Goddamned Piece of Paper

Off Topic Politics and World Issues
1

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml

Bush on the Constitution: ‘It’s just a goddamned piece of paper’
By DOUG THOMPSON
Dec 9, 2005, 07:53

Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act.

Several provisions of the act, passed in the shell shocked period immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, caused enough anger that liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union had joined forces with prominent conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly and Bob Barr to oppose renewal.

GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.

?I don?t give a goddamn,? Bush retorted. ?I?m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.?

?Mr. President,? one aide in the meeting said. ?There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.?

?Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,? Bush screamed back. ?It?s just a goddamned piece of paper!?

I?ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution ?a goddamned piece of paper.?

And, to the Bush Administration, the Constitution of the United States is little more than toilet paper stained from all the shit that this group of power-mad despots have dumped on the freedoms that ?goddamned piece of paper? used to guarantee.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, while still White House counsel, wrote that the ?Constitution is an outdated document.?

Put aside, for a moment, political affiliation or personal beliefs. It doesn?t matter if you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent. It doesn?t matter if you support the invasion or Iraq or not. Despite our differences, the Constitution has stood for two centuries as the defining document of our government, the final source to determine ? in the end ? if something is legal or right.

Every federal official ? including the President ? who takes an oath of office swears to ?uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says he cringes when someone calls the Constitution a ?living document.?

?"Oh, how I hate the phrase we have?a 'living document,?? Scalia says. ?We now have a Constitution that means whatever we want it to mean. The Constitution is not a living organism, for Pete’s sake.?

As a judge, Scalia says, ?I don’t have to prove that the Constitution is perfect; I just have to prove that it’s better than anything else.?

President Bush has proposed seven amendments to the Constitution over the last five years, including a controversial amendment to define marriage as a ?union between a man and woman.? Members of Congress have proposed some 11,000 amendments over the last decade, ranging from repeal of the right to bear arms to a Constitutional ban on abortion.

Scalia says the danger of tinkering with the Constitution comes from a loss of rights.

?We can take away rights just as we can grant new ones,? Scalia warns. ?Don’t think that it’s a one-way street.?

And don?t buy the White House hype that the USA Patriot Act is a necessary tool to fight terrorism. It is a dangerous law that infringes on the rights of every American citizen and, as one brave aide told President Bush, something that undermines the Constitution of the United States.

But why should Bush care? After all, the Constitution is just ?a goddamned piece of paper.?

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Why am I just not too surprised about this? Fuck’em. Three more years and he gets to wander around Crawford again…

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[quote]“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”[/quote]

If true, this is incredibly sad.

The rest of the article material gets more into opinions and hyperbole, where I think leaving these statements on their own is actually more powerful.

Again, if true, it offers an insight into the man and his style. That is something I’ve brought up over and over again with respect to this administration.

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[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Why am I just not too surprised about this? Fuck’em. Three more years and he gets to wander around Crawford again…[/quote]

true, but it’s scary to think of the damage he can do it three short years.

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[quote]vroom wrote:
If true, this is incredibly sad.[/quote]

Especially since men are dying for that piece of paper.

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I quit reading after awhile. Does he ever name the people who claim to have heard Bush say this, or does he just list people who were there?

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I, too, would be interested in his sourcing of the comment.

Not only does it seem out of line, but the ascribing to Bush of a screaming demeanor seems out of place from other descriptions of his persona, in meetings and otherwise.

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[quote]doogie wrote:
I quit reading after awhile. Does he ever name the people who claim to have heard Bush say this, or does he just list people who were there?[/quote]

He doesn’t even list people who were there in the article I read after following the link. He just says he talked to three people who were there, and then goes on a rant on his general theme.

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Theres got to be some redeeming quality about this piece of shit we call our president, I’ll be goddamned if i cant find one…

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[quote]mmg_4 wrote:
Theres got to be some redeeming quality about this piece of shit we call our president, I’ll be goddamned if i cant find one…[/quote]

Beautiful

No references
Nothing in any way offered to substantiate

And you show your stupidity with a post as mooked up as this.

I don’t know if he said it, but let’s just say that it wouldn’t completely surprise me if this were ‘stretched’ a bit. As BB said, this does not fit any other reports of his behavior or actions in mixed company.

