[Peace-discuss] A very impressive article by Al Gore

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This is from a refractory blog by one Dennis Perrin.  Those
interested in Gore's putative conversion might try to find a
remaindered copy of Cockburn and St. Clair's AL GORE: A USER'S
MANUAL, which came out just before the 2000 election. (St.
Clair said he was going to publish a second edition with the
subtitle ...A LOSER'S MANUAL.) Or we might give up the idea of
finding a hero Democrat and work on building an anti-war
movement.  --CGE]

  Tuesday, January 17, 2006
  Al Be Damned

Liberals, when not arrogant about their righteousness, can be
and usually are true suckers & saps. Clinton worship is the
main sign, a chance for libs to shill for the death penalty,
either thru lethal injection or a federal assault on private
citizens, and to lecture the poor on their bad social habits,
a Clintonite fave since the early days of welfare "reform."
And while we wait for the you-know-they're-coming
justifications for President Hillary, we have the spectacle of
online libs fainting and fawning at Al Gore's feet.

"Not the Al Gore, the guy who headed the most rightwing Dem
ticket of modern times?"

Yep. Him.

Since throwing in the towel to the Bush gang in 2000, Gore has
undergone a semi-political makeover, making populist noises
and bellowing about Bush's corruption, incompetence and deceit
-- easy enough to do since there's so much to denounce. But in
a Martin Luther King Day address in DC, Gore attacked Bush's
police state spying apparatus and pleaded for Congressional
Dems and Repubs to get back in the business of serious
legislative oversight. All well and good. Problem is, Gore
failed to mention his and Bill Clinton's rather major role in
setting the repressive stage for Bush.

Clinton/Gore, in the wake of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing,
came forth a year later with the Anti-Terrorism and Effective
Death Penalty Act which, under the guise of fighting
terrorists, was a frontal assault on the Fourth Amendment and
further expanded federal police power. The Clinton/Gore admin
also was in favor of roving wiretaps, which they felt the FBI
should conduct without a court order. But even before Oklahoma
City, Clinton/Gore sought more state control over the populace
via the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act,
passed in 1994, which aided police and federal spying on
citizens by tapping digital phone networks. Not only did the
phone companies have to allow any and all surveillance of
their networks, they also were required to make phone call
records available to the state. On top of all this, anyone
being spied upon was not to know that they were under federal
or police suspicion for whatever reason.

Then there's the expansion of prison building and the use of
the federal death penalty (while curtailing death row
prisoners’ habeas corpus appeals), as well as tightening the
screws on the poor that Clinton/Gore actively supported and
pushed into action. But let's not pile on too much here, for
whenever I bring any of this up to Clinton/Gore libs, they get
very testy, and if sufficiently prodded, they take pride in
their heroes' "law and order" stance. In other words, many
libs have no real problem with domestic spying and limitless
state power. They just don't like it when the Repubs are at
the wheel.

Maybe Al Gore has truly changed. Maybe he's become some kind
of civil libertarian. Appearing on the same stage with Bob
Barr, whose record on this front is much much better than
Gore's, suggests that he might take seriously what he says.
But before we can believe anything this career politician and
friend to the powerful proclaims, acknowledgment of his role
in subverting the Constitution should be demanded. Only then
can this purported "conscience of the Democratic Party" be
considered even moderately clean.

posted by Dennis Perrin @ 10:44 AM     
---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 22:58:07 -0500
>From: Paul Patton <pipiens at gmail.com>  
>Subject: [Peace-discuss] A very impressive article by Al Gore  
>To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>
>   'We the People' Must Save Our Constitution           
>   by Al Gore                                           
>   Constitution Hall, Washington, D.C.                  
>   Monday, January 16 2006 12:30 PM                     
>   [...]