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Baring a clear and full apology by Ted, this goes down as one of the most abysmal decision in Presidential Primary history...

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/267625-iowa-secretary-of-state-scolds-cruz-over-controversial-mailers

The Iowa secretary of State on Saturday rebuked Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s controversial use of a mailer to encourage turnout at the Feb. 1 caucuses.

“Today I was shown a piece of literature from the Cruz for President campaign that misrepresents the roll of my office, and worse, misrepresents Iowa election law,” Paul Pate said in a statement released by his office.

The Cruz campaign sent out “report cards” in Iowa purporting to grade residents and their neighbors on their voter participation in past caucuses.

Formatted to look like an official document, the mailer is marked with the words “voting violation” at the top of the page in a large red box.

“Accusing citizens of Iowa of a ‘voting violation’ based on Iowa Caucus participation, or lack thereof, is false representation of an official act,” Pate continued in the statement. “There is no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting.

“Any institution or statement to the contrary is wrong and I believe is not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa Caucuses,” he added.

The mailer also includes an important notice at the bottom of the page: “Voting registration and voter history records are public records distributed by the Iowa Secretary of State and/or county election clerks. This data is not available for use for commercial purposes — use is limited by law. Scores reflect participation in recent elections.”

Pate, a Republican, said the secretary of state does not engage in any vote grading.

“Additionally, the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office never ‘grades’ voters,” he said. “Nor does the Secretary of State maintain records related to Iowa Caucus participation. Caucuses are organized and directed by the state political parties, not the Secretary of State, nor local elections officials.

“Also, the Iowa Secretary of State does not ‘distribute’ voter records. They are available for purchase for political purposes only, under Iowa Code.”

If that no qualified apology is made by Ted, it would be acceptable to me.

If not he drops out of my top three (3).

A...

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If the farming industry "destabilizes/stabilizes naturally," any problem apropos that isn't a problem. One hopes something unnatural isn't injected into the situation.

--Brant

leave the farmers alone--with their organic farming problems

(easier said than done--for instance, they have to deal with our fascist banking system, etc.)

Nonsense. Saying "destabilizes/stabilizes naturally" does not say it behaves unnaturally, the latter estimate is your own.

I didn't say that. I said "naturally" means leave it alone. To interfere with that is the unnatural thing. I suppose if you want to be nice about it you can call it artificial.

--Brant

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If the farming industry "destabilizes/stabilizes naturally," any problem apropos that isn't a problem. One hopes something unnatural isn't injected into the situation.

--Brant

leave the farmers alone--with their organic farming problems

(easier said than done--for instance, they have to deal with our fascist banking system, etc.)

Nonsense. Saying "destabilizes/stabilizes naturally" does not say it behaves unnaturally, the latter estimate is your own.

I didn't say that. I said "naturally" means leave it alone. To interfere with that is the unnatural thing. I suppose if you want to be nice about it you can call it artificial.

--Brant

Gotchya, my mistake

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Baring a clear and full apology by Ted, this goes down as one of the most abysmal decision in Presidential Primary history...

 

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/267625-iowa-secretary-of-state-scolds-cruz-over-controversial-mailers

 

 

The Iowa secretary of State on Saturday rebuked Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s controversial use of a mailer to encourage turnout at the Feb. 1 caucuses.

“Today I was shown a piece of literature from the Cruz for President campaign that misrepresents the roll of my office, and worse, misrepresents Iowa election law,” Paul Pate said in a statement released by his office.

The Cruz campaign sent out “report cards” in Iowa purporting to grade residents and their neighbors on their voter participation in past caucuses.

Formatted to look like an official document, the mailer is marked with the words “voting violation” at the top of the page in a large red box.

“Accusing citizens of Iowa of a ‘voting violation’ based on Iowa Caucus participation, or lack thereof, is false representation of an official act,” Pate continued in the statement. “There is no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting.

“Any institution or statement to the contrary is wrong and I believe is not in keeping in the spirit of the Iowa Caucuses,” he added.

