Watching the Gonzales Confirmation Hearing: 11:30: So far, the GOP Talking Points on the challenge to the vote count and the Gonzales nomination, respectively, seem to be “Don’t listen to them because they’re whining and you’ll just become confused,” and “He was just a lowly bureaucrat up against a Big Bad Justice Department.” 11:40 Gonzales: The abuses which we all object to, no one supports. 11:45 Gonzales: The Geneva Convention only works as a universal human rights standard if it only applies to some people. 11:54 Gonzales: At least we don’t cut people’s heads off. (Talk about defining deviancy down) 12:02 Gonzales: It’s not that I don’t offer my own opinions, it’s just that the Department of Justice is very persuasive. 12:07 Gonzales: If I didn’t mention in my memo to Bush on whether to execute this guy that his lawyer slept through the trial, it must be that we’d realized it was frivolous. 12:12: Senator Cornyn (R-TX): If people disagree with you on torture, it’s because they don’t want to win the war on terror as much as you. 12:13 Cornyn: They say you haven’t given you the documents you want, but they have given us these two file folders which seem to have lots of pages in them. 12:17 Gonzales: If there was a possibility of you all reading my candid advice, I might give different candid advice. 12:18 Senator Schumer (D-NY): Of course we need a little less liberty these days. Only, maybe not this much less. And could you at least talk to us about it? 12:27 Gonzales: The Executive Branch has no opinion on whether the Legislative Branch should be able to filibuster its nominees. 12:31 Senator Brownback (R-KS): We need to do more to lower recidivism rates by helping prisoners to function in society…with Jesus. 12:34 Brownback: Sure there’s a first amendment, but porn is really unpleasant. I’d like to recruit your wife to look into it. 12:37 Gonzales: I wasn’t calling my colleagues judicial activists for wanting to force minors to get parental permission for abortion, I was just saying their conclusions were judicial activism. 12:42 Gonzales: What do you mean did my redefinition of torture encourage abuse? The majority of prisoners have not been tortured. 12:44 Gonzales: I don’t think we’re ever allowed to commit war crimes, but I’ll keep you posted. 12:45 Gonzales: The President hasn’t used his authority to disobey the law, but he has it.