Rand Paul, foreign policy genius

Rand Paul’s clownishness is apparently bottomless. It seems the events in Ukraine have opened up a new front in the GOP Civil War. On one side are the hawks — epitomized by the always-happy-to-bomb John McCain — who believe that the best response to events in Ukraine are to provoke Russia because… I’m never really clear on the “because” with these guys. Just because, I guess.

On the other are the more Libertarian anti-interventionists like Paul, who want to deal with Russia in a more diplomatic fashion and see if we can resolve things without brinksmanship and provocation. “Some on our side are so stuck in the Cold War era that they want to tweak Russia all the time and I don’t think that is a good idea,” Paul says. So far, so good.

Things get a little stupid as he goes on, however, because that’s what happens when Sen. Poodlehair doesn’t hit the off switch on his mouth. “We still need to be conscious of the fact that Russia has intercontinental ballistic missiles,” he told the Washington Post. “Though the Cold War is largely over, I think we need to have a respectful - sometimes adversarial - but a respectful relationship with Russia.”

We can’t be mean to Putin or Russia will nuke us — and Paul is warning against falling into a cold war mindset. Insert your favorite facepalm photo here.

[photo by Gage Skidmore]

Rand Paul’s never going to put his plagiarism scandal behind him if he doesn’t stop plagiarizing stuff

Raw Story: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) has been caught once again using other people’s written work without attribution, this time in a lawsuit against the NSA that he jointly filed with Virginia’s ex-Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli.

According to the Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank, the suit alleges that the National Security Agency’s domestic phone surveillance program is unconstitutional, but that neither Cuccinelli nor Paul did the bulk of the legal work on the suit. The majority of the suit’s verbiage was lifted verbatim from the work of former Reagan administration attorney Bruce Fein.

Speaking through Mattie Fein, his ex-wife and spokesperson, Fein said, “I am aghast and shocked by Ken Cuccinelli’s behavior and his absolute knowledge that this entire complaint was the work product, intellectual property and legal genius of Bruce Fein. Ken Cuccinelli stole the suit.”

She continued by pointing out that Paul “already has one plagiarism issue, now has a lawyer who just takes another lawyer’s work product.”

And here’s the problem with copying off the other kids’ papers: what Paul and Cuccinelli had hoped would be a big, headline-grabbing, grandstand on an issue with bipartisan appeal has become all about their unwillingness to do any work at all and not about the NSA. If you want to be a Big, Important Senator with Many Important Stances on Many Important Issues who does Many Important Interviews on Many Important Talking Head Shows, it helps not to wander around the yard like a clown, stepping on rakes.

Maybe Rand Paul should go back to plagiarism

Daily Beast: Senator Rand Paul gave his first major speech in the wake of a recent plagiarism scandal Tuesday to cadets at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. But while his staff added 33 footnotes to the publicly released version of his speech about U.S. foreign policy, just because everything was correctly cited didn’t necessarily make it accurate.

The Kentucky senator’s speech included extensive citations in the wake of Paul being exposed as a serial plagiarizer by a number of outlets including Buzzfeed and MSNBC. In his defense, Paul initially dismissed these concerns as attacks from “haters.” But, after losing his column from the Washington Times, Paul acknowledged that “mistakes” were made and said he would restructure his office.

The restructuring seemed to be effective so far in that the content of Paul’s speech was entirely original. But, some of the arguments that the Kentucky senator made did not match the facts associated with his own footnotes.

If you ask me, this is actually worse than the plagiarism scandal. Paul’s using footnotes as cover to pull “facts” out of his ass and hopes no one will check. Where as plagiarism as Paul used it was basically just intellectual laziness, this is a conscious effort to mislead. It’s like if I said, “The facts show that Rand Paul had his brain replaced with a turnip after a motorcycle accident in 1995 (see Wikipedia, “Turnip”).” If you check, you’ll find plenty about turnips, but nothing about Rand Paul’s brain. What I told you was a lie and I’m just using the phony citation to make it seem extra truthy.