The mailer also includes an important notice at the bottom of the page: “Voting registration and voter history records are public records distributed by the Iowa Secretary of State and/or county election clerks. This data is not available for use for commercial purposes — use is limited by law. Scores reflect participation in recent elections.”

Pate, a Republican, said the secretary of state does not engage in any vote grading.

“Additionally, the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office never ‘grades’ voters,” he said. “Nor does the Secretary of State maintain records related to Iowa Caucus participation. Caucuses are organized and directed by the state political parties, not the Secretary of State, nor local elections officials.

“Also, the Iowa Secretary of State does not ‘distribute’ voter records. They are available for purchase for political purposes only, under Iowa Code.”

 

If that no qualified apology is made by Ted, it would be acceptable to me.

 

If not he drops out of my top three (3).

 

A...

 

 

I think this borders on criminal. 

 

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Love to have David's (PDS) call on the above.

 

A...

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I was listening to a Des Moines radio station yesterday afternoon when the host opened his show with the news. So I went to Drudge and there it was.

My feel is that this will hurt Cruz and I am getting that uncomfortable feeling about him and his campaign. I would be furious to receive this.

In fact, in all my political work for decades, I have never seen this "tactic" and if it was employed against my campaign, I would be seriously disenchanted.

One 70 old woman who had caucused every cycle and was a Cruz supporter broke down in tears about this tactic and she said she is seriously considering not voting for the Senator tomorrow.

If she is indicative of how this was received, Cruz's "surge" may not be there tomorrow.

Did anyone hear him apologize for this?

A...

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Found a response by Cruz and his campaign (the video is off topic, the text is on topic with the story headline): http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/01/31/cruz-campaign-criticized-over-mailers-sent-to-potential-iowa-voters.html?intcmp=hpbt1

...

<Iowa Secretary of State> Paul Pate’s comments didn’t seem to deter Cruz’s attitude about the mailers as he brushed off the fuss, saying “I will apologize to nobody for using every tool we can to encourage Iowa voters to come out and vote.”

Matt Schultz, the <Cruz> campaign’s Iowa state chairman, reiterated to The New York Times that the use of mailers isn’t uncommon to try and increase voter turnout.

“Our mailer was modeled after the very successful 2014 mailers that the Republican Party of Iowa distributed to motivate Republican voters to vote, and which helped elected numerous Republican candidates during that cycle,” Schultz added.

Similar fliers were also mailed out during the 2012 presidential race to encourage potential voters to vote for Barack Obama, according to the Independent-Journal Review. Those mailers were also met with similar scrutiny.

“These kind of mailers are fraught with risk,” Republican strategist Rick Wilson told the paper. “They do work, but the social pressure stuff has got to be subtle. This, on the other hand, is like a sledgehammer.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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On Saturday night, Cruz responded. “I will apologize to no one for using every tool we can to encourage Iowa voters to come out and vote,” he told reporters during a campaign stop in Sioux City.

This, if true, is quite troublesome to me.

Needs to be fact checked since it is in the New Yorker...

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/ted-cruzs-iowa-mailers-are-more-fraudulent-than-everyone-thinks

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I don't know about the legality, but if you are running on being in the morally superior club, the religious guy who follows God and Jesus, the 10 Commandments, says do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and so on, once people who follow him for those reasons realize what this document is, the cognitive dissonance will be massive.

Many will see this as sleaze pure and simple and stop trusting Cruz. It will take some soul-searching to get there, but there is where it will go.

Wanna know how I know this?

I went the same path with Glenn Beck. I'm not a Christian, but I do believe in the goodness of Christians (including Mormons) of good character. That's how I used to think of Beck. But I have seen him do one sleazy thing after another to his own audience--just like this thing Cruz is doing--because he wants to destroy Trump's election chances.

Cruz wants to win the election and he's not above using blatantly deceptive manipulation, outright lying to his base get there. Oh, there's a technicality so it isn't 100% lying. It looks like an official document but has printed on it “Paid for by Cruz for President.” But to the people he seeks to attract, that technicality looks like the fine print on a credit card scam.

