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Subscribe to RSSYes, the 'Aqua Buddha' saga continues to, um, bubble.
The Washington Post's Greg Sargent caught up with the woman who anonymously accused Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul of 'kidnapping' her and forcing her to smoke marijuana while they were both students at Baylor University. The woman, who remains unnamed in the piece, said that the incident has been "blown out of proportion" and that she was "hazed" by Paul and a friend but not "forced" to do anything. From Sargent:
The woman -- who was made available to me for an interview by GQ reporter Jason Zengerle in response to the Paul campaign's denunciations of his article -- said she didn't mean to imply that she was kidnapped "in a legal sense."
"The whole thing has been blown out of proportion," she told me. "They didn't force me, they didn't make me. They were creating this drama: `We're messing with you.'"
The woman said that much of the subsequent coverage of her allegations missed a key nuance: As a participant in a college ritual, where lines between acquiescence and victimization are often blurry, she was largely playing along with the notion that she was being forced to follow Paul's orders.
"I went along because they were my friends," she said. "There was an implicit degree of cooperation in the whole thing. I felt like I was being hazed."
Yesterday, Paul disputed the woman's account on FOX News. "I absolutely deny kidnapping anyone, ever," he said. He did not elaborate on the veracity of the GQ's story's claim that he and a friend had been smoking pot and urged the woman to worship 'Aqua Buddha.'
"I'm not really going to try to go back 27 years to remember everything I did in college," Paul said yesterday.
Leave a Comment:
Not sure how it could have been blown out of proportion since the unnamed woman said initially that she was not forced to do anything. If it was no big deal, why did the woman mention the story at all--she did say she had nothing further to do with Rand Paul so it was a big deal. Sounds like spin from the Rand Paul group and the GOP--the "it was really nothing".
How Do ya know that the GOP is running scared as we get closer to November?
Just look at all the New RightWingTalibanBibleThumpingTeaPartier's coming to a so-called Left Leaning Blog! Just a couple days ago, they were Quoteing "Daily Kos".
Keepup the Good Work, Democrats & likeminded Independents.
Real America is paying Attention!
You Betcha!
Jody, Iowa "Not sure how it could have been blown out of proportion since the unnamed woman said initially that she was not forced to do anything."
It was blown out of proportion by the liberal media to try to pin something on Paul. Now that the truth is coming out, the media will try another tactic.
Who cares? Even though I can't stand Rand Paul, it's just another gotcha moment for the press who seem to be able to find nothing of any consequence to report on. Just gossip, innuendo, doom and gloom or gotcha. And you guys get paid to do this? Any blogger can do the same - just start something and watch it go.
Now what will MSNBC and liberals say today. They will probably go after the woman in question.
Bingo, John...
That's how this game is played.
The truth...?
Well, it would be nice to hear the truth...but it's not essential.
Sure - like Fox News never does this to the Democrats.
All mainstream media is crap. They all spin the news the way they want to.
The media is going to spin this according to the demographic they serve. Period. Did anyone ever believe he really "Kidnapped" her. They were partying and she was hot and they were in college. End of story. He has not said anything about the drugs and "AquaBuddha" though. He only denies the part that was not true.
This response changes my opinion on the subject.
Oh, I'm REALLY starting to like this. The Aqua Buddha was "blown out of proportion."
Inquiring minds want to know.
Well of course Paul's accuser now says the story was blown out of proportion. It's unknown whether she was paid to be quiet or threatened to be quiet. I think I'll believe the original story, before politics and the media became involved.
Interestingly some of the components of the story are not being denied. "Not kidnapped in the legal sense" Ok, but no one is denying that she was tied up, bound, and told to say things against her will.
There is still an element of secret societies, power and control, and being disrespectful to women. Dr. Paul is not certified to be an opthamologist, yet he accepts medicaid, a history of not supporting the civil rights legislation. tying and binding a woman. One can't help but wonder what unresolved issues are hiding within Rand Paul. As Anna Molly said, Inquiring minds want to know.
