#StandWithRand? Really? His bit of political theater yesterday reminded me of all of the ridiculous, nonsense he supports. Honestly, Paul Rand can stand right over there, thank you.
And Adam Carolla wants to know what’s wrong with black people.
On today’s #TWiBRadio, we decide not to #StandWithRand and big surprise, it looks like some of President Obama’s biggest opponents find his policies useful, and I get trolled hard in feedback.
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And this morning on #amTWiB, the #TheMorningCrew continues to discuss the Rand Paul filibuster, New York City is shaming teen parents, and L. Joy knows how to cure a migraine.
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SoINeedAName48
You can probably just call his “political theater” Randstanding.
Baud
#stallwithpaul
Odie Hugh Manatee
I once thought Adam Carolla was funny but then I grew up.
@SoINeedAName48:
WIN
the Conster
I hate that people are taking Rand’s “concern” seriously. The guy is a total fucking fraud, and anyone who thinks he’s acting in good faith needs to be punched in the face, and that includes Amy Goodman and the other civil liberties purity police. Rand Paul is not your friend.
Brad
The pure grandstanding aside, I’d almost bet the reason Paul did this was not because of some ideological stance on drone warfare or extrajudicial killing, but because he thinks it’s a step toward Obama’s FEMA camps/black helicopter/agenda 21 plans. I thought there was a decent chance he’d slip up and say something like “what’s to stop Obama from using drones on white Americans?”
Odie Hugh Manatee
Hep me! Teh mod gawd has et me post!
/shakes fist
RobertDSC-eMac 1.25
Fuck that fucking clown.
General Stuck
Rand Paul progressive hero.
peak wingnut or, how I stopped worrying and learned to love The Aqua Buddha . I’m a renouncer, and renounce broccoli, Stalin, and dronessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!
the Conster
Plus, that ridiculous hair thing going on on his head. WTF is that, a muskrat pelt?
Svensker
It’s just hard to even….
Gah.
Steeplejack
Is there a way to bring back some old cologne like English Leather or Jade East and rebrand it as Aqua Buddha? C’mon, people, there’s money to be made here.
Hal
I am blown away by the number of should know better folks out there giving even the faintest of praise to Rand Paul. If David Duke was against drones I wonder what kind of tongue bath he would be getting right now?
Alex
All criticism of the President that doesn’t minutely adhere to a prefabricated ethical code that I came up with a few minutes ago must be racist in origin!
Follow me on Twitter!
Spaghetti Lee
There’s a word for people who think that Rand Paul suddenly found his conscience last night. That word is ‘sucker.’ If civil libertarian lefties want to make their mark in politics, they’d do well not to fall for every ‘libertarian’ who somehow manages to start caring deeply about this issue right when it’s politically convenient to do so.
General Stuck
@Alex:
They say the same thing over at Redstate. Funny that.
Hal
@General Stuck:
The freedom loving folks over at Redstate have been complaining about the drone programs for
yearsmonthsweeksdayshours.Ted & Hellen
The enemy (Randy Paul) of my enemy (Obama’s Drone Program) is my friend, on this issue if no other.
It’s not hard to understand, no matter how hard you try to pretend you don’t get it.
Oh, sorry, forgot: RACIST!
Chris
@Brad:
Yeah. The immediate reason was that they wanted to obstruct Obama, but doing it this way => whipping up the people who thought “X-Files” was a documentary. And these people are big in the teabagger base.
Alex
@General Stuck: When you realize how and why that is, and begin to confront the giant force-antithesis currently conglobating in your prefontal cortex right now, then return to the keyboard and type something coherent. I realize cognitive dissonance is a bitch.
Anya
I must admit, I am one of the suckers who was hoping that this focus on the drones will get us some serious evaluation of our out of control national security state. I did not watch any of Paul’s hissy fits and did not read much about it, so I was making judgement based on scant information. My bad!
