Formed in 2009, the Archive Team (not to be confused with the archive.org Archive-It Team) is a rogue archivist collective dedicated to saving copies of rapidly dying or deleted websites for the sake of history and digital heritage. The group is 100% composed of volunteers and interested parties, and has expanded into a large amount of related projects for saving online and digital history.
I’ve got C-SPAN on, and Inhofe is giving Cruz a few minutes of rest by reading letters from wingnut constituents asking how anyone will have privacy after Obamacare is put into effect because apparently buying insurance from a private company gives all your information to the government. Also, Obamacare is by itself responsible for employers keeping people from working 40 hours a week (which is just their latest excuse, but that’s been going on for a long time for other reasons.) So how is this playing at home?
Above is the Dallas Morning News headline. Cruz’ talk is front paged, but it’s not being called a filibuster. I had to search the Houston Chronicle, which is as much a hometown paper as it can be for a Canadian-born guy whose real name is Rafael, but I finally found this:
That comparison has got to sting both for Cruz and for Davis. Finally, Cruz’ real hometown paper, the Washington Post:
Calling Cruz’ speech an attack on Obamacare is throwing him a bit of a bone, since he’s making his stand in the debate about a bill that actually does defund Obamacare, but even the Post didn’t use the “f-word”.
Southern Beale
No it’s not a filibuster. But make no mistake, it IS an advertising campaign — for both sides.
Patricia Kayden
Wendy Davis could not lean against a podium or take any breaks during her heroic filibuster. Can’t say the same for Cruz. There is really no comparison between the two.
Cacti
Cruz is giving himself a taxpayer-funded handjob.
JPL
@Patricia Kayden: Cruz is wearing sneakers so there is that.
joes527
Evidently Cruz read his children a bedtime story from the podium last night. (not a joke)
Green Eggs and Ham
I think we’ve reached the lack-of-self-awareness-pocalypse
Citizen_X
Davis earned herself thousands of supporters who, like myself, had never heard of her before her filibuster. Cruz isn’t getting any new supporters, and millions of new enemies.
hoodie
It’s interesting how headlines often fail to track the content of the story, which probably tells you who is writing the headlines. The Chronicle article pretty much makes clear that Davis was actually filibustering and the Cruz is just using time allocated for debate. I guess any filibuster qualifies as “Theater” and the Chronicle seems to choose that term because Davis was ultimately unable to stop the abortion bill. However, she did make Perry call a special session. Even Aquabudda managed to stage an actual filibuster.
aimai
Wendy Davis did not have an agreement with the opposition for just how long she could talk, she was not even permitted to lean against the podium as someone pointed out upthread, I’m not sure she was permitted even to take a bathroom break and she definitely was not permitted to have assistance from friends on the floor. Cruz is such an incredible wanker and his supporters are such massive whiners.
aimai
@Citizen_X: This. And also: if you didn’t know what was going on and were attracted to Cruz’s behavior you basically see politics as a blood sport where you want to throw your backing to the biggest asshole. I’m sure that Cruz will receive new name recognition to the ugliest and least informed tribalists on the right. The reverse was true for Davis–on behalf of the most downtrodden of Texas citizens (poor and pregnant women) she fought an difficult battle with grace and charm. People were attracted to her side by seeing someone with guts fighting for women’s rights. Its a totally different group of people.
ira-NY
Cruz is so transparently dangerous to the body politic that he might not,in fact, be dangerous.
Betty Cracker
They didn’t use the “F” word, but casual readers probably won’t catch the significance of that. The coverage is FAR more positive than Cruz’s transparent wankery deserves.
Mike in NC
What are the odds that all the Sunday talking heads TV shows (“Meet the Republicans”, “Face the Wingnuts”, etc.) will be clamoring to book this scumbag?
patrick II
To make is “filibuster” more effective Ted Cruz should make it more personal. People appreciate concrete facts over broad abstractions. Ted should get a list of currently fatally ill children — the kind I read about in the papers who’s parents are trying to raise money for a life saving operation — and he should pick one and give his talk while standing in the child’s front yard. The thought of making sure a child in such condition can never get health care would gladden the hearts of Ted’s constituents. They could follow up with interviews of the child getting progressively weaker as the government stayed out on strike. The week the sick child shaves his head they could have a special interview with both Ted and the child — the teabaggers would be so proud and Ted’s poll numbers would be even higher with his base constituency.
