Ted Cruz channels Reagan: Media go bonkers, again

 

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz

WASHINGTON – In the eyes of the political and media elite, presidential candidate Ted Cruz is far too extreme ideologically to win the nomination; doesn’t have enough support from party bigwigs; is hated by almost everyone and no one trusts him; uses distortive, misleading rhetoric; is venal and self-obsessed; says crazy things; is not actually very smart; and is everything that is wrong with modern politics.

In the eyes of the political and media elite, Ronald Reagan was too extreme and too simple to win the presidential nomination; a potential disaster for the GOP in the general election; an amiable dunce who was shockingly dumb and cruel; an evil man with no care and no concern for working-class Americans and future generations; cold and mean with ice water for blood; and an egotistical bore who had no friends, only cronies.

See any resemblance?

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, hasn’t been popular with either establishment Washington or the establishment media ever since his election to the Senate in 2012, but reaction to his announcement last week that he is running for president appears to have put the criticism into overdrive.

No Republican, arguably, has received such intense condemnation since Reagan.

And many of the criticisms seem remarkably similar.

Ronald Reagan

Former Reagan presidential aide Jeffrey Lord told WND, “What’s being said about Ted Cruz today was said endlessly by establishment Republicans about Ronald Reagan.”

“They were wrong then; they are wrong now,” added the associate political director in the Reagan White House.

One of the biggest criticisms has been that Cruz has so little support among those GOP elite.

According to the New York Times, Cruz is “a long shot, at best” to win the Republican nomination because:

“Political scientists argue that the single most important determinant of the outcome of the nomination is support from party elites: those operatives who can staff a winning campaign; the donors who fund it; the elected officials and interest group leaders who bestow the credibility necessary to persuade voters and affect media coverage.”

Cruz has argued the most important factor is actually votes, not support from the party elite.

WND reported in February that Cruz described how establishment Washington hated Reagan as a candidate and how he went over the heads of GOP elite and took his case straight to the people, from where his real power came.

Cruz even sees his outsider status as an asset, telling CNN over the weekend, “I’ll point out there’s almost an inverse relationship between being liked and appreciated in Washington, D.C., and reviled back home, and being reviled in Washington and appreciated back home.”

The four categories in which Cruz is receiving criticism similar to that which was directed at Reagan involve questions about their:

• D.C. popularity

• Electability

• Intelligence

• Character

D.C. popularity

Cruz:

• Foreign Policy : “The most hated man in the Senate …  Ted Cruz has been, for all practical purposes, the human equivalent of one of those flower-squirters that clowns wear on their lapels.”

• New York Times: “Mr. Cruz has done nothing to endear himself to the elites. He won the party’s nomination for the Senate by defeating David Dewhurst, an establishment favorite and the sitting lieutenant governor of Texas.”

• Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.: “It’s always the wacko birds on right and left that get the media megaphone.”

• FiveThirtyEight: “Let’s be serious about Ted Cruz from the start: He’s too extreme and too disliked to win.”

Henry Kissinger

Reagan:

• New York Times: “(Former president) Ford has frequently criticized Mr. Reagan for extreme and too-simple views.”

• Henry Kissinger: “When you meet Reagan, you wonder: How did it ever occur to anyone that he should be governor, much less president?”

• Christopher Hitchens: “A cruel and stupid lizard.”

• Lesley Stahl: “I predict historians are going to be totally baffled by how the American people fell in love with this man.”

• Kevin Phillips: “It was foolish to think that Reagan could solve the nation’s economic problems with policies based on ‘maxims out of McGuffey’s Reader and Calvin Coolidge.’”

• New York Times: “[T]he stench of failure hangs over Ronald Reagan’s White House.”

Electability

Cruz:

• Kathleen Parker: “He’s obviously not going to win the presidency, OK? That’s not going to happen, we know that. He is an actor who acts alone. He gives maverick a bad name.”

• New York Times: “The most interesting question about Mr. Cruz’s candidacy is whether he has a very small chance to win or no chance at all.”

• Salon: “Ted Cruz doesn’t have a prayer … stands no chance at actually winning an election.”

• FiveThirtyEight: “Cruz doesn’t have enough support from party bigwigs.”

• Salon: “He’s not going to win, largely because almost everyone hates him and no one trusts him.”

• FiveThirtyEight: “Cruz almost certainly has no shot of winning the nomination, according to every indicator that predicts success in presidential primaries. … Cruz is likely far too extreme ideologically to win the nomination.”

• Michael Brendan Dougherty : “There is nothing about Cruz that appeals to people beyond his political sect … This isn’t a campaign: It’s a political fantasy and infomercial.”

Reagan:

• Former President Gerald Ford: “[W]e don’t want, can’t afford to have a replay of 1964 … A very conservative Republican can’t win in a national election.”

• Former Sen. Chuck Percy, R-Ill.: “A Reagan nomination and the crushing defeat likely to follow could signal the beginning of the end of our party as an effective force in American life.”

• Former Rep. Pete McCloskey, R-Calif.: “A Reagan win would be a disaster for the GOP.”

• Former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller: “No major American party can long endure by directing its appeal to a narrow minority. It will not serve the nation to have our major parties polarized at ideological extremes.”

Intelligence

Cruz:

• Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif.: “That man betokens such a level of ignorance and a direct falsification of the existing scientific data. It’s shocking and I think that man has rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office.”

• Salon: “The ‘Ted Cruz is smart’ trap: Why this garbage is false – and dangerous. The Texas senator convinces all of his enemies to praise his intellect. Here’s why they’re wrong – and should stop … Cruz has become notorious for using distortive, misleading rhetoric that no sober-minded individual could apply … He has alienated all of his colleagues, and wants to revive the gay marriage fight at a time when it couldn’t be more unwise … One whose mind is clamped shut cannot be intelligent, and yet Ted Cruz does not in his life ever seem to have taken on board a single challenge to his worldview … consistent overgenerous assessment of Cruz’s brains … The man is arrogant, but he doesn’t actually seem very smart.”

Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif.

Reagan:

• Clark Clifford: “An amiable dunce.”

• The Chicago Tribune: (His) “air-headed rhetoric on the issues of foreign policy and arms control have reached the limits of tolerance and have become an embarrassment to the U.S. and a danger to world peace.”

• David Broder: “[T]he desert between Ronald Reagan’s ears.”

• Jimmy Breslin: “Senile” and “shockingly dumb.”

• Former House Speaker Tip O’ Neill, D-Mass.: Reagan’s mind was “an absolute and total disgrace,” and it was “sinful that this man is president of the United States.”

• John Osborne: “Ronald Reagan is an ignoramus.”

• Rep. John Rhodes, R-Ariz.: “As soon as Reagan gets away from his clichés and his campaign slogans, he’s in trouble.”

• Christopher Hitchens: “He was as dumb as a stump.”

Character

Cruz:

• Nomiki Konst, The Accountability Project: “Ted Cruz is a flashback to the medieval times. This is a man who is empowering rapists, essentially … He is so hypocritical in so many different ways, I think he is just trying to appeal to the base.”

• Talking Points Memo: “Arrogant a–hole, super smart … An incredibly bright guy who’s an arrogant jerk who basically everybody ends up hating.”

• The Week: “[H]e’s so venal and self-obsessed that he’ll use genocide victims as punching bags for a domestic audience.”

• Salon:”[A] showboat … Googling ‘Ted Cruz lies’ pulls back an astonishing 7,890,000 results, and on Twitter, the two phrases are basically synonymous … (If not a liar) it would mean that Cruz is shockingly delusional … Cruz is actually very much a part of the financial corruption in the Beltway that Americans find so repugnant … Cruz’s penchant for bloated duplicity … a politician as dishonest and entrenched in establishment ways as any other … he is just as much a huckster as the rest of them … Cruz embodies everything that is wrong with modern politics.”

• Foreign Policy: “He’s ideological, even compulsive, with regard to the Constitution … Cruz’s preoccupation with principles began early … he might come across as too wonkish and too aggressive to connect with voters … ‘Belligerent egghead’ has rarely been a winning brand in presidential politics.”

• Salon: “[A] highly intelligent person who says crazy things because he knows what the tea party and other hardline conservatives like to hear … a cynical opportunist who will use anything – terrorists, diseases, hackers – to make political points that rile up the conservative faithful.”

• Chris Matthews: “He’s so much like Joe McCarthy in the way he makes his indictments, the way he sweats and makes these arguments … this plan by the new Joe McCarthy which is always to blame the government as lawless … demagoguery is not a good career choice.”

Reagan and Former House Speaker Tip O’Neill, D-Mass.

Reagan

• Former House Speaker Tip O’ Neill, D-Mass: “[T]he evil is on the White House at the present time. And that evil is a man who has no care and no concern for the working class of America and the future generations of America, and who likes to ride a horse. He’s cold. He’s mean. He’s got ice water for blood.”

• The Nation: “He is the most dangerous person ever to come this close to the presidency” and “a menace to the human race.”

• Eleanor Clift: “Greed in this this country is associated with Ronald Reagan.”

• Sarah McClendon: “It will take a hundred years to get the government back into place after Ronald Reagan. He hurt people: the disabled, women, nursing mothers, the homeless.”

