And a shit show in progress. I've never seen a higher account sold for shit and spreading the bunk that it is.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Investigators are blaming mistakes by IRS employees — not a criminal conspiracy — for the loss of thousands of emails related to the tax agency's tea party scandal.

IRS workers erased 422 computer backup tapes that "most likely" contained as many as 24,000 emails to and from former IRS official Lois Lerner, who has emerged as a central figure in congressional investigations, according to IRS's inspector general.

The workers erased the tapes a month after IRS officials discovered that an untold number of Lerner's emails were lost. The IG says the workers were unaware of a year-old directive not to destroy email backup tapes.

More...http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150625/us--irs-lost_emails-47ff44b9ff.html

Judicial Watch: Newly Released Documents Confirm White House Officials Set Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi Response

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released new State Department documents showing that Hillary Clinton and the State Department’s response to the Benghazi attack was immediately determined by top Obama White House officials, particularly Ben Rhodes, then-White House deputy strategic communications adviser, and Bernadette Meehan, a spokesperson for the National Security Council. The new documents were forced from the U.S. State Department under court order in a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:14-cv-01511)).

Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request on June 13, 2014, and subsequently a lawsuit on September 4, 2014, seeking:

Any and all records concerning, regarding, or related to notes, updates, or reports created in response to the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. This request includes, but is not limited to, notes taken by then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton or employees of the Office of the Secretary of State during the attack and its immediate aftermath.

A September 11, 2012, email sent at 6:21 p.m. by State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland to Meehan, Under Secretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy, and Clinton’s personal aide Jacob Sullivan shows that the State Department deferred to the White House on the official response to the Benghazi attack. Referencing pending press statements by Barack Obama and Clinton, Nuland wrote: “We are holding for Rhodes clearance. BMM, pls advise asap.”

Meehan responded three minutes later, at 6:24 p.m.: “Ben is good with these and is on with Jake now too.”

Rhodes sent an email at 9:48 p.m. to senior White House and State officials on the issue: “We should let the State Department statement be our comment for the night.”

An email from Meehan, sent at 10:15 p.m. on September 11 to Rhodes, Nuland, Sullivan, Kennedy and Clinton aide Philippe Reines, further confirms the White House approval of Hillary Clinton’s statement tying the Benghazi terrorist attack to an Internet video: “All, the Department of State just released the following statement. Per Ben [Rhodes’] email below, this should be the USG comment for the night.”

The “USG comment” turned out to be Clinton’s notorious public statement, made hours after the initial terrorist attack, falsely suggesting that the Benghazi assault was a “response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet.”

Rhodes emailed Meehan, Sullivan and Reines at 11:45 p.m. on September 11, writing, “Fyi – we are considering releasing this tonight.” The next line is redacted. The email also included a “Readout of President’s Call to Secretary Clinton,” the contents of which are also completely redacted.

...

http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-newly-released-documents-confirm-white-house-officials-set-hillary-clintons-benghazi-response/

I am one of six adult children of gay parents who recently filed amicus briefs with the US Supreme Court, asking the Court to respect the authority of citizens to keep the original definition of marriage: a union between one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others, so that children may know and may be raised by their biological parents. I also live in Canada, where same-sex marriage was federally mandated in 2005.


I am the daughter of a gay father who died of AIDS. I described my experiences in my book: Out From Under: The Impact of Homosexual Parenting. Over fifty adult children who were raised by LGBT parents have communicated with me and share my concerns about same-sex marriage and parenting. Many of us struggle with our own sexuality and sense of gender because of the influences in our household environments growing up.


We have great compassion for people who struggle with their sexuality and gender identity—not animosity. And we love our parents. Yet, when we go public with our stories, we often face ostracism, silencing, and threats.
I want to warn America to expect severe erosion of First Amendment freedoms if the US Supreme Court mandates same-sex marriage. The consequences have played out in Canada for ten years now, and they are truly Orwellian in nature and scope.


