By Kris Zane
For many of us, Rand Paul’s filibuster was a surreal moment in time, beckoning back to better days when Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was considered a masterpiece of film because it embodied the values of our nation. Today, “violence porn” films like Django Unchained are considered the top of the heap because they, sadly, embody our corrupt and violent society.
“Old Bull” Republicans like John McCain and Lindsey Graham thought Rand Paul’s filibuster was stupid and irrelevant. That it was ridiculous to think that Barack Hussein Obama, who has from almost Day One of his presidency spurned the rule of law—often blathering about “if Congress won’t act, I will”—would drop a hellfire missile on an American sitting in a cafe.
But this wasn’t some manufactured issue, as the Left is famous for. Michael Isakoff uncovered a secret DOJ memo last month that gave the Obama administration the authority to kill any U.S. citizen, at any time, anywhere, without proof, without due process, accountable to no one.
And in fact, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen, was taken out by a drone for basically being a propagandist for Al-Qaeda. Whether, being an American citizen, he should have been given due process is debatable. But two weeks after al-Awlaki was killed, his sixteen year old son, Abdulrahman, also an American citizen, was killed with a drone. His crime was being related to an identified terrorist. And in fact, then-Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs blamed al-Awlaki’s son for “not having a more responsible father” for his being vaporized by a missile.
And then there was the news that the Obama administration had ordered a fleet of “public safety” drones, able to pick up cell phone traffic, able to identify whether the target—that is, an American citizen—is armed or not—with the ability to be easily outfitted with missiles. Experts estimate this fleet of “public safety” drones to reach 30,000 by the end of Obama’s “third term.”
This in itself would have remained innocuous enough, but there was this odd “War on Domestic Terrorism” that the Obama administration was waging against conservatives.
For example, the Department of Homeland Security published a study titled “Hot Spots of Terrorism and Other Crimes in the United States, which identified potential domestic terrorists as those who are “reverent of individual liberty.” Those who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority.” Those who believe there is a “grave threat to national sovereignty and/or personal liberty.”
This of course sounds very much like beliefs espoused by conservatives, specifically the Tea Party, so it was valid for conservatives to be concerned.
Rand Paul, more pointedly, cited in his filibuster further ludicrous “behaviors” of potential domestic terrorists: Those who have guns with high capacity magazines and weatherized ammunition. Those who have more than a seven day supply of food. Those who pay in cash. And probably the most ludicrous: Those who are missing fingers.
It took almost two months for the American people to get …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism
