or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
May 24, 2006
Good Point
You probably know lots of whiny college professors and snobby Hollywood elitists and gay-married Saddam-lovers claim President Bush was lying when he said this:
...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.
And it's true, this does look bad for the president...at first. But David Rosnick has written me to point out that when taken literally, everything Bush said was completely accurate.
Read that again carefully. Did the president say the government was GETTING a court order for a wiretap? No he didn't. He merely said the government was TALKING ABOUT getting a court order.
And that, my friends, is 100% true. My sources (i.e., David Rosnick) tell me this discussion happens constantly at the highest levels of government:
NSA AGENT: Sir, should we get a court order for this wiretap?Posted at May 24, 2006 07:58 AM | TrackBack
BUSH: No.
Glad that's cleared up.
Posted by: BRG at May 24, 2006 08:29 AMAnd they're also just "talking about" chasing down terrorists. No real activity, of course, just "talking about".
They may have actual cases in the pipeline against real terrorists, using evidence they've picked up through the NSA's monitoring, but, well, I don't think so.
Posted by: spaghetti happens at May 24, 2006 08:32 AMHow .... interesting .... that in the liberal blogosphere I find evidence which persuades me that Bush is, in fact, an evil genius.
The world has gone all topsy-turvy!
Posted by: Aaron Datesman at May 24, 2006 09:52 AMI was getting tired of thinking the worst of this President and the Administration in general. Now I can sleep better not only at night, but at work.
Posted by: wkmaier at May 24, 2006 10:30 AMIt's still unconstitutional and against the law. (until Congress legalizes it)
Posted by: Mike Meyer at May 24, 2006 10:40 AMSophistry at its best --it pays off to have studied Joseph Goebble's diaries. Don't you wish you had done it when Rove told you so?
Posted by: Dimitria at May 24, 2006 10:55 AMMr. Spock would be proud.
Posted by: saurabh at May 24, 2006 11:36 AMI am certain that whatever President Bush utters has been carefully crafted before he is allowed out in public to speak. Anyone who thinks Dubya is this clever, on his own, is either very naive or has been off the Planet the last 5 1/2 years.
Bob
Posted by: Bob Trumbo at May 24, 2006 12:32 PMThere is an important piece of information there in that quote. It goes: Nothing has changed, by the way.
Posted by: abb1 at May 24, 2006 03:21 PMWhen are people going to wake up and see that the Constitution is null and void?
He is the self proclaimed "Decider" and he has decided that the law of the land does not apply to him or his wants and wishes. And the big strong Congress has bowed down to his mighty and awesome power.
If we are going to counteract this crap, we originally where given 3 options: The Soap Box, The Ballot Box and the Cartridge Box.
"We the Sheeple" allowed the politicos to pass so-called "campaign reform" laws that where in all truth anti-disscent laws, and it has gotten dangerous to speak out against our rulers, so I guess we can forget about that one.
As for the Ballot Box, Diebold is holding the keys to it in the name of the powers that be, that is if "The Decider" decides to allow an election since we are in the middle of a war don't you know?
Sadly it is looking more and more like the only option that will be left is that final box, a sad ending for a once great land.
Come to think of it was said that "if you live by the sword, you die by the sword", and we have allowed our government to wield that sword a lot in the last 100 years, so I guess it is a fitting outcome.
Good Luck and Peace
Posted by: the_1_habman at May 25, 2006 10:27 AMJonathan,
Shall we take you literally for the last time you said your were going to kill someone? Shall we call the cops and report you as a murderer? Of course not, your intention was to vent your feelings about someone, not to act on those feelings.
Bush decided to use a mealy-mouthed statement and said they were "talking about getting a court order" when, in reality, they were already doing it WITHOUT the FISA courts approval. He lied in that he KNEW he wasn't going to tell the NSA to go get approval from the court. He FEELS he is above the laws that our country is based on and does not need to follow them. He even admitted in his statement that tapping a phone REQUIRES a court order. By not follow the law that makes what he's doing ILLEGAL.
Posted by: TheCheese at May 25, 2006 06:02 PMI hope that argument works in my defense when I'm charged with "subversion" for "talking" about the crimes of the Bushian Regime on the interwebs.
*sighs*
Posted by: franc_tireur at May 25, 2006 06:46 PM1 habman:
One can always think outside the box. Decide with your wallet. stop paying these people. You are RIGHT about the boxes though.
