Quote
Nice to see one courageous man stand up amongst a sea of congressional cowards.
Topic: Senator Rand Paul Filibustering NSA Surveillance Parts of The Patriot Act - page 2. (Read 1149 times)
May 20, 2015, 09:03:32 PM
He is a real brave guy. Residents of Kentucky are quite lucky to have him as the senate representative. Still I am sad that none of the other politicians (with the exception of Sen. Ron Wyden) are supporting his move. Rand is never afraid to make his views heard. I still remember his filibuster in 2013, against the appointment of John Brennan.
May 20, 2015, 08:22:22 PM
Some notes on the what and why, based on some things Rand has said:
- he would let the Patriot Act expire, but acknowledges this is not likely to happen without 41 votes
- the typical strategy for getting unpopular legislation passed is to keep it off the floor until the last moment, then using alarmist tactics to push for votes from Senators who haven't even read the text.
- because of the rush to get it passed, there is no time for discussing amendments
- sometimes, Senators will vote for a bill, but later will take it apart.
- Rand wants to get leadership to allow amendments on the floor, this is why he is filibustering
a couple possible amendments:
- no generalized warrants (must have a person's name and not "verizon")
- something to prevent using foreign intercepts as a pretext to capture US citizens' communications.
- he would let the Patriot Act expire, but acknowledges this is not likely to happen without 41 votes
- the typical strategy for getting unpopular legislation passed is to keep it off the floor until the last moment, then using alarmist tactics to push for votes from Senators who haven't even read the text.
- because of the rush to get it passed, there is no time for discussing amendments
- sometimes, Senators will vote for a bill, but later will take it apart.
- Rand wants to get leadership to allow amendments on the floor, this is why he is filibustering
a couple possible amendments:
- no generalized warrants (must have a person's name and not "verizon")
- something to prevent using foreign intercepts as a pretext to capture US citizens' communications.
May 20, 2015, 08:12:33 PM
Rand Paul digs in on NSA surveillance
More than two years after a 13-hour filibuster, the Kentucky senator and 2016 GOP presidential contender is back on the Senate floor. This time, he's protesting the National Security Agency's dragnet surveillance programs targeting Americans.
"There comes a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer. That time is now and I will not let the Patriot Act, the most unpatriotic of acts, go unchallenged," Paul said at the opening of his remarks.
The Senate is considering this week whether to reauthorize a crucial section of the Patriot Act or reform the law to rein in the government's sweeping powers to collect phone metadata on millions of Americans in an effort to thwart terrorist plots. The House last week overwhelmingly approved a bill to reform that law.
The NSA's bulk collection program expires at midnight on June 1, and the Department of Justice warned in a memo shared by a GOP aide on Wednesday that the agency will have to begin preparing several days before the expiration date for a potential lapse in the law.
More...http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/20/politics/rand-paul-filibuster-patriot-act-nsa-surveillance/index.html
More than two years after a 13-hour filibuster, the Kentucky senator and 2016 GOP presidential contender is back on the Senate floor. This time, he's protesting the National Security Agency's dragnet surveillance programs targeting Americans.
"There comes a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer. That time is now and I will not let the Patriot Act, the most unpatriotic of acts, go unchallenged," Paul said at the opening of his remarks.
The Senate is considering this week whether to reauthorize a crucial section of the Patriot Act or reform the law to rein in the government's sweeping powers to collect phone metadata on millions of Americans in an effort to thwart terrorist plots. The House last week overwhelmingly approved a bill to reform that law.
The NSA's bulk collection program expires at midnight on June 1, and the Department of Justice warned in a memo shared by a GOP aide on Wednesday that the agency will have to begin preparing several days before the expiration date for a potential lapse in the law.
More...http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/20/politics/rand-paul-filibuster-patriot-act-nsa-surveillance/index.html
May 20, 2015, 05:58:44 PM
If you're legally allowed to donate, send him some coinage for his efforts on this or wait til tomorrow and tally up how many hours he put in and then give him a certain donation per hour.
May 20, 2015, 05:50:19 PM
Sen. Rand Paul announced Wednesday afternoon he’s attempting to filibuster the extension of the Patriot Act, vowing to use all his legislative powers to try to end the snooping law.
The Kentucky Republican’s speech, which began at 1:18 p.m., is not technically holding up any legislation because the Senate is actually currently debating a trade bill, but Mr. Paul said his move was a filibuster nonetheless, as he vowed to hold the floor until he couldn’t go any longer.
“It’s time to end the NSA spying,” his official Twitter account said in a post at 1:36 p.m., as he was on the floor.
Mr. Paul is waging a lonely fight, demanding that the government stop snooping without probable cause or a warrant. That’s a step beyond even some of his other erstwhile civil libertarian allies who want to curtail the Patriot Act’s bulk collection, but would still allow government agents to go after the records of individuals without first seeking a warrant.
Indeed, the lonely fight was underscored by the scene on the Senate floor in the middle of the afternoon: Mr. Paul was the only senator present, save for the one Republican required to be in the presiding officer’s chair.
