How Rand Paul Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Drones

John Hudson
Ron Paul's vibrant fan base is in open rebellion today over Rand Paul's perceived reversal on domestic drone strikes. The Kentucky senator, whose famous 13-hour Senate floor filibuster did much to strengthen his ties with his father's hardcore following, told Fox Business Network on Tuesday he's OK with drone strikes on American citizens who, for instance, rob a liquor store.

"I've never argued against any technology being used when you have an imminent threat, an active crime going on," Paul said. "If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and fifty dollars in cash. I don't care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him."

While it's true that Paul has always made an exception for "imminent threats" -- a 9/11-like moment -- the liquor store scenario struck many libertarians as a very low threshold for domestic drone strikes, especially considering Paul's Senate floor remarks, which if you recall, took a more anti-drone stance. Here's Paul on the Senate floor:

I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast that our Constitution is important, that your rights to trial by jury are precious, that no American should be killed by a drone on American soil without first being charged with a crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court.

Now, a phalanx of Ron Paul and libertarian forums are revolting at the senator's perceived reversal. Read more >>

Census worker hanged in Kentucky with 'FED' scrawled on his chest

This is why the government is planning Martial Law. They know what's on the horizon.

SouthernStudies.org
The FBI and state police are investigating the death of a U.S. Census worker whose body was found hanging from a tree near a cemetery in a remote part of Kentucky with the word "fed" scrawled on his chest.

The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker and substitute teacher, was found Sept. 12 in the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky's Clay County. Sparkman has worked for the Census since 2003.

Co-workers became worried about Sparkman when he failed to show up for a Sept. 10 work assignment at Johnson Elementary School in Laurel County, Ky., WKYT reports. Sparkman recently earned his teaching degree while working two jobs and fighting cancer.

Lucindia Scurry-Johnson, assistant director of the Census Bureau's southern office in Charlotte, N.C., told the AP that law enforcement authorities have said the death is "an apparent homicide." The bureau has suspended door-to-door operations in Clay County until the investigation is complete.

Investigators are reportedly trying to determine whether anti-government sentiment played a role in the killing.

Blackwater claims they're authorized to use lethal force in U.S.

The Examiner's Jim Kouri reports Kentucky’s Lexington Police Department contracted Blackwater Security International to provide what’s described as homeland security training.

Lexington is on the nation’s list of so-called Sanctuary Cities in which police officers are prohibited from working with ICE or Border Patrol agents in the United States.

Kouri claims Lexington isn’t the only city using hired guns to help local police officers. In New Orleans, heavily armed operatives from the Blackwater private security firm are openly patrolling the streets. Some of the mercenaries were reportedly “deputized” by the Louisiana governor and were issued gold Louisiana State law enforcement badges to wear on their chests and Blackwater photo identification cards to be worn on their arms, says Kouri.

Kouri reports that while they are working in Louisiana, Blackwater officials say they are on contract with the Department of Homeland Security and have been given the authority to use lethal force if necessary. Some of the mercenaries assigned to patrol the streets of New Orleans recently returned from Iraq, where they provided personal security details for the former head of the US occupation, L. Paul Bremer, and the former US ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte.