So, are you prepared for the big NSA hearing tomorrow?

[BuyingThyme]

Do you think any of the Senators are aware that the spy "program" was initiated before September 11, 2001?

Do you think any of the Committee members will have the guts to put Chimpy's "we're talking about getting a court order" lie on the record in a meaningful way?

Will they have the balls to slam Gonzalez for becoming nothing more than a political shill?

[Bluzmann57]

1. Probable answers to your questions

No, I have to take the car in tomorrow for work.

The Senators may know full well that the spying program started before 9/11 but won't say anything about it.

It is doubtful if any Senators will have the guts to put the court order thing in a meaningful way.

There is no way they will have the cojones to slam Gonzalez for his role.

[AnnInLa]

2. Some "times" to write down

Glen Greenwald will be on C-Span from 7:45 - 8:30 Eastern, the hearing starts at 9:30 Eastern

[BuyingThyme]

4. I wonder if they're going to let Gonzalez,

and the Senators for that matter, read their entire statements.

That could put us past lunch before any questions are asked.

[journalist3072]

3. I expect the Bush Crime Team to be as evasive and lying as ever

They will show complete disreguard for the Congress' responsibility for oversight.

And the Judiciary Committee will let them get away with it.

Arlen Specter has said he doesn't think the program is legal, and of course I agree.

But I also think Specter is grandstanding and will try to play both sides of the fence.

[tnlefty]

5. I have a question that may seem silly considering the Gonzales unJustice

Dept., no make that 2 questions...

During the hearings regarding the mine safety officials, one of the officials asked Sen. Specter if he was under subpeona prior to answering a question, and when Sen Specter responded that he wasn't, the pitiful excuse for human waste got up and walked out of the hearings and Sen. Specter stated that he couldn't remember when that had happened before.

1. Why in the hell didn't Specter subpeona his sorry ass immediately???!!!

During the Senate Intelligence Committee hearings Negroponte, Hayden basically told the committee that they wouldn't answer questions during the hearings nor would they answer questions in a closed session...translation...Bush** and Cheney told them not to answer questions posed to them, and I think it was Negroponte who stated as much.

2. Why in the hell aren't the Federal Marshalls, the FBI or some goddamned law enforcement officials called in to handcuff these bastards and give them a time out in a jail cell somewhere to reconsider?

I know, I know, I'm livin' in a pre 9/11 world in which this type of crap actually mattered.

[BuyingThyme]

7. Two good questions.

I hadn't even heard about that guy walking out. Was it reported?

On the second, I seem to recall discussions about Congressional Committees threatening to charge would-be witnesses with contempt, but I don't remember how things panned out.

[tnlefty]

11. My spouse came home and told me about the mine safety hearings and I

believe that he heard about it on Randi Rhodes' show. I don't mean to be lazy, but I think it was a day or two prior to Feb. 1st, and I was jumping through hoops trying to get a birthday dinner together for my middle child, and the following day we left to go to Gatlinburg because the oldest child was in the East TN Band and Orchestra Association's senior clinic, and I was listening to excerpts about the Sen. Intelligence Committee's hearings on Thurs. afternoon on the drive up. I got home at 1 this morning, so I'm not really trying to be lazy, I'm just tired and trying to catch up a little before I go to bed.

I would be very interested in a follow-up on the contempt charges.

[savemefromdumbya]

10. Perhaps someone should get them by the throat

[seemslikeadream]

6. under Bush's theory a president could authorize internment camps

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/02/05/on_eve_of_hearing_split_on_spying/

On eve of hearing, split on spying
Some prominent conservatives break with Bush
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | February 5, 2006

WASHINGTON -- As hearings begin tomorrow on President Bush's domestic spying program, increasing numbers of prominent conservatives are breaking with the administration to say the program is probably illegal and to sharply criticize Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's legal theory that a wartime president can override a law.

The skeptics include leaders of conservative activist groups, well-known law professors, veterans of Republican administrations, former GOP members of Congress, and think tank analysts. The conservatives said they are speaking out because they object to the White House's attempt to portray criticism of the program as partisan attacks.

''My criteria for judging this stuff is what would a President Hillary do with these same powers," said Paul M. Weyrich, the influential writer and leader of the Free Congress Foundation, a think tank. ''And if I'm troubled by what she would do, then I have to be troubled by what Bush could do, even though I have more trust in Bush than I do in Hillary."

Shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush secretly authorized the military to wiretap American's international phone calls and e-mails without obtaining court permission, as a law requires. After the program's existence was disclosed in December, Bush contended that his wartime powers give him the authority to override the law requiring warrants.


Bruce Fein, a former Justice Department official under President Reagan, said that under Bush's theory a president could authorize internment camps for groups of US citizens he deems suspicious. Congress outlawed such camps after President Franklin D. Roosevelt interned Japanese-Americans in World War II. But under Bush's theory, the president could invoke his wartime powers to override the law in the name of protecting national security, Fein said.

[otohara]

8. I'll Drink Pomegranate Juice Every Time He Implies the Lie

911 wouldn't have happened had this program been in place.

[BuyingThyme]

9. God, I wish they had the balls to say,

"well, the program apparently was in place."

But then the investigation would be about MIHOP; and even Dems are afraid of that.

[Oilwellian]

12. Mmmmm....Pomegranate martinis

They are delish. :D

[otohara]

13. Yum, That Does Sound

delish - I never heard of, but I don't get out much anymore. Old lady, can't drink much.