Dumbass Thinks He Can Shoot Down Drones With Shotgun

I had to fact-check this Daily Caller article. Two reasons: the Daily Caller is a fact-challenged website and the article is so stupid that it reads like The Onion. Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News and 7NEWS in Denver also reports that Deer Trail, Colorado is considering an ordinance to pay bounty hunters to shoot down drones.

Deer Trail resident Phillip Steel isn't not the sharpest knife in the drawer. His ordinance would allow bounty hunters to shoot down drones with shotguns. Mind you, it is virtually impossibe for shotguns to shoot down drones flying at those attitudes. It is also illegal to destroy government property.

Even though it's against the law to destroy federal property, Steel's proposed ordinance outlines weapons, ammunition, rules of engagement, techniques, and bounties for drone hunting.

The ordinates states, "The Town of Deer Trail shall issue a reward of $100 to any shooter who presents a valid hunting license and the following identifiable parts of an unmanned aerial vehicle whose markings and configuration are consistent with those used on any similar craft known to be owned or operated by the United States federal government."

7NEWS Reporter Amanda Kost asked Steel, "Have you ever seen a drone flying over your town?"

"No," Steel responded. "This is a very symbolic ordinance. Basically, I do not believe in the idea of a surveillance society, and I believe we are heading that way."

I am no fan of drones, but this is stupid beyond words. The 7NEWS video below.

Code Pink Disrupts Obama's Drones Speech

I continue to marvel at how Code Pink gets past Secret Service and police security. The drone campaign has been a major cause for Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin. She has written the book "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control." Benjamin and Code Pink traveled to Pakistan to raise awareness on President Obama's drone campaign.

Here is Obama's response to Benjamin. Whatever you think about Obama (and I have my misgivings), he is a skilled politician. He doesn't get rattled when he's heckled.

Quote of the Day

"Rand Paul gave a perfect display of the sick paranoia that drives Tea Party and NRA: Obama is coming to get them. With drones."

Lawrence O'Donnell, on Twitter.

I am not a Rand Paul supporter but Paul has every right to question the legality of the drone program. Congress is suppose to do oversight of the executive branch. O'Donnell is more interested in being the left-wing version of Sean Hannity than being a journalist. O'Donnell was never a journalist. He spent his career on Capital Hill and then working on the television show The West Wing. Unfortunately, mainly of O'Donnell's viewers believe he is a journalist.

Update: O'Donnell's rather harsh assessment of Paul's filibuster. O'Donnell called Paul's action a "stunt" for campaign fundraising.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Paul's filibuster is not playing well with the neoconservatives in the Republican establishment. Hawk and drone supporter Lindsey Graham did make this astute observation about Republican senators suddenly loving due process.

“To my Republican colleagues, I don’t remember any of you coming down here suggesting that President Bush was going to kill anybody with a drone, do you?” Graham said. “They had a drone program back then, all of a sudden this drone program has gotten every Republican so spun up. What are we up to here?”

Holder Letter to Sen. Paul

White House Press Sec. Jay Carney read from a letter Attorney General Eric Holder sent to Sen. Rand Paul. Holder answered a question Paul asked during his filibuster. Does the President have the authority to kill U.S. citizens not engaged in combat operations against America.

Reading from the Holder letter to Paul, Carney said: "Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil? The answer is no. The answer to that question is no."

It is frustrating that it took so long for Holder to provide an answer. The good thing about the filibuster is that it put the administration on the record. The President has the power to use drones against a foreign invader or terrorist threat on U.S. soil. Whether or not that is a good idea is a discussion we need to have.

Robert Gibbs Says He Was Told to Lie About Drone Program

It is amazing what happens when Obama administration officials resign. They start sounding rational. Lawrence Summers now backs regulations on the financial industry. Former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs expresses his displeasure on being instructed to deny the existence of the drone program.

“When I went through the process of becoming press secretary, one of the first things they told me was you’re not even to acknowledge the drone program,” he explained on MSNBC. “You’re not even to discuss that it exists.”

“Here’s what’s inherently crazy about that proposition,” Gibbs continued. “You’re being asked a question based on reporting of a program that exists. So you’re the official government spokesperson acting as if the entire program — pay no attention to the man behind the certain."

It is hard to deny the drone program when there is documented evidence of the bombings. In June of 2012, Nick Sibilla put the civilian death count at possibly 500.

according to analysis by the New America Foundation, approximately 11 to 17 percent of all those killed by drone strikes in Pakistan have been civilians. Meanwhile, the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that since President Obama took office in January 2009, anywhere from 282-535 civilians have been killed by drone strikes, including more than 60 children.

I am not arguing to protect terrorists. I do want transparency on the legality of the drone program.

Does Joe Scarborough Know What Google Is

If Joe Scarborough doesn't know how to use Google than Politico should fact-check his columns. Scarborough rightly comes out against President Barack Obama's use of drone strikes. Scarborough uses his column to attack the Left for being against President Bush's torture policies, but supporting drone strike. I agree that there are people on the Left that have been silent on the drone strike issue. Scarborough veers off in his column and picks an unlikely target.

"Where are the ladies of Code Pink?" Scarborough wrote.

Well Joe, Medea Benjamin published the book "Drone Warfare: Killing By Remote Control." You can buy it on Amazon.com. Another Google search reveals that Code Pink staged several anti-drone strikes protests in Pakistan. Below is a video of Medea Benjamin being interviewed in Islamabad.

Code Pink has been in Pakistan. Scarborough could have found that out if he bothered to use Google. Scarborough is too intellectually lazy to fact-check his own work.

Scarborough spends the rest of the article defending torture. I can feel my brain cells exploding reading the rest of Scarborough's prose.

As I have said repeatedly, Americans should continue to debate the moral dilemmas caused by interrogation techniques but there is no debate that the techiques used on the Al Qaeda terrorists not only worked, but also been used on thousands of our own military members in SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) courses run by various services. Any graduate of basic training at Paris Island or Fort Benning will probably tell you that what many now consider "torture" (harsh treatment, sleep deprivation or dietry manipulation) is simply a day in the life of a U.S. military basic trainee.

The SERE program was created to teach military personal how to survive against torture. Scarborough fails to understand that simple fact. The techniques used by the CIA "a day in the life" of a soldier. Manadel Al-Jamadi was tortured to death in Abu Ghraib. A Google search would have provided Scarborough with that information. Al-Jamadi's dead body is where Lynndie England took the infamous thumbs up photo. Does ending up in a body bag look like a day in the life of a military trainee to you?

CODEPINK in Pakistan

I first heard that CODEPINK was going to Pakistan protest the drone strikes, when I was covering the Republican National Convention. CODEPINK was literally everywhere during the convention. Pakistan is the country where the late Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was murdered. Pakistan is a very unfriendly place for Westerners.

Threats of violence do not deter CODEPINK. These women have been arrested seceral times. They alway have a high level understanding about security. CODEPINK was able to break into a Condoleezza Rice speech, in Ybor City, that was protected by the Secret Service. CODEPINk demanded Rice's arrest for war crimes.