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A Candidate for Deadbeats
Texas Senator Ted Cruz launched his campaign at the late Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. He rode in on a moral high horse, gay bashing and Washington trashing, while pledging to polish America’s “family values.” So, it is surprising that Cruz has emerged as the preferred candidate for deadbeats and tax-cheats. Media personality and Love Line co-host Adam Carolla endorsed Cruz because the candidate wants to abolish the IRS and replace it with a flat tax. I can understand this. Cruz already believes in a flat earth, so he might as well support a flat tax. The flat-tax, however, disproportionally harms the poor and middle class, which seems antithetical to his professed Christian beliefs. Perhaps, Cruz is waiting for Jesus to weigh in on this issue. Oh, wait he did: “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” See you in Hell, Teddy. It is a bizarre endorsement by Carolla who gushed, “I want to support Ted. I love me some Ted Cruz.” I’m still trying to figure out how the philosophy of these two opportunistic stage horses aligns. Cruz’ father and his primary political advisor is a fire and brimstone preacher. Ted Cruz is a champion of the blue-nosed Religious Right. Yet, Adam Carolla is a second-rate jester whose claim-to-fame is the risqué radio broadcast, where he advised young listeners on blow up dolls, masturbation, and 3-ways. Carolla isn’t the only miscreant to support Cruz for his wacky attacks on the IRS. The candidate’s new Sugar Daddy is New York hedge fund mogul Robert Mercer, an alleged tax cheat who wants the tax collectors banished. What’s Mercer’s beef with the Internal Revenue Service? About six years ago the IRS began investigating Renaissance, the hedge fund company that made him filthy rich. In 2014, the New York Times reports, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation accused Renaissance of exploiting abstruse financial structures that allowed the company to bilk the US government out of $6 billion in tax revenue. According to Sen. Carl Levin, taxpayers “had to shoulder the burden these hedge funds shrugged off with the aid of the banks.” So, it appears that “Money-bags Mercer” shopped for a shifty candidate willing to close the very agency, the IRS, which is investigating him for potential fraud. Ted Cruz gleefully answered the call and now the buffoon has found a tycoon who can indefinitely fund his nutty campaign. While this may be gold for comedy writers, it is has all the gaudy and goofy appeal of gold fillings for the rest of us. The chutzpah of Mercer is shocking. Maybe if he receives a few traffic tickets he will hire a candidate to close down the Department of Transportation. Perhaps he will also support Rick Perry who will shutter three entire federal departments, if only Perry can remember what they are. Robert Mercer is bad news. He was once described as “an automaton” in a book titled, “More Money than God.” But thanks to the destructive force known as Citizens United, every billionaire can buy (or at least rent) a beggar doubling as a presidential candidate. The horrible hedgehog, Mercer, is behind a network of four pro-Cruz Super PACs that have raised $31 million. Mercer is clearly the new Sheldon Adelson, who kept Newt Gingrich’s failed campaign on life support longer than Jeb Bush kept a feeding tube in Terri Schiavo. As in the odd Carolla endorsement, how can Cruz justify cozying up to the shady Mercer? According to the New York Times: “In 2013, a group of former employees sued him for not paying overtime. They also accused him of deducting money from their semi-annual bonuses as a form of punishment for among other things, failing to replace shampoos, close doors, and change razor blades.” This is not to say Mercer and Cruz have nothing in common. Mercer shoveled $1 million into a 2011 campaign to block an Islamic community center in Manhattan. Mercer also spent more than $2 million constructing a model railroad in his Long Island mansion – then sued the builder for overcharging him. That’s the exact kind of unreasonableness and gridlock Cruz brought to Washington! Ted Cruz set out on his campaign with the goal of being a culture-warring Christian. Yet, somehow ended up on Obama Care and was anointed the candidate for deadbeats and tax cheats. I’m no theologian, but I don’t think Jesus is happy so far with the direction of the Cruz campaign.
Wayne Besen
Our Man in Arlington By Charlie Clark
Last week’s county board decision to ax the Artisphere means that Arlington’s in-flux Rosslyn neighborhood will lose the arts but retain the sphere. The demise of the edgy-urbane arts palace, effective June 30 after four and a half years of hemorrhaging $15 million of taxpayer money, is a victory for the recently surging movement toward fiscal restraint. But Rosslyn is left with a tough-to-rent-out dome-shaped white elephant. I always harbored mixed feelings about Artisphere. Since it opened in October 2010 after a $6.7 million county investment, I felt duty-bound to include it as an option when scheduling my leisure time. Loved the Frieda Kahlo photos in the upstairs gallery, enjoyed a play about carnival magicians in its black box and grooved to a ‘20s-theme dance to benefit libraries held in the ballroom. But I yawned at the Andy Warhol balloon display, the obscure South American music acts and those earnest artists-inresidence. So I can’t argue with the county’s desire to save $2.3 million in support by acknowledging that the promises of high patronage and revenues were overblown. Some arts backers and boosters of enlivening Rosslyn’s night-time dead zone thought the project deserved more time. But the board, having felt in the past perhaps like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football, decided the jig was up. It redirect-
ed $496,000 of the money saved to fund alternative arts and cultural programming
countywide. News coverage focused on how Artisphere was “doomed” from the start, with the Washington Post and ARLnow resurrecting thrilled quotes from Arlington officials in 2010, making them sound like builders of the Titanic calling the ship unsinkable. But go back a bit further. The ambitious but odd domed building was brought into being beginning in 1991 at the behest of the Freedom Forum, following a decade of prosperity for the Gannett Co. after it launched USA Today in Arlington. I was – and continue to be – a fan and visitor to the Newseum. After zoning accommodations from Arlington for a bridge and park, it opened up on the Rosslyn skyline in 1997. But in 2000, Newseum began planning its move to its current location on prestigious Pennsylvania Ave. (To add insult to Arlington, Gannett in 2001 decamped for McLean.) You can’t blame the Freedom Forum for taking advantage of opportunities. “By moving to the District, we will significantly expand our programming, reach a much greater audience and deepen our impact,” said Freedom Forum and Newseum President Peter Prichard at the time.“We are grateful to Arlington County, particularly the community of Rosslyn, for hosting the Newseum in its first five years,” added thenexecutive director Joe Urschel. “In
that time we have proven that both Arlington and the Newseum are powerful magnets for visitors to the national capital region.” Yes and no. Now Arlington – which has eight years left on its lease for the Artisphere with Monday Properties – is now stuck with commitment to an irregular property that doesn’t lend itself to average office tenants. The solution may come from Pete Erickson, an Arlingtonian who is CEO of Modev, which puts on conferences to promote digital technology. He and dozens of industry colleagues signed a letter the county board this month proposing that Artisphere be transformed into a technology center for professional gatherings. That dome, Erickson told me, sits over “an awesome speaking venue. There aren’t many like it around.” *** In another harbinger of change in Rosslyn, Monday Properties is preparing to tear down the historic parking garage where famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward in the early 1970s met with his secret source “Deep Throat.” (Check out parking spot 32D at 1401 Wilson Blvd.) Gregg Schwarz, a retired FBI special agent, told me he plans to show his out-of-town friends the site before the building – which is marked by a historic plaque that will be preserved in some form – comes down to make room for a residential-office complex. Schwarz possesses a highly unusual artifact germane to the site: an official FBI photo-portrait of Woodward’s confidant, the FBI’s then-No. 2 Mark Felt, signed by Woodward himself.
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APRIL 30 - MAY 6, 2015 | PAGE 17
Making Home Affordable Hispanic - English Magazine - 1/2 Page
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