• John Huston: A “bore” with a “low order of intelligence” and “egotistical.”

• Christopher Hitchens: “He had no friends, only cronies.”

Despite all that, Cruz  already may be on his way to getting the last laugh, as did Reagan.

On March 23, the first day of his candidacy, Cruz raised $1 million. He then doubled his fundraising goal in his first week.

If that money is coming from the grassroots, his campaign may be catching fire, as did Reagan’s in 1980. If it is coming from the elites, they may be coming around to his side, as they did after Reagan showed his vote-getting power.

The fiery Texan also may not be as unpopular with his colleagues as the media would suggest.

Cruz has steadfastly adhered to Reagan’s “11th Commandment” and not spoken ill of fellow Republicans, even those who have attacked him.

And it just might be paying off.

Just before the Texan announced his candidacy, CNN quoted McCain as saying of Cruz: “He is a valued member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He and I are friendly, and I think he is a very viable candidate.”

McCain also suggested Cruz could beat Hillary Clinton and win the presidency in 2016.

Follow Garth Kant @DCgarth

Ted Cruz channels Reagan: Media go bonkers, again
Garth Kant
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 01:29:37 GMT

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Manhunt! Prisoner escapes at Virginia hospital

 

Wossen Assaye

Police warned Tuesday an “armed and dangerous” prisoner was roaming the Washington, D.C., area after he overpowered a private security guard, stole his gun and fled the scene.

The prisoner, Wossen Assaye, was being transferred from an Alexandria, Virginia, jail to Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia, early Tuesday morning, WJLA reported. Fairfax County Police say he was being held on bank robbery charges when he tried to harm himself, leading officials to take him to the hospital.

He then scuffled with the private security guards who were driving him. A shot was fired, but nobody was hurt, and Asssaye fled with the guard’s gun, Fox News reported.

He’s described as a black male, about 6 feet tall and 170 pounds, with tattoos on his arm.

Fairfax County Police tweeted his picture, along with the text: “Police are looking for this escaped prisoner. He is wearing a hospital gown and no shoes & armed with a gun.”

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Nearby roads and businesses were blocked off and shut down, while authorities put the hospital in lockdown mode. Fairfax County Police lifted the lockdown about 9 a.m., announcing they now believe he fled the area with his girlfriend in a stolen car – a 2002 silver Toyota Camry with a Virginia tag of XZP-8153 and front-end damage.

NBC News reported Assaye had an “extensive criminal record” and a “history of violence,” and was considered a “serious risk to the community,” according to a 2012 Virginia Parole Board document.

Manhunt! Prisoner escapes at Virginia hospital
Cheryl Chumley
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 10:14:35 GMT

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Shock claim: Why Obama refused to help fight Boko Haram

 

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari

Allegations are mounting that the Obama administration withheld weapons and intelligence support from Nigeria’s fight against Boko Haram in an effort to boost the chances of the Muslim candidate for president, who is a client of the political firm founded by key Obama strategist David Axelrod.

Nigerians this weekend are deciding a very competitive race between incumbent Christian President Dr. Ebele Goodluck Jonathan and retired Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, who ruled as dictator there from 1983 until 1985, when he was removed through a coup. Buhari has previously vowed to institute Sharia law in the Muslim-dominated parts of the country if elected.

With the guidance of Axelrod’s firm, Buhari has tamped down talk of Sharia nearing election day and even added a Pentecostal Christian as his running mate.

Boko Haram is a radical Islamist terrorist group that recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. In recent years, Boko Haram has slaughtered entire villages, burned countless churches and targeted Christians and moderate Muslims for death. It received global attention last year for abducting nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls.

The Obama-Axelrod connection to the Nigerian elections and its impact on U.S. policy toward Boko Haram is laid out in a detailed piece by James Simpson for Accuracy in Media.

Simpson said the Nigerians are thoroughly convinced Obama’s actions are rooted in politics.

“Nigerians overwhelmingly, at least the ones that I talk to and the articles I’ve been able to access, believe that the U.S. deliberately withheld military aid to the Nigerian president because David Axelrod’s group, AKPD, is consulting his Muslim opponent in the upcoming elections,” said Simpson.

According to Simpson, the Nigerians are most upset over their requests being denied for Cobra attack helicopters.

Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with James Simpson:

“It seems the Obama administration has withheld intelligence,” said Center for Security Policy President Frank Gaffney. “It seems it has withheld training. It’s found various pretexts, but (the fact it has also withheld) some of the arms that could be very, very decisively used against this odious terrorist organization … really raises a host of questions that I don’t think have been satisfactorily answered by this administration.”

Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Frank Gaffney:

Gaffney said it isn’t hard to see a pattern developing in how this administration approaches foreign elections.

“This may sound like deja vu all over again,” said Gaffney, who likens U.S. involvement in Nigeria’s presidential elections to what America just witnessed in Israel’s parliamentary elections.

“He has, as he had in Israel, a political operative engaged in helping effect, in a way that is clearly meddling in the internal affairs of a foreign government and a friendly, sovereign foreign government at that,” Gaffney said. “It rebounds to the benefit, in this case it would appear to the financial benefit of his friend and adviser, David Axelrod. That has translated into efforts to support the candidacy of General Buhari.”

Like President Jonathan, Gen. Buhari is also vowing to exterminate Boko Haram. So how could Obama administration policy impact the campaign?

“Clearly, Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election has been made more difficult by the appearance that he’s not doing enough to defeat Boko Haram,” he said.

While Gaffney believes Obama’s denial of meaningful assistance to Nigeria reflects either a desire to see Buhari get elected or simply to help Axelrod’s client win, there are more official reasons given for the lack of support.

“One is that the administration has found fault with the human rights record of the Nigerian military,” said Gaffney, who noted that the other public concern rests with the Obama cultural agenda.

“There are laws on the books of Nigeria, adopted by a sovereign nation through its normal processes, that they consider to be untoward, unacceptable, homophobic, whatever you want to call it, toward people who are lesbians, gays, transgenders, bisexuals and so on,” he explained.

Simpson reports that Secretary of State John Kerry added fuel to the fire by suggesting the U.S. may re-evaluate the selling of arms and sharing of intelligence after the elections.

“The whole thing is a joke. We provided military aid to Uganda and they have a bad human rights record as well. We’ve provided military aid to al Qaida-liked groups in Libya who are now joining ISIS. The whole thing is ludicrous,” said Simpson.

Despite very little U.S. assistance, Nigeria is starting to make significant strides against Boko Haram. Forty towns have recently been liberated, at least 500 Boko Haram members have been killed and many of the terrorists are retreating to the jungle in the border regions near Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

The Nigerians say it’s because they finally got help – from Moscow.

“They are having an impact but they claim it’s because finally they had to turn around and get their arms from Russia. They got Russian Hind attack helicopters and some other heavy duty military equipment, troop carriers and [armored personnel carriers] and things like that. So they’ve been able to take the fight to the enemy,” said Simpson.

Another major issue at work is the Obama administration’s push for a “gay” rights agenda throughout the world and Nigeria recently moved decisively in the opposite direction.

Fifteen months ago, Nigeria enacted laws that criminalize homosexual behavior and strictly forbids “gay marriage.” Simpson says a public display of affection between homosexuals could draw imprisonment of 10 years or more.

That is not sitting well with the Obama administration.

“The gay rights agenda is detested throughout much of Africa. Seventy percent of African nations have laws outlawing homosexuality. This particularly harsh law was passed in December 2013 and the United States and other western nations spoke out against it,” said Simpson.

The diplomatic friction over the Obama administration’s “gay” rights agenda may well be a key factor in America’s refusal to provide more help against Boko Haram and in Obama’s desire to see a new president in Nigeria.

“Obama, in sort of veiled threats, said that he would withhold aid if they didn’t repeal that law. The Nigerians basically told them to get lost. ‘We’re going to do what we want. You don’t have any right to impose your morality on us,”’ said Simpson, who says the Jonathan campaign alleges that Buhari has secretly promised the Obama administration that he will work to repeal the law if elected.

Gaffney believes some concerns about laws addressing sexual orientation may be warranted, but said he has no “dog in that particular fight” and believes regional and U.S. security interests suggest the administration ought to be pursuing a far different course.

“We do have a profoundly important stake in the larger question of whether Nigeria continues to slide into chaos, into the orbit of these jihadists,” he said. “Oil, the strategic resources and position and population of that country are put into serious jeopardy as a result of these calculations.”

Shock claim: Why Obama refused to help fight Boko Haram
Greg Corombos
Sat, 28 Mar 2015 00:40:02 GMT

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Hillary has history of Iranian fundraising to explain

 

Hillary Clinton

NEW YORK – As the U.S. presses for an agreement that could allow Iran to become a nuclear-weapons power, Hillary Clinton’s receipt of funds from the mullah-led Islamic regime and her hiring of a convicted Iranian-American multimillionaire with ties to Tehran as her national campaign finance director in 2008 could become an issue if she runs for president again.

The Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation accepted $30,000 between April 2005 and March 2006 and another contribution of between $25,000 and $50,000 in 2008 from the New York-based Alavi Foundation.

U.S. government prosecutors have identified the foundation as an arm of the Iranian government.

