Archive for the ‘Rand Paul’ Category

Until he gives a firm yes or no, this is what Athens Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Broun’s life is going to be like: The first question at a Capitol Hill news conference this afternoon — from National Review’s Robert Costa, who is basically on the Georgia beat these days — was to Broun, asking if he would run a primary against U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss if Chambliss votes to raise taxes in a fiscal cliff deal.

Rep. Paul Broun at a TeaParty.net press conference (AJC/Daniel Malloy)

“This is not about a race in 2014. This is about the next two weeks. This is about the petitions that are signed here,” said Broun, gesturing toward 160,000 artfully stacked petitions asking lawmakers not to break the no-new-taxes pledge.  “I will not cave in. I am going to vote against raising taxes on anyone. Period. So not looking forward to any particular race. This is all about just what makes sense financially for your children and your grandchildren’s future.”

This of course is a more definitive …

Continue reading Broun: ‘This is not about a race in 2014′ »

A salute to the Ron Paul crowd, via the Associated Press:

A government survey shows more teens are now smoking pot than cigarettes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that 23 percent of high school students said they recently smoked marijuana, while 18 percent said they had puffed cigarettes. The survey asked teens about a variety of risky behaviors.

For decades, the number of teens who smoke has been on the decline. Marijuana use has fluctuated, and recently rose. At times, pot and cigarette smoking were about the same level, but last year marked the first time marijuana use was clearly greater.

An earlier survey by the University of Michigan also found that pot smoking was higher. A Michigan expert said teens today apparently see marijuana as less dangerous than cigarettes.

- By Jim Galloway, Political Insider

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Continue reading Teens smoke more pot than cigarettes »

You may have already seen this disturbing video– a clip of a young woman protestor from Moveon.org being stomped on at a Rand Paul rally in Kentucky.

Any cop will tell you that crowd violence is usually the work of young males brimming with testosterone. But the attackers in this mini-riot are clearly middle-aged men. Which is somehow more disturbing:

A follow-up from the Lexington Herald-Leader:

A supporter of Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul is being served with a criminal summons after he was seen on video stepping on a liberal activist’s head at a rally Monday night, according to Lexington police.

Tim Profitt, a volunteer with Paul’s campaign, told the Herald-Leader he was concerned the woman was trying to attack Paul and acted only to subdue her.

“The way she went after him it looked like something bad was getting ready to happen,” said Profitt, 53, of Bourbon County.

He said he put his foot on her shoulder, not her head. “I said, ‘Now you stay …

Continue reading The Kentucky video: Middle-aged men out of control »

Locals were apparently slow on the uptake, but as the Kentucky legislature closed down for Memorial Day weekend, the state’s Republican-controlled Senate slapped down Rand Paul, the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate.

The body passed with a sharply worded resolution in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Suggestions have appeared recently that we retreat from the core values of the protection of equal rights of the citizens of the United States,” says Senate Resolution 31.

Only an “extreme minority of persons in the United States” would support such a move, it says.

The Senate adopted the resolution, which did not name Paul, on a voice vote. Only one senator, Gary Tapp, R-Shelbyville, did not sign onto the resolution, but he did not attend last week’s special legislative session.

Senate President David Williams, the top Republican in Frankfort, said he agreed with the resolution’s language but did not view it as a jab at Paul or a political …

Continue reading Kentucky’s GOP-led Senate slaps Rand Paul around »

After his Tuesday night victory in Kentucky, Rand Paul’s debut as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate got off to a shaky start with awkward interviews on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The tea party hero declined to say whether the federal government should have the authority to prohibit a private business from discriminating on the basis of race. Here’s the morning post with the background.

We haven’t seen the video, but Paul attempted a reboot this afternoon, during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. A portion of the transcript:

BLITZER: All right, I want to give you a chance to explain, because there’s a lot of confusion right now about precisely where you stand. I’ll ask you a simple question. If you had been a member of the Senate or the House back in 1964, would you have voted yea or nay for the Civil Rights Act?

PAUL: Yes. I would have voted yes.

BLITZER: So why is there all this confusion emerging right now? Give me your analysis, because you’ve had to …

Continue reading Rand Paul reboots: ‘I would have voted yes’ »

Over a 19-minute interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Wednesday, U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul of Kentucky – the new hero of tea party activists and many in the GOP — could not answer one specific question:

Does he agree with the portion of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that bars private businesses from discriminating against people because of the color of their skin?

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“I don’t believe in any racism. I don’t believe we should have any government racism, any institutional form of racism,” Paul said. He declared the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison the be one of his “favorite historical characters.”

He called the South’s attachment to Jim Crow “a stain on the history of America.” He said that the federal government had a right to go after “institutional racism.”

But Paul could not bring himself to say that the federal government had the power to use the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution to …

Continue reading Rand Paul and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 »