Actually, I have no problem with Cruz's tactic qua tactic since sleaze is what politicians do. However, the moral crusader Cruz is pissing immorality all over his core supporters and I don't think a good chunk of them have umbrellas.

I hope he likes the outcome.

Michael

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Cruz wants to win the election and he's not above using blatantly deceptive manipulation, outright lying to his base get there. Oh, there's a technicality so it isn't 100% lying. It looks like an official document but has printed on it “Paid for by Cruz for President.” But to the people he seeks to attract, that technicality looks like the fine print on a credit card scam.

Actually, I have no problem with Cruz's tactic qua tactic since sleaze is what politicians do. However, the moral crusader Cruz is pissing immorality all icover his core supporters and I don't think a good chunk of them have umbrellas.

I hope he likes the outcome.

Michael

Michael:

This "tactic," as you noted has a very corrosive effect, even for a hard core election day organizer like myself because it is based on shaming your neighbor and implying that your neighbor does not care about:

1) his country;

2) his community; and

3) the civil society.

It is slimy.

If I was caucusing, I would bring it with me and make a point to the Cruz group and I will bet you I could move at least 10% of that group to uncommitted.

Essentially, these folks will be Scarlet Lettered at the local feed store for years with whispers and looks.

A...

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To quote a wise Forum Administrator...

Drip...drip,,,drip

See here:

The mailer then listed his and Steffany’s name, along with five of their neighbors.

Hinkeldy was annoyed by the mailer, and tweeted “Hey @tedcruz your brilliant public shaming campaign has inspired me to caucus on Monday…For @marcorubio.” He confirmed that he had been leaning towards Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and hadn’t yet completely made up his mind, but the mailer “took me over the edge finally.”

And here:

The reaction on Twitter was swift, and largely negative. Many viewed the mailer as a privacy violation. As the mailer notes, the information on it was pulled from public records, and that is legal, but printing the names and voter records like that, along with the implication that the neighbors are seeing the same information, is unsettling to some. The Iowa Supervisor of Elections does not actually assign voter grades like this mailer implies.

“These kind of mailers are fraught with risk,” said Republican media strategist Rick Wilson, who has done some work for a Rubio Super PAC. “They do work, but the social pressure stuff has got to be subtle. This, on the other hand, is like a sledgehammer.”

Similar mailers were sent out during the 2012 race to encourage people to vote for Barack Obama, and were also met with condemnation.

http://journal.ijreview.com/2016/01/252498-said-undecided-iowan-received-controversial-mailer-ted-cruz/?utm_source=jolt&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Jolt02012015&utm_term=Jolt

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I don't want to laugh at somebody's faith, so I'm not doing that.

 

However, I'm not at all impressed with a person who makes a huge mistake and invokes his religion on this level ("awaken the body of Christ") just to win votes. A man of his faith should frame it as "I am in Your hands. Your will be done." Then go on to the awakening and so on as an expression of divine will, not a personal favor.

 

 

Even politically, it's not good. That phrase by itself sounds weird to all but fundamentalist Christians.

 

For the record, the "body of Christ" means the body of people who believe in Him. 

 

But people who don't know that get a vague unsettling image of trying to revive a cadaver or something like that. And in today's culture where zombies are a pop fad among the younger voter-aged people, that just sends the wrong covert message to them. Add that to the fact that Cruz resembles Grandpa Munster...

 

Not good... not good at all...

 

:smile:

 

Michael

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This is dirty pool and gotcha as hell, but if one is going to run as the most holy of God's holies, one better have one's Christian house in order.

 

What's worse, the video is a leftie calling Cruz out on his tithing, of all things (backed up in the video by Huckabee and others).

 

Now, as a non-Christian, I'm not concerned about tithing and realize campaigns are expensive, so give a working guy a break. Right?

 

However, I didn't know Ted Cruz was rich and his wife, Heidi, worked at Goldman Sachs...

 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W6D1aBfkPek" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Michael

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Cruz rubs me the wrong way almost equal to Trump.

Tithing 1% is very lame, and that's best he could do when he knew he was in the hunt for public office.

Imagine what he would have given if he didn't have his eye on the future prize...(although there's not much room between zero and 1...)