To be clear, I am not a professional campaign manager, but I think this is a great idea.
Alex
The real fun is that if Ted Cruz actually managed to cause any delays in the processing of this CR, it will probably result in a government shutdown. Right now the Senate is expected to get a bill back to the House on Monday and the government shuts down Monday at midnight.
Also, the Green Eggs and Ham video where CSPAN just gives up and adds a chyron explaining how pointless Ted Cruz is… it was amazing. — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9EX2XkpPgE
...now I try to be amused
For entirely different reasons!
Southern Beale
Also one of my commenters blog-whored this and I thought it was fucking brilliant: The Amazing Stupidity Of Ted Cruz. He even got Green Eggs & Ham wrong.
Oh, my.
Bill E Pilgrim
More like Green Eggs and Hamlet.
I anticipate with pleasure the end result of all this with the drama in the GOP resembling the end of Hamlet, with the entire royalty essentially wiping itself out from infighting.
Scott P.
The issue of increasing part-time work is a concern, even if not connected to Obamacare. Has anyone proposed raising the minimum wage for part-time workers by, say, $2.00 an hour? Best case scenario, it triggers a shift to more full-time work, worst case part-timers make some extra dough.
Zifnab
@joes527: Just as a point of comparison (from the Chronicle article)
:-p What a fucking joke.
Cacti
@Alex:
All of the above is by design. Harry Reid is sending the clean bill back to the house with as little time as possible for them to muck around with it. Ergo, if the shutdown occurs, it will be entirely on John Boehner’s watch.
Bill E Pilgrim
Yglesias with a funny thing about how Cruz got the symbolism entirely backwards by using Green Eggs and Ham.
TAPX486
@Bill E Pilgrim: One way or another we have to the GOP to that end point. Better now than dragging this circus out for the next 3 years. Let them force the shutdown and face the political fallout. Hopefully it can all happen before the debt ceiling is hit.
The US government makes me want to move to the Duchy of Fenwick. At least they figured out how to invade New York!
MattF
Maybe I’m just an old guy with a failing memory, but I’ve got a dim recollection of Cruz demonstrating his creepiness a few months ago at the Hagel hearings. Didn’t that already prove what everyone is now suddenly discovering? I dunno, maybe there’s a ‘creepiness index’– you have to commit N-sub-C blatantly creepy acts before being labelled ‘creepy’. But I’d say Cruz was already there, and has been there for a while now.
cmorenc
@ira-NY:
The quality in Cruz that most provokes repulsion isn’t that he’s an asshole, but rather that people instinctively sense his sociopathic narcisissm, and that his being a hard-core ideologue is more means to serve his narcissism than end. In short, people sense Cruze is an insatiable meglomaniac who gets sadistic enjoyment out of inflicting pain and inconvenience on other people.
dmsilev
@Cacti: Yep. And if Ted Cruz actually wanted to make an effective attempt at defunding Obamacare instead of simply grandstanding for the benefit of Ted Cruz, he’d make a short speech and then allow Reid to push the CR bill through as quickly as possible to give Boehner some maneuvering room.
Doesn’t seem to be working out that way.
dmsilev
@Bill E Pilgrim: Several people have pointed that out. How does one manage to miss the point of a Dr. Seuss book? It’s impressive in its own way, right up there with Rick Perry’s math skills.
Tone in DC
That would be so very cool, if that’s how this goes down. Orange Julius, Cantor and the rest of these idjits don’t work well when they have time to try to get their act together. These guys in a short time frame, with everybody watching? Julius will need to back up a truck to deliver his Jack Daniel’s Green.
chopper
@MattF:
yup. hagel didn’t disclose a campaign donor and cruz was all “how did we know that money didn’t come from al qaeda?” and even the republicans on the committee were all “shut the fuck up, ted”
peach flavored shampoo
@Mike in NC: Controversy sells. There’s 100% chance this guy is on at least 3 of every 4 weekends until 2016.
