(OT) 13-Hr Filibuster Over, Rand Paul Happy with AG's Answer

After ending the filibuster 13 hours later, Attorney General Eric Holder sends a letter that says,

Dear Senator Paul:

It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: "Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?" The answer to that question is no.

Sincerely,

Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Weekly Standard says everyone but Senator Paul himself have received the letter.

According to CNN, Paul says:

"I'm quite happy with the answer," the senator from Kentucky said on CNN. "I'm disappointed it took a month and a half and a root canal to get it, but we did get the answer."

Well I'm not. Because it is still the President who happens to be sitting at the White House who will decide what "combat" is. By the ever "wider" definition being adopted by this particular administration of what "terrorism" may mean, "combat" could mean a protest against the president's policy, or intention to protest.

"If we let him/her, he/she might commit a terrorist act, so we preemptively eliminate him/her", or something along that line. And people will go "Oh.. OK... I guess you're right."

Some media outlets like MSNBC reported on the filibuster with a disdain, but failed to mention Senator Paul is asking about the US drone attack INSIDE the United States. As if it is totally OK to use it outside the US.

In Pakistan and Afghanistan, people were killed by the US military drones in their weddings and funerals. Are weddings and funerals "combat"?

Well Rand Paul is not his father, that's for sure.

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(OT) Rand Paul Begins Talking, Filibuster to Stop John Brennan from Becoming CIA Director

(UPDATE) There seem to be at least three other Republican Senators doing the filibuster with Paul (Kentucky) - Jerry Moran (Kansas), Ted Cruz (Texas), and Mike Lee (Utah). They are doing the Questions and Answers routine among themselves, which is very intelligent and informative back-and-forth. This is very interesting.

Now they're talking about Alamo and the Constitution.

New face: Democratic Senator from Oregon Ron Wyden joined. He says he is in favor of Brennan, but he is dead set against the executive branch's unchecked power in target killings.

Marco Rubio (Florida) joins.

Saxby Chambliss (Georgia) joins.

Well-orchestrated filibuster, it looks like.

Patrick Toomey (Pennsylvania) joins.

==================================

C-SPAN is carrying it live. I wonder how long he can speak. I think he should also read books by Bastiat, von Mises, Rothbard, Hayek to his fellow Senators. That should last a day or two. He can read his father's books, too.

According to the media, filibuster talk in the Senate doesn't happen very often, and it seems to have gotten more attention from the media than the letter Senator Paul received from Obama's Justice Department chief Eric Holder that it is legal to strike Americans with unmanned drones inside the United States, without trial, as long as the president thinks it necessary under "extraordinary circumstance".

From Washington Post (3/6/2013):

Rand Paul begins talking filibuster against John Brennan

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) began speaking just before noon Wednesday on the Senate floor in opposition to the nomination of John Brennan to lead the CIA, saying that he planned to speak “for the next few hours” in a rare talking filibuster.

Paul, who strongly opposes the Brennan nomination and the Obama administration’s use of unmanned aerial drones, becomes the first senator to make use of the procedural tactic in more than two years and the first to do so since the Senate approved a bipartisan rules reform package in January.

“I will speak until I can no longer speak,” Paul said. “I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court.”

Paul began his filibuster at 11:47 a.m. Eastern time. Around the one-hour mark, he acknowledged “I can’t talk forever” and said his throat was getting dry.

At the start if the 1 p.m. hour, Paul was the only senator on the floor. Just 30 people watched from the Senate gallery above while a few security guards, stenographers and Senate pages held their appointed spots on the floor. In the rafters, a man responsible for operating the Senate television cameras was seen reading a newspaper.

Paul’s comments from the Senate floor come as he’s raised objections in recent weeks. Paul first threatened to filibuster the Brennan nomination in late February, when he sent a letter to administration officials asking whether the U.S. government would ever use a drone strike to kill an American on U.S. soil.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. responded to Paul’s inquiry Monday, saying the administration has “no intention” of carrying out drone strikes on suspected terrorists in the United States, but could use them in response to “an extraordinary circumstance” such as a major terrorist attack.

Paul called Holder’s refusal to rule out drone strikes within the United States “more than frightening.”

(Full article at the link)

Well, no one else seems to think so.

"What's to worry, if you are not doing anything wrong?" people may say.

Well, who's to decide what's "wrong"?

No doubt the Obama White House is closely monitoring what and how the media reports on Paul's filibuster.

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