Congressional hearings on NSA spying

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You might have missed it, but yesterday were the first hearings in Congress on the spying by the NSA and the Bush administration.

It was completely underwhelming. The only one called to testify was Gonzales. He was not even put under oath (although apparently that usually happens in such cases). Of course, he starting by suggesting that those pursuing these issues are supporting terrorists:

Of course, that seemed to pretty much cow the democrats on the panel (perhaps with the exception of Feingold, who actually made some efforts to get Gonzales to speak up under oath to start with).

There is a good overview of what heppened here . To summarize:

Is good to see that Congress take it's role as overseer of the executive branch seriously

 

The ironic thing is that none of those items are in any way classified. None of those questions require a breach of our intelligence collection methods to answer them.

 

This whole thing is going nowhere. Look, we only have two outlets to correct these actions: 1.) Legislative branch (currently run by republicans) and 2.) Judicial branch (currently conservative). I think it is extremely doubtful that anything will be done as a result. Democrats will put on a brave face, and say they are stepping up to challenge the authority of these actions, but in the end, they will be powerless to stop it.

 

What really gets me steamed is the Democrats mild behaviour about all this. Of course, I understand that they are afraid Rove will use their actions to make them look "soft on terror"; but come on. Don't they have any spine left at all? Forget for a moment your preocupation with reelection and gathering money, and think a little what's at stake: the president says he's not bound by laws and congress, and says that he can do whatever he wants (torture, eavesdropping, etc.) Do we have to rely on republicans to put a stop to this?

The only one whose attitude I like is Feingold. Some excerpts from his speech to the Congress

There is some more stuff. The whole speech is here

 

Yes, but follow the string of logic through to its conclusion. If this is illegal, which I believe it to be, then it is an impeachable offense. But since the Rupublican Congress won't impeach the President, it means they won't push it forward. So you'll get no help there, and the Democrats, being in the minority simply lack the power to stop this. Yes, it's a sad state of affairs, but I'm doubtful, at best, that anything will become of it.

 

Yup, I'm still in the camp that hopes the next president arrests Bush and give him a harsh but fair trial. Gonna look forward to to seeing him in jail for a couple of years at least.


Yeah, let me dream.

 

To be frank, in the present climate, the president (dem or rep) could light babies on fire on a live CNN feed and there'd still be friggin' controversy over whether or not it was illegal.