Smarter people have already skewered the President’s faulty logic on allowing NSA surveillance of domestic communications without a court order, so I won’t pile on unnecessary commentary other than to say that President Bush is wrong. Instead, I want to highlight this quote from Vice President Cheney where he refutes the notion that Congress didn’t know that’s it legislated this in 2001. Consider:
“It’s been briefed to the Congress over a dozen times, and, in fact, it is a program that is, by every effort we’ve been able to make, consistent with the statutes and with the law,” Vice President Cheney said yesterday in an interview with ABC News “Nightline” to be broadcast tonight. “It’s the kind of capability if we’d had before 9/11 might have led us to be able to prevent 9/11.”
I remember a little something about the FBI being tipped off that something big was going to happen and that information sitting around unused. Yet Vice President Cheney is saying that We didn’t have that kind of capability before 9/11. He’s lying spinning. He should just be honest and say that we’re too lazy now to bother with the Constitution and civil liberties. As long as we’re safe, that’s what matters. I’m not buying it, but I’d respect the honesty. Instead I’ll roll my eyes at the farce he’s perpetuating.