Rand Paul's chain-saw approach to federal regulations, and why it's coming back to bite him
Sometimes Rand Paul's anti-regulatory mouth gets him into trouble. Earlier this election season, he got into hot water with miners for suggesting the federal government shouldn't be involved in mine safety. He then later said he still "thinks miners, mine operators and mine regulators in Kentucky know what works best to keep Kentucky miners safe."
The problem is that state by state regulations, or lack thereof, create lax loopholes in the law big enough to drive a truck through. I don't doubt Rand "I'm not for the Civil Rights Act" believes that racist state legislators and officials knew what worked best when it came to voting laws, too.
So Blue America friend AmericansForAmericaPAC is going up on the Kentucky airwaves about it:
This ad is running on WXCC "Coal Country Radio" in the eastern Kentucky and in Madisonville, not far from the tragic disaster in the spring that killed 2 miners – which inspired Paul to say "Accidents Happen". According to the AP, there are 18,000 miners in Kentucky- plus their families and friends. AmericansForAmericaPAC is raising on ActBlue for it here.
This plays in Kentucky. Yesterday, the Lexington Herald-Leader just endorsed Jack Conway for Senate. Note the third paragraph:
Since riding the Tea Party wave to victory in the Republican primary as a relatively unvetted candidate, Paul has spent the summer and early fall revealing himself to be quite the ideologue who's long on simplistic slogans but short on understanding the drastic consequences of adhering to those slogans.
What came across as refreshingly candid in the spring proved to be distressingly extremist when Paul was pressed on issues ranging from civil rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
As a senator, his mission would be a chain-saw massacre of federal government that lays waste to farm subsidies, education spending, mine-safety regulations, federal aid in fighting the scourge of drugs and numerous other programs of significant benefit to Kentuckians.
Not only is mine safety a critical issue, but Paul's chain-saw approach to all regulations is winning support for Conway. Radio ads being among of the cheapest forms of political communication, $10 or $20 goes a long way. Blue America's partners at AmericansforAmericaPAC are taking every dollar and putting it into production and the buy- believe it or not, the admaker, a longtime colleague of mine, is actually working on the buy down the hall from me as I'm typing this. You can chip in here to keep reaching Kentucky miners.
For Halloween?
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Isn't Rand Paul already a confirmed fraud? Impersonating a doctor? What's going on here? What's the real story? BTW - Matthews is using his every opportunity to refer to him as a Doctor.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
C**ks****r
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
live in a dream world. while we all would like to believe that rights are "granted by god", the truth is that society decides what rights you will have. if people like rand paul and his ilk get what they want, they won't like it, as there will not be enough government to protect their property from the masses.
lots of people take lots of stuff for granted in this country, but none more so than the upper classes and the apparatchiks that make their oppression possible. i guarantee that the oligarchy is playing these people for suckers; randian paul may imagine himself to be a mover and shaker, but if the truth were known, the owners of this country would let him in the servants door, maybe. it is getting to be decidedly not funny with all these hideously ignorant tools running around blabbing their pie in the sky free market bullshit.
The only rights granted by God are the right to breathe and to think. The fact is, if you look at history, the default position is not personal freedom, it's at least oligarchy and often totalitarianism.
It takes a tremendous amount of intelligence and pluck to remain free and to make freedom work for everyone. The thing so many Libertarians -- "I've got mine, Jack" -- always seem to forget is that there are responsibilities that go with a free society.
CaliforniaMike blogs at All Voices and at his own blogs, http://www.mikerappaport.net/onevoice and at http://oneminutewithmike.blogspot.com.
I watched the debate...and while r. paul is a complete clown...much like his father, his competition is a real idiot as well.
Too bad HE, the dude with the d after his name, didn't spend time discussing the issues...but instead acted like a spoiled brat taunting rp with his nauseating accusations of his acting like a dumb ass college clown when he was in college, some thirty years ago. What a fool as well.
We need more Kucinich's, Grayson's, Feingold's, Wyden, DeFazios..... Until we find them and get them to sacrifice their fortunes and futures...we'll end up with these sorts of losers.
chainsaws.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
The more humane,"liberal" end of the ruling-class spectrum isn't much better:
"In this piece, Cohen describes his unhappiness at the fact that, unlike in Chicago or Manhattan, he cannot find someone to bend down before him and shine his shoes in Paris. He writes: “Search Paris high and low for a seat to kick back and se faire cirer les bottes: you’ll search in vain. There’s something about the idea of having someone stooped at the feet of a client, applying polish to his or her boots, that rubs the Gallic egalitarian spirit the wrong way. It’s just not what 1789 was about.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/coh...
He's 10 points ahead in the polls and will run away with it.
Rather depressing.
that might have been coming their way in 2012 this race would not be close.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
When there are stockholders and a profit motive, safety concerns go out the door. "Must keep stock prices up!" Individual rights and safety are ignored. Only an outside group (that is, the government) can step in and force these people to think in other terms, and if all companies have to abide by the same regulations, then it's a level playing field.
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