Trolling Isn't Just for the Left

Trolling.  You've heard that word before, no doubt and before the internet came along trolling was a word used mostly in fishing.  Trailing a baited line behind a boat, etc.  Now according to the Urban Dictionary, it's defined as, "the art of deliberately, cleverly, and secretly pissing people off, usually via the internet, using dialogue. Trolling does not mean just making rude remarks: 

The most essential part of trolling is convincing your victim that either a) truly believe in what you are saying, no matter how outrageous, or b) give your victim malicious instructions, under the guise of help."

Under that particular definition, I do believe that Ted Cruz has mastered the art of trolling in his latest bill he's introduced to send illegal immigrants to Democrat led cities such as Martha's Vineyard.  IMHO, troll level: expert.  I won't get into all of the details of the bill, but just the thought of what he's trying to do makes me giddy.  It's absolutely perfect and hilarious, but it does have merit beyond the shadenfruede that it makes me feel.  You can check it out for yourself here on the Daily Caller website.

A quote from the article on the Daily Caller says this: "For the past ten months, President Biden and his administration have willingly surrendered the United States’ southern border to dangerous criminal cartels, with no thought given to the South Texas border communities like McAllen and Del Rio, which are running low on resources from dealing with this massive influx of illegal immigrants,” Cruz said in a statement before introducing the legislation.

“That’s why today I am introducing this crucial legislation to alleviate the massive overload at the southern border by establishing new ports of entry in Democrat-led communities such as North Hero, Vermont, where Bernie Sanders spends his summers, and Martha’s Vineyard, where Democrat elites host their cocktail parties,” Cruz added.

I'm personally looking forward to hearing the left screeching and howling about protecting the borders to their fancy cocktail parties meanwhile they are the ones who have left kids in cages on the Texas/Mexico border.  What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

My Pick: Ted Cruz For President

Nobody loves an underdog story as much as I do, and Ted Cruz's story was that of an underdog in his bid for US Senate.  I supported him when he had 2% name ID in the polls against David Dewhurst back in 2012.  Dewhurst was predicted to win.  By a lot.  The grass roots rallied around Ted because we needed Ted in the Senate badly. 

We needed someone who would represent the values and the concerns of Texans and Ted Cruz was that man.  Now, as he makes his bid for President of the United States, we need a president that will represent the best interests, values and concerns of United States citizens and I still think that Ted Cruz is that man.

I hear you starting to shake your head in disagreement, and that's fine.  You're entitled to your own opinion, but let me finish.  Ted Cruz kept the promises he made to the people when he went to Washington, D.C.  He was and still is, the grass roots candidate. He has defended the constitution time and time again and referred to said document at his 'touchstone'.  "My touchstone for every question is the constitution."  Probably hadn't heard that from many if ANY of our current or former legislators.

He was and still is (to me) the rallying cry for the American people to be listened to and heard by their representatives.  He recognized the frustration of the people when he and his staff fashioned the hashtag #makedclisten.  Some folks claim that it was a 'fake' filibuster, but when Senator Rand Paul was there for his filibuster to delay the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ellen Kagan, Senators Cruz and Lee were right there with him, standing shoulder to shoulder to keep the confirmation of a legislate-from-the-bench, liberal justice from taking place.

I understand now, that folks want to call him 'establishment' and so on.  I'm curious what that word means to those who are calling him that.  To me, the establishment Republicans were the guys who didn't want to change anything about how politics were done in Washington, D.C.  They didn't want push back or questions from 'we the people', much less wanting us to be involved at all.

That has not been the case with Senator Cruz.  He has reached out to the grass roots to ask for help when the Senate wanted to usher in a bill to take away our second amendment rights.  He teamed up again with Senator Mike Lee to send a letter to his Senate colleagues regarding the second amendment rights and asked the grass roots to help support his efforts.  Here he is in a video, explaining how thankful he is for the help he received and what it was like to be yelled at by senior Senators for not being a 'squish'.  Hmmm...

I've heard complaints about Cruz saying that he can't build coalitions or bring teams together.  My friend Erin Anderson had this to say in response to the naysayers when the news broke that some of the Bush family was going to join the Cruz finance team, "Y'all, what did you think coalescing behind a candidate would look like? Of course people from other campaigns are now joining Team Cruz. You better believe he'll need and want support from all across the GOP spectrum in the general election. It doesn't means he's "selling out" - they are coming to him, and together they are broadening the coalition.
If you were for a more "moderate" candidate, doesn't this show "extremist" Cruz can work with others? If you're Team Trump, isn't this exactly the kind of deal-making your guy promises?"

