Kentucky Senator Rand Paul got plenty of positive pub (and no shortage of criticism, some from the old bulls in his own party) in the wake of his 13-hour-long old fashioned filibuster of the nomination of John Brennan to head the CIA earlier this month. It was the administration’s sketchy drone policy that had Paul exercised enough to take control of the debate. He wanted assurances from the Attorney General that drones wouldn’t be used to kill terrorism suspects if they’re US citizens. As effective as his Senate floor talkfest was, Paul sees another vote coming down the pike that’s every bit as filibuster worthy: gun control . . .
Let the harrumphing begin, beginning with washingtonpost.com:
The Senate’s leading conservative trio — Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) – are threatening to filibuster the Senate Democrats’ gun violence legislation slated for consideration next month, leaving open the possibility of marathon speeches in the mold of Paul’s nearly 13-hour filibuster on the CIA’s drone policy.
The senators sent a brief letter to Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) outlining their opposition to “any legislation that would infringe on the American people’s constitutional right to bear arms,” signaling they will oppose the procedural vote to begin debate on the gun package when the Senate returns from its current two-week spring break.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid, who’s hasn’t actually been seen smiling in public in over nine years, isn’t pleased by the news.
Reid announced last week that he was cobbling together several of the proposals approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month into one legislative package that will be debated on the floor for several weeks. Those proposals include a Democratic draft of a new universal background check on all legal gun purchases; school safety provisions; tougher new federal laws on gun trafficking.
When Happy Harry caught wind of the impending clog in the legislative sausage-making machinery, he unleashed one of his attack dogs to yap at the effrontery of the three obstructionists.
“It’s outrageous that these senators are unwilling to even engage in a debate over gun violence in America. No matter your opinion on this issue, we should all be able to agree with President Obama when he said that the children and teachers of Newtown, along with all other Americans who have been victims of gun violence, at least deserve a vote,” said Adam Jentleson, Reid’s spokesman.
Come on, guys, it’s for the children. The president says so!
Look for another torrent of #standwithrand tweets from 2A supporters around the gunosphere when the Tea Party fave takes the floor. Who says the US Senate isn’t still the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body?
I wonder if he can go super old school these days. What are the public indecency laws in Washington now? Filibusters use to involve the awkwardness of a bucket in a closet, and were probably more effective because of it. If someone is willing to poop in front of 99 other people due to something they believe in, then those 99 people probably realize he is serious.
“No matter your opinion on this issue, we should all be able to agree with President Obama when he said that the children and teachers of Newtown, along with all other Americans who have been victims of gun violence, at least deserve a vote”
I’ll be the first to admit what happened at Sandy Hook was a great national tragedy, but why do the residents there have more rights than anyone else?
For that matter, what about the fact that most weekends in Chicago have a higher bodycount than that one day in Newtown? When are we going to address that?
Do we really want Chicago style gun control?
What happened to dissent being patriotic? How convenient it is that meme has been dropped when anyone disagrees with our sitting President.
I don’t think you can call the US Senate the “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body” if they don’t actually, you know, DELIBERATE an issue because of a filibuster. But since this particular filibuster helps a cause I believe in, I’ll look the other way…
California sea lions are a protected species under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Officials not pursuing charges against Kelly’sdaughter is a big steaming pile of bullshit! If it were any of us, we’d be looking at a court date on a host of Federal charges!
1) Quick
2) Painless
3) Physically intact
When it comes to killing just about any living animal, you generally get to pick any two out of those three. While disturbing (and also fascinating, from an anatomy/physics standpoint) to see in slow motion, it is guaranteed that the animal literally never knew what hit it. Hydrostatic shock wave propagation much faster than synapse signal propagation.
Even a heart shot is not so quick as to go unperceived by the recipient, and bleeding out into your own lungs, drowning in your blood strikes me as a rather agonizing way to go.
Same issues come to the fore in capital punishment; over time the species has more or less shifted from “quick/painless/messy” toward “slow/(arguable)/dignified.” I’m not so sure this is real ‘progress.’ I’d much rather go out as that deer did than 20 years in a cell, then strapped to a gurney helplessly awaiting the needle. Or gagging and agonizing as my lungs fill with fluid
Short of a dynamite helmet, or riding a nuke, I can’t think of any more painless way for a creature to end life. Though it does make a mess.
The fact that Senator Paul actually stands there and speaks should be respected. Far too easy to filibuster on paper without having to sweat it out. When a man stands and speaks he demonstrates that he has an argument that he believes in, and in doing so, may hopefully engage others and enlighten them enough to persuade them to reconsider their position on a given issue. Kudos to Paul, Cruz and Lee. Hopefully others will support them……….
My father literally signed the offer contract this morning and bout him almost 30 acres in Florida, I am coming with , leaving NJ that we’ve both lived our entire 62 and 32 year old lives, … It’ll be FINALLY about time I can apply for a CCW permit, maybe a suppressor for my new AAC-SD .308 , and possibly even my dream firearm, if I ever can save up, for a HK MR556 A1 w/ the 10′ bbl 416 upper… We can’t SBR nor suppress nor anything in the NFA… nor can we even exercise the right to protection , NJ basically does not allow any carrying of firearms.. the permit system was set up to deny unless Judge approves , which does not happen unless you’re a seriously important person or seriously close friend of the judge. To be honest, I used to love and defend New Jersey, my area is a beautiful place and In the central Jersey area by the Delaware, I’m 30 mins from Philly and 1 hr from NYC…. but for the last few years, its become so bad , I would not even say I was representing New Jersey if I was nominated for the Presidency . Florida here we come, the only thing from up here I will still be proud of is Penn State (and even that is a damned difficult job these days!)
