18 May 2005Under cover of darknessDownsize DC reports that the Senate Intelligence Committee will hold a hearing on the USA PATRIOT Act tomorrow with no notice to the rest of the world, with an eye towards extending it indefinitely. Regardless of what you may think of the Act itself, holding secret, off-record hearings (who's being heard?) is an unconscionable mixture of the ridiculous and the reprehensible, and should be discouraged. I've already dropped a note to the two Senators from Oklahoma, though neither is actually on the Intelligence Committee. (Write your own joke.) Who knows what sort of mischief sixteen Senators can concoct? I'd just as soon not find out. Posted at 6:14 PM to Political Science FictionWell, a committee can't revise and extend a law all by itself, as you know. And if there's no notice of the hearing, how is it we ... er ... have notice? Posted by: McGehee at 9:24 AM on 19 May 2005Like the sewer line up the block, the committee presumably has leaks. I suspect you intended that simile to be precisely as apt as it is... Posted by: McGehee at 5:51 PM on 19 May 2005 |