'The excuses are coming! The excuses are coming!' Obama invokes Paul Revere in #NSASpeech

During his opening remarks today about NSA surveillance, President Obama mentioned Paul Revere as a positive example of spying:

I'm no Obama hater, but Paul Revere a member of a "secret surveillance committee"? Come on, man!

— David Keill (@dkeill) January 17, 2014

https://twitter.com/BenjySarlin/status/424214039091482625

Obama channels Paul Revere and other historical figures to justify intelligence gathering of #NSAspeech

— Capital News Service (@CNSmd) January 17, 2014

https://twitter.com/gp_sarahwolfe/status/424214225901219841
https://twitter.com/hollyR_J_N/status/424214100776722432

Obama inherited unconstitutional spying from Paul Revere. The excuses are coming! The excuses are coming!

— Andy Lancaster (@andylancaster) January 17, 2014

Takes Obama seven minutes to get to the "and yet" of gov overreaching after a lovely history/cheerleading: how Paul Revere became Hal9000

— Peter Van Valkenbrrrgh (@valkenburgh) January 17, 2014

Important points of order:

Hey, Obama, Paul Revere's intelligence committee in Boston was created for citizens to gather intelligence on their own government.

— Drew Cline (@DrewHampshire) January 17, 2014

https://twitter.com/zenalbatross/status/424216143981985792

The problem with the Sons of Liberty reference is that @BarackObama is Thomas Hutchinson in the analogy, not Paul Revere. #nsa

— Joseph M. Adelman (@jmadelman) January 17, 2014