The Red Pen
Enough about Cruz! Did anyone notice that Obama was at the UN? Thankfully, The Daily Caller is covering it.
Obama lies to U.N. human rights official about not having smoked in six years
Bless you, Tucker Carlson. Journalism lives.
chris y
…letters from wingnut constituents asking how anyone will have privacy after Obamacare is put into effect…
And I bet they’re all on Facebook (or possibly MySpace).
MattF
@The Red Pen: Now, stop that. My computer isn’t equipped with vomit bags.
schrodinger's cat
How do I convince a friend that both sides are not to blame equally for the current dilemma that we are in. She voted for Obama both times but is now disappointed with him.
gogol's wife
@patrick II:
Brilliant.
eric
Quick point….the House GOP thought they had jammed Cruz by sending the bill to the senate so that he could take the blame, this speech is about passing the blame back to the house. This is Cruz vs. Boehner, not Cruz vs. Obamacare.
Elizabelle
I do not like Obamacare
I do not like it anywhere
I do not like it on a train
I do not like it in the rain ….
…… And then I tried it.
And I liked it.
Wait? What was the purpose of this story?
— Harvard Law grad
Bill E Pilgrim
@dmsilev: Or Ari Fleischer’s ability to read and count.
Next up, Newt Gingrich on Crossfire cites the moral of “Horton Hears a Who” as “Meh, what difference will one more small voice make? Might as well not bother”.
eric
@Bill E Pilgrim: that would be a democratic primary voter giving that talk ;)
Elizabelle
@Bill E Pilgrim:
I did love your Green Eggs and Hamlet comment.
It would seem Cruz’s performance can be used in oh, so many political commercials. Which just about write themselves.
Ash Can
@schrodinger’s cat: Maybe explain to her what the duties of the President and the Legislature actually are, so that she understands that the Executive Branch isn’t a dictatorship?
Joey Maloney
@schrodinger’s cat: Ask her to tell you what Obama could have done to avoid this situation?
amk
Perfect. Gutless corrupt assholes aka msm.
Joey Maloney
@Bill E Pilgrim: I think Gingrich is more likely a fan of Horton Hires A Ho.
Chris
My Facebook mini-feed has been lighting up with complaints from various people who claim that they know some guy or other whose hours were just cut or who was denied 40 hours so they wouldn’t qualify for health insurance, and it’s all Obamacare’s fault.
I’m no health care expert, but that’s an utterly bizarre statement to me. You’re telling me they were already paying for your friend’s health care. So clearly, if they cut it, it’s not because “Obamacare” suddenly imposed an unacceptable burden on them – they were already shouldering that burden. They simply decided to become even bigger cheapasses, put the money that would otherwise go to your friend’s health care into the CEO’s bonus, told him/her it was because of Obamacare, and figured they were in a red enough district that everyone would swallow it. (They were right).
nineone
Wait-a-sec, aren’t we still Randstanding? Can we do both? How do we choose? Anybody got a line on this? Can we get a ruling from DudeBroHQ? Quickly, please, as the annoying gnat only has until 1PM before he turns back into an annoying gnat.
Jeremy
@schrodinger’s cat: Tell her to wake up. Tell her that the President is not the master of the universe who controls everything. We have this branch of government called Congress that passes bills and authorizes spending.
maye
If anyone on this thread is familiar with the ACA, please answer this question: Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, will all insurance companies have to stop denying coverage for adult pre-existing conditions, or, just the companies that have chosen to be part of the exchanges?
dmsilev
@Bill E Pilgrim: That was hilarious. Even assuming it was real, of all the hypothetically nefarious powers that a President could have, getting an extra 6 or 7 characters on a tweet has got to be one of the least threatening ever.