When I see a tape of him saying it, I will condemn him with the best of you haters. He will most certainly deserve it. Until then, I’ll reserve judgement.

It’s funny, most of the people condeming Bush about a blogged piece of maybe, are more than willing to forgive and allow Tookie to be rehabilitated. Willing to believe the best about him, but quickly believing the worst about the President just because of your preconceived feelings for the man. Just an observation

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[quote]sasquatch wrote:
mmg_4 wrote:
Theres got to be some redeeming quality about this piece of shit we call our president, I’ll be goddamned if i cant find one…

Beautiful

No references
Nothing in any way offered to substantiate

And you show your stupidity with a post as mooked up as this.

I don’t know if he said it, but let’s just say that it wouldn’t completely surprise me if this were ‘stretched’ a bit. As BB said, this does not fit any other reports of his behavior or actions in mixed company.

When I see a tape of him saying it, I will condemn him with the best of you haters. He will most certainly deserve it. Until then, I’ll reserve judgement.

It’s funny, most of the people condeming Bush about a blogged piece of maybe, are more than willing to forgive and allow Tookie to be rehabilitated. Willing to believe the best about him, but quickly believing the worst about the President just because of your preconceived feelings for the man. Just an observation[/quote]

“blogged pieces of maybe” ar quite relevant on here when defending bush, so i dont see anything wrong with one attacking him.

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[quote]vroom wrote:
“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

I’ve talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.”

If true, this is incredibly sad.

The rest of the article material gets more into opinions and hyperbole, where I think leaving these statements on their own is actually more powerful.

Again, if true, it offers an insight into the man and his style. That is something I’ve brought up over and over again with respect to this administration.[/quote]

Interestingly,

Alot of the ‘insight’ you’ve brought up has been refuted upon further/closer examination.

13

Believe this article at your peril.

Dubious sources and facts that don’t pass the smell test.

Let’s see - would anyone want the President to say this because it would lend credibility to the growing fascist state theory? Yep. That would be a motive to ‘report’ such a story on thin information.

The exchange that was reported to have happened has a cartoonish script - ‘hardcore push’, a defiant Bush screaming back with swear words in a White House that prides itself on professionalism, etc. Second, what are the chances some high powered Congressional GOP leaders who have the privity of a closed door session with the President would spill information that smells like high crimes and misdemeanors to some freelancer who has an opinion column in an alternative newspaper?

One major flaw in national politics these days - the end of plausibility. If it can be dreamed up, people take it seriously without question. Something better than a hunch or a navel-gazing theory should run politics, no matter whether you are conservative or liberal.

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It’s just more kool-aid for the ABB crowd.

Too bad the story has no real basis other than a guy that knows a guy who heard a guy telling a guy at the coffee shop that he thinks he heard Bush say something like that.

If a right-winger came on here with that kind of bullshit - we’d get laughed out of the forum.

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Another terrific irony is that liberals/Bush critics are proud to champion that the Constitution doesn’t mean what it says and that some parts of the Constitution don’t mean anything at all, and some new things are in the Constitution that weren’t there before, even though the text hasn’t changed…

…and yet they are worried about fidelity to a written document and fret about someone not giving the words their due weight?

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[quote]thunderbolt23 wrote:

…in a White House that prides itself on professionalism…

[/quote]

Didn’t Cheney tell a senator to go “fuck himself”?
Nice example of the White House idea of professionalism.

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Bush seems to be more tactful lately. I could beleive it 3 or 4 years ago but not now.

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I cannot believe anyone is actually putting 2 minutes of effort into whether something jlesk posted is actually true or not…

Seriously, this article could not get any more 3rd hand account speculative. Bash Bush if you want, but can you at least use something legit?

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I heard he wiped his ass with it because he was in a hurry and didn’t want buttmud at the Illuminati meeting.

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I have read articles from this site before…I think one was about how the Pope was investigating whether or not Bush was the anti-Christ , and the other was about Bush being treated for depression. I am going to venture that this is not a credible site…although the anti-Christ angle is compelling:
http://www.bushisantichrist.com/