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Rand Paul Is Filibustering the Patriot Act Right With Glorious Ramblings

Sit tight, he’ll go as long as he can.
Image: Mark Taylor/Flickr

Sen Rand Paul (R-Ky) is currently rambling against NSA surveillance on the US Senate floor in an attempt to stop the renewal of the Patriot Act.

The libertarian senator, might very well be the only serious anti-surveillance candidate to become President in 2016—he even sells webcam stickers so the NSA can't creep on you on his official site. Paul had announced that he was willing to filibuster the renewal of the Patriot Act to stop NSA surveillance, and is now fulfilling his promise.

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I've just taken the senate floor to begin a filibuster of the Patriot Act renewal. It's time to end the NSA spying!
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) May 20, 2015

"There comes to a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer," Paul started in pompous fashion. "That time is now. And I will not let the Patriot Act, the most un-patriotic of acts, go unchallenged."

It's unclear how long Paul can ramble, but his spokesman told the National Journal that he "will speak until he can no longer speak."

If you're wondering how long that can be, keep in mind Paul has proven rambling skills.

"I will not let the Patriot Act, the most un-patriotic of acts, go unchallenged."

Roughly two years ago, in a vain attempt to stop the nomination of John Brennan for CIA Director, Paul rambled for more than 13 hours, in an epic filibuster that coincided with a not-so-epic blizzard in DC, prompting blogs and media insiders to questionably label it "the #Filiblizzard."

At the time, Paul was mad about Brennan's role in the US covert drone strikes, and he used tricks such as quoting seemingly every article about drones ever (including spelling out the names—though sometimes wrongly—dates, and publications where he read those articles).

We'll see what tricks he has up his sleeve this time. One thing is for sure, Team Paul sees this as a great publicity opportunity. His social media team is live tweeting his filibuster and even asked followers to change their Twitter avatars and replace it with pro-Paul logos.

Watch the filibuster here>> http://t.co/oBex4oDZS5 and change your avatar to join in opposition to NSA spying pic.twitter.com/Jqt1UOFgwp
— Dr. Rand Paul (@RandPaul) May 20, 2015

If you want to hear Paul rambling against the NSA and surveillance, you can watch it live here.