HypoCruzy

GOP presidential hopeful, Ted Cruz, posted a charming Cruz family Christmas video commercial last week featuring his lovely wife and two young daughters, aged five and seven, gathered together on the living room sofa next to the Christmas tree to hear Daddy read his partisan politicalized versions of classic Christmas stories.

“T'was the night before the shutdown and all through the house, not a bill was stirring, not even to fund a mouse,” he read. Next it was: “How Obamacare Stole Christmas,” followed by “Rudolph the Underemployed Reindeer,” and “Frosty, the Speaker of the House.” “Look! The Speaker is melting before Congress,” read Daddy.

Then it was the Lois Lerner masterpiece: “Auditing St. Nick.” “I will audit him here and there. I will audit him anywhere,” he read, followed by “The Grinch Who Lost Her Emails,” “I know just what I will do, she said with a snicker; I’ll use my own server, and no one will be the wiser,” the little 7-year-old Cruz daughter read dramatically about the Grinch.

Finally, they held up a book entitled: “The Senator Who Saved Christmas,” featuring Ted Cruz himself declaring that he approved of this message.  The video was obviously scripted, the message entirely political, and Cruz’s little daughters were plainly being used as political props, totally oblivious as to what was really going on.

It was nauseating.

So why should anyone be surprised that The Washington Post published this cartoon depicting Senator Cruz dressed in a Santa suit turning the crank of an organ grinder attached to two little trained monkeys on leashes. 

The very next day, poor Senator Cruz was pitifully whining about how his family should be totally off limits in such matters. Washington Post editor, Fred Hiatt agreed, and yanked the cartoon from the website, saying: “It’s generally been the policy of our editorial section to leave children out of it. I failed to look at this cartoon before it was published. I understand why Ann thought an exception to the policy was warranted in this case, but I do not agree.”

Meanwhile, Senator Cruz cynically decided to capitalize on the controversy by sending a campaign fundraising email to supporters. It included the offending cartoon along with the subject line: "They attacked my children… I'm sickened...I knew I'd be facing attacks from day one of my campaign, but I never expected anything like this… "This shows you EXACTLY how desperate the liberal media is to attack and destroy me (and my family) by any means necessary… This is an emergency -- all hands on deck. Click here to make an instant, emergency contribution and help me fight back."

 

Later, he posted on his Twitter site his own version of the offending cartoon depicting Hillary Clinton walking two dogs marked with the logos for The New York Times and The Washington Post.

In short, Cruz made the most out of the political Christmas gift he received and proved in the process that he doesn’t give a damn about his little daughters being injected into his political campaign. After all, it was Cruz himself who deliberately injected them unwittingly into the fray.

I call that a perfect example of political HypoCruzy. 

Courtroom Conscription

A Washington County Ohio judge wants to punish 55 people for the “crime” of failure to report for compulsory jury service as ordered by the court. He plans to slap them all with court fees and/or possibly arrest and incarceration for violating his order.

This scenario happens every day in jurisdictions all over America. A Court clerk randomly selects a list of people from the community for potential jury service. The judge signs an order to summon those on the list to appear before the court at a designated time and place and subject themselves to compulsory service on a jury panel.

The judge claims the power to compel or excuse jury service at his whim. If compelled to serve on a case, the juror may be forced to cooperate for days, weeks, or even months at a time as the case may require. That juror is obliged to leave his or her normal life behind and show up every day for service. In some instances the judge may even sequester them in a hotel and order them not to carry on their usual activities and contacts until their service is concluded.

There’s a big problem with this in my opinion: It’s unconstitutional.

The Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution specifically provides that: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

What could possibly be more plain and unambiguous as that? If a person has not been duly convicted of a crime for which punishment is prescribed by law, no judge has the power to impose involuntary servitude upon that person in the form of compulsory jury service – period.

Leaving that aside however; as a lawyer, the last thing I want for my client in a jury trial is a juror sitting in judgment on the case who doesn’t want to be there. The first question I always ask a jury panel is whether anyone present would rather not serve. If anyone raises their hand I always ask the judge to excuse that person for cause. That’s because a juror serving involuntarily is likely to be an unfair juror – a juror who doesn’t care.

That’s why jury service must me voluntary. Compulsory jury service is involuntary servitude – unconstitutional courtroom conscription.