For her 2008 presidential campaign, Clinton hired Hassan Nemazee as her national campaign finance director, who was known for his efforts to normalize relations with the theocratic Iranian regime. In 2010, Nemazee pleaded guilty to running a Ponzi scheme in which he obtained $292 million in fraudulent loans.

Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the American Center for Democracy, spelled out the problem with the Clinton Foundation receiving funds from the Alavi Foundation in a Jan. 5, 2009, article published by Forbes.

“Alavi’s contribution [in 2008] to Clinton came just two days after the Treasury Department also designated Alavi’s partner, the New York-based Assa Corp., as a terrorist entity, and the New York Southern District’s attorney seized and forfeited its assets,” Ehrenfeld wrote.

Then, in September 2013, Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest had issued a decision granting summary judgment in favor of the United States’ claims for forfeiture of a 36-story Midtown Manhattan office building owned by the Alavi Foundation and Assa Corp.

The feds charged the building’s owners were “a front for the Iranian government” that had violated in conjunction with Bank Melli Iran the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, IEEPA, and federal money-laundering statutes.

In October 2007, Bank Melli was designated a terrorist funding organization under Executive Order 13382. Iran’s largest bank was providing services to Iranian entities involved in creating nuclear weapons and advancing Iran’s ballistic missile programs in conjunction with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

On April 19, 2014, the U.S. Justice Department agreed to distribute the proceeds of the Manhattan office building to victims of attacks by Iran-backed militants.

Hillary’s Iranian fundraiser

Hillary Clinton inherited Nemazee, the multimillionaire Iranian-American investment banker and top Democratic Party fundraiser, from John Kerry. In 2004, Nemazee served as the New York finance chairman for Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign after serving as finance chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Hassan Nemazee leaves Manhattan Federal Court after pleading guilty to fraud in 2010.

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Nemazee’s history of urging the United States to normalize diplomatic relationships with the theocratic regime ruling Iran, despite Iran’s continued alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons, caused anti-mullah Iranian activists in the U.S. to accuse Nemazee of being an agent of the Iranian government.

On Oct. 18, 2004, WND attended a deposition in New York City in which Nemazee was questioned under oath by legal counsel for Aryo Pirouznia, the leader of the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran.

Nemazee had sued Pirouznia in a $10 million defamation suit in which Nemazee charged that Pirouznia had defamed him by calling him an agent of the religious clerics ruling Iran.

Pirouznia had charged that Nemazee was utilizing his resources, including investment funds Nemazee managed in Nemazee Capital Corp., to further the interests of the religious rulers in Tehran in the formation of U.S. foreign policy toward Iran.

The lawsuit was ultimately settled out of court.

On Sept. 30, 2004, in the first nationally televised presidential debate with President George W. Bush, Kerry said the U.S. should provide nuclear fuel to Iran to test them and “see whether or not they were actually looking for it for peaceful purposes.”

It was basically the same strategy the Clinton administration tried with North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung in 1994 under an “Agreed Framework” in which the Clinton administration handed over to North Korea enough nuclear fuel to run two nuclear power plants.

After the delivery of the nuclear fuel by the Clinton administration, Kim withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and proceeded to make nuclear warheads for North Korea’s Nodong missiles.

On Aug. 25, 2009, federal law enforcement authorities in New York City arrested Nemazee as he was attempting to board a flight to Rome, Italy, at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and charged him with engaging in criminal fraud for his role in arranging a $74 million loan from Citibank.

U.S. Attorney Bharara in New York City and the FBI told Dow Jones Newswires the then-59-year-old Nemazee applied for the Citibank loans for Nemazee Capital Corp. by giving Citibank “numerous documents that purported to establish the existence of accounts in Nemazee’s name at various financial institutions containing many hundreds of millions of dollars.”

According to the criminal complaint released by Bharara, the accounts Nemazee submitted in the loan documentation were “fraudulent and forged” and “either never existed or had been closed years before Nemazee submitted the documents referencing those accounts.”

The complaint alleged Nemazee’s fraudulent scheme began in December 2006, when he first approached Citibank to borrow $25 million. He subsequently raised the sum to $80 million.

On March 2010, Nemazee, then 60, plead guilty in federal court to charges of fraudulently applying for and receiving some $292 million in loans as chairman of Nemazee Capital from Citicorp, Bank of America and HSBC. The proceeds were used to buy property in Westchester County, make campaign contributions to Democratic Party politicians, donate to charity and to support his lavish society lifestyle.

On July 15, 2010, U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York sentenced Nemazee to serve 12 ½ years in federal prison on multiple federal criminal counts of bank and wire fraud.

Nemazee’s history with Democratic Party politics stretches back to the Clinton administration.

In 1998, President Clinton nominated Nemazee to be ambassador to Argentina, a nomination Clinton withdrew after Forbes magazine published an extremely damaging review of Nemazee’s business career.

On May 3, 1999, Forbes wrote:“Over the past four years Nemazee and his family have given more than $150,000 to Democratic politicians and the DNC. Six of Nemazee’s friends and relatives have given $10,000 apiece – the maximum allowable per year – to Bill Clinton’s legal defense fund.”

Hillary has history of Iranian fundraising to explain
Jerome R. Corsi
Sat, 28 Mar 2015 01:36:29 GMT

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'Nothing says 'Let's go kill some Muslims' like country music'

 

Joan Walsh and Jamilah Lemieux

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, changed America, and Sen. Ted Cruz says it changed him.

That has the talkers at MSNBC beside themselves with scorn and MSNBC issuing an apology.

Interviewed Tuesday on CBS Good Morning, the announced candidate for president was asked about his musical tastes.

“I grew up listening to classic rock, and I’ll tell you sort of an odd story,” Cruz offered.

“My music tastes changed on 9/11.

“And it’s a very strange … I actually intellectually find this very curious. But on 9/11 I didn’t like how rock music responded. And country music collectively – the way they responded – it resonated with me, and I have to say it’s just a gut-level … I had an emotional reaction that said, These are my people.

“And so ever since 2001 I listen to country music, but I’m a non-country-music fan because I didn’t listen to it prior to 2001.”

But Cruz’s conversion to country music didn’t sit well with MSNBC political analyst Joan Walsh and Ebony Magazine senior editor Jamilah Lemieux.

Appearing with MSNBC host Ari Melber the pair was asked for their reaction to Cruz’s comments.

“Nothing says ‘Let’s go kill some Muslims’ like country music,” said Lemieux sarcastically.

“Fresh from Lynchburg, Virginia … someone who obviously doesn’t want to be a polarizing candidate, he wants to bring people together. I mean, really? That’s absurd.”

“What an idiot,” chimed in Walsh. “Can you say pandering? … He’s not talking to people like us, so it’s fine. He knows who he’s pandering to, but I can’t believe it’s going to work with country fans, God bless them.”

It was up to former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who was also a panelist, to answer the scoffers.

“I believe you’re absolutely right, Joan, he’s not talking to you. … I think what he was trying to say, however awkward that it came out, was that country music sort of captured that moment for him. It sort of expressed what he felt. It expressed his idea of America at this time of terrorism, and that resonated with him. I don’t make much more of it than that,” said Steele, suggesting Walsh and Lemieux were “overthinking” it.

Several segments later, Melber made an on-air apology for Lemieux’s comment: “We have a programming note. A few minutes ago on this show, a guest made a comment about country music. That comment was not appropriate, and we want to be clear this network does not condone it.”

It’s not the first time others have had to apologize for Lemieux.

Lemieux was widely criticized last year after she slammed remarks by Raffi Williams, a RNC press secretary who does youth outreach for the GOP, with a tweet: “Oh great, here comes a white dude telling me how to do this black thing. Pass.”

Social media exploded after Williams was identified as black, resulting in Ebony issuing a statement, apologizing to Williams for “Lemieux’s lack of judgment on her personal Twitter account.”

'Nothing says 'Let's go kill some Muslims' like country music'
-NO AUTHOR-
Thu, 26 Mar 2015 04:03:32 GMT

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Immigration judge pushed to sanction Obama's lawyers

 

A federal judge who earlier determined that President Obama’s amnesty-by-executive-memo strategy likely is illegal and suspended work on it now is being asked by a popular leader in America’s law-enforcement community to sanction the president’s administration for lying in court.

“The Obama Justice Department and its clients, as set forth in the accompanying supplemental brief by amicus curiae Sheriff Joe Arpaio … have lied intentionally to two courts which have addressed the president’s unconstitutional and illegal executive actions,” claims a motion on behalf of Arpaio submitted to the federal court in Brownsville, Texas.

It was there that Judge Andrew Hanen determined that Obama’s amnesty program is unconstitutional because he didn’t follow the Administrative Procedures Act, and Hanen issued a temporary injunction against the program.

Arpaio, who has a separate case over the same immigration issues pending at an appellate court in Washington, D.C., earlier had filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Texas case, which was brought by 26 states.

He’s now asking to be allowed to intervene further.

In a filing submitted by Arpaio’s attorney, Larry Klayman of FreedomWatch, cited arguments, which the document calls “lies,” from the government in Arpaio’s case in Washington.

The document explains, “As set forth in the accompanying amicus brief, this must be remedied in the interests of justice, through the commencement of contempt proceedings and the imposition of harsh sanctions on counsel for the defendants.”

