The Washington Stakeout’s Sam Husseini is in Egypt, accompanying the international component that hopes to meet the “Gaza Freedom March” in Gaza. Egyptians and internationals have assembled in Cairo with hopes of visiting Gaza on the year anniversary of Israel’s bombing and invasion last January. Egypt has prevented participants from traveling so far. This past day Sam has observed a demonstration outside the United States embassy and heard word from a similar demonstration at the French Embassy as activists try to bring pressure upon Egypt.
We hope to see more from Sam tomorrow. You can follow his observations as they are shared raw at husseini.posterous.com, with more potentially being compiled here on this site later. Sam is posting from a smartphone and hopes to share brief written accounts of his observations, photos, and video when the technology complies.
While Sam is following the march, opportunities for the Stakeout here in Washington are on hold.
Updated 30 Dec 2009: Edited to reflect that the Gaza Freedom March is, in fact, based in Gaza, and the Egyptian and international activists gathered in Cairo to meet them is a solidarity effort. It should be noted that there have been developments with regards to the movement allowed by Egypt, and reportedly the US, since this post has been made. Follow the link to Sam’s material for more current snippets of observation and analysis.
If the predicted “Snowpocalypse” doesn’t get us we’ll be out there.
Update (Saturday evening): Our videographer is snowed-in, and tonight DC’s roads aren’t ready to be traveled. We’ve called this one off. Many thanks for the suggestions over email.
Is the Afghanistan War Violating the Constitution?
We asked: “You, as all senators, are pledged to uphold the Constitution. Article 1, Section 8 says that Congress has the power ‘to declare war’. Aren’t we operating in an unconstitutional manner?”
Feingold stated that Congress “should actually be declaring war in such situations” (which — perhaps unintentionally — implies which way the votes would go) and that he’s raised the point many times. But he refrained from explicitly calling the current situation unconstitutional. Feingold added: “We did have a resolution on this Afghanistan war in the beginning that clearly authorized this action even though it wasn’t a formal declaration of war. But that doesn’t mean you can just stay in a place forever without any sort of renewal of it.”
We asked Feingold: “Helen Thomas asked Obama at his first news conference if he knew of any country in the Mideast which possesses nuclear weapons. He said he didn’t want to ‘speculate’ (see video). Senator: Do you know of any country in the Mideast that has nuclear weapons?”
Feingold initially responded: “I’m not free to comment on that.”
However, after further questioning, he changed.
Question: “Why can you not say that Israel is a nuclear power, Senator?”
Feingold: “I basically think it is, but I’m not somebody who is privy to all the details on that. Pakistan clearly is, Pakistan concedes it, admits it.”
Question: “Do you have an estimate as to how many nuclear weapons Israel would have?”
Feingold: “I do not.”
While Feingold should almost certainly have been more forthright — he is on the Select Committee on Intelligence as well as the Foreign Relations Committee — he was more willing to basically acknowledge the existence of Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal than many establishment politicians, for example, see Stakeout’s questioning of John Edwards.
Feingold Dodges Question About Getting CBO Numbers on Single Payer
Perhaps most significantly, Feingold did not respond to repeated questioning about why he hasn’t gotten the Congressional Budget Office to “score” a single payer healthcare program.
He did say some nice things about the plan, which would take the insurance companies out of their central role in the system by having a single entity that would cover everyone. But such support is rhetorical. What’s been needed is for the Congressional Budget Office to come out with numbers assessing what people like former New England Journal of Medicine editor Dr. Marcia Angell’s have been arguing: that it’s the only way to cover everyone and control costs.
Our questions: “Have you tried to ask the Congressional Budget Office for an assessment to verify or falsify that [Angell's assertion]?” and “But why not get the CBO to crank the numbers?” went unanswered.
The Washington Stakeout takes a weekly look at the Sunday talk show guests and tries to ask good questions of the guests we think we have a chance of questioning. We’d like your help!
By the end of the day on Friday we’ll post to the blog the list of guests we’re aware might be taking part in the Sunday talk shows, if we think we can make it out. We’d like you to post your well-thought out questions as comments to that post, or email us at questions@washingtonstakeout.com.
Remember, we’ll have questions of our own, and it isn’t guaranteed who we’ll get to question or how much we’ll be able to ask. But your well-thought out questions, preferably well-cited, are welcome and we’ll be sure to give credit where credit is due if you like.
