Rand Paul MLK day outreach

[jmdrake]

Rand Paul has made some great strides in outreach to minority communities. In fact even harsh critics of his are having trouble staging their typical attacks when Rand Paul attacks the war on drugs and works for rehabilitation of felons.

See:
and



Rand Paul has reached out to blacks on police brutality as well.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/h-a-go...b_6209856.html



I believe it's time for the grassroots to help in this effort. And the best time to do this is less than 3 weeks away. I'm talking about Martin Luther King day. Now if you are one of those that dislikes Dr. King please do so in another thread! If you do so here I will put you on ignore and if you are on my friends list I will unfriend you. I'm that serious about this. Yes I've read whatever "evidence" you have on this issue as well as the evidence on the other side to refute it, and frankly I don't give a crap what you think about that. Either we are going to work together to make real inroads in a demographic that Rand Paul is trying to reach, or we aren't. Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

Now here are my specific proposals. I've done liberty outreach at MLK day marches before and I was always well received. One year I passed out the Alex Jones film "The Obama Deception." This year I believe that the outreach needs to focus more on the positive than on the negative. More pro Rand and less anti Obama. Obama is on the way out anyway. Solid attacks on Hillary Clinton are welcome. I saw this posted by another black friend on Facebook.



Here are the things a believe need to be highlighted.

1) The Rand Paul / Corey Booker R.E.S.T.O.R.E act. We need a flier with both their pictures on it, a brief explanation of the act, and hotline phone numbers where people can call their congressmen and senators to support the act.

2) Police brutality/militarization. We need a flier with quotes from Rand Paul and others on the right (like Mike Huckabee) talking against police militarization. We need quotes from Rand Paul speaking against police brutality. We need to highlight people brutalized by police that aren't being covered in the media like Kelly Thomas (white homeless man beat to death by cops) or the two white women that were cavity searched on a fake marijuana stop, or the black man that got shot at point blank range in the back, or the little black girl that got shot in the face from a wrong address no knock raid, or the white boy that got shot holding a Wii controller or Miriam Carey (black woman that got shot 6 times in the back by police in D.C.). Notice that I don't know the names of most of the victims of police brutality. That's my point. The media has picked up on Mike Brown and pushed his name over and over again. Eric Garner is known slightly, but not nearly as much. I wouldn't know about Miriam Carey or Kelly Thomas if it wasn't for this forum. We need to change that. Mike Brown cannot and should not be the poster child for police brutality.

3) The war on drugs. That fits well into points 1 and 2. We also need to add what Rand and Ron have said regarding racial disparity in the war on drugs. And we should highlight the recent evidence from states that have decriminalized pot that crime has gone down and drug use has not gone up. (In fact overall drug use among teens is down). Many blacks, while unhappy about the outcome of the war on drugs, still support it because they mistakenly believe drug abuse would get worse if the drug war was ended.

4) The wars in Libya and Syria. We need to highlight the fact that troops are being sent back into Iraq largely because Hillary destabilized Libya and Syria. Yes Obama was president and could and should have stopped Hillary's misguided foreign policy, but again he's not running anymore. She is. Louis Farrakhan said of Obama's misadventure in Libya "They made our brother a murderer." We should have a flier with Farrakhan speaking this words, Obama looking said, and Hillary and Dick Cheney grinning in the background. The idea is simple. Shift the blame for Libya onto Hillary. That's the real scandal of Benghazi. It never would have happened at all but for Hillary's meddling in and destabilization of Libya.

5) Economic empowerment. We need a flier quoting Tavis Smiley being forced to admit that blacks have lost ground economically since 2008. Then when need information on real reforms Rand is proposing, like empowerment zones, to fix the problem. Some quotes from blacks in Chicago upset at the democratic leadership and open to "Tea Party" ideas might be helpful as well.

Those are my ideas. I'd like to hear other positive ones. Also I can't do this by myself. I'm not a graphic artist. I suck at photoshop. I don't have a lot of time to devote to this but I will do what I can. This project needs a website as well (maybe multiple websites?). We need to pull together the relevant YouTube videos. (Maybe burn a DVD?) We need QR scancodes to point people to the websites and videos so they can get all of this on their mobile devices. And we need to collect email addresses of black people open to hearing Rand Paul's message.

That's all I've got for now. Stay tuned. Better yet give your (positive) input!

[Okaloosa]

Cool idea, make some flyers and get a PAC name on it or something like that and work to get these planned out and handed out throughout the country.

I would suggest making this about a bill or asking for support on an issue rather than trying to sell Rand. Kind of like making it more subtle.

[Todd]

ignorant lady that goes to "11" in the first video.

paraphrasing: I think it's exciting to see these issues brought up by two robust parties..... even though I may not be casting a vote for that party.

