Drone Hypocrites

If I ever met Rand Paul, with his W. C. Fields nose and Doctor Who hair, I would have trouble resisting vomiting on his shoes. That said, I applaud his use of an actual filibuster, rather than the silent filibusters that most senators use, to point out vague hypocrisy from the Administration on killer drones.

Give this man a medal.

The Administration's position, reluctantly discussed, has been that using drones to kill Americans inside the US is just plain wrong and we are not in any way considering it...just now. But who knows if in the future the President might want to designate somebody in Des Moines an "enemy combatant" and shoot a Hellfire missile up his ass. Gotta keep your options open, don't ya know.

What the filibuster has revealed is the hypocrites on both sides. Many Republicans who defended President Bush's desire to torture Americans if needed supported the filibuster, even though drones and torture are the same thing. Conversely, many Democrats who oppose torture have stayed strangely quiet during the drone discussion.

Not everybody is a hypocrite. John Yoo, the notorious torture lawyer for George Bush who said the President can legally crush a child's testicles if the President wants to, supports drone attacks against US citizens inside the United States.

President Obama may want to reconsider any policy that John Yoo likes.