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LIVE THREAD: SJC hearing on the NSA surveilance program - C-span 1; 9:30 am EST

Posted on 02/06/2006 6:08:53 AM PST by ken5050

Good Monday morning, once again, fellow political jinkies. The NFL season may be over, but the political season inside the Beltway is 24/7/365. So join us, if you can, as those wacky Dems on the Senate Judiciary committee reprise their pitiful efforts to once again smear President Bush and score political points..


TOPICS: Breaking News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 109th; ag; albertogonzales; attorneygeneral; doj; dojprobe; gonzales; nsa; spying; ussenate
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To: penelopesire
Specter did take some of the dems thunder away from them by asking those question.. Cornyn says the NSA action was not to override or ignore FISA but to supplement. it.The dems cannot let go of the FISA argument.
921 posted on 02/06/2006 9:47:32 AM PST by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES)
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To: conservativebabe

Yeah, WTH are they doing?


922 posted on 02/06/2006 9:48:07 AM PST by OXENinFLA
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To: OXENinFLA

evidently they must think they have some evidence of lying. were they listening?


923 posted on 02/06/2006 9:48:41 AM PST by conservativebabe ("I came here to chew bubble gum and kick @ss, and I'm all out of bubble gum")
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To: conservativebabe

Yes, I'm trying to watch it!


924 posted on 02/06/2006 9:48:57 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (History is soon Forgotten,)
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To: conservativebabe

Yes. What's that all about????


925 posted on 02/06/2006 9:48:57 AM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: ken5050

Foremost among the objectives committed to that trust by the Constitution is the security of the Nation. As Hamilton explained in arguing for the Constitution's adoption, because "the circumstances which may affect the public safety are [not] reducible within certain determinate limits, . . . it must be admitted, as a necessary consequence that there can be no limitation of that authority which is to provide for the defense and protection of the community in any matter essential to its efficiency." Id.

Nor is the authority to protect national security limited to actions necessary for "victories in the field." Application of Yamashita, 327 U.S. 1, 12 (1946). The authority over national security "carries with it the inherent power to guard against the immediate renewal of the conflict." Id.

Congress may not unilaterally restrain executive officials in the performance of their duties. In INS v. Chadha (1983), the Supreme Court struck down a law which authorized either House of Congress to veto an executive decision made by the Attorney General.

The Supreme Court has emphasized that we should not construe legislative prerogatives to prevent the executive branch "from accomplishing its constitutionally assigned functions." Nixon v. Administrator of General Servs., 433 U.S. 425, 443 (1977).


As Justice Joseph Story said long ago, "[i]t may be fit and proper for the government, in the exercise of the high discretion confided to the executive, for great public purposes, to act on a sudden emergency, or to prevent an irreparable mischief, by summary measures, which are not found in the text of the laws." The Apollon, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 362, 366-67 (1824). The Constitution entrusts the "power [to] the executive branch of the government to preserve order and insure the public safety in times of emergency, when other branches of the government are unable to function, or their functioning would itself threaten the public safety." Duncan v. Kahanamoku, 327 U.S. 304, 335 (1946) (Stone, C.J., concurring).


If the President is confronted with an unforeseen attack on the territory and people of the United States, or other immediate, dangerous threat to American interests and security, the courts have affirmed that it is his constitutional responsibility to respond to that threat with whatever means are necessary, including the use of military force abroad. See, e.g., Prize Cases, 67 U.S. at 635 ("If a war be made by invasion of a foreign nation, the President is not only authorized but bound to resist force by force . . . without waiting for any special legislative authority."); Kahanamoku, 327 U.S. at 336 (Stone, C.J., concurring) ("Executive has broad discretion in determining when the public emergency is such as to give rise to the necessity" for emergency measures); United States v. Smith, 27 F. Cas. 1192, 1230 (C.C.D.N.Y. 1806) (No. 16,342) (Paterson, Circuit Justice) (regardless of statutory authorization, it is "the duty . . . of the executive magistrate . . . to repel an invading foe") (12); Mitchell v. Laird, 488 F.2d 611, 613 (D.C. Cir. 1973) ("there are some types of war which without Congressional approval, the President may begin to wage: for example, he may respond immediately without such approval to a belligerent attack") (13); see also Campbell v. Clinton, 203 F.3d 19, 27 (D.C. Cir.) (Silberman, J. concurring) ("[T]he President has independent authority to repel aggressive acts by third parties even without specific statutory authorization."), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 815 (2000);id. at 40 (Tatel, J., concurring) ("[T]he President, as Commander in Chief, possesses emergency authority to use military force to defend the nation from attack without obtaining prior congressional approval."); Story, supra note 9, § 1485 ("[t]he command and application of the public force . . . to maintain peace, and to resist foreign invasion" are executive powers).

Conducting foreign affairs and protecting the national security are, as the Supreme Court has observed, "'central' Presidential domains." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 812 n.19 (1982). The President's constitutional primacy flows from both his unique position in the constitutional structure, and from the specific grants of authority in Article II that make the President both the Chief Executive of the Nation and the Commander in Chief. See Nixon v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 731, 749-50 (1982). Due to the President's constitutionally superior position, the Supreme Court has consistently "recognized 'the generally accepted view that foreign policy [is] the province and responsibility of the Executive.'" Department of the Navy v. Egan, 484 U.S. 518, 529 (1988) (quoting Haig v. Agee, 453 U.S. at 293-94).

