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WASHINGTON - Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., tangled on Tuesday with Secretary of State John Kerry over the administration's military action against Islamic State terrorists in Syria and Iraq.

Paul, a possible 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said Congress should have acted to declare war when the U.S. first carried out air strikes against the terrorist group in late September.

"The Constitution is quite clear that this responsibility lies with Congress," Paul said at a hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "For four or five months we've been derelict in our duty."

And, he added, "I think this president has been derelict."

The foreign relations panel is expected to vote Thursday on a draft "authorization for the use of military force," more limited than a declaration of war, authored by the committee's chairman, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

Paul and, it appears, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., are likely to propose an amendment that would be a declaration of war that limits military action to a year and bars the use of U.S. ground troops in most cases.

"Every day we've been on offense without Congress, we believe, is an unauthorized war," Kaine said. "I don't think we can wait until January or February."

Kerry, appearing before the lawmakers to discuss that authorization, urged lawmakers not to tie President Barack Obama's hands in prosecuting the fight in Syria and Iraq.

"It would be a mistake to ask for a declaration of war," said Kerry, a former chairman of the foreign relations panel. "A declaration of war has only been used against states."

"We are not going to war in the way we went to war in Iraq; we are not going to war in the way we went to war in Afghanistan," the secretary argued.

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Paul, Kerry spar over Islamic State, war powers

By Matt Schudel December 9 at 7:59 PM

Nathaniel Branden, who became a chief disciple and lover of the writer and libertarian lodestar Ayn Rand until a turbulent falling out led to his new career as a best-selling writer of books on self-esteem, died Dec. 3 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84.

He had complications from Parkinsons disease, said his assistant, Vivian Buentiempo-Johnson.

Mr. Branden was a 19-year-old college student in California in 1950 when he sent a note to Rand, the author of his favorite novel, The Fountainhead. She invited him for coffee.

I reached for the doorbell, Mr. Branden later wrote in a 1989 memoir, knowing without words and with irresistible certainty that nothing was ever going to be the same again.

He talked with Rand and her husband, Frank OConnor, through the night and didnt leave their house until 5:30 the next morning. He soon became part of Rands inner circle and one of her fiercest advocates. He changed his name from Nathan Blumenthal to Nathaniel Branden, deliberately incorporating Rand into his new surname.

After moving to New York, Mr. Branden and his young wife, Barbara, became devoted acolytes of the Russian-born Rand. The Fountainhead (1943) and another of her novels, Atlas Shrugged (1957), became seminal texts of an emerging school of thought that emphasized muscular notions of laissez-faire capitalism, self-interest and rational egoism, which might be described best by the title of another of Rands books: The Virtue of Selfishness (1964).

Rand scorned anything reeking of the communism she had seen during her youth in Russia. She was an outspoken opponent of taxes and welfare, which later followers made articles of faith in certain conservative and libertarian circles.

Mr. Branden helped develop Rands ideas into a philosophical construct that became known as objectivism. He organized meetings of Rands supporters in the 1950s, including Alan Greenspan, who later became chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. In 1958, Mr. Branden launched the Nathaniel Branden Institute, which presented seminars on Rands ideas around the world.

Mr. Branden was 24 when he and the 49-year-old Rand began an affair in 1954. Rand insisted that each of their spouses know of the relationship, but otherwise it was kept secret.

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Nathaniel Branden, lover and disciple of novelist Ayn Rand, dies at 84

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Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) more >

After disastrous midterm elections for Democrats, some progressives are looking to reboot the party by injecting it with fresh big ideas and already have secured the backing of powerful party leaders in their effort.

The 1 million-member Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) on Wednesday rolled out its Big Ideas Project, an initiative which calls on all Americans to submit issues that they think should be at the forefront of the national conversation heading into the 2016 elections.

Twenty-nine lawmakers, including outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and progressive darling Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have agreed to seriously consider the ideas and possibly incorporate them into new legislation.

The campaign comes after many progressives called out President Obama and other party leaders and claimed they failed to articulate a clear agenda before the 2014 elections, which resulted in devastating defeats for Democrats, including the loss of the Senate.

Democrats lost in 2014 because they failed to inspire Americans with bold ideas that would tangibly improve peoples lives. Since the election, weve been calling on Democratic leadership to remold their party as the party of big ideas especially bold, economic populist ideas like those Elizabeth Warren champions, said Stephanie Taylor, PCCC co-founder.

The organization will accept ideas through the end of December. After that, the PCCC says it will conduct polling and identify the 20 most popular policy suggestions and those will be submitted to Mr. Reid, Ms. Warren and other lawmakers for review.

Thus far, the submitted ideas include: automatic voter registration; demilitarizing police forces nationwide; ending secret grand juries for police prosecutions; national broadband; discharging student loan debt; single-payer healthcare; a financial transaction tax on Wall Street; and others.

In addition to Mr. Reid and Ms. Warren, other Democrats who have signed on to the initiative include: Sen. Jon Tester of Montana; Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York; Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota; Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota; Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida; Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas; and others.

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont also has signed on.

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Liberals seek to reboot Democratic party with 'Big Ideas Project'

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Head of State, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)

The national convention of the All Progressives Congress begins in Lagos, Nigerias commercial nerve centre, today (Wednesday).

The presidential candidate of the party will emerge tomorrow (Thursday).

More than 8,000 accredited delegates are expected to elect the partys presidential flag bearer who is to face President Goodluck Jonathan, the sole candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, in the 2015 general elections.

Five aspirants are ex-Head of State, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari; a former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar; Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso; Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, and the Publisher of Leadership Newspaper, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah. They are all vying for the partys sole ticket.

Already, supporters of Buhari and Atiku, the two leading aspirants, have appealed to the APC delegates to vote wisely.

Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso

Buharis supporters, under the aegis of Buhari Friends Organisation Network, at a press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, said todays (Wednesdays) APCs primaries offered a unique opportunity for party delegates to vote for change.

The spokesman for the group, St. Athanasius Okon, said Nigerians have not had it so bad since the return of democracy in 1999.

According to him, the nations economy is in a shambles while the ruling party carries on as if nothing is amiss.

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APC presidential candidate emerges tomorrow