[Preechr]

Well, I just got off the phone with Dubya, and he says they need some of these wiretaps quicker than what's afforded by the bureaucratic FISA application.

Now, as I'm typing this, a thought has entered my cranial cavity: I'm wondering if this works like the TV has informed me. Does private information obtained without a warrant in an issue such as this become invalid in a future trial? Wouldn't that alone make the decision to use this loophole by the administration a true option of last resort?

I mean, let's say Dubya's woken from one of his naps... or maybe interrupted while reading an upside down book to children... and informed that a suspected terrorist sympathizer has just picked up the phone and dialed 1-800-AL-QAEDA. We have the option of running down to the secret court building hidden in secret tunnels hollowed out under the Lincoln Memorial, known as Honest Abe's Hidey Hole, but while this is happening, Mohammed's likely pressing "2," selecting the PDX option for "Begin countdown sequence."

So what if we don't get to fully prosecute Mohammed for all the goodies we might find in his apartment because we tapped his phone without a warrant. Lives were saved.

You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has phones. And those phones have to be guarded by men with wiretaps. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Mr. Burbank? George Bush has a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for the ACLU and CAIR and you curse the NSA. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what George Bush knows: that the right to privacy's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And the Patriot Act's existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want Dubya on that phone, listening to America's brown people. You need Dubya on that phone.

The administration uses words like honor, code, loyalty...they use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain George W. Bush to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom he provides, then questions the manner in which he provides it! I'd rather you just said thank you Mr. President, voted for the closest Republican, and went on your way, possibly making a sizeable donation to the NRA. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a phone and learn to speak Farsi. Either way, George Dubya Bush doesn't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!