Rand Paul creates a 50 state network in his presidential bid
There is no doubt in my mind that Rand Paul is going to run for president in 2016, but if you still harbor doubts that he is seriously considering a bid perhaps this story will change your mind.
Rand Paul has set up a 50 state network in his exploration of a presidential bid, this certainly seems to me as if he is going to announce in the near future his candidacy.
Sen. Rand Paul has become the first Republican to assemble a network in all 50 states as a precursor to a 2016 presidential run, the latest sign that he is looking to build a more mainstream coalition than the largely ad hoc one that backed his father’s unsuccessful campaigns.
Paul’s move, which comes nearly two years before the primaries, also signals an effort to win the confidence of skeptical members of the Republican establishment, many of whom doubt that his appeal will translate beyond the libertarian base that was attracted to Ron Paul, a former Texas congressman.
The younger Paul’s nationwide organization, which counts more than 200 people, includes new supporters who have previously funded more traditional Republicans, along with longtime libertarian activists. Paul, of Kentucky, has been courting Wall Street titans and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who donated to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, attending elite conclaves in Utah and elsewhere along with other GOP hopefuls.
“A national leadership team is an important step, and it’s a critical one for the movement going forward,” said Fritz Wenzel, Paul’s pollster. “Rand has tremendous momentum, and the formation of this team will guide him as he gets closer to a decision and [will] serve as a foundation for a campaign.”
There is one area, in my opinion, where the Republicans lag way behind the Democrats and that area is organization–specifically at the grassroots level–and Rand Paul appears ready to bridge that gap. Read more…
This reeks of the Department of Injustice, the State Department, and the IRS conducting internal investigations and finding themselves innocent of the charges. Much like those scandals, Chris Christie hired a law firm to investigate Bridgegate and that law firm concluded that Chris Christie was not involved. Color me skeptical of the finding.
The law firm is defending its finding despite the fact that, according to the article I linked to above, several key figures in the scandal did not cooperate with the investigation. The law firm is also claiming that it was not hired by Chris Christie personally but rather by the Office of the Governor but I fail to see a discernible difference between the two. Read more…
Obamacare: Barack Obama delays the sign-up deadline
As I am sure everybody is aware of by now late last night Barack Obama decided to push back the Obamacare enrollment date to provide people who have been having trouble signing up for the law a little extra time to come into compliance.
Much has been written about this already–including Harry Reid claiming the deadline had to be pushed back not because of the website’s problems but rather because too many people haven’t been educated in how to properly use the internet–so I have decided that rather than simply repeating what others have already written I would approach this from a different angle.
Homeland Security officials found guilty of falsifying Government documents on border security
According to this story a Homeland Security Supervisor, Eugenio Pedraza, was found guilty of falsifying Government documents regarding border patrol agents assisting both illegal aliens and illegal narcotics over the border.
According to the indictment, Pedraza reportedly attempted to inhibit the review of significant gaps in the DHS-OIG’s investigation into numerous cases that involved Border Patrol agents assisting in the “unlawful smuggling of undocumented aliens and narcotics into the United States,” through several ports-of-entry in Texas. The indictment claims that Pedraza failed to ensure that investigations assigned to his office were properly carried out.
Pedraza was found guilty of falsifying documents with DHS-OIG special agent Robert Vargas and former special agent Wayne Ball, according to local reports. Vargas had previously investigated a criminal case relating to Border Patrol officers helping a Mexican cartel bring drugs into the U.S. He was instructed by Pedraza to draw up inaccurate memorandums of activity, according to court records. Vargas’ testimony alleged that Pedraza told him to “fill in the gaps” in the written reports of activity relating to the investigation, according to The Monitor.
Once the dishonest documents were drawn up, Agent Ball willingly signed them. The Monitor reported that in January 2013, Ball was convicted of falsifying documents.
But that is not all:
The DOJ states there is no conflict of interest with an Obama donor investigating the IRS targeting scandal
Recently Ted Cruz sent a letter to Eric Holder asking for a special prosecutor to look into the IRS targeting scandal because the person investigating the scandal was a donor to Barack Obama and the Democratic party.
“It strains credulity to say that, out of the over 114,000 employees at the Department of Justice, the only possible choice to lead the investigation was a major political donor to President Obama,” Cruz wrote Holder. “This, on its face, is a significant conflict of interest.”