Canada’s Lessons



In Canada, freedoms of speech, press, religion, and association have suffered greatly due to government pressure. The debate over same-sex marriage that is taking place in the United States could not legally exist in Canada today. Because of legal restrictions on speech, if you say or write anything considered “homophobic” (including, by definition, anything questioning same-sex marriage), you could face discipline, termination of employment, or prosecution by the government.


Why do police prosecute speech under the guise of eliminating “hate speech” when there are existing legal remedies and criminal protections against slander, defamation, threats, and assault that equally apply to all Americans? Hate-crime-like policies using the terms “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” create unequal protections in law, whereby protected groups receive more legal protection than other groups.


Having witnessed how mob hysteria in Indiana caused the legislature to back-track on a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, many Americans are beginning to understand that some activists on the Left want to usher in state control over every institution and freedom. In this scheme, personal autonomy and freedom of expression become nothing more than pipe dreams, and children become commodified.


Children are not commodities that can be justifiably severed from their natural parentage and traded between unrelated adults. Children in same-sex households will often deny their grief and pretend they don’t miss a biological parent, feeling pressured to speak positively due to the politics surrounding LGBT households. However, when children lose either of their biological parents because of death, divorce, adoption, or artificial reproductive technology, they experience a painful void. It is the same for us when our gay parent brings his or her same-sex partner(s) into our lives. Their partner(s) can never replace our missing biological parent.


The State as Ultimate Arbiter of Parenthood



Over and over, we are told that “permitting same-sex couples access to the designation of marriage will not deprive anyone of any rights.” That is a lie.


When same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada in 2005, parenting was immediately redefined. Canada’s gay marriage law, Bill C-38, included a provision to erase the term “natural parent” and replace it across the board with gender-neutral “legal parent” in federal law. Now all children only have “legal parents,” as defined by the state. By legally erasing biological parenthood in this way, the state ignores children’s foremost right: their immutable, intrinsic yearning to know and be raised by their own biological parents.


Mothers and fathers bring unique and complementary gifts to their children. Contrary to the logic of same-sex marriage, the gender of parents matters for the healthy development of children. We know, for example, that the majority of incarcerated men did not have their fathers in the home. Fathers by their nature secure identity, instill direction, provide discipline, boundaries, and risk-taking adventures, and set lifelong examples for children. But fathers cannot nurture children in the womb or give birth to and breast-feed babies. Mothers nurture children in unique and beneficial ways that cannot be duplicated by fathers.


It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that men and women are anatomically, biologically, physiologically, psychologically, hormonally, and neurologically different from each other. These unique differences provide lifelong benefits to children that cannot be duplicated by same-gender “legal” parents acting out different gender roles or attempting to substitute for the missing male or female role model in the home.


In effect, same-sex marriage not only deprives children of their own rights to natural parentage, it gives the state the power to override the autonomy of biological parents, which means parental rights are usurped by the government.


Hate Tribunals Are Coming



In Canada, it is considered discriminatory to say that marriage is between a man and a woman or that every child should know and be raised by his or her biological married parents. It is not just politically incorrect in Canada to say so; you can be saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, fined, and forced to take sensitivity training.
Anyone who is offended by something you have said or written can make a complaint to the Human Rights Commissions and Tribunals. In Canada, these organizations police speech, penalizing citizens for any expression deemed in opposition to particular sexual behaviors or protected groups identified under “sexual orientation.” It takes only one complaint against a person to be brought before the tribunal, costing the defendant tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees. The commissions have the power to enter private residences and remove all items pertinent to their investigations, checking for hate speech.


The plaintiff making the complaint has his legal fees completely paid for by the government. Not so the defendant. Even if the defendant is found innocent, he cannot recover his legal costs. If he is found guilty, he must pay fines to the person(s) who brought forth the complaint.


If your beliefs, values, and political opinions are different from the state’s, you risk losing your professional license, job, or business, and even your children. Look no further than the Lev Tahor Sect, an Orthodox Jewish sect. Many members, who had been involved in a bitter custody battle with child protection services, began leaving Chatham, Ontario, for Guatemala in March 2014, to escape prosecution for their religious faith, which conflicted with the Province’s guidelines for religious education. Of the two hundred sect members, only half a dozen families remain in Chatham.


