[VIDEO] Rand Paul on Clerk's Arrest: 'Absurd to Put Someone in Jail for Exercising Religious Liberty'

(CNSNews.com) -- In reaction to the arrest and imprisonment today of county clerk Kim Davis because she refused to grant marriage licenses to homosexual couples, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said it was "absurd to put someone in jail for exercising their religious liberty."  He added that the heavy-handed "bully force" step by the state in this case was "a huge mitake" and would set the "movement back" for those trying "to redefine marriage."

Kim Davis is a clerk for the state of Kentucky in Rowan County.  She has steadfastly refused to grant marriage licenses to homosexual couples because of her Christian beliefs. Federal District Court Judge David L. Bunning rejected Davis's appeal to her religious faith, saying it was "simply not a viable defense." Davis was arrested and imprisoned today, Sept. 3.

Asked by CNN's Brianna Keilar for his reaction to Davis's incarceration, Sen. Paul said, “I think it’s absurd to put someone in jail for exercising their religious liberty. If you want to convince people that same-sex marriage is something that’s acceptable, I would say try to persuade people."

"But if we’re going to use the federal government and we’re going to get involved in every state locality, you know what’s going to happen?" he said.  "It’s going to harden people’s resolve on this issue. They’ll be no open-mindedness on this."

"I think it’s a real mistake to be doing this," said Sen. Paul.  "I think what’s going to happen as a result of this is states and localities are just going to opt-out of the marriage business completely."

"This is really the problem when from on high, from the federal level, we decide to get involved in a situation that has always, throughout our history, been a local issue," said the senator.

Via: CNS News

Continue Reading.....

RAND PAUL DESTROYS THE TAX CODE…LITERALLY!

Rand Paul has come out with a new video where he destroys the tax code by throwing it in a woodchipper, sets it on fire and splits it with a chainsaw. I guess with The Donald sucking up all the oxygen, Paul is kicking it up a notch to get noticed:

Via: The Right Scoop

Continue Reading....

[VIDEO] Obama Taunts GOP on Iran Deal by Comparing Himself to Reagan

President Obama has two routes for getting the Iran nuclear deal approved by Congress. The more difficult path involves attempting to woo Republicans, though they've already vowed to kill the deal. Or Obama could just shore up support among Democrats so when he vetoes the GOP's "resolution of disapproval" Congress won't have the votes to override him. Supposedly the White House has not settled on which path it will pursue, but Obama's decision to invoke the name of the GOP's favorite human in explaining his rationale for the deal suggests he isn't all that concerned about angering them further. He said in an interview with the New York Times' Thomas Friedman:

You know, I have a lot of differences with Ronald Reagan, but where I completely admire him was his recognition that if you were able to verify an agreements that you would negotiate with the evil empire that was hellbent on our destruction and was a far greater existential threat to us than Iran will ever be [then it would be worth doing]. I had a lot of disagreements with Richard Nixon, but he understood there was the prospect, the possibility, that China could take a different path. You test these things, and as long as we are preserving our security capacity — as long as we are not giving away our ability to respond forcefully, militarily, where necessary to protect our friends and our allies — that is a risk we have to take. It is a practical, common-sense position. It’s not naïve; it’s a recognition that if we can in fact resolve some of these differences, without resort to force, that will be a lot better for us and the people of that region.

Obama said he doubts they'll get many Republicans onboard, since "there’s a certain party line that has to be toed, within their primaries and among many sitting members of Congress." But he said that's "not across the board" and called out one candidate by name. "It’ll be interesting to see what somebody like a Rand Paul has to say about this," Obama said. Apparently the interview took place before Paul had registered his opposition with a series of GIFs.

Via: New York Mag

Continue Reading....

Rand Paul Exposes $25,000 Federal Grant for Oscars Museum

Sen. Rand Paul put Hollywood in the spotlight Monday revealing a $25,000 federal grant billing taxpayers for the building of an Oscars museum.

