"Couldn't we just for a couple of hours live under the Constitution?"
http://www.nbcnews.com/...
Paulistas everywhere become moist as civil liberties hang from their thumbs in the balance whereas NBC calls it a "filibuster-like" speech and C-Span calls it extended remarks. Some might even call it a electioneering stunt. The twitterverse is at least calling it a filibuster, but let's all wait until it actually becomes one, shall we.
The Senate continued working on fast-track trade authority promotion legislation. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) made extended remarks in opposition to provisions in the PATRIOT Act related to National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance.
rage against the Washington Machine, Boy Ranger!
Dauerrede gegen NSA-Überwachung: meine Anhänger nicht viel klassischen Kinos zu sehen
Sen. Rand Paul took to the Senate floor to launch a “filibuster” of a bill to reauthorize a major government surveillance program. One problem: It’s not actually a filibuster.
With key parts of the PATRIOT Act set to expire at the end of the month — and the Senate set to skip town at the end of the week — Paul took to the floor at about 1:15 p.m. to expound on his staunch opposition to government surveillance. The 2016 Republican candidate has made government surveillance a key tenet of his quest for the White House and threatened last week to filibuster any effort from Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s bill to extend parts of the PATRIOT Act.
A spokeswoman for Paul said he would “until he can no longer speak,” but Paul’s ongoing diatribe isn’t a true filibuster like the one he famously mounted over drone policy in 2013. The Senate is currently working through the 30 hours of debate on a trade bill and is scheduled to vote one hour after the chamber officially convenes Thursday. If Paul were to talk through the night, Senate procedure would cut him off at about 1 p.m. tomorrow. That gives the Kentucky junior senator hours to lash out against the National Security Agency, without actually gumming up the legislative works.
3:46 p.m.: Backup is here, and it's a Democrat. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., took the podium to relieve Paul more than two hours into Paul's floor speech. Wyden is Paul's partner in opposing a straight reauthorization of the Patriot Act, and he is the only other senator who has also promised to filibuster an extension of the NSA's spying programs. "This will not be the last time we are back on the floor," Wyden said as he took over for Paul.
Paul and Wyden are somewhat strange bedfellows, as Wyden has indicated he would vote for the reform package the House passed last week, known as the USA Freedom Act. Paul contends it does not go far enough. But the bipartisan pair is co-sponsoring a number of amendments they say will make the USA Freedom Act go farther in limiting the NSA's surveillance powers.
"A number of us—myself specifically—have been concerned that the majority leader and other supporters of business as usual on bulk collection of all of these phone records would somehow try to take advantage of our current discussions and try to, in effect, sneak through a motion to extend section 215 of the USA Patriot Act," Wyden said. "As long as the senator from Kentucky has the floor, that cannot happen."
"My colleague from Kentucky has been an invaluable ally on this particular cause since he arrived in the Senate," the Oregon Democrat continued.
5:01 p.m.: Martin Heinrich arrives. Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich became the second Democrat to join Paul on the floor to criticize the NSA's mass surveillance programs.
The New Mexico senator took the opportunity to cite a recent federal appeals court decision deeming the NSA's phone-records dragnet illegal as proof the Patriot Act's spying provisions cannot be renewed without substantial changes akin to what the USA Freedom Act offers.
"Why on Earth, I would ask you, why on Earth would we extend a law that this court has found to be illegal?" Heinrich asked. "Now, given the overwhelming evidence that the current bulk collection program is not only unnecessary but also illegal, i think we've reached a critical turning point
Heinrich serves on the intelligence committee along with Sen. Ron Wyden, who spoke on the floor earlier. The two have frequently teamed up to question the intelligence community's broad surveillance powers.
11:16 p.m.: Patriot Act defender Marco Rubio is now presiding over Paul's Patriot Act takedown. Another GOP presidential candidate is now presiding over Paul's "filibuster." Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida took over the duties to run the floor from Sen. Ted Cruz.
Rubio has vociferously defended the NSA's surveillance powers, once penning an op-ed calling for the permanent extension of the Patriot Act's spy provisions.
Rubio was spotted intently reading a magazine—using a pen to go line by line—as Sen. Lee spoke from the floor. Cruz, meanwhile, took a seat to Lee's right, indicating he may end up joining the talk-a-thon after all.
11:10 p.m.: Rand Paul's biggest House fans join him on Senate floor. A handful of House members gathered behind Paul on the Senate floor late Wednesday to cheer him on. The gaggle included Republican Rep. Tom Massie and Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer, both of whom voted against the House-passed USA Freedom Act last week on grounds it does not do enough to curb NSA surveillance. Massie has long been a big political ally of Paul's.
Paul tonight has repeatedly said he is concerned the Freedom Act needs to do more before it can earn his support.