Public displays of not going along to get along are exactly what we need. Refusing to allow a floor vote to something so fundamentally unconstitutional makes me hopeful for the future. And it makes me smile that it makes the dinosaurs who got us here so upset.
“at least deserve a vote”. The vote to ‘move forward’ IS a vote.
It’s a lie that we don’t want to address gun violence. But the proposals being put forth by difi, biden and barry do nothing to address gun or any other violence. They simply want to disarm people, regardless of their past records or their reasons for owning guns.
I’m sorry but a tragedy does not warrant a vote on our Constitutional rights. They are supposed to be unalienable so while I’m sorry that Sand Hook happened, I’m with Senator Rand.
“With associates like this, I can understand why Bloomberg doesn’t trust people with guns.”
That cracked me up! Thanks Alan. 🙂
What is this, high school debate class? Teacher, it’s not fair that other guy won because I didn’t bother to read the argument I was presenting?
How is not reading important legislation in any way better than trying to pass unconstitutional legislation?
You fail on both counts Cuomo and your bid for the White House is now history and you will now be known as the moron that endangered the lives of thousands of New York citizens. Good riddance.
@ Lars. Have you ever heard of a black serial killer or any black man walking into a movie theater shooting innocent people or a college dorm shooting young adults or a post office shooting cause a walfare check is late or a school shooting little kids…. NO you haven’t and we have a black problem… WOW mental Heath really is the biggest problem in this country. Blacks own there fuckups why don’t Whites????
Excellent. Will be ordering.
A great idea. Still, I am waiting for someone to say that these donations are tainted because they come from gun owners and various 2nd amendment lowlifes, ala, Jim Carrey
In the picture here at TTAG site, on the main home page, Dan Baum is shown holding a handgun though I can only see a portion of it. Which gun is he holding?
1911, can’t tell which company.. non-skeletonized trigger…. Sig?
It seems like the media with their twisted minds and comments wouldn’t mind another killing spree, shameful.
Nice. That was one surprised-looking deer. Damn rats with antlers. You like deer? Go live around Valley Forge Park for a year or two, you’ll be cured.
No love lost here. The more deer I see getting lead poisoning the better I feel. As far as that goofy head shot goes, I’d sure rather Bambi get her dome blown apart than a gut wound and stumble around the woods for a few days dying a horrid painful death.
My Crown Vic got to blast a deer on the way home from work one night. I will tell you it happened so fast that my brain wasn’t even done transmitting the signal for my foot to get off the gas and on the brake before it was over. I went back to look because I was going to call the Berks County ARL to come and kill her if she was laying by the road still alive. She was gone though. I did feel bad about that.
Nonetheless, I agree wholeheartedly!
So we’re back to making incremental gains for gun rights? Wouldn’t that be lovely…
So, he was charged with discharging a firearm. I don’t see him shoot in the video. Perhaps that happened before the recording took place or after . . .
Bad day, try to run someone having a bad day off the road, who happens to resemble an OFWG, with a gun, and . . . recipe for disaster.
Stuff happens.
In N.C. you don’t need a permit to carry a gun as long its not concealed.
Day-um! That knocks the wind right out of my sails. Sigh. Sorry. Text amended.
My problem with the video is we don’t know what caused this confrontation in the first place. Did the two guys threathen him first with words? Just because he threw the first punch doesn’t necessarily mean he was the instigator. What if these two approached him and asked him for his wallet? They were beating the heck out of him. What if they had killed him. Would he still be the guilty one? Maybe firing into the ground is a violation of the law. Better to chase them off that wajy then to shoot one or both of them. As for the wife, she was just trying to protect her husband by handing him the weapon. Too many questions unanswered to pass judgment. Perhaps he was just following Joe Bidens advice and firing off a shot. It did chase the two away.
Met this guy at the capital ralley on MLK weekend. Seemed like a cool guy. Like some other states, DE is very divided when it comes to geography and political philosphy. Few counties in America differ from each other more than New Castle (Where Biden was from like 30 years ago) county and Sussex county.
How about common sense (I’m not a lawyer)…based on HD video: the guy followed the vehicle for miles. He got out on private property and hit the yoot. The yoots then kicked his ass. His wife then handed him a gun and he brandished. That is all on video (except for the following for miles). Then the guy comes back and shoots the car.
The yoots may have been assholes. Call the police.
This is a training flic for CCW classes….so many offenses.
+1. The guy is an asshat. You want to follow a vehicle for trying to drive you off the road? Well, you better have the police on the phone the entire time. Best to get a plate number and let the cops deal with it.
I try to ignore aggressive, stupid drivers. The best tactic is to slow WAY down and let them pass. When forced to do 20mph for any extended period, their pea brains melt and they pass in frustration.
Still in California. However I spent last weekend in Texas on a recon trip. Checked out Austin and Corpus Christi.
The cook and I were talking about a move last year the kids have gone south and aint coming back and to escape NY taxes they are actually destroying us. Since jan 15, 2013 our highly intelligent governor has sinched the plan. I have been scouring google earth and have found a few country properties I love in Kentucky. The plan is to be all set up there in time for retirement. Which will be a lot sooner if we get to hell outta NY!
Far too often a man’s tongue becomes his noose. When police get called ON you-they are not there for your benefit.
Don’t you mean more presidential than any sitting president since Eisenhower?
The estimate for deaths in the U.S. for deaths due to medical mistakes is around 100,000 per year. Still high; not “millions.”