In his case, Rand cites articles about Egypt to claim the Obama administration sent weapons to the Egypt’s military government, something the articles themselves say nothing about. And the silence on the subject is entirely because the claim is simply not true. It never happened. Rand Paul is a liar, as unsurprising as that fact may be, whether he has a turnip for a brain or not.

Of course, the press will give him a pass on this. Pretending you wrote something that is actually true is a scandal, making up your own lies is just politics as usual.

[photo via Wikimedia Commons]

Rand Paul doesn’t seem to be taking his plagiarism scandal well

I mean, just look at that photo. Actual quote from the story: “Paul admitted that he had ‘made mistakes’ and said new procedures were being put in place to make footnotes available ‘if it will make people leave me the hell alone.’”

A real levelheaded guy in a crisis. Cool under pressure. Born leader. Should totally run for president.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m enjoying this immensely.

Pretend economic ‘realist’ Rand Paul shows he has no idea what the hell he’s talking about

Jonathan Chait: Josh Green asks Rand Paul about his rather extreme budget proposal, and Paul replies that it’s necessary because the only alternative is Trillion-Dollar Deficits As Far As the Eye Can See:

You know, the thing is, people want to say it’s extreme. But what I would say is extreme is a trillion-dollar deficit every year. I mean, that’s an extremely bad situation.

Some good news for Senator Paul — we’re not running a trillion-dollar deficit anymore. The deficit this year is forecast at $642 billion, per the Congressional Budget Office, which also forecasts the deficit to fall to $560 billion next year and $378 billion the following year.

For Rand (and Ron) Paul, the dread specter of fiscal collapse and hyperinflation is more of a generalized fact of life than something that depends on particular “numbers.” The whole political rise of the Pauls since 2008 owes a great deal to the economic crisis and the resulting spike in the deficit, which drove large numbers of people to join the freak-out bunker where the Pauls have resided all along. Of course Rand Paul isn’t going to notice the apocalypse is receding — its imminent appearance is a fixed piece of his worldview.

The interviewer then went on to ask Paul, “Who would your ideal Fed chairman be?” He named two dead guys, one of whom would completely disagree with him about monetary policy.

The problem with pretending to be an economic whizkid is that sooner or later you’re going to have to open your mouth and blow your cover.

I will oppose any attempt by Sen. Rand Paul to father a moose-baby

Rand Paul is putting his foot down — and hoping the Washington press corps is watching. As the above Politico headline demonstrates, they are. Here’s the gist of things:

Politico: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Friday he will strongly oppose an attempt by President Obama to bailout the city of Detroit.

“I basically say he is bailing them out over my dead body because we don’t have any money in Washington,” Paul said in an interview with Breitbart.com.

Has the White House said they were going to bail out the City of Detroit? Not in so many word, but if you read between the lines, the oh-so subtle word from the White House is "NO!!”

Detroit News: The White House reiterated Friday that no federal bailout for Detroit is in the works, but said the adminstration wants to be helpful as the Motor City restructures in bankruptcy.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said on the issue of Detroit’s insolvency that is “something local leaders and creditors are going to have resolve, but we will be partners in an effort to assist the city and the state as they move forward.” Asked for specifics on what type of assistance might be available, Carney declined to elaborate.

“The issue here of the insolvency and dealing with that is one that Detroit and Detroit’s creditors will have to resolve. We will be of assistance in general, both in terms of policy as well as just being a partner with Detroit as Detroit finds its way and moves forward in the coming weeks, months and years,” Carney said.

And this isn’t the first time it’s come up — Detroit’s been inching toward bankruptcy since the Republican Governor took control of the city’s finances away from city government and placed it in the hands of an “emergency manager," who applied the super-awesome Republican economic policies that totally failed to save the city. This guy and Detroit’s mayor had already gone to the White House to discuss the city’s problems and this was the result, according to the same Detroit News piece (emphasis mine):

White House officials including Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and National Economic Council director Gene Sperling have been in talks with city and state leaders. In April, Jarrett made it clear to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr at a White House meeting that no federal bailout was forthcoming.

