Rand Paul’s eye-opening summer recess

[jct74]

Rand Paul’s eye-opening summer recess

By Ed O'Keefe
August 21 at 1:13 PM

SALAMÁ, GUATEMALA – Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) spent two and a half days here this week as part of a medical mission of roughly 70 surgeons, nurses, technicians and volunteers who shared the goal of conducting nearly 200 cataract surgeries and distributing nearly 8,000 pairs of eyeglasses.

It was an unprecedented trip – never before has a U.S. senator and potential future presidential candidate traveled so elaborately to a third world country as part of a medical mission.

An ophthalmologist by training who practiced in Bowling Green, Ky. before winning his Senate seat in 2010, Paul was one of several surgeons to perform free cataract surgery for hundreds of patients at a Lion’s Club eye clinic on the outskirts of the city -- a striking way to cast Paul apart from other Republican politicians who may one day seek to run for president.

The trip was organized and sponsored by the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah, which has an international outreach division conducting similar missions in several countries across Africa and Asia; the Hope Alliance, a Park City, Utah-based organization, whose dozens of volunteers distributed approximately 8,000 pairs of eyeglasses to local residents; and the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, which represents thousands of the world’s top eye surgeons. Paul paid his own way and had asked several political donors, including Donald Trump, to help pay for the travel.

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read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/08/21/rand-pauls-eye-opening-summer-recess/

[specsaregood]

This bit is interesting:


Paul departed Salamá Wednesday afternoon ahead of a scheduled visit with Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina on Wednesday night in Guatemala City. He was scheduled to leave Guatemala by plane on Thursday morning.

and this


Ahead of the trip, journalists had been promised that they would be able to file reports in real time, and use social media to document the senator’s work. Once they arrived, however, Paul’s aides told the media – and the doctors, nurses and other volunteers on the medical mission – that real-time use of social media would be banned due to unspecified security concerns. Anyone who broke the rules would be kicked off the trip.

It was unclear whether orders for a blackout had been issued by U.S. or Guatemalan officials, and aides declined to say who issued the orders. For a senator who is prolific on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, the blackout meant that his aides couldn’t transmit images or write blog items to distribute to supporters as planned.

[Brett85]

As Paul left for Guatemala last weekend, Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry, another potential 2016 presidential contender, was indicted by a grand jury on charges he abused his office and tried to coerce an elected official to resign. Despite past differences with Perry – most recently on military operations in Iraq – Paul sought to defend the governor against what he considers politically-motivated charges.

“You know, Travis County has a history of politically-motivated stuff,” he said of the county prosecutor’s office that sought Perry’s indictment. “They did it to [former House Majority Leader] Tom DeLay as well. I haven’t really read that much about it other than to think that you could be indicted for doing a veto? I don’t know how that could even pass the laugh test, really.”

There you go, TaftFan.