Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia will wait until post positions are drawn Wednesday to decide whether he will establish Bodemeister or Union Rags as the early favorite for the 138th Kentucky Derby.

“If Bodemeister has a bad draw, then it’s got to be Union Rags,” Battaglia told USA TODAY Sports. “And if Union Rags has a bad draw, it would be the other way around.” He noted that the rail would be an extremely difficult position to overcome with a full 20-horse field anticipated.

According to Battaglia, the early odds on either horse will not be lower than 4-1, yet another indication of how closely matched the top contenders are. That is music to the ears of serious handicappers who will wager equally serious money.

CONTINUED at USA Today.

An Exclusive interview, Alex Jones speaks with Sen. Rand Paul on NDAA, TSA undercover on Houston busses, Obama’s overall neglect of the Constitution, his possible impeachment and much more. This is a must see video.

The American Conservative Union (ACU) today announced U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R – KY) will address CPAC 2012 – the 39th annual Conservative Political Action Conference. America’s largest gathering of conservative leaders and activists will be held Thursday, February 9 – Saturday, February 11, 2012, in Washington, DC.  ACU also today announced invited speaker Congressman Ron Paul (TX – 14) will be unable to attend CPAC 2012 due to the travel constraints of his Presidential campaign.

“Senator Rand Paul is one of America’s most powerful advocates for small government, more freedom and traditional values. While we will miss Congressman Ron Paul, a perennial favorite among our attendees, we are honored to host Senator Rand Paul, a leader of the next generation of committed constitutional conservatives, at CPAC 2012,” said ACU Chairman Al Cardenas. “Next week, the American Conservative Union will host 2012’s premier venue for highlighting and advancing conservative leaders, principles and polices.”

Senator Rand Paul, M.D., lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he owned his own ophthalmology practice and performed eye surgery for 18 years. In 1995, Rand founded the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic, an organization that provides eye exams and surgery to needy families and individuals. Senator Paul is the author of the best-selling book, The Tea Party Goes to Washington. He is scheduled to participate in a book signing event at CPAC, and more details will be available soon.

Every year, the ACU brings thousands of grassroots conservatives and conservative leaders together in Washington, DC for three days of blockbuster speeches, policy discussions and networking opportunities – all celebrating the shared principles of smaller government, a strong national defense and traditional values. Based on this year’s theme, “We STILL Hold These Truths”, CPAC 2012 will feature grassroots training and strategizing to strengthen the conservative movement and ensure conservatives have the resources and tools necessary to defeat the Obama agenda in November.  You can now view the full CPAC 2012 Agenda at www.cpac.org.

CPAC 2012 features an all-star line-up that also includes former Governors Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Andrew Breitbart, Herman Cain, Ann Coulter, Senators Jim DeMint and Marco Rubio, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Laura Ingraham, Congressmen Jim Jordan, Steve King, Paul Ryan and Allen West, Michael Medved, former Senator Rick Santorum, Governors Bobby Jindal, Bob McDonnell, Rick Perry, Rick Scott and Scott Walker and many more.

The American Conservative Union is America’s oldest and largest grassroots conservative organization and was founded in 1964. The ACU has hosted CPAC in the Nation’s Capital since 1973.  Admission tickets and hotel accommodations for CPAC 2012 are going quickly.

Source: Conservative.org.

Critics say it proves Senator wasn’t being detained

Security video of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul’s run in with the TSA earlier this week has been leaked to a newspaper, and critics say it proves that Paul was not detained by the federal agency.

The footage, obtained by The Tennessean shows the Senator seated in a chair within a glass walled cubicle in the security area of Nashville airport after refusing to undergo a pat down.

As Paul talks on the phone, presumably to his office as he had stated in interviews, three TSA officials stand guard, along with police officers standing outside the cubicle.

The video then shows Paul later being escorted through the airport by an official. The footage represents about one minute of the incident which Paul said lasted over an hour.

The Senator is partially obscured by a column blocking part of the cubicle for some portions of the video. When asked why the camera would be set up only to be obscured by a column, airport spokeswoman Emily Richard told The Tennessean that cameras are “placed for the widest view possible, not a specific area.”

The airport authority and the TSA have declined to comment on the footage.

Watch the video below:

Although the report in The Tennessean points out that the footage contradicts a police report that claimed Paul was “irate”, critics jumped on the footage to suggest Paul over reacted and exaggerated the incident.

Max Read of blog site Gawker said he believes the video proves the Republican was “totally full of sh-t” when he called his spokesperson.

“I got a lot of mail, some of it syntactically and orthographically correct, disputing my account of Rand Paul’s full-of-sh-tness by referring to the dictionary definition of the word ‘detained.’” Read wrote.

“Here is my feeling: when your argument centers around ‘the dictionary definition’ of anything and involves the adverb ‘technically,’ you are full of sh-t. When you tell someone you are being ‘detained by the TSA,’ you don’t mean ‘sitting in a chair while they decide what to do.’”

Another blogger suggested that “the way Paul was treated (not a finger laid on him) doesn’t quite illustrate the harshness that word [detainment'] usually suggests.”

In response Paul supporters pointed out that just because Paul wasn’t shackled and pushed around doesn’t mean he wasn’t being detained by the TSA.

