"I rise today to begin to filibuster John Brennan’s nomination for the CIA. I will speak until I can no longer speak. 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."
Senator Rand Paul
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/574934_569547966403725_944217936_n.jpg
ReplyDeleteIt is about time! I am so tired of pretending that we are too civilized to disagree and do something ,, anything but do something...
ReplyDeleteTHIS! is the proper use of a filibuster. It would be nice if the Republican party took notes on this.
ReplyDeleteOne Democrat, Ron Wyden, joined the fight for civil liberties. Is he a latent Tea Party sympathizer?
ReplyDelete"Senate Republicans took the floor on Wednesday, launching an historic filibuster in an attempt to extract an answer from the White House to a simple question: Does the administration believe it has the legal authority to kill an American citizen on American soil with a drone strike?
It's a question that seems fairly nonpartisan on its face, but a second one occurred to those watching the C-SPAN broadcast late into the morning: Where are all the Democrats?
Senate Republicans, from Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) to filibuster-leader Rand Paul (Ky.), spoke for more than 12 hours. But only one Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, spoke in support of Paul during that time. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) tweeted support, but otherwise progressives who might have been assumed to have been supportive were absent, leaving members of the GOP as the defenders of civil liberties. The White House was equally silent."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/07/democrats-rand-paul-filibuster_n_2825847.html
If you are just poking some fun using Wyden, William, I can appreciate the jab in good sport. If, however, you are making more of a general claim that only the tea party understands civil liberties, I disagree but have to concede that any democrat who considers themselves a true liberal but didn't show up to support this is kind of an ass. In a very off the beaten path talk I saw that was given by Dennis Kucinich, he was asked in the question period something about the tea party that I don't exactly remember. His response though was that he said he made it a point to introduce himself to every freshman Tea Party member of congress and pledge to work with them if their interests crossed.
DeleteWe need more people like this
Max, I wasn't poking fun at Wyden at all.
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