GOP - Rand Paul's Presidential Highlight Reel w/ his Libertarian Twist

[Chef Ramsay]

Stand with Rand Meet and Greet with Thomas Massie - Dubuque, IA

Congressman Thomas Massie, a conservative leader in the US House of Representatives, is supporting Rand Paul. Join us in Dubuque on Saturday, August 22, and hear why he is standing with Rand.

"Rand Paul is the most principled conservative in the Senate and is a fierce advocate for personal liberty, economic freedom, and fiscal responsibility. The United States needs a President who will first and foremost defend the Constitution, and Rand is the only candidate that has proven time and again that he will do just that. - Thomas Massie"

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-with-rand-meet-and-greet-with-thomas-massie-dubuque-ia-tickets-18133749533

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[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul: a humanitarian in Haiti, a pit bull in 2016

CAP-HAITIEN, Haiti (AP) — Even while fighting blindness in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere this week, Republican presidential contender Rand Paul intensified political attacks against rivals in both parties, vowing to continue pressing billionaire businessman Donald Trump in particular as the Kentucky senator embraces the role as the GOP's leading pit bull.

An ophthalmologist by training, Paul left Haiti on Wednesday afternoon after spending four days on a humanitarian mission to the island nation. From a small urban clinic guarded by a team of armed police, Paul joined six eye surgeons who restored vision to dozens of impoverished Haitians, many living for years in blindness because of ailments such as cataracts that are easily treated in the United States.

The trip offered the tea party firebrand a brief respite from a presidential campaign in which his standing has slipped substantially in recent weeks. Yet the 2016 election — especially Trump — was a regular topic of conversation when Paul wasn't in the operating room.

More...http://bigstory.ap.org/article/6d41e08b852f4f28a702fe8de50e483a/rand-paul-humanitarian-haiti-pit-bull-2016

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul: 'How Do You Out-Trump the Irrational?'

CAP-HAITIEN, HAITI — Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul says it's only a matter of time until the country wakes up to Donald Trump's insincere message, but he's worried that some Americans are blinded by his "celebrity."

In a series of interviews between performing pro-bono eye surgeries in Haiti with the University of Utah's Moran Eye Center, the Kentucky senator was relaxed in scrubs, dismissive of Trump and critical of the media's role in Trump's rise.

"How do you out-Trump the irrational?" he asked.

It's a question he and the other Republican candidates are puzzling over. Paul said the reason "people have gone gaga" over the billionaire real estate mogul is that he's tapped into anti-establishment conservative anger.

In many ways, it's not dissimilar from the anti-Washington sentiment that helped Paul rise to his own political fame. But in the case of Trump, Paul believes there's no substance at all behind the frustration.

"I've likened it to 'The emperor has no clothes.' He's saying things that are completely vapid, things that are completely vulgar and completely a non sequitur."

And Paul is confident that the Trump show can't last.

"There's no way the voters in the country will nominate him. Absolutely not," Paul said.
...
In the interview with NBC News, Paul took particular aim at Trump's recently released immigration proposal, which he said made "no sense" and is "bizarre."

"Even the people who think they might like him, when they hear what his bone-headed plan is, you think they might have second thoughts," he said.

Still, one element of Trump's immigration plan that Paul won't push back on is his proposal to end birthright citizenship.

Back in 2011, Paul co-sponsored a constitutional amendment to put an end to the right that allows everybody born on U.S. soil to be a citizen. He told NBC News that today's circumstances still warrant that move.

"What I would say is, if you have an open border you can't have birthright citizenship," he said.

He also said his preference is to fix the border, adding that "no Republican or Democrat president" since 1986 has properly enforced America's immigration laws.
...

http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/rand-paul-how-do-you-out-trump-irrational-n412451

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Backers Still Believe He Can Stand Out

...
Ed Crane, co-founder and retired longtime chieftain of the Cato Institute, runs the Paul-supporting PurplePAC. With his libertarian movement background, he sees the best chances for Paul lie in being more consistently libertarian, and he says others in the campaign’s orbit are getting the same feeling. “The very fact that he was going after the NSA, skeptical of being the world’s policeman, that made him unique,” Crane says, and explains why he started off polling double digits.