“‘Detained’ is a legal term that very much applies to this situation. It does not matter that he is not in handcuffs or behind bars; when a peace officer restricts your freedom to vacate an area through verbal instruction (the consequence of disobedience being immediate arrest for disorderly conduct), you are detained.” one commenter noted.

Following the incident Monday, Rand Paul told reporters “I tried to leave the cubicle to speak to one of the TSA people and I was barked at: ‘Do not leave the cubicle! So, that, to me sounds like I’m being asked not to leave the cubicle. It sounds a little bit like I’m being detained.”

——————————————————————

Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, andPrisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

Source: Prison Planet.

Sen. Rand Paul told his communications director this morning he was being detained by TSA at the Nashville airport.

The Twitter account associated with Paul staffer Moira Bagley, @moirabagley, tweeted around 10 a.m., ET, “Just got a call from @senrandpaul. He’s currently being detained by TSA in Nashville.”

A TSA spokesman said the agency was looking into the matter but could not immediately comment.

Paul apparently set off  an airport security full-body scanner “on a glitch,” a spokesman in Paul’s office told ABC News.

The Paul staffer said TSA agents would not let Paul walk back through the body scanner and were demanding a full body pat-down.

The Paul spokesman said his office called TSA administrator John Pistole about the incident this morning.

The Senate is back in session today at 2 p.m., with votes scheduled at 4:30 p.m.

The issue of pat-downs has been an important one to Paul, the son of libertarian-leaning Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. Sen.  Paul brought this issue up at a hearing earlier this year.

Source: ABC News. Video at link.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Rand Paul today announced that he is returning $500,000 to the United States Treasury – money unspent from his official operating budget. The total amount being returned is more than 16 percent of Paul’s original office budget. As far as is known, no U.S. Senator has returned as much to taxpayers.

“I ran to stop the reckless spending,” said Paul. “And I ran to end the damaging process of elected officials acting as errand boys, competing to see who could bring back the biggest check and the most amount of pork.”

At a press conference today in Louisville, Paul presented taxpayers with an “over-sized check” for $500,000, representing the money being returned to the Treasury.

“I hope this sets an example for the rest of government – at all levels,” said Paul. “We can carry out our duties in a fiscally responsible way. Government can be both smart and efficient. We are proving that – and trying to convince the rest of Washington.”

Paul achieved the savings while also having the most active office for a freshman in the U.S. Senate. In his first year, he introduced more legislation and amendments than any other freshman legislator, often teaming-up with fellow Senators to support legislation.

Paul has offered spending cut amendments to nearly every bill. And he has stood up for Kentucky, offering bills in support of the Commonwealth’s bridges and ports, and working to stop the Environmental Protection Agency’s war on coal.

Paul’s office was one of only three in Washington to produce an entire fiscal blueprint for the federal government, a promise he made while campaigning in 2010. His plan, introduced in the first few weeks of his term, would balance the federal budget in five years.

Paul also kept his promise to work to reform Social Security. His proposal, introduced with Sens. Lindsey Graham and Mike Lee, would fix the entire system for 75 years. Later this month, Sen. Paul will introduce a plan to save Medicare.

Source: Rand Paul’s Senate Site.

*Taken from Prison Planet. Written by Steve Watson.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul appeared on CNN last night to inject some sense into the latest stand off between Republicans and Democrats over government spending and the deficit.

In light of the fact that a government shutdown has been only narrowly averted once again, this time regarding FEMA funding, Paul noted that debating important issues seems to have been almost completely lost amidst a culture of partisan stand offs on Capitol Hill.

“American people are upset because we keep bumping up against deadlines. It sort of looks like poor planning or it looks like a circus up here because we always bump up against deadlines.” Paul told CNN host John King.

CONTINUED..

My Two Cents: In my book, this means he is doing something right. End Two Cents.

*Taken from the Raw Story.

The Southern Poverty Law Center included Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky in a list of “extreme right-wing” candidates in its latest Intelligence Report.

The civil rights organization labeled Paul as an extremist because he said that private businesses should not have to follow the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and has criticized the Fair Housing Act.

The freshman senator has also warned that the United Nations would force the U.S. to “CONFISCATE and DESTROY” all “unauthorized” civilian firearms and wants to build a massive, highly-guarded wall along the Mexican border.

The Southern Poverty Law Center also included U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce (R) on the list of extremists. Most of those on the list are prominent neo-Nazis, white supremacists, anti-government militiamen, and Klu Klux Klansmen.

The quarterly Intelligence Reports have monitored radical right hate groups and extremists in the United States since 1981.

*Taken from SF Gate.

A tornado touched down on the infield at Churchill Downs racetrack last night, damaging seven barns and a chapel, and freeing horses from their stalls at the home of the Kentucky Derby.

Live racing was canceled today at the Louisville, Kentucky, track, which hosted the 137th Derby, the first leg of thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown, on May 7, spokesman John Asher said in a telephone interview.

Racing will resume tomorrow and continue through the spring meet that ends July 4, according to an e-mailed release from track officials today.

“Several barns have been damaged, some substantially,” Asher said. “There’s a lot of debris, the power is out. We’re trying to make sure all horses are safe and humans are OK.”

CONTINUED..