3 stories today:
Republican Rand Paul filibustered for half a day in the Senate because he is upset that the Obama White House is claiming the right to order unmanned drone attacks against American citizens on American soil. Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham have complained about Paul’s complaining. It’s a surprisingly complicated issue. It seems weird that we would need military attack drones on American soil against Americans. The military is supposed to fight foreign threats, but using them against Americans on American soil? And yet, I can imagine scenarios where lives could be saved.
I wonder though, can’t the police and FBI handle this? Maybe we just need to call in the gang from “NCIS: LA.” They end up shooting about 15 bad guys per week without involving the military, and the only thing that ever happens to the good guys is that about twice a year they have to dive away from a building that explodes one second later.
Meanwhile, as Republicans complain about Republicans, some Democrats might have “jumped the shark.” This is a term that was coined from an episode of “Happy Days.” The series was getting kind of late in its run and viewers were losing interest, so the writers decided to have one of the characters get on skis and jump over a shark. It was kind of silly and the show’s credibility suffered. In the face of the sequestration, President Obama warned that government janitors would see their pay cut on March 1. And one of the President’s Cabinet members said that teachers would start getting pink slipped on the same day. Neither scenario occurred. What happens when you insist that a catastrophe is coming but then things aren’t catastrophic? Do you celebrate or apologize?
In other news: North Korea is marching on with its nuclear program, but the United Nations has promised (again) to get serious. I heard a representative on the radio saying that North Korea is going to have a hard time now because there is going to be stricter enforcement of sanctions. Uh huh. So, first we tried to put sanctions on them, but NOW things are going to be different because we’re actually going to enforce the sanctions. Yeah, that sounds like a good step to take.
I am convinced that there are a lot of smart people in Washington DC with a lot of good ideas (seriously). I wonder what they think of this stuff.
And I wonder what do you think, dear reader?
I think there is nothing new under the sun. Or, in Washington.