Rand Paul Endorses Big Government & Spying Advocate, Maine Senator Susan Collins Rand Paul is at the Maine GOP convention this week and showed a bit more of his true colors when he endorsed big government honk and domestic spying advocate, Senator Susan Collins.From BenSwann.com:

Senator Rand Paul provided the keynote address at the Maine GOP Convention this Saturday. Sen. Paul spoke before a packed house, excited to hear from the likely Republican Presidential candidate. What surprised some of the crowd and simultaneously delighted others, however was when Paul endorsed long time Maine Senator Susan Collins.Speaking to the Portland Herald Press minutes before taking the stage, Paul said, “I whole-heartedly endorse Senator Collins for re-election. I think she is doing a great job for Maine and for the country.” He went on to say that he was unaware of her stance on the NSA saying, “I don’t really know, exactly, what her position is on the NSA; you’d have to ask her about that.”...

Clearly, Paul knows her record - but as we have seen time and time again, Rand is cozying up to the GOP and abandoning his liberty principles. Endorsing this woman, who stands for so much that violates our basic rights is a punch in the gut to his current (and ahem...former) supporters. Collins' voting record:

• She voted YES on extending the PATRIOT Act’s roving wiretaps in February of 2011.
• Voted NO on requiring a FISA court warrant to monitor US-to-foreign calls. (Feb 2008)
• Voted YES on removing need for FISA warrant for wiretapping abroad. (Aug 2007)
• Voted NO on preserving habeas corpus for Guantanamo detainees. (Sep 2006)
• Voted NO on requiring CIA reports on detainees & interrogation methods. (Sep 2006)
• Voted YES on reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act. (Mar 2006)
• Voted YES on extending the PATRIOT Act’s wiretap provision. (Dec 2005)...

She has also supported the stimulus packages, the Internet sales tax and a variety of other rights-infringing offenses.Tennessee Cop Chokes Restrained, Unresisting Student Unconscious This is a story that raises bile in my throat. At the University of Tennessee a raucous party celebrating the end of finals spilled into the street, eliciting a police response. As a photographer documents, a cowardly TN cop with two others at his side proceeds to place his hands around the throat of the student, who is standing still and not resisting with his hands cuffed behind him, and chokes him until he falls unconscious.

During the brief moment his wrists were uncuffed, Dotson let his arms fall by his sides.As two officers twist his arms behind his back, another deputy walks in front of the young man and wraps his hands around his neck.The disturbing sequence of shots show the 22-year-old appear to lose consciousness, his knees buckling as he sinks to the ground, while the deputy continues to choke him or activate a pressure point that renders him unconscious.The officers behind Dotson fiddle with his handcuffs even as he's being choked.When the young man was unconscious, the police picked him up and the officer who choked him slapped him around the head a few times before walking off, reports Messner.

You can view all the enraging photos here at the Daily Mail.These "peace officers" need to be fired and tried on criminal charges. A badge should not be a shield that protects these cowards from justice. We'll keep tabs on this and update as we can.It's no Kelly Thomas case, where Fullerton, CA police beat a homeless man to death, but it is this type of person in power, who think they are above the law, who present one of the most dire threats to life and liberty.Iowa GOP Boots Liberty Faction The Liberty Crier has reported the unfortunate news that liberty is dead in the Iowa GOP party, as all of the officials that were elected during Ron Paul's run via "hostile" takeover have been ousted by the mainstream evangelicals.

Iowa is the first state to fully strip power from liberty-movement followers who led a charge on state parties in 2012.Today, mainstream and evangelical conservative Republicans named 16 new members to the board that oversees the party machinery. Voting took place at the Republicans’ four district conventions.The turn of events means the GOP in Iowa, the state that gets first crack at presidential voting, will now be aimed at building a bigger, broader party that is more focused on electing candidates and less focused on pet liberty-movement issues like police checkpoints, raw milk or getting rid of the Fed, party insiders said.“Fascinating,” national politics watcher Larry Sabato said when the Register outlined the news. “This is the biggest development yet in the backlash to Paul-ite control. It will give energy to similar efforts in other states.”

It remains to be see if this will effect Rand Paul's forthcoming Presidential run in 2016, as Iowa could have provided a key staging ground.  While the liberty faction would surely still be Rand friendlier than the current gaggle of conservative politicos, all of the man's moves as of late have played into the GOP mainstream, and he's no enemy to evangelicals.Read The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!