The NSA hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee may be the only hearings we get which is too bad because they've largely been ineffective as anything other than a comedy routine. C.I. and Ruth both noted last Tuesday's hearings.
Democracy Now: Gary Hart, Cecilia Fire Thunder; The return of Miss Priss Instant Cuckoo (O Hatch)
Before highlights, let's talk the concluded hearing. And? Yawn. **Leahy and Specter seem to be in a competition over who'll be the first to start a fan club for the other.*** And Miss Priss Instant Cuckoo? America, get worried. O Hatch felt the need to play the ticking time bomb. "Millions of lives at stake" Miss Priss said. Repeatedly. And at one point, "I can tell you personally that very well may be the situation." That being "millions of lives at stake." Congressional police, arrest that man!
Exactly what information does Miss Priss have and what is Miss Priss planning? "I can tell you personally," claimed Miss Priss.
Seriously, don't get worried, O Hatch has nothing and knows nothing -- as has been the case so often in his career. But he wants to scare us all. (Couldn't he just send out 8x10 glossies?) So he plays the fear card, Extreme Fear Card.
Watch for him on NBC. He'll be happy to announce the events but he won't hop in a coffin of bugs or any other situation. Not Miss Priss.
Sadly, while O Hatch worries about the mythical lives, he forgets that lives really are at stake. If we have to trample liberties today, lives are at stake. If we abandon what we stand for, lives are at stake. (I should add "American lives" -- those were the lives that O Hatch was referring to.)
O Hatch likes to forget that a war was fought, around the time he first learned to snarl (1700s), for rights and liberties.
Now Ruth:
Ruth's Public Radio Report
Ruth: I wanted to note Pacifia Radio's coverage of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the illegal, warrantless spying of Americans authorized by the Bully Boy. Larry Bensky anchored and did an impressive job even when the feed was momentarily lost.
A great deal of the inner workings of the FISA court were discussed and I thought that might be worth noting. FISA initially was composed of seven judges but, after 9/11, the number was upped to eleven. The judges serve seven year terms after which they are not eligible to immediately serve another term. The notion of the FISA court as a rubber-stamp court were not dispelled when one FISA justice explained the court's role as being "there to help them" meaning the executive branch. The courts, unless old age has led me to forget the judiciary's role, exist not to serve a branch but to serve a people.
Mr. Bensky noted that the judges were sworn in, that all witnesses who had testified before the Judiciary Committee had been sworn in with one exception: Alberto Gonzales.
A great deal of the inner workings of the FISA court were discussed and I thought that might be worth noting. FISA initially was composed of seven judges but, after 9/11, the number was upped to eleven. The judges serve seven year terms after which they are not eligible to immediately serve another term. The notion of the FISA court as a rubber-stamp court were not dispelled when one FISA justice explained the court's role as being "there to help them" meaning the executive branch. The courts, unless old age has led me to forget the judiciary's role, exist not to serve a branch but to serve a people.
Mr. Bensky noted that the judges were sworn in, that all witnesses who had testified before the Judiciary Committee had been sworn in with one exception: Alberto Gonzales.
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