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 PsiloKitten
Ganja Goddess
Registered: 02/12/99
Posts: 1,617
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 Al Gore finally gets some balls 
#2087059 - 11/09/03 06:33 PM (20 years, 10 months ago) |
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http://www.algore.org/
Transcript of Al Gore's November 9th speech "Freedom and Security"
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
By Al Gore
Thank you, Lisa, for that warm and generous introduction. Thank you Zack, and thank you all for coming here today
I want to thank the American Constitution Society for co-sponsoring today's event, and for their hard work and dedication in defending our most basic public values.
And I am especially grateful to Moveon.org, not only for co-sponsoring this event, but also for using 21st Century techniques to breathe new life into our democracy.
For my part, I'm just a "recovering politician" ? but I truly believe that some of the issues most important to America's future are ones that all of us should be dealing with.
And perhaps the most important of these issues is the one I want to talk about today: the true relationship between Freedom and Security.
So it seems to me that the logical place to start the discussion is with an accounting of exactly what has happened to civil liberties and security since the vicious attacks against America of September 11, 2001 ? and it's important to note at the outset that the Administration and the Congress have brought about many beneficial and needed improvements to make law enforcement and intelligence community efforts more effective against potential terrorists.
But a lot of other changes have taken place that a lot of people don't know about and that come as unwelcome surprises. For example, for the first time in our history, American citizens have been seized by the executive branch of government and put in prison without being charged with a crime, without having the right to a trial, without being able to see a lawyer, and without even being able to contact their families.
President Bush is claiming the unilateral right to do that to any American citizen he believes is an "enemy combatant." Those are the magic words. If the President alone decides that those two words accurately describe someone, then that person can be immediately locked up and held incommunicado for as long as the President wants, with no court having the right to determine whether the facts actually justify his imprisonment.
Now if the President makes a mistake, or is given faulty information by somebody working for him, and locks up the wrong person, then it's almost impossible for that person to prove his innocence ? because he can't talk to a lawyer or his family or anyone else and he doesn't even have the right to know what specific crime he is accused of committing. So a constitutional right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness that we used to think of in an old-fashioned way as "inalienable" can now be instantly stripped from any American by the President with no meaningful review by any other branch of government.
How do we feel about that? Is that OK?
Here's another recent change in our civil liberties: Now, if it wants to, the federal government has the right to monitor every website you go to on the internet, keep a list of everyone you send email to or receive email from and everyone who you call on the telephone or who calls you ? and they don't even have to show probable cause that you've done anything wrong. Nor do they ever have to report to any court on what they're doing with the information. Moreover, there are precious few safeguards to keep them from reading the content of all your email.
Everybody fine with that?
If so, what about this next change?
For America's first 212 years, it used to be that if the police wanted to search your house, they had to be able to convince an independent judge to give them a search warrant and then (with rare exceptions) they had to go bang on your door and yell, "Open up!" Then, if you didn't quickly open up, they could knock the door down. Also, if they seized anything, they had to leave a list explaining what they had taken. That way, if it was all a terrible mistake (as it sometimes is) you could go and get your stuff back.
But that's all changed now. Starting two years ago, federal agents were given broad new statutory authority by the Patriot Act to "sneak and peak" in non-terrorism cases. They can secretly enter your home with no warning ? whether you are there or not ? and they can wait for months before telling you they were there. And it doesn't have to have any relationship to terrorism whatsoever. It applies to any garden-variety crime. And the new law makes it very easy to get around the need for a traditional warrant -- simply by saying that searching your house might have some connection (even a remote one) to the investigation of some agent of a foreign power. Then they can go to another court, a secret court, that more or less has to give them a warrant whenever they ask.
Three weeks ago, in a speech at FBI Headquarters, President Bush went even further and formally proposed that the Attorney General be allowed to authorize subpoenas by administrative order, without the need for a warrant from any court.
What about the right to consult a lawyer if you're arrested? Is that important?
Attorney General Ashcroft has issued regulations authorizing the secret monitoring of attorney-client conversations on his say-so alone; bypassing procedures for obtaining prior judicial review for such monitoring in the rare instances when it was permitted in the past. Now, whoever is in custody has to assume that the government is always listening to consultations between them and their lawyers.
Does it matter if the government listens in on everything you say to your lawyer? Is that Ok?
