December 10, 2005

• We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Thanksgiving Programming....

  ....to bring you this special political announcement.

  
  

  I'm not a big fan of Antonin Scalia and his "strict constructionist" views, as I think that the Constitution is or should be a "living document".  And on some level I do agree with Zaphod Beeblebrox, quoted below.  But our beloved Mr. Bush is a horse of an altogether different color.  Note, incidentally, his Xtian manner of expressing himself when the cameras aren't rolling....

  
  

  **********

  
  

  
  

     Bush on the Constitution: 'It's just a

  
  

     goddamned piece of paper'

  
  

     By Doug Thompson

  
  

     Capitol Hill Blue

  
  

     Friday, December 9, 2005

  
  

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

  
  

   

  
  
  

  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,'"

  
  

  Scallia 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."

  
  
  
  

  "Look property is theft, right? Therefore theft is property.

  
  

  Therefore this ship is mine, Okay?"

  
  

  -Zaphod Beeblebrox, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

  
  
  

  When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag

  
  

  and carrying a cross.

  
  

  -Sinclair Lewis

  • 8:33 am
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