GOP firebrand rocks social media

Cruzin' on Twitter

Evidently the New York Times isn't the only entity that recognizes newly elected U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as a force to be reckoned with.

Florida senate colleague Marco Rubio also recognized it with this tweet: "Happy to see @TedCruz came to DC to make a difference not just make some friends. He is doing very well! #tcot #gop #texasgop"

Sen. Cruz also doesn't hold back expressing his opinions in just 140 characters to his more than 50,000 Twitter followers: "Obama claims proposals won't increase debt by a single dime. I believe him. They'll increase debt by A LOT of dimes"

SOTU in 140

Political strategist, and contributor to CNN and ABC News, Donna Brazile challenged Twitterers to write a State of the Union speech in 140 characters or less. Here's what a couple came up with:

#sotu - The state of the union is less unified, less prosperous, less solvent, less employed, less innovative, less free"

#sotu140 This speech began with my pollsters, then came the speechwriting team. There are no new ideas or programs. Only applause lines.

ILU!

U.S. Congressman Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., tweeted a valentine to a lovely young thing during the State of the Union address last week, causing a cacophony of "ooh-la-la" tweets from other birds on the wire. After much clucking and cooing over the 60-something congressman's flirty cri de ceour to the beautiful blonde coed half his age, it turns out the lass is his daughter, leaving twittering twits to eat crow.

"Gulp Fiction"

The biggest news coming out of the State of the Union was Sen. Marco Rubio's water grab during his GOP rebuttal. It didn't take long before yucksters were producing their own "gulp fiction" vids like this one. #RubioFilms spiraled into the No. 3 slot on Twitter's top ten trends, perched several notches above #SOTU.

Calling Dr. Carson...

In his first ten hours after joining Twitter last Friday, Dr. Ben Carson @RealBenCarson attracted nearly 15,000 followers. Like a raging fever, his popularity spiked to 21,259 within the first day. What caused the heat?

Dr. Carson, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., gave a keynote speech at last week's National Prayer Breakfast during which the soft-spoken doc's remarks politely but firmly flew in the face of President Obama's policies on health care, taxes and the economy. President Obama sat stone faced just feet away from the speaker.

The result? Instant celebrity in the political arena, with appearances on major radio and television talk shows and the subject of countless blogs and new media feature stories.

Would he consider running for president?

"I've always said if God grabs me by the collar and sticks me in that arena that's the only way that I'd do it," Carson responded.

How lucky can you be?

In the "It Must Be Nice" department, Facebook is getting a tax break – a multi-million dollar tax break. Want to know how this company, which reportedly reaped $1.1 billion in pre-tax profits from U.S. operations in 2012, qualified for such a windfall? Here's your answer.

A Majorly shirty day

Major Garrett, CBS News' chief White House correspondent (formerly with Fox News), tweeted that he'd had a pretty "shirty" day recently. According to a Washington Post item, Garrett tweeted, "The [f-word] I am. That is shirty business what you did. Fix it. I'm not [f-word, present participle] kidding."

The offending tweet was soon deleted, drawing this reminder from the WaPo's Erik Wemple: "An iron rule of social media says, 'All profanities from the Twitter accounts of famous media types shall be screen-grabbed by gawking onlookers and commented upon extensively.'"

Tweeters, let this be a lesson, lest your day end up "shirty" too.

Go Dorner, go!

Fans of former LAPD police officer Christopher Dorner cheered the killer last week on Facebook and Twitter, as he eluded police and later holed up in a mountain cabin where he met his end in a raging fire.

Dorner himself used a now-deleted Facebook page to post his 10-page manifesto. Almost immediately, other Facebook pages sprang up in sympathy and support by fans, some who compared Dorner to the title character in the Quentin Taranto film "Django Unchained."

Open States

Now you can find out all you need to know about your state lawmakers. The Sunlight Foundation has launched OpenStates.org – a website you can use to discover almost everything about lawmaking in your state. It contains a comprehensive database of legislative information for all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. You can find state lawmakers, review their votes, search legislation and track bill progress, as well as compare legislation from state to state.

Watch this video to see how it works.

White House doings

White House to counter online "radicalism." What exactly does that mean? Read about it here.

Twitter takes notice: President Obama catches bird droppings. He has yet to acknowledge death of American hero Chris Kyle.

"I am trying to quote Obama on the death of CPO Chris Kyle. Do you put "crickets" in quotation marks or not?

Saving the best for last

We ran out of room for this last week, and as it is we're sliding it in sideways this week, but here you go! If you've already seen it, as more than 13 million have, then you know it is worth watching again: "The Farmer."