Respect the president?

In answer to a dumb question above, just for the record...

the US Constitution states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

This means that the government will be blind to matters of religion and will make no laws regarding the exercise of it. It is amazing when someone says something so ignorant as: "show me in the Constitution where it says there shall be a separation between church and state." that's the line above, brother...read the Constitution and think about what these men were all about 200 years ago...it's really amazing.

Anyway, i saw the Prez today doing a press conference and I'm appalled at his audacity. A reporter had a legitimate question regarding torture as a policy..the Prez actually got angry and talked the man down...I could see that all the people there had a great deal of respect for the office of the president, but I also saw the Prez talking down to them and us in defending his position...George Bush is not the only patriotic American and he is not my king. When any man has the power to ignore half the population in matters that affect us and our children for decades to come, then the Constitution is really "just a piece of paper".

IMHO, we should, in this order:

1) Respect freedoms by adhering to the principle that all behaviors not explicitly disallowed in the constitution are implicitly allowed, and should therefore not be illegally restricted, monitored without a court order, or otherwise abridged.

2) Respect the law, including international conventions such as the Geneva Convention.

3) Respect the OFFICE of the presidency, but NO MORE than the Congress and / or the Supreme Court.

It is an optional but classy thing to respect people who have earned the respect of others by acting in an ethical, self-consistent and morally defensible way, and not just defended the way they have acted by saying it is moral. Both sides have erred here.

We do not elect kings, they don't have the divine rights, and frankly, as people most of our presidents have been *******. So what else is new.

Personally I agree with you, although some of your characterizations are in inflammatory language that is just going to fan the flames of those who believe that a President Can Do No Wrong And We Should RESPECT THE PRESIDENT (until the other side wins an election).

Good luck man... but try to find some middle ground with guys like McCain if you can. We have to start building bridges SOMEtime.

Since you (nor anyone else on earth) have the information at your disposal the president has, is it really smart to try and outguess him. In the military you learn to respect the uniform, not the man, the same goes for the presidency. We suffered through the international embarrassment of the Clinton circus, despite the onerous antics of his wife and the dark shadows surrounding many of his staff, and still supported the office. We watched him and his crowd drag snakes out of the closet that would have put other men in jail, and still we respected the office. Maybe you should consider that now. Bush is not a dictator, his actions must be OK'd by the congress and senate, both gimmecrats and repuglicans, if they say no, then it's NO.

I'm with you. I have no respect either. I'm surprised you haven't gotten alot more Conservative answers than you did.

I suspect Bush may be in more trouble than we realize. To date, there are about 30 possible charges of felony against his warrentless wiretapping. (I heard that one today).

Now he is demanding that Congress pass a law to redefine rules of the Geneva Convention. How can Congress possibly change the rules of the Geneva Convention to fit Bush's policy for torture? What it really boils down to is the fact that these secret prisons, designed specifically to torture POW's, is not legal. The Supreme Court says so. So now Bush needs Congress to amend the rules of the GC to fit American law. I don't know that that that will save Bush. Is it possible that he could be brought up on international charges for war crimes? Like they did in WW ll? It would serve him right.

I suspect there is a special place for GWB when he dies. It's called he!!. And I don't care how much oil money he gives to the church, you can't buy your way into heaven.

You should respect the Presidency, and hope that the elected President is doing what is BEST for the entire country.

That's too bad that you have no respect for the President, who is trying to do his best to keep this country safe.

But then again, you probably respected the previous President when he looked right at the nation, shook his finger and said, "I did not have sex with that women." But that is your problem.

Is the President spying on you, or is it the country? Think about that. Do you have something to hide?? If not, I wouldn't worry about it. Chalk it up to a safer country.

The Geneva Convention.....come on, give me a break. Do you really think that the other side is abiding by the same rules??? At least we are doing it to soldiers, and not civilians.

Uh, 9/11 was a horrible tradgedy, just like December 7th, 1941. We don't forget that day, either.

Look if you don't like what the President is doing, or how the Country is being run.....you could do what some noble Democrats have lied about doing.....move to Canada.

Hmmm - you appear to be non-white. AND you are attacking our President. You must be a terrorist!

Only joking. Just using a little humour here. I agree with everything you say here, as any well-informed person must. Bush is using terror on the US citizens - he has done more to foster an atmosphere of fear than OBL or anyone else.

I bet you will get called a terrorist a lot though in your answers to come. Stay free!

We respect the office if not the man. We have to show conservatives how that is done, because they never learned it in the Clinton years.

Mr. Bush's beliefs are not mine and in fact are strikingly against everything I once believed about my country.

That said, the president always deserves the respect of Americans if not our support.

I'm with you on this one Linus, I didn't even vote for him in 2000 or in 2004. I don't even think he won those two elections fair and square anyhow, and have this hunch that the wins were rigged in his favor. I don't even think of him as our president because honestly, the majority of Americans who did vote, didn't even vote for Bush, they voted for the Democratic opponent...the Electoral College even said that the opposing candidate had the most votes. He overrode the Electoral College. I don't support or respect him at all.

Black Sabbath, what the hell does Clinton have to do with anything? He was a peice of garbage too, but so what? He is not relevant to this post!

i agree with you. its not very fair that he can move the laws around to sute his needs when **** happens to people and they end up in jail for like 20 years and the police knew that the person was innocent but they got the evidence in an 'unjust' way. its all crap i tell you...you cant have your cake and eat it too in america - bush should put his fork down