Paul should have used the first GOP candidate debate, Crane says, and all his earned media, to hit home that he is “the candidate who is pro free market, anti-crony capitalism and is skeptical of the efficacy of the U.S. being the world’s policemen, and is also concerned about civil liberties” unlike his opponents who all want “boots on the ground” in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.
...
Matt Kibbe, formerly of FreedomWorks, is now working with a Paul SuperPAC called Concerned American Voters, focusing on get out the vote ground game in Iowa. He’s trying to keep his eye on the prize through the chaos of bad polling and waves of media trying to bury the Paul campaign prematurely.

“Rand should stick to his strengths,” Kibbe says, “one of which is ground game and the second of which is being the substantive, disruptive policy guy who has actually proposed radical tax reform, led on criminal justice reform and stands out from crowd on foreign policy and civil liberties, own the libertarian aspects of who he is.”

If he can do that and “stays long enough to cull the herd and get focused,” things could still work out fine when actual votes are cast, Kibbe believes.
...
Bruce Fein, a former Reagan administration Justice Department lawyer and former Ron Paul advisor who helped craft a Rand Paul lawsuit against the NSA, says he is in negotiations for a big role in PurplePAC moving forward. He hopes ultimately he can help them “articulate more forcefully what Rand ought to be doing and is not doing, giving him downfield blocking” for a more radically anti-intervention and pro-civil liberties campaign.

Despite being best known as a conservative movement legal scholar, Fein was most passionate talking about foreign policy: he stressed that “where Rand should be distinguishing himself head and shoulders above all the others is that we don’t go abroad in search of monsters to destroy, you cannot take states whose political culture is in the Pleistocene age and make them democracies, and that defense should be focused on protecting the U.S. from attack, deterrence” and not “wasting money and lives needlessly. We do the equivalent of sticking a bayonet into a hornets' nest and wonder why the hornets come back.”

Someone with as impeccable a history of being tough on America’s enemies as President Eisenhower, Fein says, warned us about the military industrial complex who “pursue needless gratuitous wars for profit” and he thinks Paul can successfully call on that tradition in the GOP now.
...
All agree that Trump is stealing some of the “outsider” vibe that should have been Paul’s to claim, despite being a sitting senator. Darling sees value in Trump’s radically anti-establishment position against the notion of “political families akin to royalty” like the Clintons and Bushes. Trump also shows, Darling says, that many Republican voters are very eager to oppose current Republican political leadership, an area that Paul is also well equipped to grab, standing alone on issues like NSA spying.

Fein thinks Trump’s brashness is something Paul might want to emulate, “don’t be recessive, be dominant,” don’t be afraid to use adjectives--“you can reasonably describe our foreign policy as utter idiocy, costing trillions and killing needlessly, and it has to be said that way” not disguised under such “Georgetown seminar” terms as “’conservative realism.’ Permanent war and limited government are antonyms” and Paul needs to sharply make that case.

“The upside to Trump,” says Kibbe, "is that he demonstrates the complete distrust and disgust that voters have with the standard two party duopoly and that dynamic should be Rand’s playing field. People are genuinely eager to throw everyone out, and if he’s good enough Rand can turn that into a libertarian policy mandate.”
...
All see no reason to believe the Paul campaign is over; all agreed aspects of both the campaign and polling and fundraising were frustrating, especially considering the vital stakes for libertarian ideas at stake. Darling, who worked for Paul, is sure that Paul is “not the kind of guy to walk away from a fight. He stood up at the debates nose to nose with the two bullies, Christie and Trump, and anyone who thinks he will pull out, no way, they don’t know the guy. He’s not a quitter.”
...

http://reason.com/blog/2015/08/20/rand-paul-backers-still-believe-he-can-s

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Explains Why Birthright Citizenship Isn't So Great in the Modern Era

In his ongoing war with Donald Trump, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has portrayed the tycoon-cum-candidate as a chameleon, a late-comer to conservative policies that Tea Party activists (like Paul) advocated for years. Among those policies: Changing interpretation of the 14th Amendment to prevent "birthright citizenship." In 2011, just days into his Senate career, Paul joined Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) on a resolution which would have clarified "that under the 14th Amendment a person born in the United States to illegal aliens does not automatically gain citizenship." Just three months into his Senate career, Vitter, Paul, and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) wrote new legislative language on this.

That went nowhere, but Paul has not changed his mind. During an interview in Haiti this week, he said that the current reading of the 14th Amendment was problematic as long as it inspired undocumented immigrants to come to the United States and give birth.

More...http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/20/rand-paul-explains-why-he-wants-to-stop-birthright-citizenship/

[Chef Ramsay]

By Rand Paul, Why I Want More Thorough Fed Audits

According to Deloitte & Touche, which conducts a conventional audit of the Fed's financial statements, the Fed spent $6.1 billion for operating expenses in 2013 and an additional $5.2 billion in interest paid to banks. The audit I would like to see would assess whether those payments are reasonable and necessary or whether they raise conflicts of interest between the Fed's role in monetary policy and its role as a bank regulator.

The Constitution is explicit in assigning responsibility for money to Congress, and it is particularly blunt when it says: "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law." None of the payments made by the Fed are pursuant to appropriations, but the Fed's actions facilitate the continued growth of the national debt, which is putting our economic future at risk.

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The Fed crows that it earns interest and has made great profits on its portfolio. But that's just one part of government lending to another part. There's no value creation. It's like charging interest to your spouse and counting it as family income.

The assets are bought not with real capital but with "computer-entry" fictions. The danger is that, at some point, the market will become aware that quantitative easing is an illusion and that the Fed can't cause growth or maintain calm, zero-interest markets with more computer-entry purchases.

Danger exists also in a market in which the most universal of prices, the price of money, is so manipulated as to lose its essential feedback mechanism. Danger exists in a market that is deprived of the information that freely floating interest rates provide.

More...http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-08-21/why-u-s-federal-reserve-needs-more-accountability

[Chef Ramsay]

Is Trump creating an anti-war window for Paul?

Lost in the nonstop spectacle that is Donald Trump is the fact that he is firmly on the record as being against the Iraq war. He brought his opposition to the war up in the recent debate and here he is (8 years ago) opposing the war and correctly predicting the chaos we see today. Now, of course, Trump is all over the place on other foreign policy issues, but this one issue is a perfect window for Rand Paul to grab the ball in the next debate and talk about blowback when it comes to arming Syrian rebels and foreign aid. Picture Senator Paul saying something like this in the upcoming debate,

Now, Mr. Trump, there is an issue that we agree on. It was a grave mistake for conservatives to support the invasion of Iraq. Destabilizing that region has led to the rise of ISIS and Christians fleeing the region–did you know that Saddam, bad as he was, allowed Christians in his government? And now we have folks on this stage who supported Obama’s effort to arm Syrian rebels. And guess what? Now many of those weapons are predictably in the hands of ISIS…(Fireworks ensue…)

http://iroots.org/2015/08/20/is-trump-creating-an-anti-war-window-for-paul/

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul leaves the campaign trail for eye surgeries in Haiti

This weekend, while the political world descends on Iowa's state fairgrounds, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) will be fixing cataracts 2000 miles away. As he's done every summer recess since joining the Senate, Paul's performing pro bono eye surgery. This year's mission, run and sponsored by the Moran Eye Center from the University of Utah, will take Paul to Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

"We kind of suggested it," said Paul in an interview. "There was talk about Haiti being in great need, and it's fairly close to the United States. Haiti, unfortunately, is famous for a long history of problems."

In 2014, Paul joined the Moran center on a similar trip to Guatemala, where he reunited with old patients and broke out his rusty, Texas-tutored Spanish. He has no similar connection to Haiti.

"You want to go where the need is greatest," Paul said. "In our country, when you have cataracts, they're relatively easy to fix. The people we will treat in Haiti -- many of them will be completely blind. There's less medical access there. It's closer to the equator. There's more sun, people are outside more, fewer people even have sunglasses. So there's a lot you can do."

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/08/14/rand-paul-leaves-the-campaign-trail-for-eye-surgeries-in-haiti/

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand's team is having a contest for the best 2 designs for new bumper stickers

Winners get free bumper stickers and their stickers featured in the store.

You guys got any ideas???

https://www.randpaul.com/bumpersticker

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul coming to Seattle

Stand with Rand - Seattle, WA
Rand Paul for President
Wednesday, August 26, 2015 at 8:30 AM (PDT)
Seattle, WA

http://www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-with-rand-seattle-wa-tickets-18208186175

[Chef Ramsay]

How To Fix A Broken Eye With Republican Presidential Candidate Rand Paul

CAP-HAITIEN, HAITI — August is a historically a month for Presidential candidates to do daring things, whether that’s eating pork on a stick, frying butter or giving helicopter rides to children.