Translation: Politics is fun little game that gets me all orgasmic.... but I don't vote for the guy on the right.

It was a really good segment until that helped me remember I was watching MSNBC.

[jmdrake]

ignorant lady that goes to "11" in the first video.

paraphrasing: I think it's exciting to see these issues brought up by two robust parties..... even though I may not be casting a vote for that party.

Translation: Politics is fun little game that gets me all orgasmic.... but I don't vote for the guy on the right.

It was a really good segment until that helped me remember I was watching MSNBC.

I included the Melissa Harris Perry segment not to praise her but to show how Rand's outreach is already shaking up some of his harshest critics and explore how we can further shake things up. His ideas resonate. If not for the baggage he's still carrying over the Civil Rights Act comments, people like her would really have nothing legitimately negative to say.

It's interesting that in the second video, Arie Melber actually touched on the real issue regarding the Civil Rights Act which is there are all sorts of other areas where federal power and state power (and ultimately individual civil liberties) clash. Really rather than skirting the issue, I wish Rand would say something like "While I applaud the outcome of desegregation I'm concerned that the same power that was invoked for that particular provision of the Civil Rights Act was also used by the Supreme Court to uphold things I don't support like federal drug laws or federal gun laws. We had to have a constitutional amendment to prohibit alcohol in this country. Why is it right that the federal drug laws are seen as constitutional without a constitutional amendment?" I'd love to see the Rachel Maddow types trip over themselves o that one. But alas that's not the hand he played so we work with what we have.

[jmdrake]

Cool idea, make some flyers and get a PAC name on it or something like that and work to get these planned out and handed out throughout the country.

I would suggest making this about a bill or asking for support on an issue rather than trying to sell Rand. Kind of like making it more subtle.

True. That's why my point # 1 is.....

1) The Rand Paul / Corey Booker R.E.S.T.O.R.E act. We need a flier with both their pictures on it, a brief explanation of the act, and hotline phone numbers where people can call their congressmen and senators to support the act.

And maybe at this late a date one issue is all that can be covered. But I just about as strong regarding the other 4. (War on drugs. Police militarization/brutality, foreign wars, economic empowerment.)

[philipped]

I could've swore it was REDEEM not RESTORE?

[jmdrake]

I could've swore it was REDEEM not RESTORE?

You know what? You're right! And that's why I need help. This is too much for me to keep all straight in my head. Thanks!

https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-...nate-bill/2567
Introduced in Senate (07/08/2014)

Record Expungement Designed to Enhance Employment Act of 2014 or the REDEEM Act - Amends the federal criminal code to provide a process for the sealing or expungement of records relating to nonviolent or juvenile offenses.

Requires a court considering a petition to seal a nonviolent offense to balance factors including the harm of the protected information to the ability of the petitioner to secure and maintain employment.

Sets forth limitations on involuntary room confinements at juvenile detention facilities.

Amends the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) to remove offenses relating to possession or use of a controlled substance from the categories of drug offenses that result in the convicted individual being ineligible for assistance under: (1) a state program funded with temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) grants under part A of title IV of the Social Security Act; or (2) the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP, formerly the food stamp program) or any state program carried out under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008.

Prohibits the denial of such assistance and benefits if the convicted individual: (1) committed an offense related to a substance abuse disorder, (2) participates in a substance abuse treatment program, and (3) complies with all court-imposed obligations. Includes employment services among the categories of federal benefits that are not to be denied under PRWORA.

Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to allow the Attorney General, in awarding public safety and community policing grants, to give preferential consideration to an applicant in a state with laws similar to this Act.

I think outreach aimed at getting people to support the REDEEM act should be the priority. First order of business is to summarize the above summary so it fits on a glossy 3x5 card. Or maybe the card should be larger? I'm thinking front side picture of Rand Paul and Corey Booker, title of the act, URL and QR code to more information. Any other ideas?

[philipped]

You know what? You're right! And that's why I need help. This is too much for me to keep all straight in my head. Thanks!

You're welcome, no problem.

I think outreach aimed at getting people to support the REDEEM act should be the priority. First order of business is to summarize the above summary so it fits on a glossy 3x5 card. Or maybe the card should be larger? I'm thinking front side picture of Rand Paul and Corey Booker, title of the act, URL and QR code to more information. Any other ideas?

If you'll sacrifice a larger document a portion could be dedicated to potential applications to the bills passage?

[jjdoyle]

I'm currently looking through photos of Cory Booker, but could just use the one posted above of Rand and Cory if it is public domain?
I always use public domain photos, so there is never a copyright issue.

I was thinking for a flier to be 8.5x11, but the 3x5 size could work as well and it would get 4 prints per page. Something that allows a standard printer page to be used is what I am thinking.

Any thoughts on good pictures of Cory and Rand to use, while I continue searching?