15 other candidates and not one backbone between them

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Wednesday August 26, 2015 · 7:30 AM PDT

2015/08/26 · 07:30

The current Republican front-runner is a misogynist, xenophobe, who insults whole groups of Americans- including some groups to which the other 15 Republican candidates belong. This man wants to kick in doors to deport millions and says whatever he thinks will get him elected- no matter how vile. He panders to racists and lets the sewage of his ideas run out into the open discourse as if it were normal. When his followers pummel a homeless man, he simply brushes it off.

Yet, not one other Republican candidate has come out to confront Mr. Trump. Jeb? sent a sternly worded tweet once and then got spanked and retreated like a whipped dog. But the lot of them are pathetic. There is not one adult or leader among them.

Yet, this is our opposition. About half of American voters will cast a ballot for one of these cowards in November 2016. Perhaps the bile that spews from Trump is a feature and not a bug of the Republican party or maybe the rest of the group are just craven politicians with no moral compass.

Either way, we are going to have defeat the vomit-inducing Trump or the other 15 spineless cowards in 2016.

Losing the immigration debate: one descriptor at a time

Mcgoobian

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Thursday August 20, 2015 · 10:59 AM PDT

2015/08/20 · 10:59

“Illegals” instead of undocumented people.

“Anchor babies” instead of U.S. Citizens born to undocumented parents.

Now politicians and the press are using the phrase “birthright citizenship.” That wording has a haughty sound to it- doesn’t it? It conjures up images of having to do a special favor for some undeserving privileged type- not like good real Americans like you and me.

It reminds me why Republicans rebranded the “Estate Tax” as the “Death Tax” or “anti-abortion” as “pro-life”. It sells better.

As I noted in my prior diary, if you are born in the United States, you are a citizen. Until the Supreme Court says otherwise or until there is an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, it is law.

If you are born in the United States to undocumented parents-you have citizenship guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution- or hey, how about calling it “Constitutional Citizenship”?

Update: I corrected the last sentence to focus on the point that children of undocumented parents born in the United States are citizens. Thanks Timaeus for pointing the diplomatic exception.

Sorry Donald, you don't get to change the Constitution

Mcgoobian

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Tuesday August 18, 2015 · 12:44 PM PDT

2015/08/18 · 12:44

I read Hunter’s great diary about the Republican’s new Southern Strategy of the ending of so-called “birthright” citizenship. I even read some comments that thought that it wasn’t such a bad idea. Well, you better get your constitutional convention hats on because you will have to amend the Constitution.

In 1868, the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified and became the supreme law of the land. Article 1 of the Amendment states in part:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside (emphasis mine).

In 1873, a man named Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco, California. In 1882, the United States Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This law severely limited immigrants from China and barred Chinese immigrants in the United States from naturalization. It was undisputed that Wong Kim’s parents were not U.S. citizens and they were “subject to the jurisdiction of China.” In 1890, Wong Kim departed to China for a temporary visit. He returned a few months later to San Francisco. In 1894, Wong Kim Ark made another temporary visit to China and returned in the summer of 1895. This time, he was refused entry into the United States on the ground that he was not a U.S. citizen and detained aboard the vessel on which he arrived.

Wong Kim Ark filed a petition for habeas corpus in the District Court for the Northern District of California. The then “district attorney for the United States” intervened and asked that Wong Kim Ark not be released because he was inter alia a “subject of the emperor of China.” The trial judge, after an extensive review of the law, held that Won Kim Ark was indeed a U.S. citizen within the meaning of the 14th Amendment because he was born in the United States. The judge then ordered his release. The case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court.

After a rigorous review of the law and history of citizenship laws in the United States and England and the history of the 14th Amendment, Justice Horace Gray gave the opinion of the court that the 14th Amendment, “has conferred no authority on congress to restrict the effect of birth, declared by the constitution to constitute a sufficient and complete right to citizenship.” The Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision that Kim was a citizen and this has been the law of the land since 1898.

Now there are some commentators that have suggested that since Wong Kim Ark’s parents were in the country legally at the time of his birth, the case does not apply and birthright citizenship does not automatically pass to children of illegal immigrants. The Supreme Court case of Plyer v. Doe disposed of this argument by stating that “no plausible distinction with respect to Fourteenth Amendment ‘jurisdiction’ can be drawn between resident aliens whose entry into the United States was lawful, and resident aliens whose entry was unlawful.”

