George Bush Protecting Our Constitutional Rights

“Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires — a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so. It’s important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.” — President George W. Bush

posted Apr 28th, 2006 by Stephen Gordon
  • Sandra Kallander

    I’m still laughing, though it’s either that, or cry.

    I write dialogue. I’ve been writing screenplays for 30 years. That was a masterpiece of subtext, dripping with insincerity.

  • John G4lt

    Hmmm, Peter Arnett as a GWB speechwriter: “in order to save the constitution, we had to destroy it”

  • marty

    What was the location and date of this speech? Was it before or after the illegal NSA wiretapping program was revealad to the public? Was the program in place at the time of the speech? Was W speaking in support of the patriot act? Thus denying that it allowed warrantless wiretaps.

  • Daniel Frazier

    I went to the linked site, nothinghaschanged.org, and found this:

    April 20, 2004
    Kleinshans Music Hall
    Buffalo, New York

  • Dauntless

    Stephen,

    Just to let you know, the link to nothinghaschanged.org is broken.

  • Stephen Gordon

    Link is fixed, sorry.

  • Wes P
  • Lenny Zimmermann

    Stephen,

    I think Marty has an important point there, you may want to update your post to include the date and such that Daniel Frazier found. It’s certainly appropriate to show his lies in the face of what we know know of Federal warrentless wiretapping. Of course if he had said that recently… well I guess he would have only proven further how much of an ingoramus he is by lying about something his administration had already admitted to. Makes me wish he had said it yesterday. ;)

  • http://360.yahoo.com/pong_god Robert Mayer

    Excuse me while I go vomit.

  • Ian C

    I am very much so in agreement with Lenny on this one.

    The Bush Administration began its wiretapping program a few months *before* 9/11. That this quote effectively was made four years after he authorized it and spoke directly *against* such actions as he himself was carrying out is tautologically a falsehood on his part. (Tautological falsehood… oxymoron no more! lol).

    At the very least, add when this quote was made. If at all possible, a citation of when the wiretapping was begun would be… apropos.

  • Rhampton

    Judiciary Democratic Congressional Briefing, 02/20/2006Richard Hersh:NBC News showed us that agents of the 902nd Military Intelligence Group infiltrated the Quaker Meeting House, designating us a credible threat … Shortly after, others shared their experiences of infiltration and intimidation: St. Maurice’s Catholic Church in Dania, the Unitarian Universalists, the Ft. Lauderdale Friends, members of Pax Christi in W. Palm Beach, and others. Agents rummaged through trash, snooped into email, hacked web sites, and listened in on phone calls — address books and activist meeting lists have disappeared. President Bush tells us that he spies only on known Al-Qaida contacts or affiliates, but I know for a fact that is not true, because I was spied on in a house of worship in the U.S. and in private homes in Florida, meeting with other peaceful persons in a constitutionally-protected activity.

  • Wes P

    Bush sees terrorists everywhere, and he thinks that’s probable cause.

  • Wes P

    Correction: Bush IMAGINES terrorists everywhere, and thinks that’s probable cause. Round up thousands; a few of them must be guilty of something they’ll blurt out under torture.

  • http://www.impeachbush.org Oppressed by Bush

    There’s a kind of proven psychological attack that can be easily carried-out on people by simply repeating a lie (or a series of lies) several times which, at a later point, will make people concede that it is true—especially when done to large groups of people (if one believes, so will the other).

    Now Bush wants to be everywhere at once pretending to be saving you and your Constitution, but in fact, its just propaganda for the November elections. He will then turn on you and give you another war and perhaps this time the victims will retaliate and attack neighboring countries– thus triggering a world war against the US.

    Hence, with “God” as his only guide, in the year 2008, all shall bow before their newly “elected” Fuhrer in Chief of The Empire of America—-so start practicing you hand salutes carefully.

  • IanC

    Oppressed — no, that would require a Constitutional Amendment to remove the two-term limit on president which even Bush can’t get done.

    What he *CAN* do is declare martial law and thus suspend all elections… (After all — stability is necessary in “times of emergency”).

  • http://www.impeachbush.org Oppressed by Bush

    I really want to believe you IanC, but after seeing how many times Bush (an obsessive compulsive-paranoid schizophrenic), and his psychotic pals have carried out their secret agendas of lies, murder and treason, unhindered, in utter defiance of the Constitution, I rest all my hopes on the possibility that Americans will finally rise out from their slumber and impeach the real terrorist/leader of America.

    O mother of our universe
    Come down to hear our cry
    Our country’s leader falters
    Our people drift and die
    The lust for OIL entombs us
    The scorn of greed divide
    Take not thy freedom from us
    But take away our pride

  • http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/nsa.html dredeyedick

    Here are html versions of many pdf documents related to the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping activities, and the 902nd Military Intelligence Group’s infiltration of peaceful groups inside the US.

    The links are relative, only point to filenames, so the whole thing is downloadable and mirrorable. Reproduction is encouraged.

    NSA Docs Site(s)
    http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/nsa.html
    http://democracywall.org/rsf/nsa.html

    Here is an article about the continuity of domestic surveillance and infiltration from 1968 through now.

    Big Brother Is Watching You
    http://thewall.civiblog.org/rsf/big_brother_talons_on_you.html

    I hope these prove useful to You.

    -dredeyedick

  • IanC

    Oppressed — he can’t get it done. He tried it at the peak of his popularity and it got shot down.

    Of course, there is absolutely nothing stopping him from running as someone’s VP candidate (and having the other guy out of office quickly).

    But with his approval ratings running around 30%, he doesn’t have the win.