Why is Rand Focusing on the Drones?

I am of course just delighted to see that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) had the moxie to hold the Obama administration’s feet to the fire regarding their possible use of drone strikes against American citizens on American soil. I mean, it is amazing that the mainstream media aren’t the least bit interested about the matter — after all, if this had been contemplated by Bush and Cheney, the media would have become apoplectic.

But Rand might want to talk about what is going on over at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The DHS has taken some curious steps, indeed. First, as Ralph Benko of Forbes notes, the DHS is buying — get this! — 1.6 billion rounds of ammo, much of it hollow-point rounds. Putting aside the fact that hollow point bullets are forbidden by international law of war (I guess it’s OK to use them on your own citizens!), 1.6 billion rounds is a huge amount of ammo. At the height of the Iraq war, Benko notes, the military was using only 6 million rounds monthly. So the DHS is buying enough ammunition for a 20 year domestic war.

But wait — it just gets better. The DHS is also buying and retro-fitting, for street use, armored vehicles — “Mine Resistant Protected” MaxxPro MRAP vehicles, to be exact. These puppies are armed with machine guns, and are equipped to withstand IED and land mine blasts, as well as machine gun fire.

How many of the new toys is DHS buying? One report puts it at over 2,700 of them!

Meanwhile, the agency is apparently going to spend $50 million on spiffy new uniforms.

This, by the way, is the same DHS that is crying piteously that it cannot handle a 2% cut in funding, and is releasing hundreds of illegal aliens charged with crimes because it is so very cash-strapped.

This all warrants some congressional scrutiny, one would think — since it gets so little from the established media.