Free Republic

en. Rand Paul (R-KY) appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room on Tuesday evening where he was asked to respond to former Vice President Dick Cheney who told Fox News Channel’s Chris Wallace that the junior Kentucky senator was wrong when he criticized the NSA’s surveillance programs. Paul tore into the Bush administration’s role in the establishment of the post-9/11 security regime, noting that he thinks it is possible to catch terrorists using methods consistent with the Constitution. Cheney told the Fox News Sunday host that Paul was incorrect in his criticisms of the NSA’s communications monitoring programs. The former vice...

Earlier this week, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) went on CNBC last Friday to debate the Glass-Steagall banking regulations that were adopted in 1933, and her proposal to update and strengthen the law in a way that would likely force the big banks to spin off some of their business and stop being so damn big. As you can imagine, CNBC is no fan of Glass Steagall, regulating banks, or Elizabeth Warren. During her appearance on CNBC, Warren basically kicked ass, the video went viral, with over 700,000 views in a matter of days, so CNBC pulled it. Here’s what...

"Islamic Awakening" was the Iranian establishment's term of choice for the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa that began in late 2010. Tehran described the unrest as a sign of the defeat of U.S. influence and of people's desire to embrace Islam. Now, the crisis in Egypt has posed a fresh challenge for Iran, sending it scrambling to explain how Egypt's "Islamic Awakening" went wrong. Tehran has so far said little about the crisis, with the Foreign Ministry calling simply for the Egyptian people's "legitimate demands" to be fulfilled and warning of "foreign and enemy opportunism." Iran’s...

Modest spending cuts that were put into place March 1 due to sequestration have mostly failed to result in the economic doom predicted by Keynesians. Now the defense industry is working to undo those cuts. Jeremy Herb of The Hill has reported on lobbying industries going up to Capitol Hill, redoubling their efforts to restore budget cuts: Cord Sterling, vice president of legislative affairs for the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), said his group is working to articulate the damage from the cuts that are now beginning to take hold. They remain hopeful that a fix is on the horizon. ......

Des Moines - While campaigning in Iowa on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul praised the Occupy Wall Street movement, comparing it to the Tea Party movement. "In many ways, I identify with both groups," Paul said. Both groups are fed up with problems in Washington and "the two-party-system," Paul said while speaking at an insurance company in Des Moines. Praising the left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement is an unusual move for a Republican presidential candidate, but Ron Paul is, of course, an unusual Republican presidential candidate. He jumped to first place in the Iowa caucus polls partly because of...

While campaigning in Iowa on Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul praised the Occupy Wall Street movement, comparing it to the Tea Party movement. "In many ways, I identify with both groups," Paul said. Both groups are fed up with problems in Washington and "the two-party-system," Paul said while speaking at an insurance company in Des Moines. Praising the left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement is an unusual move for a Republican presidential candidate, but Ron Paul is, of course, an unusual Republican presidential candidate. He jumped to first place in the Iowa caucus polls partly because of support from people...

Rick Santorum had his final rally tonight before Granite Staters start voting Tuesday morning in the first-in-the-nation primary. Supporters and press mobbed the candidate as he made his way around the packed restaurant and bar here. As he exited his final primary eve event, he was surrounded by a mix of protesters from the Occupy movement and Ron Paul supporters. As he walked out of Jillian’s in downtown Manchester, his staff surrounded him and the protesters tried to form a circle around the former Pennsylvania senator. They chanted, “Bigot, bigot!” and “Shame, shame!” as he made his way to his...

On Monday, militant Ron Paul supporters joined forces with Occupy Wall Street protesters to harass former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. Fox News reported that Gingrich was forced to cancel an appearance at his New Hampshire campaign headquarters when Ron Paul supporters and Occupy Wall Street protesters swarmed the entrance: About 40 protesters showed up Monday evening carrying placards reading "Ron Paul" and "Occupy." One played speeches by presidential candidate Ron Paul from a loud speaker. Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond says the former House speaker's private security detail decided to cancel the event because of...

UPDATE: Ron Paul told voters today that America's obsession with war is hurting the economy. Ron Paul is one of the few Republicans who said he agrees with both the Tea Party and Occupy protesters. The Republican candidate defended both movements at a Q&A session with Patch editors in Concord today. When asked about Occupy Wall Street, he said it was unfair to dismiss the concerns that are being expressed by the protesters. He added that, much like the Tea Party, there are always individuals who make the movement look bad. While he supports public anger towards government and banks,...

Last night’s CNN Republican presidential debate generated some new heat, but very little light on the issues conservatives and Tea Partiers really care about – the one exception being, and perhaps the most interesting exchange of the evening, was the discussion of the Occupy Wall Street protests between Congressman Ron Paul and businessman and former Federal Reserve Board Member Herman Cain. CNN’s liberal commentator Anderson Cooper posed to Herman Cain a question he received from Twitter, "How do you explain the Occupy Wall Street movement happening across the country? And how does it relate with your message?" Cain reiterated a...

