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

[josephliton]

Rand Paul: Snowden triggered surveillance reforms
Presidential candidate appeared at San Diego GOP dinner

Sen. Rand Paul said Saturday that former national security contractor Edward Snowden changed the political climate and helped open doors to government surveillance reform.

The GOP presidential candidate stopped short of saying whether Snowden should be prosecuted for leaking documents about secret government mass surveillance programs.

“I don’t think that’s really up to me. I think he did break the law and I think that we can’t have people making their own mind up to reveal secrets,” the Kentucky senator said in an interview at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel. Later, he addressed more than 700 people at the Republican Party of San Diego County’s annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner.

Paul added that Director of National Security James Clapper should also face scrutiny. Clapper misled Congress when he told members that the government wasn’t collecting bulk phone records, when it was, Paul said.

“You can’t have either one,” he said of the acts by Snowden and Clapper. “I’ve kind of flippantly said that they should share the same cell.”

More...http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jun/13/rand-paul-snowden-triggered-surveillance-reforms/

He's right about Snowden. Too bad he couldn't leave it at that instead of going into the made-up Benghazi scandal that the right wingers used asone of their dog whistles.

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul tries to court evangelicals while keeping live-and-let-live libertarian base

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, running for president on a platform of keeping the government out of people’s business, took a deep breath when asked at a recent stop in Philadelphia whether he’d make addressing abortion a part of his campaign.

“I didn’t run for office because of the social issues,” Paul answered. “It wasn’t what got me to leave my practice. I ran for office mainly because I became concerned that we’re going to destroy the country with debt.”

The libertarianism that launched Paul’s political career can be a tough fit with the religious right, which plays an outsized role in the primary elections to select the Republican nominee for president. In the latest Fox News poll, Paul ranked seventh in the Republican field in support among white evangelical voters, with 7 percent of them saying they’d back him.

Winning over Christian evangelicals is a dilemma for Paul as he struggles to grow his support beyond libertarian-minded voters, of whom there aren’t enough to make him a contender.

Polling during the 2012 presidential election found half the voters in the early Republican primary and caucus states identified themselves as evangelical or born-again. Paul is running against evangelical favorites such as Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker and Mike Huckabee.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/06/17/270254/rand-paul-struggling-in-his-presidential.html#storylink=cpy

[Chef Ramsay]

clip

He's right about Snowden. Too bad he couldn't leave it at that instead of going into the made-up Benghazi scandal that the right wingers used asone of their dog whistles.

There's nothing made up about Benghazi, Hillary oversaw an arms running outfit out of there along w/ the topple of Gaddafi which destabilized the region in favor of ISIS and Rand is "general election" calling her on it. She point blank denied any wrong-doing and said she didn't oversee the cables out of this troubled area which is dereliction of duty or worse. I vote worse. All the while she's been fleecing foreign governments for cash and access as SOS. If you buy that then, lol on you.

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Says He Is GOP's Best Shot Against Hillary Clinton Due To Support Of Independents

Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican Kentuckian currently running for president, says he is the best positioned GOP candidate to take on presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election because he has formed a tight alliance with the holy grail demographic: independents.


"I think in order to win these states that President Obama you got to attract independents and consistently in at least five states we're leading her - in states that were won by President Obama, we win the independent vote," Paul told Breitbart. "I think that's an important feature because people want so badly to have somebody who can beat Hillary Clinton. I think it's one of our strongest calling cards right now: We're the only one beating her in all five of these states."

A record high 43 percent of Americans identify politically as independents, according to a 2014 Gallup poll. When compared to the 30 percent of Americans who say they are Democrats, and the 26 percent who say they are Republicans, it's not hard to see why Paul believes he is the best choice to go up against Clinton.

More...http://www.hngn.com/articles/101704/20150617/rand-paul-gops-best-shot-against-hillary-clinton-due-support.htm

[Chef Ramsay]

RAND PAUL AND TED CRUZ MOVE TO THE LEFT OF LINDSEY GRAHAM ON TERRORIST RIGHTS

Earlier this week, the Senate passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that limits the entire U.S. government to only the interrogation and detention techniques outlined in the Army Field Manual. The vote was 78-21.

