Rand Paul you are so fucking obvious. Are you that stupid as to think..

[busterbrown]

that your little scheme to capture young voters on the drug issue is nothing but a slimy scam..

Your States Right agenda is completely embedded with arch-conserative ideology.. It is highly doubtful that you actually care about minimum sentencing when in actuality you only care about your political ambitions.

Somehow your father fell into this issue and realized that it would be politically advantageous to look like a “cool politician" by back dooring legal support for prostitution, marijuana , and arguing against minimum sentencing... You have joined his sham and it is so freaking transparent...


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/23/rand-paul-cory-booker-festivus_n_4494614.html?ref=topbar

[blkmusclmachine]

1. It's all PR, nothing more.

[negoldie]

2. But wait there's more!

Here is a link to his op-ed in the Lexington Herald Leader yesterday (dec.23).
For the life of me I wonder how these guys get through college without their parents money or legacy. He/they are so full of themselves they think they know more than the next guy, which shows they are mentally stunted!



http://www.kentucky.com/2013/12/23/3002242/rand-paul-taxpayers-jobless-hurt.html

[Thor_MN]

3. Republicans don't speak the same language as the rest of us.

"Success" means businesses do well. Republics couldn't give a shit about employees.

"Good job" means a minimum (or lower) wage paycheck. Businesses succeed with low payrolls.

"Freedom" means business can fuck over employees, free of regulation.


They mean what they say, but what they are saying doesn't mean what most people think it means.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

20. And don't forget:

Businesses HAVE to keep their payrolls low or they will have to........wait for hit.........raise prices on their goods and services. Somehow, I doubt many Wal-Mart employees are ecstatic that their low wages keep prices low for consumers. Besides, if wages kept up, higher prices wouldn't matter, would they?

[Cosmocat]

10. Same with Paul Ryan

They are even worse than their parents - got things handed to them so they have the rich entitled kid thing going on AND actually BELIEVE the republican bullshit cause it was all they heard growing up.

[Sunlei]

4. breibart is reincarnated, just in time for Christmas!

don't eat the (R) mac n cheese, pulled pork and drink at ALL the free open bars..
it's not healthy for (R)zombies

[Gothmog]

5. His dad only appealed to a limited segment of the college population

Rand Paul is trying to appeal to the limited segment of the college population who supported his dad. Ron Paul had some success with some college age voters but his main success was with the idiots who follow Stormfront and other racist groups. Rand Paul is not going to appeal to college voters as a group other than the same small group who followed Ron Paul

[BobUp]

6. Oh I Hope

Gosh damn I hope he runs for president in 2016, it'll be like Caribou Barbie and John Mc Same act II.

[Cosmocat]

11. Yep

He will expand on his father's base a bit, but it there still is a limited appeal to his bullshit.

He is REALLY, REALLY gaffe prone. Anything can happen, but I suspect he will blow himself up in the Presidential.

He thinks he can be President, but the fallback is he continues to be the standard bearer for the "movement" and gets both the financial and ego stroking benefits that come with it.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

7. In fairness to Paul, legalization of marijuana laws is a standard libertarian policy

In fact, the Libertarian Party Platform goes farther, and calls for the legalization of all drugs.

Of course, the party takes it to a ridiculous extreme, calling for

the repeal of all laws prohibiting the production, sale, possession, or use of drugs, and of all medicinal prescription requirements for the purchase of vitamins, drugs, and similar substances; the repeal of all laws restricting or prohibiting the use or sale of alcohol, requiring health warning labels and signs, making bartenders or hosts responsible for the behavior of customers and guests, making liquor companies liable for birth defects, and making gambling houses liable for the losses of intoxicated gamblers

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

8. But so many even here on DU have fallen for this Ron/Rand Paul scam.

[woo me with science]

9. Easy fix for Democrats.

Stop the outrageous corporate war on marijuana and marijuana users. Stop pandering to the corporate One Percent with private prisons and draconian drug policies. Be the party that not only ends the outrageous drug wars, but also reins in Wall Street, restores our Constitution, reduces inequality, and STRENGTHENS social safety nets.

Third Way Democrats would not have to worry about fringe Libertarians at all if they would crawl out of their corporate Masters' pockets for long enough to own the issues they SHOULD own.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

12. Pay attention. Holder has said that he will not pursue state sanctioned marijuana

Statutes any longer. I believe this is a start. I am also grateful that the administration is finally starting to pat attention to disparate sentencing practices re: crack cocaine. The recent sentencing commutes, I think, were a good thing. We still have a long way to go on this issue. But let's not be confused: Ron and Rand Paul don't give a flying fuck about black people or the drug laws. They're using these issues to try and influence young voters...and because they're only phony Libertarians. True Libertarians would not associate with the Republican Party, care what I do with my body as a woman, or care what people do in the privacy of their bedrooms.

