listening to hearings

Today, I'm listening to Alberto Gonzalez defending the Presidents abuse of authority, and several things are going thru my mind...

1. Congress needs to be more careful with their wording when passing laws giving the President authority for something. Actually, when giving the President authority for anything, apparently.
2. Shakespeare may have had it right. One of Gonzales' arguements for the president having legal authority to wiretap domestically was this thing about "two possible interpretations" and how if one interpretation caused a tension between executive and legislative branches, then they had to, by law (as interpretted by the Supreme Court), go with the other interpretation. Funny thing, though, he didnt mention what happens if both interpretations cause conflict.
3. Gonzales keeps citing decisions made or actions taken by people from the "other side", such as Bill Clinton, Sandra Day O'Connor, and FDR. If the deed was wrong, the deed was wrong, regardless of who did it. Save your history lessons for the classroom.
4. In light of the information in one of my previous posts, I find reference to FDR especially troubling, for it was under Roosevelt that Japanese-Americans were rounded up wholesale and placed in detention camps, an action I'm not sure this country has yet to show an appropriate level of shame for. Dont think for one moment that the Administration hasnt reviewed all legal arguements associated with that episode.
5. We need to look at our definition of the word "war". We may indeed be involved in a conflict with extremist Islamists, and it may qualify as a guerilla action, but I dont think it qualifies as War, any more than the Cold War was a war (however many real wars it may have contained).
6. John Cornyn is an Administation Tool, and an asshat. In fact, most of the Republicans, even when giving Gonzales a hard time, seemed mostly to be asking, "how can we set things up so that the President can keep doing what he's been doing, but while keeping us, the Republican-controlled Congress, in the loop?"
7. How far will the BushCorp take section 109, authorizing "use of military force", which Gonzales used as his ultimate fall-back position during the hearings. Spying on Citizens, torture (which the administration still denies, even while defending the practice), hiding information, and God knows what else. Will that include rounding up dissenters, perhaps following the promised next attack by al-Queda?
   Hey! I got an idea, let's nationalize the countries Oil Companies! Surely huge oil profits (to the detriment of all Americans (except big stockholders and oil execs) and the military, which must buy petroleum products for its use, could justify that move, also.

Finally, the hearings are still ongoing, with the expected soft-soaping by Republicans (though not totally) and impotent vitriol by Democrats. Through it all, Gonzales has kept to the Administration line:

We havent done anything illegal, because we dont think we did anything illegal.

Could I use that next time I get a ticket?