So the White House keeps saying over and over — for months — that they aren’t going to bail out Detroit, which Rand Paul takes as his cue to stand boldly and proudly against any bailout for Detroit.

And that’s why I say I will oppose any attempt by Rand Paul to father a moose-baby. Rand Paul has never actually said he wouldn’t father a moose-baby, which makes my opposition to the attempt more rational than his stand against a Detroit bailout.

Josh Marshall: Rand Paul and the Black Helicopters

Josh Marshall: Rand Paul and the Black Helicopters:

Everybody got a kick out of Rand Paul’s filibuster last week. I noted that he actually made the case for what filibusters should be — and thus why filibuster reform is so important. Others focused on the his conspicuous defense of civil liberties. But something has been rattling around my head since that all went down. Was this too-seldom defense of civil liberties or a dog whistle appeal to the black helicopter crowd?…

»READ MORE»

[photo via Dept. of Defense]

Stories to Watch: 6/26/12

Five days smoke-free.


Rand Paul is a jackass. Likewise, Jon Kyl.


The EPA has a big win in federal court -- which gives the Supreme Court another chance to steal political power from the voters.


Joe Biden gives Mitt Romney the credit he deserves for creating jobs.


How to write headlines like a Fox News editor.


Mitt Romney is a child. A very flippity-floppity child.


Claire McCaskill will skip the Democratic convention to concentrate on her own race.


Finally, first they won the "right" to give unlimited amounts of money to candidates and buy elections. Now oligarchs -- and their bought and paid for GOP pets -- are fighting to keep you from even knowing who they are.

Related articles

• Both Sides Claim Victory After Court's Ruling on Ariz. Immigration Law

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• Jon Kyl Blames Obama For Failure Of Immigration Reform Under Bush

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• Sen. Rand Paul Endorses Mitt Romney

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Stories to Watch: 5/12/12

Heading out to do some recall work today. Not sure how long it will take, but I'm writing off the rest of the day. And, coincidentally, the first item in today's post is recall related. Now here's the news...


This one's kind of stupid; after video was discovered showing Gov. Walker discussing his "divide and conquer" strategy as a "first step" to building a "completely red state" with a billionaire donor who wants restrictive laws for private-sector unions, Wisconsin State Journal runs an article about how the state GOP has absolutely no plans to make Wisconsin a "right to work" state.

But here's the thing; that video was shot before Walker introduced his union-buster, before all the protests and the occupation of the capital, and -- mostly importantly -- before Republicans lost control of the senate through attrition and a series of recalls. Of course they have no plans to push for more union-busting legislation -- now. It'd be doomed from the get-go. The question is, was that the plan then, before everything blew apart? If dividing and conquering with an attack on collective bargaining was the "first step," what was supposed to be the next?

WSJ's piece answers none of those questions -- and mostly because it never even asks them. At least they let Tom Barrett have the last word. Otherwise, I'm not extremely impressed with this reporting.


***
Over at The Capital Times, the editorial board has other questions that need to be answered, but haven't even been raised:

1. Why [Walker] told a campaign donor about his plan to attack unions before he told his own Cabinet and the people of Wisconsin.

2. Why he discussed breaking unions as part of a strategy to make Wisconsin a "red (Republican) state."

3. What ongoing conversations he has had with Hendricks.

4. What he has done in return for her unprecedented campaign donations.

And there is one more question.

Gov. Walker's campaign shifted $60,000 from his campaign fund to the governor's criminal defense fund. The donor whose money was shifted to the criminal defense fund had to approve that transfer of money.

Only a handful of Walker contributors gave a sufficient amount of money to fund a $60,000 transfer.

