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

I read an article yesterday by Pat Jordan’s in Slate which seemed to apply to the environment of all journalists today:  Whether it was the athlete, the Hollywood star, the corporation with spin doctors, the people covering them were afraid to ask real questions.  It was like listening to radio broadcasts of the Minnesotan Twins, when fly balls hit to the fence on the radio did not quite reach the warning track on television.  Honesty was sacrificed today to create a false sense of excitement. 

Television journalists seem afraid to open Pandora’s box. It might affect the ratings.  And that fear was spreading to other areas of the American media. Would the financial cost of the war, out of the tax payer’s pocket, be discussed this election year?  It never has been since troops were sent over.  I had read that elected representatives in Congress did not ever have the cost in the budget.  Why not?  Why are Democrats collaborating with Republicans on this issue?  Why was it considered to be patriotic to have troops in Iraq? 

And by the way, have you noticed the different emphasis given in the foreign press to the 35 articles of impeachment introduced by Dennis Kucinich, compared to the American press?  Even though he is a gadfly.  But then I came acros the following:     

by Douglas Thompson

Dec 5, 2005, 07:53

Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George 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 Bob Barr and Phyllis Schlafly 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!”

This information comes from three West Wing sources who say a fourth White House employee in the meeting told them the President called the Constitution “a goddamned piece of paper.” That employee refused to return my phone calls.