The Army Field Manual does not permit physical contact with detainees, not even a slap. The harshest method it permits the “Fear-Up (Harsh).” In this approach, “the interrogator behaves in an overpowering manner with a loud and threatening voice.” He “may even feel the need to throw objects across the room to heighten the source’s implanted feelings of fear.”

Hardened terrorists aren’t likely to crack under a “loud and threatening voice” and an object thrown across the room, especially when they know that no force can follow.

Three Republican presidential hopefuls voted on the amendment. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz voted in favor of limiting interrogation and detention techniques to what’s in the Field Manual. Lindsey Graham voted against doing so.

Thus it was that Paul and Cruz moved to the left of Graham, perhaps the Senate’s most outspoken critic (along with his pal John McCain) of enhanced interrogation techniques, on this issue.

More...http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/06/rand-paul-and-ted-cruz-move-to-the-left-of-lindsey-graham-on-terrorist-rights.php

Neocon bullcrap so no linky.

[Chef Ramsay]

If Rand Paul wins, so does Labrador

Congressman Raul Labrador, the only member of Idaho's congressional delegation to endorse someone in the GOP presidential race, may have learned something about himself when sitting on the sidelines four years ago as candidates were posturing for the 2012 election.

First, he's not much of one for sitting on the sidelines. He went to Congress in 2011, promising to make a lot of noise, and not taking up space. He has kept his word - often blasting away at the political establishment of both parties.

The second thing he might have learned is that sideline sitting does nothing for him, personally or politically. Being a non-entity in almost anything, especially a presidential race, does not fit his personality.

So it's no surprise that Labrador has endorsed Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. And it's no surprise that Paul appointed Labrador to head his campaign in the western states. Politically, it's a match made in heaven - or in the other direction, depending on your political perspective.

But, what's Labrador's end game? Labrador says if Paul moves to the White House, he'd be able to pick up the phone and say, "Hey, Mr. President, I have an issue that's important ..."

That would be nice, of course. But Labrador is not one to be satisfied with collecting private cellphone numbers. He tends to look for bigger prizes, and a Rand Paul victory could provide the ticket. If Labrador turns out to be Paul's kingmaker in the western states, there are several possibilities within a Paul administration - including a cabinet position. Or, Labrador could have more leverage in the House as the president's chief ally on Capitol Hill. If Labrador is traveling to other states and speaking on behalf of the candidate, it only raises Labrador's profile. One thing he likes is a high profile.

More...http://www.cdapress.com/columns/my_turn/article_da47bf31-1c93-5928-be71-d4bb468cee6f.html

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Kills Patriot Act, Boosts Presidential Campaign—For the Moment

Presidential hopeful delivers on promise to shut down one NSA program. He never said it would last forever.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s victory over President Obama and most of his Senate colleagues Sunday was messy and almost certain to be brief. But by forcing key U.S. intelligence programs to go dark, he scored a clear win for civil libertarians and those backing his White House campaign.

The Kentucky Republican interrupted his Senate colleagues, threw up procedural roadblocks and even borrowed Democrats’ time to make his objections. He drew reprimands over Senate decorum and rules. Peers scowled at him as he smirked in his leather chair, and Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell called the scene inside the chamber he nominally controls “a totally unacceptable outcome.”

Yet, at the end of Sunday’s rare Senate session, Paul was able to claim victory: “I came here to defend the Bill of Rights, not to be popular,” he tweeted. The freshman single-handedly shut down intelligence agencies’ legal authority to continue collecting domestic phone records for a searchable database of who is phoning whom. The law that permitted the program, as well as several other techniques of the National Security Agency, was set to expire as the clock struck midnight Sunday, and Paul was unyielding in his effort to ensure there would be at least some temporary end to it.

More...http://time.com/3902801/rand-paul-nsa-phone-patriot-act/

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul at Bat
Congressional Baseball Game

As  he stepped up to the plate at Nationals Park on Thursday, Rand Paul was distracted. Dressed in a cardinal-red Western Kentucky University jersey, he kept glancing back at the strange scene unfolding behind him in the fourth inning. The Kentucky Republican—a pro-life conservative, defender of gun rights, enemy of big government, and candidate for President—was batting to a standing ovation from thousands of Democrats.