The National Endowment for the Arts is sending the federal dollars to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science to help build what the academyclaims as the “world’s premier museum” exploring the history and future of movies.

The Kentucky Republican revealed the spending in his latest “Waste Report,” which he uses to publicly uncover “egregious” instances of excessive government spending.

“$25,000 might be small in the scope of the federal budget or in Hollywood, it is over half what the average worker makes in a year, and equals the full federal tax liability of almost four average Americans,” Paul said in the report.

He questioned why the government would send the chunk of money to the academy given the group’s “abundance of wealth.”

“In addition to scores of Hollywood brass ponying up donations to the museum, the academy is flush with cash; it makes profits of roughly $50 million on the Oscars alone,” Paul said.

The museum, set to open in 2017, will receive the grant to subsidize planning for its exhibits. Paul highlights the museum will include a space shuttle from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which he said the academy bought for a “cool” $344,000.

“One must wonder, when cries ring out about what constitutes a fair share of taxes for someone to pay, why are any of those tax dollars going to support a museum that does not need it?” Paul said.

Via: Daily Signal

Continue Reading......

If Each GOP Candidate Were a Conservative News Site, Which Would They Be?

If you were a tree, what kind of a tree would you be? I’d be a weeping willow because… sigh. More important question about personifying inanimate objects: If the 15 or so Republican presidential candidates were conservative news websites, which ones would they be?

Let’s attempt to answer that question because it’s Monday and we’re all in for a long 497 days until Election Day 2016.

Note: We’d make a companion piece for the Democrats and liberal news sites, but there are only four options. So here goes: Hillary Clinton is the Huffington Post; Bernie Sanders would be Democracy Now!; Martin O’Malley would be ThinkProgress; and Lincoln Chafee would be… oh man, is there even a site out there that would fit the profile?

And now the Republican field (yes, some haven’t announced yet)…

 

—

Donald Trump – Breitbart

Think of the most common words used to describe Donald Trump: “Blowhard,” “obnoxious,” “clownish,” “troll,” “windbag,” “xenophobic.” Sounds exactly like the preponderance of material coming out of Breitbart, right? (It also doesn’t hurt that Trump’s unofficial stenographer is the site’s most prized reporter.)

—

Marco Rubio – IJReview

Did you know Senator Rubio is young(ish), likes hip hop, uses hashtags, and does clever non-old-person things? He’s one of the cool kids, you guys. #YOLO.

—

Ted Cruz – The Right Scoop

If you are a loyal reader of The Right Scoop, you’d come away thinking literally every word uttered by Sen. Ted Cruz is “FANTASTIC” (all-caps required). No, really… take a look. With that in mind, it seems like the most appropriate fit.

—

Lindsey Graham – Washington Free Beacon

Because Sen. Graham loves to troll; because he’s never met a war he didn’t like; and because hedespises Rand Paul. Oh, but he also knows it’s all about taking down Hillary Clinton in the end.

—

Mike Huckabee – NewsBusters

If there’s a gay person kissing on your television, a voluptuous woman singing about sex on your radio, or a Hollywood celebrity saying something about Republicans or Christianity, Mike Huckabee is there to sermonize against it.

—

Scott Walker – NRO

Slightly wonkier than the rest, slightly more buttoned-up, classically conservative in the William F. Buckley tradition, and definitely opposed to unions.

—

Rick Santorum – TheBlaze

TheBlaze founder Glenn Beck once described former Sen. Rick Santorum as “the next George Washington,” and while it’s not a perfect fit, both the site and the candidate have an obvious appeal to “Real American” religious conservatives who homeschool their children and are terrified of the coming apocalypse.

—

Bobby Jindal – The Daily Signal

Because he got in the race way too late and no one really cares.

—

Jeb Bush – The Weekly Standard

Because anything with the name “Bush” or “Cheney” would get the thumbs up from Bill Kristol & Co.

