This The Best Ya Got, Alberto?

Alberto Gonzales appeared in front the White House this morning to defend the NSA spying program...

From the AP report:

Gonzales said he had begun meeting with members of Congress on the Bush administration's view that Congress' authorization of the use of military force after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ample authorization for the surveillance.

"Our position is that the authorization to use military force which was passed by the Congress shortly after Sept. 11 constitutes that authority," Gonzales said.

It was the most detailed legal explanation given by an administration officials since the New York Times reported Thursday that since October 2001 Bush had authorized the NSA to conduct the surveillance.

Gonzales said Congress' action after Sept. 11 essentially "does give permission for the president of the United States to engage in this kind of very limited, targeted electronic surveillance against our enemy."

Congress authorizing the President to use military force to respond to terrorism overseas constituted (without their knowledge) their agreement he could bypass the legal process and authorize domestic spying activities?! This... THIS... is their legal defense? (!!!!) Wow, they had all weekend to come up with a justification and that is the best they can do? Vice President Cheney too busy being yawned at by soldiers in Iraq to phone in any better ideas? This is pathetic. What happened to the good ol' days of 'The Geneva conventions only protects prisoners of war and the war on terror isn't a real war so they're not protected by it and we can totally torture them!'? See, that was some quality, scummy legal defense right there. This new 'Well when Congress said to military respond to 9/11, I'm sure they understood it meant we had carte blanche to do whatever we wanted, ignoring any and all Constitutional and legal obstacles in our path' legal defense? Not so much.

Senator Feingold, will you take it from here, please?-
"This is just an outrageous power grab. Nobody, nobody thought when we passed a resolution to invade Afghanistan and to fight the war on terror ... that this was an authorization to allow a wiretapping against the law of the United States."

Thanks, Russ.

Now get to work, guys. This scandal is the real deal and we demand accountability.