Cruz' wife Heidi Nelson Cruz to take "leave of absence" from Goldman Sachs during campaign

Heidi Cruz, a managing director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in Houston, has taken an unpaid leave from her private wealth-management job to help with her husband’s campaign for the U.S. presidency, a person familiar with the matter said.

Ted Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, said on Twitter early Monday morning that he plans to run for president in the 2016 election. Heidi Cruz’s leave will last the duration of the campaign, said the person, who asked not to be identified speaking about Cruz’s employment.

Heidi Cruz, a Harvard Business School graduate who worked in President George W. Bush’s administration, joined Goldman Sachs in 2005 and was promoted to managing director, the firm’s second-highest rank, in 2012. She serves as regional head of the Houston office in the private wealth-management unit, which serves individuals and families who have on average more than $40 million with the firm.

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/ted-cruz-goldman-sachs-wife/2015/03/23/id/631916/

240 years ago today, March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry famously addressed the Virginia Convention:

“Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

Henry’s passionate declaration for independence from Britain is widely acknowledged as the catalyst for the convention’s decision to deliver Virginian troops to help fight the Revolutionary War.

“Liberty or death!” became the rallying cry throughout the colonies. Not all, but enough of the founding generation cared enough to risk their lives fighting the War for Independence. To them, it indeed amounted to a choice between liberty or death.

Much has changed since. Today, most Americans clearly care for many things other than liberty. If this were not true, Americans would by now have thrown off the chains of the Federal Reserve. Likewise for the fear-mongered, liberty-suppressing “wars” on drugs, terror, poverty, etc., and the host of other policies, programs, agencies, bureaucracies, and departments comprising the unsustainable American welfare/warfare state. “Fear is the passion of slaves” said Henry. By and large then, are Americans not slaves? Are Americans not afraid of liberty itself?

“When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.” By 1775, the trend was running away from liberty. Henry’s generation helped slow it, if only temporarily. How do Britain’s punitive “Intolerable Acts” (or “Coercive Acts”), imposed upon the colonies – the final straw of-sorts before revolution – stack up to today’s abuses against Americans by their federal government? The lying, the spying, the inflation, the taxes, the regulations, the wars, the groping by the TSA at airports, the domestic militarization, the multitudinous assaults on civil liberties and the pervasive disdain and utter disrespect for private property and voluntary economic transactions? If alive today Henry would be the first to thunder “Liberty or death!”

More...http://www.voicesofliberty.com/article/240-years-after-patrick-henrys-liberty-or-death-speech/

Beyond foreign policy, things get a bit fuzzy with large variations regarding the kinds of social issues that energize many actual conservatives. In fact, neoconservatives usually avoid discussing abortion, immigration, gay marriage, race, and the proper place for religion in a civil society because they find themselves on the progressive side of the argument. They are also light on the ground when it comes to constitutionalism and civil liberties, concerns of traditional conservatives, preferring instead to back the warfare state coupled with a unitary executive, which frees up the president to exercise the military option in international relations.

This ambivalence is because, as it has been observed, many neoconservatives are former leftists or even radicals who have by their own account “been mugged by reality,” leading to a gradual shift away from the Scoop Jackson Democratic nest where many of them were nurtured to the Republicanism of Ronald Reagan, where they focused more practically on obtaining positions in the Pentagon. Many eventually supported John McCain before gravitating to the George W. Bush administration, where some of them found senior-level government positions in both the White House and Defense Department.

Neoconservatives largely mix with other neoconservatives, which means that they operate with considerable internal cohesion, but that does not fully explain their success in selling a product that has begun to smell very bad if one judges by results rather than marketing. But perhaps the answer lies in understanding how the bubble around Washington works, which the neoconservatives have mastered. They are particularly adept at resume building within their clique, understanding full well that a Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies is more likely to find space on a friendly editorial page than someone without that cachet who has a large audience on the alternative media, particularly if that someone is diverging from status quo policies or staking out a position that differs substantially from foreign-policy groupthink. Their ability to seek out and build relationships with friends in the mainstream media, which the Guardian describes as “extraordinary,” has significantly contributed to their success. In 2002 alone the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), an AIPAC spin-off, by itself placed 90 op-eds in the mainstream media. They also enjoy, for the same reason, unchallenged access to government committees and advisory commissions.

More...http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-neoconservative-cursus-honorum/

Digging on Walker has begun: Walker & Dark Money Politics

John Menard Jr. is widely known as the richest man in Wisconsin. A tough-minded, staunchly conservative 75-year-old billionaire, he owns a highly profitable chain of hardware stores throughout the Midwest. He’s also famously publicity-shy — rarely speaking in public or giving interviews.

So a little more than three years ago, when Menard wanted to back Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — and help advance his pro-business agenda — he found the perfect way to do so without attracting any attention: He wrote more than $1.5 million in checks to a pro-Walker political advocacy group that pledged to keep its donors secret, three sources directly familiar with the transactions told Yahoo News.