Paul turned back toward the raucous third-base stands to spot the real object of their adoration, popping out of the opposition’s dugout. At a game where even the bench players are some of the most powerful lawmakers in Washington, D.C., only the town’s biggest all-star could turn this many heads. For the first time in years, the President was back at the Congressional Baseball Game.

Almost immediately from its founding, in 1909, the charity-benefit game pitting Republicans against Democrats in America’s national pastime was an event of great pageantry. In a 1926 pre-game parade, the Army and Navy bands marched behind a donkey and an elephant; in 1933, the comedian Al Jolson served as guest umpire. Commanders-in-Chief started gracing the stands in 1917, when Woodrow Wilson witnessed the Democrats pull out a 22-21 squeaker. In 1953, Joe DiMaggio and Lefty Grove were Dwight Eisenhower’s guests at the game, by then being played annually at the Senators’ Griffith Stadium.

More...http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/rand-paul-at-bat

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Says He’s ‘Reagan Conservative’ in San Diego Visit

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said if he was elected president, he would be a “Reagan conservative” in foreign policy, believing in “peace through strength.”

“I want national defense to be the priority in our country, but it doesn’t mean reckless intervention and it doesn’t mean war is always the answer, it means war is the last resort,” Paul told KUSI-TV in an interview before speaking at the Republican Party of San Diego‘s annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner Saturday at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.

Paul told KUSI “we do need to repel” the Islamic State group, “but the boots on the ground need to be Arab boots on the ground.”

In response to a question about whether this week’s decision by President Barack Obama to authorize the deployment of up to 450 advisers to help Iraq fight the Islamic State group would put the U.S. on a similar path to the Vietnam War, the 52-year-old Paul told KUSI “the thing with Vietnam was the South Vietnamese never seemed to want it as much as the North Vietnamese.”

“Right now, the Iraqis don’t seem to want it enough,” Paul told KUSI. “They don’t seem to be willing to fight. Until they’re willing to fight and until the Iraqi army becomes a national army, with Sunnis and Shiites in it, it’s going to be difficult.

“There are things we can do though short of sending troops. We should directly arm the Kurds. They’re the best fighters over there and I think they will fight and I think they should be promised a homeland if they fight for it.”

More...http://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2015/06/14/rand-paul-says-hes-reagan-conservative-in-san-diego-visit/

[Chef Ramsay]

Trail To The Chief: Rand Paul vs. The World

Rand Paul says the darndest things. Especially about privacy, government surveillance, ISIS and … himself. Three recent examples from last week: filibustering Patriot Act reforms; saying that GOP hawks created ISIS by sending arms into the Gulf region; and accusing his foes of wanting another terrorist attack in the U.S. so they could blame the carnage on him. That last remark was such a piece of grandiose self-pity that no one wanted to respond. Why play into the Kentucky senator’s martyrdom shtick?

Paul first became a Republican sensation in 2013, when he used a filibuster to raise alarms about the CIA’s drone program. This time around, Paul is a declared presidential candidate, and his filibuster this week against the NSA’s bulk data collection program elicited within his party a scattering of wan support, but mostly criticism, much of it from rival GOP presidential contenders.

None of his moves this week shifted his poll numbers one way or the other.

Paul managed to procure some measure of backing from his fellow 2016-ers, with the strongest support coming from Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, who has shed the nice-guy conservative approach that won him Iowa in 2008 for an edgier, to-the-right-of-everyone strategy now. As CNN reported:

Huckabee said that the original [Patriot Act] was "hastily passed" in the wake of 9/11 without extensive debate. Public opinion has shifted now, he said. "Fourteen years ago, we were worried about terrorists. Now we're worried about our government," Huckabee said, singling out controversies around the IRS and Justice Departments.

More...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/08/rand-paul-vs-the-world_n_7519988.html

[Chef Ramsay]

New Concerned American Voters Super PAC Launches to Support Rand Paul Presidential Bid

Super PAC launches with millions pledged, 40 full-time staff in Iowa

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Concerned American Voters, a political action committee supporting Sen. Rand Paul's campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, launched today with millions of dollars committed and 40 full-time field staff in the key primary state of Iowa, President Jeff Frazee and Senior Advisor Matt Kibbe announced.