In the brief, Klayman wrote, “The president and his Justice Department are not above the law.”

The issue of lies, and the trustworthiness of the government in the case, is not brand new.

WND reported earlier when the judge bluntly asked a Justice Department attorney whether or not President Obama and federal officials can be believed regarding the administration’s executive-ordered plan to delay deportation for up to 5 million illegal aliens.

The testy confrontation came in a federal court in Texas where Hanen, who previously issued a temporary injunction halting Obama’s plan, is presiding over a lawsuit brought by 26 states.

“I can trust what Secretary [Jeh] Johnson says … what President Obama says?” Hanen asked, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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Fox News reported the judge even went further, instructing Justice Department attorney Kathleen Hartnett, “That’s a yes or no question.”

She responded, “Yes, your honor.”

Hanen called that hearing after ordering in February a halt to any actions related to Obama’s executive action until a full trial or a further order from him.

The issue was whether or not the Justice Department misled the judge by claiming that deportation reprieves would not go forward before he made a ruling. It turned out that federal officials had delayed deportation for 108,000 people for three years and granted them work permits.

The administration had argued the reprieves were granted under a 2012 program that was not impacted by Hanen’s order. But the 2012 program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, granted only two-year reprieves, while Obama’s November order allows three-year deferrals.

Hartnett told the judge “government attorneys hadn’t properly explained this because they had been focused on other parts of the proposed action,” Fox reported.

Hanen remained skeptical, and it was then he asked, “Can I trust what the president says?”

The states that brought the lawsuit at that time had asked for sanctions against the federal government because of the misleading statements. Angela Colmenero, a lawyer from Texas, said the federal government provided “representations” that eventually proved untrue or “less than forthcoming.”

Fox News reported Hanen “chided” Hartness for saying “before the injunction was issued that nothing would be happening with regard” to the deferrals.

“Like an idiot, I believed that,” Hanen said.

Klayman explained to WND that the additional filings with the court “detail the falsehoods put forth by the Obama Justice Department on behalf of the president in trying to prevent the issuance of an order temporarily enjoining the implementation of these executive actions.”

“Specifically, lawyers of Obama’s Justice Department told the courts in two federal cases, the one in Texas (1:14-cv-254) and the one in the District of Columbia filed by Arpaio and Klayman (1:14-cv-01966), that the presidents’ executive actions would not be implemented, at the earliest until February 18, 2015, when in fact it has been learned that the president and DHS were already well on their way to putting the executive actions into effect. These intentional misrepresentations were intended to convince and deceive these courts that immediate judicial rulings on the motions for preliminary injunctions were not necessary, as nothing had occurred as yet that could conceivably be damaging to the plaintiffs in both cases,” Klayman explained in a statement.

“President Obama and his ‘yes-men’ at the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security are not above the law. They cannot be permitted to walk away scot-free from lying to courts, much more attempting to put into effect unconstitutional executive actions granting illegal amnesty to over 5 million illegal aliens. This serious misconduct must be harshly sanctioned to further the rule of law, uphold the integrity of the courts, and prevent this from happening again in these important cases. As an alumnus of the Justice Department, I am appalled by the actions of President Obama’s legal counsel in these cases,” Klayman said.

Klayman’s filing explained that government lawyers argued in both cases a preliminary injunction was not needed because “the amnesty programs were not imminent.”

Yet, such activities already were going on, he argued.

“Those claims were a premeditated and intentional misrepresentation,” Klayman wrote.

He noted the judge already has set aside the idea of monetary sanctions since the penalties would be paid by taxpayers.

“The court can consider other forms of sanctions to ensure ethical and honest conduct by the Obama Justice Department and its clients in the future.”

WND also reported when Arpaio had asked for a hearing for the government to explain why it apparently is refusing to abide by Hanen’s order.

A notice and recommendation from Klayman said, “Several reports indicate that the executive branch under the Obama administration has not complied with this court’s temporary injunction, but continues full-speed to implement a grant of amnesty and related benefits to approximately 5 million citizens of foreign countries who are illegally in the United States under the defendants’ November 20, 2014, executive action programs implemented by several memoranda issued by Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson,” the filing explained.

It explained: “If the defendants have in fact halted implementation of the programs in compliance with the court’s temporary injunction, the opportunity to assure the court and other observers of this may be afforded by the court asking for a response on whether the reports of continued implementation are accurate and whether the injunction is being complied with.”

Klayman’s filing also noted Obama’s statement at a town hall meeting in Miami Feb. 25 that he won’t be deterred by “one federal judge” on immigration.

Obama, according to the Washington Times, “told a Miami crowd that he will move ahead with his executive action on immigration and vowed that his administration will become even more aggressive in the weeks and months to come.”

Klayman’s filing also noted Obama said: “This is just one federal judge. We have appealed it very aggressively. We’re going to be as aggressive as we can.”

Wrote Klayman: “The Obama administration is continuing to signal not only its disagreement with the court’s order, which is its right, but beyond that its non-compliance with the court’s order.”

The attorney also noted a report from the government watchdog Judicial Watch that said “a source within the U.S. government contracting industry” said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security “is continuing at full speed to implement the ‘deferred action’ programs created on November 20, 2014.”

“In short,” Klayman told the court, “President Obama’s defiant pledge in Miami, Florida, on February 25, 2015, to move forward aggressively with implementation of his deferred action amnesty by executive over-reach … more than suggests that the Obama administration is continuing to implement the executive action amnesty in defiance of the court’s temporary injunction.

“Given the strong reports that DHS is continuing to implement the programs that the court enjoined, the court should issue an order to show cause and call for clarification and assurance from the defendants that they are and will comply with the court’s temporary injunction, and if not take immediate remedial actions to [ensure] that the order is being complied with.”

The Obama administration’s action “to expend taxpayers money in violation of this court’s temporary injunction order would be another affront to the rule of law,” he wrote.

U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen

WND also reported earlier that Obama’s amnesty plan continued moving forward on another front. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the extension of a program allowing spouses of certain visa holders to obtain work permits.

According to the Washington Times, the move will, in 90 days, allow some 180,000 immigrants to be eligible for the benefit “in the first year.”

“Allowing the spouses of these visa holders to legally work in the United States makes perfect sense,” the newspaper quoted agency chief Leon Rodriguez saying. “It helps U.S. businesses keep their highly skilled workers by increasing the chances these workers will choose to stay in this country during the transition from temporary workers to permanent residents.”

Klayman even noted that according to a Weekly Standard report, Obama was threatening “consequences” for federal employees who followed the judge’s order, instead of the amnesty memos.

That report quoted Obama saying: “Until we pass a law through Congress, the executive actions we’ve taken are not going to be permanent; they are temporary. There are going to be some jurisdictions and there may be individual ICE official or Border Control agent not paying attention to our new directives. But they’re going to be answerable to the head of Homeland Security because he’s been very clear about what our priorities will be.”

He continued, “If somebody’s working for ICE … and they don’t follow the policy, there’s going to be consequences to it.”

Sen Ted Cruz, R-Texas, also raised the issue of compliance with the court order.

“Violating an unambiguous federal court order by defying its instructions to cease and desist a particular activity would represent a significant breach of your authority, and would be an escalation in abuse of our separation of powers,” Cruz wrote to administration officials. “For a president and his cabinet to telegraph intent to violate a federal court order requires additional scrutiny from Congress.”

But administration officials were unabashed in their intent.

The Washington Times said Cecilia Munoz, White House domestic policy director, addressed the issue: “It’s important to put [Hanen's order] in context, because the broader executive actions are moving forward. The administration continues to implement the portions of the actions that the president and the Department of Homeland Security took, which were not affected by the court’s ruling.”

But Hanen’s order said: “The United States of America, its departments, agencies, officers, agents and employees and Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; R. Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of United States customs and Border Protection; Ronald D. Vitiello, deputy chief of United States Border Patrol, United States Customs and Border Protection; Thomas S. Winkowski, acting director of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Leon Rodriguez, director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services are hereby enjoined from implementing any and all aspects or phases of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents.”

And even Obama himself said he couldn’t do it alone.

House Speaker John Boehner has listed online 22 times when Obama has made such statements.

For example, in October 2010, Obama said: “I am president, I am not king. I can’t do these things just by myself. … I’ve got to have some partners to do it. … If Congress has laws on the books that says that people who are here who are not documented have to be deported, then I can exercise some flexibility in terms of where we deploy our resources, to focus on people who are really causing problems as opposed to families who are just trying to work and support themselves. But there’s a limit to the discretion that I can show because I am obliged to execute the law. … I can’t just make the laws up by myself.”

The Texas lawsuit was filed when the states suddenly faced massive new demands for public services such as schooling and health care from foreigners who previously had been subject to deportation.

Hanen granted a preliminary injunction that prevents the government from enforcing the Obama administration’s immigration orders. The ruling also confirmed WND’s exclusive report that, contrary to popular perception, the order to delay deportation was not an executive order by the president. Instead, it was a memorandum issued by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson at Obama’s direction.

WND also reported when yet another a federal judge in Pennsylvania declared the amnesty unconstitutional.

