Rand Paul Promises To Derail NSA Vote

[Purveyor]

Source: CNN

By Allie Malloy, CNN
Updated 2:40 PM ET, Sat May 30, 2015

Washington (CNN)Sen. Rand Paul is not backing down on his pledge to end major provisions of the Patriot Act, warning on Saturday that he will keep up his fight as the Senate readies for a rare Sunday session.

"There has to be another way," the Kentucky Republican tweeted. "We must find it together. So tomorrow, I will force the expiration of the NSA illegal spy program."

The National Security Agency's authorities -- which, among other powers, allow the agency to collect telephone data on millions of Americans and store that data for five years -- will end at midnight Sunday unless the Senate approves an extension.

--CLIP
Paul and his allies are limited in their ability to derail the legislation altogether. But their opposition to any bill authorizing the programs would mean the Senate would be stuck in many hours of debate -- perhaps lasting days -- before anything could be passed by majority vote because of complex Senate procedural rules. By then, the authorities would have lapsed and the government would need time to get them back online.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/30/politics/rand-paul-nsa-senate-vote/

[Javaman]

1. if it were anyone else, I would support them...

but showboating paul only takes the safe fights were he will make himself appear the martyr.

[Psephos]

21. What's it worth to be rid of illegal spying on US citizens by our own government?

A lot of people paid in blood, and many more in treasure, to keep our rights intact.

I can hold my nose here about Paul and consider it a bargain.

[Javaman]

38. it should be a dem, not this halfwit racist.

if he was so passionate about issues he shouldn't have come out against the Civil Rights Act

fuck him.

he's "protest" will amount to nothing and he knows that.

he's running for prez on the gullible halfwit ticket.

[Psephos]

45. and yet, it wasn't...that's what disgusts me most n/t

[Javaman]

49. NSA surveillance powers lapse after Senate stalls

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/5/30/clock-is-ticking-to-renew-nsa-surveillance-program.html

But that program and several other post-Sept. 11 counter-terror measures look likely to be revived in a matter of days.

[Reter]

36. What a ridiculous statement

So if Hitler liked broccoli you would stop liking it because he's bad?

[Javaman]

39. this is not broccoli and paul is not hitler. godwins law and all that.

paul is a showboating halfwit who knows his "protest" will amount to nothing.

if he really was "sincere" he would demand an investigation on it.

he's just a blathering stooge running for president.

[billhicks76]

46. Exactly

Talk about small minded. So we don't want republicans supporting our agenda because we don't like them and don't want to be associated with them? Isn't this the same absurd conduct we abhor when republicans hate anything Obama supports? NSA spying mostly for the drug war is the issue.

[cstanleytech]

2. The cynical part of me wonders if hes opposed to it because he doesnt want to get nailed like

Hastert is due to the stricter banking laws under the patriot act that exposed his paying off someone to keep silent.

[totodeinhere]

7. That's a little too much of a conspiracy theory for me. I will just give the

guy credit for being right on this issue.

[Aerows]

9. Even a broken

clock is right twice a day.

[War Horse]

12. Pretty much sums it up n/t

[rhett o rick]

17. Libertarians are right on some issues. nm

[Javaman]

41. They are right on the very same issues dems traditionally are...

I give nothing to the libertarians.

screw them.

we should be pissed that a dem is not doing what he is doing.

[rhett o rick]

43. Yes, I agree. nm

[raindaddy]

19. Me too.

I'll give him credit for this one.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Ahhh...

so they are coming back to work on it Sunday. I *knew* the neocons couldn't let that lapse and if it did, they would cobble something together that might not even resemble what the House passed, meaning it would have to go back to the House. They should have torpedoed the whole thing years ago.

[Jack Rabbit]

4. I don't care who's is leading the fight against mass surveillance

This thing needs to be beaten to death and buried with a stake through its heart.

[olddots]

5. Oh Rand you're sooooooo edgy

[hill2016]

6. where are our people

fighting for us on this?

[CharlotteVale]

16. Excellent question.

[Javaman]

40. exactly fucking right.

we have this moron libertarian being the "mouth piece" for sanity?

[moonbeam23]

8. WTF??

Why aren't the Democrats doing this...why let this cretin get all the credit and thanks from a grateful public??

[christx30]

13. We have people like Feinstein

that are hugely in favor of the programs, unless it's them that's being spied on.

[Jesus Malverde]

33. Where is Bernie?...nt

[DonCoquixote]

10. considering that some ask my to swallow my pirinciples

so that "the person you know will win" will get elected, I think I can take a bit of an unholy alliance to beat the NSA.

[Maedhros]

11. If it's the right thing to do, we're going to oppose it because Rand Paul is doing it?

Our priorities are deeply fucked up.

[Purveyor]

15. That is one of the major ills of our gov't today. If the other sides supports/opposes it, we are

expected to, by default, take the opposite stance regardless of its worthiness.

I'm sick of it!

[Maedhros]

20. I have a close friend who suffers from this pathology, acutely.

His answer to every political question is (literally) "All I know is that I HATE REPUBLICANS."

Some people get off on hatred, and voluntarily let it cloud their judgement.

[Psephos]

22. +1000 n/t

[underthematrix]

14. You have a huge white element in US

encouraging domestic terrorism and violence and now liberal white folks want to eliminate the program that protects everyone including people of color and religious minorities from white terrorism and violence. We of course are the primary recipients of white terrorism and violence, which is on the uptick. I would like the program to be re-authorized because I consider it the price we pay to live in a country where FOX HATE CABLE NEWS can sell fear, hate and violence and not be held accountable. The next best thing to protect me and every sane person in America is the NSA domestic surveillance program.

[hill2016]

18. what white terrorism

are you talking about?

[underthematrix]

23. Most domestic terrorists in the US are white

By "white" I mean people in this country of European descent. Since 2009, there has been a significant uptick in white hate and white supremacy groups. MOst are connected to the "white" christian conservative movement. "White domestic terrorism" means aginst difference usually racial but sometimes based on sexual orieintation. In addition, we now have white hate groups also targeting Muslim Americans and their houses of worship. We have white oficers, usually uneducated from poor or working class families who kill black men and women at will claiming to be in fear of their lives when confronting unarmed African Americans. Many of these fearful white cops are also members of white hate or whute surpemacist groups. We have seen a huge increase in threats against the President of US by white hate groups and white supremacist groups. The NSA domestic surveillance program tracks such individuals and groups. It also tracks AMERICAN citizens who are recruited by international terrorist groups to conduct terrorist acts on American soil. BUt our biggest problem is domestic terrorism committed by individuals who identify as "white" Americans.

[Psephos]

26. most people in the US are white

Which makes your statement misleading. Do you have some research that shows breakdown of "domestic terrorists" in proportion to race?

[underthematrix]

28. here you go

http://www.splcenter.org/what-we-do/hate-and-extremism - the rise is related to the election of the first African American President, which is interesting because President is actually bi-racil both white and black. But since most of us still live by the "one drop" rule, most of America considers him African American.

[hill2016]

29. I think

some of what you are referring to isn't terrorism. Some of it is actually free speech and not illegal.

The classical definition of terrorism is violence or the threat of violence in support of religious, political or ideological aims.

[Warren Stupidity]

25. fuck the global security state.

[A Simple Game]

27. The NSA is going to stop white terrorism in the US? So tell us how many school shootings has the

NSA stopped? Those were mostly white terrorists if I recall. How many mass shootings in theaters or of any kind has the NSA stopped in the US?

As for the "liberal white folks" that want to eliminate the NSA programs, there are just as many conservatives and libertarians that want them gone also. This is not just a "liberal white folk" thing. This is a Constitutional and personal freedom "thing."

It appears when you took the left turn into the DU parking lot that maybe you should have turned right instead.

[underthematrix]

30. Please lower the volume on your outrage. mcveigh was not a student

Police officers who shoot black people are not students. The people who had a shootout in Texas are not students. The people who organized a hate rally in Phoenix at a local Mosque to foment hate of Muslim Americans are not students. The Phoenix group even asked potential hate rally participants to come armed - JUST IN CASE. Do you recall Cliven Bundy and Las Vegas? i understand you think it is a constitutional and personal freedom thing but dead people can't exercise either. And yes there are many many threats out there. FOX HATE NEWS spends 24 hours a day 7 days a week fomenting fear, hate and violence against the "other." The other goes by many names but none of the others are called "white people". The truth is white people are angry, NOT ALL but many. And many many people in positions of power especially the media and the GOP and the Libertarians are feeding that anger. That's their constitutioonal right, e.g. freedom of speech. But in order to protect the rest of us from the consequences of the exercise of said right, we need the NSA domestic surveillance program. it's just the reality of the world we live in. If the NSA program bothers you, you would have been horrified at the things the FBI and CIA used to do. Do you remember why the Congress finally brought impeachment articles against Nixon? For using the FBI and CIA to spy on and intimidate American citizens. President Obama is not going to break the law so if Congress does not re-authorize the program, so be it. The President should NOT tarnish his legacy because of the stupidity of others. We will just have to live with the consequences. By the way, my husband is English/German and we are gun owners.

[Man from Pickens]

32. it doesn't protect you

If you're worried about "terrorists" in any shape and form then you have sucked up too much of the FOX News fear yourself.

This issue is about a "permanent record" of everyone's movements and communications being stored that can be used against anyone anytime by some future Dick Cheney.

[deurbano]

34. Liberal white people who want to eliminate the Patriot Act as it is now...are insensitive to the

protections it affords people of color? That's an argument I hadn't heard before. In fact, a major concern expressed about the NSA (by white people and people of color) is the racial profiling. (In addition to other concerns regarding violations of civil liberties, plus overall ineffectiveness.) The NSA expands the police/surveillance state that already disproportionately and adversely affects people of color. I agree that the rise in white domestic terrorism is a major cause for concern, not that the NSA is any kind of solution.

<The next best thing to protect me and every sane person in America is the NSA domestic surveillance program.>

What does that mean? The NSA only protects sane people? Or people who don't support the current NSA surveillance program are insane?

[totodeinhere]

37. But it has been shown time and time again that those surveillance methods are not effective

yet they trample on our civil liberties. We all want to stop terrorism whether whites or anyone else commit it, but this is not the way.

[Warren Stupidity]

24. good for him.

Hopefully other less awful senators will support him on this.

[GGJohn]

31. Hope he succeeds, but where are our Reps. on this?

Why aren't they leading the charge?
Sen. Feinstein and her supporters could learn a lesson here.

[onehandle]

35. Fake. nt

[BadGimp]

42. Go Rand Go!

eom

[phleshdef]

44. Good for you Rand. I ain't voting for ya, ever. But good for you. I hope you make a difference.

[Kurska]

47. True grit on Rand's part.

Don't agree with his politics, but this is an act of political heroism.

[Blue_Tires]

48. Alt headline: "Rand Paul Using Senate Floor to Campaign and Grandstand"

[Sgent]

50. And if I was a single issue voter

I'd vote for him.

He's delaying and stopping this travesty as long as he can, and I support him in this cause. I also support his take on drugs.

Most of his other causes are despicable, but that's why I'm not a single issue voter.