Menard’s previously unreported six-figure contributions to the Wisconsin Club for Growth — a group that spent heavily to defend Walker during a bitter 2012 recall election — seem to have paid off for the businessman and his company. In the past two years, Menard’s company has been awarded up to $1.8 million in special tax credits from a state economic development corporation that Walker chairs, according to state records.

And in his five years in office, Walker’s appointees have sharply scaled back enforcement actions by the state Department of Natural Resources — a top Menard priority. The agency had repeatedly clashed with Menard and his company under previous governors over citations for violating state environmental laws and had levied a $1.7 million fine against Menard personally, as well as his company, for illegally dumping hazardous wastes.

Secret $1.5 million donation from Wisconsin billionaire uncovered in Scott Walker dark-money probe
John Menard Jr. at the NASCAR Busch Series Meijer 300 at the Kentucky Speedway in 2006 (Photo: Joe Robbins/NASCAR/Getty Images)

“This, in a nutshell, is what’s wrong with the dark-money world we live in,” said Bill Allison, senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based based nonprofit group that tracks the influence of money in politics. “Here’s somebody who obviously has issues before the state, and he’s able to make a backdoor contribution that nobody ever sees. My sense is [political] insiders know about these contributions. It’s only the public that has no idea.” Menard did not respond to email and phone requests from Yahoo News for comment about his contributions. (His company’s spokesman, Jeff Abbott, said he was not authorized to speak for the company’s owner and could not respond, either.)

More...https://www.yahoo.com/politics/wisconsin-gov-scott-walker-photo-charlie-114429739886.html

Dinner with Rand Paul Miramar Beach, FL March 30th! (Northwest Florida)

Rand is having one fundraiser while he is on vacation with his family. If you can make it out to the beautiful Destin Florida area on March 30th you can support Rand Paul. Please call the number to RSVP for the event.

Rand Paul invites supporters to campaign announcement, rollout

Rand Paul appears to have finalized plans for his presidential campaign announcement and at least part of his subsequent rollout, according to invites posted by his political committee RAND PAC to the website Eventbrite.

As previously reported, the Kentucky senator plans to announce his bid for president April 7 at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville. The invitation posted online urges supporters to "join Senator Rand Paul for a very special rally."

"You won't want to miss this historic event," the invitation adds. The event, not billed explicitly as the official launch to Paul's campaign, is set to begin at 11:30 a.m.

Paul's committee has also posted invites to two events following his announcement in Louisville, likely part of Paul's official campaign rollout. The first, on April 9, will be a rally at the U.S.S. Yorktown in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. Paul will then travel April 10 to the University of Iowa in Iowa City for a rally in the student union ballroom.

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More...http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/rand-paul-invites-supporters-to-campaign-announcement-rollout/article/2561936

Media Running With Paul/Cruz Feud Narrative

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"Right now, I'm the only one that beats Hillary Clinton in certain purple states," Paul said on Fox News' "The Kelly File," talking about recent polls. "There will be a lot of conservatives. Ted Cruz is a conservative, but it also goes to winability. And people will have to make a decision: Which is the Republican that can not only excite the base but can also bring new people into the party without giving up principles?"

The Kentucky Republican, who's expected to announce his own presidential bid on April 7, said he was "glad" to see Liberty University students wearing t-shirts in support of his own all-but-declared candidacy, when Cruz made his announcement.

"I guess what makes us different is probably our approach to how we would make the party bigger," Paul said, referring to himself and Cruz. "I'm a big believer that you should stand on principle ... but I also think we should take those principles and try to bring in new people with them."
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More...http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/23/politics/rand-paul-ted-cruz-2016-election/

In New Hampshire, Rand Paul Reimagines Government Off the Top of His Head

ROCHESTER, N.H.—Eight questions into his meet-and-greet at the Pink Cadillac Diner Kentucky, Senator Rand Paul made his first accidental policy. One of the Stafford County Republicans who’d shown up for breakfast asked Paul about the heart-rending crises in the Veterans Affairs administration. Was it time, she asked, to “overhaul the VA and let it go to the private sector?”

“Yes,” said Paul. Three dozen Republicans put down their coffee and applauded. Then the senator explained himself. “In Kentucky, we’re building an $800 million new VA hospital,” he said. “That would buy a lot of insurance just to go to the doctor, any doctor… I think the care is for the most part good, but the distribution’s bad. When you think VA, think single payer system.”

That seemed clear enough. Ninety minutes later, after another Q&A, in Exeter, I asked Paul if he’d thought more about what privatizing the VA would look like.

