Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney , the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, told a meeting of donors Friday that he is considering another White House bid in 2016, people present said.

The possibility of a third Romney bid could upend the emerging GOP field, coming as top Republican donors are starting to rally behind former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Mr. Romney made the remarks during a session Friday afternoon with a few dozen top GOP donors in midtown Manhattan, according to people present.

The former Massachusetts governor didn’t give a timetable for making a decision about another White House run, but he cited unrest overseas as one of the reasons he’s considering another campaign. He also mentioned the long-term health of the economy.

Mr. Romney has sent mixed signals about his intent heading into 2016, repeatedly telling reporters that he isn’t interested in running again while also leaving some close confidants with the impression he might consider it, should other Republicans stumble.

His potential candidacy has been a topic of frequent speculation among donors and operatives as the field takes shape. Many major GOP donors have been waiting to see what Mr. Romney will do before committing to other Republicans who are taking more aggressive steps to launch White House candidacies.

The person who organized the event for Mr. Romney didn’t respond to multiple emails about the Friday session.

At one point during the meeting, one of the attendees asked Mr. Romney if he wanted to be president, a person present said. The 2012 nominee said, yes, of course.

this is kinda old, they were trying to use that in germany but it wasnt accepted by law.
you can just open your window and other stuff so that the device wont get a correct result.

We don’t pick our parents, and by most any measure, Rand Paul was exceedingly lucky with his. Former GOP Representative and presidential candidate Ron Paul bequeathed to his son a name and a network that propelled his ascent from unknown ophthalmologist to presidential contender in the span of a few short years.

But as Rand Paul prepares for a likely campaign launch this year, it’s clear that his famous father is no longer an asset. Ron Paul retired from Congress in January 2013, but he hasn’t strayed far from the political stage. In columns and interviews, he regularly espouses positions which are out of step with the Republican electorate and which opponents will harness in an attempt to strangle his son’s presidential aspirations.

After the terrorist attack in Paris this week, Ron Paul said that French foreign policy had helped drive the attack. “It’s an overall policy that invites retaliation,” Paul told Newsmax TV. “It doesn’t justify [the attack], but it explains it.” The argument echoed his claim that American military adventurism precipitated the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a belief that doesn’t wash well with a party predicated on national pride.

And if Ron’s foreign policy clashes with the party’s prevailing views, so too do some of his domestic prescriptions. In a column published Thursday, Paul wrote the U.S. “is a police state” marred by a “police culture that accepts the principle of initiating unjustified violence against citizens.” Such convictions are anathema for much of the Republican Party, which considers law enforcement sacrosanct and rejects criticism of cops, particularly in the wake of the killing of two New York City police officers last month.

Interesting supposition from a good Rolling Stone article from Tim Dickinson surveying all the victorious fronts of the recent past and likely future in the rolling back of our evil war on drugs:

Among likely 2016 contenders, of either party, the Kentucky senator [Rand Paul] is the most progressive on marijuana. He's sponsored legislation to make medical marijuana fully legal in states that have adopted it. In the last election, Paul championed the right of D.C. voters to decide on legalization for themselves. Paul has also been a vocal advocate for decriminalization, decrying the practice of booking kids for cannabis. "I don't want to encourage people to do it," he has said. "I think even marijuana is a bad thing to do. But I also don't want to put people in jail who make a mistake."

If Paul were to face off in a contest with Hillary Clinton, pot could emerge as an unlikely wedge issue for the Republican – particularly in libertarian-leaning swing states like Arizona and Nevada, where legalization initiatives are expected. That's because Clinton has continued to talk like a 1990s drug warrior, recently fretting over the dangers of marijuana edibles to children in Colorado, and even declaring that "the feds should be attuned to the way that marijuana is still used as a gateway drug."

The political logic here is not mysterious. White male independents – those most open to a Paul candidacy – are firmly in the legalization camp. (In Oregon, this slice of the electorate voted 65 percent to tax and regulate.)...

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden wants his critics to know that living is Russia is "great" and that, despite reports to the contrary, he doesn't need alcohol to enjoy his time there.