Parents can expect state interference when it comes to moral values, parenting, and education—and not just in school. The state has access into your home to supervise you as the parent, to judge your suitability. And if the state doesn’t like what you are teaching your children, the state will attempt to remove them from your home.
Teachers cannot make comments in their social networks, write letters to editors, publicly debate, or vote according to their own conscience on their own time. They can be disciplined or lose any chance of tenure. They can be required at a bureaucrat’s whim to take re-education classes or sensitivity training, or be fired for thinking politically incorrect thoughts.


When same-sex marriage was created in Canada, gender-neutral language became legally mandated. Newspeak proclaims that it is discriminatory to assume a human being is male or female, or heterosexual. So, to be inclusive, special non-gender-specific language is being used in media, government, workplaces, and especially schools to avoid appearing ignorant, homophobic, or discriminatory. A special curriculum is being used in many schools to teach students how to use proper gender-neutral language. Unbeknownst to many parents, use of gender terms to describe husband and wife, father and mother, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, and “he” and “she” is being steadily eradicated in Canadian schools.


Which Is More Important: Sexual Autonomy or the First Amendment?



Recently, an American professor who was anonymously interviewed for the American Conservative questioned whether sexual autonomy is going to cost you your freedoms: “We are now at the point, he said, at which it is legitimate to ask if sexual autonomy is more important than the First Amendment?”


Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canadian citizens were supposed to have been guaranteed: (1) freedom of conscience and religion; (2) freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; (3) freedom of peaceful assembly; and (4) freedom of association. In reality, all of these freedoms have been curtailed with the legalization of same-sex marriage.


Wedding planners, rental halls, bed and breakfast owners, florists, photographers, and bakers have already seen their freedoms eroded, conscience rights ignored, and religious freedoms trampled in Canada. But this is not just about the wedding industry. Anybody who owns a business may not legally permit his or her conscience to inform business practices or decisions if those decisions are not in line with the tribunals’ decisions and the government’s sexual orientation and gender identity non-discrimination laws. In the end, this means that the state basically dictates whether and how citizens may express themselves.


Freedom to assemble and speak freely about man-woman marriage, family, and sexuality is now restricted. Most faith communities have become “politically correct” to avoid fines and loss of charitable status. Canadian media are restricted by the Canadian Radio, Television, and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which is similar to the FCC. If the media air anything considered discriminatory, broadcasting licenses can be revoked, and “human rights bodies” can charge fines and restrict future airings.


An example of legally curtailed speech regarding homosexuality in Canada involves the case of Bill Whatcott, who was arrested for hate speech in April 2014 after distributing pamphlets that were critical of homosexuality. Whether or not you agree with what he says, you should be aghast at this state-sanctioned gagging. Books, DVDs, and other materials can also be confiscated at the Canadian border if the materials are deemed “hateful.”


Americans need to prepare for the same sort of surveillance-society in America if the Supreme Court rules to ban marriage as a male-female institution. It means that no matter what you believe, the government will be free to regulate your speech, your writing, your associations, and whether or not you may express your conscience.
Americans also need to understand that the endgame for some in the LGBT rights movement involves centralized state power—and the end of First Amendment freedoms.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/04/14899/

Jindal: 'Let's just get rid of the court'

Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) condemned the Supreme Court on Friday following its ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.

“The Supreme Court is completely out of control, making laws on their own, and has become a public opinion poll instead of a judicial body,” the 2016 contender said in a statement.

“If we want to save some money, let’s just get rid of the court,” Jindal added.

Friday’s historic 5-4 ruling ensures that states recognize same-sex marriages under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

Jindal later said that the ruling fundamentally redefined the institution of marriage.

“Marriage between a man and a woman was established by God, and no earthly court can alter that,” he added.

He also argued that protecting same-sex marriage would open the door to discrimination against people of faith who oppose its practice.

“Hillary Clinton and the Left will now mount an all-out assault on religious freedom guaranteed in the first amendment,” Jindal said of the Democratic 2016 front-runner.