—

George Pataki – Power Line

Think of it this way: Years ago, Power Line had its time in the conservative spotlight when it broke the scandal that ended Dan Rather‘s CBS News career. Now, though? No one cares.

—

Ben Carson – WorldNetDaily

Because the theory that prison sex proves homosexuality is definitively and always a “choice” is something you’d expect to see next to an article questioning President Obama’s birth certificate or a column suggesting the Sandy Hook school massacre might’ve been staged.

—

Carly Fiorina – The Daily Caller

Because, yes, the Daily Caller is a staunchly conservative website that projects a tough-guy attitude, but occasionally it just wants to be a beautiful, strong woman.

—

Chris Christie – Wall Street Journal

Well-moneyed, at one time considered the mainstream, and decidedly east coast when it comes to politics. Also because Jeb Bush was already taken.

—

Rand Paul – The Federalist

Just like Sen. Paul, conservative website The Federalist has “a viewpoint that rejects the assumptions of the media establishment” and will sometimes surprise you by seeking to engage ideological opponents.

—

Rick Perry – RedState

The former Texas governor is as red state as they come. Sure, any of the southern state Republicans could embody the sensibilities of Erick Erickson‘s RedState blog, but the devoutly Christian Gov. Perry has had a long, close relationship with the site. This doesn’t hurt either.

Via: Mediaite

Continue Reading.....

Rand Paul: "Blow up the tax code and start over"

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul unveiled his version of a flat tax on Thursday, proposing to "blow up the tax code and start over "in a Wall Street Journal editorial.

"The tax code has grown so corrupt, complicated, intrusive and antigrowth that I've concluded the system isn't fixable," Paul, a freshman senator from Kentucky, wrote.

In its place, he called for "an over $2 trillion tax cut that would repeal the entire IRS tax code...and replace it with a low, broad-based tax of 14.5 [percent] on individuals and businesses." Under Paul's plan, all forms of income would be taxed at that level, including wages, dividends, capital gains, and interest.

"All deductions except for a mortgage and charities would be eliminated," Paul wrote. "The first $50,000 of income for a family of four would not be taxed. For low-income working families, the plan would retain the earned-income tax credit."

The plan, dubbed "The Fair and Flat Tax," would also eliminate "nearly every special interest loophole," Paul explained, along with the payroll tax and federal taxes like the gift tax and the estate tax.

A flat tax has long enjoyed support among some elements of GOP. Businessman Steve Forbes based his presidential campaigns on the idea in 1996 and 2000, and Republican candidates have periodically resurrected it since then, most recently Texas Gov. Rick Perry in 2012 and businessman Herman Cain, whose 9-9-9 flat tax made for a memorable campaign slogan.

In this cycle, several GOP candidates have advanced some form of a flat tax. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, for example, called in March for "a simple flat tax that lets every American fill out his or her taxes on a postcard."

Via: CBS News

Continue Reading.....

Senate Passes USA Freedom Act; No Amendments; On to Obama

The Senate voted 67-32 Tuesday afternoon to pass the House’s USA Freedom Act without any of the amendments offered by Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

The legislation will now go to President Obama’s desk to be signed into law Tuesday evening.

The USA Freedom Act that was previously passed by the U.S. House of Representatives would, in effect, stop the NSA’s bulk surveillance collection and reform the programs that lapsed when the Patriot Act expired at midnight Sunday, after GOP presidential candidate,Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), filibustered the spy program for 11 hours.

The first amendment that failed to pass was the McConnell-Burr amendment. According to the Guardian, this amendment would “Change the amicus on the Fisa court – the public-interests advocate who would argue, in part, about civil liberties concerns to the secret court that oversees many surveillance programs.”

McConnell and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)wanted an amendment to the USA Freedom Act that extends the time for the government to transfer custody of phone records to private telecom companies from six months to 12 months.

“McConnell has also filed amendments that would require the US intelligence chief to certify the implementation of the new phone-records regime, demand notification of changes made by telecom companies to the kinds of call records they generate and reduce transparency in the process by which the secret Fisa court reviews the government’s surveillance orders,” the Guardian reported.

