(Audio: Listen To Bush Lie to the American People)
Think Progress catches George W. Bush in the act of a bald, bold-faced lie to the American people in an April 20, 2004 restricted access campaign speech in Buffalo, New York. In that speech, George W. Bush is quoted on the White House’s own web site as saying:
See, in order to make the world more peaceful, it’s essential that those of us in positions of high responsibility speak clearly and mean what we say…. When the President speaks, he better mean it…. 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.
Contrast that with this week’s news:
After The New York Times reported, and CNN confirmed, a claim that Bush gave the National Security Agency license to eavesdrop on Americans communicating with people overseas, the president said that his actions were permissible, but that leaking the revelation to the media was illegal.
During an unusual live, on-camera version of his weekly radio address, Bush said such authorization is “fully consistent” with his “constitutional responsibilities and authorities.”
What George W. Bush told the American people on April 20, 2004 was not “misleading.” It was not a “fib.” It was not a “slip-up.”
It was a lie.
George W. Bush lied to the American people. Bush lied to the American people about the core of the American nation — their Constitutional protections.
It’s not just that George W. Bush lied. He knew what he was doing was unconstitutional. When George W. Bush lied to the American people, he explicitly asserted that “getting a court order” was a “constitutional guarantee.”
Finally, in related news, it turns out that the New York Times knew of Bush’s unconstitutional behavior, and of his lie, before the November 2004 election. Yet despite knowing of this offensive conduct, this downright impeachable offense, despite the public’s right to know when their president violates the constitution, the New York Times colluded with George W. Bush to withhold that information until — conveniently — well after the 2004 election.
Liberal media, my ass; the New York Times threw the election to George W. Bush.
I know and knew about it long long time ago.(years) because I have been spied on, not because I am so valuable to the country but because there have been abuses to this program and I am one of them. I can’t get anyone to do anything about it tho I have written everyone.It is sickening. The little guy like me has no clout. No one has been minding the ships, the govt doesn’t really know what its rogue agents are doing. We are all so terribly concerned about the terrorists and what they might be doing that everyone seems to be fair game, even someone like me.So I continue to be “abused”
Tanya, tell us all about it. Our ears are open and we’d love to learn more.