Well, that’ll teach me. I promise to be critical next time Paul filibusters Obama’s nominee for Department of Interior because he wants to have more information about FEMA coffins. Still can we have a serious converstation about those FEMA coffins?
eemom
Look, I’m the first to admit I have led a less than exemplary life on this blog….but do I really deserve All Rand, All The Time?
Fer fuxsake, fucking 24/7 Sullivan was better than this.
Ted & Hellen
@eemom:
I disagree. I find RP MUCH less vomitatious than Randy Andy.
Chris
@Anya:
I had a brief moment like you a couple of years ago when these new scanners and security measures were set up by the TSA and people started bitching, and I thought “huh, maybe they’ll finally calm the fuck down on this security theater.” Except the loudest and best organized bitching quickly took the form of “how DARE you grope me! You should be groping THESE PEOPLE over THERE! Can’t you see they’re DIFFERENT?” at which point I pretty much gave up any illusions.
This time, though, I only had to look at the name of the guy filibustering to know it was shit. His father’s a grifter, and he’s potentially a worse one because while pops looks content to sit on the fringes and grift, Rand actually seems to have ambitions of being part of this teabagger shit.
General Stuck
@Alex:
LOL, wut?
Okee dokee, I type for those making non sequitur arguments built by clueless strawmen with complete lack of perspective
Here is an example.
@General Stuck:
That’s what people say when their bullshit gets pinned to the barn door and they commence with the conglobation , or as the kids used to say, wanking.
Hill Dweller
Rand Paul supports the drone program, including killing Americans on US soil if the pose an imminent threat. When asked what would be an imminent threat, Paul said “assembling a weapon”. Rand loves him some drones.
Rand doesn’t love the Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act, Violence Against Women Act, nor a women’s right to choose. In fact, he supports a personhood amendment, which would make all abortions illegal and ban several types of birth control. Hell, Rand was praising Lochner on the Senate floor last night, which is easily one of the worst decision in the Supreme Court’s history.
Rand(and his father) are the wingnuttiest of the wingnuts.
General Stuck
The national security state is a wide open digital age. Privacy is pretty much shit out the window, and only tea baggers and their progressive counterparts worry that the government is the biggest problem. The rest of us realize the danger comes mostly from crooks criminals and scaliwags trying to steal your identity. As well as corporate maidens gathering info on every single move you make from day to day. Neither the government nor the capitalist crooks and profiteers should be ignored for mining the great info highway, but neither should we be pissing in our pants because we live in the time of few personal secrets. You can run, but you can’t hide.
Reasonable 4ce
Part of Rand Paul’s motivation may be to rehabilitate his paleocon/libertarian street cred after kissing neocon ass during the Hagel confirmation.
I will say one thing kinda sorta in his defense. At least Paul stood up in the light of day and actually, you know, FILIBUSTERED the old fashioned way on an actual ISSUE. It’s an improvement, however slight, over the usual Nancy-Pelosi-hurt-my-fee-fee’s-so-I-will-cynically-and-anonymously-abuse-Senate-rules-in-the-dead-of-night crapola that we have come to expect from Senate Repukes.
kay
@Chris:
The anti-TSA worker media blitz coincided with those workers forming a collective bargaining unit, which Republicans and libertarians opposed. They succeeded and got a contract in August of 2012.
Chris
@kay:
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
That explains MUCH.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
As a Los Angeles resident and radio listener, I can pretty much guarantee you that Carolla is bitter because his old friend and TV/radio partner, Jimmy Kimmel, has a wildly successful TV show and Carolla does not. Period.
But of course it can’t be that someone else is smarter/funnier/more talented than he is, therefore it’s the fault if Those People. You know. Them.
orogeny
Rand Paul is an ass who saw an opportunity to look good and grabbed it. He got lots of publicity that the Repub base is dancing in the streets about. “I stand with Rand” is the best thing that ever happened to him. Why did the administration give him this chance? A quick denial would have shut him down before he got started.
Yutsano
Opportunistic. Asshole. This isn’t hard people.
