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According to a statement by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, he is planning to propose a bill that would suspend the US government's aid to the Palestinians. The proposal is said to be a response to the reconciliation between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas-led Fatah and Hamas, which is the militant Islamist group that currently rules the Gaza Strip. Moreover, Haaretz said that the proposal also follows the warnings issued by key Congressional appropriators Nita Lowey and Kay Granger, who has voted to cut off financial aid to the Palestinian Authority in the wake of the Palestinians' warming to the militant...

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, is introducing a measure this week that would cut off all future U.S. aid to Palestine if the country does not recognize Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign nation. The rival Palestinian entities Hamas and Fatah recently announced a unity agreement, causing Israel to pull out of peace talks with the country — a development that signifies “both danger and opportunity to the peace process,” Mr. Paul said. “Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with an entity that does not believe it should exist and that has used terrorist tactics to seek its end,”...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who spoke Saturday at the Maine Republican Convention, was the big winner in the party’s straw poll. Paul took 26 percent of the vote, to 14 percent for the second-place finisher, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). With 690 ballots cast at the convention in Bangor, the order of finish was: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.): 176 Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas): 98 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: 70 Dr. Ben Carson: 62 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 60 Jeb Bush: 57 Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.): 37 Mike Huckabee: 28 Condoleezza Rice: 26

Your initial reaction to this idea may be one of disbelief. There’s no way society would accept such a device. Why would anyone want to implant this in their body? Consider for a moment where we are right now. For decades Americans rejected the notion that they would submit to being tracked or recorded. Yet, just about every American now carries a mobile phone. They’re so prevalent, in fact, that many consider it a “right,” prompting the government to actually provide subsidies to those who can’t afford one on their own. Embedded in every one of those phones is an...

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has a 5 percentage point lead in Colorado over Democrat Hillary Clinton in a possible 2016 presidential matchup, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. "The road to the White House has many twists and turns, but right now, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is the man to beat in Colorado," said Tim Malloy, the poll’s assistant director. Colorado is often a swing state; President Barack Obama won it in 2012 with 51.4 percent of the vote. The Quinnipiac survey, released Thursday, showed Paul, a Republican, up 48 to 43 percent. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie...

The Nevada rancher, who wondered if “Negro people” weren’t “better off” as slaves in a New York Times interview, is now blaming the perception that he’s racist on Dr. Martin Luther King for not finishing “his job.” This latest comment took place earlier today during an interview on CNN. [Scroll down to watch.] Bundy said he didn’t understand the bipartisan outrage over his recent comments. “I took this boot off so I wouldn’t put my foot in my mouth with the boot on,” Bundy said. “Let me see if I can say something. Maybe I sinned, and maybe I need...

“Maybe I sinned and maybe I need to ask forgiveness. Maybe I don’t know what I actually said,” Bundy said Friday, when asked to defend his opinion that black Americans would be better off as slaves. “I took this boot off so I wouldn’t put my foot in my mouth with the boot on,” he told CNN’s Chris Cuomo, suggesting he was ready to back down and strike a more conciliatory tone. But that hope was short-lived as Bundy soon dived in to criticize people for being too sensitive.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry provided Russia with a stern warning Thursday evening — start complying with the de-escalation agreement brokered last week in Geneva, or face the wrath of new U.S. sanctions. Kerry delivered a terse statement from the State Department's briefing room late Thursday, during which he blasted Russia for not taking a "single step in the right direction" toward de-escalation. He criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for what he called outlandish claims that the Internet is a "CIA plot."

Ukraine's military launched assaults to retake rebel-held eastern towns on Thursday in which up to five people were reported killed, a move Russian President Vladimir Putin warned would have "consequences". The offensive sent international tensions soaring and oil prices up on the prospect of Russia making good on its threat of a massive response in the ex-Soviet republic. In Slavyansk, a flashpoint eastern Ukrainian town held by rebels since mid-April, armoured military vehicles drove past an abandoned roadblock in flames to take up position. Shots were heard as a helicopter flew overhead, and the pro-Kremlin rebels ordered all civilians out...

The state of Colorado has swung from a solidly Republican state over a decade ago to a Democratic-leaning state in recent elections. If Republicans want to take back the White House in 2016 they must appeal to nontraditional GOP voters in states like Colorado, and Rand Paul is the only candidate with potential to do so. According to a new poll from Quinnipiac University, libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul is the only potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate to lead Hillary Clinton in the battleground state of Colorado. While big GOP donors and other establishment forces have questioned Paul’s electability, opting instead...

