Rand Paul Promises to Shut Down NSA Data Center if Elected President

Desperately trying to remain relevant as he sinks in the polls, the amazing shrinking candidate Rand Paul has vowed to close down that massive NSA data storage center in Utah if he becomes president. Paul has proven to be an enormous disappointment to many who saw in him someone who would take a stand to restore our lost civil liberties and reign in the American Stasi and the surveillance of millions of law-abiding Americans. At this point it is hard to believe anything that comes out of Senator Paul’s mouth because he has spent all of his once bountiful political capital by flip-flopping, compromising and engaging in acts of Clintonian triangulation to the point where it is hard to tell where he stands on anything anymore.

Paul’s comments were reported by the website The Inquisitr in the story “Rand Paul Promises to Shut Down NSA Data Center if He Becomes President”:

Republican Senator Rand Paul has been one of the few vocal critics of the U.S. government’s spying programs. He’s the only presidential candidate that has made NSA spying a central topic of their campaign.

NSA spying is so important to Rand that he’s promised to shut down the NSA data center if he becomes president. After he stops the indiscriminate collection of Americans’ data, he’ll convert the data center into a “Constitutional Center” where the Fourth Amendment will be studied.

“I’m on my way to the airport, but we decided to stop by the NSA facility in Utah. When I become President, we’ll convert it into a Constitutional Center to study the Fourth Amendment! Bulk data collection must end!”

Questions of whether the spying programs were unconstitutional have been swirling since 2013 when Edward Snowden made details about the programs public. Snowden is the NSA contractor who copied large amounts of classified documents onto a thumbdrive and leaked the information to journalists.

For those that are bothered by the NSA spying programs, Paul seems to be the only candidate that would work to stop it. For the Senator, it’s a major problem that affects virtually all Americans.

Last year, Paul filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration over the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records. Paul hoped that his class-action lawsuit would bring the issue of bulk collection of phone records to the Supreme Court.

Paul also staged a filibuster to delay the renewing of the Patriot Act, which authorizes bulk data collection. He was only partially successful in his efforts. While Congress decided to let the Patriot Act expire, they replaced it will a very similar bill. The new bill, the USA Freedom Act, put a few more restrictions on how the government conducts its spying.

The federal government's snooping on Americans is indeed a travesty and a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment but it isn’t going away – especially after a federal appeals court just put the kibosh on a lawsuit brought against it's illegal spying on a technicality. The game is rigged and when it comes to controlling the NSA the horse has long since run off and it’s too late to close the barn door now. 

Talk is cheap, especially to Rand Paul who continues to be a disappointment to those who supported his father who was a man of deeply held principles unlike his flaky son with the hairdo that resembles Woodstock's nest. You can file this latest one of his promises under the moon is made out of green cheese category.

More Trouble for Rand Paul as Super PAC Head Gets Indicted by Feds

The woes for Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul continue to mount as the head of a super PAC raising money for the Kentucky Senator has just been indicted by a federal grand jury. There has perhaps been no bigger disappointment than Paul in these early stages of the 2016 race for the White House and there have been reports of discord within his organization as well as a death spiral in the polls. It wasn’t long ago that Paul was seen as being the face of a new Republican party who had the crossover appeal to lure young and minority voters to the GOP to build a dominant coalition that could prevail for decades.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the future when Mr. Paul betrayed his earlier convictions to become just another cynical waffling flip-flopper who in trying to appease those who would never support him anyway alienated those who found him to be different. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Senator Paul’s latest troubles are chronicled by Politico in the story “Head of pro-Rand Paul Super PAC Indicted in Payment Scheme”:

Sen. Rand Paul’s presidential campaign and its allies struck a defiant tone Wednesday, calling the Justice Department’s indictment of a longtime Paul confidant “suspiciously timed” for the eve of a presidential debate, while declining to address the substance of the charges.

“Senator Rand Paul is disappointed that the Obama justice department chose to release this just prior to the highly anticipated first Republican presidential debate,” said a campaign spokesman, who asked not to be identified. “It certainly appears suspiciously timed and possibly, politically motivated. Additionally, these actions are from 2012 and have nothing to do with our campaign.”

The confidant, Jesse Benton, was indicted Wednesday on charges that he bribed an Iowa state senator in 2011 to shift allegiances to Paul’s father, Ron, then a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Benton has recently been helming a super PAC supporting the younger Paul’s 2016 presidential bid.

Benton’s lawyers went further than Paul’s campaign, calling the charges “character assassination for political gain.”

“Jesse Benton, a prominent conservative Republican, has cooperated with the government during its multi-year investigation. That this indictment is now suddenly announced on the eve of the first Republican Presidential debate strongly supports our belief that this is a politically motivated prosecution designed to serve a political agenda, not to achieve justice,” his attorney, Meena Sinfelt, said in a statement. “Mr. Benton is eager to get before an impartial judge and jury who will quickly recognize this for what he believes it is: Character assassination for political gain.”

A call to Benton’s cellphone revealed that his voicemail box was full. He did not respond to an email request for comment.

And perhaps it is politically motivated, the Obama occupying government has certainly used it’s power to go after political foes in the past, most notably by unleashing the IRS against conservative tea party groups and the police state goons against the Occupy movement . But this has the appearance of more sloppy work by the Paul organization and yet another serious error that could end his run before it really starts.

Blaming the feds for the indictment of Jesse Benton smacks of the same type of distasteful whining that Paul displayed when he carped about all of the media coverage that was being given to Donald Trump and thereby depriving him of the attention that he feels he is deserving of. I always liked Ron Paul, whether you agreed with the old man or not you had to at least admire that he stood on principle and had a set of stones to go along with it. Too bad that the junior Paul hasn’t embraced his father’s legacy rather than run away from it, the apple has fallen very far from the tree in this case.