Ron and Rand Paul are ignorant racists, and anyone who follows them, I consider in that same boat.

[woo me with science]

13. No, *you* pay attention.

The Obama Justice Dept. was conducting marijuana raids as recently as *last month* in Colorado. They have been all over the map on this issue rhetorically, but their actions have been an embarrassment over and over and over again. There are midterm elections coming up, so of course we hear the old marijuana promises, again. And the promises won't hold. Again. You know why? Because Third Way Democrats are in bed with private prison corporations that depend on these authoritarian policies in order to meet their promises to shareholders.

Barack Obama is now looking forward to midterm elections of his *second* term in office. His *second* term. He has repeatedly promised to end the absurd war on marijuana. Yet the raids continued THIS NOVEMBER, five years into his presidency. Meanwhile, every other predatory Third Way policy I also mentioned in my post, all of which you ignored, ALSO continues full-force.

Libertarians don't get anywhere *near* the Presidency as a result of their fringe and cruel positions on the social safety nets and necessary social programs. Yet the Third Way is nevertheless pathetically desperate to focus on these fringe politicians, simply because they remind voters of other important issues - the wasteful, cruel drug wars and the neo-fascistic surveillance state - that Third Way Democrats have cravenly embraced in their zeal to kneel to corporations.

As I said before, all this whining about fringe Libertarians is absurd and pathetic when the fix for Democrats would be so easy:

Become the party that not only ends the outrageous drug wars, but also reins in Wall Street, restores our Constitution, reduces inequality, and STRENGTHENS social safety nets.

Third Way Democrats would not have to worry about fringe Libertarians at all if they would crawl out of their corporate Masters' pockets for long enough to own the issues they SHOULD own.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

14. Vote for the fucking racists if you want to. Don't complain to me.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

16. What do you think of this news?

Eric Holder Just ANNOUNCED A MAJOR SHIFT On U.S. Marijuana Policy

Jan 23 (Reuters) - U.S. treasury and law enforcement agencies will soon issue regulations opening banking services to state-sanctioned marijuana businesses even though cannabis remains classified an illegal narcotic under federal law, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday. Holder said the new rules would address problems faced by newly licensed recreational pot retailers in Colorado, and medical marijuana dispensaries in other states, in operating on a cash-only basis, without access to banking services or credit. Proprietors of state-licensed marijuana distributors in Colorado and elsewhere have complained of having to purchase inventory, pay employees and conduct sales entirely in cash, requiring elaborate and expensive security measures and putting them at a high risk of robbery.

It also makes accounting for state sales tax-collection purposes difficult. "You don't want just huge amounts of cash in these places," Holder told the audience at the University of Virginia. "They want to be able to use the banking system. And so we will be issuing some regulations I think very soon to deal with that issue." Holder's comments echoed remarks by his deputy, James Cole, in September during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill. Colorado this month became the first state to open retail outlets legally permitted to sell marijuana to adults for recreational purposes, in a system similar to what many states have long had in place for alcohol sales.

Washington state is slated to launch its own marijuana retail network later this year, and several other states, including California, Oregon and Alaska, are expected to consider legalizing recreational weed in 2014. The number of states approving marijuana for medical purposes has also been growing. California was the first in 1996, and has since been followed by about 20 other states and the District of Columbia. But the fledgling recreational pot markets in Colorado and Washington state have sent a new wave of cannabis proprietors clamoring to obtain loans and make deposits in banks and credit unions. The Justice Department announced in August that the administration would give new latitude to states experimenting with taxation and regulation of marijuana.

cont'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/marijuana-bank_n_4656145.html

I think it's good news, or at least a start. I don't think it amounts to evidence that Holder will be conduction more raids.

[sendero]

18. Pot legalization..

... will be widespread in a few years as states start to realize they are missing out on economic benefits of legalization.

Hell, when it gets legal here maybe I will revisit my youth

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

21. We're exploring here in Maryland. That's the next step...

[4dsc]

15. You would think its an easy fix for Democrats

but the party had too many prohibitionist within its ranks. You are very correct about our fail war on drugs too.

We need more candidates who are not afraid to speak their mind about legalizing drugs.

[sendero]

17. Not very familiar with Libertarianism?

This is one of their core beliefs, that the govt should have no say over personal decisions.

If you could take a Libertarian and excise and replace everything they believe about business and economics with something sane, I would be one of those.

[FSogol]

19. Something I'll always wondered about Rand Paul...

Is that a live or dead ferret on his head?

[Sunlei]

22. live!!