Hung By The Captions

What’s this?

Bush is so far out on a limb with his wire tap dance, even the newswires are hounding him on it.  Digging through file footage of past speeches, AFP came up with at least two Bush appearances where he stated that FISA authorization was required for all surveillance activities.

The first image was taken by Luke Frazza (link) at an appearance in Hershey, Pennsylvania on April 19th, 2004.  The second was shot by Stephen Jaffe (link) during a speech at the Waukesha County Exposition Center on July 14, 2004.

The captions of both images begin the same way:

US President George W. Bush, for the past two years, has assured Americans that court orders were needed to tap telephones.

Each caption then relates a quote from the respective event in which Bush indicates he at least knew better than to bypass the surveillance guidelines. 

From the Hershey speech, Bush is cited as saying (in his mangled English, apparently):  ‘If
you got a wiretap by court order — and by the way, everything you hear
about requires court order, requires there to be permission from a FISA
court, for example.’

Accompanying the Waukesha picture, the caption cites Bush as stating:
‘A couple of things that are very important for you to understand about
the Patriot Act. First of all, any action that takes place by law
enforcement requires a court order.’

It’s one thing when it’s Congress or the political press
calling you on your game.  When photo editors start entering the
investigative fray, however, you’ve got to wonder if what the homeland
needs is protection from (rather than by) its King. 

(image: Luke Frazza/AFP – file.
Hershey, Pennsylvania.  April 19,  2004.  Via YahooNews.  image 2:
Stephen Jaffe/AFP – file.  Waukesha, Wisconsin.  July 14, 2004.  Via
YahooNews.)