“Regardless of your views on marriage, all freedom-loving people must pledge to respect our first amendment rights,” he added.

Clinton praised the Supreme Court's landmark decision on Twitter Friday morning.

“Proud to celebrate a historic victory for marriage equality – & the courage & determination of LGBT Americans who made it possible,” she wrote.

Justice Anthony Kennedy served as the swing vote, siding with the court’s more liberal members.

“It is demeaning to lock same-sex couples out of a central institution of the nation’s society, for they too may aspire to the transcendent purposes of marriage,” Kennedy wrote in his 34-page decision.

Chief Justice John Roberts, in his dissenting opinion, argued that the ruling had “nothing to do” with the Constitution.

He said the majority had bypassed the voters and lawmakers.

“Indeed, however heartened proponents of same-sex marriage might be on this day, it is worth acknowledging what they have lost, and lost forever: the opportunity to win the true acceptance that comes from persuading their fellow citizens of the justice of their cause,” Roberts wrote.

Jindal formally launched his 2016 Oval Office bid earlier this week, becoming the 13th candidate formally vying for the GOP nomination.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/246301-jindal-lets-just-get-rid-of-the-court

John Kasich to announce presidential bid July 21

Ohio Gov. John Kasich will jump into the crowded Republican presidential field on July 21 at the student union at his alma mater, The Ohio State University, in Columbus, advisers tell POLITICO.

Kasich, 63, who was overwhelmingly reelected in November, will aim to appear less scripted and guarded than the leading candidates. Advisers say he combines establishment appeal with a conservative record going back to his stint as House Budget Committee chairman, during his 18 years as a congressman from Ohio.

Despite his late start, Kasich will be one of the most closely watched candidates — partly because Ohio is such a crucial presidential state, putting Kasich on many short lists for vice president.

Kasich briefly pursued a presidential bid in the 2000 cycle, but got no traction and dropped out in July 1999, endorsing George W. Bush.

...

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/john-kasich-2016-presidential-bid-119517.html

Joe Biden may run for president

Vice President Joe Biden’s sons reportedly urged him to run for the White House in 2016, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Biden’s son Beau, who died last month of brain cancer at the age of 46, wanted his father to get into the race, according to the report.

“It’s no secret that Beau wanted him to run,” Dick Harpootlian, a former chairman of South Carolina’s Democratic Party and a longtime Biden supporter, told the Journal. “If he does what Beau wanted him to do, he’ll run.”
Biden’s other son, Hunter, has also urged his father to get into the race, the Journal reports.

“He feels strongly about his dad running and serving,” James Smith, a Democratic state lawmaker in South Carolina, told the paper. According to the Journal’s report, several in the vice president’s corner expect him to decide on whether he will run by August.

If Biden does jump into the race, he would be a heavy underdog based on polls that show former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton far out in front, followed by independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Reached for comment by the Journal, a spokeswoman for Biden responded: “The Biden family is going through a difficult time right now. Any speculation about the views of the vice president or his family about his political future is premature and inappropriate.”
Biden previously ran for president in 1988 and 2008.

More...http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/beau-biden-push-joe-biden-running-2016-presidential-election-119524.html#ixzz3eW9vbFZV

NBC: Done With Donald Trump, Miss USA, Miss Universe

NBC just announced:

At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values.

Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump.

To that end, the annual Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants, which are part of a joint venture between NBC and Trump, will no longer air on NBC .

In addition, as Mr. Trump has already indicated, he will not be participating in “The Apprentice” on NBC.

...

http://deadline.com/2015/06/nbc-donald-trump-cancels-miss-usa-miss-universe-1201461913/

Rand Paul to raise money with marijuana industry in Denver

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s trip to Colorado this week includes a first for a presidential candidate: a fundraiser with the marijuana industry.

The Republican is raising money Tuesday at the Cannabis Business Summit in Denver in what an industry trade group is billing as a history making event.

“Never before has a major-party presidential candidate held a reception at a cannabis industry event, and NCIA is proud to host Senator Paul,” the National Cannabis Industry Association said in an email promoting the event, which was firstreported by Yahoo News.

