Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Hamid Aboutalebi v. Senator Ted Cruz


Initial comment: Later, in this essay, I'll get into why I think Senator Ted Cruz is a self-hating Hispanic, in much the same way as there are (to cite a well-known example) such persons as self-hating Jews.

HA v. RC: The second wants to deny to the first his right to be Iran's ambassador to the UN. The second is none other than Texas's very own Senator Ted Cruz, his real name being Rafael Edward Cruz – the “Ted” not appearing on his recently released birth certificate.

The man who promotes himself as Ted Cruz, who was listed as Ted Cruz on the Texas ballot for US Senator, is guilty of fraud. His name was and is Raphael Cruz, a name which was never legally changed. So why did the Texas election authorities allow Ted Cruz to be listed on the ballot and not insist that Raphael Cruz be listed? If Cruz becomes the GOP presidential nominee in 2016, I hope the feds insist that his proper and legal name of Raphael Cruz be listed on the ballot.

Ted” is bothered by the fact Hamid, when he was 21-years-old, was involved in the seizure of US diplomats during the Carter administration. “Ted” didn't bother to note whether Hamid engaged in any other anti-US activities after the age of 21, though Hamid says he wasn't directly involved in seizing the hostages back in 1979. He merely fulfilled some minor role as a translator. But Cruz insists on settling old scores (which some people never tire of doing over and over again) and in guilt by association with a group that called those US diplomats a “nest of spies” - which of course they were.

So there we have it: “Ted” wants to hold Hamid hostage for something he did as a young man of 21. Which is ironic given that “Ted” didn't have any problem holding the entire US Senate (and nation) hostage (at the far more mature age of 42) when he gave his narcissistic, fundraising-motivated Green Eggs and Ham speech. Doubly ironic is that Senate Republicans allowed him to do this, when it was entirely within their power to stop him. And these very same Republicans voted to hold hostage the UN seat intended for Aboutalebi.

The entire House and Senate – and Barack Obama – acted in a cowardly manner by passing “Ted the Cruise Missile”* Cruz's bill, S.2195, which had this unwieldy title:

To deny admission to the United States to any representative to the United Nations who has been found to have been engaged in espionage activities or a terrorist activity against the United States and poses a threat to United States national security interests.

Side note 1: The four words highlighted in yellow in S.2195's title weren't highlighted by Cruz, but by me. Cruz et al cited only this one incident in Aboutalebi's life (again, when HA was 21-years-old). So it can't be reasonably assumed that he still poses a threat to US national security interests – but who said reason has anything to do with this whole sordid affair?

Side note 2: All this bill does is give the US President the power to deny a visa to such a person, and obviously leaves it up to his judgment in the final decision of whether to issue a visa. But you may be very sure of one thing: If Obama were to issue a visa to Hamid Aboutalebi, the GOP would be crawling all over his ass in fierce, self-righteous denunciation. And sending letters to the base asking for their money to help elect a Republican who will surely revoke that visa after assuming power in 2016.

I mentioned cowardly manner in magenta a few paragraphs above. In the case of the House and Senate, Cruz's bill passed by unanimous consent. That means, no roll call vote was taken, with the presumption that passage was unanimous. But...unanimous consent isn't the same as passing a bill unanimously.

The former allows Congressmen, most likely liberal Democrats, to later claim, “I never voted for this bill,” which would be literally true. In a private moment of candor, they could tell Iranian officials meeting in their offices, “Look, none of us could possibly have stood up and voted against this bill. Senator Cruz and the GOP, which are still viciously hostile to anything that might favor Iran, would have crucified us before a US electorate still smarting over the 1979 Hostage Crisis. And if I had voted against this bill and the GOP was able to hound me out of office, we wouldn't be meeting here today to talk about support for a current trade bill you favor.”

As for Obama's cowardly manner, he didn't have to sign Cruz's bill. He could have taken a “Do the right thing” kind of stand by saying, “The Iranians are right when they claim we don't have the right to bar their UN ambassador. That would be a violation of international law. I will veto Senator Raphael Cruz's bill, which of course the Congress could pass by overriding my veto. But even if they do, I will use that same bill as the basis for my authority to issue a visa to Dr. Aboutalebi since he does not pose any threat to our national security interests. And that is what this bill tries to address, people who pose such threats. End of story. Have a nice day, Raphael!”

But Barack Obama did not have the courage to say such a thing. Instead, he chose to create yet another example of American Exceptionalism as a doctrine which really means: “We can do whatever we want because God thinks we're special and we don't need anyone's stinking rules to thwart His divine edict.”


A Brief Comparison: Hamid Aboutalebi and Raphael Cruz

The following from Wikipedia shows that Dr. Aboutalebi did something with his life after the tender age of 21, an age when a lot of us did some really stupid stuff. As you can see, the good doctor has quite an impressive academic pedigree:

QUOTE:


Aboutalebi obtained his Ph.D. in historical sociology from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1999, after having completed master's degrees in sociology (from Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris) and in the history of Islamic civilization and culture (from Tehran University). Aboutalebi also earned his bachelor's degree in sociology from Tehran University.[4]

His professional publications include Basic Challenges of U.S Foreign Policy towards Iran (2009),[5] Rocky Mountains of Nuclear Extremism (2009),[6] Turkey: Modern Diplomacy and New Ottoman Caliphate (2009),[7] and New Challenges of Iran Foreign Policy towards U.S. (2010).[8] He published Anthropology of Ethics; First Volume of Philosophy of Social Ethics in 2013.[4]

:UNQUOTE.

