Donald Trump's now defunct Commission on Election Integrity seemed to really focus on Texas Hispanic voters.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump’s voting commission asked every state and the District for detailed voter registration data, but in Texas’s case it took an additional step: It asked to see Texas records that identify all voters with Hispanic surnames, newly released documents show. 

In buying nearly 50 million records from the state with the nation’s second largest Hispanic population, a researcher for the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity checked a box on two Texas public voter data request forms explicitly asking for the “Hispanic surname flag notation,” to be included in information sent to the voting commission, according to copies of the signed and notarized state forms. 

White House and Texas officials said the Texas voter data was never delivered because a lawsuit brought by Texas voting rights advocates after the request last year temporarily stopped any data handoff.

Gee, it's almost as if this whole commission was created simply to prove that Donald Trump lost the popular vote because of illegal immigrants who voted against him.

But that can't be right, can it?

You bet your ass it can. 

Both George Bush's refuse to weigh in on 2016 presidential race.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:  

The Bush family is keeping quiet on the 2016 presidential election. 

Neither of the former presidents – George H.W. Bush or his son George W. Bush – will endorse a candidate for presidency – including Donald Trump – PEOPLE confirms. 

"President Bush has no plans to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign," Bush Jr.'s personal aide Freddy Ford told PEOPLE about the younger of the two. 

Meanwhile, Bush Sr. will also steer clear of the ongoing race for the White House. 

The article goes on to explain that George W. has endorsed candidates in the last five elections since he left office, but not this time around. It is also reported that they will both skip the convention.

Gee, I wonder why?

In other news John McCain has said outright that Donald Trump hurts his chances at reelection:

Publicly, John McCain insists Donald Trump will have a negligible effect on his campaign for reelection. But behind closed doors at a fundraiser in Arizona last month, the Republican senator and two-time presidential hopeful offered a far more dire assessment to his supporters. 

“If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30 percent of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life,” McCain said, according to a recording of the event obtained by POLITICO. “If you listen or watch Hispanic media in the state and in the country, you will see that it is all anti-Trump. The Hispanic community is roused and angry in a way that I've never seen in 30 years.” 

I cannot say that I have an ounce of sympathy for the Bushes, The helped to create this beast and now they are afraid to get near it, nor for John McCain since he was the one who opened the door to a candidate like Trump with his introduction of Sarah Palin onto the national stage.

Watching them step away from the GOP presidential candidate whose supporters their policy decisions and anti-Washington rhetoric helped to inflame is more than a little
satisfying.

Terrifying to be sure, but also a little satisfying. 

Donald Trump's immigration plan essentially takes a scorched earth approach.

Courtesy of The Washington Post: 

Trump’s plan, which is detailed on his website, calls for construction of a wall along the Mexican border, vowing to “make Mexico pay” for it; an end to birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants; the defunding of sanctuary cities; the strengthening of immigration enforcement; and more. In an interview on NBC News, Trump added that he would rescind President Obama’s executive actions shielding millions from deportation, and deport all illegal immigrants: “They have to go.”

Trump's plan also included tripling the number of ICE officers, and hunting down ALL illegal immigrants in America and keeping them imprisoned until they could be deported back to their home countries.

The cost of such a program is estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars. (Because you know fuck fiscal conservatism when there are wetbacks that need deporting.)

Now of course the question is what do the other GOP contenders do in response to this? Especially if it helps Trump increase his lead?

Let's face even though some of the GOP candidates, like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, talk about working to secure the Hispanic vote, the real base of the Republican party is xenophobic to its core.

So if Trump says outlandish things like this, and it helps him in the polls, what choice will the other candidates have to but to jump on board the undocumented immigrant bashing bandwagon?

Man you can almost hear the ground rumbling beneath your feet as all of the Hispanics rush over to support the Democratic ticket can't you?

Donald Trump continues courting the Hispanic vote by calling for a boycott of Mexico. Oh yeah, that will help.

Courtesy of The New York Post:  

Surging in Republican presidential polls following his attacks on illegal immigration, Donald Trump is now advocating a US boycott of Mexico. 

“I’m not going to Mexico. And I don’t think anybody from this country [should],” Trump said on the Rita Cosby WABC radio show. 

“I think we should boycott Mexico, frankly.”

I swear if Trump had his way he would start a freaking war with Mexico. 

This of course follows on the heels of Trump's prisoner of war insult directed at John McCain for which he is still refusing to apologize:  

Asked by ABC News whether he owes McCain an apology, Trump said: "No, not at all." 