The minimum donation to attend the Tuesday event is $2,700, according to organizers.

More...http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/2015/06/28/rand-paul-to-raise-money-with-marijuana-industry-in-denver/121575/

[Video] CJ Pearson(young black 12 y.o. sensation on youtube) on Fox & Friends says Rand Paul is best candidate for president

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGYu5klxKJo
Specifically at 2:45, young dude is very well spoken. Good to see this young dude speaking to a few million Fox viewers that tend to vote republican.

ELECTION 2016 WHY RAND PAUL REMINDS ME OF REAGAN

Exclusive Doug Wead describes supporters as the 'give me back my freedom coalition'

Note: Doug Wead recently was named senior adviser to the Rand Paul presidential campaign.

For the first time since Ronald Reagan, we have a political figure running for office who is actually leading a popular movement and not just seeking personal power. I’m talking about Sen. Rand Paul, whose group of supporters can best be described as the “give me back my freedom coalition.”

Not since Reagan has a Republican candidate transcended partisan politics and attracted so many new, young and diverse voters – the kind of coalition it is going to take to wrestle the White House back from the Democrats.

Sen. Paul appeals to all Americans through his mutual opposition to the corruption of our current economic system. Regulations create contrived monopolies for some companies and keep new ones out of the marketplace. Government subsidies favor corporations that have the best lobbyists. The result? The rich have been getting richer, and the poor have been getting poorer. Sen. Paul favors a return to free markets, which will allow the idea of the American Dream to become more achievable for everyone.

Additionally, Sen. Paul understands how Americans, especially young Americans, value their privacy in the digital age. He believes that what is on your phone is your business and has adamantly opposed the unnecessary and illegal data collection of innocent Americans’ records without a warrant. His filibuster, which led to much needed calibrations of the Patriot Act, only proved how committed Sen. Paul is to protecting the Fourth Amendment.

Sen. Paul also speaks to potential, new Republican voters through his calls for criminal justice reform. He understands that cutthroat punishments and excessive taxation don’t cure poverty, but rather increase it. The senator has called for comprehensive reform measures that will reunite broken families and end the cycle of incarceration for non-violent ex-offenders.

With regards to foreign policy, Sen. Paul has made it clear that America will do what has to be done to defend ourselves in the Middle East and elsewhere. In terms of the radical Islamic threat our nation faces, the senator was one of the first public figures to call for a Declaration of War against ISIS. But perhaps even more significantly, he would not have armed ISIS in the first place. Two years ago he tried to block the U.S. Senate from transferring arms and vehicles to Syrian rebels. “It could fall into the wrong hands,” he warned. Two years later, American equipment raced across the Middle East with black ISIS flags waving, slaughtering Christians and Muslims who opposed them.

Sen. Paul is the candidate running for the people, not personal gain. It is no surprise that Sen. Paul does better than any other GOP candidate when pitted against Hillary Clinton. Rand Paul is a new type of politician, attracting support from all different ages and areas, as he fights for fundamental rights, restores the people’s trust in their government and helps get America back to work.

http://mobile.wnd.com/2015/06/why-rand-paul-reminds-me-of-reagan/#6XgGY1Lfddgyq2XC.99

Doug Wead is a presidential historian and New York Times bestselling author.  He has been an adviser to two American presidents and served in the White House as special assistant to the president under George Herbert Walker Bush.

In 1979 he co-founded Mercy Corps, which has distributed more than $ 2 billion of food and medicine around the world.

As a corporate-motivational speaker he has addressed business audiences in coliseums and soccer stadiums in forty countries.  He is the author of 30 books. Recent titles include All the Presidents’ Children and The Raising of a President.

Ted Cruz unloads on Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul in new book

Ted Cruz’s campaign against his Republican colleagues — especially Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — is getting increasingly personal.

The freshman senator from Texas has never shied from attacking the men and women whom he works alongside each day. But Cruz, lodged in the middle of the 2016 GOP presidential pack, is taking his criticism of fellow Republican senators to a new level — rhetorically and in his new book out Tuesday, “A Time for Truth.”

