I can" by looking into their concerns over the document.

Bennett also walked back his threat to keep Obama off Arizona's ballot this fall.
"He’ll be on the ballot as long as he fills out the same paperwork and does the same things that everybody else has," Bennett said.
However, when pressed by the radio hosts on whether he was pandering to birther conspiracy theorists who believe the president was born outside the United States, Bennett pushed back.

"What is so sacred or untouchable about this question that you can't even ask the question?" he said, after insisting that he himself does not subscribe to the fraudulent birth certificate theories.

In the radio interview he says he wasn't trying to draw attention, and was just doing his "quiet little job." Yeah - how about doing it with some common sense? Do these people just not understand that Obama's mother was an American? And that Hawaii is a state of the union? Hello?

The birther movement is all about making President Obama seem alien, foreign, exotic, and just plain "un-American." They say "African" and "Kenyan" with comtempt, possibly forgetting that there are plenty of white Africans and Kenyans, and even some with American parents. Are they making outrageous statements just to get votes from Tea Partiers, or so some of them really believe this nonsense? Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona is the Energizer Bunny of Birthers. No amount of verification from Hawaii will ever be enough for him to believe that President Obama was born there. He recently dispatched a "cold case" officer to go to Hawaii seeking more evidence, using taxpayer money to continue his own version of Captain Ahab and the Great Whale: Arpaio Not Giving Up on Birther Investigation

Sheriff Joe Arpaio said it will take more than a letter verifying the President's birth certificate for him to call off his criminal investigation. “I'm trying to determine if any fraud occurred and who’s responsible,” said the Sheriff. The Sheriff's cold case posse has been investigating the President's birth certificate since August and is currently following up on leads in Hawaii. The Sheriff said the verification that the secretary of state received from the Hawaii registrar does nothing to change that.

That's right - logic and reason are not going to stop Sheriff Joe! He keeps on going and going and going . . .

Arizona's Birther Bennett Wants Obama Off Ballot

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett says he just isn't sure that Barack Obama should be on the presidential ballot this fall. Say WHAT???

This buffoon takes being a "birther" to a whole new level. The sane and rational people of Arizona need to take back their state, pronto, and quit looking to bogus "leaders" like Crazy Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

The Low-Low-Down from Talking Points Memo

Bennett, the state’s No. 2 elected official just below Gov. Jan Brewer (R), said his investigation isn’t personal. He said the reason he started looking into it is because he got more than 1,200 emails asking him to do so after Arpaio’s investigation came out.
“I’m not a birther. I believe the president was born in Hawaii — or at least I hope he was,” Bennett said on the show. “But my responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure the ballots in Arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking.”
. . . On Thursday, Bennett said he sent his request to Hawaii officials eight weeks ago but has yet to get the proof he was hoping for. He said he didn’t want another copy of the birth certificate. He wants Hawaii to give him what he described as “a verification in lieu of a certified copy of a birth certificate.”
In the weeks since then, Bennett said, Hawaii officials have forced him to provide proof that he is who he says he is. They asked him to send them copies of the Arizona laws that prove the secretary of state really is the person in charge of handling the ballots. Admittedly, Bennett said they told him they were “tired of all the requests.” But he is continuing anyway.