nation

Police helicopters, with armed personnel aboard fly, over my neighborhood almost every night. There is a National Guard Cobra helicopter at the police heliport a few miles from my house as well. I feel more secure because of these aircraft. I would feel more secure with drones.

Rand Paul is right; we should be very concerned about the security state apparatus being constructed not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, but right here in the good ol' US of A. We believe, perhaps naively, that the word "freedom" is synonymous with the US, but one freedom we seem increasingly willing to give away is the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. Casual spying by any government entity on US citizens should offend every American.

Such "lengthy debates" used to be called "filibusters." Especially when they went on for over 11 hours. Time was, they would even make headlines, and not be buried in the back pages of the paper.

Unlike larrylinn I do not trust the government, no matter who is in power. Still, I have to think if George Bush was the guy pushing this agenda there would be a lot more outrage. You may trust Obama but how about the next guy?

I have watched parts of this filibuster and what I have witnessed are tea-party city councilmen masquerading as United States Senators. To listen to people like Ron Johnson (WI) and Marco Rubio (FL) on the floor of the Senate is nothing short of embarrassing. The Senate used to be a place for statesmen, it is now a place for the most ordinary of citizens.

All he's asking for is a one line statement from the President. If that is too hard to come up with, it is hard to assume anything other than the White House claiming the power to kill citizens on U.S. soil.

RE:usmc1127 "it is hard to assume anything other than the White House claiming the power to kill citizens on U.S. soil." ------------------------------ It is challenging for you to find an answer when you don't know the question. The question is not whether the US government has the power to kill a US citizen on US soil. The answer to that is yes. Similarly, under certain circumstances, municipal law enforcement, county law enforcement, and state law enforcement have the power and authority to kill a US citizen on US soil. You need to be more precise with your question. In other words, it would be constitutional.

opus, these are the few politicians willing to step up right now and challenge the ever-expanding powers of our Presidency. I ask you, how loud would you be screaming right now if it were George W. Bush claiming he has the right to kill U.S. citizens on U.S. soil? I respect Senator Paul because I fully feel that if he had been in office when George W. Bush was, he would be offering the same criticisms.

I apologize. I wrongly assumed people commenting on this article would have been watching and paying attention throughout the day. That would have meant they understood that the discussion did not pertain to imminent threats that law enforcement faces in a shootout with a suspect. My apologies for assuming people were paying attention.

RE:usmc1127 "...how loud would you be screaming right now if it were George W. Bush claiming he has the right to kill U.S. citizens on U.S. soil?" ----------------------------------- Your questioned is premised on someone being hyper-partisan, regardless of principle. While I may find people like Paul, Rubio, Cruz and many others on the floor to be a stain on the institution -- I am in agreement with the notion that the White House needs to answer the question related to targeted assassinations(not be be confused with the killing of a US citizen, on US soil, under certain circumstances), particularly the legality of drone strikes. My point with you related to asking imprecise questions.