Cruz accuses McConnell and GOP leadership of maneuvering to dry up his fundraising and plant hit pieces in the press aimed at hurting him politically. He says GOP leaders cowered from joining him in big fights over the debt ceiling, Obamacare and gun control, accusing his colleagues of “mendacity” and capitulating to Democrats to avoid bad headlines.

He contends that McConnell misled him in vowing to stay out of primaries when Cruz accepted a senior-level position at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. And he accuses a GOP rival, Rand Paul of Kentucky, of parroting McConnell’s talking points by seeking to “undermine” his efforts to defund Obamacare during the 2013 fight that led to the government shutdown.

“During my time in the Senate, I’ve been amazed how many senators pose one way in public — as fiscal conservatives or staunch tea party supporters — and then in private do little or nothing to advance those principles,” Cruz writes in his 342-page book.

Disparaging Washington, of course, is one of the more timeworn campaign tactics of presidential hopefuls. What’s less typical is the personal, pointed way Cruz is doing it as his campaign ramps up. He’s leaning heavily into his brand of unapologetic and confrontational conservatism, arguing that GOP leadership’s compromises with Democrats are nothing more than “surrender.”

Yet presenting himself as a polarizing figure at war with the party establishment is a risky way to try to become the Republican presidential nominee.

Cruz’s book is in keeping with his stepped-up effort in recent days to portray himself as the one GOP candidate who’s taken on party leadership. On the Senate floor last week, he accused unnamed Republicans of “quietly celebrating” the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Obamacare subsidies. After vocally endorsing trade legislation backed by party leaders, Cruz flipped on the issue, bemoaning in an op-ed “corrupt” Washington deal making on the matter and singling out McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner for misleading conservatives.

And in the opening chapter of his book, Cruz calls out McConnell and his GOP colleagues for “chicanery” by publicly opposing an increase in the borrowing limit while privately trying to let the debt ceiling increase in 2014 without their fingerprints. When he told a California GOP donor in 2014 about the debt ceiling dispute, Cruz recalls the donor saying repeatedly: “The bastards.”

“In the 2016 primary, you’re going to have 15 candidates up there going, ‘I’m conservative. No, no, I’m conservative.’ And what we see is they go to Washington and they don’t do what they said they would do,” Cruz told NPR Monday in an interview about his book. “I think the question Republican primary voters should ask is, ‘When have you stood up against the Washington cartel? When have you stood up against leaders in our own party?’”

Don Stewart, a McConnell spokesman, declined to comment.

Since coming to Washington in 2013, Cruz has co-sponsored only three bills that have become law, none of them controversial. But in his book, Cruz suggests that cutting deals to pass legislation shouldn’t be the gauge of senatorial success.

“Sometimes, people ask me, ‘When you have a room full of Republican senators yelling at you to back down and compromise your principles, why don’t you just give in?’” Cruz wrote. “The answer is simple. I just remember all those men and women who pleaded with me, ‘Don’t become one of them.’”

In his book, Cruz writes that immediately after he won his 2012 Senate race, McConnell made a “concentrated effort to befriend me.” Cruz said he was “wary,” but “glad to reciprocate.” He joined McConnell on an official trip to Afghanistan and Israel and was the GOP leader’s guest at the 2013 Alfalfa Club Dinner. McConnell awarded Cruz with plum committee assignments — even a spot on the Senate Rules Committee, which is typically reserved for more senior members.

...

htxp://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/ted-cruz-slams-mitch-mcconnell-rand-paul-book-119565.html?hp=t2_r

Rand Paul's Flat And Fair Tax: Even Better Than Reagan Plan

Overnight, Rand Paul changed the dynamics of the Republican presidential race when he released his "Fair and Flat" tax plan a week ago.

As he said when he unveiled the plan on video, this is the boldest rewrite of the income tax system in 100 years. Even Ronald Reagan — who dramatically improved the federal tax system — didn't perform such a sweeping cleanup of the tax code.

