Rand Paul Wants To Protect Your Civil Liberties... Unless You're A Radical Protester

Sen. Rand Paul is well-known for advocating a hands-off approach to government, notably single-handedly attempting to obstruct passage of the Patriot Act last week, saying that its provisions are a danger to civil liberties in the US. So why, then, did he suggest to Sean Hannity a much more serious breach of first-amendment rights?

"I’m not for profiling people on the color of their skin, or on their religion, but I would take into account where they’ve been traveling and perhaps, you might have to indirectly take into account whether or not they’ve been going to radical political speeches by religious leaders. It wouldn’t be that they are Islamic. But if someone is attending speeches from someone who is promoting the violent overthrow of our government, that’s really an offense that we should be going after — they should be deported or put in prison."

So if you attend a radical rally, even out of curiosity, you should be tossed in prison?  While I don't think any one of my readers would advocate the violent overthrow of the government, why the hell shouldn't I be able to attend any speech I choose?  

He's regularly lauded as a strong advocate for free speech issues, but as ThinkProgress reveals in further research, his record on the rights of the individual are not so steady when it comes to national security.  He's even gone so far as to state that foreign terrorists have zero rights under the US Constitution.