President Bush this morning, in a hastily called press conference, Meanwhile, in the US Senate, the New York Times reports that Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) will "call executives of AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon 'to see if we can learn some of the underlying facts.'"
And Patrick Leahy (D-VT) went (justifiably) bonkers:
"Are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with Al Qaeda?" Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the committee's ranking minority member, asked angrily.[...]
"It's our government, our government!" he said, turning red in the face and waving a copy of USA Today. "It's not one party's government, it's America's government!"
You tell 'em, Senator Leahy! This IS the United States of America - as much as the ReTheocrats want to turn it into the Fundamentalist Corporate States of America for Rich People, that is. It's time to take back Congress, take back our country, and impeach these incompetent, lying bastards.
-George W. Bush
9/17/2002
Here's what USAToday had to say:
"The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime."
Here's what Bush had to say:
"We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans."
Folks, it doesn't get any clearer than that.