Was Diane Hendricks the donor who authorized that transfer of money? And did the governor discuss his legal problems with her?

Probably not questions Team Walker would be comfortable answering.


***
Opposing marriage equality is becoming a political loser faster than Republicans may realize.


Mittens flip-flops again. His support of same-sex adoption had a shelf-life of one day.


Rand Paul is not a Libertarian.


Paul Krugman asks excellent questions: will JPMorgan's fiasco be investigated by Republicans to the same degree as Solyndra? And if not, why? I think we all know the answers to both.


Finally, the GOP wants to move beyond all this culture war stuff against women and gays and Girls Scouts and what-have-you and get to work on jobs. The White House couldn't agree more -- so expect the GOP's talk to turn out to be empty rhetoric.

Related articles

• Scott Walker Admits to Wanting to Divide Wisconsin
• New Video: Scott Walker Called Budget Bill 'First Step' Of Anti-Union Strategy
• Walker kicks off Wisconsin GOP convention

Stories to Watch: 1/23/12

You know what's not fun? Shoveling heavy, wet slush. That is not fun. Now here's the news...


Rick Santorum really is just an awful person.


Washington state apparently has enough votes in the legislature to pass a marriage equality measure.


Sen. Rand Paul's TSA misadventure goes off the rails into crazy conspiracy theorizing. When you've been handed a golden ticket to make a good point, don't fuck it up with tinfoil hat crap.


What do you call it when an Arkansas Democratic congressional candidate's cat is killed and "liberal" is written on the remains' side with a Sharpie? Terrorism. It is the very definition of the word. The person who did this is terrorist scum -- it's completely undeniable. The right, normally eager to dive on any story with even the hint of terrorism, is unsurprisingly silent on this one.


Embryonic stem cells successfully treat a certain kind of blindness. Why does God hate people's eyes? Probably because seeing a certain Indiana license plate will totally turn you gay.


Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois suffers a stroke. According to doctors, a full mental recovery has a "good" chance, but the odds on the physical side are "not great" -- it may cost him the use of his left arm.


Mitt Romney says the economy is "getter better" under Obama. Expect a big backpedal, because telling the truth is not the way to win the Republican nomination.


Finally, expect more arrests as a result of the Justice Department's John Doe investigation of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's administration. Recall fever may become epidemic.

Related articles

• U.S. Sen. Rand Paul refuses TSA pat-down, turned away from airport (cnn.com)
• Rand Paul detained by TSA - Tim Mak - POLITICO.com (mbcalyn.com)
• Walker aide quits amid probe rumors (politico.com)

Stories to Watch: 9/13/11

Leftovers tonight, which is actually awesome. It's like a smorgasborg inside my fridge. BBQ chicken? Grilled pork chops? Pasta with sauce and cheese? Various and sundry veggies? All of the above. Now here's the news...


How bloodthirsty and insane were the 'baggers at CNN/Tea Party Nation-sponsored GOP debate last night? So bloodthirsty and insane that it freaked out Rick Perry.


On a related note, Michele Bachmann's anti-HPV vaccine paranoia ("it makes kids retarded!") leaves no doubt that she doesn't even belong in congress, let alone the White House.


Poverty in the US is now up to 1 in 6 households, with unemployment being a driving factor. Clearly, austerity isn't going to help much. In fact, Krugman points out that we're already seeing austerity measures fail before our very eyes.


The White House wants Republicans to pass the entire Jobs Act -- unless of course, they don't want to. Which would be OK with the White House too. Way to stand your ground, Obama administration.


A woman of the not-white persuasion attempted to fly on an airline on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Long story short; not only did we totally overreact after 9/11, we're still doing it.


So far, the GOP debates have been good for Democrats; crazy enough for the base is probably way too crazy for the general electorate.


Finally, Rand Paul is a jackass.

