Good evening. Alito hearings got a little more lively. Let's kick things off with Democracy Now!
NSA Denies Whistleblower's Demand To Testify Before Congress
Meanwhile, ABC News is reporting the National Security Agency has denied the request of whistleblower Russell Tice to testify before Congress. Tice, a former intelligence agent at the NSA and Defense Intelligence Agency who has spoken out against the domestic spy program, was told he is not free to testify because staff members on Capitol Hill do not have high enough security clearance to hear the secrets he has to tell. Tice first spoke out on record on Democracy Now last week.
That better not be the end of it. NSA doesn't override elected members of Congress in a democracy. This is like when J-Ass tried to shut up Sibel Edmonds and Congress went along with that. It's a real shame that in a supposed democracy we have to wait for permission to hear about problems. Tice says there's a huge problem. Congress should call him to testify and it should be on every channel and every radio station and that's what a democracy is supposed to be about.
UN Admits July Cite Soleil Raid Killed Innocent Civilians
The calls for crackdowns come as the UN has admitted for the first time it killed several innocent people in a July raid on the poor community of Cite Soleil. This according to an internal inquiry obtained by the London Independent. At the time, Democracy Now broadcast graphic footage of the raid. Peacekeepers killed at least twenty people, including two young children. Despite its admission, the UN maintained most of the dead were actually killed by other gang members, calling the video footage a "manifest example" of disinformation. But Kevin Pina, a Haiti-based American journalist said: "I personally handed a copy of that video to [the UN special envoy, Juan] Valdes at JFK airport. He described it as propaganda and lies without even looking at it. They are predisposed to saying this. They do not want to look at the evidence."
Bully Boy was doing the freedom talk again yesterday. But what about Haiti? I think that should be a cry whenever and where ever he brings up "freedom"? "WHAT ABOUT HAITI!"
Remember to check out Elaine's site, Like Maria Said Paz, to get her input. And remember to listen to the hearings on Pacifica.
Now let's talk Alito. Ted Kennedy? I feel proud to have him as one of my senators.
He did a great job. I groan everytime Diane Feinstein speaks. She really gets on my nerves with her fussy manners. But Ted Kennedy roared like a lion.
I think he shook things up and woke things up. There was a lot more action today. Dick Durbin did pretty good in the morning. Charles Schumer did a strong job in the afternoon. Russ Feingold is second only to Ted Kennedy. I feel like even Kohl and Biden got some points in. Then Diane Feinstein has to get silly. Elaine's covering that so I'll just ask what she thinks she's doing?
She's not helping anyone. If you think I'm being rough, you should hear Nina. We cut class to listen to the hearings and I've never seen her so mad. That includes when we were hurrying down the stairs Christmas Eve to get to Mass and I accidentally stepped on her dress. She was ahead of me on the stairs and had a nice long dress on. We were both hurrying down the stairs and she was in front of me and I wasn't paying attention where my big feet were going. Ma and Elaine got out the thread and needle and it was like the mice in Cindrella. :D
I have hopes for tomorrow's hearings and I'll talk about that in the roundtable for the gina & krista round-robin tonight so look for that tomorrow when Gina and Krista e-mail it out. By the way, Ma's taking part in tonight and tomorrow night's roundtables. And when you read tomorrow, expect an earful from Nina. She didn't plan to take part tonight but she's so furious with Diane Feinstein that she called Gina and Gina said "Of course." If she'd asked me, I would have told her that because Gina and Krista want as many people weighing in as possible. So look for that in the morning. C.I. wrote some about the round-robin and Leigh Ann doesn't get the round-robin. She saw C.I.'s entry and wondered about C.I. talking about? C.I. asked Gina and Krista last night. C.I. really only talked about comments made by C.I. which would have been fine without permission. But Gina and Krista gave permission (and said C.I. didn't need permission, but C.I. really thinks the round-robin should be kept private). C.I. said if they were doing nonsense, it was going up at The Common Ills because the press was bored on Tuesday. The journalist that took part in the roundtable Tuesday night kept stressing that over and over and kept saying C.I. needed to post something on that because if there weren't sparks today, it was over. In the roundtable I listened a lot and I did talk about the "manners" bit like I had blogged on last night. Leigh Ann asked why it pissed me off so much? Because I think they needed to get down business and wasn't seeing that happen. Today was better after about the second or third hour. But Diane Feinstein needs to stop playing Miss Manners.
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