Mar 27, 2015

EoT: Cruz’n for a Bruisin’

Eyes on Texas, a roundup of news, columns and features about the state, from media around the world.

Ted Cruz, the first Republican to declare his candidacy for president, can’t catch a break when it comes to domain names for his campaign: tedcruz.com is occupied by a lawyer of the same name, and contains only the words “Support President Obama. Immigration Reform Now!” An online prankster also registered tedcruzforamerica.com and redirected it to healthcare.gov, reports Vice.com.

The U.S. senator from Texas has more to worry about than a couple of online stunts. Cruz’s own site, tedcruz.org, turns out to have a critical security flaw. His donation page did not include the technology that encrypts users’ credit card information, potentially exposing this information to hackers.

Here’s to hoping the apple falls far away from the tree.

Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, is vocal about his opinions against the Obama administration (he says Obama can go “back to Kenya, back to Indonesia”), the “liberal” U.S. media, and issues such as same-sex marriage or reading the Bible in public schools. Buzzfeed.com offered up 68 examples, including:

His son’s office says, “Pastor Cruz does not speak for the senator.”

In a move he calls “intellectually curious,” Ted Cruz stopped listening to rock music after 9/11 and started listening to country, he said in a CBS interview.

Cruz said he preferred the way country music artists responded to the tragedy. Country song lyrics were saturated with American patriotism, such as “Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American)” by Toby Keith.

“Country music collectively, the way they responded, it resonated with me, and I just have to say just at a gut level, I had an emotional reaction that said these are my people,” Cruz said.

Cruz said he didn’t like how rock music responded. In a story about the interview, the Washington Post noted that in October 2001, rock artists held a benefit concert called Concert in New York to support victims of the attacks.

By Hannah Jane DeCiutiis