But Kentucky Senator and presidential hopeful Rand Paul has changed the August game. While the rest of the field flipped pork chops in Iowa this week, Rand Paul could be found 2,000 miles away, flipping cataracts out of eyeballs.

More/video...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDgSXi9xyl0

[Chef Ramsay]

Paul kicks off western swing in Alaska

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA
Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul will attempt to steal some thunder from President Barack Obama before his visit to Alaska next week. Paul's planning two campaign appearances Tuesday in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Paul's Alaska visit kicks off a western states tour that will also include rallies in Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and Utah.

Before his Anchorage rally, the Kentucky senator told reporters he wants to visit with "like-minded people" who don't want government intruding into their lives.

His campaign staff says the western swing also sends the message that Paul is ready to compete in all states and isn't conceding anything to front-runners in the big pack of Republican contenders.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/news/politics-government/article32313915.html

[Chef Ramsay]

Kentucky caucus will award delegates proportionately

"Most committee members said their vote was motivated not by Paul’s candidacy, but by a desire to make Kentucky a player in presidential politics. That’s why Republicans crafted the caucus to appeal to as many of the 17 declared Republican candidates as possible. The plan calls for Kentucky’s delegates to be split proportionally rather than “winner takes all,” and candidates only need to get 5 percent of the vote to qualify for delegates."

More...http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/22/kentucky-gop-oks-caucus-allows-rand-paul-president/

[Chef Ramsay]

Stand with Rand Friday Aug. 28 in Cheyenne, Wyoming

We have some exciting news to share -- Senator Paul will be in Cheyenne next Friday!

Come learn more about his 'Fair and Flat Tax' Plan – a plan that's simple, fair and cuts taxes for every single American.

Here are the event details: (General admission is free)

Stand with Rand in Cheyenne
Friday, August 28
9:30 AM
Little America Hotel (Wyoming Room)
2800 W. Lincolnway
Cheyenne, WY 82009

We hope to see you there.

- Team Rand

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-with-rand-cheyenne-wy-tickets-18192509285

[Chef Ramsay]

EXCLUSIVE–RAND PAUL: REAL CONSERVATIVES STAND FOR PRIVATE PROPERTY

I remember having a conversation with a local city official in Kentucky when the Kelo Supreme Court decision came down. Conservatives, myself included, were outraged that the Supreme Court had wrongly allowed using eminent domain to take private property from one private property owner and give it to another private owner.

Conservatives in my community came together with a local resolution to prevent this from happening. I’ll never forget the response from the local official, who told me: “But you know me, I would never use eminent domain that way.” I responded: “The law isn’t about you—it’s about when we get bad representatives and must have the law to restrain them.”

This is what we believe as conservatives—that the law must supersede personalities and intentions. As conservatives, we seek to bind government using the rule of law to prevent the abuse of power.

The law is necessary because, as Madison put it, men will not always be angels. The ordinance preventing the government from taking private property and transferring it to another private property owner passed three to two.

More...http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/08/24/real-conservatives-stand-for-private-property/

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Reportedly Said He Would Debate Bernie Sanders “Anytime, Anyplace”

At last Saturday’s Republican Party of Kentucky meeting, where GOP leaders approved a proposal changing the state’s primary to a caucus system thus allowing U.S. Senator and 2016 presidential candidate Rand Paul to run for the U.S. Senate and the presidency at the same time, Paul reportedly told long-time libertarian activist Donald Meinshausen that he would be willing to debate Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders “anytime, anyplace.”

Demand for a presidential debate between Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul appears to be rising online, as a Facebook page and petition have been created calling for the two to face off in a Lincoln-Douglas style debate tour. Quora and Reddit online communities have also floated the idea of calling for a Sanders-Paul debate.

http://truthinmedia.com/rand-paul-reportedly-debate-bernie-sanders/

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul sits down with King 5 News, Seattle

Kentucky's junior Senator Rand Paul is bringing his presidential campaign to the Pacific Northwest this week. Monday night, he's fundraising at a private event in Bellevue. He heads to Alaska Tuesday, before returning to Washington on Wednesday for public events in Seattle and Spokane.