So if you are born in the United States you are a citizen. It will take a constitutional amendment to change that.

The candidates you want to have a beer with

Mcgoobian

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Tuesday August 11, 2015 · 11:43 AM PDT

2015/08/11 · 11:43

You go to your local bar and meet the Republican candidates for a beer:

Trump- Loudly proclaims “Free drinks for everybody!” He then proceeds to say that this bar is “classless” and takes the whole crowd with him to another bar. You are then stuck with the tab.

Walker- Sits in the back and mouths the words to 80s hair band songs. Walker gives you a thumbs up and a smirk because he knows who is really paying for the drinks.

Rubio- Is so thirsty!

Fiorina- Pontificates that she will merge beer then liquor to bring out the synergies.

Huckabee- Won’t drink a beer unless no one is watching.

Jeb!- Drinks and whines about how W keeps giving him a wedgie and he can’t do anything about it because of W’s secret service detail.

Kasich- Talks about his policy achievements and you excuse yourself to go throw up.

Cruz- Keeps texting you because you intentionally gave him the wrong address to the bar.

Christie- Puts out construction cones in front of the bar so that Paul, Gilmore, Graham, Jindal, Perry and Santorum can’t get into the place. He then gets really loud and spills drinks all over the place and berates the wait staff for not cleaning up fast enough.

As you leave the bar, you meet Megyn. After gulping her beer, she tells you about the time she met this guy named Roger at the crossroads in Mississippi.

The clown car is heading toward us!

Mcgoobian

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Thursday July 30, 2015 · 7:40 AM PDT

2015/07/30 · 07:40

The 2016 Republican presidential candidates are collectively: idiots, warmongers, dolts, greedy, clowns, narcissists, sociopaths and puppets of the 1%. They deserve scorn, mockery and insult. When you look at the “leaders” in the polls, one of the ten people below will most likely be the Republican nominee for president. That means about ½ of US voters who actually make it to the polls in 2016 are going to vote for one of these guys.

1. Donald Trump, “billionaire” businessman. Thinks Mexican immigrants are criminals and rapists, climate change is a hoax and the Iran deal is bad because the Persians or something.

2. Former Fla. Governor, Jeb Bush. The 2000 Presidential election, Rilya Wilson, Terri Schiavo, tried to end affirmative action in Florida Universities and state contracting.

3. Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie. Bridgegate, Hurricane Sandy Relief scandal, loud-mouth jerk.

4. Texas Senator, Ted Cruz- government shut-down, serial liar, wants to bomb Iran to get Jesus to come back.

5. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker-union buster, dark money, Koch puppet.

6. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Thinks earth is 6000 years old, switches position on immigration to appease radical base, auto-dealer billionaire puppet, dehydrated.

7. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. Constant ethical problems, anti-choice, anti-equal pay, Aqua Budda.

8. Former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee- Thinks the Iran deal is the holocaust, got rapist released from prison, used influence to protect family from criminal investigations, Fox shill.

9. Dr. Ben Carson. Wants to remove pro-LGBT equality judges, Obamacare = slavery, No such thing as war crimes.

10. Former Texas Governor, Rick Perry. Rabidly anti-choice, anti-coyote, Iran deal is bad, and um, uh, oops…

The remaining clowns Kasich, Santorum, Jindal, Fiorina, Pataki, Graham and whoever else decides to cram into the clown car could conceivably be tapped as a VP or to a cabinet level post.

That is a scary thought. It’s also scary that 12 out of the top 16 Republican candidates held some type of elected office. That tells me that-at least at one time- people got out and voted for these crazy people and these clowns won.

We need to mock, embarrass, call out, and taunt these clowns every day. But we also need to register new voters, sharpen our message and give people a reason to vote for us and not just a reason not to vote for the Republican candidate.

I look forward to whoever the Democratic candidate is and I will support them because it’s going to be a street fight in 2016- even if it is against clowns.

