Just in time for Veteran's Day, a new coloring book is released calls "Ted Cruz Saves America!" No, I am NOT making this up!

Courtesy of PR Web:  

The Ted Cruz to the Future Coloring and Activity Book is back by popular demand. Really Big Coloring Books ® is releasing Ted Saves America as a supplement to the Ted Cruz book. The additional eight (8) page supplement is complimentary with the purchase of the Ted Cruz book, the #1 selling coloring book. Releasing the book and supplement on Veterans' Day corresponds with 2nd Amendment values. "The supplement and book are fact based, fair and objective, about a man who millions of American citizens consider a real life true to heart super hero for children to look up to," states Publisher Wayne Bell. "Ted Cruz is history in the making."

Wow, that made me throw in my mouth a little.  

As I am sure many of you have been unable to forget, this is actually the SECOND Ted Cruz coloring book released by this company. We wrote about the first way back in December of last year.

Now here is the problem that I am having when trying to write about the Republicans these days.

I quite literally do not know where the reality ends and the parody begins.

They have become walking talking SNL caricatures, to the point that I often read things like this and immediately think "Okay that's just bullshit, isn't it?" Only to find that it is all too real.

By the way if you ever learn that any of your friends actually purchased one of these books for their children or grandchildren, you need to immediately take them off your e-mail list.  Cause something be very wrong with them.

The Ted Cruz coloring book has attracted some rather...interesting reviews.

As many of you may remember that I wrote about this book back in December: 

Yes kids get your coloring book dedicated to a Senator in his first term who is famous for obstructionism, sabotaging government, and lying. You know, just like Abraham Lincoln!

Of course I did not take it very seriously, and who would? However it quickly left my thoughts and I did not spend another second wondering how it was doing or what others thought of it.

And then the other day I happened across a Reddit post that mentioned the reviews it has been receiving. Curious I decided to take a look.

Courtesy of Amazon: 

I didn't know how well I'd enjoy this book, seeing as how I only have white crayons. But, as it turns out, that's the only color required! Magnificent! 

This book showed up just in time, as my daughter had recently finished her "Connect the Dots Mein Kampf." We spend all day listening to Skrewdriver and breaking the brown crayons. 

As a bigot, it's hard for me to find books that advocate for and advance my position. Especially books designed for little kids. Thank God for this book. Now, I can stimulate the creativity of my little children, while still installing in them important lessons. Lessons like guns are good, health care is bad (at least if it comes from a Democrat president), and America is always right. If there are any facts that don't support my positions, I would prefer to ignore them. And if I can't ignore them, then I'd like to be able to shout them down. And I want to teach my children the same lessons. Without books like this one, we are in danger of raising a new generation of open-minded and tolerant adults . . . and it will be impossible to maintain our way of thinking if this happens. I'm looking forward to the next book in this series: "I am not a witch (but if I were, it would totally be okay to cast a spell and turn President Obama into a newt)." 

I'm not a fan of his politics, but I have to give Ted Cruz credit for coming up with this coloring book idea. A perfect way to reach the Tea Partiers on their own literary level! The big question remains: Will they stay within the lines? 

I could not understand nor stay with in the lines, this book was way over my head, I should stick with Sarah Palins books about green eggs and stuff. 

So, after reading many reviews that mentioned what good toilet paper this book made, I was super excited to order my copy. Unfortunately, after receiving mine in the mail I was immediately disappointed. I don't know, perhaps I accidentally received a used copy, but mine was completely worthless for this purpose as every single page was already completely covered with crap...

And here I thought this book would not be well received. 

P.S. By the way, good luck in finding a positive, serious, review of the book.

Just in time for Christmas the Rafael "Ted" Cruz coloring book. For that little boy or girl who you simply cannot stand.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

The Missouri-based publisher, Really Big Coloring Books, describes its book as “a non-partisan, fact-driven view of how Texas Sen. Rafael Edward ‘Ted’ Cruz became a U.S. senator and details, through his quotes and public information his ideas for what he believes will help America grow.” 

The book states that Cruz supports the Second Amendment, unlike Obama who has a “consistent disregard” for constitutional rights. It invites children to color-in the Ten Commandments on a page devoted to the United States national motto, “In God We Trust.” 

The book also references Cruz’s 21-hour anti-Obamacare speech, saying that “millions of citizens believe Obama Care is worse than any war.” 

“At least American soldiers have weapons with which to defend themselves,” the book adds.

I at first thought this has to be a parody, but nope, it's real.

Yes kids get your coloring book dedicated to a Senator in his first term who is famous for obstructionism, sabotaging government, and lying.  You know, just like Abraham Lincoln!

Apparently this clearly Right Wing company has created a number of controversial coloring books over the years, including an Islamophobic one commemorating 9-11,  an anti-Occupy Wall Street one, and one that promotes the Tea Party.

Personally I don't think these are coloring books tor children, I think they are pieces of propaganda designed so that he typical illiterate Right Wing idiot can understand them. 

"Oh look Bristol, they have big pictures to color too!"

Before there was a President Obama the Right Wing whipping boy was a certain President Kennedy.

Below you will see pages from a vintage coloring book that a TPM visitor found in their deceased mother's belongings.

Apparently the coloring book originally belonged to this person's grandmother.

Take a moment to notice how eerily similar the attacks on JFK, back in the early sixties, are to what Obama is facing today.

Much like the blowback against the Affordable Care Act, JFK's attempts to create Medicare were also met with ridicule and charges of socialism.

The Right Wing also drummed up suspicion concerning JFK's Ivy League advisers. Today they are referred to as the "intellectual elite." Apparently to this group of people intelligence is always suspect.

Being anti-elite also meant being anti-education, and JFK's Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Abraham Ribicoff, was also vilified.

It would appear that this book was published some time after the Cuban Missile Crisis, since Fidel Castro is included. However rather than give JFK any credit for protecting America from a potential nuclear missile strike, the conservatives chided him for failing to capture or kill Castro, and for taking on Big Business.

I have to say that the similarities in how both President Obama and President Kennedy were attacked by the Right Wing are rather startling. My gut instinct is to conclude that the attacks against Obama today are more filled with vitriol and unvarnished hatred, but then I remember the fate of our 35th President and realize the dishonesty of that statement.

And it also makes my blood run cold to realize that all of this, even this child's coloring book, was creating a bogeyman that was easier to hate, and to think of as the "other," before somebody became agitated enough to put a bullet through his head.