Can we just take a moment to note how awesome she is? I mean, really. Check out the transcript of her grilling Scott McClellan about Bush's domestic wiretapping:
Q Does the President think he should obey the law? He put his hand on the Bible twice to uphold the Constitution. Wiretapping is not legal under the circumstances without a warrant.MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I guess you didn't pay attention to the Attorney General's hearing earlier today, because he walked through very clearly the rationale behind this program. And, Helen, I think you have to ask are we a nation at war --
Q There is no rationale to disobey the law.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, he's not -- are we a nation at war?Q That's not the question.
MR. McCLELLAN: No, that is the issue here.
Q No, the question is, the point is there are means for him to go to war, get a warrant to spy on people.
MR. McCLELLAN: Enemy surveillance is critical to waging and winning war. It's one of the traditional tools of war.
Q Nobody says he doesn't have running room to --
MR. McCLELLAN: And the Attorney General outlined very clearly today how previous administrations have used the same authority and cited the same --
Q That doesn't make it legal.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- and cited the very same authority.
Q If they broke the law, that's too bad. You know what happened to Nixon when he broke the law.
MR. McCLELLAN: And we're going to continue doing everything we can within our power to protect the American people. This is a very different circumstance, and you know that.
Q No, I don't.
Q Two questions. One, --
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, then you should go back and listen to what the Attorney General said, because he laid out the safeguards that are in place, and how it's the career officials at NSA that make the decisions when it comes to this.
Q The President has to obey the law.
MR. McCLELLAN: And he does.
We need more women like her in the White House Press Corps. (If we can get White House officials to call on them...)
via RawStory. Crooks and Liars has video, too.
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She's always struck me as an immovable object when she sees something being done wrongly. Glad to know it's the case.
Can I be the first to nominate her to sainthood? Patron Saint of Not Shutting Up.
was it legal by the constitution when we sent all the japanese to those containment camps? no. but, in war sometimes the rulebook gets thrown out the window. Lots of crazy shit happens in war, wiretapping i am sure is only the tip of a very large iceburg.
JJS, i'm not sure what your point is, but i hope it's not justifying the japanese internment camps... 'cos that was tantamount to a war crime that really served no strategic purpose in the end (except for getting rid of an already marginalized competition for a few jobs in california)...
JJS, i'm not sure what your point is, but i hope it's not justifying the japanese internment camps...
Dunno, I think he's a wingnut. He can't make a clear point and he misspelled "iceberg". Sounds like a right-winger to me.
Helen Thomas is my hero.