Bi-partisan & non-partisan agreement: Bush broke the law

[quiet.american]

A casual Google search turns up the following....

Al Gore: Bush 'Repeatedly and Persistently' Broke the Law
Former Vice President Al Gore called Monday for an independent investigation of President Bush's domestic spying program, contending the president "repeatedly and persistently" broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without court approval.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0116-08.htm

Bob Barr: Presidential Snooping Damages the Nation
Bush has put himself above the law and in the company of rogues
Back in the 1930s, when confronted with clear evidence he had violated the law, Georgia's then agriculture commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Eugene Talmadge popped his bright red suspenders and dared those accusing him of corruption to do something about it, declaring, " Sure, I stole, but I stole for you." He was elected Governor in 1932. Accused of breaking the law in the current debate over electronic spying, President George W. Bush has, in his own way, dared the American people to do something about it. For the sake of our Constitution, I hope they will.
http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1145243,00.html

Sen. Russ Feingold:
The administration, said Feingold, "has been violating the law, and misleading the American people," and he accused Gonzales of much the same, during his confirmation hearings a year ago. Feingold said Gonzales at that time wanted the Judiciary Committee to think that the eavesdropping program was not going on. "But it was," said Feingold, "and you knew it."
http://www.wrn.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=15F12CDE-97AE-4FA6-B7C96D87B5FD4935&dbtranslator=local.cfm

Grover Norquist (yes, that piece of work)
Referring to what some see as a conflict between fighting vicious terrorists and upholding all civil liberties, Norquist said: “It’s not either/or. If the president thinks he needs different tools, pass a law to get them. Don’t break the existing laws."
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/01/grover-norquist-bush-broke-the-law

The Congressional Research Service:
The Bush administration appears to have violated the National Security Act by limiting its briefings about a warrantless domestic eavesdropping program to congressional leaders, according to a memo from Congress's research arm released yesterday.

The Congressional Research Service opinion said that the amended 1947 law requires President Bush to keep all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees "fully and currently informed" of such intelligence activities as the domestic surveillance effort.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011802158.html

Charley Reese, Journalist for 49 years:
What the Bush administration is saying is, to hell with the Bill of Rights. We are changing the standard. No probable cause and no oaths or affirmations are needed. All that is needed is if we personally decide that search and seizure is reasonable. By that standard, no police department in the U.S. would need to bother with search warrants.

Sorry, but the Constitution cannot be amended by arrogant public officials who don't wish to bother with it. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and if the American people allow it to be violated at will, then they will deserve the loss of liberty that will surely follow. We do not need to become a dictatorship just to catch terrorists. Nor does a declaration of war (which Bush, by the way, doesn't have) suspend the Constitution.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese257.html

And a blast from the near past:
Newsweek
No wonder Bush was so desperate that The New York Times not publish its story on the National Security Agency eavesdropping on American citizens without a warrant, in what lawyers outside the administration say is a clear violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I learned this week that on Dec. 6, Bush summoned Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger and executive editor Bill Keller to the Oval Office in a futile attempt to talk them out of running the story. The Times will not comment on the meeting, but one can only imagine the president’s desperation.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10536559/site/newsweek/

Gonzales, (and let's not forget his former job was as Bush's lawyer) appears at the hearings, allows GOP senators to provide cover for him not to testify under oath, then says: "The terrorist surveillance program is both necessary and lawful."
http://cryptome.org/gonzales020606.htm

Why should Gonzales' statement (paid for with our tax dollars) have any credibility over bi-partisan and non-partisan agreement that Bush clearly broke the law?

[wtmusic]

1. Oh, to be a fly on the wall

at Junior's meeting with Sulzberger.

A president personally trying to manipulate the press--there is something comically tragic about it.

[quiet.american]

2. And now they're trying to smear them -- Phase II, I guess.

So now, they want us all to forget how Bush no doubt tried to intimidate the NYT into not printing the story -- now suddenly, the press has "gotten the whole story wrong."

How much more of this shite?!

[quiet.american]

3. Just a little kick to add President Carter to this list, too. n/t