The NSA wiretapping hearings begin today and they are being covered by C-SPAN (naturally).

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will be the primary witness appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee today and there are quite a few blogs out there planning to cover the hearings.

Firedoglake announced that they are "kicking ass and taking names" now that our elected representatives have finally realized that bloggers are making a real difference- so much of a difference that a lefty blogger has been called in from Brazil to brief Democratic staffers and Senators on the legal implications of the spy scandal. Jane and Redd will also be blogging the hearings and providing some legal insight and opinion as day one of the hearings progress.

Jeralyn over at Talk Left will also be covering the hearings and her expertise in all things criminal law will provide some essential legal insight that I am sure we can count on the mainstream media to fail to comprehend.

She also has an interesting post noting something else the mainstream media failed to comprehend- that yesterday on the Sunday talk shows, a Dept. of Justice official was quoted as saying that it was possible that the President could legally order assassinations of suspected terrorists on US soil. Ummm....I'll leave you to ponder that thought and it's legal implications but according to Talk Left:

this as the logical extension of the President's claim that in essence the Fourth Amendment can be violated in the name of National Security...

And finally, the formidable Professor Althouse also has thrown her hat into the NSA hearings blogging ring and is also looking forward to Gonzales'. Her take is that the administration's chief witness will face the challenge of answering very tough questions while the Senators face the challenge of asking those questions while not appearing soft on national security.

Stay tuned...