Which brings me to my next point.  Now that he's made a run for President, he's been called all kinds of names; from liar to the establishment.  As a Ted Cruz supporter, now I'M establishment or a RINO, if you will.  What makes it wrong to support the candidate or the would-be incumbent when he or she actually does what he or she says they're going to do?  Are we still just a bunch of Outragers Anonymous, or are we actually looking for good and decent legislators?  Are we sending the wrong message to our legislators by never being satisfied with what they've done, saying that good isn't good enough?  I wonder.

I won't be deterred.  I haven't given up on the possibility that Ted Cruz will be the GOP nominee for President.  I'm still working at the grassroots levels of government and will continue to do so, because our future and our children's future is too important to quit.  As Ted Cruz signs in his photo pictured above, "The fight for Liberty never ends."

Trump Logic Translated into Mom Logic

For those of you who are supporting Trump and can't possibly understand why others don't join in with you, I'd like to explain it from a mom point of view.






"Kids, tonight, we're going to make homemade pizza for dinner!"
"Mom, you've never made homemade pizza before..."
"I know, but it's gonna be the most beautiful pizza you've ever seen!"
"We don't have any of the ingredients here at home, Mom."
"I know, but it's gonna be GREAT! It's gonna be better than Papa John's, Little Caesar's AND Ci Ci's Pizza! We're gonna make pizza great again!"
*sigh*


Please, go and vote on Tuesday, but NOT for Trump!

2014 RedState Gathering Held August 7th-10th

Attention!  Attention all RedState and Freedomworks fans!  There is a very exciting event coming to Ft. Worth, Texas next weekend!  It's none other than the RedState Gathering which proves to be a very exciting event with a great line up of speakers.  

You may be asking, "What IS RedState Gathering?"  Glad you asked!  From their event website: "In August 2009, RedState hosted the first RedState Gathering. Held annually, the Gathering has quickly become a leading grassroots event and has featured notable speakers such as Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Nikki Haley, Gov. Bobby Jindal, to name but a few. In 2011, the Gathering served as the launch pad for Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential bid. The Sixth Annual RedState Gathering will be held in Forth Worth, August 7-10, 2014."

It starts next Thursday, August 7th with Registration and a Governor's Reception with Governor Rick Perry.

The fun continues on Friday, August 8th, with a list of fantastic speakers: Governor Rick Perry, Former US Senator from North Carolina, Jim DeMint, Former VA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Ben Sasse, US Senate Candidate-NEbraska, and John Ratcliffe, Candidate for US House District 4.  Now for the line up from the great state of Texas!  State Representative and Speaker of the House Candidate, Scott Turner, Konni Burton, State Senate Candidate for District 10 and our very own US Senator Ted Cruz from Houston!  Not to be missed is the reception following the event on Friday evening with Senator Ted Cruz at Joe T. Garcias in the Stockyards District.

More excitement, (if you can stand it) on Saturday, August 9th with the following list of speakers: Governor Nikki Haley, Congressman, Jim Bridenstine, Republican National Committee Chair, Reince Priebus, our own Attorney General and candidate for Governor, Greg Abbott.  Also, Ken Buck, Candidate for US House in Colorado's District 4, Paul Dietzel, Candidate for US House in Louisiana's District 6 and last but not least Drew Ryun from Madison Project.

RedState Gathering will also feature the following:

Panel Discussions on Obama Scandals, an Elections Preview and more featuring guests from Towhnhall and our very own RedState Contributing Editors.

• Saturday Evening Reception with Attorney General Greg Abbott
• Texas Motor Speedway – Food, Drink and a special surprise
• Ends with Sunday Brunch at 10 AM
• Freedomworks, who is no stranger to grass roots efforts is partnering with RedState to put this event together.  I'm a huge fan of both organizations.  
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• I had a chance to meet Erik Erickson at a Grass roots Boot camp back in 2011, also in Ft. Worth. and I'm so happy to see them working together.  
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  • "The 2014 RedState Gathering Agenda has come together nicely and is sure to please. Thanks to the speakers, sponsors, and of course the activists who have registered to attend, the 2014 RedState Gathering will be the best yet. Don’t miss your chance to attend."-RedState
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  • Just to review: RedState Gathering is happening next weekend, beginning on August 7th at 5:00 PM and going until Saturday, August 10th.  The event is to be held at The Worthington Renaissance Ft. Worth Hotel, 200 Main Street.  For more information for tickets and lodging, click on this link.  I'll be helping out at the Freedomworks booth on Saturday!  See you there!

