Rand Paul is suing the NSA! Or at least he's going to sue the NSA any minute now, you betcha:
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) will file a class-action lawsuit against the National Security Agency "soon," his office confirmed to The Hill.That's from The Hill. The Breitbart story tells us, "Via Paul's campaign website, more than 300,000 Americans have already indicated they will sign up for the suit when it is officially filed in D.C. District court." Oh, how nice -- this is being done via Paul's campaign site. And as The Hill notes,
Paul had been gearing up for months to lead a suit against the agency, charging that the surveillance program gathering metadata on U.S. citizens has violated people's Fourth Amendment rights.
... His office did not give the specific timeline for when the senator would file the suit.
Breitbart News first reported that Paul would soon file the suit....
The solicitation, which asks for individuals' names, email addresses and zip codes, also asks for a donation to help "stop Big Brother from infringing on our Fourth Amendment freedoms."So in order to get the NSA out of their cellphones and hard drives, 300,000 people have (yes, voluntarily) turned over a hell of a lot of personal data to Rand 2016. But hey, it's worth it, because the suit is reay to roll -- right? Well, no, not yet:
Although no court documents have been filed in the case yet, Paul's advisers told Daily Intelligencer that the Senator's legal team is currently drafting a complaint....So if the suit hasn't been filed, and it's basically going to duplicate an already existing suit when it actually is filed, what's the point exactly? Apart from amassing a campaign mailing list and collecting some checks?
So far though, the details of Paul's lawsuit are murky. A legal counsel for Paul told Daily Intelligencer Friday that he expects the case will be similar to another NSA suit filed by birther provocateur Larry Klayman.
And, as Yellow Dog says, isn't the point of being a U.S. senator that if you don't like what the government is doing, you have the opportunity to write new laws and use persuasion to try to get them passed? Isn't that Rand Paul's job?
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What does this mean for the presidential race? New York magazine reminds us that Rand Paul "delights in antagonizing national security hawks in the Chris Christie wing of the GOP." I've been assuming up till now that this is going to be a real split in the GOP, but I'm starting to think Christie is seriously misreading the GOP primary electorate -- I think he thinks voters will go for tough Bush/Cheney-style talk about freedom and 9/11 and terrorism, but base voters seem to have amnesia about their own attitudes during the last presidency, and now associate all national security efforts with the hated Obama. I don't even think a serious terrorist attack on Americans will change this. There'll be no rally-round-the-flag effect among base voters, just because, well, it's Obama, and he's evil. Hell, if even Fox News, run by self-styled macho man Roger Ailes and long a champion of foreign policy muscularity, is promoting Rand's lawsuit, then you know things have changed. However, I don't think Christie knows. He may be as out of step with his party in 2016 as Joe Lieberman was in the 2004 Democratic primaries.
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Another curious aspect of this Rand Paul thing is the identity of one of Rand's top allies:
Paul will also be getting an assist from Ken Cuccinelli, the failed 2013 Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate who will be out of his job as state attorney general next week. Sources say that Cuccinelli plans to join Paul's team as a legal advisor for the NSA suit, reprising his role as the Tea Party's most litigious firebrand.Yes, NSA surveillance is very, very wrong, says the guy who wants a government-mandate wand in your vagina if you seek a legal abortion. This, alas, is going to lead to a lot of arguments on the left, as certain dudebros cheer on Paul and Cooch while the rest of us recognize that surveillance is just about the only issue on which they're not utterly appalling.
I think of it more as rats leaving a sinking ship by the next available passenger option. Cuccinelli has, at least, name recognition among marks Rand wants to tap. This is a bit like going "of counsel" because they don't want to pay you a real salary. Or "being on the board" when its just your name they want.
ReplyDeleteLet's face facts, Rand doesn't have a fucking clue as to what his job is - and he can't self-certify himself for the Senate.
ReplyDeleteIn a Senate full of dim Conservative bulbs, this pseudo-Libertarian might actually be the dimmest one.
He is, though, keen on the idea of grifting the rubes from now until the end of his life, with these lists.
He's smart that way.
If the runs again for the Senate, they're good; if he runs for President, they're better; and if he ever finds himself out of the Senate, and not being the POTUS, on top of the money he'll get from Wingnut Welfare, he'll be able to send ads about his self-certified Optho-whatever the fuck he self-certified himself to be!
As for Cooch, he's completely against the government listening in on calls, and accumulating data (and, isn't that what RAND is doing - btw?) - unless Cooch is running the government.
But old Cooch wants the right to look into every woman's "coochie" whenever he feels like it.
For Cooch, civil liberties begin and end with a penis - preferably, a white Christian one!
When I first glanced at that headline, somehow my eyes/brain saw it as "NRA" rather than "NSA" and I was all like, "Wow -- just how desperate is he to grab clicks?"
ReplyDeleteI don't even think a serious terrorist attack on Americans will change this.
ReplyDeleteNo kidding. The House will move to impeach while convened in/on whatever smoking ruins they can, using Bush's Sacred Bullhorn.
cellphones and hard drives, 300,000 people
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There'll be no rally-round-the-flag effect among base voters, just because, well, it's Obama, and he's evil.
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