"People that fought hard and weren't captured and went through a lot, they get no credit. Nobody even talks about them. They're like forgotten. And I think that's a shame, if you want to know the truth," Trump said Sunday. 

"People that were not captured that went in and fought, nobody talks about them. Those are heroes also," he said.

So let's see. So far, just these last few weeks, Trump has managed to piss off the Hispanics voters, military members, and the supporters of other GOP nominees.

By the time he gets to the debates he may have virtually nobody left in his corner except his family.

Though one has to wonder if they don't find him more than a little creepy as well.

I swear that watching this Trump campaign careening off of the tracks is almost as much fun as watching Sarah Palin slowly imploding in on herself.

All in all it's been a great summer.

Univision, the Spanish language television network, refuses to air Donald Trump's Miss Universe contest because he apparently hates Mexicans.

Here is a statement from Univision courtesy of Mediaite:  

Today, the entertainment division of Univision Communications Inc. announced that it is ending the Company’s business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, which is part-owned by Donald J. Trump, based on his recent, insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants. 

At Univision, we see first-hand the work ethic, love for family, strong religious values and the important role Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans have had and will continue to have in building the future of our country. We will not be airing the Miss USA pageant on July 12th or working on any other projects tied to the Trump Organization.

This of course is in response to Trump saying this during his announcement as a indicate for President:  

"When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best. They are not sending you. They are sending people that have lots of problems, and they are bringing those problems to us. They are bringing drugs and they are bringing crime, and they’re rapists.”

Yeah apparently Spanish speaking people don't like it when you call them rapists. Who knew?

Of course Trump being Trump there was no way he was letting this go.

Mexican gov doesn't want me talking about terrible border situation & horrible trade deals. Forcing Univision to get me to stop- no way!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2015

Univision wants to back out of signed @MissUniverse contract because I exposed the terrible trade deals that the U.S. makes with Mexico.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2015

I love Mexico but not the unfair trade deals that the US so stupidly makes with them. Really bad for US jobs, only good for Mexico.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2015

Well so much for attracting the Hispanic vote there Donald.

Or, let's face it, support from ANY reasonable American voter. 

We are not the only ones who think that Texas is ready to go blue. So does former Texan Rand Paul.

Currently the Senator from Kentucky, but still so Texan he wears roadkill on his head.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Sen. Rand Paul on Saturday predicted that Texas would turn blue within a decade if the Republican Party doesn’t become more inclusive. 

“What I do believe is Texas is going to be a Democrat state within 10 years if we don’t change,” Paul (R-Ky.), who grew up in Texas, said at a dinner held by the Harris County GOP. “That means we evolve, it doesn’t mean we give up on what we believe in, but it means we have to be a welcoming party.” 

Paul, who is heavily weighing a presidential bid, noted that his assessment was shared by the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. The Lone Star state, currently the largest Republican bastion in the country, is nearly 40 percent Hispanic — a demographic that has overwhelmingly supported Democrats in recent elections. 

I rarely listen to anything Rand Paul says because you know he's crazy, but this time I think he is speaking the truth for a change.

There is a lot of Democratic energy in Texas to take back their state, and electing Wendy Davis as Governor could just be the tip of the iceberg. 

However I disagree with Paul over one thing.

There is NO way the GOP is going to get their act together fast enough to attract the Hispanic vote or more female support anytime soon.

Not when the majority of their policies seem to focus on stripping women of their reproductive rights, militarizing the border with Mexico, and pushing a religious doctrine into our public schools.

Michele Bachmann wants to "spank" the President and take his "magic wand." Paging Dr. Freud.

Courtesy of Mediaite:

Bachmann has been leading a campaign against immigration reform, declaring last month that the GOP will never again be able to elect get a president in office if the “amnesty” bill passes. “It’s my prediction that the House Republicans could put themselves in a position where they could actually lose the gavel in 2014,” she said today. “Because I think the president, even by executive order, could again wave his magic wand before 2014. And he’d say, ‘Now all of the new legal Americans are going to have voting rights.’” 

If this were to happen, which pro-Gang of Eight types say is unlikely given the increasingly long path to citizenship outlined in the bill, Bachmann warned that once Democrats controlled the executive branch and both houses of Congress, they would then “change election law and it will be almost impossible to ever see a Republican majority again.” 

Bachmann assured her intended audience that she’s “not crying wolf here.” 