“President Obama’s unilateral legislative action violates the separation of powers provided for in the United States Constitution as well as the Take Care Clause and, therefore, is unconstitutional,” said U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab.

The judge noted Obama “contended that although legislation is the most appropriate course of action to solve the immigration debate, his executive action was necessary because of Congress’ failure to pass legislation, acceptable to him, in this regard.”

“This proposition is arbitrary and does not negate the requirement that the November 20, 2014, executive action be lawfully within the president’s executive authority,” the judge wrote. “It is not.”

Immigration judge pushed to sanction Obama's lawyers
Bob Unruh
Wed, 25 Mar 2015 00:36:21 GMT

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Mayor takes stand against Muslim Shariah courts

 

Irvine, Texas, Mayor Beth Van Duyne

When a group of imams tried to bring a form of “Shariah light” to Texas, they met an unlikely foe – Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne.

Now, Van Duyne has been thrust into the national media spotlight, and her city is being called “ground zero” in the battle to prevent Islamic law from gaining a foothold, no matter how small, in the U.S. legal system.

Van Duyne’s name and picture has popped up on Facebook pages and Twitter feeds across America in recent days, casting her with equal enthusiasm as villain or hero, depending on one’s political outlook.

She’s either the mayor who stood up to the Muslim Brotherhood or the “Islamophobic bigot” looking to cash in politically on fears about Islamic terrorism.

The media frenzy was touched off by reports that an Islamic tribunal was being set up in the Dallas, Texas, area. A group of imams from surrounding mosques would sit on what they call a “mediation panel,” as defacto judges, and mediate disputes between Muslims who voluntarily submit to its edicts. They denied this was a Shariah court, saying the panel would mete out nonbinding decisions in business disputes, divorces and other family matters “in full accordance with the law.”

Van Duyne wrote a blistering Facebook post last month in which she vowed to “fight with every fiber of my being against this action.”

Get the details on how to stop Islamization of America – $4.95 today only!

She worked with state legislators to craft a bill that would declare it illegal for any U.S. court to adopt any foreign legal system for the basis of its rulings. Islam was not mentioned in the bill, nor was any religion.

Last Thursday the Irving City Council voted 5-4 to endorse the bill before a packed room full of mostly angry Muslims.

When called on by the Council of American-Islamic Relations to apologize for her February Facebook post, Van Duyne flatly refused. She also appeared in the national spotlight in an interview with conservative media icon Glenn Beck.

She’s been practically canonized by some websites while becoming the target of journalistic hit pieces from others.

Her local newspaper, the Dallas Morning News, cast her as a petulant demagogue who uses “gifted speaking skills” to “get a crowd on her side.”

“The dispute has made Van Duyne a hero among a fringe movement that believes Muslims – a tiny fraction of the U.S. population – are plotting to take over American culture and courts,” the Dallas Morning News reported. The newspaper then quoted local imam Zia Sheikh as saying the mayor’s stance “fuels anti-Islamic hysteria” and is “very Islamophobic.”

But to conservatives who have watched one city, state and federal leader after another kowtow to the threats and demands of CAIR, she is a breath of fresh air.

“The U.S. is a constitutional republic ruled by constitutional law. If Muslims want to live under Shariah law, fine, then let them move to a country that is ruled by Shariah law,” wrote Greg Polkowski in a March 24 Facebook post. “The problem is they come here for the freedom and opportunities that aren’t available in their home countries (usually Muslim controlled) and upon arrival decide they want to change the U.S. to reflect the political/religious environment they left. This reminds me of a sign I’ve seen posted by a few swimming pools over the years, ‘We don’t swim in your toilet, please don’t pee in our pool.’”

The Dallas Morning News attacked Van Duyne’s supporters as followers of “fringe websites.”

“Van Duyne had spent the last month criticizing and questioning a Muslim mediation panel, conflating it with a court in an interview seen around the country. That night, she pushed the council to endorse a state bill whose author had targeted the panel.

“The dispute has made Van Duyne a hero on fringe websites that fear an Islamic takeover of America.”

While eager to denigrate Van Duyne’s supporters, the Dallas newspaper closes its eyes to the dubious reputation of the group demanding apologies, CAIR. More than just a fringe element, CAIR is a front for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, which are terrorist elements.

CAIR is known in the U.S. as a nonprofit advocacy group for Muslim-Americans, but in 2007 U.S. prosecutors named it an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism-funding case against the Holy Land Foundation charity. The charity was convicted of supporting Hamas, which is on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. When President Obama took office in 2008 the trial was shut down and investigations into CAIR ceased. In fact, the president has sought counsel from CAIR officials in matters of Homeland Security and law enforcement, acceding to its demand that the FBI scrub from its training manuals all references to radical Islam.

Yet, despite its connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Dallas Morning News and countless other U.S. media outlets continue to quote its officials as credible representatives of all U.S. Muslims. The Muslim Brotherhood has been designated a terrorist organization by scores of countries, including even some Arab and Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates, along with Russia, Israel and others.

Dr. Mark Christian grew up in a prominent Muslim family in Egypt and converted to Christianity as an adult. He has been disowned by his family.

Dr. Mark Christian, a former Muslim who grew up in Egypt the son of a Muslim Brotherhood activist, said such “mediation panels” would not be tolerated in Egypt. But the ignorance of American government officials makes them easy prey for CAIR’s intimidation.

“The concept of ‘Shariah mediation’ to settle disputes between Muslims here in the U.S. is indeed disturbing.” he said. “It is the first step in establishing a parallel system of government within our own system.”

After fleeing Egypt, Christian lived in Great Britain before coming to the United States.

“I have seen these tribunals in operation in Britain,” he said. “They supplant the laws of the host nation by forcing Muslims to abandon their inherent rights under our law and submit instead to Shariah, many times to their own detriment.”

“I applaud the mayor for her strength of conviction. She isn’t denying rights to Muslims; she is preserving them for Muslims.

“She is, however, denying the Muslim Brotherhood one of their chief tools in controlling Muslim populations in free nations.”

CAIR’s alliance with leftists in the U.S. media and so-called “watchdog” groups like the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center assures that whenever someone criticizes CAIR and points out facts about its connections to the Muslim Brotherhood they get branded as “Islamophobic” or “bigoted.”

Thus, it’s no surprise that most politicians cower at the sight of a CAIR spokesman and avoid at all costs saying anything that can be seen as remotely anti-Islam.

But the mayor of one small city in Texas seems to dance to a different drumbeat.

WND requested a phone interview with Van Duyne Tuesday but was told by her secretary that she had urgent city business to tend to.

“I wish to see her character in every elected official in our nation,” Christian said.

Mayor takes stand against Muslim Shariah courts
Leo Hohmann
Wed, 25 Mar 2015 00:47:49 GMT

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Author: White House reveals 'hatred' for Israel

 

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough recently publicly demanded an Israeli “occupation that has lasted for almost 50 years must end,” pushing the relations between the U.S. and its chief Middle East ally for decades to the breaking point.

McDonough’s comments, made to the left wing activist group J Street, simply are proof of the Obama administration’s “hatred” for Israel, according to best-selling author Joel Richardson.

Richardson, who recently released “When a Jew Rules the World: What Every Christian Must Know about Israel in God’s Prophetic Plans,” explains the United States is now openly siding against Israel and the Jewish people.

“The Obama administration has finally fully come out of the closet and removed all pretense as to their hatred of Israel. In demanding that Israel withdraw from its own lands and end the ‘occupation’ (Israel is not presently occupying anything) the United States has joined its voice to those who are openly calling for the genocide of the Jewish people.”

McDonough’s speech has been widely interpreted as an attack on the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu, as McDonough proclaimed the Obama administration expects “policies that demonstrate a genuine commitment to a two-state solution” and a cessation of settlement activity.

He also stated any peace plan should be based on “1967 lines” of territory, borders that Benjamin Netanyahu has previously slammed as “indefensible.”

What does what’s happening in Israel mean to you? Find out in “When a Jew Rules the World: What Every Christian Must Know about Israel in God’s Prophetic Plans.”

Richardson condemned McDonough’s comments as a total misrepresentation of the Israeli situation.

“Imagine if you lived in an apartment building and you were surrounded by families that lived in open hostility to you and your children. Every one of the families had, at one time or another, openly expressed their plans to kill you and your children, and, in fact, two of your children had been killed by your neighbors.

“Determined to protect your family, you begin to take action. You hire armed security guards to stand outside your door. At the entrance to your building you install metal detectors to prevent your neighbors from bringing deadly weapons into your building. To protect you from the neighbors who killed your two young children, you install a secure security door between your two apartments that only you can unlock.

“Now imagine that nearly every day, groups of idealistic and opinionated young college students show up and stand outside your building, shouting into bull-horns how unfair and unjust you are being to your neighbors. Imagine if these same college students even began demanding that you remove the security door that separates your apartment from your neighbor’s apartment,” Richardson said.

“Such a scenario is the stuff of hellish nightmares. But the fact of the matter is that this actually does describe the situation in Israel in many ways. Poll after poll has shown that a vast majority of those living in the Palestinian territories support suicide bombings against the Jewish people. And until Israel built the wall, they were in fact very common, with multitudes of Israelis regularly losing their lives. Today, there are almost daily calls for the complete genocide of the Jewish people from those living in nations on every side of Israel.

