Rand Paul Is Not a Libertarian

"Senator" Rand Paul (R/Teahadist-KY) is a duplicitous lying bastard who specializes in talking out of both sides of his mouth. He, not McConnell, not Boehner, not Cantor, should be enemy number one of the American Progressive movement, and the Conservatives should throw him out if they value their political lives. 

Let's review the case. 

He claims to be a Libertarian. He decries President Barack Obama, claiming he acts like a king, invoking language from the American revolution in a cheap petty attempt to gain some traction for this completely asinine argument. Lest we forget his temper tantrum over gun control, this nut attempted to convince us all he was standing up for our civil liberties and that Obama was some sort of tyrant who had issued just piles of these executive orders. Never mind that as a matter of public record this is utter bullpucky. Never mind that Reagan issued twice as many orders as Obama. Most certainly never mind that these kingly proclamations were little more than hey underling do your job. Obama was a king! He was a tyrant! He's coming for your guns and going to repeal the Second Amendment! It has nothing to do with Rand's ties to a hyper conservative gun nut fringe right of the NRA. Rand Paul is just a good ol' Libertarian from Kentucky!
There are other examples of this turd of a politico wearing a Libertarian skin - like the drone debacle. His own party told him to sit down and shut up on that one. One particularly ornery Republican Senator continues to beat up on Rand Paul, too. Of course, these days, Paul is back to "King Obama" and the NSA with this PRISM nonsense. 

Now anyone who knows me knows I think the 2008 FISAA as well as the Patriot Act and their renewals are violative of the Fourth Amendment and should be struck or repealed. On this, admittedly, I agree with Rand Paul. I would remind my readers that likewise, stopped clocks are right twice a day. On PRISM, the actual policy stand is Paul's stopped clock impersonation (as is the rest of his record if the clock was stopped circa 1940). But let's not kid ourselves, Rand Paul is still too clever by half. You do not charge up to the Supreme Court with a petition. You have to go through the lower courts first to get to the Supreme Court, as SCOTUS does not generally have original jurisdiction on much of anything. Luckily, someone has already done that. Rand Paul should not be filing another mega-suit. He should be filing an amicus brief and getting senators to sign on to it for Jewel v. NSA. He should - but he won't, because that would be reasonable and Rand Paul is a loon. 

It is critically important to note that "Libertarian" Rand Paul will fight for your rights (as he defines them) as long as you're what he considers a red blooded American. If you're not, his true Tealiban colors peek out from the Libertarian makeup and he turns into an ultranationalist neoconservative. Rand Paul swears the comprehensive immigration reform bill negotiated by the Gang of Eight can't pass the House - and he may be right. The Bath Salts Caucus in the lower chamber won't vote for anything, and the Republican Caucus as a whole may be about ready to make the Hastert Rule have some teeth, at least for their Speaker. Rand Paul could do the sensible thing and line up behind the bill like Kelly Ayotte already has. That, however, has no glory for Rand Paul. No, he needs a stronger bill. He needs to be the conduit through which the bill passes - him, and only him, not the democratic process. Rand Paul will be the singular reason immigration reform happens, according to Rand Paul. What's he calling for? A stronger bill. We've heard this line before. What he will demand is that the border be hermetically sealed so not even the wind can cross, and then we can tackle the immigration piece.

I could go on. His position on gay marriage is dog whistle - let the states decide is how we kept segregation in the south. He's a die-hard pro-lifer. He's an anti-Obamacare doctor who has no plan to replace it. He thinks the way to save Social Security is to cut benefits. He thinks that a Congress that can't pass anything, at all, should review every single rule the Executive produces - which means it wouldn't have time to do anything else. He pushes and honestly believes conspiracy theories. Do not be deceived. Rand Paul is not a Libertarian. The man is just stark raving crazy. The fact that he is still talking further poisons the American political atmosphere every time he opens his mouth. Rand Paul needs to sit down and shut up.

To My Latino Friends

Welcome to being a wedge this year -like the gays with marriage equality, and if you give it in a minute we'll see the old people, the sick people, kids, education, and the kitchen sink all picked up and hurled at the Republicans.  Welcome to the 2012 cycle.  But the next time you hear "Oh, this is election year politics" on the DREAM act - here's why it needs to be election year politics.  


In 2010, when it wasn't election year politics, Republicans had no problem killing their own idea just to sick their finger in Obama's eye.  The DREAM Act sailed through the House on a largely party-line vote, and then couldn't get cloture in the Senate.  If the GOP wanted this to be done through the Congress, like they claim now, they could simply drop their filibuster (which is technically still ongoing), vote for cloture on this bill, and then vote to pass it as presented by the House, and it would be on Obama's desk as a permanent solution by the end of the week.  They do not want that - and no matter what they say now, they do no want this policy at all.  During the primaries, Texas had its own version of a DREAM act that provided for in-state tuition for children who were illegal immigrants through no fault of their own.  It was signed by Rick Perry.  And in the debates, the other candidates piled on him for taking this stand and for defending it.  Mitt Romney took up the issue of educating children of illegal immigrants like a pair of scissors and went after Rick Perry as though he were a gay kid with queer hair.  The media acts as though we haven't heard Romney's long term plan - but we have.  Self-deportation, slam the borders shut, let Mexico die on our doorstep, we don't care.  


For them to get that, first, the President must fail.  They cheer for failure and blame it all on Obama.  Every time there is bad news they set their heads alight and scream "Obama's fault! Obama's fault!" and dance around the media and Fox & Friends.  But we are still in a stalled economy.  We still have major social issues that must be addressed.  Regardless of party, if the President fails, if the Office of the President fails  in its Constitutionally-mandated mission, then by definition the whole works fails.  If two years has taught us nothing, is that these particular Republicans, this Tea Party driven insurgency, are perfectly willing to not just drive us off a cliff, but to put the pedal to the metal.  On Immigration, and yes the timing looks very blatantly political, especially considering the memo was brought to him in February of 2011, the President has actually accomplished something, and they are spinning like mad to make this a bad thing.  "It isn't permanent!" they cry, and they're right, it's not.  If Romney gets elected, or if the GOP retains effective control of the Legislature, it never will be, either.  They are right, this is still not a win.  This is still Democrats having to play politics with the party that started the mess and refuses - quite literally - to stop the filibustering talk and bluster, and actually do things.

They've all got to go, all the way down the ticket.  This is being used in an election year to force Republicans to start answering the question of what do they want.  They have to be called to account for wedging off votes, for breaking up the electorate, then digging in their heels and refusing to do anything or put forward a single idea to accomplish a single goal.  If you'd like to not be a wedge issue ever again, if you'd like to see reform beyond an executive deferment (that Romney could revoke on Day 1), your best chance is to get every single person you know in every state you know them in and get them to go to the polls and vote Democrat, all the way down the ticket, from President to dog catcher.  If you want to keep the laws on the books that break families with immigrants into pieces, reigns terror over school children, and effectively considers non-Whites as second class humans never mind citizens, then stay home or vote for a Republican down-ticket from the President.