However, the Guardian correctly predicted it was unlikely that McConnell’s amendments would pass, as they lacked support from both Republicans and Democrats.

Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) said prior to the final vote, “I think it should be passed as is if we want to get it back in operation, and I think it’s foremost that this be operable.” She suggested she might be open to amendments in the future. “We could amend it … but we need to get this done now.”

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading....

Rand Paul Will ‘Force The Expiration’ of the PATRIOT Act

Despite his not being included in a recent 2016 candidates poll on Fox & Friends, Rand Paul (R-KY) still has a strong following among Tea Party and Libertarian-leaning conservative voters. He’s even got a Super PAC pulling for him.

A lot of this has to do with Paul’s stance against the renewal of the PATRIOT Act and the approval of the USA Freedom Act, and he recently performed an unofficial filibuster against NSA surveillance.

In a statement to POLITICO, Paul lays out a simple plan for Sunday’s special session:

So tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program.

What special session, you ask? As POLITICO points out, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wants to facilitate a rather quick debate on the surveillance bill that’s got Paul and others so worked up.

Paul explains his stance further, saying:

I am ready and willing to start the debate on how we fight terrorism without giving up our liberty.

Sometimes when the problem is big enough, you just have to start over. The tax code and our regulatory burdens are two good examples.

Fighting against unconditional, illegal powers that take away our rights, taken by previous Congresses and administrations is just as important.

I do not do this to obstruct. I do it to build something better, more effective, more lasting, and more cognizant of who we are as Americans.

Via: Mediaite

Continue Reading..... 

Rand Paul Begins Filibuster Of Patriot Act

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is filibustering the Patriot Act on the Senate floor, and it doesn’t look like he’s going to stop anytime soon.

The Republican presidential candidate took control of the floor Wednesday afternoon at 1:18 p.m., simultaneously explaining on Twitter that he is filibustering the renewal of the Patriot Act because of the National Security Agency’s program that collects bulk phone record data of American citizens.

“The government shouldn’t have the ability to get that information unless they have suspicion,” Paul said on the floor Wednesday. “Unless they have probable cause you committed a crime.”

In an campaign email to supporters, posted online by a reporter from Time magazine, Paul said: “I will not rest. I will not back down. I will not yield one inch in this fight so long as my legs can stand.”

Here’s how a Paul campaign aide described the marathon speech: “Senator Rand Paul has taken the floor of the U.S. Senate to filibuster the reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Senator Paul is a staunch defender of liberty and believes Americans have a right to privacy. The U.S. government has no place conducting these warrantless searches and should focus on gathering intelligence on suspected terrorists and foreign actors.”

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading....

'When Hillary Clinton travels there's going to need to be two planes, one for her and her entourage, one for her baggage

Former secretary of state will make her visit to the Granite State as a proclaimed 2016 candidate this week

Paul and other Republican presidential contenders are in in town for a GOP summit in Nashua

The Kentucky senator also took a swipe at the GOP field: 'They all look alike, all sound alike, they all dress alike and nothing ever changes'

Speaking about Libya, he charged that 'they would have just done the same thing ten times over' as President Barack Obama

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul smacked around Democratic rival Hillary Clinton at a campaign stop in New Hampshire this morning on the eve of the former Obama administration official's first visit to the Granite State as a proclaimed 2016 candidate.

'When Hillary Clinton travels there's going to need to be two planes, one for her and her entourage, one for her baggage,' Paul said during remarks at a New Hampshire GOP summit taking place in Nashua this weekend. 

'I'm concerned that the plane with the baggage is really getting heavy and teetering' Paul said, predicting that she'd soon have new questions to answer about her family foundation's donations from foreign actors.   

Clinton embarked on a cross-country trip in an armored van she nicknamed 'Scooby' last weekend for the first leg of her presidential bid. She ditched the van within days and flew back to the East Coast, travelling coach. 

