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Senator Rand Paul is holding a filibuster on President Obama’s refusal to deny he has the authority to kill Americans on American soil without due process.
In a rare, traditional filibuster, Sen. Rand Paul vowed to speak on the Senate floor “as long as it takes” to draw attention to his concerns about the Obama administration’s policy regarding the targeted killing of American terrorism suspects.
The Kentucky Republican took to the floor before noon Wednesday to block an expected vote on the nomination of John Brennan to lead the CIA, with aides saying he could continue for hours. Paul, beginning his remarks, said he would continue “until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important.”
“Are we so complacent with our rights that we would allow a president to say he might kill Americans?” Paul asked. “No one person, no one politician should be allowed … to judge the guilt of an individual and to execute an individual. It goes against everything we fundamentally believe in our country.”
On Twitter: #StandWithRand #Filibuster #RandPaul
Update 9:10 EST: Tweet of the night? From FDL alum DDay.
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Thanks for getting a short post up to mark 8 hrs. Who knows how much longer he will be going? It is after 8 pm EST.
I’m going to have a post on this tomorrow—some of the key statements, reactions, etc, and I’ll also highlight how he read part of what I wrote yesterday into the record.
Saw that. Great stuff.
Harry Reid is trying to stop the Rand Paul filibuster against the wars and assassins. Harry Reid wants a SHILLIBUSTER, where Senators are muzzled.
Aqua Buddha has a long way to go to break into the top five in the longest filibuster department.
Who knew that Senator Pothole, Al D’Amato, holds down the #2 spot?
Who knew? I’m a Rand Paul supporter.
Whoa D’Amato did 23 hours? I knew he loved the sound of his own voice…
In response to DSWright@10
And the reason for the filibuster was classic D’Amato: he was angry that the bill that would cut off funding for a jet trainer plane built by a company hedquartered in New York State.
Obama and Holder want to have the power to put any Americans against a wall. Then shoot them and keep it secret.
I just luv Glennzilla… Progressives: how dare this distinguished nominee, who expressly advocated “enhanced interrogation techniques”, be impeded!! Needs Moar Dronz…! ;-)
Rand Paul and His Father Ron Paul are Ayn Randian – John Galt Privatization Nuts… Starve the Beast (Destroy Social Aspects of Government) Cretins. They are also male Chauvinists.
BUT Rand Paul is right to fillibuster and he is right on the merits of his argument.
Sometimes Progressive Ideals and Those of Teabagger Wingnuts intersect.
This is one of those cases.
Not a good day for the Assassinator in Chief but then maybe he’ll have a delightful dinner with his Republican colleagues.
You do know that Holder made his legal “bones” defending American corporations accused of intimidating and assassinating union organizers in Central America? Whether Republican or Democrat, they all have fascist sensibilities.
*heh* Quite the twit being twatted about… Brennan RT @emptywheel Don’t forget participated in illegal wiretap program, helped CIA set up NYPD spooks, & learned to lie from Slam Dunk…
Holder is “soft” corrupt. He is just a “fixer” and bagman. His career is based on his legal signing off on corruption, torture and assassination. Lanny Breuer, and Holder also gave legal protection for Mortgage Fraud.
Would Aqua Buddha filibuster a President Mittens? Of course not.
If this country had any principles, politicians like Obama, Holder, Bush, Cheney and various others would be tried, convicted, removed from office and lawfully executed. That would put an end to this shit.
Of course he wouldn’t but anything that “slows down” and undermines the Assassinator in Chief is for the common good. There are times when the interests of the left, the teabaggers and the “people” intersect. This is one of those times.
OK, I’ll bite. I saw that Wyden sent along a message of support. Where is Bernie? Sherrod Brown? Boxer? Cardin? Yeah – nowhere to be seen.
Maybe they were invited to Obama’s bacchanal this evening with the Republicans.
Rand Paul! Why am I supporting you! Why can’t you Dems extricate yourselves from the evil that which is the O. I wan’t my party back.
Correct. On this issue, I completely support Rand Paul.
I hope y’all fb’d or tweeted, Glenn, hippo birdy wishes today…! ;-)
The Assassinator in Chief has all but destroyed the “Democratic” Party.
Bernie Sanders has his heart in the right place but sadly he’s all sound and fury amounting to nothing.
Rand Paul quoted you?
That brought a smile to my face.
I think very highly of both of you.
