AWOL Bush allegedly says of theConstitution: "It's just a goddamned piece of paper"

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.”

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

Cell Phone Tracking Without Probable Cause
Government Still Pushing for Cell Phone Tracking Without Probable Cause
New York - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has asked a federal magistrate judge in New York City to rejecta Department of Justice (DOJ) request to track a cell phone user without first showing probable cause of a crime.

The DOJ's apparently routine practice of asking for and receiving cell-tracking orders without probable cause only recently came to light as a result of these newly published decisions; typically, such requests are made and granted in secret, without any public accounting.

http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_12.php#004236

Four years later, we still have ten big questions

1. White House lied about a threat to Air Force One

When Bush was criticized days after 9-11 for failing to return to Washington until more than 10 hours after the first attack, the White House claimed there had been a threat to Air Force One ("real and credible," in Ari Fleischer's words) . There was none. All the 9-11 Commission says of this phantom threat is that it was the product of "a misunderstood communication."


2. Who gave the order to try to shoot the planes down?

The commission is noticeably vague on this point. The official version says Dick Cheney told the military a little past 10 a.m. to shoot down a threatening plane, claiming that the president had given his approval for the order. But while a few people in the White House bunker noted a call between Cheney and Bush moments earlier, only Rice says she heard Cheney bring up the shoot-down order. Despite the fact that people at both ends of the call were taking notes, the commission found that "there is no documentary evidence of this call." Meanwhile, some of the fighter jets in the air over D.C. received no orders to shoot down planes, while other military aircraft got the OK from the Secret Service to fly "weapons free," which means they had wide authority to take out suspicious aircraft.

Since the military was given little or no notice about the planes, maybe it doesn't matter who authorized a shoot-down. But the record is unclear. Neither Cheney nor Bush testified under oath before the 9-11 panel, in public or private.

10. What's on those blanked-out pages?

There are multiple redactions in the Fire Dept of New York (FDNY) oral histories that in some cases seem to concern the radios or suspicious activity near the WTC site before and during the attacks.

http://villagevoice.com/news/0549,murphy,70685,6.html