For full disclosure, I spent the last several months helping design this plan with Sen. Paul — so I'm biased. But there is no doubt that this plan, which reduces income tax rates from as high as 40% and business taxes from 35% down to a flat 14.5%, can only be described as explosively pro-growth and pro-jobs.

The 14.5% tax would apply to wages, salaries, capital gains, rents and dividend income. It eliminates the estate tax, telephone taxes, Internet taxes, gift taxes and all customs and duties.

This plan would take America from being one of the nations with the highest income tax rates in the world to having one of the lowest. It would suck capital and jobs from the rest of the world almost immediately to these shores.

America would move from a nation offshoring jobs to one that would start in-sourcing millions of them. It gives U.S. workers a fair advantage.

Under the current tax system, the IRS taxes what is produced in America and sold overseas. Under Rand's plan, when goods are produced on these shores and sold abroad, no tax is applied. But when China brings goods into the U.S. for sale, a 14.5% tax at the border is applied.

This will reward production and jobs here — big time. Industrial unions should love this plan because the business tax is a GATT-legal tariff on all imported goods.
...
Perhaps the strongest case for the Fair and Flat tax is that it eliminates all of the special interest loopholes and carve-outs in the tax code.

Tax lobbyists in Washington would become an endangered species — and it couldn't happen to a nicer group of people. The richest 1% get the preponderance of the tax write-offs, so getting rid of the big deductions would increase their taxable income while lowering the rate.
...

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-viewpoint/062415-758831-rand-paul-flat-and-fair-tax-a-history-making-game-changer.htm

Rand Paul announces statewide Iowa tour July 1-2

Rand Paul will return to Iowa for a two-day, eight-stop tour across the state on July 1-2.

Paul, a GOP presidential candidate and senator from Kentucky, will begin his tour in southwest Iowa that Wednesday. The tour ends Thursday evening in Des Moines, where Paul will officially open his campaign’s Iowa office.

The libertarian-leaning Republican last appeared in Iowa on May 28. He’s tied for second place in support among likely GOP caucusgoers at 10 percent, according to the latest Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll.

Here are event details as confirmed by Paul’s Iowa campaign:

July 1

8:30 a.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn, 2702 Mid America Drive, in Council Bluffs.

11:00 a.m. at Morningside College’s UPS Auditorium, 3627 Peters Ave., in Sioux City.

2:30 p.m. at Sioux Center Public Library, 102 South Main Ave., in Sioux Center.

5:30 p.m. at Barefoot Bar, 24457 178th St., in Okoboji.

July 2

8:30 a.m. at Grand River Center, 500 Bell St., in Dubuque.

12:00 p.m. at Cedar Rapids Downtown Library, 450 5th Ave. SE, in Cedar Rapids.

2:30 p.m. at Farm of Craig Lang, 4213 180th St., in Brooklyn.

5:30 p.m. for the opening of campaign’s Iowa office, 1901 Bell Ave., Suite 21 in Des Moines.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2015/06/22/rand-paul-announces-july-iowa-tour/29122333/

Rand Paul Calls Mass Incarceration The “New Jim Crow” While Slamming Clinton

“But now that I’ve been speaking out and saying that mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow, now all of a sudden the Clintons are saying, ‘oh wait a minute, we are going to be back on the other side of this issue right now.’”

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul said Thursday that Bill and Hillary Clinton are “proud” to have presided “over the incarceration of a whole generation of young black men” in comments singling out mass incarceration as “the new Jim Crow.”

The senator from Kentucky is an advocate for making changes to the criminal justice system and has co-sponsored legislation with Democratic Sen. Cory Booker to help keep nonviolent criminal offenders out of prison.

“Bill Clinton presided over the incarceration of a whole generation of young black men,” Paul said on The Wilkow Majority. “We are putting young black men in jail at a rate never before seen in history and it’s because of this war on drugs.”

Paul said Hillary and Bill Clinton were “proud to do this.”

Hillary Clinton spoke earlier this year of ending “the era of mass incarceration.” Clinton’s remarks rejected the “tough-on-crime” mantra and legislation advocated by her and her husband during his time as president which included signing the 1994 criminal bill.