Carolinus
Wow. This Corrolla interview is something else.
After making the mistake of going on the show, Newsome should probably have just walked out after the first couple minutes, when it become obvious Corrolla wasn’t going to let his racial obsession go.
ruemara
@Ted & Hellen: Except he’s not an enemy of the drone program. Now what?
Carolinus
@orogeny:
The first day’s question was open ended and ambiguous, and Holder himself added in the caveats about extraordinary situations involving combatants. Paul’s later question included Holder’s caveat so Holder could then simply answer no. Both answers were essentially the same, but the question was different the second time around. Of course that didn’t stop Paul from declaring victory and claiming, somehow the second response satisfied him.
TGC
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): I’d say something mean about Adam Corrolla, but the mirror beat me to it. He’s just mad because “ugly as sin” isn’t a protected class. I’ll bet he felt really out of sorts sitting next to Gavin Newsome.
Carolinus
Rand’s original question, from his letter:
He then later pretended that his question all along had been limited to “noncombatants.”
orogeny
Hmmm…I’ve been reading about the split between the fans of the Paul filibuster and the Republican hawks like McCain and Graham. Now I’m wondering if Obama kept Holder’s responses vague just to stir up more dissent in the Republican ranks.
Chris
@orogeny:
Have you met these people? It doesn’t matter what the administration does. They will simply pretend that the administration hasn’t done it and go on asking for it.
Obama released all the relevant documents about his citizenship prior to running for president. How did they react? By demanding “where’s the birth certificate?” for the next three years. Obama called the Benghazi attack “terrorism.” How did they react? By claiming that he hadn’t called it terrorism. Every time Obama’s ever made a concession, how have they reacted? By going on Fox News and complaining that he won’t concede.
I didn’t watch the filibuster or hear what Holder or Obama said in response, but I don’t have even the slightest illusion that it would’ve mattered. These people really and truly do invent their own reality and refuse to live anywhere else.
patroclus
To think that Obama and Holder pre-planned the vicissitudes of Rand Paul’s off-the-wall questions and bizarre filibuster is a little too eleven dimensiony chess for me.
Besides, I think the real answer is yes – the President possesses the authority to order the military to do whatever he thinks is necessary for the security of the country – whether they do it or not depends on their sense of his authority and whether it seemed reasonable under the circumstances. And that would include raining hellfire missiles on Jane Fonda or a cafe, depending on the circumstances. I can’t imagine any likely circumstances where Obama would target Jane Fonda, but a President Cheney might.
But to say that would just set Rand Paul off on yet another black helicopter fantasy (or two), so it’s best to just say “no” now. Whether John Brennan is going to be any good at CIA was not well-enlightened by this farce of a confirmation process. I don’t feel well-informed by the media or the politicians about the CIA generally – there’s been poor disclosure, poor oversight and a lot of secrecy (I suppose they like it that way). I think I need to watch a re-run of Homeland for a refresher.
Forum Transmitted Disease
Paul does not give a shit about drones. Or killing citizens without a trial. If he did he’d be bitching about the extrajudical executions carried out by police in this country every day, not some “death by drone” scenario that hasn’t happened once. He doesn’t bitch about them being used overseas. Even on American citizens. Any of you rocket scientists notice that? Of course not. Too busy jerking it because a muskrat-wearing tool tried to stick it to the president.
He gives a shit about face time, and a whole bunch of suckers gave him more than he even bargained for.
Those of you pretending he has a point about anything need to get real. He’s jerking your strings and you’re dancing like the good little puppets you are. You’re suckers. Falling for a two-bit grifter like him. Fucking suckers.
Forum Transmitted Disease
Paul does not give a shit about drones. Or killing citizens without a trial. If he did he’d be bitching about the extrajudical executions carried out by police in this country every day, not some “death by drone” scenario that hasn’t happened once. He doesn’t bitch about them being used overseas. Even on American citizens. Any of you rocket scientists notice that? Of course not. Too busy jerking it because a muskrat-wearing tool tried to stick it to the president.
