Yesterday, Ron Paul filibustered the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA chief, with an actual talk-until-you-drop filibuster. Ron Paul is old school... except that he doesn’t believe in schools, or at least not public schools. Paul was filibustering over what he claims was Attorney General Eric Holder stonewalling him on the legality of military drone usage. Perhaps a little unusual given that Eric Holder had responded to both Rand Paul and Rand’s fellow tea-freak Ted Cruz. And just in case Rand Paul was still confused, Eric Holder made it even simpler for him today.
For the record, it’s already unconstitutional for the U.S. military or intelligence agencies to conduct lethal counterterrorism operations in the United States against U.S. citizens. Ron Paul just likes to remind his base that it might happen. Ron Paul wasn’t trying to raise legitimate questions about the executive branch and the use of lethal force. He was just trying to reassure his hate group militia followers that he was thinking of them.
Paul closed his filibuster after 13 hours, saying he had to use the bathroom. Impressive! If I can’t get back home and leave my dog inside for 13 hours, the dog officially has a pass to do whatever they had to do. I can only hope they didn’t do it on the carpet. (The filibuster record is 24 hours by Strom Thurmond. Speaking of needing to use the restroom, old Strom was filibustering to keep the restrooms segregated.)
Meanwhile, Lindsey Graham says people need to have assault weapons to protect themselves from the “roaming gangs” that always seem to pop up after a natural disaster… yeah, in low-budget movies. Lindsey envisioned a world where “law and order breaks down” and “there are armed gangs roaming around neighborhoods.” Don’t waste that thought, Lindsey! Work it into a pitch for an original series on the SyFy Channel.
Dr. Keith Ablow of Fox News has diagnosed President Obama with severe depression over the death of Hugo Chavez. Dr. Keith says “I think there’s probably some profound sadness” at the White House because “this is his comrade.” Yes, I think they met while manning a Viet Cong anti-aircraft gun in 1967... when Obama was six years old. I’m not sure how much Obama and Chavez were “comrades.” I never saw them holding hands like George W. Bush did with Saudi leaders.
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