Patriotic propaganda

When it comes to cultural propaganda the U.S. government puts the former German Nazi regime to shame. Your government is interested in telling you what to think and it is willing to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to accomplish that goal.

In spite of the First Amendment Establishment Clause, for example, your government has long been on a mission to culturally promote the concept of a government God. That’s why, since 1954, public school children are subjected to the daily ritual of reciting in unison the Pledge of Allegiance to our so-called “nation under God.” It’s why our national motto was changed from “E Pluribus Unum” to “In God We Trust,” and why that government God propaganda appears today on every coin and bank note of U.S. currency.   

Now the U.S. government Department of Defense is spending $millions of our taxpayer dollars to professional sports teams for the purpose of honoring American soldiers. Your government is actually paying private organizations to propagandize the military. It amounts to “paid patriotism.” 

"When events take place on the field that anyone assumes ... is done out of the goodness of their heart, and find out that it is being paid for by the taxpayer, it kind of cheapens everything," explains Arizona Republican senator Jeff Flake. "It's just not right." 

According to a congressional report, since 2012, government contracts with the National Football League, Major League Baseball, and National Hockey League worth $6.8 million have included “displays of paid patriotism,” including paying for ceremonial first pitches, puck drops and color guard performances, among other events. 

The New York Jets franchise received $20,000 to honor “Hometown Heroes.” the Milwaukee Brewers got $49,000 to honor the Wisconsin National Guard and to sponsor Sunday performances of “God Bless America.” The Arizona Diamondbacks raked in $40,000 for on-field oath ceremonies and color-guard demonstrations.

Altogether, the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL, and MLS, took in $53 million in taxpayer dollars for “paid patriotism” marketing and advertising contracts. These professional sports teams weren’t sponsoring and promoting the U.S. military out of a sense of personal patriotism. No, the government had to pay them to promote its pathetic program of patriotic propaganda.

Rubio would trash Equal Protection Clause

Just as I begin to like a Republican presidential candidate, in this case, Marco Rubio, he finds a way to let me down. I simply do not respect any politician who thinks that constitutional equal protection of the law is not a fundamental right enjoyed by all. That is exactly what Rubio thinks and he has promised if elected president to appoint Supreme Court Justices who think so too.

In this day and age, who seriously believes that the constitution allows white people to pass laws mandating segregation of the races in public schools? What politician in his right mind today would promise to bring racial segregation and Jim Crow laws back? Yet that is precisely what social conservatives like Marco Rubio once believed. That was during the dark ages of U.S. history before the civil rights movement.

It appears that Mr. Rubio, and many, if not most, of the other GOP social conservatives, have failed to learn the American history lesson that constitutional equal protection of the law is supposed to protect us all. They’ve not given up in their bigoted crusade to deny equal marriage rights to gays. Marco Rubio in particular doesn’t think that battle is quite over just yet despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans would disagree.

"It is the current law. I don't believe any case law is settled law," says Rubio "Any future Supreme Court can change it…  And ultimately, I will appoint Supreme Court justices that will interpret the Constitution as originally constructed,"

In short, Marco Rubio promises to appoint SCTOUS justices who will deny equal protection of the law to gays. It’s the same as promising to appoint justices who would validate racial segregation and Jim Crow laws under the Constitution. After all, that’s how the Constitution was once interpreted.

"I don't think the current Constitution gives the federal government the power to regulate marriage," Rubio declared. "What is wrong is that the Supreme Court has found this hidden constitutional right that 200 years of jurisprudence had not discovered and basically overturned the will of the voters in Florida, where over 60 percent passed a constitutional amendment that defined marriage in the state constitution as the union of one man and one woman."

That “hidden constitutional right” is the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause, the same constitutional provision which SCOTUS applied in Brown v Board of Education to put an end to racial discrimination in the public schools. The federal government isn’t regulating marriage. It is simply applying the Fourteenth Amendment constitutional rights to gays. When did Florida voters acquire the power to deny that constitutional right to a minority by vote?

Marco Rubio, like so many other GOP social conservative candidates, has his head in the sand. In his foolish effort to pander to the ultra-right wing evangelical wing of his party before the Iowa caucuses, by trashing the Equal Protection Clause, he’s willing to damage the chances of the ultimate GOP nominee to prevail in the general election.