Congressman John Culberson Hosts Town Hall Meeting: We've Got to Stick Together!

Last night, Republican Congressman John Culberson of CD-7 hosted a town hall meeting for his constituents at Cy-Falls High School.  The crowd was sparse, about fifty or so in attendance.  The mood was relaxed, no crazy video taped confrontations or rude constituents, just concerned citizens waiting for an update from the Congressman.

I was surprised anybody made it out because as we all know, Senator Ted Cruz was in the throes of a filibuster to try and defund Obamacare in the Senate.  As you can imagine the topic of conversation was laser focused on Obamacare.  There were other concerns raised, such as the NSA spying scandal, in which Congressman Culberson denounced Edward Snowden as a traitor.  The Congressman also said that he wouldn't vote to repeal the Patriot Act, which was in large part the reason the government was allowed to spy upon innocent American citizens, although he'll tell you that wasn't the intention of the Patriot Act.

He stated he was in full support of defunding Obamacare and supported the most recent continuing resolution that came out of the House last week, the one that funded the government, but not Obamacare.  He was also fully supportive of what Senator Cruz was doing and even shared a personal text message exchange he and the Senator had. 

Speaking personally here for just a minute, the most frustrating thing to me about Obamacare, besides the fact that it is slowly killing jobs and the economy, is that we have no idea what is going to happen.  The bill is so awful, and the fact that we have unelected bureaucrats surrounding the future of our healthcare, is a recipe for disaster.

The Congressman did get a question from the audience, "What happens when Harry Reid strips out the defunding language from the House bill?"  Culberson's reply: "We'll send it right back."  Okay, Congressman, I'll hold you to that.

If you noticed the title, "We've got to stick together!"  That seemed to be the theme of the evening, an audience member even brought up was the 11th Amendment coined by President Reagan, "Thou shall not speak ill of any fellow Republican."  Not in public, anyway.  I see a lot of that done publicly when we are dealing with John McCain calling out Senator Cruz for being a so called 'whacko bird'.  We've almost come to expect that from McCain and his ilk.  Yes, he has an ilk, and I think it's safe to say that Harry Reid is part of it, especially after their theatrics at the end of Senator Cruz's filibuster.

On the surface, it seems that Congressman Culberson is 'with' Senator Cruz, and he might just be.  However, there was no talk last night of Congress being exempted by Obama from being forced into the Obamacare exchanges.  In a phone call I had with the Congressman, he assured me that Congress and its staff was NOT exempt, but I have found information that proves otherwise.  This link written by Loren Heal at Freedomworks says, "Congress has allowed itself to be exempted from this aspect of Obamacare. While the only insurance the federal government can offer its congressional employees must be in plans that are offered through exchanges, members of Congress and their staffs now have a benefit that the rest of America, by law, cannot have: their employer picks up the tab.  We should as citizen Dave Farrington said, "All have equal protection under the law."  So all of that talk of 'sticking together' just kind of fell flat, if you ask me.

A Tale of Two Senators

Look, I know you are all probably sick of hearing about voting records and continuing resolutions and funding this or that.  Deal with it.  It's going to get worse.

So, I wrote a little blog, titled Versions of the Truth, in which I document the tale of two stories, one in which it was reported that Congressman Culberson had in fact voted to fund Obamacare, and the other, in which he had not.  Guess who told the version that he had not voted to fund Obamacare?  If you guessed his office, you guessed correctly.

Fast forward about a week or so.  The same CR came up for a vote in the Senate.  Now, mind you, the line item for the Health and Human Services is listed in the summary of the bill and the story I got from Culberson's office was that therein was the confusion.  The line item only funded WIC and not Obamacare.  Via Redstate.com, I read that Senator Cornyn had voted FOR the continuing resolution and that Senator Cruz voted AGAINST the continuing resolution.  Wow.