...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/rand-paul-bill-clinton-was-proud-to-preside-over-the-incarce#.uf8p6KR87

Rand Paul Takes A Stand

Campaign books are usually forgettable, uniformly boring, and go mostly unread. However, Sen. Rand Paul’s recently published addition to the genre is neither forgettable nor boring: if it goes largely unread then that will be a shame. For it is a sincerely written, even passionate defense of liberty in the tradition of Barry Goldwater’s The Conscience of a Conservative – the book that launched the contemporary conservative movement and eventually landed Ronald Reagan in the White House.

It covers a wide range of subjects, from the economy to our criminal injustice system, many of which are outside the purview of this column. Yet Taking A Stand: Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America does such a good job of weaving all these separate strands together into a comprehensive worldview that deciding where to mark the cutoff point is a difficult task. And so I’ll start, somewhat arbitrarily, smack dab in the middle of the book with the chapter entitled “The War on Liberty.”

The scene opens in Ferguson, Missouri, which Sen. Paul visited during the recent unrest – while the rest of his congressional colleagues stayed away. Paul recalls one woman in her seventies got up at a meeting he attended and said: “Where the hell is my Democrat congressman? I haven’t seen him since this whole thing started.”

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http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2015/06/25/rand-paul-takes-a-stand/

Sen. Rand Paul to Visit Nevada Today

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul is planning to make multiple stops in Nevada next week.

The Kentucky senator will make stops at casino resorts in Reno, Elko, Mesquite and Las Vegas throughout Monday.

Paul's campaign says he will speak at the Atlantis Casino Resort in Reno at 9 a.m. on Monday, then travel to the Elko Star Hotel Restaurant at 1:30 p.m.

The events are part of his "Stand with Rand" tour and are being hosted by local activists and supporters. Paul has visited Nevada several times since announcing his presidential bid, including an April rally in Las Vegas.

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http://www.ktvn.com/story/29391116/sen-rand-paul-to-visit-nevada-next-week

Super PAC Concerned American Voters spending $261K on door hangers and voter outreach to support Rand Paul in IA.

http://docquery.fec.gov/pdf/703/15951522703/15951522703.pdf#navpanes=0

Rand Paul TIME op-ed: Government Should Get Out of the Marriage Business

Perhaps it is time to be more careful what we ask government to do, and where we allow it to become part of our lives

While I disagree with Supreme Court’s redefinition of marriage, I believe that all Americans have the right to contract.

The constitution is silent on the question of marriage because marriage has always been a local issue. Our founding fathers went to the local courthouse to be married, not to Washington, DC.

I’ve often said I don’t want my guns or my marriage registered in Washington.

Those who disagree with the recent Supreme Court ruling argue that the court should not overturn the will of legislative majorities. Those who favor the Supreme Court ruling argue that the 14th amendment protects rights from legislative majorities.

Do consenting adults have a right to contract with other consenting adults? Supporters of the Supreme Court’s decision argue yes but they argue no when it comes to economic liberties, such as contracts regarding wages.

It seems some rights are more equal than others.

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http://time.com/3939374/rand-paul-gay-marriage-supreme-court/

Here’s What Happens When Rand Paul Hosts a 24-Hour ‘Hackathon’ for Liberty

While most of his 2016 Republican primary challengers have been making the media rounds to comment on this week’s Supreme Court decisions, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul spent the weekend watching young minds create programs at his San Francisco headquarters.

Paul’s campaign sponsored a 24-hour ‘hackathon’ over the weekend, in which teams of one to four people came together and used their “coding and creative skills to work addressing the real-world challenges facing the liberty movement.”

According to the senator’s website, the winning team earned an exclusive meeting with the presidential candidate to show him what they’ve created, as well as an autographed copy of the U.S. Constitution.

That honor went to Team Checkmate for their secure donations app. Team Checkmate beat out six other teams to meet with Paul.

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http://www.ijreview.com/2015/06/355280-heres-happens-rand-paul-hosts-24-hour-hackathon-liberty/