On the Road Again

Keep it secret, keep it safe

Well, I guess now that the cat's out of the bag about the warrantless NSA wiretapping approved by President Bush, it's no longer a national security worry to discuss it and has migrated to standard CYA PR protocols. Almost a year after President Bush embarked on his Bamboozle-palooza tour (as dubbed by Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall) to rally support for his (ill-fated, as it would turn out) Social Security revamp, he's out on the campaign trail again to make sure the American people know that his domestic spying was legal and necessary. His first stop on the tour was Kansas (home state of fellow blogger, Kat). Here's the basics on the event from the WaPo:

Calling the effort a "terrorist surveillance program," Bush said in a speech at Kansas State University that he authorized the eavesdropping program after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in an effort to detect any continuing plots involving members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network overseas and persons operating inside the United States.

"If they're making phone calls into the United States, we need to know why -- to protect you," Bush said.
[...]
He said, "I'm mindful of your civil liberties, and so I had all kinds of lawyers review the process. We briefed members of the United States Congress . . . about this program.

"You know, it's amazing that people say to me, 'Well, he was just breaking the law.' If I wanted to break the law, why was I briefing Congress?" Bush said with a chuckle.

Bush said he has "authority under the Constitution to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance against our enemies," and that a 2001 congressional authorization for the use of force gave him "additional authority" in waging war against al Qaeda.

"Congress gave me the authority to use necessary force to protect the American people, but it didn't prescribe the tactics," he said. "It said, Mr. President, you've got the power to protect us, but we're not going to tell you how."

Um. You might want to ask John McCain about that (or even a few other Republican congressional folk, like Lindsey "Cry-Me-a-River" Graham, Arlen Specter, and even Sam Brownback). Here's what McCain said on FoxNews Sunday (with video) from Crooks and Liars:

WALLACE: But you do not believe that currently he has the legal authority to engage in these warrant-less wiretaps.

MCCAIN: You know, I don't think so, but why not come to Congress? We can sort this all out. I don't think- I know of no member of Congress, frankly, who, if the administration came and said here's why we need this capability, that they wouldn't get it. And so let's have the hearings...

Digby at Hullabaloo sums up my mood over this umpteenth PR campaign just right:

But, I'm down in the dumps, mostly because I am watching George W. Bush repeat his patented mantra for the 514,346th time. It's filled with lies, mischaracterizations and simple-minded gibberish, as always, and I'm watching it go out unfiltered, in its entirety, unchallenged by the media, no Democrats in sight, on every cable channel. I think they are personally trying to drive me crazy.
[...]
They are going to the 9/11 well again. They say that Democrats are sending talking points to Osama and giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Rove says we don't believe that the government should monitor al Qaeda's telephone calls. The next several months will be spent fending off accusations that if we don't let the president do anything he damned well pleases we are all going to die.

I don't know if it will work again. But I also don't know if I can take this campaign one more time. Five years of hearing the same thing over and over again and watching American sheeple fall for it over and over again is just too depressing. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to January 20, 2009 (and I'm of an age where rushing the future is no longer wise.) The day I no longer have to listen to one more word from this immoral, dishonest, incompetent, delusional prick will be the best day of my life.

Amen, Brother Digby.

Also, while at Kansas State, the President amazingly took questions from the audience, and one woman had a stumper about student loans--check out this post over at ThinkProgress.