Photo Credit: Getty Images By David Martosko.
A sustained noise that could best be called a hoot and holler greeted Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul at the mention of his name, before he took the stage at Friday’s Conservative Political Action Conference and declared that cell phone records sought by government agencies were ‘none of their damned business!’
By the time he launched into his blue streak against the National Security Agency and quoted Pink Floyd to criticize President Barack Obama, the overflow crowd of thousands sounded like Beyonce concertgoers who had stumbled into the wrong ballroom.
The crowd simultaneously drank it in and shouted it out, making Paul the star of the Conservative Political Action Conference’s second day and giving him – by far – the event’s loudest applause.
‘If you have a cell phone, you are under surveillance’ from the federal government, Paul warned in his biggest moment. ‘I believe what you do on your cell phone is none of their damned business!’
One group of partisans shouted ‘President Paul! President Paul!’ as he spoke.
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Photo Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesRand Paul Is the King of CPAC
By Sarah Mimms.
A year after his 13-hour filibuster won the hearts of young conservatives just a week ahead of the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference, the fandom for Sen. Rand Paul here has only grown.
Paul gave a speech Friday before the first standing-room-only crowd at the conference so far, asking a cheering audience, “Will you, America’s next generation of liberty-lovers, will you stand and be heard?”
Following his typical style, Paul’s speech focused largely on personal freedom, the Fourth Amendment, and rights he alleged are being usurped by the Obama administration, while avoiding the tricky topic of foreign policy, where his libertarian views are not as widely accepted by conservatives here.
Paul’s biggest applause line of the afternoon—the biggest applause line at CPAC so far—came during his discussion of what he perceived as President Obama’s failures, particularly at the National Security Agency. “As our voices rise in protest, the NSA monitors your every phone call. if you have a cell phone, you are under surveillance. I believe what you do on your cell phone is none of their damn business,” he said to loud cheers.
Paul continued an assault on Obama’s record, getting laughs when he asked how history will remember the president, and later quoting Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters in asking whether former supporters of the president now believed they had “trade[d] your heroes for your ghosts? … Did they get you to exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?”
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‘Reunited’ Tea Party activists mount battle against IRS at CPAC
By Barnini Chakraborty.
The IRS targeting scandal may have faded from the headlines of major newspapers, but Tea Party groups renewed their battle cry against the tax agency on Thursday as the Conservative Political Action Conference got underway.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, kicked off CPAC — the annual conservative pilgrimage just outside the nation’s capital — by telling a crowd of the GOP faithful, “We need to abolish the IRS.”
“By virtue of your being here today, tomorrow each and every one of you is going to be audited by the IRS,” he said.
Following his speech, a six-person panel discussion, titled “IRS Targeting Scandal: Protecting the Voice of the People,” served as a refresher course for the standing-room-only crowd packed into the Maryland meeting room.
The purpose, panelists told FoxNews.com, was to come together and share stories about what they say are abusive targeting practices of conservative groups at the hands of the tax-collecting agency.
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