Still, I eagerly await Glenn Greenwald’s 10,000 word expose of this new “scandal”.
joes527
@eric: Did he cite Go, Dog. Go! to illustrate how this is all Boehner’s problem?
gelfling545
@Elizabelle: I just want to say that Cruz & his ilk have a hell of a lot of nerve criticizing the level of achievement of public school students when, after receiving a gold-plated education, this is the best they can do. I can pretty much guarantee you that any second grader in any public school can tell you the point of that story.
amk
@schrodinger’s cat: well, she can have her revenge by voting for teddy boy in 2016.
schrodinger's cat
@amk: She hates him too.
ETA: I don’t think Cruz will be the nominee, tops the VP candidate.
schrodinger's cat
@Jeremy: I think her problem is that she relies on cable TV for news, especially CNN.
burnspbesq
@joes527:
Fortunately for the students at UC San Diego, the earth did not open and swallow Geisel Library when Cruz read a Dr. Seuss book as part of his public hissy-fit.
gelfling545
@maye:
https://www.healthcare.gov/what-if-i-have-a-pre-existing-health-condition/
feebog
@ Maye:
Geeno
@schrodinger’s cat: The tire rims and anthrax analogy usually strikes a chord with such people.
burnspbesq
OT, but on a topic that has been much, umm, “discussed ” here: justsecurity.org is hosting a what is likely to be a really good discussion on journalists and the Espionage Act today, and it will apparently be webcast.
http://www.nyu.edu/global/global-academic-centers/washington-dc/nyu-washington–dc-events/just-security-blog-launch.html
Citizen_X
@joes527:
I think the book that would apply to Boehner would be Clifford the Big Red Drunk.
Wait, I may not be remembering that correctly…
dmsilev
Via TPM, a GOP Rep attempts to construct the Grand Unified Theory of Wingnut:
The Red Pen
@dmsilev: That is so beautiful, I might cry.
maye
@gelfling545: But if you’re starting from scratch, uncovered, if I go to an insurance company not in my state’s exchange, they can sell me a new policy and deny coverage for pre-existing conditions?
ruemara
@schrodinger’s cat: So she’s a typical nominal liberal with limited information from a certain pool of pundits? Ignore it.
Higgs Boson's Mate
The fact fact that Cruz is regarded by both sides as an asshole and a self-serving wanker ensures that it’s only a matter of days or hours until the emessem finds it necessary to describe him as “serious” and “passionate.” He’s going to be John McCain 2.0.
The Red Pen
@maye:
gelfling545 quoted a provision that exempts existing policies, not new one.
dmsilev
@The Red Pen: Do you remember the wingnut a month or so ago who wrote a screed that repeated over and over again the timeless phrase “I am Spartacus because Benghazi”? Apparently members of Congress are listening.
El Caganer
Given the bad blood between Cruz and McConnell, I’m surprised his Seuss choice wasn’t Yertle the Turtle.
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: Tell her to watch Fox News for a week. These are not sane people we’re dealing with.
The Red Pen
@dmsilev: Missed that. I Googled it. It’s painful. It appears that Cruz is listening, at least.
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Free Republic has gone full Cruz. Jim Robinson is “zotting” people who criticize him in any way. Ardent birthers, particularly, have been told to STFU about their bullshit theories of citizenship.
I think Cruz is going to be another Palin. I just don’t see this clown making it through the primaries.
maye
@The Red Pen: OK, so CIGNA, not in the exchange, will be required to sell me an individual policy and cover all my preexisting conditions. Will they be allowed to charge me $10K per month for that policy if they want to? Or $20K? In order to steer me away from their business?
JPL
@maye: Technically they are not allowed to ask about preexisting illnesses. Smokers will be charged higher premiums though.
edit.. That is my understanding of the bill which might be lacking.
The Red Pen
@maye:
No.