President Obama “has a perpetual magic wand,” Bachmann asserted, “and nobody’s giving him a spanking yet and taking it out of his hand. That’s what Congress needs to do: give the president a major wake-up call.” The way we “spank the president,” according to Bachmann is “through the checkbook,” denying him the funding he needs to pull off this massive voter manipulation scheme.

Oookey dokey then. You know usually I would be all over the inherent racism in these statements by Bacahmann, but I have to admit that I am somewhat distracted by the very obvious, and very creepy, sexual innuendo in her remarks.

I mean who talks about spanking the most powerful man in the world? And as for he "magic wand?" I think THAT speaks for itself.

I guess we should have expected something like this from Bachmann, after all this is whose magic wand she is currently allowed to touch.

"Look butch Marcus. Remember, always look butch."

Yeah somehow I think HIS magic wand only shoots out rainbow colored glitter.

And it is not like Michele has not given us hints as to where her true passions lie.

You can practice all you want Michele, but if you think the OTHER Michelle will let you get within magic wand biting range of her husband, well you have another think coming.

Bitch!

Promoting Marco Rubio and pushing for immigration reform has only earned the GOP a one percent increase with Hispanics. Nice try Gringo!

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

A new poll showing infinitesimal gains among Hispanic voters bristled the GOP on Tuesday, as the supposed rewards of the party’s moderation on immigration seem, for now, not to be materializing. 

The poll, courtesy the left-leaning Latino Decisions, pitted various potential GOP 2016 candidates against Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, and found both Democrats trouncing any and all Republican opponents. Clinton whupped Rubio 66-28, and Biden beat him 60-28, though Rubio did outperform the rest of the GOP field by a 2:1 margin. 

The major takeaway, though, is the lack of movement of GOP candidates from Mitt Romney’s woeful 2012 showing among Hispanic voters, which was the impetus for the GOP establishment’s sudden sense of urgency for immigration reform, which was to salvage the party’s image with the country’s fastest-growing demographic. But Rubio fared only one percentage point better than the man who never wanted to be president. One point in a poll is a statistical blip, hardly the payoff the Republicans expected from their moderating push over immigration, and a poor return on Rubio’s immolation of his conservative credentials.

One point? Rubio painted a giant target on his back and invited Right Wing hatred over immigration reform for only one point?

Man that's funny!

My favorite part of this article however is that even if the Republicans wanted to roll the dice and put up Rubio as their 2016 candidate he will still get steamrolled, not only by the juggernaut known as Hillary, but by Joe Biden as well. You know Joe, the one the Right Wing is always mocking as ineffective.

Well you know what the GOP needs don't you? They need to add a woman.

I understand that Michele Bachmann will be available.

I can see the bumper sticker now:

Rubio/Bachmann 2016. 

Now will you wetbacks and bitches vote GOP?

Oh, please, please, please do this!

President Obama lays out his immigration policy and gives a speech for the ages.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Damn this man is holding nothing back these days! That was a great speech that I am pretty sure just made a number of immigrants life long Democrats.

Here is perhaps my favorite part:  

When we talk about that in the abstract, it is easy sometimes for the discussion to take on a feeling of us versus them. And when that happens, a lot of folks forget that most of us used to be them. 

We forget that. 

And it’s really important for us to remember history. Unless you’re one of the first Americans, a Native American, you came from some place else, somebody brought you. 

You know, Ken Salazar (ph) he’s—he’s of Mexican-American descent, but he points out that his family’s been living where he lives for 400 years, so he didn’t—he didn’t immigrate anywhere. 

The Irish who left behind a land of famine; the Germans who fled persecution; the Scandinavians who arrived eager to pioneer out west; the Polish, the Russians, the Italians, the Chinese, the Japanese, the West Indians—the huddled masses who came through Ellis Island on one coast and Angel Island on the other. 

All those folks before they were us, they were them. And when each new wave of immigrants arrived, they faced resistance from those who were already here. They faced hardship. They faced racism. They faced ridicule. But over time, they went about their daily lives. They earned a living as they raised a family, as they built a community, as their kids went to school here. 

They did their part to build the nation. They were the Einsteins and the Carnegies, but they were also the millions of women and men whose names history may not remember, but whose actions helped make us who we are, who built this country hand by hand, brick by brick. 

They all came here knowing that what makes somebody an American is not just blood or birth, but allegiance to our founding principles and the faith in the idea that anyone from anywhere can write the next great chapter of our story, and that’s still true today.

I thought that was exactly the right way to talk about this and the attitude that will hopefully finally see something  progress on this issue.