He gives a shit about face time, and a whole bunch of suckers gave him more than he even bargained for.
Those of you pretending he has a point about anything need to get real. He’s jerking your strings and you’re dancing like the good little puppets you are. You’re suckers. Falling for a two-bit grifter like him. Fucking suckers.
David Koch
Halloween is gonna be fun this year with kids dressing up as Dr0nzes
Keith G
But very smart people, including an African American journalist who supports Obama, feel that in just this one case Paul made a good choice.
Woodrowfan
@Brad: this! this! this!
Woodrowfan
@Steeplejack:
Hai Karate: Be Careful How You Use It
mai naem
I remember hearing about Adam Carolla being a dick but I have never listened to any of his crap. I am amazed that Gavin Newsom was so calm through the whole interview. I would have swung at the a-hole or walked out. It’s funny that Carolla’s talking to Newsom who was helped in his businesses by one of the Gettys. I think a lot of black people would do just fine if they had a Bill Gates type funding their business. At least I always thought the Man Show was stupid. Looks like Carolla is taking the Dennis Miller career route.
Matt McIrvin
I have zero respect for Rand Paul, but I’m willing to praise him and guys like him on the occasions that, for whatever self-interested or crazy reason, they support a position I do. That’s one of the ways politics works. (In this case, though, the moment seems to have passed.)
That said, you do always have to be careful doing this with libertarians, because they have a tendency to try to inflate everything into a totalizing ideological claim. “See, drones mean you can’t trust the government, and this is why the minimum wage should be $0 and you should carry a gun everywhere.” Etc.
There’s an inability to distinguish between government and empire, which, granted, is an easy mistake to make if your sole example is the US.
Gus
Alwys thought Caolla was an unfunny ass witha smug smirk that just asked for a good punching. Not surprised he’s a racist ass, too.
gvg
I think Rand Paul accidently did something I approve of and that is republicize the talk about fillibuster reform which I had thought was dead in the water with no chance of change (Reid screwed up IMO) I had not previously realized there was even a chance the rules could be changed during a session. I know Reid said he might revisit the issue, but I didn’t believe him. Now he and others are talking a little about actually DOING it. That is the discussion I want to hear more about.
Sorry drones I think you are just a new tech not a new moral question or expansion of law. Presidential power has been expanding for decades. Congress has been in a fetal crouch “just don’t blame us” and I’m afraid I see police abuses as more urgent.
Patricia Kayden
@SoINeedAName48: Love that.
JS
@patroclus:
This is exactly why the drone program is not only morally wrong but just look at your statement regarding Dick Cheney: You correctly asserted that someone with those hawkish principles would use domestic drones against political enemies. That’s the reason why so many of us are against this program and Obama does NOT contain the authority to kill American citizens on American soil without due process. Period. Not only is it unconstitutional but it’s illegal and under any other name would be called murder. The President, and the Justice Department, has been unwilling to provide the justification that it had for killing a 16 year old American citizen on foreign soil, exactly what makes you think they’re going to be forthcoming on a domestic campaign. That is disgusting. Man, I don’t know what is the deal with this Obama supporters as of late but wow, welcome to a bunch of weird mental gymnastics and partisan hacking. I can’t believe that so many people are letting the right thing be blinded by who brought the right thing to the table. So what if you don’t like Rand Paul, you should really like Civil Liberties and how this President is so far to the right on Bush in this area it’s not even funny. Seriously, grow up.
Kay
@Chris:
It does explain a lot :)
2012:
If some weird meme pops up demonizing a specific group of lower-level workers, I think some skepticism is called for in the future. We’lll have to check if they’re unionizing and see if those two things just happened to occur at the same time.
proterozoic
Damn… This is my first exposure to Adam Carolla. He is Bill O’Reilly as a douche fratboy, without the latter’s patience, nuance, erudition and respect for his guests.
dabba2
Carolla should have stuck with talking about anal sex and STDs.