"Once in a while, you discover a presidential candidate who has the potential to change the political conversation, to elevate key issues in voters' minds, and disrupt and transform a tired Republican brand," said Kibbe. "Once in a lifetime, maybe, you will have an opportunity to support a transformative candidate who can do all of these things, and win. Rand Paul is that candidate."

Kibbe is the former president and founder of FreedomWorks, a national community-building and grassroots advocacy organization of more than 6 million Americans who are passionate about promoting free markets and individual liberty. Frazee is executive director of Young Americans for Liberty and previously served as the national youth coordinator for Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign committee.

Concerned American Voters launches with millions of dollars in funding pledged so far.

...

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-concerned-american-voters-super-pac-launches-to-support-rand-paul-presidential-bid-300101344.html

[Chef Ramsay]

[Video] Rand Paul on Fox & Friends (morning show) 6/18/15
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-upRjsxnGB4
He talks about his new tax plan and arming pilots for more secure travel logistics.

[Chef Ramsay]

12-year-old YouTube Star Explains What Millennials Think About Rand Paul

CJ Pearson, a 12-year-old YouTube pundit, believes presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has a unique ability to connect with millennial voters and even younger fans like himself.


Pearson is a Georgia student entering 8th grade whose videos backing conservative causes have gone viral. He said he is currently part of Paul's Georgia leadership team.


In a conversation with Business Insider on Thursday, Pearson said one of the first things people his age notice about Paul is his distinctive hair.
"What I've seen as far as the optics of other young people, they look at Rand with this head full of hair, really curly," Pearson said.


Once younger people take a longer look at Paul, Pearson added, they quickly grow fond of his libertarian-leaning views and deviations from Republican orthodoxy.


"If you want a maverick, someone who's proud to be his own individual, then Rand Paul's the guy you're looking for," he said. "Young people are just naturally independent."

http://www.businessinsider.com/cj-pearson-says-millennials-think-about-rand-paul-2015-6
He also said Paul's opposition to widespread government surveillance and support for reforming the criminal justice system deeply resonate with younger crowds.

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul to raid pot summit for campaign cash

Sen. Rand Paul, the most vocal critic of the “war on drugs” in the 2016 Republican presidential field, will host a “private briefing” on June 30 for campaign donors on the sidelines of the 2nd annual Cannabis Business Summit and Expo in Denver, according to an invitation for the event obtained by Yahoo News.

It’s not clear whether any of Paul’s rivals for the GOP nomination will associate themselves with the gathering, which is put on by the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA). Other headline events at the June 29-July 1 forum include pot-themed sessions called “Running Your Cannabusiness,” “Cultivation and Processing,” “Money Matters,” “Finance, Accounting and Insurance,” and “The Law, Policy and Reform.”

NCIA forwarded its members an invitation from Paul’s campaign for a “VIP reception” at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. There are three donor levels: $2,700 gets “attendee” status, someone wanting the “sponsor” label has to kick in $5,400, while a “host” must pony up $10,400. Any checks must be payable to “Rand Paul Victory Committee.”

...

More...https://www.yahoo.com/politics/rand-paul-to-raid-pot-summit-for-campaign-cash-121872321621.html

[Chef Ramsay]

Here's the evangelical stuff that one poster recently was looking for (in Iowa-1st in the nation caucus): 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=26&v=FOc8cAtNrME
Rand talks w/ evange Dave Brody about his IA religious stances. Brody on one hand praises the interview but on the other he questions Rand's approach.

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand is making news right now since he's making waves at this Faith and Freedom conference by talking about personal liberty. Rand is just killing it when talking about millenials voting powers at his point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9gjEmxAoec

Let's not let the socons control nor have any stake in this next election or just a little, the young folks should vote in droves to own it for Rand Paul.

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul's flat tax proposal: What it means for you

The short answer is probably yes. But a lot depends on how much money you make -- the more you make, the bigger your tax break.