Texas HB 3864- License to discriminate

Mcgoobian

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Friday May 08, 2015 · 5:33 AM PDT

2015/05/08 · 05:33

Texas House Bill 3864 which gives foster care and adoption agencies the right to refuse to license gay foster parents is moving through the legislature. You can find the bill here

The bill prohibits any state agency from taking any adverse action against any private foster care or adoption agency-that contracts with the state and uses state money- if that foster care or adoption agency refuses to serve GLBT couples or individuals based upon its "sincerely held religious beliefs." In fact it actually waives sovereign immunity so that the agency can sue the state if "adverse action" is taken against the agency.

So the foster care or adoption agency can take state funds and happily deny GLBT couples from adopting or even providing foster care for children because of god.

This bill is expected to go to the house floor in the next several days.

Can we publicly shame Texas into killing this bill? Or is the hate just too deep in the heart of Texas?

Ted's prayer journal

Mcgoobian

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Wednesday March 25, 2015 · 12:21 PM PDT

2015/03/25 · 12:21

Dear Heavenly Father,

I did not see you at my campaign kickoff at Liberty University but I wanted to thank you personally for raising me up like Moses to lead this nation out of the bondage of big government. Once I am exalted to the presidency and repeal every word of Obamacare and abolish the IRS, I know that finally capitalism will be loosed here in America as it is in heaven. And then, I can finally introduce Iran to some “Shock’n Y’all”.

But God, I do need your help. Rand is really starting to annoy me. I know he went to a Baptist university but between you and me- I think he’s probably a Presbyterian. And Jeb. He’s Catholic! I don’t even think he would be allowed to attend my kickoff at Liberty U. So if you want your will to be done here in America, here I am Lord- send me.

I hope to see you at the National Prayer Breakfast. If you attend, please sit next to me. You know how I hate to study your Word with members of lesser religions.

Amen

Texas: Can’t turn blue without candidates

Mcgoobian

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Friday February 20, 2015 · 1:47 PM PST

2015/02/20 · 13:47

Texas is a big red state. We have:

a.    36 representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives
b.    150 state house representatives in Austin
c.    31 state senators
d.    14 courts of appeal- with each court having between 3 and 13 justices
e.    456 judicial districts served by a single judge.

So why do we Texas Democrats get kicked in the gut every election cycle and double-kicked in off years? I looked at some figures from the state elections website for the November 2014 elections. After crunching the numbers a bit, I found that Republicans had no Democratic opponent in:

a.    7 U.S. congressional house races
b.    3 state-wide Texas Supreme & Court of Criminal Appeals races
c.    6 state senate races
d.    57 state house races
e.    19 justice races for various courts of appeal
f.    114 local judge races for various judicial districts &
g.    38 criminal district attorney races

So I would submit that this is at least one reason we aren’t turning blue at a faster pace. The policy positions between Republicans and Democrats in Texas are stark- especially on the issues of education, the environment, equal rights and the economy. One big problem we have, however, is that we aren’t running enough people to articulate our message.

A playlist for today

Mcgoobian

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Wednesday November 05, 2014 · 7:47 AM PST

2014/11/05 · 07:47

I’ve been a registered user for a bit but haven’t commented in a while or written a diary until today. While there were a few bright spots, as a whole we got a national drubbing last night. I intentionally say “we” because despite our differences, we choose to make our tent is big and welcome others rather than pander to fear and loathing. Instead of “Don’t tread on me”, we choose “E pluribus unum”.

So for those of you that worked the phone banks, walked the neighborhoods, drove people to the polls, registered people to vote, sent money to candidates, said silent prayers or thought positive thoughts for candidates, voted and generally worked your tail off to make this country better, thank you.

I made a playlist for you. Some songs are sad, others are angry. Some are hopeful. Some maybe don’t seem to fit. For me, today is a day for contemplation and reflection. I am wishing you peace today.

But tomorrow, ah tomorrow, we all have work to do...

1.    Have you ever seen the rain? Creedence Clearwater Revival
2.    Heart of the matter. Don Henley
3.    I’m still standing. Elton John
4.    Against the wind. Bob Seger.
5.    I am the highway. Audioslave.
6.    If you’re gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough. Roger Alan Wade.
7.    No one is to Blame. Howard Jones.
8.    You can’t always get what you want. The Rolling Stones.
9.    Born in the USA. Bruce Springsteen.
10.    Don’t stop believing. Journey.

Any others songs that you are listening to that will help get you through the day and get ready for tomorrow?

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