My blood boils when I hear someone talk about “taking our country back.” From what? Take it back from democracy? When the Idiot King DUHbya was appointed by a conservative Supreme Court stacked by his cronies, I didn’t say we have to “take our country back.” I swallowed bile daily for 8 years and voted for change.

This dumb mantra is all the worse coming from the mouth of an elected official. PUH-lease. It is the rhetoric of scoundrels that have driven the public away from the polls (that is, when those scoundrels aren’t actively suppressing the vote).

If you want to “take our country back,” take control of campaign financing, which that same conservative court has equated to free speech. The rich have more free speech than you or I. We’re free to listen to bullshit.

Paul announces White House bid | Albuquerque Journal News

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Sen. Rand Paul launched his 2016 presidential campaign Tuesday with a combative challenge both to Washington and his fellow Republicans, cataloguing a lengthy list of what ails America and pledging to “take our country back.”

Paul’s fiery message, delivered in his home state of Kentucky before he flew to four early-nominating states, was designed to broaden his appeal outside of the typical GOP coalition as well as motivate supporters of his father’s two unsuccessful bids for the Republican presidential nomination.

In a 26-minute speech that eviscerated “the Washington machine,” he spared neither Republican nor Democrat as he attempted to tap into Americans’ deep frustrations with their government.

“I worry that the opportunity and hope are slipping away for our sons and daughters,” the tea party favorite said. “As I watch our once-great economy collapse under mounting spending and debt, I think, ‘What kind of America will our grandchildren see?’”

He added: “It seems to me that both parties and the entire political system are to blame.”

Paul announces White House bid | Albuquerque Journal News

The Conservative Scold is as common as the Angry White Male. Holier than thou. The stern, disapproving look is all that’s left of the self-declared Deep Thinkers and Vulcans.

Cepeda: Written all over Ted Cruz’s face by Esther J. Cepeda

The Cruz who has most often graced the real estate of our newspapers and Web pages has appeared angry, disgusted, tired of your pathetic silliness, done with your sophomoric suggestions, knowing (more than you, duh), barely tolerant (of your ridiculous ideas), superior in every way, extremely self-satisfied and, most often, brimming with contempt. …

Cruz seems simply tired of those of us who aren’t as committed to Christianity or as disgusted with the government as he is.

We’re to be pitied, really, since anyone who might not find him palatable as an elected representative of the entire country is just, well, daft. Cruz’s conservatism is not so much a political ideology as it is, to him, simply the right and only way to be.

Watching him on “CBS This Morning” the day after his announcement, you saw that Cruz is undaunted. His tilted head, frowning lips, shrugged shoulders and hands upturned in gestures of incredulousness lead you to view his politics as anything other than “speaking the truth” and “defending common sense.”

Cepeda: Written all over Ted Cruz’s face

Born in Canada to an American mother and Cuban father. Of course, he’s natural born and eligible to run (as am I, though born in a US territory). But not even in a US state or territory. Worse than John McCain being born in Panama. I hope the Birthers have a stroke, but you won’t hear a peep out of the hypocrites.

It says a lot that he picked a conservative southern Christian (3 redundancies in a row) “university” to make his announcement, stressing his opposition to abortion and to same-sex marriage. Aren’t both of those issues settled? Just like the separation of church and state so many choose to defy.

First Take: Can a ‘wacko bird’ take flight in the GOP? by Susan Page, USA TODAY 11:47 a.m. EDT March 23, 2015

Ted Cruz isn’t shy. He’s combative. He rejects compromise as “the mushy middle.” He’s not inclined to wait his turn. And he doesn’t seem to mind annoying his Republican elders with tactics that critics see as destructive and short-sighted. …

In the Senate, he has been more of an agitator than a legislator. Arizona Sen. John McCain, the GOP’s 2012 nominee, once called him a “wacko bird.”

First Take: Can a ‘wacko bird’ take flight in the GOP?

Republican women say ‘War No More,’ but the men keep shooting their mouths off – The Washington Post By Dana Milbank Opinion writer March 16 at 8:44 PM

Earlier this year, House Republicans caused an uproar when, in one of the first acts of the new Congress, they attempted to pass an antiabortion bill that would grant exceptions to a rape victim only if she reported the assault to police. Republican women rebelled, and GOP leaders pulled the bill. In the weeks since then, Republican officeholders across the land have been demonstrating that if there isn’t a Republican war on women, there are a lot of loose cannons. In recent weeks, Republican state legislators have described a pregnant woman as “the child’s host” rather than a mother (in Virginia), called women a “lesser cut of meat” (South Carolina), likened Planned Parenthood to the Islamic State terror group (South Dakota), proposed legislation outlawing yoga pants (Montana) and suggested that it is not rape when a man has sex with an unconscious woman if he is in a relationship with her (Utah). …

Alas for the GOP, the gender gap preceded Senate candidate Todd Akin, and the comments have continued since then: the Idaho legislator who asked last month whether a gynecological exam on a woman could be conducted by having her swallow a camera; the New Hampshire legislator who said a Democratic congresswoman would lose because she’s “ugly as sin”; another New Hampshire legislator who argued that men make more than women because “they don’t mind working nights and weekends” or “overtime or outdoors”; the Arizona GOP official who said women on Medicaid should be sterilized; and the New Mexico congressman who endorsed this biblical view: “The wife is to voluntarily submit, just as the husband is to lovingly lead and sacrifice.”

At the same time, Republicans have taken up hundreds of bills in state legislatures restricting abortion, and Democrats have sought to highlight Republican opposition in Congress to the Violence Against Women Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act and other bills.

Republican women say ‘War No More,’ but the men keep shooting their mouths off – The Washington Post