Insurance rates have always been subject to approval by state insurance boards, so they’ve never been able to charge arbitrary rates. Now, the ACA allows only for a small set of rate drivers, such as age. Pre-existing conditions are not valid rate differentiators. That means that my wife, who is 38 and has fibromyalgia (with expensive meds) can buy the same insurance as any other 38-year-old, whether on the exchanges or some other market.
piratedan
@maye: well I can say this about CIGNA, they suck ass…. but then again, a lot of them do and while I want to rail at the people who answer the phones, they’re just doing their jobs (kinda like Nazi prison camp guards) defending heinous policy and protocols where claims are routinely denied for the merest trifles. I wish we could go back to the time where a modest profit on insurance was the norm before it became Geckoed into paying the top CEO’s multimillions of dollars for nothing more than doing deny deny deny until people get exasperated and give up. The fact that they find a few willing docs to write and craft absurdist rules, devoid of common and medical sense to establish their “standards of care” makes me loathe those folks as much as the greedy bean counters that run the schemes themselves.
Paul in KY
@Geeno: Great analogy. Should be given to lady.
Elizabelle
@schrodinger’s cat:
Collect some really good columns by Kay, and others, on the nuts and bolts of various issues, and send the links to your friend.
How much can Obama do when he’s up against GOP governors who want to punish their own residents with no healthcare or jobs — and those residents then complain to CNN and pollsters about Obama.
If she’s watching CNN, or network TV, she’s not getting enough information.
shortstop
Erick, Son of Erick, is bummin’ that “Abortion Barbie” got more positive attention than Cruz is receiving. A graduate of the Walter F. George School of Law referring to a Harvard law grad (who, in conservative hero style, came from nothing and worked her way through undergrad and law school) as “Barbie” is their new plan for female voter outreach. They really have no idea whatsoever how they come off, do they?
MattF
@shortstop: Female humans are not Erick ibn Erick’s target audience.
Cliff in NH
@maye:
if you don’t use a plan on the exchange you don’t get the tax credits for a plan on the exchange, why would you do that?
shortstop
@MattF: And yet he always finds time to complain that the dumb bitches won’t vote Republican.
MattR
I am pretty impressed with McCain’s current speech on the Senate floor telling Cruz and other Republicans that this was debated and fought thoroughly in 2009 and during the election of 2012, but they lost and they need to accept the consequences of that election even if they don’t like it.
Tone in DC
Grampy is conceding that facts have a liberal bias??
WTF? Is Graham gonna rise from his fainting couch long enough to actually agree that disarming Assad is a good idea?
What parallel universe are we in today?
Alex S.
I think Ted Cruz might just be Peak Wingnut personified. But he probably hasn’t reached his personal Peak Wingnut yet.
MattR
@Tone in DC: And now he is taking Cruz to task for the Nazi appeasement comparisons. Would be nice to hear that on CNN or Fox instead of CSPAN2.
It also sounds like the Democrats yielded time to McCain so he could make his statements since the Republicans have used up all their time.
Villago Delenda Est
@shortstop:
Eric, vile spawn of Eric, has no fucking clue how he comes off to anyone outside the bubble.
Betty Cracker
@MattR: Glad McCain is chiding Cruz with that truth, but he might try learning that lesson himself. He’s been the Mayor of Soreloserville since 11/2008.
MattR
@Betty Cracker: Baby steps :)
And on that note, the 60 vote threshold has been reached. Suck it Cruz.
Meg
New wingnut logic:
Obamacare= green ham &eggs= entitlement and drugs
Once you have it, you are hooked, and the devil wins.
Shortstop
@MattR: McCain’s baby steps are always toward the improvement of someone else’s conduct, never his own.
Scott S.
I’ve stopped believing Cruz is “the smart one.” Pulling a stunt like this sets him as a very low-watt bulb. He’s at least as dumb as Rick Perry. He may even be as dumb as Gohmert.
schrodinger's cat
@Scott S.: Book smart != Wise
Some Wanda Fish
Yes, Otto, gorillas do read Dr. Seuss. They just don’t understand it.
Lurking Canadian
@Chris: isn’t the claim that they’re seeing their hours cut? Obamacare says full-time employees are entitled to health insurance, so unscrupulous employers are turning full time employees into part time employees to dodge the requirement?
I mean, I don’t know if either clause in that last sentence is actually true, but as an argument it does not require pre-existing health insurance to be taken away.
xian
@joes527: he also seemed to think the lesson of Green Eggs & Ham was that you won’t like green eggs and ham instead of “hey, it’s not as bad as I assumed– it’s actually good!”