Bullshitter in chief

Duhbya claims against all facts that the Democrats in the House are endangering the country, and even with his long record of self-serving, fear-mongering bullshit, he gets the headline "Bush: Inaction on FISA endangers U.S."

The CNN story is terrible - it puts three Republicans and unnamed intelligence sources up against one paragraph from Nancy Pelosi, and not even her strong paragraph. It also pushes this Bushist lie:

The current laws are set to expire at midnight Saturday. The nation's intelligence agencies then will have to go to court for warrants to listen in on conversations between suspected terrorists overseas.

No warrant has ever been required for overseas surveillance. Yet apparent Bush stooge Adam Levine puts it out under his byline, though I'm confident it came from the White House. (He couldn't possibly be this Adam Levine, could he?)

All the current authorizations to surveil whoever survive the expiration of the Dissect America Act. There are still easy ways to obtain more approval for surveillance orders. Corporations are still immune if only they get certifications from the Justice Department that their actions will be legal - even if those certifications are, like everything else from this lawless regime, transparently bullshit.

So:

• No less current surveillance
• New surveillance orders are easy to obtain
• Immunity going forward is easy to obtain

Are the Bushists really this lazy? Probably. But even I don't think that's why Duhbya is fighting this battle.

What I think:

• They cry Chicken Little every chance they get so that they can blame Democrats when another attack comes, never mind whether there's any real connection.
• They failed to immunize the telcoms for their illegal spying, and they fear the telcoms will roll over on them.
• They are surveilling all of us much more extensively than has been reported so far.

This is the Bushists' idea of a win-win-win.

Finally, the Democrats (go Nancy! go Harry!) have not cowered in the corner. Finally, they have counterattacked instead of arguing with Duhbya.

Democrats immediately said that the expiration of the temporary law would have little, if any, immediate impact on intelligence gathering. "He has nothing to offer but fear," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters after Bush's address.

"I regret your reckless attempt to manufacture a crisis over the reauthorization of foreign surveillance laws," Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said in a letter to Bush, in defense of his colleagues in the House. "Instead of needlessly frightening the country, you should work with Congress in a calm, constructive way."

As ever, I wish they would counterattack even more fiercely.

I would say (over and over and over again) that Duhbya has again lied to America for craven political reasons, that he and his party are untrustworthy, and that the politics of fear are disgraceful and un-American. But, hey, I'm an extremist, obviously.