Ted Cruz: Two-Time Equine Posterior Achievement Award Winner and an ISBL Asshat Winner

You gotta hand it to Ted Cruz. I mean, no one in Congress works harder at doing nothing than our visitor from Canada — who decided to become a US citizen so he could run from president … of his homeowner’s association because that’s as close to a presidential office as he’ll ever get.

But, while accomplishing nothing other than shutting the government down because he’s a pissy little brat, Ted has also been the recipient of several honors. He’s been an ISBL Asshat of the Week more than once, and just recently he won the coveted Equine Posterior Achievement Award, which is the People For the American Way’s annual prize for the country's most extreme right-wing politician.

And by right-wing I mean asshat, er, Horse’s ass. And it wasn’t even close! Cruz won by a 21-point margin repeating his 2013 victory, when he beat out the likes of Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin for the coveted award. Seriously. He’s more of a Horse’s Ass than those two! That’s a prize-winner if I ever saw one!

Ted Cruz bested MGB™ and Crazy Eyes by pulling another stunt that backfired … badly. He’d hoped to humiliate President Obama and congressional leaders by challenging a bipartisan budget bill as a way to show his anger over Obama’s executive actions on immigration, but, instead, his maneuver was handily defeated and gave Senate Democrats the opportunity to put several judicial and executive nominees up for a vote before Republicans took control of the chamber.

Thanks for helping the Democrats, Ted!

Ted’s previous Horse’s Ass win in 2013 was due to his spearheading the opposition to a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision by falsely claiming that the amendment would throw comedians in jail and muzzle pastors.

He also threatened civil disobedience to block the enforcement of LGBT rights measures, introduced new measures to prevent marriage equality, said same-sex marriage is “heartbreaking” and causes his heart to weep and alleged that LGBT rights laws will put pastors in prison.

Cruz also stood by lawless rancher Cliven Bundy , notorious for his racist remarks and refusal to recognize the U.S. government’s authority, while at the same time torpedoing the nomination of a noted civil rights attorney , whom he accused of “fanning…flames of racial tension.”

Cruz also wants to go to war with net neutrality , although he doesn’t seem to have a clue about what net neutrality actually means.

Ted Cruz, a Horse’s Ass and an ISBL Asshat; what an honor.

via RightwingWatch

Sunday Funnies

Sunday Funnies

I Didn't Say It ...

Eric Holder, US Attorney General, on whether or not the country is ready for marriage equality nationwide:

"Yeah, I think the country is ready for that. I think all the polls certainly show that. The reactions to the continuing number of court cases that have found same-sex marriage to be constitutionally mandated -- the polls have shown that the American people, I think, are prepared to accept that. Now this has been a sea change. This is something that has happened, I think, relatively quickly. Part of it is generational. I talk to my kids, who seem, no problems with this, no issues with this at all. But I think it's more than a generational change. I think that people who know folks who are gay, who are lesbian, and who are their friends, their coworkers, they see the moral side to this. Um, it's a civil-rights issue. From my perspective, it is the civil-rights issue of our day — gay and lesbian equality."

Hopefully he can see this through before leaving office, though I do agree, no matter when it happens, it will be sooner rather than later.

Ted Cruz, Teabagging Senator, on his quest for the White House:

"Contrary to media reports this morning, Heidi and I have not made any decisions about political plans past the mid-term elections. Clearly we have an overzealous supporter out there making freelance comments, but to be clear, no decision has been made. Whoever this 'anonymous advisor' was, he or she had no authority to speak, and doesn't know what they're talking about."

Even Cruz knows he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever becoming president. He just wants to boost his own — in his head — popularity.

Richard Blanco, inaugural poet whose Until We Could is being used in a Freedom to Marry video, on his own coming out process:

"I really didn't end up coming out until much later in life ... and what really fascinated me as a writer and as an investigator is, how does that happen? How is it that moment by moment the next notch of courage, the next notch of self-understanding — even though you know you're gay at 12, 13, 14, those words can't even enter your mind. You can't even have the vocabulary; you don't say ‘Gee, I think I'm gay.’ No, it doesn't happen that way. It's just a slow sort of easing into, and all the little things that propel you to that place, all the people that support and move you an inch in that direction. The moment of coming out is really the end of a story — and the beginning of a new one, obviously, but it's really the whole life story to get to that moment."

It is a process, and it takes however long it takes. Since we are all so different, our own coming out, our own coming to terms with being gay and what that means to each of us, our family and friends, is a different path.

All that matters is the end point: coming out.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson, on realizing he was gay:

"I kind of learned that I was gay from other kids. I didn’t know what that meant. When you’re that young, you don’t know who you’re attracted to. You don’t know anything. I just knew I was different and I realized by the way other kids treated me that I was gay and that for them, it was not okay.”

I remember hearing that, too, when I was a kid, and not really knowing what it meant, except that it meant I was a target …. Until I realized it just meant I was attracted to boys and then it was So what? Who cares?