He sat down with KING 5 for a one-on-one interview Monday afternoon to talk about his campaign strategy and what he believes could be his appeal in Washington state.


"The last time I was here was in 1987, when my dad was running as the Libertarian candidate, and I was here for the Libertarian National Convention, which was in Seattle," Sen. Paul said.


His father, Ron Paul, drew large crowds in Washington the last time he ran for president in 2012. Although he failed to win the Republican nomination in the state, he came in second. Years later, Senator Rand Paul hopes to build upon his father's base of support and grow it.


"What we have to do to get bigger is to combine both the liberty movement and some of those who are from just the traditional conservative movement, and maybe convince some of those in the traditional conservative camp that, you know what, many of the other people may not be as conservative as they appear on the surface," Senator Paul told KING 5.

http://www.king5.com/story/news/politics/2015/08/24/rand-paul-seattle-visit/32306235/

[Bit_Happy]

Rand Paul Reportedly Said He Would Debate Bernie Sanders “Anytime, Anyplace”

At last Saturday’s Republican Party of Kentucky meeting, where GOP leaders approved a proposal changing the state’s primary to a caucus system thus allowing U.S. Senator and 2016 presidential candidate Rand Paul to run for the U.S. Senate and the presidency at the same time, Paul reportedly told long-time libertarian activist Donald Meinshausen that he would be willing to debate Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders “anytime, anyplace.”

Demand for a presidential debate between Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul appears to be rising online, as a Facebook page and petition have been created calling for the two to face off in a Lincoln-Douglas style debate tour. Quora and Reddit online communities have also floated the idea of calling for a Sanders-Paul debate.

http://truthinmedia.com/rand-paul-reportedly-debate-bernie-sanders/

This could have dramatic long-term effects if they actually have a two person debate when the field is still so crowded (because others will also do it in the future), or...
Perhaps not, if no major TV stations decide to carry it?

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Reportedly Said He Would Debate Bernie Sanders “Anytime, Anyplace”

At last Saturday’s Republican Party of Kentucky meeting, where GOP leaders approved a proposal changing the state’s primary to a caucus system thus allowing U.S. Senator and 2016 presidential candidate Rand Paul to run for the U.S. Senate and the presidency at the same time, Paul reportedly told long-time libertarian activist Donald Meinshausen that he would be willing to debate Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders “anytime, anyplace.”

Demand for a presidential debate between Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul appears to be rising online, as a Facebook page and petition have been created calling for the two to face off in a Lincoln-Douglas style debate tour. Quora and Reddit online communities have also floated the idea of calling for a Sanders-Paul debate.

http://truthinmedia.com/rand-paul-reportedly-debate-bernie-sanders/

This could have dramatic long-term effects if they actually have a two person debate when the field is still so crowded (because others will also do it in the future), or...
Perhaps not, if no major TV stations decide to carry it?

Rand is trying to attract some of those that Sanders bring to the table based upon Hillary's downfall. Lord knows his numbers have been falling since Trump has taken the wind out of the entire GOP candidates sails and it's tough to get back in the fight atm. Going after Sanders can get a few points back towards Rand's way. However, we should all be happy and find it healthy that there's a fight on the left considering Obama has been a unitary wart upon us. Rand's problem is that he back McConnell for certain reasons and conservatives aren't feeling that now and I can't blame them - hence his low polling numbers lately.

[Chef Ramsay]

Election 2016: Rand Paul Black Lives Matter Criticism Under Fire For 'Randsplaining'

Presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul came under fire Monday after he criticized aspects of the Black Lives Matter movement in an interview with a Seattle television station. The Republican candidate has been accused of “randsplaining” before, or talking down to a minority group, and critics revived the term via a Twitter hashtag.

"Do I think it's a good idea for people to jump up and commandeer the microphone? No, and I wouldn't let them take my microphone,” Paul said in the interview with NBC affiliate KING-TV, referencing the Aug. 8 Seattle incident in which Black Lives Matter activists interrupted a rally for Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders, taking his microphone.

“You know things cost money, and they need to learn that things cost money, and really all lives matter,” Paul said.

More...http://www.ibtimes.com/election-2016-rand-paul-black-lives-matter-criticism-under-fire-randsplaining-2067810