The plan that Paul described in a Wall Street Journal column Thursday would tax everyone - businesses and and individuals - at a flat 14.5% rate. Households wouldn't pay tax on income below $50,000, Paul wrote. And the payroll tax, which employers and workers both pay to fund Social Security, would go away altogether, along with most tax breaks and deductions.

"The left will argue that the plan is a tax cut for the wealthy. But most of the loopholes in the tax code were designed by the rich and politically connected," Paul wrote. "Though the rich will pay a lower rate along with everyone else, they won't have special provisions to avoid paying lower than 14.5%."

More...http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/18/news/economy/rand-paul-flat-tax/

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul to GOP: It's Time to Move Beyond the Second Amendment
The senator from Kentucky continues to takes the road less traveled through the GOP primaries.

Sen. Rand Paul took a risk Thursday. Speaking to an audience of religious conservatives in the wake of a racially charged shooting in South Carolina, Paul delicately suggested that Republicans might want to start focusing on other parts of the Bill of Rights than the Second Amendment.

"Everybody is for the Second Amendment. All 55 candidates running for president are for the Second Amendment—on our side," Paul told the crowd. "But the thing is that a lot of young people, that might not be their primary issue."

Leaving room, even rhetorical room, to one's right—particularly on an issue as important to the Republican base as gun rights—is a gamble in the crowded 2016 GOP primary. But it's one very much in keeping with the Kentucky senator's campaign of almost-gonzo optimism, and it's the type of decision backed by Paul's personal conviction that his libertarian philosophy can unite traditional Republican voters with more independent-minded young people and minorities.

Speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition summit, Paul's remarks also mentioned the Wednesday night shooting that killed nine black church congregants in Charleston, South Carolina.

"We had the shooting this morning in South Carolina. What kind of person goes in a church and shoots nine people? There's a sickness in our country. There's something terribly wrong, but it isn't going to be fixed by your government. It's people straying away, it's people not understanding where salvation comes from. And I think that if we understand that, we'll understand and have better expectations of what we get from our government."

More...http://www.nationaljournal.com/2016-elections/rand-paul-to-gop-it-s-time-to-move-beyond-the-second-amendment-20150618

[Chef Ramsay]

Raised Around Cry For Smaller Government, Rand Paul Carries The Torch

Sen. Rand Paul made headlines recently with his one-man effort to roll back government surveillance. And that's the just beginning of Paul's plan to dismantle big chunks of the federal government.

"The Washington machine that gobbles up our freedoms and invades every nook and cranny of our lives must be stopped," Paul declared in April, as he announced his presidential campaign.

But Paul's hometown of Lake Jackson, Texas, only exists because of a shotgun wedding between big government and industry. The city was hastily built near the Texas Gulf Coast in the 1940s to house workers at a nearby Dow Chemical plant, so that they could produce the magnesium the military needed during World War II.

"The U.S. government stepped in and they made it happen," said Robert Rule, executive director of the Lake Jackson Historical Association.

Lake Jackson's curving streets were master-planned to protect the city's live oak trees — a stark contrast to the unregulated sprawl of Houston, 50 miles to the north.

More...http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/18/413928387/raised-around-cry-for-smaller-government-rand-paul-carries-the-torch

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul on Charleston Shooting: ‘There's A Sickness in Our Country’

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul told a crowd of social conservatives that a "sickness" in the country was responsible for the mass shootings in South Carolina, adding that the problem "isn't going to be fixed by your government."

At the opening luncheon of the Faith & Freedom Coalition's annual Washington, D.C. conference, where he shared the stage with two other Republican presidential contenders, Paul went out of his way to address the massacre that left nine people dead in Charleston after a gunman opened fire in a predominantly black church.

"We had the shooting this morning," he said. The senator, who has been outspoken on the subject of racial violence, suggested that the problem is bigger and deeper than politics and policy.

"What kind of person goes into church and shoots nine people?" Paul  lamented. "There's a sickness in our country. There's something terribly wrong. But it isn't going to be fixed by your government. It's people straying away, it's people not understanding where salvation comes from. I think if we understand that, we'll have better expectations of what to expect from government."

More...http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-06-18/rand-paul-on-charleston-shooting-there-s-a-sickness-in-our-country-