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I was listening to a Iowa radio show tonight. They announced, about an hour ago, that the ethics chairman of the State of Iowa will be holding a press conference Tuesday about potential ethics violations of the Cruz campaign.

Nothing more specific. However, I think it may refer to the mailing.

Very interesting development if it is a true report.

OK, it is even more interesting.

Apparently, the Cruz campaign texted their operatives at the caucuses that CNN was reporting that Dr. Ben Carson had suspended his campaign.

Allegedly, Cruz's operatives showed the text to the Carson caucus folks and said why don't you join us now.

Drip...drip...drip...

A...

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Adam,

I read somewhere that Ben Carson is also calling foul. I'm too tired to look the article up right now, but Google is your friend and it's definitely out there in several places.

According to the article, Ben claims that the Cruz campaign announced right before the voting (probably among the church folk) that he (Ben) had dropped out. It seems like the Cruz campaign encouraged the staff to spread this rumor and sent out emails claiming it. Ben sounded pissed.

Michael

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Adam,

I read somewhere that Ben Carson is also calling foul. I'm too tired to look the article up right now, but Google is your friend and it's definitely out there in several places.

According to the article, Ben claims that the Cruz campaign announced right before the voting (probably among the church folk) that he (Ben) had dropped out. It seems like the Cruz campaign encouraged the staff to spread this rumor and sent out emails claiming it. Ben sounded pissed.

Michael

Yes, I just added that to my last post and yes I am turning in - sleep well Michael.

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Cruz was at a Texas billionaires ranch for a barbeque and the 'prayer' went on for 90 minutes. I would walk out on a funeral if the prayer were over 15 minutes long. Weigh the rational and irrational carefully. I remember joking that if Michelle Bachman were president and the Russians were about to nuke us and she called a security council meeting, the prayer would drone on as the missiles neared us.

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Cruz was at a Texas billionaires ranch for a barbeque and the 'prayer' went on for 90 minutes. I would walk out on a funeral if the prayer were over 15 minutes long. Weigh the rational and irrational carefully. I remember joking that if Michelle Bachman were president and the Russians were about to nuke us and she called a security council meeting, the prayer would drone on as the missiles neared us.

And you know this because you were there, or, because you saw it in your...

graphics-crystal-ball-651914.jpg

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I don't want to laugh at somebody's faith, so I'm not doing that.

However, I'm not at all impressed with a person who makes a huge mistake and invokes his religion on this level ("awaken the body of Christ") just to win votes. A man of his faith should frame it as "I am in Your hands. Your will be done." Then go on to the awakening and so on as an expression of divine will, not a personal favor.

Even politically, it's not good. That phrase by itself sounds weird to all but fundamentalist Christians.

For the record, the "body of Christ" means the body of people who believe in Him.

But people who don't know that get a vague unsettling image of trying to revive a cadaver or something like that. And in today's culture where zombies are a pop fad among the younger voter-aged people, that just sends the wrong covert message to them. Add that to the fact that Cruz resembles Grandpa Munster...

Not good... not good at all...

:smile:

Michael

Geez, he's too much about religion, and I say this as someone who grew up in a catholic home and endured 8 yrs. of catholic grade school.

C'mon Teddy, quote from Atlas Shrugged, as you did on the Senate floor.

-Joe

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http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430758/iowa-caucuses-ted-cruz-beats-ethanol-industry

"Dave Vander Griend. has estimated that lifting the EPA blend wall could result in ethanol increasing its market share by 60 percent.

The crowd, standing in the middle of miles of cornfields, erupted in cheers as Cruz concluded that “by lifting the blend wall, by getting rid of an arbitrary government regulation, we can enable ethanol to expand its market share dramatically with no government mandate, no subsidy, no dependence on Washington.”

Whether Iowans understood the issue well enough to consider Cruz a friend and not foe of ethanol, only the voters know. If they voted with full knowledge of the ethanol issue then more power to them. If Cruz can bring his understanding of how market solutions can replace government subsidies and result in a win/ win, it will be a good thing. He does appear to know the issues and to make a convincing case.

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