Random Musings

First off ... big shout-out to Anne Marie for her donation to The Will of the People Fund —click that lick up there on the right — a group Carlos and I helped create to fight for marriage equality in South Carolina.

Thanks Anne Marie, for the donation-slash-wedding-gift in our name.

You don't know how much we appreciate it!

So, I mentioned last week that Carlos and I ordered our wedding bands. I mentioned that Carlos had been into the “Smallville Jewelers” a couple of weeks back and how receptive they were to selling bands to a same-sex couple. I mentioned that when I looked at the rings — in silver, platinum and tungsten because I am not a golden kind of gay — I picked one that I really liked and Carlos told me he had also picked that very same ring.

Great minds, right?

Cut to the weekend and Carlos and I are in the car and he says to me, “Do you really like the rings?”

Yes.”

“We could get something else if you want …”

“Wait! You want a different ring?”

“No, I really like the ones we chose but if you want a different ring …”

“UM, why would I walk into a jewelry store, pick a ring, found out it’s the same exact mother%^$ing ring you’d pick, get our fingers sized, place the order and then decide I wanted something different?”

“I just want to make sure you like them.”

Oy.

Ann Romney, that insufferable Republican bitch, and wife to serial loser Mittsy Romney, is back in the spotlight saying her husband would have prevented the current ISIS mess … or made a fortune off of it … and then, when asked if Mittsy would run in 2016, she said, oh so sickeningly sweet, "We will see."

Let him run, and when he becomes a three-time loser maybe then this self-involved, out of touch, wannabe queen of America will shut her stinking piehole for good.

God, I loathe her.

UPDATE:

After an airman was unable to complete his reenlistment because he omitted the part of a required oath that states “so help me God,” the Air Force changed its instructions for the oath and, following a review of the policy by the Department of Defense General Counsel, the Air Force will now permit airmen to omit the phrase, should they so choose.

The change is effective immediately.

Good, since we are going back to war and will need as many military men and women as possible, eh?

Still, it was a stupid policy and it’s nice to see it ended so soon.

After arrest warrants were issued, three of the suspects involved in that mob gay bashing of a gay couple in Philadelphia turned themselves into police. They are: 

Kevin Harrigan, Kathryn Knott, and Philip Williams.

Most galling of all is that these three, and hopefully any and all others involved in the attack, will not be charged with committing a hate crime as Pennsylvania hate crimes laws don’t cover sexual orientation because, well, gay people are less than.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: if you bash a couple because they are gay, that’s hate; if you bash a couple because you want their wallet, that’s hateful.

There is a difference.

Now, while I abhor violence of any kind, the more I read about what these f&kmonkeys did, and especially read Kathryn Knott’s homophobic Tweets, I wish the punishment would be that they endure the exact same public beating they gave that couple.

And then lock them up for a good long while.

New TV season Hottie Alert:

Ioan Griffudd, of ABCs Forever about an immortal man who works in a morgue and dies every episode only to be brought back to life. It’s like Sherlock Holmes, who never dies. But Ioan is adorable with a delicious accent, so we’ll stick around for a while with this one.

And Las Alonzo, from The Mysteries of Laura AKA Grace Adler is a Cop Now. The show is cute, kinda funny, kinda serious, but I fell it could be wearing thin after a few views. But Las is definite eye candy while we watch.

Color me surprised, but a group of Texas county sheriffs and law enforcement officers have filed a brief with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals this week in support of marriage equality.

Yes, in support of marriage equality.

The letter, filed by Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia, Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, and more than 50 other Texans working in law enforcement, said, in part:

 “Gay and lesbian law enforcement officers and other first responders put on their uniforms, place themselves in harm’s way to protect and defend our communities, and swear to uphold our laws without prejudice or bias. … They serve our communities with equal distinction, skill, and bravery. But Texas denies these men and women the equal dignity and respect they deserve. Texas does not treat them equally in their day-to-day work, nor, tragically, even when they make the ultimate sacrifice.”

Good on Texas and good on law enforcement.

Fun Fact: President Obama and Tea Party Senator Ted Cruz are cousins—14^th cousins to be exact.

Picture that Thanksgiving dinner!

Oy.

Just in time for our wedding, new census data released last week makes a simple, but oh so substantial change in the ways that same-sex couples will be categorized now.

We are now considered families.

In prior years, the U.S. Census Bureau counted same-sex couples as “unmarried partners” — even if they were legally married — but starting with the new annual American Community Survey, same-sex couples will be counted in the family totals.

It sounds so minor, really, but it’s a huge deal; we are no longer co-habitators or partners or buddies or friends of the same-sex with benefits … we are family.

I might break out into a little Sister Sledge!

Overheard at work:

Racist, homophobic, idiotic Republican client: “What was all that protesting about climate change in New York? That’s just stupid. I say let Mother Nature take care of it.”

Me [to myself, way under my breath because I’ve learned not to poke the racist, homophobic, idiotic Republican client]: “That’s the problem you moron, Mother Nature is doing what she does because of what we’ve done.”

Asshat.