"Mike Hayden, former NSA, CIA director ... was talking about how I was—everybody in Russia is miserable," Snowden told journalist James Bamford, according to a transcript of an interview released Thursday. "And I'm going to end up miserable and I'm going to be a drunk and I'm never going to do anything. I don't drink. I've never been drunk in my life. And they talk about Russia like it's the worst place on earth. Russia's great."

Snowden's interview, which contained no new revelations about government spying, took place last June in a Moscow hotel room and will air soon on PBS. The discussion largely focused on U.S. cyber capabilities, but Snowden's favorable comments toward Russia are likely to again irk many of his critics, some of whom have suggested he has been sharing U.S. secrets with the Russian government.

This is not the first time Snowden has appeared to speak approvingly of the increasingly pugilistic country, which spent the better part of the past year chilling its relations with the U.S. after invading part of Ukraine. Last spring Snowden made a surprise appearance at an annual telecast with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ask if the country engaged in mass surveillance of its citizens.

The query gave Putin a chance to refute the suggestion without further challenge, giving the exchange the markings of choreographed propaganda. Snowden later defended the question as an attempt to challenge Putin on surveillance matters.

In the new interview, Snowden also spoke at length about the U.S. being poorly equipped to handle cyberattacks from foreign governments or from sophisticated hackers due to the intelligence community prioritizing offensive capabilities at the expense—and sometimes detriment—of defensive schemes.

The UN is deciding which refugees come to the US again this year.

The U.S. plans to lead in resettling tens of thousands of refugees from the Middle East, according to The State Department. The vetting will be almost nonexistent because they are accepting UNHRC referrals. The refugees will receive full benefits and an income and they will be put on the path to citizenship.

There should be a strict screening process but there won’t be. Two refugees were responsible for the Boston bombing. It was a refugee in Australia who committed the recent atrocity in a Sydney cafe.

The first wave of 9,000 UNHCR referrals from Syria are being reviewed now.

The State Department says, “The United States accepts the majority of all UNHCR referrals from around the world. Last year, we reached our goal of resettling nearly 70,000 refugees from nearly 70 countries. And we plan to lead in resettling Syrians as well. We are reviewing some 9,000 recent UNHCR referrals from Syria. We are receiving roughly a thousand new ones each month, and we expect admissions from Syria to surge in 2015 and beyond.”

Resettlement groups “work in 180 communities across the country and make sure refugees have homes, furniture, clothes, English classes, job training, health care and help enrolling their children in school. They are now preparing key contacts in American communities to welcome Syrians.”

Sen. Rand Paul is a near-certain presidential contender, but he stressed on Thursday that he won’t run a “quixotic” campaign.

Paul, the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican, outlined his thinking on a presidential bid during an appearance on conservative media personality Sean Hannity’s radio show.

He reiterated that a final decision will come in the spring. Paul is still weighing family considerations, he said, but in the coming months will also continue to test whether his message appears to be “resonating.”

“If it looks like we’re at 1 percent, not in the top tier, [that it would be a] quixotic sort of run. I’m not going to do it just for educational purposes,” he said, adding that he would “want to be in to win.”

Earlier Thursday, Paul suggested to Breitbart News that likely GOP rival Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida and an establishment favorite, is a moderate, according to that conservative publication’s write-up.

Asked about that statement by Hannity, Paul said the 2016 Republican primary contest will be a battle between conservatives and moderates, and that “we have room for moderates in the party, but their road to victory is more difficult.”

Paul was elected in 2010 as a conservative tea party candidate. He said that he will travel next week to the early-voting states of New Hampshire and Nevada.

Should Rand Paul join the crowded 2016 Republican field later this spring, as widely expected, Kelley Paul will join the ranks of prospective first ladies who help define their husband's political brands. It's a high-profile role that is challenging at best, yet those who know the family suggest that she would adapt well to the next step in her husband's career.

Reserved but politically savvy, Kelley Paul worked for a Republican consulting firm whose clients included another potential presidential candidate, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, before resigning more than a year ago. She is the mother of three sons, ages 15, 18 and 21, already joins team meetings and conference calls, edits speeches and helps prepare her husband for tough media interviews.