“The call for a two-state solution is the call for the extermination of the Jewish people.”

J Street has been especially active in pushing for a two-state solution. The group has been accused of anti-Israel bias and is a regular critic of sanctions on Iran and Israeli anti-terrorist actions. J Street supports negotiations with the terrorist group Hamas, aided the Palestinian Authority in its attempt to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state at the United Nations, and received seed money from left-wing billionaire George Soros.

Besides the controversial choice of venue, McDonough’s speech comes at a time of crisis for American/Israeli relations. The Israeli government of Netanyahu has fiercely denied reports it spied on American negotiations with Iran over a nuclear weapon, even as the reports also revealed the United States has been spying on Israel.

See a trailer:

According to allegations from a pollster working for Netanyahu’s Likud Party, “President Obama and his allies” were even more active in the unsuccessful campaign against Netanyahu than initially reported. This even included the use of American taxpayer dollars.

Richardson observes, “The overnight shift toward radical anti-Israel sentiment is happening not only around the world and within our own government but also in the churches. For that reason, it’s so important for Christians to read ‘When a Jew Rules the World’ so they know how to respond to the propaganda and deception sweeping the nations like a flood.”

Richardson interprets the publication of the book during this troubled period as “clearly providential.”

He affirms that reactions to the book have been uniformly supportive and says, “So far everyone who has read it has said that it is one of the most important books of our time. Every review so far has been resoundingly positive.”

As of Tuesday, “When a Jew Rules the World” enjoyed unanimous five star ratings from readers on Amazon.com.

Readers report”

• Joel puts forth a book that is well researched, articulate, and it really gets to the heart of Jesus and what is going on in the world. He doesn’t mince words and lays forth a real case for the church to take a look at doctrines that have led to many hurts and physical deaths. He does so with love for the church but with a firm voice asking us to wake up. Time is short and we need watchmen like Joel sounding the alarm.
• Excellent from start to finish! The best theological and historical argument for God’s sovereign election and eternal purpose for the Apple of His eye, Israel!
• Joel Richardson has been given understanding and insight into the prophetic scriptures and a voice to articulate these things to the church in this hour. His books have helped to blow the fog of traditional mindsets and poor hermeneutics from the arena of prophetic study, and this latest volume is no exception.

Richardson’s previous bestseller, ”The Islamic Antichrist: The Shocking Truth About the Real Nature of the Beast,” is currently the No. 1 bestseller in “Islamic Theology” among all books on Amazon.com.

“When a Jew Rules the World” also enjoys top status as the current No. 1 new release in “Christian Eschatology” on Amazon.com.

Richardson says his work provides “clear, simple, and direct answers” to anti-Israel attacks. And at this time, he says, it is more critical than ever.

“The closer we get to the final days of the Obama administration, the more he is taking the mask off and revealing his radical anti-Western agenda. These comments from his chief of staff are just the latest example.”

Author: White House reveals 'hatred' for Israel
-NO AUTHOR-
Wed, 25 Mar 2015 00:58:32 GMT

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9.8 million federal employees delinquent on taxes

 

The Internal Revenue Service

The combined unpaid tax amount for federal workers and retirees for 2014 surpasses $3.5 billion, the Internal Revenue Service reported.

The figure is spread among 305,000 federal employees and retirees, the Associated Press reported. And as bad as that back tax amount sounds, it still beats the previous year’s amount.

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The current delinquency rate is 3.1 percent of 9.8 million federal workers; in 2013, the delinquency rate stood at 3.3 percent.

Department of Housing and Urban Development employees are the worst offenders, with a delinquency rate of 4.7 percent. By contrast, those at the Treasury Department touted the least number of delinquencies, with a rate of 1.2 percent, AP reported.

The report comes as the House Oversight Committee is preparing Wednesday to take up a bill that would label those with “seriously delinquent tax debt[s]” ineligible for employment with the federal government.

The IRS doesn’t have current delinquency figures for those outside the federal workforce. In past years, however, the unpaid tax rate for members of the general public stood between 8 percent and 9 percent.

And House and Senate members?

Roughly 5 percent in the House owe taxes; another 3.5 percent in the Senate face a similar situation, AP reported.

9.8 million federal employees delinquent on taxes
Cheryl Chumley
Wed, 25 Mar 2015 11:16:40 GMT

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Germanwings confirms: 2 Americans among dead

 

A plane crash in the French Alps killed all 150 aboard.

Germanwings airline confirmed Wednesday morning two Americans were among the dozens killed in a plane crash in the French Alps.

Previously, the French prime minister had said only one American was among the 150 on board the Germanwings flight that went down Tuesday. The U.S. State Department has not confirmed the death of the Americans, and no information has been released about their identities.

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Also among the dead: Two babies, the airline said, ABC News reported.

French President Francois Hollande said shortly after the crash there were “apparently no survivors.”

Airline officials, meanwhile, say they expect to recover the voice recorder by Thursday. Emergency responders are working hard to sift through the debris for clues to the reason of the crash, but their efforts are being hampered by the remoteness of the location.

Germanwings confirms: 2 Americans among dead
Cheryl Chumley
Wed, 25 Mar 2015 12:27:42 GMT

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Get Over It… Cruz IS Eligible

 

 

Whether Ted Cruz is your choice for the Republican presidential nomination or not - and we're not going to settle that today - at least we can settle the matter raised by any number of commenters who asked, "Hey, wasn't he born in Canada?"

Why yes, he was. And it's completely irrelevant. Despite the insistence of some folks that you're not a "natural-born citizen" unless you're born on U.S. soil, Cruz in fact is a natural-born citizen and he's eligible. And this video from the Wall Street Journal explains it pretty clearly:

http://www.wsj.com/video/is-ted-cruz-born-in-canada-eligible-to-be-president/8BF329E2-4B95-4650-92C3-A3C07095C997.html

The key lies in the distinction between a natural-born citizen and a naturalized citizen. At its essence, this simply means there are two kinds of citizens - those who were citizens from birth and those who became citizens later on. A lot of people assume that you're only a natural-born citizen if you were physically born in the U.S., but that's not true. That's one way you can be a natural-born citizen, but another way is to be born abroad to parents who are citizens.

And this makes sense when you think about it. No one gets to choose where they're born, and if your parents are U.S. citizens and they happen to be abroad when your mother goes into labor and gives birth to you, there's really no reason that should impact your citizenship. To tell someone born under those circumstances that they have to later take a citizenship test and become "naturalized" would be absurd.

The reason the Constitution doesn't allow a naturalized citizen to become president is that they want to prevent true foreigners who might have another agenda from obtaining citizenship for the purpose of obtaining power and then misusing it to the detriment of the United States. That clearly doesn't apply to someone whose American parents happen to be in Calgary when he's born

So feel free to raise whatever objections you might have about the merits of Ted Cruz as a candidate, but let's put this one to bed. He is eligible to be president.

http://www.caintv.com/yes-ted-cruz-is-constitutional

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Barry, Bibi and Israeli security

 

Barry, Bibi and Israeli security
-NO AUTHOR-
Mon, 23 Mar 2015 23:51:57 GMT

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Boehner office on eve of civil disobedience

 

House Speaker John Boehner

Two months after GOP House leadership unexpectedly canceled a promised vote vital to many among its pro-life base, a coalition of activist leaders is turning up the heat on Republican Speaker John Boehner over his alleged “betrayal.”

On Wednesday, March 25, at 11 a.m., a team of activists plans a sit-in protest at Sen. Boehner’s office in Washington, D.C. The event, known as #FreeTheBan, will be led by Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition; Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue; and Jill Stanek of JillStanek.com.

Boehner has said the legislation, known as the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, still “remains an important priority for our majority,” but the sit-in leaders signed a letter explaining why pro-life leaders felt “betrayed” by GOP leadership.

“This life-saving legislation [was] withdrawn on the eve of the 2015 March for Life, when hundreds of thousands of Americans had come to Washington, D.C., to embrace human rights and equality for all, and we were promised it would be passed on January 22 [the anniversary of Roe v. Wade],” the letter to Boehner states. “Just one day before scores would be marching in the harsh winter conditions of January, we were still being assured a vote would happen the next day. Imagine our further sense of betrayal that, almost two months later, no vote has been rescheduled for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.”

“I, for the most part, kept my silence, waiting … and waiting … and waiting for the GOP House leadership to circle back and fix their mess,” Stanek elaborated in a blog post titled Why I’m protesting Speaker Boehner’s office on March 25.” “The GOP must have mistaken our silence for indifference.”

The sit-in reveals pro-life leaders aren’t willing to seem “indifferent” any longer.

Newman, for example, is telling WND the stakes are so high it’s worth the risk of civil disobedience.

“We have to implement a backbone policy for Mr. Boehner,” Newman told WND. “It means we’re serious. We’re willing to take this to another level.”

He noted it’s been 42 years since abortion was decriminalized, and Congress now has the largest pro-life majority since then.

“We expect them to act,” he said. “It’s exactly why the voters put them there. It was in their platform, what they ran on.”

Stanek, a former nurse who first rose to prominence after confronting then-Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama over baby born alive legislation, said personal experience drove her to speak up then, and it drives her now.

