Industry Figure Tom Chappell

Bush has been making a lot of trips lately trying to build support for his un-Constitutional program of warrantless spying on Americans talking to Americans, and finally, in Charlotte, NC, someone in one of his sifted crowds told him just exactly what most Americans think about that. You wouldn’t think, with polls showing 33% support for W., that it would have taken this long.

Harry Taylor, 61, said, in a calm, clear voice (quoted here with interruptions by Bush and the crowd removed):

“You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you’d like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf…

What I wanted to say to you is that I — in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and…and I would hope — I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself.

And I also want to say I really appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to speak what I’m saying to you right now. That is part of what this country is about.”

Bush’s response was to claim that everything was legal and Constituional, and that the government was only spying on calls from Al Quaeda to Americans, or from Americans to Al Quaeda. But the “it’s Constitutional” claim is based on his assertion that he can do whatever the hell he wants during wartime, which is patently false.

Read a transcript from Think Progress or from The White House, or watch the video.

And, nearly simulatenously, Alberto Gonzales the Torture Guy was testifying to Congress that no, he couldn’t rule out that we were just spying, without warrants, on random Americans calling other random Americans while in the United States:

“I’m not going to rule it out,” he said in a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.

The testimony caused alarm among some lawmakers.

“How can you not rule that out?” Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said later. “I think it’s a stretch to assume we gave them the authority” to conduct warrantless surveillance of international phone calls. But it’s unreasonable, he said, “that they would feel they have the authority to do domestic surveillance.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., called Gonzales’ testimony a “shocking admission” that shows the administration “doesn’t feel there is any limit to what they can do” under the 2001 congressional resolution authorizing military force.

Read the article about Gonzeles’s Testimony in The Detroit Free Press.