"She's a tremendous asset," said John McCarthy, a former Kentucky GOP chairman who has closely followed Rand Paul's rise. "She a very confident person, very comfortable, and she complements him well."

Having sporadically appeared publicly on her own in recent years, Kelley Paul's public profile has begun to grow.

On Tuesday she kicked off a six-stop speaking tour to Republican women's clubs in her home town of Russellville, where she fondly recalled riding in the annual tobacco festival parade and cheering at high school football games. Her 20-minute speech focusing on her Irish immigrant grandmother moved her audiences throughout Kentucky to tears.

This spring, she has media events and speeches planned for Washington, New York and Memphis, Tennessee, before publisher Hachette releases her book, "True and Constant Friends," in April.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Rand Paul today introduced S.34, the Defend Israel by Defunding Palestinian Foreign Aid Act of 2015. This legislation will call for the immediate halt of U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority until it withdraws its request to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). Under the current U.S. law, America is prohibited from assisting the Palestinian Authority if it seeks ICC claims against Israel. Thus far, the Obama administration has not committed to taking any actions and appears disinclined to cut off aid. The bill text can be found below.

“It is up to the new Republican-led Congress to move on its own so that the President does not once again circumvent clear funding restrictions. We are currently sending roughly $400 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars to the Palestinian Authority,” Sen. Paul said. "Certainly groups that threaten Israel cannot be allies of the U.S. I will continue to do everything in my power to make sure this President and this Congress stop treating Israel's enemies as American allies."


LEGISLATION TEXT:

To prohibit assistance to the Palestinian Authority until it withdraws its request to join the International Criminal Court.
114TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.


This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Defend Israel by Defunding Palestinian Foreign Aid Act of 2015’’. SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) On December 31, 2014, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, signed several international conventions in an attempt to join the International Criminal Court.
(2) The Palestinian Authority has indicated that it will seek to use the International Criminal Court as a means to pursue charges against Israel.
(3) The Palestinian Authority remains engaged in a unity government with Hamas, a terrorist organization responsible for countless deaths and whose charter declares that ‘‘there is no solution to the Palestinian question except by Jihad’’.
(4) The United States provides more than $400,000,000 in assistance to the Palestinian Authority each year.
(5) Section 7041(i)(2) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2015 (division J of Public Law 133–235) includes limitations on assistance to the Palestinian Authority if it seeks to join the International Criminal Court.
(6) The United States Government must make immediately clear to the Palestinian Authority that its attempts to join the International Criminal Court will carry serious consequences.
DAV15028 S.L.C. 3

. 1 SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON FUNDING.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no amounts may be obligated or expended to provide any assistance, loan guarantee, or debt relief to the Palestinian Authority, or any affiliated governing entity, until the Palestinian Authority withdraws its request to join the International Criminal Court.

A smarter society is a better society.
I think the fact we are talking about fixing the broken education system in the US is certainly a step in the right direction.

While Obama is on the education subject, maybe his administration can do something about the avg salary of teachers in this country.

After defeating a rebellion by 25 conservative Republicans this week, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday declared himself “the most anti-establishment Speaker” in history.

“During my years here when I voted, I had the eighth-most conservative voting record in the Congress and it does pain me to be described as spineless or a squish,” Boehner told reporters. “But what pains me the most is when they describe me as the establishment.
“I’m the most anti-establishment Speaker we’ve ever had.

"Who was the guy who got rid of earmarks? Me. Who's the guy who believes in regular order? Me," Boehner continued. "Who believes in allowing more members to participate in the process, from both sides of the aisle? Me."

Boehner won his third term as Speaker on Tuesday, but with more defections from his own party than any Speaker in modern history. He chalked up the conservative opposition to widespread anger at Washington.

"The American people are very frustrated. They are frustrated in a struggling economy,” Boehner said. “This frustration that's out there, they need to take it out on somebody. They take it out on the president, they take it out on me. It comes with the territory.”