Apparently the Republican counter plan hinges on first securing the border, which of course we all know is a ridiculous concept that will NEVER be achieved to the GOP's satisfaction. And the reason for that stance is because the Republicans also realize that the faster immigrants are added as US citizens, the faster the Democrat's ranks swell with new voters.

And THAT is not something they are any hurry to help implement.

(P.S. You can read the entire transcript of this speech here.)

Could this be the cellphone election?

Courtesy of National Memo:

The first and most profound way cellphones are changing American politics is through polling. 

“We think the polls this year seriously underestimate the Obama vote,” legendary pollster Stan Greenberg said in a video posted on The Carville-Greenberg Report Monday. 

“A majority of Hispanics are cellphone-only; 4 out of 10 African-Americans are cellphone-only. Young people, of course, are mostly cellphone only,” Greenberg explained. This greatly complicates polling since only live pollsters call cellphones. 

“You know, if you’re reached on a cellphone, you’re 11 points more likely to be voting for President Obama,” Greenberg said. 

Greenberg isn’t the only one who has observed the president’s mobile advantage. The New York Times’ poll guru Nate Silver has noted the same phenomenon and suggests that polls that include cellphones tend to be much higher quality. 

A second way cellphones are changing the political landscape is through donation by text. 

President Obama’s campaign was the first ever to accept donations by text. Governor Romney’s campaign joined him shortly thereafter. Though carriers capped the amount of donations an individual could give through this method, it proved to be highly effective for the president. 

Early estimates suggest that Obama outraised Romney by a 500-to-1 ratio via text message. This helped the president catch up with the Republicans on fundraising and presents a unique opportunity.

You know reading that, and I have posted similar information about cellphones before, should give all of us a lot of hope that even as the Republicans are attempting every dirty trick in the book to steal this election, that the numbers, just like in 2008, will be too much much for them to overcome.

By the way I have to give a big ole hat tip to my pal Dennis Zaki who was the first person, and this is going way back to the beginning of the year, to tell me not to trust the polls and that they will not reflect reality so long as they leave out cell phones. He has said over and over again, that nobody seems to be aware of just how many people in this country are cell phone only users.

And do you know what? I think he is most likely right on target.

In the hopes of convincing the Right Wing nuts that he is not soft on brown people, Rick Perry will receive endorsement from Arizona's Sherrif Arpaio. That sound you hear is a stake being driven through the heart of Perry's campaign.

"Just imagine I'm shooting flying Mexicans. Now do you want to nominate me?"

Courtesy of the Phoenix New Times:

According to multiple national news outlets, Arpaio will campaign with Perry in New Hampshire on Tuesday, where he will give the Texas governor a political tip of the cap. 

Neither the Sheriff's Office or Perry's campaign responded to New Times' request for confirmation of the reported endorsement, and none of the news outlets reporting the political nod are naming names -- ABC News cites "a source with knowledge of the endorsement" as the source of the information. CNN is equally vague, attributing its report to a source within the "governor's campaign," while NBC cites a "a source familiar with the matter." 

Regardless, Perry isn't exactly the hawkish border bully we'd expect Arpaio to support -- given some of the sheriff's other options, that is. 

In a recent debate between GOP presidential candidates, Perry made what many consider to be a political misstep for a candidate hoping to woo Conservatives: he showed a little compassion. 

"If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they've been brought there by no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart," Perry said in defense of his policy of offering the children of undocumented immigrants in Texas in-state tuition fees to attend state universities. 

Far-right-wing-nuts went berserk, and the comment likely contributed to Perry's fall from front-runner status in the GOP primary. 

Unlike Bachmann, Paul, Huntsman, Santorum, Cain, and Gingrich, I really thought that Perry might still have a chance to be a spoiler for Romney.

Until today that is.

In order for any GOP nominee to have even the slightest hope of beating Obama in 2012, they must NOT entirely alienate the fastest growing group of voters in this country. The Hispanic voters. This will have done just that.

Yes I know that there would not be all that much support from the Hispanics regardless of who the Republicans nominate, but just imagine how energized they would be to support a candidate who was NOT endorsed by Arpaio.

I actually think that Perry's stated policy of wanting to educate the children of illegal immigrants is one of the things that made him a real challenger to Romney for the nomination. (I mean let's face it, the other candidates are all going to eventually self destruct anyhow.)

But he just couldn't leave it alone, now could he?

The only thing that could damage Perry's chances more than this would be if David Duke, or Sarah Palin, had endorsed him.

Hey do you know what? I think those two endorsements are still up for grabs.