The wealthy Democrat was spotted at the Omaha, Nebraska, airport on the way back carting her own luggage.

Paul has been suggesting since he announced his bid for the Oval Office in early April that Clinton, a former first lady, U.S. senator, secretary of state and board member of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation would 'soon' face a day of reckoning over the charity's fundraising practices.

'I think there is big news coming on the Clinton Foundation,' Paul told Fox News during a New Hampshire swing earlier this month. 'I think there are things that went on at the Clinton Foundation that are going to shock people.'

'I think they're going to make people question whether she ought to run for president,' he said, declining to go into more detail.

Via: Daily Mail

Continue Reading

The Four Republican SOTU Responses Couldn't Agree On What To Say

There was no unified opposition at the conclusion of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night. Instead, four different Republicans -- representing, in some ways, four different factions of the Republican party -- had something to say to the nation.

They shared some of the same talking points: Obamacare is a disaster and Obama's economic agenda is ruining America's future. The GOP is trying to offer some kind of alternative to the electorate. But the similarities largely stopped there, in yet another display of the fractured Republican Party that has a chronic inability to present a coherent and singular vision to the country.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA) spoke for the party's establishment, with the added bonus of being a woman in leadership at a time when the party's standing with women seems shaky. Sen. Mike Lee (UT) was the self-appointed leader of the tea party, who rebutted the president while attempting to represent that nebulous constituency that has so influenced the party since 2010. 

Sen. Rand Paul (KY) more or less represented himself, the lone 2016 aspirant to speak Tuesday night, and also gave voice to the libertarian sect. And Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL) addressed the Spanish-speaking audiences on behalf of the party's leadership, another attempt to reach a population with whom Republicans have been unpopular.

That just about covers everybody. Each constituency had a messenger, and ascendant members of the party had an opportunity to showcase themselves in the national spotlight.
The only problem is: It was hard to tell what exactly Republicans, as a whole, wanted Americans to take away from their multi-pronged rebuke of the president, other than their always-fervent opposition to Obama.

As the official voice of the party, McMorris Rogers continued the rebranding effort that has obsessed Republicans since the 2012 election. What exactly it was actually remained a bit opaque, but the tone was undeniably optimistic.

Via: TPM
Continue Reading....

[VIDEO] Rand Paul Delivers Response to 2014 State of the Union

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) delivered his own response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union tonight, Tuesday, January 28th after Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers delivered her official GOP response and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)delivered the official tea party response. Paul gave the tea party response in 2013, but decided to give his own, unaffiliated speech this year.

Via: Mediaite.com

Continue Reading....

FBI Contacts Tea Party Groups Targeted By IRS

The FBI finally has begun to contact some of the tea party groups targeted by the Internal Revenue Service for inappropriate scrutiny in the first public signs that the administration’s criminal investigation is progressing.

A lawyer representing some of the tea party groups that battled the IRS for tax-exempt status told The Washington Times that a “small number” of his clients were recently contacted, seven months after the investigation was supposed to have begun.

---

SPECIAL COVERAGE: Tea Party Voices

---

The progress was revealed a day after The Times reported that the Justice Department lawyer who is leading the investigation into the IRS, Barbara Kay Bosserman, has donated more than $6,000 to President Obama’s presidential campaigns — a move that, for many Republicans, has called into question the entire investigation.

“They say the fox isn’t good to guard the henhouse; the fox is probably not good to investigate the henhouse, either,” said Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican. “I think these investigations need to be done by independent people outside of the administration.”

Mr. Holder ordered an FBI investigation in the days immediately after the internal auditor of the IRS revealed that the agency had been inappropriately targeting tea party groups for intrusive scrutiny and wrongly delayed the approval of hundreds of conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status.

Via: Washington Times

Continue Reading....

MSNBC's Taylor: Republicans 'Almost Single-Handedly Blew Up This Economy'

On Thursday's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, during a discussion of Republican resistance to extending unemployment benefits, MSNBC political analyst Goldie Taylor charged that the  GOP "almost single-handedly blew up this economy," and that it was "as if" they "blew up" the "bridge" and then "dared people to cross to the other side of the canyon on their own."