“No, I don’t really have a big plan or anything,” he said. “I’m not even sure I’d use the word privatize.” He did want vouchers—a policy endorsed by Concerned Veterans for America, which is connected to the libertarian Koch network—but he was not ready to throw the whole system into the Hayekian laboratory. “I’m not for eliminating the VA, or getting rid of the VA hospitals. In fact, a lot of veterans like the VA hospitals even better than the other hospitals. I’d tend more toward getting insurance vouchers to go to the community.”

In two and a half weeks, Paul is expected to launch a presidential campaign. Texas Senator Ted Cruz beat him to the starting line with a Monday morning speech at Liberty University; the two men will speak within an hour of each other in Monday night Fox News interviews. Paul’s network is all but ready for him, and the Republicans who attended many of his events this past weekend were given flyers advertising a “Stand with Rand rally” in New Hampshire on April 8.

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/features/2015-03-24/in-new-hampshire-rand-paul-reimagines-government-off-the-top-of-his-head

This writer claims to be a libertarian and you'll note that this is a hitpiece. He's been nipping at Rand for years now.

Rand really didn't attack him per se, he just set himself apart in how his campaigning will be different and to a broader audience. If you watched what Cruz said in his opening speech, it could be taken in that he thinks he can just try and turn out more evangelicals and social conservatives and then win which most pundits don't think is gonna happen. Plus, Cruz has made so many enemies in his own party that it's past the point of some of them grinning and bearing him. I like his style at times but I'm of the mind that he's in this race as someone feeding from potential Rand voters. Knowing this, that's why Rand is going after younger folks and minorities to pinch away democratic support thus showing his electability in the eyes of the party officials and donors.

Theoretically, taxes have to be paid in the USA by April 15th but people usually start filing in February if they want to get their returns back earlier.

Paypal is never to be trusted. Stop this fraud and buy into bitcoin. That's it period. Grand things to come ahead.

I'd give him life w/o parole, don't you know. This person is full of crappola and u should know this. He's a creep from hell.

Always invest in bitcoin, you will not disregard this advice.

Other countries are doing business with them, not giving them money ffs. It's the sanctions that they're moving around atm. you gonna do the biz wit em? I won't

Rand Paul on The Kelly File  3-23-15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_kLSs9MDmc

Rand did a great job talking about Cruz's Prez announcement today while referring to himself as polling best against Hillary during the whole thing. That's the takeaway value plus his 6 mins footage on Fox tonight - the highest viewed show on the air.

I've seen this at least 3-4 times by now so you're spamming at the moment, partner. Can you offer any interest to those that will check out the site? You should pay for advertising.

How's it going Klye? Glad to see you're making good on your payments. In addition to making payments, is there any thoughts on fulfilling the business model and get the footage up and running again? I'd have to think that banging broads for money would generate ok money. If not, cool.

Two New Books by Rand and Kelley Paul

Kelley - True and Constant Friends: Love and Inspiration from Our Grandmothers, Mothers, and Friends

When Kelley Paul arrived on the Rhodes College campus in 1981, she immediately bonded with six women. Three decades of intimate friendship later, Kelley celebrates these relationships and the women who inspired them all. She tells their stories and those of their grandmothers, mothers and sisters, providing a microcosm of women raising families and building lives in 20th- and 21st-century America. The extraordinary lives of Kelley's and her friends' role models-from the Southern matriarch to the poor Irish immigrant-are honored in this lovely book which offers oral history along with classic poetry, art, and photography. Throughout, Kelley explores the universal themes of hardship, determination, commitment, family, independence, optimism, friendship and love-and illuminates the power of the female bond that enriches all our lives."

Rand - Taking a Stand: Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America

In his four years since joining the Senate, Rand Paul has risen to the forefront of the national discussion. He's being called "the most interesting man in politics" by TIME Magazine. When Senator Paul believes in an issue he reaches across the aisle to collaborate with his colleagues. He's worked with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on an anti-war bill, a financial assistance for childcare bill, and a protection for women in the military bill. He's also working with Senator Cory Booker to reform the nation's criminal justice system. He's received standing ovations from conservatives when he spoke at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) and standing ovations from students when he spoke at University of California at Berkley, known to be a liberal institution."

Well, I'll be damned. As Lloyd says in Dumb and Dumber, "No Way!"  Had no idea I could do this. I agree it wouldn't be a positive to add Iran to the bad stack alongside North Korea to having these things.

NEW YORK - Ahead of next week’s visit of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to the United States, a leading American newspaper reported Friday that the Obama administration States is nearing a decision to keep more troops in Afghanistan next year than over five thousand it had intended.

In a front page dispatch from Washington, The New York Times said the move effectively upends its drawdown plans in response to roiling violence in the country and another false start in the effort to open peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

President Ghani, a former World Bank executive, will meet with President Barack Obama as well as Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss possible changes to the U.S. timetable to withdraw the bulk of American troops helping to bolster Afghanistan’s still-struggling military.

More...http://nation.com.pk/international/21-Mar-2015/us-may-not-reduce-troops-in-afghanistan