Or, to take another change -- and thanks to the librarians, more people know about this one -- the FBI now has the right to go into any library and ask for the records of everybody who has used the library and get a list of who is reading what. Similarly, the FBI can demand all the records of banks, colleges, hotels, hospitals, credit-card companies, and many more kinds of companies. And these changes are only the beginning. Just last week, Attorney General Ashcroft issued brand new guidelines permitting FBI agents to run credit checks and background checks and gather other information about anyone who is "of investigatory interest," - meaning anyone the agent thinks is suspicious - without any evidence of criminal behavior.
So, is that fine with everyone?
Listen to the way Israel's highest court dealt with a similar question when, in 1999, it was asked to balance due process rights against dire threats to the security of its people:
"This is the destiny of democracy, as not all means are acceptable to it, and not all practices employed by its enemies are open before it. Although a democracy must often fight with one hand tied behind its back, it nonetheless has the upper hand. Preserving the Rule of Law and recognition of an individual's liberty constitutes an important component in its understanding of security. At the end of the day they (add to) its strength."
I want to challenge the Bush Administration's implicit assumption that we have to give up many of our traditional freedoms in order to be safe from terrorists.
Because it is simply not true.
.... (Much more at above link, it is a rather long speech)
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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 Re: Al Gore finally gets some balls [Re: PsiloKitten]
#2087086 - 11/09/03 06:45 PM (20 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Al Gore finally gets some balls
Now all he needs is some common sense.
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You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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 Zahid
Stranger
Registered: 01/21/02
Posts: 4,779
Last seen: 19 years, 11 months
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Re: Al Gore finally gets some balls [Re: PsiloKitten]
#2087144 - 11/09/03 07:06 PM (20 years, 10 months ago) |
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PsiloKitten
Ganja Goddess
Registered: 02/12/99
Posts: 1,617
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Re: Al Gore finally gets some balls [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#2087186 - 11/09/03 07:20 PM (20 years, 10 months ago) |
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You cant see any of the common sense that he finally gave you war mongering, facist fools?
And he's the one lacking something?
Hurry and wake up. You havent got alot of time left and Im sure, pretty soon.. alot of us wont have the patience to play these games with you anymore... nor the time.
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?
Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Re: Al Gore finally gets some balls [Re: PsiloKitten]
#2087219 - 11/09/03 07:30 PM (20 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
And he's the one lacking something?
Yup.
Quote:
Hurry and wake up.
Oh I'm awake.
Quote:
You havent got alot of time left and Im sure, pretty soon.. alot of us wont have the patience to play these games with you anymore... nor the time.
 Oh the horror!
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You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Psilocybeingzz
Registered: 12/15/02
Posts: 14,463
Loc: International waters
Last seen: 11 years, 10 months
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Re: Al Gore finally gets some balls [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#2087405 - 11/09/03 08:18 PM (20 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Now all he needs is some common sense.
Well dont get me wrong , I am not jumping on a bandwagon, but what he said WAS good, however I remember him saying he was an enviromentalist, well then why the FUCK , does he own stock in occidental ???????????
1\2 million to be exact.
Nice words,now lets see what he does.
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PsiloKitten
Ganja Goddess
Registered: 02/12/99
Posts: 1,617
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Re: Al Gore finally gets some balls [Re: Psilocybeingzz]
#2088358 - 11/10/03 01:12 AM (20 years, 10 months ago) |
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Atleast some words are getting out there.
It's a start.
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Psilocybeingzz
Registered: 12/15/02
Posts: 14,463
Loc: International waters
Last seen: 11 years, 10 months
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Re: Al Gore finally gets some balls [Re: PsiloKitten]
#2088370 - 11/10/03 01:22 AM (20 years, 10 months ago) |
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True.
I want anyone to hear just how bad it is for freedom in America now(as I keep a close eye on my own country)
Lets HOPE that the Patriot act and Patriot act2 do not become like, car crashes, maybe even like the ones that my city is famous for, where young kids speed and kill themselves, and its only AFTER they had a friend or family member affected , they STOP speeding and TELL OTHERS how bad it is etc etc.
If the Patriot act becomes like that,well its a scary thought.
How do you call something that removes liberties a "PATRIOT ACT" and I know the reason supporters give , but seriously thats not right.
I know I might get one negative response for this but I will say it again,4 out of 5 of the "intolerable acts" that caused the revolution that "birthed" america have been REPEATED.
I find that a litle shocking even as a Canadian.
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PsiloKitten
Ganja Goddess
Registered: 02/12/99
Posts: 1,617
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Re: Al Gore finally gets some balls [Re: Psilocybeingzz]
#2088472 - 11/10/03 02:38 AM (20 years, 10 months ago) |
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It's shocking for Americans too.
They are waking up. Give it some time. 
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