Don't you believe in the constitution?[LAUGHTER]" Transcript, p. 20.

Let me tell you why this is infurating, these comments are not made by a preacher but instead the uniformed leadership of the United States military. These comments make a mockery of those whom have made the supreme sacrifice as if they were rubes who didn't get the "big picture" or whom were not blinded by the bright lights of the media and the intoxication of an enabled lie by a complicit media. The tone and manner in which these comments are made are an insult far greater than what a preacher can utter and these comments have not been held to account.

I listened to the award given Warner at the http://www.sorenseninstitute.org/. There was a quote attibuted to the comments that Rumsfeld had made in the speech and presentation. I just want to go on record and say that over 5 years later, with the costs of this war exceeding any pre-war estimate, with stop loss in effect and tours of duty of 15 minths, with the injuries and the deaths, that the glib comments about the constitution show an astonishing disrespect to this nation and the troops who defend it in a much more injurous manner than what a preacher stated.




SECRETARY RUMSFELD What are you, some kind of nut? Don't you believe in the constitution?[LAUGHTER]" Transcript, p. 20.

Well to be succinct Donald some of us do believe in the Constitution and don't need to be compensated to proctect and defend it against enemies of it.

"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962).

I would go as far as to say that this war on terror, the abuse of civil rights, the abomination of GITMO and Abhu Graib, the code-colored fear, "the your with us or against us" statements, the NSL letters, the wire-tapping, the Extraordinary Rendition, the No Fly List, all of it not directed at any threat to this nation but instead calculated to attempt to protect your official criminal acts from the public that you were supposed to serve.

This was first and foremost and war committed against the US public.

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

Here are some Rumsfeld quotes, from easily arguable the most incompetent SecDef to ever hold that office. A man who's name is on par with the word war criminal.

The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.

—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

Glass Box
You know, it's the old glass box at the—
At the gas station,
Where you're using those little things
Trying to pick up the prize,
And you can't find it.
It's—

And it's all these arms are going down in there,
And so you keep dropping it
And picking it up again and moving it,
But—

Some of you are probably too young to remember those—
Those glass boxes,
But—

But they used to have them
At all the gas stations
When I was a kid.

—Dec. 6, 2001, Department of Defense news briefing

A Confession
Once in a while,
I'm standing here, doing something.
And I think,
"What in the world am I doing here?"
It's a big surprise.

—May 16, 2001, interview with the New York Times

Happenings
You're going to be told lots of things.
You get told things every day that don't happen.

It doesn't seem to bother people, they don't—
It's printed in the press.
The world thinks all these things happen.
They never happened.

Everyone's so eager to get the story
Before in fact the story's there
That the world is constantly being fed
Things that haven't happened.

All I can tell you is,
It hasn't happened.
It's going to happen.

—Feb. 28, 2003, Department of Defense briefing

The Digital Revolution
Oh my goodness gracious,
What you can buy off the Internet
In terms of overhead photography!

A trained ape can know an awful lot
Of what is going on in this world,
Just by punching on his mouse
For a relatively modest cost!

—June 9, 2001, following European trip

The Situation
Things will not be necessarily continuous.
The fact that they are something other than perfectly continuous
Ought not to be characterized as a pause.
There will be some things that people will see.
There will be some things that people won't see.
And life goes on.

—Oct. 12, 2001, Department of Defense news briefing

Clarity
I think what you'll find,
I think what you'll find is,
Whatever it is we do substantively,
There will be near-perfect clarity
As to what it is.

And it will be known,
And it will be known to the Congress,
And it will be known to you,
Probably before we decide it,
But it will be known.

—Feb. 28, 2003, Department of Defense briefing

I think that the next president of the United States has to make things abundently clear as to where tolerance for this type of behavior is accepted or held accountable. As a nation we cannot sweep this type of crap under the carpet and pretend that when this attitude is prevailing at the top, that the results below will deliver what was misrepresented by the group who held this conference and expressed.

There are those of us who are not amused, and to dengrate the constitution and then wrap a soldier in a meaningless flag for their parents, by those who collectively encourage the conflict, is an affront to decency that transcends political tides.