Related articles

• Secret Service Probes Terror Threat On White House Facebook Page (huffingtonpost.com)
• Bachmann Draws Blood on Perry, Romney Stays Steady (themoderatevoice.com)
• Social Security: Rick Perry's Ponzi Problem (theroot.com)

Stories to Watch: 5/26/11

I'm making shredded BBQ beef tonight. Want the recipe? You take a round steak, stick it in the crockpot, and pull it apart with two forks when it's done. Then you make some BBQ sauce, cut up an onion, and heat it all in a skillet. That's not exactly a "recipe," you say? It's as close to one as I get. Now here's the news...


The GOP's red state dreams for Wisconsin are quickly going down in flames. This time, polling shows that President Obama would trounce any GOP candidate here.


Sarah Palin tries to whip up excitement for Sarah Palin with a pro-Sarah Palin bus tour. Expect excitement to fail to be whipped up.


Savor this moment, because it may be the last time in your life you ever see Sen. Rand Paul do the right thing. Unfortunately, it's for the wrong reasons.


Tim Pawlenty dooms his chance at presidency by praising Paul Ryan's Medicare-slaying. This puts him in the same camp as the ever-popular Dick Cheney.


Vermont has singlepayer healthcare.


Them 'bagger freshmen do love them some pork.


Finally, this may very well be the worst piece of legislation to pass the House of Representatives in your lifetime.

Related articles

• Sarah Palin to tour East Coast, N.H. (politico.com)
• National Polls Show No Clear GOP Frontrunner (politicalwire.com)
• Palin's Opening (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
• Sarah Palin may actually run. So what? (salon.com)

Stories to Watch: 5/10/11

Freakin' insanely nice here today. 80 degrees. I actually kept the windows closed so it would stay cool in here. Now here's the news...


Fox News is oh-so cross that President Obama will have the "vile rapper" Common at the White House for a poetry event. But Fox has had a different take on Common in the past.


Rand Paul, stalwart defender of the military-industrial complex.


Republican plans to privatize Medicare are rapidly crumbling as GOPers, sensing an electoral iceberg, begin to jump ship.


Karl Rove's American Crossroads PAC is sinking $650 mil. into Jane Corwin's flailing NY-26 run.


Charles Koch "gives" $1.5 million to Florida State University. Why the quotes? Koch gets input on hiring decisions for the school's economics department in exchange. Let's just drop the quotes and say he bought Florida State's economics department outright. Luckily, this isn't sitting well with a lot of people who think an economic flatearther like Koch shouldn't be allowed within eyesight of the department. If they lose this one, expect an economics degree from Florida State to be almost worthless in the job market.


In news that'll cause a lot of excitement, but will ultimately go nowhere: liberals in Arizona want to split off into a new state.


Kevin Drum argues that John Boehner's insane hostage demands regarding the debt ceiling are a bluff.


Finally, Michael Heick of Amherst, NY is a Grade A prick.

Related articles

• Florida State University sells its integrity for $1.5 million (scienceblogs.com)
• What Would You Say to the Koch Brothers if You Had the Chance? (alternet.org)
• NY-26: Is there any surer sign our poll was right? (dailykos.com)
• New Campaign Assails Koch Brothers (huffingtonpost.com)

Stories to Watch: 2/4/11

After blogger's post editor ate two consecutive blog posts, I decided it was maybe time to find some sort of HTML editor. I liked Scribefire for Firefox a lot, but the version for Chrome was just awful. I tried a Chrome extension and uninstalled it again after one post -- it added a whole bunch of pointless, useless code to everything. I finally went with Kompozer. We'll see how that holds up. I actually had to go online to see how to get it to spellcheck. Can't believe that's not the default. Otherwise, good so far. Now here's the news...


Gallup finds that Barack Obama is more polarizing in year two than in year one. The most polarizing president in history? Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush.

In a move that's going to really tick off a lot of the neocons who'd convinced themselves he was the greatest, Sen. Rand Paul calls aid to Israel "welfare" and says we ought to cut it out.