"The Founders in their wisdom made [the President] not only the Commander-in-Chief but also the guiding organ in the conduct of our foreign affairs," possessing "vast powers in relation to the outside world." Ludecke v. Watkins, 335 U.S. 160, 173 (1948). This foreign affairs power is exclusive: it is "the very delicate, plenary and exclusive power of the President as sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations - a power which does not require as a basis for its exercise an act of Congress." United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp., 299 U.S. 304, 320 (1936).

As future Chief Justice John Marshall famously declared a few years later, "The President is the sole organ of the nation in its external relations, and its sole representative with foreign nations. . . . The [executive] department . . . is entrusted with the whole foreign intercourse of the nation . . . ." 10 Annals of Cong. 613-14 (1800). Given the agreement of Jefferson, Hamilton, and Marshall, it has not been difficult for the executive branch consistently to assert the President's plenary authority in foreign affairs ever since.


926 posted on 02/06/2006 9:48:57 AM PST by excludethis
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To: Carolinamom

I'm noticing the most liberal wing is before the cameras on this.

Yeah, they are retarded enough to suggest there is a terrorist right to privacy in America.

Kennedy who is a murderer who was allowed to get away with it is speaking and he is always sickening.


927 posted on 02/06/2006 9:49:06 AM PST by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: mewzilla
That'll shut up the Dems.

Doubt it. Clinton would show up, and it would be a sickening display of orgasmic love in there. Specter and Leahy would be arguing who would get to lick Bubba's shoes first, and Feingold would ask for a committee vote.

928 posted on 02/06/2006 9:49:15 AM PST by BigSkyFreeper (Proud to be a cotton-pickin' Republican on the GOP Plantation)
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To: Carolinamom

I truly depise the dems. To hell with bipartisanship...lol


929 posted on 02/06/2006 9:49:22 AM PST by penelopesire
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To: All

I haven't been able to post for a while...but, I have been listening...

And one thing that I think may happen that would send the dems off the deep end....

this hearing MAY help Bush in getting more Senators on board for WIDER powers...by being able to listen to two al-queda members within the USA...

HOO---HOOO...once again, the dems stunt will have backfired!


930 posted on 02/06/2006 9:49:25 AM PST by Txsleuth (l drink tea, not kool-aid.)
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To: A CA Guy

Kennedy saying FISA, FISA , etc.. it worked in 1978... uhh does he know we were not at war in 1978??


931 posted on 02/06/2006 9:49:59 AM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: Arizona Carolyn

The DemonicRats are at WORK!!!

Teddy going on record that he wants to shut down the program!


932 posted on 02/06/2006 9:50:08 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (History is soon Forgotten,)
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To: tcrlaf
Great Gulag for Liberals


I kind of like this idea.... ;-)
933 posted on 02/06/2006 9:50:20 AM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget (God punishes Conservatives by making them argue with fools.)
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To: prairiebreeze

At computer, back to TV...I solved that by putting a 6" diameter makeup mirror on the computer desk. Now I can see it all! I can't believe how long it took me to come up with that solution.


934 posted on 02/06/2006 9:50:32 AM PST by debg
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To: tcrlaf

good grief..idiocy on parade...lol


935 posted on 02/06/2006 9:50:57 AM PST by penelopesire
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To: Arizona Carolyn

Even then there are leaks galore to the NYT and WP. Gad, some of these dems so want to be popular...since they probably weren't in HS.


936 posted on 02/06/2006 9:51:10 AM PST by Carolinamom (I don't believe in a government that protects us from ourselves. ---Ronald Reagan)
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To: ken5050

The broadtape is now reporting that Iranian protestors are trying to fire bomb the Danish embassy.


937 posted on 02/06/2006 9:51:17 AM PST by BunnySlippers (ìÏâ¡ëfêHé`äŸ)
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To: BigSkyFreeper

ROFL!


938 posted on 02/06/2006 9:51:20 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach (History is soon Forgotten,)
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To: Fudd Fan
Then why in the name of Elvis is she on the JUDICIARY Committee? aarrgghh

Because she was the only one who could be persuaded (or bought) into taking it.

In the wake of the 1992 "Year of the Woman" election, the Dems felt that they HAD to put a woman on the committee that had handled the Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill mess (which they had leveraged in the 92 election). Problem was, of the Democratic women elected to the Senate that year (DiFi, Boxer, Murray, Mosley-Braun) not a single one actually wanted to sit on Judiciary (since it doesn't give a lot of opportunities to bring pork home to the state).

DiFi apparently cut a sweet deal to agree to go on the committee.
939 posted on 02/06/2006 9:51:21 AM PST by tanknetter
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To: conservativebabe

questions to Kennedy why he wasn't informed about FISA .. why didn't Rockefeller and other speak up


940 posted on 02/06/2006 9:51:36 AM PST by Mo1 (Republicans protect Americans from Terrorists.. Democrats protect Terrorists from Americans)
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