Letters to the Editor
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Getting live video
I had difficulties getting video from C-SPAN (choppy to the point of not being coherent). The best live-video I could get was from the Fox News website, linked from their main page (http://www.foxnews.com/index.html)
Maybe their viewership is lower? Cheers.
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3 excuses
"I don't recall," "I may have misspoken in the past," and "we accidently lost 5 million e-mails" are three of the most feeble excuses ever to have been employed together in the history of American politics.
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What's the count on how many times THIS has been said
back to Gonzales by a senator?
"But that's not what I asked you..."
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MSNBC moron-of-the-day
http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/4/19/143143/922
Congress' Duty of Oversight of the Justice Department: Gonzales Hearing Open Thread
By Big Tent Democrat
Thu Apr 19, 2007 at 01:31:43 PM ESTMSNBC anchor Chris Janning just said it is for the President to consider the competency of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, not the Congress.
It never astounds just how ignorant television newsreaders are.
But we should never let this ignorance go unchallenged. The Democratic guest on MSNBC, Debbie Dingell, did a decent job in her appearance but did not take on Janning's flatly false statement. She should have.
- - Big Tent Democrat
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As a Texan
hearing John Cornyn voice is support for Gonzales' removal may be the most shocking thing I will hear out of this hearing all day.
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Media... thanks for the help
C-SPAN, here on Comcast Cable in Minneapolis, has two identical programs on C-SPAN's 1 and 2. All about should DC and Utah get one more rep. There's a damned crisis control situation for us to get civic-minded about, eh wot?
Meanwhile, AG Gonzalez is out there lying..I'm sorry, 'misspeaking', through his fucking teeth, and the only way to see the afternoon session is by using (theoretically) the online C-SPAN, which uses the world's two worst streaming video 'clients.' Windows and Real.
No wonder Americans are so fucking stupid, and reduced to offering up mealy-mouthed 'prayer' for people like the kids in West VA (as President Village Idiot did today in Ohio), instead of having a little gun control and health care for the mentally ill (never mind the other 100 million dangerously low- or non-insured)... Killl 'em now, pray later, I get it. It's got a uniquely American ring to it, am I right or am I right?
We're pretty good at keeping 500,000 bi-polar, schizophrenic, and major depression sufferers criminalized, and behind bars though...
Of course Hilary, at the worst moment in American history, wants the upcoming elections to revolve around "Can America elect an out-of-step-with-the-populace Woman?"
Jesus Christ, thanks Hil, you're our best player on their side. Please, you and the islamic baptist all-talk dude, get out of John Edwards' and America's way, please, baby, just go away and prove your point when the stakes aren't sky-fucking-high, All right? God damn.
The Media plays a leading role in the ongoing number one problem in America today: Stupidity.
Ignorance, Mr. Greenwald, as you know, is curable, but stupidity is forever. I love your column, and those of many of the Salon writers, but the country looks exactly like, what is known, in scientific circles, as, a goner.
No wonder the civilized world either laughs at, or hates us.
Sincerely,
Brian Stegner
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Scratch my last post
It was Coburn, not Cornyn. I'm an idiot.
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re: 55
According to comment at FDL, AG said "I don't remember" or equivalent 55 times this morning. -- casual_observer
And when someone does that it's indicative of.... what exactly?
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Cornyn
Cornyn will never change re: the AG, or Bush. He'll go down with the ship, I imagine.
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It's indicative that
...they're in the wrong line of work, for starters.
If anyone is still having problems with video, the SJC site has a link and an alternate: http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=2632
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I don't recall
If he can't remember that many things, should he be checked by a psychiatrist for a possible deteriorating mental condition? Maybe he is suffering from PTSD and has blocked the horrible memories because the trauma was too great for his pscyhe? I have heard that firing people can be as traumatic for the manager as the employee.
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It's indicitave
of the fact that he's obstructing justice and covering his ass.
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Shooter is right...
How could Gonzales be expected to remember events that happened such a long, long time ago? It's not as if he had any advance notice of this hearing, or had time or help to prepare for it. It's all a sinister Democrat conspiracy to kill more babies and surrender our God-given handguns to the Ottoman Empire.
It becomes clearer by the minute that the only reason this feckless, empty human pinata has survived this long is because he knows where all of Bush's bodies are buried.
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While we're on the subject
of indications, it's obvious now that Coburn calling for Gonzales' resignation indicates that Gonzales is gone. How's that for stating the obvious?
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A Round of Applause for Russ
It was especially good to see Feingold called him out on his self-serving & dishonest USA Today op-ed. From what I saw, many of the senators were rightly hammering him on the double bind of “1) you either knew what was going on in your department or 2) you are completely incompetent.” Feingold addressed this particularly well, and did so in a way that forced Gonzales, in the space of a few seconds, to take complete credit for the decision and to disavow it completely:
FEINGOLD: How about when the final decisions were made at any time prior to November 27th, 2006, when you approved the firings? Were you given or did you request a written memo or report giving the justifications for each of the decisions?
GONZALES: Senator, I don't recall that occurring. Again, what I recall is Mr. Sampson presenting to me a recommendation which I understood to be the consensus recommendation of senior officials of the department.
FEINGOLD: In light of the fact that you had so little to do with the decisions, and made so little effort to understand...
GONZALES: I had everything to do with the decision. It was my decision.
http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/07/04/20070419.htm
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Weird defense
Has anyone else noticed that Gonzalez used as a defense for the charges from Shumer that Carole Lam was not informed about immigration concerns that she had to know because Congressmen were calling her about it? I'm amazed Shumer didn't jump on that or anyone else for that matter? Isn't that inappropriate contact?
His comment about criticism of him being criticism of career DOJ employees is beyond insulting. I'd love to know if anyone on that panel has directly challenged him on the notion that firing USA's is a Presidential prerogative and that thus the President must have known about this and been involved to some extent.
His excuses, as with this entire administration, is that he can't recall, or that he isn't really in charge (that's someone else's job apparently) or that he isn't aware. How absurd is it when the "adults" who took over from the Clinton kids excuse their own actions by claiming incompetence.