After Mubarak's staged "counter-protest" turned violent, Egyptians go right back to calling for him to leave office. Hundreds of thousands say they won't leave Tahir Square until he's gone.


The right is trying the same bullshit they pulled on ACORN with Planned Parenthood.


She-who-shall-not-be-named-in-February fails to get that unmentioned name trademarked. Expect a poorly thought-out Facebook post attacking the US Patent Office.


Finally, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' conflicts of interest deepen every day.

News Roundup for 2/4/11

Fox isn't having anything to do with Satan's Bible!

-Headline of the day-

"Attention Fox Nation: There Is More Than One Version Of The Bible"

Fox News' site Fox Nation is always on the lookout for something that President Obama has completely screwed up. When they find something, they put it on the site with a big banner headline and then all the wingnuts come and laugh at it. Hahaha! Silly president!

Today's big headline is "Obama Botches Bible Verse at Prayer Breakfast." Seems that the crazy president cited a Bible verse and screwed it all up! Hahaha! So they put up the story and everyone had a good laugh.

There's only one problem: the President didn't actually screw anything up. Where Fox checked the King James version of the Bible, Obama quoted the New International Version. Media Matters caught Fox's flub and put it up at their website for everyone to laugh at.

Now some of that laugh traffic is spilling over to Fox Nation, where everyone and their brother is joining in on the comment thread to tell them they're all wrong and stupid and what are they drunk?

So, has Fox corrected or retracted the story? Of course not. They're Fox.

It's not like they give a crap about accuracy. (Media Matters)

-Maybe he's trying to drum up business-

Rand Paul was the sole GOP vote against a bill that makes it illegal to try to blind a pilot with a laser pointer. No, really. Seems Randy's fine with people trying to crash planes from their backyard and anyone who wants to make that illegal are engaging in government overreach.

And, of course, Randy's an ophthalmologist. And any pilot who survives the attempt on their life would probably need to see an eye doctor.

But I'm sure that had nothing to do with it. Reading over the Constitution, it's easy to see that shooting lasers into the eyeballs of jet pilots is clearly what the founders intended. (Politico)

-Bonus HotD-

"Republicans totally, totally focused on jobs."

Except, as Laura Conway points out on Rachel Maddow's blog, they really aren't. (Maddow Blog)

News Roundup for 1/27/11

Future home of Sens. Vitter and Paul

-Headline of the day-
"Rand Paul, David Vitter join forces to violate Constitution."

According to the report, "Freshman Tea Party pseudo-libertarian Sen. Rand Paul and Louisiana embarrassment David Vitter are introducing legislation that will end birthright citizenship. While birthright citizenship stems directly from the 14th Amendment, which means that banning it would require a constitutional amendment, Vitter and Paul have figured out a loophole: Their bill claims that the 14th Amendment doesn't mean what it says. Brilliant!"

While Randy and Dave say they "do not believe that the 14th Amendment confers birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens," the amendment itself says, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." So, yeah, that's exactly what it does. Sorry guys.

So, basically, the idea is to define the Fourth Amendment for the Supreme Court, so they can't say it means what it says. Do I need to point out that this is stupid and would never work in a million years?

I mean, as long as we're writing laws that hinge on deliberately misunderstanding what the Constitution clearly states, why don't we write one that defines the Third Amendment guarantee that you won't be required to house soldiers as really meaning that David Vitter and Rand Paul have to be on display in a cage at the National Zoo?

And Dave and Randy wouldn't be able to complain, because it says so right there in the Constitution. What, do they hate America? (War Room)


-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, do you want to go to a magical place? How about...

Click for animation

AT&T's real boy now! (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"'Tea Party News Brief': The New News Network For the Insane."

I can't do better than Wonkette, who say the internet news outlet was necessary, because "Fox News seemed suspiciously lucid and organized." (Wonkette)