Rand Paul, Still Mum, Lays 2016 Groundwork
Senator Hires Experts in Three Key States, Raises Funds Aggressively

By Beth Reinhard and Rebecca Ballhaus

Sen. Rand Paul hasn't said whether he will seek the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. But his aggressive groundwork seems to point to no other outcome.

In recent weeks, the Kentucky Republican announced political hires in quick succession in Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan— states key to winning his party's nomination. Staffers mention a future campaign headquarters in Louisville and claim an email list of one million supporters, details most potential presidential hopefuls keep quiet. A super PAC launched by backers shortly before the 2012 election offers a repository for big donors.

On Monday, Mr. Paul begins a three-day, 10-stop swing through Iowa, marking his 10th visit in this election cycle to one of the first three states on the traditional nominating calendar. Only Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) has made more trips, at 11.

The early spade work serves an important purpose for Mr. Paul, a 51-year-old tea-party favorite elected to the Senate less than four years ago. As a central figure in a movement at odds with the political establishment and an apostate from his party's muscular stance on foreign policy, Mr. Paul must prove that he has broader national support than his father, former Rep. Ron Paul, a two-time presidential candidate who never won a nominating contest.

"Rand Paul is for real—a 100%, dead-serious contender, and anyone who underestimates him should have his head examined," said Phil Musser, a Republican strategist who advised GOP presidential hopefuls Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney but is unaffiliated with any potential 2016 candidates. "He has changed the perception that a Paul could never win the nomination."

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"We need to open the borders to find out who is going to come across them"

You forgot to discuss Zionism.

Zionism (Hebrew: צִיּוֹנוּת, translit. Tsiyonut) is a nationalist movement of Jews and Jewish culture that supports the creation of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the Land of Israel.[1] A religious variety of Zionism supports Jews upholding their Jewish identity, opposes the assimilation of Jews into other societies and has advocated the return of Jews to Israel as a means for Jews to be a majority in their own nation, and to be liberated from antisemitic discrimination, exclusion, and persecution that had historically occurred in the diaspora.[1] Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in central and eastern Europe as a national revival movement, and soon after this most leaders of the movement associated the main goal with creating the desired state in Palestine, then an area controlled by the Ottoman Empire.[2][3][4] Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of Israel and address threats to its continued existence and security. In a less common usage, the term may also refer to non-political, cultural Zionism, founded and represented most prominently by Ahad Ha'am; and political support for the State of Israel by non-Jews, as in Christian Zionism.

"Dogecoin isn’t really dead, but if things don’t change soon, Dogecoin may be on its way out."


its based on a joke. what did people expect?!

It was completely outside his comfort zone though, he just needed to share it.

my problem with hilary is that she's the same sold same old.. she brokered that secretary of state to pretty much push the U.S. imperialistic agenda forward. i don't think her campaign message would be anything similar to "hope and change," because it's obvious she'll do shit the same way as the US has done before.

The IDF has destroyed Hamas's flagship terrorism project; its network of cross-border tunnels that snuck under the border into Israel. The military also began to pull its forces out of the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening.

Hamas has spent five years preparing this strategic threat; the IDF wrecked 31 tunnels in two weeks. By Sunday, all of the tunnels the IDF knew about, or discovered during the offensive, will be destroyed. A few tunnels that Israel doesn't know about may remain intact.

Many of the underground passages were designed to send heavily armed murder squads into Israeli villages for killing sprees, and attack army positions from behind. They were filled with weapons, explosives, and equipment, enabling terrorists dressed in civilian clothing to disappear into a shaft in Gaza, and emerge in Israel, disguised as IDF soldiers and fully equipped to carry out a mass casualty attack. The IDF has discovered motorcycles in some of the tunnels, which were earmarked by Hamas for rapid raids into Israel and subsequent retreats back into Gaza.

Senator Rand Paul: CIA Director John Brennan Should Be Fired
The Kentucky Republican, who filibustered the CIA chief's nomination, is the latest legislator to call for his ouster.


A spokesman from Senator Rand Paul's office has forward the Kentucky Republican's reaction to news that the CIA spied on a Senate subcommittee as it investigated torture, malfeasance that CIA chief John Brennan once explicitly denied. "It is illegal for the CIA to spy on Americans and an affront to our Republic to spy on the Senate," Senator Paul stated. "Brennan told the American people that the CIA did not spy on the Senate but now he admits that they did. Brennan should dismiss those responsible for breaking the law and be relieved of his post.”

Paul also emphasized that he tried to prevent Brennan's nomination to head the CIA by mounting a filibuster against it. At least two other Senators have also called for Brennan to be fired. For more on Brennan's unacceptable job performance and the factors President Obama may consider when deciding what to do with him, see "Does John Brennan Know Too Much for Obama to Fire Him?"

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has spoken out in defense of Brennan, and much of the conservative movement has greeted news that the CIA spied on its overseers with a yawn. A GOP that is actually interested in reining in big government excesses and bureaucratic corruption would do well to orchestrate the replacement of legislators like Chambliss with legislators like Paul when assignments to key oversight committees are made.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Hillary Clinton is not "fit to lead the country" Friday, mocking the former secretary of state's comments about her wealth and condemning her response to the September 2012 attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi.

Paul's scathing words could provide an early look at the arguments he will deploy against Clinton if they both decide to run for president. They came during a speech in Kentucky before a crowd of several hundred GOP activists.

Paul opened his speech by joking that he was losing sleep over Clinton's money problems, according to National Journal.

I wonder if we'll get a Strom kind of case if Rand's elected the GOP's candidate. The GOP walks out of the delegation to form a "new" GOP, Rand isn't even allowed on the ballot in one state and sometimes shoved off to be called a third-party, assumed completely hopeless, and he ends up doing a Truman (I imagine the election map would look similar to the Dixiecrat election, too!). I guess that'd be more likely if it were Ron than Rand.

realistically, whoever wins ohio and florida, the two swing states with the most electoral votes, is going to end up winning the race.