House of Eratosthenes

One of the recurring themes to this blog, which, of course, nobody reads, is: When we think, we do so as individuals, but our ability to do this critically has a certain monolothic quality to it, and that ability is currently at a nadir, or heading towards one. We puzzle things out well, in a way that makes sense, and in all likelihood we are all doing this, or most of us are. Similarly, if we run around like a bunch of Keystone Kops, unable to form opinions that make the slightest bit of sense, even when rock-solid answers are right in front of our faces — we pollute the whole culture. Even the wisest among us, determined to use the best of their intellect in their daily lives, will find new challenges in doing so.

So there is a certain “climate” to this. It’s like a tide. How high you sit in your boat has something to do with the architecture of that boat, but it has a lot more to do with a tide that affects everyone. Well, this is the time for clam-digging.

As evidence of this, I submit the following.

“Hammer of Truth” has decided to use whatever reputation it has, to spread, and therefore endorse, a claim in “Capitol Hill Blue” that President Bush called the Constitution “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!”

To believe this is on the up-and-up, you have to believe the three “GOP leaders” decided to expose this nasty attitude about our nation’s charter in said nation’s highest office, by uncovering it before the harsh, scrutinizing light of — Capitol Blue. And Capitol Blue alone. And then what you have to do, is rub directly against the most reasonable inference to be drawn from this premise; namely, that the three GOP leaders have some bone to pick with someone at Capitol Blue, and fed it a red herring so that this blog could make a raging ass out of itself before its audience.

No, you have to presume this is on the up-and-up. Bush really said it, and so as a consequence, the GOP leaders ran running off to Capitol Blue, perhaps missing lunch with, or phone conferences with, or bumping into on the rainy sidewalk of our nation’s capitol, several of the most prestigious reporters from the Washington Post, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

No, for a scandal of this size, only Capitol Blue will do. None of those hick-town backwoods tobaccy-rags like The Post.

And then you have to believe that a guy who is now in his eleventh consecutive year in office as an executive, would tell his associates they can get around the Constitution because it’s just a piece of paper. The problem with that is, if you’re that guy, once you have leveraged your office to engage in looming challenges in the legal arena based on a “piece of paper,” the piece of paper ceases to be just a piece of paper.

Think about it. Let’s say the problem isn’t the Constitution, but something else. A Memorandum of Agreement signed by your pinhead boss. Or your boss’ pinhead predecessor. Now everyone in the office wants to do something so badly, they would piss on an outlet to be able to do it, but they can’t do it because of the MOA. You assemble your finest legal minds to find a way to do it, and a great atmosphere of frustration consumes all of you. Of course, everyone in your office has the same visceral reaction to the MOA, that our President is supposed to have to the Constitution.

Now who, in their right mind, would say something like “Stop it! It’s just a piece of paper!” Even the boss wouldn’t do that. You’ve been working all hours for two solid weeks, ordering in from take-out restaurants to fight this piece of paper…anyone who called it “just a piece of paper,” even the boss, would forfeit whatever credibility he had. And people don’t go to offices to forfeit credibility. Even people who hate their jobs don’t do that, not on purpose.

So no, I don’t believe even Franklin Roosevelt said anything like that. And incidentaly, there is a President who really and truly used the Constitution as toilet paper. He actually fought the letter and spirit of that document, spending his political capital and seriously eroding his popularity to do so. But can you really envision him saying something like “C’mon, it’s easy! What the hell am I paying you guys for? Find a way around it, it’s just a piece of paper!”

So does it do sufficient damage to one’s own believability, to simply pass this rumor along with your masthead on top of it? Or is there some frosting that should be put on top of that cake? Hammer of Truth apparently favors the latter.

Regardless, we here at Hammer of Truth don�t need much convincing that previous administration actions speak louder than these reported words when it comes to Bush�s view of the Constitution.

Hey that’s great. Here’s an opinion of George Bush, that he thinks the Constitution is nothing more than toilet paper. We base this opinion on the “fact” that Capitol Blue has dug up this dubious quote. To verify the fact, we turn to our preconceived opinions, which, in turn, are based on who-knows-what kinds of facts, since, now you know how ironclad and reinforced a “fact” has to be to earn our faith.

It’s like some kind of bizarre chicken-and-egg story. Well, that’s exactly what it is.

“Hammer of Truth” is in great company here. You can see that in the thread beneath the article — one poster issues the caution that the Capitol Blue reporter “is usually pretty meticulous, but care is advised in spreading this one.” Care is advised? How do you go about doing that? “I heard from some dubious blog that I personally don’t care to trust, that so-and-so said such-and-such. There’s no point for me to tell you this, save for the hope that you tell a few other people. Go out and do it. But be careful.”

Another poster says “Anyways, I don�t really doubt that Bush said this. If he did indeed, it is scary as all hell.” Great job. Let’s all vote on whether it’s authentic or not. I never liked that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, so let’s vote on that too.

But you know, any loudmouth can ramble away in the forum on a blog. To figure out if there’s a nationalized ability to think critically, which is suffering from deterioration, we should go to more reasoned minds to see what they have to say. Someplace like FARK.