Get a life ,,, This is not even worthy of discussion. Secret socieiteis, etc etc etc references. YOu have got to be kidding! Are you intentioanlly trying to blow this further out of context. Ron Paul answered appropriately when he said he was not gonig to go back and try to recount my college days. Stick issues and forget all this crap!
Ron, re-read the article. Even after she clearly said she went along with it you use the phrase "against her will".
Money changes everything !!!
Off subject
Rick, Ky.....How far do you live from Louisa, KY?
20 miles.
So, Anonymous Woman, why open your mouth at all after 27 years? GQ made you say those things!
Those Southern Baptists really know how to party!
WTF?
ok,
so it was a stupid college hazing thing...enough!
how does this have anything with us getting our country back on track fiscally?
True.
So how does Sarah Palin have anything to do with us getting our country back on track fiscally?
I guess GQ got a college year book and finally found some one with a story. How many people remember 1983? I do not buy "I do not remember everything I did college", but this seems like one of those remarkable moments. "It was 27 years ago today" "SP taught the band to Play" " and the way she looked was way beyound compare"
$4 Trillion Bill
How can the fiscal gap be so enormous?
Simple. We have 78 million baby boomers who, when fully retired, will collect benefits from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that, on average, exceed per-capita GDP. The annual costs of these entitlements will total about $4 trillion in today’s dollars. Yes, our economy will be bigger in 20 years, but not big enough to handle this size load year after year.
This is what happens when you run a massive Ponzi scheme for six decades straight, taking ever larger resources from the young and giving them to the old while promising the young their eventual turn at passing the generational buck.
Herb Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under U.S. President Richard Nixon, coined an oft-repeated phrase: “Something that can’t go on, will stop.” True enough. Uncle Sam’s Ponzi scheme will stop. But it will stop too late.
And it will stop in a very nasty manner. The first possibility is massive benefit cuts visited on the baby boomers in retirement. The second is astronomical tax increases that leave the young with little incentive to work and save. And the third is the government simply printing vast quantities of money to cover its bills.
Rick694543:
Those are not possibilities, but realities, because they have already occurred. Second, there are unproven assumptions in the estimates, like how long will the average person live, immigration rates and birth rates. One thing for certain tax revenues will increase as the average income rises even without tax increases. Expect payroll taxes to rise, not as a percent but the ceiling or maximum taxable income. Also means testing for Social Security benefits and Medicare will probably be implemented. It is not a democrat or republican issue but a generational issue and I for one will not be the first one to volunteer to opt out, now that I have worked a lifetime and paid for those benefits.
Well said.
So instead of dealing with the hard issues, and electing someone who is at least honest about our fiscal responsibilities, lets all get worked up about Paul's college indiscretions - right?
...Fiddling while Rome burns.
I dunno, Rick. Your side gets worked up about strange conspiracy theories that involve Al Qaada developing time-travel technology, and then going back to 1961 to plant Obama's birth announcement in a Hawaii newspaper, because you think he was born in Kenya.
This story is pertinent because it shows typical right-wing hypocrisy. Rand supports locking up pot smokers at a tax-payer cost of $300,000 per year, per person, but he himself is a user of marijuana. In that regard, it is as pertinent as the dozen or so Republicans who have regularly voted against homosexual rights, only to be found acting as a bottom-boy for a brawny muscleman at some truck stop.
In other words, this story shows Rand to be a rank hypocrite who thinks he is entitled to a different set of rules than other Americans, just because he was lucky enough to be born to privilege.
And when are you R's gonna get over your fetish with aristocratic dynastic leaders. Didn't we fight a war against the English because we were rejecting the concept of divine birth right to those who consider themselves or betters?
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY?
We are F%CKED!
Please read this item from today's news:
The U.S. government spent itself deeper into the red last month, paying nearly $20 billion in interest on debt and an additional $9.8 billion to help unemployed Americans.
Federal spending eclipsed revenue for the 22nd straight time, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. The $165.04 billion deficit, while a bit smaller than the $169.5 billion shortfall expected by economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires, was the second highest for the month on record. The highest was $180.68 billion in July 2009.
