Bush and the "L" word

LIAR!!!

Leonard Pitts speaks truth to power:

If the government believes you have a terrorist connection, it now is empowered to snoop on your international phone calls or e-mails without court approval. King George and his enablers argue that this is necessary to give investigators the agility they need to pursue terrorists.

It is a seductive argument. One is appalled to imagine the Statue of Liberty blown to smithereens while those who might have saved it are dithering over legal papers.

So yeah, another president and you might almost buy it. But this is the same president who has, over the last five years, repeatedly demonstrated utter disregard for the rights, freedoms and basic intelligence of the people he serves. Moreover, he's the one who last year promised an audience in Buffalo that ''nothing has changed'' with regard to government surveillance of citizens. ''When we're talking about chasing down terrorists,'' he said, ``we're talking about getting a court order before we do so.''

We know now what he knew then: This was a lie.

Want to guess how long it takes to get a warrant to eavesdrop? It can be done in hours. Even minutes. In extraordinary circumstances, investigators can listen in for up to 72 hours without a warrant. You know how many warrant requests were submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Court last year? According to The Times, 1,754. How many were rejected? None.