Former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, best known for his three presidential bids, offered warm words of praise for Ladar Levison who shut down Lavabit instead of working with the National Security Agency (NSA).

He's lost his main source of income. He's now effectively unemployed, Paul wrote supporters on Thursday. And now that his decision to shut down the secure email service Lavabit has created a media firestorm, Ladar Levison has become an even bigger target for our national security spy state.

Former Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico, who was the Libertarian Partys presidential candidate in 2012, compared politics to a reality show -- except that the actors are completely out of touch with reality in an email sent out to supporters on Thursday.

The Internal Revenue Service's decision to target tea party and other conservative groups created a lot of controversy earlier this year, but while most American voters believe the IRS broke the law, very few think government employees will be charged with any crime.

A new Rasmussen Reports poll found 53 percent of likely U.S. voters believe the IRS broke the law when it targeted tea party and other conservative groups, while only 24 percent disagree.