From Woody Allen’s Crimes & Misdemeanors. The question was, “What is comedy?”:
Lester (Alan Alda): “What makes New York such a funny place is that there’s so much tension and pain and misery and craziness here. And that’s the first part of comedy. But you’ve got to get some distance from it. The thing to remember about comedy is that if it bends its funny. If it breaks, it’s not funny… so you’ve got to get back from the pain… Comedy is tragedy plus time.”
Today, we are witnessing the culmination of a long sad process. Ever since 9/11, the administration has been bending the constitution. On February 6th, 2006, Congress is breaking the constitution. And even though the NSA hearings are a farce, they are not funny.
The first glaring indication that Specter’s hearings are going to be farcical was the refusal of the Republicans to place the head of the Justice Department, the official with the most responsibility to uphold our laws, under oath. Nothing could be more symbolic. The Attorney General is not expected to tell the truth, in fact Alberto Gonzales cannot tell the truth in these hearings. Knowing this, and by prior arrangement, the Republicans were kind enough to not expose limit the head of our Justice Department’s criminal exposure for his lies.
How could things improve after such an inauspicious beginning? Believe me, things will not improve.
What do we know about the NSA program? We know that somewhere around eleven employees of the NSA were so concerned about the legality of the program that the risked their jobs and broke the secrecy ethos of their agency to report it to reporters from the New York Times. We know that, as a result of the NSA program, the FBI was swamped with bogus leads that led them to investigate many, many innocent American citizens with no connection to terrorism.
Those two facts completely explode the legal and rhetorical defense of the Republicans. The program was not limited to people with known connections to Al-Qaeda, or affiliates of Al-Qaeda. At least, the FBI doesn’t think so, and they are hopping mad about all the manhours they wasted harassing innocent people.
The oversight of the program is supposed to done by qualified intelligence officers within the NSA, and to be limited to their discretion. Yet, nearly a dozen NSA officers thought the program was so egregious that they exposed the program to the press.
There is no way that NSA officers would have leaked a program that was limited to surveilling al-Qaeda communications. There is also no way that any FISA judge would reject a request for such surveillance.
Under these circumstances, it is clear that the President is lying, that Gonzales is lying, and that any even perfunctory investigation would expose these lies in short order.
The Republicans in Congress have decided that they have two choices. They can impeach their own President in an election year, or they can cede their own prerogatives and powers to the Executive branch. They have chosen the latter. And in order to cede these powers, they have to hold hearings that obscure the true nature of the NSA program, and that reveal no information contrary to the patently absurd characterization and legal justification of what the NSA program did.
This moment of crisis has been building for a long time. But today the tension reached its breaking point, and the separation of powers laid out in the Constitution broke.
It’s my understanding that lying to Congress is still a felony, oath or no oath. Not being under oath just exempts him from perjury charges.
But IANAL, so please correct me if I’m mistaken.
It is certainly true that lying to a federal agent (e.g., FBI, or whoever interviewed Martha Stewart–SEC?) is a felony. IANAL also, and I’m not sure that congresscritters are technically federal agents, but if anything there should be a higher bar for a congressional hearing than an interview with a lowly SEC agent, oath or no oath.
Lying to Congress is a crime and is punishable.
Lying under oath is a crime and is punishable.
You can be prosectued for both, but the sentances would not be consecutive. In other words, you would serve the sentances concurrently. So, since you wouldn’t serve any more time for violating one law than for violating the other law, there is no practical difference.
That’s how I understand it.
However, there may be different burdens of proof, etc. involved in proving a violation of one versus the other. Hopefully someone with more direct knowledge of this area would have input.
I suspect the penalty for perjury may also be more severe.
I have it in the back of my mind somewhere that the penalty for either is up to five years in jail.
If you were convicted of both, you would serve both sentences concurrently for no more than five years.
But I don’t really have time to look it up. Maybe somebody else knows off the top of their head (or has the time to find it.)
18 U.S.C. § 1001. Statements or entries generally
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully–
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;
shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331 [18 USCS § 2331]), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both.
(b) Subsection (a) does not apply to a party to a judicial proceeding, or that party’s counsel, for statements, representations, writings or documents submitted by such party or counsel to a judge or magistrate in that proceeding.
(c) With respect to any matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch, subsection (a) shall apply only to–
(1) administrative matters, including a claim for payment, a matter related to the procurement of property or services, personnel or employment practices, or support services, or a document required by law, rule, or regulation to be submitted to the Congress or any office or officer within the legislative branch; or
(2) any investigation or review, conducted pursuant to the authority of any committee, subcommittee, commission or office of the Congress, consistent with applicable rules of the House or Senate.
A barely relevant comment, but how often does this get quoted? The definition of comedy as tragedy plus time was actually devised by Steve Allen. Also like the Alda character, Steve Allen used to make incessant notes into a little tape recorder. That and the quote were the extent of the resemblance, though.
has been fought out in the courts before, the only difference is that the public (and FISA court) now know that they were doing the taps without warrants. I posted a new diary with a couple of news stories from 2001 and 2002. If anyone would like to help dig for more, there’s plenty of info out there.
I missed most of it because I had to go to a doctor appt.
I am so sorry. You sound depressed, Boo :(:(
We knew it would be a farce but it’s another thing altogether to actually witness it.
I’m kind of glad I missed most of it because I cannot bear that smirky mouth of Gonzales’s…. he has a mouth that SHOWS he is evil. I know that sounds silly. But it’s true.
And his eyes … there’s no there there. Not only is he morally absent. He is also intellectually void.
And the Senate? It’s capitulated to it all.
The venality, the cruelty, the seizure of executive power.
We are witnessing a tragedy unfolding that, perhaps some day — long after we’re all dead, historians will try to figure out. That is, if they’re allowed to write about it.
We are now living the nightmare. An executive branch with no checks and balances. The legislative and judicial in the pocket of the facists. Every time they get away with murdering our rights they get more bold.
Today some light is being shined into the tunnel that hides some of the actions of this administration. In that sense, there may be a “light at the end of the tunnel” someday, regarding this issue.