Rep. Ron Paul is definitely the only Republican candidate who has displayed a degree of sympathy for the Occupy Wall Street protesters, and last night he proved it on a national stage by addressing resident Republican crazy man (one of many), Herman Cain.

Ron Paul spoke tonight at Keene State College, and as is being reported nationally, was “mic checked” by Occupy Keeneat the end of his speech. The occupiers said: “We are the 99%! We will be heard! There are criminals on Wall Street who walk free, there are protesters in jail…There’s something wrong with this system. We are the 99%! We will be heard!” He handled it graciously by smiling throughout and then by asking them if they feel better. He was also sure to point out his agreement with the Occupy Wall St. movement, saying, “I’m very much involved with...

Michael Gerson in the Tuesday Washington Post got it half-right: Occupy Wall Street was a big 2012 winner by defining the narrative that others ran on. Yes! You read it here first, long ago. Gerson then fell into the rightist trap claiming Obama wants to end capitalism. Nope! Too much rightist brew for Gerson. Occupy Wall Street was indeed a huge 2012 winner, defining the narrative of the winning party, while the discredited Tea Party crashed, Sarah Palin is reduced to marginal opining, Elizabeth Warren emerges as a champion, Romney's 47 percent insult was defeated by Occupy Wall Street's 99...

When one chooses to waste his valuable time on God's green (and not to mention cooling) earth by speaking to a Paultard, without fail, the following words will be spoken or typed: "Only Ron Paul....." "Ron Paul is the only....." The above lines are usually followed with an absurd claim, like "Only Ron Paul understands the Constitution!" or "Ron Paul is the only Republican candidate who can break Wayne Gretzky's scoring records while teaching Gordon Ramsay how to cook!". (Some of the more hardcore cultists would never take their political savior's name in vain and only refer to the old...

FedCLEVELAND, Ohio -- Speakers at an Occupy Cleveland rally near the Free Stamp in Willard Park said the movement was endorsed today by supporters on the left and the right, which tells them they are on to something. "The board of directors of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream said today they backed the movement," Chris Sobolewski told a crowd of about 200 people Saturday afternoon. "Then we learned that Fed Up USA, one of the founding groups of the Tea Party also support the movement. "I figure any time you can get a bunch of hippies who make ice cream...

I believe that Texas Congressman Ron Paul and his followers have good intentions. However, as any conservative can attest, having good intentions does not exempt a person from the consequences of his actions or views. Given that, by diverting and dividing the right at a time when we can ill afford to be distracted, the extremist views held by Paul and his merry band of libertarian Bolsheviks are very dangerous. Libertarianism is an important strand of conservative thought, and to have its principal representative at a moment such as this be as extreme a figure as Representative Paul is, in...

Jere Brower, his wife Clara, and his 4-year-old daughter Ana, have a very good reason to believe Texas Congressman Ron Paul when he said people view his supporters as "dangerous." The 38-year-old Atlanta man and his family have been targeted by militant Ron Paul supporters, one of whom threatened to "kneecap" him, then rape his wife and young daughter. Mr. Brower said he has also received death threats from supporters of Ron Paul. The trouble started when Brower and some of his Facebook friends decided to have a laugh over Ron Paul's ties to racist and anti-semitic groups. He wrote...

Ron Paul Is More Conservative Than Rick Santorum. By Joe Deaux 01/11/12 - 04:02 PM EST NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- During a Republican presidential debate Saturday, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum had a spat about who was more conservative as each clawed for blocks of Republican voters needed to topple front-runner Mitt Romney. According to a study done back in 2004 though, Paul was the more conservative of the two by a fairly healthy margin. A list put together at voteview.com found that out of the 3,320 individuals (1 being the most liberal and 3,320...

The website for "Campaign for Liberty", an organization started by "Republican" anti-Israel Presidential candidate Ron Paul, has, since late 2008, been featuring a page offering the opportunity to purchase the notorious forged anti-Semitic book The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. As word spreads of this, inevitably Paul's campaign will take down the page and claim the situation was a mere innocent mistake with which Paul (who of course hopes to lend his managerial skills to the entire nation) had nothing to do, a la the controversy over his newsletters in the 1990s. This of course despite the fact...

Texas Rep. Ron Paul (R) offered support for some of the Occupy Wall Street protests that have built up in lower Manhattan over the weekend in an interview Friday with Reason magazine, where he also denounced the “militarization of our police forces.” “If they were demonstrating peacefully, and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the Fed — I would say, good!” Paul said following a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire.Paul has long been an outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve, which he says manipulates American currency and is excessively secretive. Paul was asked by Reason...