What We Learned From The Hayden Hearings...

...Apparently nothing.

Same old talking points, many of the Democrats didn't address any of the obvious questions I posed in my last entry (Only Sens. Wyden and Feingold took a stab at real substantive inquiry) and the Republicans just settled for trying to scare everyone. This morning a Firedoglake commenter posed this question that every member of the Intelligence Committee should've asked (which I think sums it up): "Given how any information about NSA programs has only come to our attention through the media, how can I be certain that we have now been fully briefed? Give me a reason why we should trust that we aren’t going to find out in six weeks or six months that there are other programs, or other aspects of the current program that someone just 'forgot' to tell us, or decided we really didn’t need to know. How can we be certain, given the president’s predilection for authorizing that laws and procedures can be ignored, that we are only being briefed to the extent that the president has decided is appropriate?". Given what came of the hearings, that probably would have been a good question to ask.

Wonkette humorously liveblogged the hearings for all the sad details-
Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, Pt. 4, and Pt. 5



"Hmmmm, which of these committee members should we wiretap first?"

AP: Hayden Insists NSA Surveillance Is Legal

[PS- Even though the media at large is apparently quite okay with the government spying on their phone records to unroot their sources (and using the Patriot Act as legal justification), ABC News is still taking note. ABC's Brian Ross was interviewed on Democracy Now on Tuesday; pretty informative interview.]