Woodland Hills Rallies for Rand

As Sen. Rand Paul's filibuster of John Brennan's CIA director nomination went on and on Wednesday, people from the area surrounding Woodland Hills appeared mostly to support what was happening in the Senate.

Paul (R-Ky) began speaking on Wednesday at 11:47 a.m. Eastern time and yielded his time at just under 13 hours. He was using filibuster tactics to get explicit assurance from the Obama administration that the federal government cannot kill a U.S. citizen on American soil if that individual does not pose an imminent threat.

“No one politician should be allowed to judge the guilt, to charge an individual, to judge the guilt of an individual and to execute an individual. It goes against everything that we fundamentally believe in our country,” Paul said on the Senate floor.

Clear across the country in our section of Los Angeles, of the people in the Woodland Hills area Patch spoke with who were aware of the filibuster, most spoke in favor of it.

While there were a number of people at the Westfield Promenade mall Wednesday who weren't aware the filibuster was happening, Jenny Spangser knew of it and supported it.

"I'm not a Rand Paul fan, but I think he's making an important point. You can't just s--- on the Constitution. Our freedom and protection from the government is an important thing," the 42-year-old Canoga Park woman said.

While Paul drew some support in Washington from across party lines like that of Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, some opinion in Woodland Hills was based solely along those lines.

"If it's something the Republicans are doing, I'm sure it's bad and self serving," said Saul Fischer, 23, of Woodland Hills. "This is just another way to attack Obama."

Online, Twitter was ablaze with notes about the filibuster, with #standwithrand and #filibuster trending nationally and internationally. Trending might have gained momentum by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) reading tweets from the senate floor during his question time.

Tweets coming from the Woodland Hills area—according to a Twitter filter—were mostly in support of Paul:

Debbie Fennell ‏@DebsFennell: The more I learn about @SenRandPaul, the more I support him! He fights FOR America and our Constitution. #StandWithRand #filibuster

Elizabeth B ‏@Verbank: #filibuster Normally I think Rand Paul is BSC but I support him on this.

Casey Emfinger ‏@caseyleenow: @SenRandPaul, thank you for Standing for more than a party, standing up to tyranny #Filibuster #Standwithrand

Patty ‏@pir8gold:@SenRandPaul YOU ROCK!!! #filibuster #tcot

Then, of course, there were the not-so-serious observations:

SFK ‏@stephenkruise: ACLU, CodePink & a Tea Party senator all on the same page. We're an Elizabeth Warren rain dance away from this being SUPER EPIC. #filibuster

Kelley Raleigh ‏@kelleyraleigh: How does a human not pee for 13 hours? #filibuster

Aaron Lewis ‏@AaronTLewis: Can someone tell me when Rand Paul starts in with the rules for blackjack? #stackhouse #filibuster