For all the crap Rand Paul takes here, I want to believe that he’s like his father. Most members of Congress disagreed with Ron Paul on a host of issues. But they never said he was disagreeable. And they always said he was principled.
Perhaps I’m overstating the case, but in the present day, I think we need people of principle. So few in Congress have strong principles. They usually wait until a particular leader votes, then follow like a herd of lemmings.
Why does it take a GOP Senator to push back on this? Or, where the hell are our DEMOCRATIC WHORES in the Senate on this issues?
It was a bucket of fun explaining to my 12 year old the “legal” opinions and evasions of Holder/Obama. Drones above America-a very special late night. She said it sounds like a dystopian novel. That’s what all those books are for, I guess, polishing up on the future. Also has to know why her parents get so darned worked up over politics. Because it matters, you know. Can’t believe I have to look to the man from Kentucky to speak about my liberties. Where are the Dems? Oh I know- congratulating themselves for something.
The Dems are pining away for having not been invited to Obama’s feast with his Republican “colleagues.”
Independent Bernie Sanders, all sound and fury amounting to nothing. What his country needs are true revolutionaries.
End the ubiquitous and eternal “War” on Terror by repealing the AUMF and I bet the legal justifications for extra-judicial killing goes away along with a lot of other unsavory practices by our government. When you are at war and everywhere is a battlefield and anyone can be the enemy, any act can be rationalized as necessary for national security, whether rightly or wrongly – Bush/Cheney taught us that. We keep acting like we are at peace but we are really still at war.
I give props to Rand Paul for actually taking the floor for his filibuster and for shining a light on a very real problem for our country but I doubt he’s willing to take the steps necessary to actually do anything about it.
Actually, he spent a good bit of time criticizing Bush today.
Both parties are getting it today from Paul.
Yup, and rightfully so!
Bernie Sanders likes being in Congress.
Another waste of space.
Agreed! We’re watching Paul and friends, and nary a democrat in sight.
The Democrats are completely and utterly craven, like their president.
And to think I voted for Al Franken. Yuk!
Yeah, Laura could pack up the paints for good.
Play rough but play fair. Ron Wyden has joined Paul during the filibuster, asked DoJ the same kinds of questions that Paul wants answered, and was just on Rachel speaking up. Lazy name-calling doesn’t get us anywhere.
Yes exactly.
Progressives should think about filibustering like this. Lets watch how popular a Randian nutcase gets for trying to prevent the gummint from droning its own citizens.
NO matter what you think of Rand Paul on any other issue, he is 100 percent on the money correct on this one and deserves the 100 percent support of all progressives fighting this.
I watched Wyden’s question time. IMO, it is overstating the case somewhat to say he was there offering support. Threading the needle would be my description.
He essentially offered praise to Paul for being worried about the issue. Then he proceeded to assert Holder’s memo seemed plenty clear and should be interpreted as providing the promises Rand Paul was seeking. Wyden concluded by turning it into a question along the lines of “Why isn’t this good enough for you?”
I’m not sure exactly what his objectives were. Either he was lobbing Paul a soft-ball that provided the context to respond to an argument being made by Obama’s supporters (which Paul did well) … or he was there legitimately promoting the argument. I’d like to believe the former, but my gut instinct tells me the latter is probably more accurate.
Rand Paul lost a lot of his father’s followers in the past year with votes he’s taken and his actions.
He wants them back and he needs them back if he is going to run for president.
And they will go back. They have no one else since his dad retired.
Ted Cruz is giving Paul a break???
This could go on for a long time if the petty demagogues jump on the bandwagon
There are times when the interests of the left, the right and the “people” intersect. Stopping the current Assassinator in Chief is that time.
If his heart’s in the right place, his votes certainly don’t reflect that; nor do they show that he has the courage of his convictions. In fact, I have to question if he even HAS convictions, or he just likes to SOUND like he’s principled…
Myles Hoenig:
CODEPINK@codepink
OhHh @TedCruz gives shoutout to @CODEPINK! Admittedly we are not card-carrying members of the Republican party, but we #StandbyRand on this
Kewl. The country needs more coalitions of principle like this.
Wow.
Rand is back to speechifying…
Wha? Marco Rubio now up.
Fuck. These Repubican jerks are filibustering, and progressives are completely absent.
BTW, how old is Marco Rubio, like 10?
That Dayen tweet is full of win, as are a few of his other ones for tonight. Thanks for the heads up. I’m going to add that one to my post.
