Radio fear:

President Franklin Roosevelt gave “fireside chats” to bolster Americans during the depression. President Bush used his radio address to try to scare Americans into believing they have to sacrifice their rights and their values to combat terrorism. Bush announced that he had vetoed the 2008 intelligence budget because it contains a clause barring the CIA from torturing prisoners. Bush told the nation that it “would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror.”

The CIA director, Gen. Michael Hayden, told Congress recently that he had banned waterboarding in 2006, but he was still “not certain” whether it is legal. But the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, John Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, disagreed strongly. He said the veto itself would hurt intelligence-gathering “in the name of preserving a separate CIA interrogation program that Congress has determined is not necessary.”

Bush said the CIA program helped “prevent a number of attacks,” but Rockefeller said he had “heard nothing” to suggest that was true. He also said the any information the CIA collected could have been obtained through legal methods.

This is not the first time that Bush has misled Americans, and it may not be the last. It will be up to the next president to restore the rule of law. — The New York Times