Excerpt of the face off between Rand Paul and David Axelrod at the University of Chicago: RAND PAUL: Education historically was a state and local subject and I think that what we've seen is since we've spent about a hundred billion dollars in the Department of Education each year and that's been going on since 1980. I'm not so sure we're better off than we were before. You see, the one thing -- DAVID AXELROD: So you would vote for a budget that would eliminate most of that. RAND PAUL: Well what I would do is I would have its...

The Republican National Committee has released a brutal memo on Senate majority leader Harry Reid, savaging him for repeatedly lying. The memo, under the name of press secretary Kirsten Kukowski, is titled "Nothing’s Too Unethical for Harry Reid." "Harry Reid is having a bad month," the memo begins. "He was caught funneling campaign money to his relatives. His Senate Majority PAC was caught lying to voters. And he was caught hypocritically accepting money tied to people he calls 'un-American.' As he desperately clings to power, is there anything Harry Reid won’t do to promote his own self interests?"

Tea Party candidate Curt Clawson won the Republican primary in the special election seat to replace Rep. Trey Radel, R-Fla., who resigned after pleading guilty for cocaine possession, a victory that the Tea Party Express is claiming as "the movement's first victory of 2014." Clawson received 46 percent of the vote, according to Naples News. “The results tonight were clear, Curt Clawson's Tea Party message of economic growth and fiscal responsibility resonated with the voters of Southwest Florida," said political strategist Sal Russo of the Tea Party Express, which was one of the first Tea Party groups to support Clawson....

Over at NPR, Liz Holloran's latest piece on Sen. Rand Paul's efforts to loosen the Democratic Party's lock on black votes included some positive feedback from a prominent African-American leader: "He's a different voice in the arena that we don't traditionally hear," says Lorraine Miller, acting head of the NAACP, who expects to invite Paul to speak at the organization's July national conference in Las Vegas. "He's an engaging guy — that's why we want to talk to him," Miller says. Miller is not the only black leader who has been intrigued by Paul, whose father, former Texas Rep. Ron...

At a prominent conference of education innovators, Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is considering a 2016 presidential run, called for more guest worker programs and a path to amnesty for all of the country's illegal immigrants. Speaking at what is known as the "Davos in the Desert" event in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Monday evening, Bush said the United States needed "robust guest worker programs" and an expansion of H1-B visas for the high-tech industry," even though the notion that there is a shortage of American high-tech workers has been called a myth. He also called for a "tough but...

After a tit-for-tat series of delays, the United States conducted an Open Skies Treaty intelligence flight over Russian territory on Monday, a State Department official said. The spy flight originally was scheduled for April 14 but was canceled by Russia after a U.S. team for the flight failed to arrive near Moscow on time and Moscow refused temporarily to reschedule it. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman also expressed anger on Monday over U.S. delays in certifying a new high-tech Russian aircraft to be used for spying missions over the United States

The campaign for Scottish independence appears to be gaining ground, according to new polls. With five months to go before the referendum that could lead to Scotland leaving the UK, the gap between the yes and no camps has narrowed, suggesting a two-point swing could be enough to secure independence on 18 September.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) criticized the federal response to rancher Cliven Bundy, becoming the first GOP 2016 presidential hopeful to weigh in on the issue. Paul slammed the federal government’s show of force in the dispute, which culminated in a standoff at Bundy’s ranch between police and his supporters, including armed members of militia groups. Bundy is refusing to pay grazing fees for his cattle, which for decades have grazed on federal land. Paul sided with Bundy in that fight, arguing that Nevada and local authorities should control the land.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called for “calmer heads to prevail” in the showdown between the Bundy family and the federal government. Paul chided Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) for calling the family and their supporters “domestic terrorists.” “I don’t think calling people names is going to calm this down; I think its liable to stir it up, so I think all parties including Sen. Reid should calm the rhetoric a little bit. Let’s try to have a peaceful resolution to this,” Paul said during an interview on Fox News Thursday night. Paul added that he believed that the Endangered Species Act...

Slavyansk (Ukraine) (AFP) - An operation by Ukrainian forces to reassert control over its eastern regions floundered Wednesday in the face of pro-Russian resistance, a day ahead of international talks on the escalating crisis. A concerned NATO said it planned to deploy more forces in eastern Europe and called for Russia to stop "destabilising" the former Soviet satellite, which has been in deep turmoil since the ouster of the pro-Kremlin leadership in February.