The government usually runs a deficit during July, which is the 10th month of the fiscal year. So far in fiscal 2010, the government spent $1.169 trillion more than it made. That figure is about $98 billion lower than during the comparable period a year earlier.
For all of fiscal 2009, the U.S. ran a record $1.42 trillion deficit. Fiscal 2010 might run a little higher—the Obama administration sees $1.47 trillion.
Wednesday's monthly Treasury statement said U.S. government revenues in July totaled $155.55 billion, compared with $151.48 billion in July 2009.
Spending was higher, totaling $320.59 billion. July 2009 spending amounted to $332.16 billion.
Year-to-date revenues were $1.75 trillion, compared with $1.74 trillion in the first 10 months of fiscal 2009. Spending so far in this fiscal year is $2.92 trillion, versus $3.01 trillion in the prior period.
Spending for benefits for the unemployed year to date totaled $121.4 billion; for July, the tab was $9.8 billion, the Treasury statement said.
Years of deficit spending by Washington have led to a mounting national debt. Interest payments so far in fiscal 2010 amount to $185.25 billion; by contrast, corporate taxes collected by the government during the same 10 months were $139.71 billion. Interest payments in July alone were $19.9 billion.
but he DENIES IT.
He didn't say that she was a friend and cooperative. no he says "he never kidnapped" anyone.
By now, don't you think these guys would know the coverup is worse than the crime?
WHAT??? The media inflating a story for sensationalism? Oh NO! Say it isn't so! ROFLMAO
It is amazing how we all get caught up in the game of politics that has been played by opposing both sides for centuries. The only diference is that technology has made it faster and more vivid but the effect is the same. Who gets fooled; the people; who get hurt the people. Everybody is running as an outsider but remember everyone that is an incumbent was once an outsider and the day the current outsider reach DC They too will become insiders. Be a student of history. those who go to Washington to change it get change by Washington. Rand will also because Washington is an organism and and institution that is bigger than the individual. There are many people that go to Washington and all they do is vote yes depending on where the wind blow. l
I figured the liberal media would do like they did to Bush and wait til a few days before the REAL election in November to release a story designed to damage him. Idiots. Dan Rather, call your office!
When will the media learn? Everybody wants a scoop, but nobody wants to check the facts. I'm not a Paul supporter; I suppose that if I lived in KY, I would be opposed to him and his politics, but this is just plain mean-spirited and stupid!
This shows the hypocrisy & intellectual retardation of Libertarians. When this story came out, what was the first thing Rand Paul did? Threatened to sue the magazine - not a very libertarian position, isn't free speech supposed to trump all others? I mean, this is a guy who thinks businesses should have the libertarian right to violently remove blacks from their businesses, but investigative journalism should be illegal - if it's about him, I mean.
The second thing he did was say this was typical of how politicians are persecuted, and held to a double-standard. Doesn't sound very Libertarian to me, to believe that politicians are not treated with enough respect in our society. Again, I guess these ideological views he holds only apply to other people. Of course, considering that his Father used to regularly refer to MLK as a "coon" in his newsletter, it's no surprise Rand is such a moron.
I also bet Rand will be flat-out too chicken to even debate Conway. When you're own party is keeping you locked up, and won't allow you to speak to anyone who doesn't work for Fox News, it usually means there is something they want to hide.
Even though if this was a democrat and the republicans would attack this at all times. Paul has a point, college is a time of having fun. This shouldn't be held against him.
Well if "college is a time of having fun," and that definition includes smoking a lot of weed - Don't use that as an excuse if you're stated position is that todays college kids should be thrown in prison for smoking weed.
I would give Rand more sympathy if he would say, "Ya know, lots of people do wild stuff in college - so lets legalize grass. I've used marijuana a lot, and I turned out OK, and never deserved to be locked up at wild tax-payer expense. Let's just legalize the weed and the mushrooms and nitrous, so college can be a time to have fun for these kids, and they won't have to worry about being arrested."
But you know Rand will never say that. Because he wants the rules to be different for those of us who don't have daddy's in Congress.