“For me, it always comes back to the 21-week abortion survivor I held until he died. That sweetheart would be alive today had a 20-week abortion ban been in place,” she said. “I have determined … Wednesday will be a fitting time to remind politicians, and even we in the pro-life community, about that little guy and others like him, and attempt to restore a sense of urgency on saving these babies from an agonizing, tortured death.”

Learn how to build an “Abortion Free” America one community at a time in this brand-new, autographed book

As WND reported, Congress was supposed to vote earlier this year on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortion after 20 weeks gestation, but the vote was canceled at the last minute when Boehner apparently was unsure of the support he would get for the plan.

It was a ban that had found approval in Congress earlier, but not only did it not get support this year, it also has not been rescheduled for a vote.

Newman called the developments in Congress a “slap in the face of the pro-life movement.”

“We want a whole lot more,” he said. “We expect a whole lot from this Congress.”

The GOP expanded its majority in the U.S. House during the 2014 midterm elections and took control of the U.S. Senate for the first time in years.

“It’s something that cannot be ignored,” Newman said. “This speaker is weak, his policies are weak, his plan for implementing pro-life legislation is weak.”

He said if it becomes necessary, there may be future events at additional congressional offices.

Such civil disobedience has been used before by the pro-life movement. Some of the efforts by Joe Scheidler and the Pro-Life Action League were so effective in the 1980s that abortion advocates took them to court and accused them of racketeering.

It took 28 years and three trips to the U.S. Supreme Court to finish the case – a decision in which the pro-lifers’ actions were vindicated entirely.

WND’s original report on the Boehner sit-in included an interview with Stanek.

“I, as a nurse at a hospital in Chicago, held an abortion survivor for 45 minutes until he died, and he was 21 weeks old,” she said. “An abortion ban such as this would save babies like I held. This is very real to me. I have actually seen and held the babies that the House is just playing around with willy-nilly right now.”

Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Jill Stanek:

She noted the bill wasn’t given a vote even though the previous GOP-run House had passed it.

“When we protest on March 25, it will have been two months. We’ve been patient, more than measured in our response, more than muted. I, among others, am just not going to stand for this anymore,” Stanek said.

The sticking point in the legislation centered on the exception for rape and incest victims, who would be required to provide a police report of the crime before receiving an abortion. Stanek thinks the exception is a bad idea altogether.

“There should have never been a rape-incest exception to begin with,” she said. “We’re talking about five months along in pregnancy. Certainly by that time, mothers should know that they’re pregnant. And certainly, babies, even if they’re conceived in rape or incest, are innocent victims, too, and shouldn’t be put to death.”

Speaker Boehner and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., had tapped Republican women to be the face of this legislation, but it was ultimately two GOP women who forced the bill back on the shelf. Reps. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., and Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., made it clear at the GOP retreat before the vote that they had problems forcing victims of crime to bring a police report with them to get an abortion.

Stanek said if you’re going to have the exception, not requiring women to present a police report would make the law virtually meaningless.

“Late-term abortions aren’t good for women to begin with, but taking out this reporting requirement would just give a huge loophole to abortionists to check that box every time a woman came in for a late-term abortion and says she’s been raped,” said Stanek, who argued the reporting requirement also makes women safer.

“Making women report their crime to police protects other women from being victimized by these sexual perpetrators and protects the very women themselves against these perpetrators from violating them again,” she said. “Some of these women are victims of incest, and girls are victims of incest. If they don’t have to report the crime, then the evidence is covered up, literally killed when the abortion is committed.”

Stanek said the bill never should have been sidelined.

JOIN THE DON’T BE YELLOW, DUMP BOEHNER NOW CAMPAIGN

“They didn’t even take a headcount to see if they had the votes. They had the votes. At the last moment, the chief opponent, Renee Ellmers, said she would vote for the bill, but they just chickened out, and they took advantage of the pro-life movement.”

The protest does carry some legal risks for participants, but Stanek believes the cause is worth it.

“It’s going to be a sit-in,” she said. “We’re going to risk arrest, but this form of civil disobedience is nothing compared to what is happening to these children every day.”

Organizers are inviting pro-life activists from across the nation to join. Speaker Boehner’s office is located at 1011 in the Longworth House Office Building in Washington, D.C.

The name of the event is #FreeTheBan. More information is available at the event’s Facebook page.

Recruit your friends, neighbors and fellow commuters to the “Don’t Be Yellow: Dump Boehner Now”

Boehner office on eve of civil disobedience
Drew Zahn
Tue, 24 Mar 2015 00:30:52 GMT

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Ted Cruz deploys Ronald Reagan secret to victory

 

WASHINGTON – Ted Cruz is counting on the help of Barack Obama to win the White House.

That is, the senator intends to learn from the lessons of Obama’s 2008 “grassroots guerrilla campaign” for president, which the Texan often has spoken of admiringly.

But, while Cruz will borrow tactics from arguably the right’s greatest archenemy, he will follow the playbook of the right’s greatest hero, Ronald Reagan.

Grassroots support was the key to general election victories for both Obama and Reagan, but, like the Gipper, Cruz must first conquer his own party’s establishment.

He intends to do that not by appealing to the center, but by being his own man, an unapologetic conservative, and expanding the appeal of the Republican Party, just like Reagan.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas

And, just like Reagan, he intends to wage an insurgent campaign.

Merriam Webster defines “insurgent” as “one who acts contrary to the policies and decisions of one’s own political party.”

And that defines the Cruz strategy: He will not try to win over the GOP establishment; he will bypass Washington and go straight to the voters.

It is a simple but detailed plan. And it is based on a simple premise: A moderate approach will lead to certain defeat; only a conservative approach can lead to victory.

Cruz shared the outline of his strategy at a recent gathering of a few conservative journalists, attended by WND:

• Aim for the approval of voters, not Washington.

• Be a crossover candidate: Win back Reagan Democrats and FDR Democrats.

• Emphasize principles over politics; stick to core beliefs.

• Win tea-party and conservative votes, peel off support from libertarians.

• Energize and mobilize evangelical voters.

Most of those details are taken straight from the Reagan playbook. So, what advice would a former Reagan aide have for Cruz?

“Ted Cruz needs no advice,” Jeffrey Lord told WND.

An associate political director in the Reagan White House, Lord wrote an in-depth comparison of the Gipper and Cruz published in the American Spectator on Monday called, “The Texas Reagan announces for president.”

In that article, Cruz explicitly told Lord he intends to pursue a 21st-century version of the insurgency strategy pioneered by the late Ronald Reagan.

Lord told WND that Cruz’s speech Monday morning announcing his candidacy for president was “truly amazing” and “right on the mark.”

The former Reagan aide also explained why Cruz appears to have the right stuff to be the right’s first successful insurgent presidential candidate since the Gipper.

Aim for the approval of voters, not Washington

Cruz’s speech was not meant to win over the Washington establishment. It was aimed at Americans in the heartland who, he believes, yearn for a leader who speaks with conviction, rather than a candidate who will try to appeal to the center.

“He was bold, positive, and forthright,” Lord told WND. “Like Reagan, he was totally unapologetic about his conservatism – and the Cruz idea of ‘courageous conservatism’ was a way of answering the old Bush line about ‘compassionate conservatism,’ which by definition was apologizing for being conservative.”

Cruz’s speech showed what he believes is the lesson of Reagan’s success: The way to win is not to try to please as many voters as possible, but to convince voters of the quality of his convictions and that he is a man who will stick to his principles.

“That was the key to Reagan,” said Lord. “Reagan was not only unapologetic about being a conservative, he was proud to be one. Ted Cruz believes exactly the same thing – and it shows.”

See the campaign video: “Ted Cruz for President”

A few weeks ago, WND quoted Cruz describing how establishment Washington hated Reagan as a candidate and how he went over the heads of GOP elite to take his case straight to the people, from whom his real power came.

After Monday’s speech, reporters questioned Cruz’s mettle and ability to win an arduous campaign, but the candidate said it wasn’t about him, responding, “That’s where you’re lacking the faith in what’s happening across this country.”

He explained, “It’s coming from the people. Washington won’t turn us around, but what will turn us around is millions of courageous conservatives who are inspired to reignite the promise of America.”

That echoed a line in Cruz’s speech in which he asked people to “Imagine, imagine millions of courageous conservatives across America rising up together to say, in unison, we demand our liberty.”

That message struck the right chord with Amy Kremer, the former head of the Tea Party Express, who said the Cruz candidacy “will excite the base in a way we haven’t seen in years.”

Watch Cruz’s announcement!

Lord’s article noted, “Cruz has run aggressively against the Beltway culture since the moment he arrived in town. He’s a proud outsider even within the institution of the Senate, accentuated by his favorite hashtag: #MakeDCListen.”

“Cruz likes to say the biggest divide in American politics isn’t between Republicans and Democrats; it’s between ‘the people and the entrenched politicians in Washington, D.C.’”

That approach has earned Cruz the wrath of the Washington elite, even in his own party.

Lord wrote, that just makes the senator even more Reaganesque: “It is safe to say that as with Reagan, Ted Cruz’s adversaries can’t stand him, which, in the eyes of his admirers, is more than enough to see the newly declared candidate as the Texas Reagan.”

