Thursday, March 7, 2013

The Drone of Filibusters,
The Filibuster of Drones

"The drone industry is pressuring regulators to loosen restrictions on decades-old unmanned plane rules, which are still applied because of the drones' high crash rates. But they are considered model airplanes, so we have the spectre of multi-national corporations applying for hobbyist licenses...Yet, when one [a drone] gets in the way of a commercial airliner, as happened in Brooklyn two days ago, no one knows whose drone it is."

"These predator drones were authorized for border protection and national defense and now they're loaning them out to local police forces without any debate... 'We don't call them in for everything,' said the local [Brosset, North Dakota] police chief."

"Drones can snap pictures far longer than airplanes."

"Now they can monitor if the magazine you are reading is offensive to public officials"

"Just because they can see everything you are doing in your hot tub in your backyard doesn't mean they have a right to look."

"Some of these drones weigh less than an ounce. When is there a problem, when they're 2,000 feet in the air over your house or ten feet away from your window?"

"Are these drones being used with warrants? Do citizens outside their homes give up their constitutional rights?"

"How long can they hold the drone data before using it against people?"

"Signature strikes [drone kills] on the Constitution party convention could be very effective since they've already said such party members might be terrorists."


"More evidence is required to do a wiretap than a targeted killing..."


"I don't want to wait around for the memo from the President on whether the low threshold for drone kill strikes abroad would be applied on American soil. I want the Senate to write the memo telling him."

"If you are in a cafe sending an email to your cousin in the Middle East you shouldn't have a Hellfire Missile dropped on you. That's not due process of law and not a legal standard."

"If we follow the official explanation for why the underage American citizen was assassinated that he 'should have chosen more responsible parents' then we've set a pretty low bar for our killing program."

"When Sen. Wyden asked nominee Brennan directly if they intend to kill Americans on American soil he said 'We need to optimize transparancy and optimize secrecy.' That's a direct quote."

"The AG says the 5th amendment doesn't always apply when we are at war. Who are we at war with?"

"No evidence or authority ever is released after these people are targeted and then killed. How can due process be administered in private?"

"How many people on the disposition matrix (targeted killing list) have been already killed? How many names have been added to the list?"

"Are we supposed to be placated when the President tells us he hasn't killed any Americans yet but he might? That he doesn't intend to send Americans to Guantonimo bay without due process of law as enemy combatants? That's not good enough."

"Why can't the White House end the debate by saying or tweeting they're not going to kill domestic non-combatants? Their non-answer unfortunately means that they think the 5th amendment is optional."

"A war without end and a constitution without limits leads to an endless imperial presidency"

Quotes from the Senate floor on the evening of March 6, 2012 by Rand "McNally" Paul, a curly-haired Jimmy Stewart Senator from Kentucky doing an olde-thyme filibuster to prevent Americans from being randomly killed by the US government, in what was the longest continuous display of common sense in post-war American congressional history.


Our hearts are now so large
Our oneness is so immanent
The aliens use drones
To keep a closer eye.

We know that it is envy
Fuels the watching from the skies;
We want our backyard hot tub
Friend surveilled by insect spies

That criss-cross every inch of earth,
Each window with their sights
And look like model airplanes
Veering closer to girls' skirts.

They're there to kill us all, they say,
Because that makes us look,
For they too want to be adored
And thought a part of us

For we are all just aliens
And we all are terrorists
Trying to make sense of this
Enchanted and forgiving place.

To know that it is overseen
By God as well as Satan
And that we may be taken out
For no particular reason

Provides some comfort and relief
That we can feel some working
Of gears that shift above our head,
A gentle, silent whirring.