Rand Paul

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Rand Paul
United States Senate member
Randal Howard "Rand" Paul is an American politician and physician. Since 2011, Paul has served in the United States Senate as a member of the Republican Party representing Kentucky. He is the son of former U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas. Wikipedia
Born: January 7, 1963 (age 53), Pittsburgh, PA
Height: 5′ 8″
Spouse: Kelley Paul (m. 1990)
Parents: Carol Wells, Ron Paul
Education: Duke University School of Medicine (1984–1988), Baylor University (1981–1984)

Mike Ghouse
Political Commentator
www.CenterforAmericanPolitics.com
Google - 12 Million Views

Had George Bush not gone in to Iraq none of the nonsense would have happened. He destroyed America and other nations, and is responsible for the deaths of nearly 5000 of our men and women and nearly half a million innocent Iraqis and Afghans.  There should be at least investigations.

Mike Ghouse 

Did GOP create ISIS? Why Rand Paul says so.

The Junior Senator from the Bluegrass State is not afraid of speaking what's on his mind. 
And his feelings on this country's foreign policy are no exception.

By Husna Haq, Correspondent MAY 27, 2015

Sen. Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky, who is a candidate for his party's 2016 presidential nomination, has created a national brand as a man unafraid of challenging party orthodoxy.

That was on display Wednesday when Senator Paul credited the rise of the Islamic State terrorist group to hawks within his own party.

"ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS," Paul said in an interview with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough that aired Wednesday on “Morning Joe.” "They’ve created these people."

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As severe as his statement appears, it's not surprising: Paul is known for his unflinching attacks on his own party. He recently wrote that the Republican brand is "broken." And a central theme in his campaign is challenging Republican hawkishness abroad and the national security state at home.

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Republican hawkishness has long gone unchallenged within the party – critics have alleged that hawks in the George W. Bush administration dragged the nation into the Iraq war on exaggerated evidence. Are Paul and the GOP's libertarian wing changing the party's narrative?

He's certainly trying.

In April 2013, when news emerged that US contractors reaped $138 billion from the Iraq war, Senator Paul told the Christian Broadcast Network that his party is too enthusiastic for war. "Part of Republicans' problems... I think [they] have appeared too eager for war," he said.

In December 2014, when President Obama announced he would restore ties with the Castro regime, Republicans decried communist appeasement. But Paul allied with the president and said he supported normalizing relations with Cuba.

And as a majority of Republicans offer a full-throated defense of the Patriot Act, Paul has spoken out against it and against government surveillance programs. “I’m the only one out there saying the Patriot Act went too far,” Paul said in Wednesday's MSNBC interview.

His contrarian stance resonates: Some 60 percent of Americans believe the Patriot Act should be reformed “to limit government surveillance and protect Americans’ privacy," according to a new poll commissioned by the ACLU. Most Americans also oppose the NSA's collection of phone records, according to a January 2014 poll.
And as for the Iraq war, Americans appear to be nearly united, with 75 percent saying it wasn't worth the costs, according to a June 2014 CBS/New York Times poll.

Is Paul changing the GOP foreign policy narrative? Not quite. Some in the party are "nearing a critical mass of impatience with what some call “Rand-ism," writes Politico's Alexander Burns. From center-right South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham to center-left New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, they're lashing out at Paul and his foreign policy philosophy.

In fact, there is evidence that Paul himself is changing, adopting a more hawkish tone to appeal to his party base as the 2016 race heats up.

He proposed an increase in military spending in March, calling for a nearly $190 billion infusion to the defense budget over the next two years, seen as an olive branch to defense hawks.

And as the Financial Times pointed out, "After spending years criticizing Republican colleagues for demonizing Iran, he was one of the 47 senators who signed last month the now-infamous letter to Iran’s leaders warning them not to trust any deal signed by Mr. Obama."

But it was his presidential campaign announcement tour that best summed up Paul's evolving foreign policy.

"I envision an America with a national defense unparalleled, undefeatable, and unencumbered by overseas nation-building," he told supporters in Louisville in April.
His backdrop for his South Carolina announcement? The aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.

Thank you

mike
Mike Ghouse, Speaker
(214) 325-1916 text/talk
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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism, Islam, India, Israel-Palestine, Politics and other issues of the day. He is a human rights activist, and his book standing up for others will be out soon | He is producing a full feature film " Sacred" to be released on 9/11 and a documentary "Americans together" for a July 4 release.  He is a frequent guest commentator on Fox News and syndicated Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News and Huffington Post. All about him is listed in 63 links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com - Mike is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.
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Paul calls GOP 'stale and moss covered'

Rand Paul,

I may be not with you on other issues, but I am with you on this. Indeed, I wrote this yesterday.
"As a Republican, it is my duty to speak out against the non-sense in my party, and if we don't guard the fall, then I will be letting us die a slow death. I am worried about 2014. I have a feeling we will lose a lot of these disgusting Republican Senators and Congressional Republicans." 