I’ve said it many times before and it needs saying again: This is the kind of religiously oriented political nonsense that scares the daylights out of the average American voter. This is why the GOP will have a hard time beating Hilary Clinton – a proven criminal and incompetent -- in the general election.

One doesn’t easily get elected President of the United States of America by trashing the Equal Protection clause. 

How to defeat ISIS: Girl Power?

Did you know that those nasty ISIS jihadist fighters who are causing so much terrorist trouble in the world today are deathly afraid of girls? That’s right. They think that if they die in battle at the hands of a girl, they’ll go directly to hell, and consequently won’t get the promised celestial reward of 72 virgins in paradise.

Now I don’t know for sure if this is true or not but it wouldn’t surprise me if it were considering what I know about religious superstitions. Supposing it is true, wouldn’t that open the door to a perfect solution to the problem of defeating ISIS?

Girl power!

Apparently, there are a number of Koranic verses promising 72 virgins in paradise to jihadists who die in battle. This fact has been used successfully by radical Islamic imams and terrorist groups as an ISIS recruiting tool. That belief is responsible for their willingness to so readily sacrifice themselves, to blow themselves up with suicide bombs, or participate in terrorist attacks in which they know for certain they’ll die.

They think they’ll be rewarded. If they didn’t think they’d be rewarded in paradise then perhaps they wouldn’t throw their miserable lives away. There would be no jihad; no ISIS; the Islamic terrorism threat would disappear.  Faced with the prospect of being killed by a girl, they’ll run for the hills.

So why not use this irrational religious nonsense as a powerful weapon against them? They’re afraid of girls. They think they’ll go to paradise if killed by a man, but to hell if killed by a girl.  All we have to do is convince them that they’re likely to die by the hands of a girl.  

We can capitalize on this. We can put out a message to the enemy jihadist’s that we’re arming the girls and the girls are coming for them. The U.S., for example, should use female pilots on bombing missions against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. When they hit the targets and kill ISIS leaders we should broadcast the fact that they were killed by girls. Even if the pilot who scored a hit wasn’t a woman we should assert that it was.

Let’s put willing women on the front lines in combat missions and let the enemy know that the girls are gunning for them. That’s what the Kurdish fighters are doing successfully right now. “We are being trained to use snipers, Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades,” explains one Kurdish female fighter. There are many female battalions in the fight and it scares the hell out of the ISIS fighters.  

So... how to defeat ISIS: Girl Power!

Nickels and dimes

Last month it was $43 million dollars flushed down the government Department of Defense (DOD) “spendthrifting” toilet like worn out play money for a single ordinary gas station in Afghanistan. The same gas station could have been built for no more than $500,000. The U.S. government spends taxpayer money like you and I spend nickels and dimes.

This month the news is that the same DOD stiffed hapless U.S. taxpayers with another $150 million for the construction and maintenance in Afghanistan of a few posh villas staffed with private security and all the amenities for just a “handful” of government employees working in Afghanistan. 

That same “handful” of just 5 to 10 individuals could easily have been housed at the U.S. embassy or on several other secure U.S. military bases for next to nothing.

"We are concerned that this may be another example of U.S. government officials not looking out for American taxpayers' dollars,” a special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction (SIGAR), admitted in what must be the greatest understatement of the millennia.

"If [they] had instead lived at DOD facilities in Afghanistan, where housing, security, and food service are routinely provided at little or no extra charge to DOD organizations, it appears the taxpayers would have saved tens of millions of dollars."

The special inspector says he has received "numerous allegations" of criminal activity in this matter from former employees as well as "current and former uniformed officers who worked over there, other agencies and contractors."  

One former employee described the villas as hangouts for senior DOD officials who traveled to Afghanistan, "simply to accumulate flying miles… They just came in and didn’t do anything but hang out in the villa.”

Of course, as I explained last month, this kind of outrage doesn’t happen without corruption and criminal activity at the highest to the lowest levels of government. All of the money is tucked neatly away in the pockets and bank accounts of individual criminals. The money was stolen. 

The criminals have become filthy rich overnight. Yet none of them will be identifies. No one will be fired. No one will go to jail, and the loot will never be returned. All will soon be forgotten until the next outrage; and the next; it never ends.

That’s because, in the corrupted minds of government spender’s it’s only nickels and dimes.