Start listening at 48:00

[tangent4ronpaul]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z8UezIFN1A

[timosman]

OMG, I was hearing a beginning of an applause when he made the first pause and flipped the page. This is not explosive ? It is on the record in Senate, they can not erase it. What else did he say ? Somebody should post a transcript.

[Zippyjuan]

The whole thing was ten hours and 40 minutes long (with help). http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/20/politics/rand-paul-filibuster-patriot-act-nsa-surveillance/

That will be a long transcript.


Washington (CNN)After 10 hours and 30 minutes, Sen. Rand Paul relinquished the Senate floor late Wednesday night, ending his "filibuster" over National Security Agency surveillance programs authorized under the Patriot Act.

Paul, R-Kentucky, ran through several binders of material over the course of his marathon protest, and also got some help from 10 fellow senators -- three Republicans and seven Democrats.

Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, were the biggest boons to Paul's efforts, joining Paul on the Senate floor several times to give the Kentucky Republican a chance to catch his breath -- and often grab a sip of water and pop a candy in his mouth. And one of Paul's rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, also ended up helping Paul's efforts late in the night.

"There comes a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer. That time is now and I will not let the Patriot Act, the most unpatriotic of acts, go unchallenged," Paul said at the opening of his remarks, and those who joined him on the Senate floor shared his concerns and stressed the need to reform the Patriot Act.

The Senate is considering whether to reauthorize or reform a crucial section of that law that gives the government sweeping powers to collect phone metadata on millions of Americans in an effort to thwart terrorist plots. The House last week overwhelmingly approved a bill to reform that law.

The NSA's bulk collection program expires at midnight on June 1, and the Department of Justice warned in a memo shared by a GOP aide on Wednesday that the agency will have to begin preparing a week before the expiration date for a potential lapse in the law.

Was it a filibuster?
Paul's talk-a-thon Wednesday came more than two years after his nearly 13-hour filibuster in 2013, which was widely anticipated and brought him national attention for delaying the confirmation of CIA chief John Brennan to draw attention to U.S. drone policies.

But his speech Wednesday wasn't technically a filibuster because intricate Senate rules required him to stop talking by early Thursday afternoon for an unrelated vote.

Still, Paul's office insists it was a filibuster, saying Paul prevented lawmakers from taking action to reauthorize the Patriot Act while he had the floor.

Ron Paul interviewed on it in video at link.

[dannno]

1:10:50 :D

[Sola_Fide]

I listened. And I am being listened to.