I would never have imagined that Rand would/could ever be right.
I must warn people. The Tweeterverse is hazardous due to 140 character messages supporting and opposing World Domination Robot Assassinations.
But if we all close our eyes. And together imagine a world without John Brennan as Chief CIA Assassin. We can send out these positive vibes. Our psychic positive energy helped get rid of Bloody General Petraeus leading the CIA spies. Dump Spymaster Brennan.
Sen. John Thune speaking now…
Seems like these R guys are starting to notice that Rand Paul’s standing up and speaking on the floor has gotten some positive feedback.
I agree. If Rand Paul is willing to stand up against War Criminal Obama who assassinates US citizens, then I’m supporting Rand Paul in this case.
Guess Wyden said a few things, but where is the laughingly called “Progressive Caucus”?? John Brennan? And nary a peep? Figures.
Bernie Sanders is worse than useless. A wolf in sheep’s clothing with his tongue up the butt of Wall St.
You know, if some Democrats (besides Wyden’s questioning) would care to join this effort, it would be almost like America again. People who disagree on economic issues coming together on civil liberties issues, and taking the (shocking!) stand that Der Fuhrer can’t kill us all at a whim.
But apparently the “D” after many senators’ names stands for “Drone”. Sigh.
And yes, I’ve known Bernie Sanders was full of shit since that inane “Bernie-Buster” in 2010, when he spoke against the Obama-Republican tax deal for 8.5 hours but didn’t actually filibuster it. “I’ll act as if I were standing against the bill…without actually taking any steps to block it. Kabuki, Vermont-style!”.
Over 12 hours
Great. Sending sustaining vibes to Rand Paul! Hope he stands firm.
Will be interesting to see how the propoganda media handles this.
Will be interesting to see what the craven shills in the D party have to say.
Assassinating US citizens. Great. John Brennan for Chief Torturer. WTF.
I do not need to like Rand Paul, I do not need to agree with him ever, before or after this.
But here I agree with him and I salute him.
We, the American people, need a whole lot of light to shine on the murky workings of the CIA in general, and targeted assassinations in particular.
One hell of a lot of light.
I will carry water for Rand Paul, or anyone else that joins this fight.
D stands for Don’t count on me to represent you.
Totally Agree. Will anyone else have the Stones to do the correct thing like Rand Paul??
Pat “Sock it” Toomey points out that considering all the noise the Democrats have made about indefinite detention, that assassination is obviously worse.
Durbin follows by bringing up the “well, wouldn’t shooting down Flight 93 on 9/11 have been ‘using lethal force’? See, there are allowable circumstances!” nonsense. Sure, it’s a thorny problem…if you can’t tell the difference between active self-defense of innocents being threatened, and planned assassinations of U.S. citizens because they are allegedly “key figures” in al-Qaeda.
Paul says “we all agree you can repel an imminent attack…Overseas the standard seems to include people who are not actively engaged in combat…I don’t think that should apply in the United States.”
“Targeted killings of people in a restaurant or a house or a hotel is not something we can tolerate.”
“There are no exceptions to the 5th Amendment for American citizens on American soil.”
“I think that the 9/11 or Pearl Harbor [scenario] is a red herring.”
Damn I wish I could type faster. Or that Obama and his O-bots were not so damn evil.
Seriously, I hope there’s a transcript. Paul needs to be quoted at length here.
Durbin drops by to try to deflect. Wouldn’t it be less embarrassing just to say nothing like the rest of the Dems?
Drones are festering boil on the buttocks of humanity. History will not look favorably on Obama. The Nobe Peace Prize needs to be rescinded.
Ha! Now, Ron “not the former Giants running back” Johnson (R-WI) is using Paul’s filibuster as an opportunity to condemn the Senate as dysfunctional and denounce the filibuster in general.
So, apparently the Dems have an anti-filibuster vote among the R’s. But apparently they’re not interested in filibuster reform. What a shocker!
(Johnson is now making inane “Federal budget = family budget” deficit hawk silliness. But hey, if it prolongs the filibuster, I guess he can read the collected ‘Twilight Saga” into the record, if he wants.)
X2
Paul calls Senator Dean Heller (R-NV), “the gentleman from Arizona”. Hey, it’s understandable; Heller’s a new guy. Maybe he should wear a nametag?
If someone wants to read all of the 50 Shades of Grey multitude of crap + knock-offs, I’m all for it if it cont the filibuster. I would bet that both Ds and Rs are pissed at Rand Paul. After most all of the Ds & Rs work for the 1%. Paul is the only one not kissing the ass of the MIC.
DSWright – If you can, you need to make this post sticky. We can make a difference. But only on occasion. This is such an occasion.
I despise Rand Paul. I believe him to be using this for his own purpose. But…..
Ha! Ted Cruz’s “terrorist sitting at a cafe in Virginia” frame would be funny, if it weren’t so pathetic that Holder ducked it three times by saying “it wouldn’t be appropriate”.
Cruz says that his and Paul’s proposed legislation banning the assassination of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil absent an imminent threat should pass the Senate 100-0. It’s very rare that a Republican gets a “Duh!” from me, but yeah.
And now Cruz goes after the “but what about Seal Team Six? Didn’t they have a right to kill bin Laden?” deflection by saying that if bin Laden had been asleep in an apartment in Chicagoland, then no, sending in the drones would be wrong, even though he was Teh EVOL Osama bin Laden. And again, “duh!”
Sigh.
Heheheh. Yep. Nevertheless…
I hope you are not saying Bin Laden should not have been killed?
Probably. But there are only so many chances like this. Rand Paul’s power is limited but more than yours or mine. United we stand etc. there are times for coalitions. This is one of those times.
Well we’ll never actually know the truth of how or when UBL died. Did Seal Team Six kill UBL?? Or was it someone else? Or did that raid even happen?? We’ll never know the truth.
Not a Paul fan, but on this issue he has it right. I stand with him on this one and wish him luck.
It’s too bad that Democratic knuckleheads aren’t standing with him.
I clicked on the link just in time to see Paul finish up, with loud applause from the gallery, continuing past the first several attempts of the chair to shush them. No one picked up the baton from Paul and the filibuster ended. Bleepin’ useless Democrats.
Ugh! I feel like I am being dragged into this thing.
Sure you are right. But I believe it happened about like in the movie.
Cruz said he shouldn’t have been killed if he was sleeping in bed in Chicago. The Constitution says person, not citizen.
Moment of silence for Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.
He would have been a fugitive. Surrender or die.
Damn! Well that’s that & Brennan’s in like Flynn. Shit.
We’ve discussed the movie before. I’m not convinced that they got UBL. Think he was toast already. But machts nichts now.
Exactly. These guys just talk shit. Absofuckinglutely useless for those of us liberal and/or on the left. Fuck them. Let’s take whatever tiny victories comes from whomever.
The dems are dead to me.
Leon Panetta, the then head of the CIA, in the news conference following the OBL assassination, said:
Why was he assassinated rather than captured. He was a CIA creation and thus a treasure trove of disclosure. Should he ever speak in an American Court.
There was only one possible sanctioned outcome. His quick demise.
If Bernie Sanders had his heart in the right place he would have supported this filibuster!
Meanwhile not a peep out of the so-called progressives over at C&L. Not yet anyway. Give them till tomorrow to suck it all up then spew out a trusty Obamabot blather point.
I support the Pauls (more so Ron)on a variety of issues. I support Sanders on a variety of issues. It is possible to be outside the left-right paradigm. It can happen people, you can be independent in thought and nature. Quit falling into the “nutbags” versus “all us wonderful people” view.
Oh BTW there are plenty of progressive wingnuts and nutjobs.
Apparently this GOP Senator believes in the Constitution, as for everyone else – meh, who knows?
If I understand your double negatives correctly, no Bin Laden should not have been killed. He should have been arrested and put on trial.
But….but….
TBogg, progressive hero, sayz more Dronez?
I don’t think Seal Team Six killed UBL. I’m more inclined to believe Benezir Bhutto – who was most conveniently assassinated – that UBL died a long time ago.
Frankly, if we’re gonna talk about Bigelow’s effe mess of a “movie,” it’s certainly NOT clear-cut that Seal Team Six killed UBL. The movie’s is b.s. torture porn propoganda. Yet it is *interesting* how really inconclusive it is about WHO was actually killed in Abbotabad.
Go figure. But I agree: IF UBL was truly in that compound, and IF the Seal Team Six got into it, THEN UBL should have been captured & brought to trial. There was no cause to kill UBL.
That’s one of the numerous reasons why I don’t believe Seal Team Six “killed” UBL. There may have been other Al Qaeda operatives killed in that compound, but we’ll never know the truth. That’s for damn sure.