First, for what it's worth from a politically cynical guy like me, "Congrats" to Rand Paul for the filibuster yesterday. He was trying to draw attention to predator drones, their use in assassinations worldwide, the lack of oversight or even consistency in how and where they are used, and most importantly, the question of whether they can be used against United States citizens on United States soil with the same discretion (or lack there of).
"If they're a known terrorist, take them out - no questions asked." That seems to be the attitude of most people here. One person even told me, "If they could have taken out Timothy McVeigh with a predator drone before he blew up the Murrah Federal building in 1995, they should have."
(DISCLAIMER: I disagree. I am among those that might have supported McVeigh completely had he blown the place up at 2:00 AM when nobody was there if he'd made sure that even the security guards were out of harm's way.)
Disclaimer aside, my reaction is, "Really?"
If they had known he was going to do that, they could have arrested him and given him the due process which the Constitution provides to all of us. If it doesn't apply to all of us, it doesn't apply to any of us.
They didn't know he was going to do that. Should they have assassinated him without due process because some unknown and unaccountable person in the intelligence community thought he was going to do something like that? Hell No.
What are we thinking here? How can we so loudly support our military, then despise the basic principles they're supposed to defend? Where are the Second Amendment rights advocates on this? Do they think their AR-15 Assault rifle will do anything to help them against a predator drone? Are we really this out of touch with what America stands for, what it's supposed to be about?
Is it that hard for our President, the nominee for CIA Director and the US Attorney General to stand up and say unequivocally, "Drones will never be used to assassinate US Citizens on US Soil. It is illegal and antithetical to everything our Constitution stands for."