After host Al Sharpton played several soundbites of Republican elected officials and complained that they "act as though" the unemployed are "dependents, that they're some kind of beggars," he turned to Taylor who responded:

You know, this is a party who almost single-handedly blew up this economy. You know, it's as if they stuck dynamite on the bridge, blew it up and then dared people to cross to the other side of the canyon on their own. And so, at the end of the day, this is going to hurt them in 2014. It's going to hurt them in 2016 because you don't know who your next door neighbor happens to be who might be receiving benefits from the Department of Labor.

A bit earlier, Taylor served as a reminder that when conservatives discuss the disproportionate poverty or unemployment rate of the black population in the context of trying to help, that they are attacked as having a racist motivation just for noticing, but when liberals do the same, it is considered a perfectly reasonable topic of conversation. As she tried to make Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul seem insensitive to the needs of the black population, Taylor recalled that "African-Americans have a higher disproportionate unemployment rate than the rest of the country."

Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Thursday, December 26, PoliticsNation on MSNBC:

AL SHARPTON: Goldie, you know, Senator Rand Paul is standing behind his comments that extending jobless benefits does a disservice to the workers. Listen to this.

SENATOR RAND PAUL (R-KY): And so really, when I said it's a disservice, I mean this. I am worried about the workers. Not that I think they become bad people by being unemployed longer, but that the longer they're unemployed, the less likely they are ever to get a job again.

SHARPTON: Now, Goldie, keep in mind in Senator Paul's home state of Kentucky, about 53,000 people will lose benefits if Congress fails to act. But this is his position.

TAYLOR: Yeah, I've got to agree with Governor Rendell here. You know, you've got to force them to vote because if they do have to vote, then they're going to turn around to the people in their district, the people who are receiving SNAP benefits that they wanted to cut, the people receiving unemployment benefits that they refuse to extend. Now, the people who want to sign up for the Affordable Care Act when they refuse to create these exchanges.

You know, we need to force them to vote on not extending this unemployment benefits package so that the 53,000 people of Kentucky who are going to lose those benefits can see exactly where Rand Paul stands and all of the rest of them. That's what this is really about.

I heard Rand Paul say that he was using this as a part of this mission to attract more African-American voters. Well, African-Americans have a higher disproportionate unemployment rate than the rest of the country. And so, certainly, this is not the constituency you want to talk to about cutting unemployment benefits that people earn who have lost their jobs through no fault, clearly, of their own.

Via: Newsbusters

Continue Reading....

Ben Carson in His Own Words

After five years of President Obama, we want a dynamic conservative candidate who we can believe in to take us to 2016. With names on the horizon like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, and Nikki Haley, we have some promising politicians; and another name has risen to the top: Dr. Ben Carson.

Ben Carson is the latest potential presidential candidate to be anointed by conservatives. Less than a year after his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, the 61-year old neurosurgeon, known for his deeply held religious beliefs as well as his determination to live the American Dream, has gained support from many conservative organizations like the Tea Party, right-to-life groups, Americans for Prosperity, Freedom Works, and David Horowitz's Freedom Center .

Carson's post-election entrance onto the national stage at the 2013 Prayer Breakfast gave despondent conservatives new hope. The famous surgeon criticized the President's signature health law and mocked political correctness while the President sat stone faced. Carson's boldness made headlines from MSNBC to far-right alternative blogs.

The decidedly political speech, different from his 1997 Prayer Breakfast address, was a triumph and made him an instant hit with stalwarts on the right. Glenn Beck actually said "I love you" during an interview when Carson told him his favorite person in history was George Washington. Rush Limbaugh thinks Carson "has everybody in the Democrat Party scared to death." Mark Levin and Sarah Palin have lauded Carson on their sites.

Via: American Thinker

Continue Reading....