THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Our Dear Embattled Leader has revealed his defense of his Glorious War on Americans. It is simplicity itself, the preznit says it is legal. And he points to his efforts to muddy the waters as proof of the legality.

President Bush today opened what amounts to a weeklong media blitz against criticism of the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program, calling it a "terrorist surveillance program" that had saved lives.

Mr. Bush hotly denied charges that he had done anything illegal by authorizing the warrantless eavesdropping program. "If I wanted to break the law," he told an audience at Kansas State University, "why was I briefing Congress?"

Meanwhile one of his minions in command of the major front in this war was admitting, as ODEL has done elsewhere, that the plan is illegal.

The standard laid out by General Hayden - a "reasonable basis to believe" - is lower than "probable cause," the standard used by the special court created by Congress to handle surveillance involving foreign intelligence.

ODEL has also claimed that the Hamdi decision by the Supreme Court allows him to do as he pleases, even though they did not do so.

The Supreme Court agreed that Mr. Hamdi's capture was authorized by the Congressional resolution, but rejected the administration's more sweeping claims. Mr. Bush's point today was that in its ruling, the court had recognized that the resolution gave the president "additional authority."

"It means Congress gave me the authority to use necessary force to protect the American people, but it didn't prescribe the tactics," the president said.

So I guess this is a lot easier than finding some foreign halfwit to burn down the halls of Congress. Still, consider how much they have to stretch the truth to get where they want to be.

General Hayden defended the program's constitutionality. He said the lower, "reasonable belief" standard conformed to the wording of the Fourth Amendment, asserting that it does not mention probable cause, but instead forbids "unreasonable" searches and seizures.

"The constitutional standard is reasonable," he said. "I am convinced that we are lawful, because what it is we're doing is reasonable," he said.

The Fourth Amendment, however, reads: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Gee General, you forgot the part about warrants.

If you could get a rats dick to bend and stretch like that, he wouldn't have to run the maze to get laid.