So, I thought a call to Cornyn's office was in order to find out what really happened.  According to Claire, Senator Cornyn does oppose Obamacare.  He just didn't want to see a government shut down, and I told her I thought it might be a good thing to have a shut down.  She didn't agree.  It gets more interesting than that, because unbeknownst to me, Big Jolly was writing a blog the same time I was, he just got his out first.  Ha!  According to Big Jolly aka David Jennings and a press release from Senator Cornyn's office, Cornyn was able to accomplish the following:

• The Continuing Resolution denies President Obama the nearly $1 billion dollars in additional funding he requested for implementing the health insurance exchanges;
• It lowers spending levels, something that has not been done in years; and
• Keeps the sequester cuts in place

Now, I'm becoming more of a skeptic these days and I don't always believe what I'm told.  When it refers to spending cuts, I'll borrow a question from one of my good friends Felicia Cravens and ask, "What government agency is getting less funding this year than last?" I am also not sure where he saw the information about denying the President the $1 billion in additional funding. 

Not being well-versed in policy and how it's written coupled with being a skeptic I decided I wanted to compare notes with Senator Cruz's office.  I called Senator Cruz's office to find out why he didn't vote for the resolution.  Guys, I gotta tell ya, you could have knocked me over with a feather when these words came across my phone and I'm paraphrasing, of course: "Because it had Obamacare funding in it.  The Senator voted on principle.  He came to Washington to represent the will of the people of Texas and he's not going to vote to spend money on Obamacare."  Wow.

The staffer whose name I failed to get, then went on to say that Senator Cruz is not afraid of a government shut down.  That if the government did shut down, it was only the non-essentials that wouldn't get funded.  He also recalled the result of the government shut down of 1995; say it with me, a BALANCED BUDGET!  He went on to say that what's going to cause a shut down is if we keep spending money the way we are because we are borrowing $.40 on every dollar.  Wow.

So who are you going to believe?  I'd put my money on Cruz every time.

But wait, there's more.  Oh, yes, just this morning, I received a post on my Facebook wall about this very vote that still has folks disputing via Redstate, so of course I felt the need to finish up this blog and share my knowledge.  Erick Erickson stands by his original story, that yes, John Cornyn did in fact vote to fund Obamacare, and now by saying he didn't, he's simply lying.  All we want as constituents is the truth.  Is that too much to ask?

Choose Cruz for U.S. Senate

Okay, you probably don't need my input on this, but I'm going to go ahead and give it to you anyway.  If you live in Texas and you haven't lived under a rock for the past year, you know the top race in the upcoming Republican runoff is the U.S. Senate race.  The two candidates for the choosing are Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst.  Listen up and I'll let you in on how to vote on July 31.

TED CRUZ.  It's that simple.  If you want a real conservative to go to Washington to represent Texas the way it should be represented, vote for Ted Cruz.  I have followed this race and listened to both candidates and feel that Cruz is the clear choice.  There is such a stark difference between the two candidates that it is amazing to me.  On one hand, you have the establishment Republican candidate in David Dewhurst.  He has been the lieutenant governor for Texas for a while now.  Listen to his ads about himself and what do you really find out about him?  His dad was a bomber pilot.  Yep, that's it.  Not very telling when you are trying to decide who to vote for.  Although he has been more than happy to trash his opponent and cut his attack ads to fit his anti-Cruz narrative.  Would you expect anything less from a man who is backed by lobbyist and special interest groups?  Seems to me with the dawn of the tea party movement and 'grassroots' campaigns being all the rage, you would want to go that route, but not Dewhurst.  Read my lips: big government style politicians are OUT!

Moving on to Ted Cruz.  He is the exact opposite of Dewhurst.  He represents all that the tea party movement has been crying out for from candidates and representatives.  He has been able to reach out to the youth and to Libertarians; something that the Republican party is refusing to do but should.  That speaks volumes about him as a candidate and a person.  If you were to visit his campaign headquarters in Houston, you would see the cross section of society there united to help Ted get elected.   It's amazing.  The only people I see Dewhurst reaching out to are donors for more money.

From Ted's website you will see his record of fighting for our free market society, because, let's face it, socialism doesn't work!  He has also defended U.S. sovereignty.  I know that he feels  that we are not the world's police; that we shouldn't be involved in fighting other people's wars in all different countries and that we should pull out of the United Nations.  He is a believer in preserving religious freedom and defending life, to name a few.  He also believes in upholding the constitution as it's written by the founders.  He refers to it as the touchstone that we should return to as a country.  Hear, hear! 

Oh, and by the way, Texas Governor Rick Perry has manned up and said, adios, mofo, to the implementation of the ACA and it's overreach into Texan's wallets and lives.  You just have to wonder if Dewhurst were to get elected, would he have the backbone to stand up for what's best for Texas?  I KNOW Ted Cruz will.   So, please, on July 31st, cast a vote for the clear choice for U.S. Senate....Ted Cruz.