Ted Cruz' Brokeback Mountain Moment

Apparently Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Crazyville) is having troubling quitting Canada.

From the CBC (emphasis mine):

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz vowed months ago to renounce his Canadian citizenship by the end of 2013. It's now 2014, and the Calgary-born Republican lawmaker is still a dual citizen.

"I have retained counsel that is preparing the paperwork to renounce the citizenship," the junior Texas senator, who's eyeing a run for president in 2016, said in a recent interview with the Dallas Morning News.

He didn't dispute holding dual citizenship: "Not at this point," Cruz told the paper.

That's confounding Canadian immigration lawyers. Renouncing Canadian citizenship, they say, is a simple, quick and straightforward process — there's even an online, four-page PDF form on the Government of Canada website to get the ball rolling without the help of lawyers.

"Unless there's a security issue that hasn't been disclosed, unless there's a mental health issue that hasn't been disclosed, there's no reason for anything other than a lickety-split process to occur," Richard Kurland, a Vancouver-based immigration attorney, said in an interview Friday.

"If he's attempting to bring our system into disrepute by suggesting it's lengthy and complex, it's just not true. Revocation is one of the fastest processes in our system."

In case you're curious, a link to the actual form is here.

Updated: Disaster Declarations, Texas

Update: Political consultant Jason Stanford brings up a interesting question in a new column: After opposing Superstorm Sandy 'pork,' will Ted Cruz vote against emergency aid for Texas?

The Senate voted 62-36 in favor of disaster relief for Hurricane Sandy.  Amazingly 25 states have never had a federal disaster.  Those states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, & Wyoming.

At least that's what I have to assume, because why would 36 senators, all Republicans, vote against federal disaster relief if their own states had gotten federal assistance after a disaster?

Thankfully FEMA, like so many government entities, keeps records.  Sens. John Cornyn (R) and Ted Cruz (R) both voted against disaster relief.  Amazing.  A state as big and old as Texas has never had a federal disaster.

Guess again.  In fact, Texas has had more Disaster Declarations than any other state at 333.  The next closest is California with 211.  From FEMA:

Date	Incident Description
5/15/1953	Tornado, Heavy Rainfall
6/19/1953	FLOOD
7/1/1954	FLOOD
4/29/1957	Hurricane, Rain, Wind, Hail, Floods
6/6/1958	Tornadoes, Rain, Hail, Floods
7/8/1959	FLOODS
7/15/1960	Heavy Rains, Hail, Floods, Tornadoes
9/16/1961	HURRICANE CARLA
9/24/1963	HURRICANE CINDY
6/19/1965	TORNADOES, FLOODING
5/12/1966	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
9/27/1966	Heavy Rains, Flooding
9/28/1967	HURRICANE BEULAH
6/10/1968	Heavy Rains, Flooding
7/5/1968	Severe Storms, High Winds, Flooding
5/13/1970	Tornadoes, Windstorms, Flooding
8/4/1970	HURRICANE CELIA
9/18/1971	Heavy Rains, High Winds, Flooding
1/27/1972	Heavy Rains, Flooding
5/20/1972	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
3/12/1973	High Winds, Tornadoes, Flooding
6/25/1973	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
7/11/1973	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
11/30/1974	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
2/15/1975	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
4/1/1975	TORNADOES
6/19/1976	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
8/3/1978	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
4/11/1979	SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES
4/26/1979	SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, FLOODING
6/14/1979	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
7/28/1979	STORMS, FLASH FLOODS
9/25/1979	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
8/11/1980	HURRICANE ALLEN
9/26/1980	Tropical Storm Danielle
9/21/1981	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
10/23/1981	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
4/8/1982	SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES
5/25/1982	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
8/19/1983	HURRICANE ALICIA
1/7/1984	Severe Freezing Weather
10/2/1984	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
10/30/1984	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
4/23/1986	Severe Storms, Rains, Tornadoes
9/10/1986	TORNADOES
5/26/1987	SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES
11/20/1987	SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES
10/5/1988	HURRICANE GILBERT
4/23/1989	SEVERE STORMS, FLOODING
5/19/1989	SEVERE STORMS, TORNADOES, FLOODING
7/18/1989	Tropical Storm Allison
1/9/1990	Severe Freeze
5/2/1990	Flooding, Severe Storm, Tornado
4/12/1991	Flooding, Severe Storm, Tornado
12/26/1991	Severe Storm, Thunderstorms
3/20/1992	Flooding, Severe Storm
7/2/1992	Severe Storm, Tornadoes
9/9/1992	Heavy Rain, Hail
12/4/1992	Severe Storm, Thunderstorms, Tornadoes
4/29/1994	Severe Storms, Tornadoes
10/18/1994	Severe Storm, Thunderstorms, Flooding
6/13/1995	Flooding, Severe Storm, Tornadoes, Hail
7/7/1997	Severe Storms/Flooding
8/26/1998	Tropical Storm Charley
9/23/1998	Tropical Storm Frances
10/21/1998	Severe Storms, Flooding and Tornadoes
5/6/1999	Severe Storms and Tornadoes
8/22/1999	Hurricane Bret
4/7/2000	Severe Storms, Tornadoes and Flooding
1/8/2001	Severe Winter Storm
6/9/2001	Severe Storms and Flooding
7/4/2002	Severe Storms and Flooding
9/26/2002	Tropical Storm Fay
11/5/2002	Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding
7/17/2003	Hurricane Claudette
9/24/2005	Hurricane Rita
1/11/2006	Extreme Wildfire Threat
8/15/2006	Flooding
5/1/2007	Severe Storms and Tornadoes
6/29/2007	Severe Storms, Tornadoes, and Flooding
10/2/2007	Tropical Storm Erin
7/24/2008	Hurricane Dolly
9/13/2008	Hurricane Ike
8/3/2010	Hurricane Alex
7/1/2011	Wildfires
9/9/2011	Wildfires

If you lost count, that's 86 Major Disaster Declarations.  Add to that 13 Emergency Declarations and 234 Fire Management Assistance Declarations.  Those in bold occurred when either Cornyn or Cruz were in the Senate.

Oops, And the Rest

We've gone through the various elected officials who have had to say Oops after endorsing Rick Perry for President.  We now come to the last segment in this series: And the Rest.

Among those saying Oops are:

Ted Cruz, former Solicitor General of Texas and current candidate for the Republican nomination for Kay Bailey Hutchison's senate seat.

Kinky Friedman, author, country singer, and former independent candidate for Governor of Texas in 2006 (against Rick Perry).

James Leininger, conservative Texas donor who made his money from medical equipment and who poured money into Texas legislative races in order to get a voucher program passed.

Dean Cain, actor most famous for playing Superman in TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

Steve Munisteri,  TX GOP Chair

Paul Senft, RNC Committeeman from Florida

Reta Hamilton, RNC Committeewoman from Arkansas

Steve Forbes, Forbes magazine guy and failed Republican presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000.

Ruben Navarrette, conservative nationally syndicated Latino columnist.

David Wilkins, former Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives and former Ambassador to Canada.

Van Poole, former Florida Republican Party chair and current lobbyist.

Kurt Wuelper, New Hampshire Right to Life president.