So happy to read your stuff, this is what we need to do, we have to have the balls to speak up boldly, our fellow Republicans no nothing about people, math or connecting with them, yet they have the gall to believe that the public is with them. Hell no! Speak up Rand.  Shake some sense into these dormant minds.

Mike Ghouse

By Domenico Montanaro, Deputy Political Editor, NBC News

 

OXON HILL, Md. -- Rand Paul had tough words for his own party, describing it as “stale and moss covered” before conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference. 

“The Republican Party has to change by going forward to the classical and timeless ideas enshrined in our Constitution,” the Kentucky senator said here. He added, “We need a Republican Party that shows up on the Southside of Chicago and shouts at the top of our lungs 'We are the party of jobs and opportunity. The GOP is the ticket to the middle class.' The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered. I don't think we need to name any names here, do we?”

 The critique of the GOP received resounding applause from this crowd, but the reception for Paul, whose tone could be described as solemn, wasn’t full-throated. His speech, in fact, highlighted the difficulty he would face if he were to make an expected 2016 run.

Paul, the heir to his father Ron’s “torch of liberty,” tried here to straddle the line between his staunch libertarianism -- which includes dovish views on foreign policy, privacy rights and even drug use -- with his conservative line on spending that principally makes him a darling of these activists.

Many here praised Paul for his modern-era record 13-hour filibuster. But not all did so on the substance.“I have a message for the President, a message that is loud and clear, a message that doesn't mince words,” Paul began. 

“Don't drone me, bro!” interrupted one young supporter. 

The crowd laughed; Paul leaned back, took it in, and joked that that was not exactly the message.
But Paul only received tepid applause as he made his way through the opening section of his speech about civil liberties and drone use. Paul has raised questions about the administration’s contention that drones could be used against Americans acting as enemy combatants on American soil.

“Good intentions are not enough,” Paul said was his message for President Barack Obama. The were just a smattering of applause.

“If we allow one man to charge Americans as enemy combatants and indefinitely detain or drone them, then what exactly is it our brave young men and women are fighting for?” Paul said, and again just tepid applause.
“Our Bill of Rights is what defines us and makes us exceptional,” Paul said to polite applause.

On reaching out to youth, Paul said, “They want leaders that wont feed them a line of crap or sell them short. They aren't afraid of individual liberty.” Just a light round of claps.

Paul was much better received when criticizing the president for spending, taxes, the sequester, and cutting foreign aid and waste – instead of White House tours.

“The only stimulus ever proven to work is leaving more money in the hands of those who earned it!” Paul said.

“Only in Washington could an increase of $7 trillion in spending over a decade be called a cut,” Paul said of the sequester. And added to raucous applause: “Meanwhile the President found an extra $250 million to send to Egypt. … I say-not a penny more to countries that burn our flag.”

Paul contended that instead of eliminating White House tours, he should cut research for “monkeys on meth,” robotic squirrels, and menus for colonization on Mars that were developed by college students given all-expense paid trips to Hawaii. 

“Mr. President, maybe we could have cut robotic squirrels before White House tours,” Paul said.

GOP soul-searching, 2016 edition

This needs to be pursued aggressively, louder than a few loud mouths. Those few cannot see beyond their own feet, and we cannot sit and let them run over us. - Mike Ghouse

 

Courtesy - Politico

By MAGGIE HABERMAN |

11/13/12 2:14 PM EST

Jonathan Martin gets an exclusive with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, in which the incoming RGA head calls for a change in messaging and in candidate quality if Republicans are to make gains in the next four years:

“We’ve got to make sure that we are not the party of big business, big banks, big Wall Street bailouts, big corporate loopholes, big anything,” Jindal told POLITICO in a 45-minute telephone interview. “We cannot be, we must not be, the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys.”...
...“It is no secret we had a number of Republicans damage our brand this year with offensive, bizarre comments — enough of that,” Jindal said. “It’s not going to be the last time anyone says something stupid within our party, but it can’t be tolerated within our party. We’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters.”

Sen. Rand Paul, another 2016 prospect, takes a similar tack but with a different twist in an interview with Manu Raju:

In an interview with POLITICO, Paul said he’ll return to Congress this week pushing measures long avoided by his party. He wants to work with liberal Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy and Republicans to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for pot possession. He wants to carve a compromise immigration plan with an “eventual path” to citizenship for illegal immigrants, a proposal he believes could be palatable to conservatives. And he believes his ideas — along with pushing for less U.S. military intervention in conflicts overseas — could help the GOP broaden its tent and appeal to crucial voting blocs that handed Democrats big wins in the West Coast, the Northeast and along the Great Lakes.
“We have three big regions where we’re not competitive,” Paul said. “And we have to be competitive in those regions.”
Paul, 49, was elected on the tea party wave that fueled GOP landslide victories in 2010, often declaring on the campaign trail that he had a “message” from the tea party: “We have come to take our government back.”