Sen. Rand Paul (R- Ky) has been filibustering Obama’s nomination of John Brennan as CIA head over the administration’s recent declaration of having the unilateral ability to use drone strikes on [non-combatant] American citizens on American soil. Sen. Paul, along with others, are not satisfied with the administration’s (AG Holder in particular) repeated ambiguous nature and resistance to give a firm “yes” or “no” reply to their question(s) of Constitutionality. This has come about after the DOJ’s “White Paper” on such drone strikes was recently leaked to the media.
Sen. Paul has been going at it since before noon (ET) and has been joined by Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, Pat Toomey, John Cornyn with other GOP Senators continuing to enter the ongoing filibuster, and even democrat Ron Wyden. (Don’t confuse that as bipartisan. THAT only happens when one republican joins the democrats.)
Also, given the Department of Homeland Security’s and the DOJ’s slippery slope of putting certain ‘patriot-leaning’ Americans/groups on their terrorist watch list(s), we must ask for the Obama administration to clearly define what they would deem as “combatant”… and enemies.
By the way … Am I the only one finding the blinding broad thread of irony in this
filibuster over the CIA’s/military’s ability to kill an American citizen via
drone strike on this soil without due process/jurisprudence v. the same
administration’s insistence of treating actual Islamic terrorists as “American
citizens” under the US Constitution, and given the full extent of American
jurisprudence??
Recently I took flak from conservative friends over the freedom and ability the Obama administration not only feels it is entitled to in order to make drone strikes on American citizens (technically) overseas on foreign soil, but is supported by conservatives simply under the reasoning of those Americans in name only forfeiting their rights when they turn against the country. I argued the old “give an inch, take a mile” practice I feared this administration would fundamentally transform such a program to include Americans (of their sole-discretion) on American soil … and here we are. And not lost in all of this ‘defining’ of possible enemies of the state, is the current thrust to take away our Second Amendment rights and our guns. By the way, there might be a drone for that too.
While my jury is still out on Sen. Rand Paul, I must admit to being overjoyed somebody in the GOP, especially the outnumbered GOP in the Senate, has had the balls to do something like this.
The Sen. Rand Paul filibuster of John Brennan is being carried live on CSPAN2 or can be watched here.
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