Armed with binders, file folders and a barely touched glass of water, he paced behind his desk on the right wing of the Senate, occasionally flipping through notes to find his place as he offered a lengthy discussion of the Obama administration’s duplicity in maintaining the National Security Agency’s snooping program.
Mr. Obama’s top intelligence official testified to Congress that they were not storing bulk information about Americans’ phone calls, when in fact they were doing that under the NSA’s program.
Congress is pushing up against a deadline for deciding what to do about three provisions of the Patriot Act that are slated to expire at the end of the month. Among those is Section 215, which the Bush and Obama administrations have claimed justifies the NSA program.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/20/rand-paul-filibusters-against-patriot-act-nsa-snoo/#ixzz3ailf6lRy
I thought this deserved a thread unto itself rather than just keep it tucked away in my other thread on Rand. He's about 5.5 hrs into this filibuster and may go long into the night and perhaps into the later morning or after noon. Remember the filibuster he did on drones a few years back? He'll get plenty of national news coverage by tomorrow as it was already front and center on The Drudge Report today, which is the most viewed public affairs website in the US and likely the world. This will definitely set him apart from the Presidential candidates pack and this is a huge issue considering the courts already ruled this bulk collection of data by the NSA is illegal and the US House passed the USA Freedom Act last week which would overturn the Patriot Act.
Live stream: http://www.politico.com/livestream/
Live blogging: http://iroots.org/2015/05/20/breakin...ate-floor-now/
Activism Alerts:
Call Congress now to ask them if they #StandWithRand? Get them on record and ask them to sunset the badly named 'Patriot Act.' Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Update: There are a handful of US House members joining on the Senate floor to support Rand and Democratic Senators Manchin (WV), Coons (DE), Wyden (OR), Tester (MT) and Heinrich (NM) & Republican Senators Lee (UT)and Daines (MT) have spoken on the floor along w/ Rand to support getting rid of this crap. This is Epic folks, do your part!
Tweet https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/601079082676318208 and keep it standing or insert #StandWithRand in your tweets about this subject.
The Kentucky Republican’s speech, which began at 1:18 p.m., is not technically holding up any legislation because the Senate is actually currently debating a trade bill, but Mr. Paul said his move was a filibuster nonetheless, as he vowed to hold the floor until he couldn’t go any longer.
“It’s time to end the NSA spying,” his official Twitter account said in a post at 1:36 p.m., as he was on the floor.
Mr. Paul is waging a lonely fight, demanding that the government stop snooping without probable cause or a warrant. That’s a step beyond even some of his other erstwhile civil libertarian allies who want to curtail the Patriot Act’s bulk collection, but would still allow government agents to go after the records of individuals without first seeking a warrant.
Indeed, the lonely fight was underscored by the scene on the Senate floor in the middle of the afternoon: Mr. Paul was the only senator present, save for the one Republican required to be in the presiding officer’s chair.
Armed with binders, file folders and a barely touched glass of water, he paced behind his desk on the right wing of the Senate, occasionally flipping through notes to find his place as he offered a lengthy discussion of the Obama administration’s duplicity in maintaining the National Security Agency’s snooping program.
Mr. Obama’s top intelligence official testified to Congress that they were not storing bulk information about Americans’ phone calls, when in fact they were doing that under the NSA’s program.
Congress is pushing up against a deadline for deciding what to do about three provisions of the Patriot Act that are slated to expire at the end of the month. Among those is Section 215, which the Bush and Obama administrations have claimed justifies the NSA program.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/20/rand-paul-filibusters-against-patriot-act-nsa-snoo/#ixzz3ailf6lRy
I thought this deserved a thread unto itself rather than just keep it tucked away in my other thread on Rand. He's about 5.5 hrs into this filibuster and may go long into the night and perhaps into the later morning or after noon. Remember the filibuster he did on drones a few years back? He'll get plenty of national news coverage by tomorrow as it was already front and center on The Drudge Report today, which is the most viewed public affairs website in the US and likely the world. This will definitely set him apart from the Presidential candidates pack and this is a huge issue considering the courts already ruled this bulk collection of data by the NSA is illegal and the US House passed the USA Freedom Act last week which would overturn the Patriot Act.
Live stream: http://www.politico.com/livestream/
Live blogging: http://iroots.org/2015/05/20/breakin...ate-floor-now/
Activism Alerts:
Call Congress now to ask them if they #StandWithRand? Get them on record and ask them to sunset the badly named 'Patriot Act.' Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Update: There are a handful of US House members joining on the Senate floor to support Rand and Democratic Senators Manchin (WV), Coons (DE), Wyden (OR), Tester (MT) and Heinrich (NM) & Republican Senators Lee (UT)and Daines (MT) have spoken on the floor along w/ Rand to support getting rid of this crap. This is Epic folks, do your part!
Tweet https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/601079082676318208 and keep it standing or insert #StandWithRand in your tweets about this subject.
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