Don’t Drone Me, Bro!

Last night was the first time that I can say that I avoided going to bed so that I could watch C-SPAN2. How ’bout that?

Most Americans have probably heard by now, but Republican Senator Rand Paul engaged in an actual, old-school talking filibuster (or filiblizzard, à la Twitter) yesterday for almost 13 hours straight. The filibuster delayed the vote on the confirmation of President Obama’s nomination of John Brennan to head the CIA. The primary reason for the filibuster, however, was to demand an answer to a rather simple question from the Obama administration. The question was this: Does the president have the authority to order the assassination of a noncombatant United States citizen within the United States? I completely agree with Senator Paul when he said that the only acceptable answer to this question is, of course, no.

After watching a large portion of the surprisingly entertaining filibuster yesterday evening, the biggest question I found myself asking was this:

Where were the Democrats?

Seriously. This is a huge civil rights issue of the utmost importance that needed to be clarified by the Obama administration (which they have now done apparently and it is an acceptable answer). Democrats, I had thought, were supposed to be very big on personal freedoms and civil rights. They should have been there with Rand Paul demanding an answer as well. I thought it was strange. I think there was one, maybe two, Democratic senators that did join in.

Anyways, I am very glad for Senator Paul’s efforts yesterday in bringing some much-needed attention to this issue and ultimately succeeding in getting an answer from the Obama administration, which included the following seven words: “The answer to this question is no.” Good deal.

Even still, I find it disturbing that it took such a hassle to get this laughably simple answer. Is it really that difficult?