As for Senator “Ted” Cruz, as I stated at the very beginning, he is a self-hating Hispanic. My point being: Anyone who hates himself for any reason will make a career of overcompensating to prove how worthy of his own love he really is. And such people will find a lot of other things to hate, thereby making them unworthy to become President of the United States.

I offer the following considerations in support of my claim that Cruz is self-hating:

Nothing is more important than one's good name. His loving parents named him Raphael Edward Cruz – and that's the handle he should have proudly borne his entire life. To have allowed his name to appear on the Texas ballot for Senate as “Ted,” shows a certain shame and willingness to pander – the latter quality which only got worse as time went on.

Maybe this is what Cruz fears the most: If he were to start – right now – going by the name Raphael, his Tea Party supporters wouldn't be as entranced by his words. They'd be squinting to see his face better and start thinking, “Say, he does look Hispanic, doesn't he? He sure doesn't look like one of us, the people who count. I wonder where his loyalty really lies, in spite of what he's saying.” That kind of thinking bothers Cruz so much, he'd rather deny his own name and the self-love that goes with it.

Cruz was a noted debater during his stellar collegiate career. I look upon debaters with an extremely jaundiced eye as being glorified spin mesiters who are good at thinking quickly on their feet. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but didn't we have problems with another accomplished rhetorician – one Barack Obama? You remember him: The “Change you can believe in” candidate who spoke eloquently in broad outlines in front of delirious throngs of supporters desperate to believe.

The problem with Obama: I was one of the few who actually read and posted an on-line analysis of his article in Foreign Affairs magazine, outlining certain policy initiatives. Anyone who read that article would have concluded as I did, “There's not much difference between George W. Bush and this guy.” But...nobody read my analysis, and not many more actually read his essay in more than just a glance.

So when it comes to the virtues of skillful debaters, I'll tell you this much: When Cruz gets around to writing down what he'd do if elected President in 2016, I will cut him down to size. What I've seen of his writing so far has not impressed me, but no one ever claimed that was his strong suit. However, as with Obama, I'm afraid no one will read my Cruz analysis.

The we come to the issue of faith – Raphael Cruz is a Southern Baptist. My very strong belief is that no one with a brain could possibly be a Southern Baptist. Or at least, no one with an engaged brain. I don't care how intelligent Cruz is supposed to be; if he doesn't direct at least some of that intelligence toward the crucial area of faith, then he does himself and all of us (if he'd ever try to lead this nation as President) a profound disservice.

Cruz's refusal to direct his inquiring mind into matters of faith speaks volumes on self-hatred. If he really sufficiently loved himself, he wouldn't have allowed others to dictate his choice of faith. [Just what could he have possibly meant when he said, “I'm Cuban, Irish, and Italian, and yet somehow I ended up Southern Baptist.”? “Somehow” doesn't quite cut it.] Deep down inside, I'm sure he knows how bogus is Southern Baptism; just as I'm just as sure Newt Gingrich knows deep down inside how bogus is the Roman Catholicism he'd converted to – mostly to please his wife.

But poor Raphael Cruz could never allow himself the right to choose his own faith. Since his self-hatred is so profound, he couldn't have tolerated the loss of love from outsiders he'd gain by “choosing” as he did. But Cruz's real “choice” was simply to shut his own brain down and not think this through as capably as he could have.

As for the issue of Cruz's dual citizenship – of Canada and the United States. Only after it was brought to his attention that dual citizenship might prove problematic to any viable candidacy for the presidency did Cruz make any move to renounce his Canadian citizenship. Cruz didn't think anything wrong with being a dual citizen for his entire adult life. [Oh, and he better not try to claim he didn't know he was dual – that would be like saying, “I didn't know who I was.” Say, what?]

Citizenship is a large part of what forms our identity. And if Cruz is willing to jettison his Canadian self in order to pander for votes, then I am saddened that he doesn't love that his Canadian enough to fight for it. By the way, keeping his dual-citizenship would not have created any Constitutional problem with his right to seek the US Presidency. Sure, there are people who will claim otherwise, but they are wrong.

A brief note on “natural born citizen”:

The Constitution simply says, “No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President...” This whole “natural born citizen” business was meant to blunt any attempt by foreign powers to “invade” the presidency for their own ends. However, and this gets interesting, the Supreme Court long ago upheld the “natural born citizen” status of a Chinese child born in the United States to two Chinese parents who were not US citizens. It could be argued that the influence of these parents upon their child could have prejudiced him against US culture and interests, which would have mattered if that child had ever been elected president.

It can't be argued that Cruz suffered from any such negative parental input.

Some will try to argue that Cruz has to prove his mother lived in the United States for 10 years as a citizen in order for her to be able to convey her citizenship upon her new-born son. That might very well be how the US statute read at the time of Cruz's birth, but the Constitution doesn't say anything about a 10 year requirement. Yes, Democrats might try to make some noise about this, but the law is on Raphael Cruz's side.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Steven Searle, just another member of the
Virtual Samgha of the Lotus and
former candidate for USA President (in 2008 & 2012,
and, no, I won't be running again because
I renounced my US citizenship 3 years ago)

Contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com

Footnote:


Ted the Cruise Missile”* - I call him “the Cruise Missile” in “honor” of those in our “defense” and “security” establishments who don't mind sending in cruise missiles to kill the innocent, just as long as there's a “reasonable” chance of blowing away some suspected terrorists. “Ted” Cruz seems very much like a collateral damage kind of guy – with a very broad range of what he considers acceptable collateral damage.

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