I was there last night and it was very good, but once again, Markey, who organized the meeting (ACLU was a guest as was EPIC, contrarely to what the post says) is very good.
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8923
Historic public forum on NSA wiretapping
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Andy Oram
Andy Oram
Jan. 05, 2006 06:17 AM
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The 300+ seats were filled to capacity last night for an ACLU emergency meeting on wiretapping, held in Lexington, Massachusetts. It has been years since an event made me so angry--and even longer since an event made me so inspired.
The moderator was Congressman Ed Markey, and the two speakers were Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and Carol Rose, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts (ACLU-MA). All of them were extraordinarily eloquent and to the point, having learned over the years how to explain complex legal and technical points in precise and constructive ways.
As far as I know, this is the first open meeting concerning the scandal that's rocking the country. There were many local touches, such as being called a "Town Meeting" in an old New England tradition, and some corny references to Lexington as the cradle of American democracy. But Markey promised that many more such meetings will take place around the country.
...
As the post says, the room was full (for those who knows the National Heritage Museum, it was there and it was impressive to see how they got so many people in such a short time). Markey spent a long time speaking about the significance of Lexington in the Independance War and how it was significative that the first Town Meeting took place here. After that, the meeting went more or less as the blogger says, with Markey and the two guests going thru all the excuses that the GOP has been giving, and then taking questions from the audience.