“I’d love to hear the Bushbots explain this one.”
“Time to get back on the short bus Dubya.”
“I don’t believe this capitolhillblue guy’s story, but since when have you ever considered *any* journalist objective? Other than the idiots on Fox News who basically reprint Pentagon and White House press releases, that is?”
“This is a very unconfirmed quote… But at the same time, its quite obvious its probably true.”
“Whether he said it or not (I believe he very likely did), his actions tell you that he doesn’t care about the Constitution. Just that someone caught him admitting it.”
“Remember US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill? How about Richard Clarke? There have been credible sources going back for years suggesting Bush is a loose cannon.”

There’s a lesson here on how the human mind is inclined to think. We want to think something, we get ahold of a “fact” that has very little evidenciary power, and we are tempted accord the evidence weight proportional to its friendliness with our prejudices. Those of us who can think powerfully, at least to the extent that our minds can assist us in the matter of survival, have to grow out of this. A lot of people don’t grow out of it. As our standard-of-living gets higher, and survival is more of an assured thing, fewer and fewer people grow out of it.

Hammer of Truth wonders “who knows if this will have legs (I have my doubts).” I don’t have too many doubts, myself, in fact I hope to help it along. This strikes me, after all, as one of those ridiculous things that survives when it is merely whispered about, but does devastating things to itself when it is taken too seriously. And hey, if there’s something to it, then it will only be helped along if it is taken seriously, something that will be of benefit to us all.

So shout it from the highest friggin’ rooftops. I don’t have to endorse it in order to do that. C’mon, all you “Bush lied, people died” liberals, you’ve been trying to prove for years that Bush doesn’t respect the Constitution, and here’s your “proof.”

He said it, he said it, he said it. Let’s all demand an investigation, until it gets printed on the New York Times on the front page, above the fold, for a whole month and a half in a row. I’m sure if it’s true, the ensuing events will come as an embarrassment to no one, except the guy who is guilty.

Update 12/12/05: Capitol Blue stands by the story.

We get tips about Bush�s temper and his comments all the time. Most of the tips don�t get used because we don�t go with information from just one source. The tip about �the goddamned piece of paper� seemed destined for the byte bin until a second aide, in casual conversation, mentioned the comment.

So I called a third source who has confirmed information in the past. At first he was defensive.

�Who told you about that?� I told him I�d picked it up from two other sources.

�Look, you know how the President is,� he said. �He gets agitated when people challenge him.�

All I wanted to know was did the President of the United States call the Constitution a �goddamned piece of paper.�

�Yeah. He did.�

So I went with the story. To me it was just another example of a President who too often lets his anger get the better of him, particularly with anyone who dares disagree.

Sounds pretty convincing, huh? Boy, I’m really going to be sorry for my smarmy, cutting comments, above, when this thing gets proven true, right?

I got three words for you: Bring it on. I could delete the post, above, with a few keystrokes. I won’t. Of course, nobody reads this blog, but nevertheless keeping the post intact, is the act of someone who genuinely believes the “piece of paper” quote is a myth. Conversely, the act of someone who genuinely believes the quote is true, would be to take it seriously. Give it some profile, well above some urban legend breezing its way around e-mail servers. Demand an investigation. And don’t take no for an answer.

Anyone gonna do that?

This post has been removed by the author.
- godstool | 12/14/2005 @ 17:21
allow me to htmlize that for ya:

LINK
- godstool | 12/14/2005 @ 17:23
Well, one of these days, bloggers will be extinct, along with talk radio and the Web as we know it, because some people want to squash these things. Too radical, being able to post things without government approval.

Don’t believe it? Read Richard Poe’s book “Hillary’s Secret War – The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists”. Look at the BS wrought by the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Politician Protection and First Amendment Evisceration Act. Listen to the rumblings about the “Fairness” Doctrine being reinstated.

If we let it happen, the government WILL be the Internet gateway, media gateway, and we’ll be in deep poo.
- GCLP Chairman | 12/14/2005 @ 17:51
uhhhhh aren’t you similarly spreading, thus endorsing, capitol hill blue by putting his shit on your page?
- El Comandante | 12/14/2005 @ 20:38
To make a reasonable determination of whether Bush utterred said words, one must decide whether its plausible. Does Bush, by his actions, disregard the constitution?

How many Americans have been detained without access to lawyers, without charge, for years under Bush? How many judges have ruled that these longterm detentions are unconstitional?

Did Bush say, “hey, wait a minute. My bad.”? Or did he argue that he has the authority to detain anyone, without habeous corpus? Doesn’t the constitution only permit suspension of habeous corpus after declaration of marshall law?

It’s almost irrelevent whether he uttered these exact words. His actions speak much louder.
- Dick Tuck | 12/14/2005 @ 22:32
wy is everone so mean to preznit bush alla time?
- el serracho | 12/15/2005 @ 10:29
From my Blog…
Bush’s True “Swearing In”

There’s been a story swirling about the internet that reports on Bush’s disdain for the United States Constitution. I’ve read numerous articles about it, and must report that, while I wasn’t present at the time of the alleged utterance, given the past actions and overall character of our current president, I’d have to conclude that he probably did make these comments.

Being slightly twisted, I envisioned the following… (Click here to continue)
- Don Bangert | 12/15/2005 @ 11:26

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Hammer of BullshitSunday, December 11th, 2005

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Sunday, December 11th, 2005