A Million Little Lies

It's bad enough that W interrupted Oprah's interview of James Frey finally admitting he is an olympic liar and that his fabricated book "A Million Little Pieces" should be in the fiction rather than non-fiction section of Border's but then I have to listen to the fiction of W.

W stood up before the White House press corps and said he really didn't know Jack Abramoff. I'm sure he knew his money very well. Next W said he had the right to spy on Americans in the U.S. because we are at war. Sounds a lot like Nixon explaining that, "When the President does it, it means that it is not illegal." So much for a nation of laws. W said that, well, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the law that allows wiretapping either after getting a warrant from a secret court or three days after you've started your emergency wiretap, was enacted in 1978 and well, this is 2006 and he didn't have to follow it. Someone should ask W what other laws that were passed in the "ancient days" of say the 70s, 80s or 90s that he deems as being too old or quaint to keep up with modern times that he doesn't need to follow anymore. Never mind that FISA goes so far as to anticipate the nation at war and states, "Notwithstanding any other law, the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order under this subchapter to acquire foreign intelligence information for a period not to exceed fifteen calendar days following a declaration of war by the Congress." So if Congress declares war you can only engage in warrantless wiretaps for 15 days but if don't declare war W thinks you can order warrantless wiretaps for four years and counting. Makes sense.

Let's take a refresher course. There are two ways to wiretap people in the U.S.. - Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act passed in 1968 and updated in 1986 and FISA, passed in 1978. That's it. It's not complicated. If you think FISA didn't give you enough flexibility to conduct wiretaps then the Republican President could have asked the Republican House and Republican Senate to change the law. W didn't. Guess he's weak on terror. In fact, Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) proposed a change in the FISA law in 2002 to make it much easier to wiretap in the U.S. but W and his adminstration opposed it. Another soft on terrorist position.

So I can't watch Oprah talk to an admitted liar explaining his fiction but I can watch W explain his fiction and deny he is a liar. What a morning.