That has cost Cruz the financial support of  GOP king-makers, but it is making him a hero to the Republican’s grassroots base.

“Thus it is that like Reagan, Ted Cruz has become highly unpopular with Establishment Republicans. Not to mention the foaming furies he ignites from liberals who, in the day, hated Reagan in precisely the same way,” wrote Lord.

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But Cruz’s grassroots support comes from his willingness to “draw a line in the sand” and hold steadfast for causes and principles he believes are worthwhile, such as the government shutdown over defunding Obamacare in 2013, which, Lord, wrote, “was furiously assaulted by many of Cruz’s Republican Senate colleagues and most of the Establishment GOP, with some GOP senators going out of their way to deliberately sabotage the Cruz effort to defund the highly unpopular mandatory health program.”

However, with conservative luminaries such as talk-radio host Mark Levin raving about Monday’s speech, key endorsements seem likely, as Cruz’s grassroots campaign appears to have begun with immediate momentum.

Be a crossover candidate: Win back Reagan Democrats and FDR Democrats

It was no coincidence that, in his speech Monday, Cruz quoted Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt’s immortal words, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” then immediately spoke of Reagan’s boldness in cutting taxes, demanding the release of the American hostages in Iran and his determination to win the Cold War.

Cruz is courting admirers of both presidents and considers that a key to winning the White House.

WND reported how Cruz had recently told a small group of reporters that the reason GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election was because two groups of voters had stayed home: evangelicals and blue-collar Reagan Democrats.

Former President Ronald Reagan

Cruz insisted the only way to get crossover voters was to do what candidate Reagan had done: Stick to principles and frame the election as a fundamental choice between liberal and conservative governing philosophies.

The senator noted how Reagan was so successful with that strategy that he was the only president to ever have a type of crossover voter named after him, Reagan Democrats.

And, Cruz maintained, in sticking to his core beliefs rather than pandering to as many voters as possible, Reagan had given “FDR Democrats a reason to cross over” and support a candidate who would be a consistent man of his convictions, even if they might disagree with him on some issues.

It was notable that Cruz ended his speech with a nod to one of Reagan’s most inspirational beliefs, declaring, “We will restore that shining city on a hill that is the United States of America.”

Cruz knows the GOP brand is in need of some image repair, after years of Democrats hammering the GOP as stupid, evil, crazy and, especially, greedy.

But he also sees that as an opportunity to flip the script on the mainstream narrative of the GOP as party of the rich and Democrats as party of the poor.

As WND reported, Cruz intends to run a populist campaign aimed at explaining to working Americans the benefits of conservatism to everyone.

He sees that as an opportunity to expand his appeal beyond his conservative base, because, as he told the American Spectator, “The image created in the mainstream media does not comply with the facts.”

Emphasize principles over politics; stick to core beliefs

“Show me where you stood up and fought,” Cruz challenged potential candidates in a speech given in Iowa in January.

Cruz has said the GOP presidential candidate must be someone who has, time and again, chosen principle over politics – a candidate willing to take an unpopular stance if it is based on solid principle.

The feisty Texan, of course, has earned a reputation as someone willing to repeatedly and tirelessly go against both Democrats and establishment GOP leaders in his efforts to repeal Obamacare and stop amnesty.

Lord noted that keeping principles in practice, as well as in theory, reflected Reagan’s view, “that the GOP should move the center to the right – not, as the GOP establishment believes, move the right to the center.”

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Cruz has said the critical mistake that could cost the GOP another presidential election would be playing it safe by running another moderate candidate too “squishy” on the issues.

The real litmus test for the best candidate, insisted Cruz, was whether he or she had “stood up to fight on principle” on the most critical issues, such as amnesty, Obamacare, the runaway national debt, Second Amendment rights and the struggle to keep Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Emphasizing reporters should watch what candidates have done more than what they promise, and that actions should speak louder than words, the senator turned to scripture as the best guide of all, noting, “You shall know them by their fruits.”

Sticking to principles does not come without considerable risk in Washington.

Lord noted how when Cruz drew a “line in the sand” in the fight against Obamacare in 2013, he “was furiously assaulted” by many of his “Republican Senate colleagues and most of the Establishment GOP, with some GOP senators going out of their way to deliberately sabotage the Cruz effort to defund the highly unpopular mandatory health program.”

“Cruz was also opposed at the time by other potential GOP presidential candidates Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, and Chris Christie, as well as the losing 2012 party nominees Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Insisting Cruz was badly damaging the party’s 2014 chances was former Bush 43 top White House aide Karl Rove.

“In February 2014, when Cruz, in another line-in-the-sand moment insisted on holding Senate Republicans accountable in a vote to raise the debt limit, the Establishment GOP turned on him again. The Wall Street Journal editorialized that Cruz was ‘The Minority Maker.’”

However, as Lord also observed, “the 2014 elections brought a tidal wave of support for the Republican Party, giving it the best showing since 1928 with a take-over of the Senate and more seats in its House majority.”

Sticking to his guns has given Cruz another, perhaps surprising, dividend: what may be the growing respect of his peers and former antagonists.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

When Cruz joined Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in filibustering the nomination of eventual CIA Director John Brennan over drone policy, Sen. John McCain referred to the duo as “wacko birds.”

Cruz never responded with a personal attack, instead, characteristically adhering to Reagan’s “11th commandment” of not speaking ill of fellow Republicans in public.

Over the weekend, just before Cruz announced his candidacy, CNN quoted McCain as saying of Cruz: “He is a valued member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He and I are friendly, and I think he is a very viable candidate.”

McCain also suggested Cruz could beat Hillary Clinton and win the presidency in 2016.

Win tea-party and conservative votes, peel off support from libertarians

Cruz aides have told reporters he sees as the GOP as composed of four branches: establishment, libertarian, social conservative and tea party.

His strategy in the GOP primary races is to win tea-party and conservative votes and peel off support from libertarians, as well as energize and mobilize evangelical voters among the social conservatives.

A Cruz aide used a March Madness metaphor to described the strategy to National Review, equating the four GOP branches to four brackets.

“We’re the number one seed in the tea-party bracket,” he said, adding, “I think this makes us the number one seed in the evangelical bracket.”

Cruz told the American Spectator he intended to pursue “a 21st-century version of the insurgency strategy” pioneered by Reagan, and bringing together “national security, social, pro-growth, and libertarian conservatives.”

See Ted Cruz’s speech announcing his candidacy for president:

Lord recounted how the “Reagan coalition broadened the base of the party to bring in everyone from evangelicals to women to union workers to Latinos.”

Cruz sees the key to victory in expanding the base by attracting voters with conservative principles and re-creating what Lord described as Reagan’s “virtual army of supporters who had previously never spent a day in politics.”

The Texan’s hope is that will also offset the GOP establishment’s advantage in fundraising, where Bush is expected to raise $100 million, while Cruz hopes to raise $40 to $50 million.

And, as Lord also noted, Cruz is counting on his base-broadening strategy to overcome a severe deficit in the polls, where CNN recently had him at just 4 percent support.

Energize and mobilize evangelical voters

It is no accident that Cruz announced his candidacy for president at Liberty University, which advertises itself as the largest Christian university in the world.

He maintains low voter turnout among evangelicals and blue-collar “Reagan Democrats” cost the GOP the election in 2012.

“Today, roughly half of born-again Christians aren’t voting; they’re staying home,” said Cruz in his speech Monday. “Imagine, instead, millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values.”

Focusing on religious conservatives could help provide Cruz a jump start in two early primaries.

An entrance poll in 2012 found 57 percent of voters in the Iowa Republican caucuses described themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians.

An exit poll found 65 percent of South Carolina voters were born again or evangelical.

Cruz often reminds audiences his father is a pastor.

In his announcement speech, Cruz credited Christian faith with saving his family in the 1970s.

He described how his parents lived a “fast life,” both “drinking far too much,” neither with a “personal relationship with Jesus” and separating when he was three.

But his father converted to Christianity, “And God transformed his heart and he drove to the airport, he bought a plane ticket, and he flew back to be with my mother and me.”

“Were it not for the transformative love of Jesus Christ, I would not have been saved, and I would have been raised by a single mom without my father in the household.”

Will history repeat?

Why does Cruz appear so confident and enthusiastic when he is beginning a race for the White House with 4 percent support?

Probably because he has beaten long odds before, and handily, by sticking to the Reagan formula and running to the right, not the center.

As Lord wrote, “In early 2011, he was still the little-known, Harvard-educated, Cuban-American former Texas solicitor general considering a long-shot run against wealthy Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Cruz essentially did not register in the polls when he launched his Senate run.”

But, defying the pundits, his insurgent campaign based on conservative principles forced Dewhurst into a runoff, even though he finished 10 points behind.

“Two months later, Cruz erased that deficit and walloped Dewhurst – who by then had spent $25 million of his own fortune trying to salvage his campaign – by 14 points in the runoff,” recounted Lord.

He concluded, “A conservative star had been born.”

Follow Garth Kant @DCgarth

Ted Cruz deploys Ronald Reagan secret to victory
Garth Kant
Tue, 24 Mar 2015 02:38:42 GMT

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