“Specifically, I would ask you to immediately appoint a special prosecutor, with meaningful independence, to investigate the IRS’s illegal targeting of conservative groups.”
“This special prosecutor should be someone whose integrity is beyond reproach,” Cruz wrote. “And, at a minimum, he or she should not be a major financial backer of President Obama.”
The Department of Injustice has responded to Ted Cruz’s request, basically stating that no special prosecutor was needed because well, move along, nothing to see here.
Here is more:
The UN claims global warming is to blame for cold weather
We have heard this argument from the left recently: global warming is responsible for the frigid temperatures which gripped much of the United States this Winter. This is why the left changed the terminology from global warming to climate change, or to global climate disruption if you will.
Now the United Nations is climbing on board with the mantra that the cold Winter weather is not the result of Winter but rather global warming.
Here is more:
Mitt Romney rules out running for president in 2016
Chalk this story up in the ‘Thank God’ category.
There had been some rumblings that Mitt Romney was being persuaded by some of the establishment Republicans, who fear the possibility of a Rand Paul or Ted Cruz candidacy, to take another crack at running for president in 2016. America’s Watchtower has covered this possibility here and here for those who are interested in reading a little background on this issue.
When asked earlier today whether or not he was considering another run at the presidency Mitt Romney firmly denied this was the case. Here is part of what he said:
Open thread for Sunday, March 23rd: The Last in Line
Here is the open thread for Sunday, March 23rd; please feel free to post links to interesting articles and to discuss whatever issues arise during the course of the day. Nothing is off-topic here.
As usual you can follow America’s Watchtower on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the links on the right. I often post links to articles I probably will not be writing about so it is a great way to keep up with what is going on in the world. You can also subscribe to receive email updates and if you do you will never miss a post again.
In case you have not noticed I have replaced the old Twitter widget with a new, fully interactive Twitter widget. This widget updates my tweets in near real time and allows you to respond to or retweet my tweets right from the blog. Is also allows you to tweet me right from America’s Watchtower. How cool is that! If you do not have a Twitter account what better reason do you need to sign up for one!?
Please check out what the New Federalist Party has been up to by clicking on the link to the right. On the NFP Facebook page you will find a link to the party platform. Check it out and if you like what you see we are currently looking for donations and delegates to the states for the convention.
This week’s musical selection is Dio performing ‘The Last in Line’ from 1986. Enjoy:
Obamacare: woman hit with huge bill because the hospital closest to her is not on the healthcare exchange
According to this story, a woman in Seattle has been hit with a large bill because the hospital which is right around the corner from her residence is not on the healthcare exchange:
Alex Szablya just wants the best health care she can get for her children. So she got a gold plan, the highest level possible with the Washington Health Benefit Exchange. She picked a plan with Lifewise, an affiliate of Premera Blue Cross.
In early March, her 16-year old daughter had a medical emergency. Alex drove her to the nearest hospital, which was Seattle Children’s. Alex says doctors there felt her daughter’s situation was so dire she needed to be admitted to the hospital immediately. She was there for nine days.
Then came news that her stay, which involved specialized mental health care for adolescents, was going to cost $36,000 and her insurance would only pay for half because Seattle Children’s was considered on out-of-network facility.
She thought by going for the highest premium PPO gold level coverage offered the state exchange, a majority of the bill would have been covered.
“I’m paying a premium for that and I’m willing to pay that premium, but I expect to get services that are not so limited by the insurance companies,” she said.
Supporters of the president and of Obamacare will claim this is merely anecdotal evidence that the plan is not all that it is cracked up to be and that we should not cite one example as proof that the healthcare reform law is not working because for many the law is working.
However this might be symptomatic of a much larger problem which supporters of the law would rather not think about.
Middle School workbook teaches students guns must be registered according to the second amendment
Students in Springfield Illinois received a workbook about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The workbook lists the Bill of Rights with a brief explanation as to what those rights mean.
Here is how that workbook explains the second amendment:
“This amendment states that people have the right to certain weapons, providing that they register them and they have not been in prison,”
Of course we all know that this is not what the second amendment means, and the person or people who wrote this workbook know this as well, but rather what the anti-second amendment people wish, long for, and are actively working for, it to mean.
This is not surprising coming from the state which recently had its statewide concealed carry ban ruled unconstitutional, for they have simply moved on to the next phase in their plan–indoctrination of the youth.
America's Watchtower 