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Something I couldn't resist transcribing from last night's Boston Legal. Alan Shore is defending a woman for evading $400.00 in federal income taxes.

Alan Shore:

“When that ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ thing turned out not to be true, I expected the American people to rise up. Hah. They didn’t.” Then, when the Abu Ghrab torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in ‘rendition,’ a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture…I was sure, then, the American people would be heard from. We stood mute. Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called ‘terrorist suspects,’ locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly we would never stand for that. We did.”

“And now it’s been discovered that the Executive Branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough.”

“Evidently we haven’t.”

“In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is: We’re okay with it all.”

“Torture, warrantless search and seizures, illegal wiretapping, prison without a fair trial--or any trial, war on false pretenses…We as a citizenry are apparently not offended. There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there‘s no clear indication that young people even seem to notice. Well. Melissa Hughs noticed. Now, you might think instead of withholding her taxes she could have protested the old fashioned way: Made a placard and demonstrated at a presidential or vice-presidential appearance but we’ve lost the right to that as well. The Secret Service can now declare ‘free speech zones’ to contain, control and, in effect, criminalize protest.”

“Stop for a second and try to fathom that. At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you’re wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed.”

“This in the United States of America. This in the United States of America. This in the United States of America.”

“Is Melissa Hughs the only one embarrassed?”

Aside to judge: “Long speeches make me so tired. Actually, I’m sick and tired. And what I’m most sick and tired of is how ever time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled ‘Unamerican.’

Interrupted by the DA: “Evidently it’s speech time.”

“And speech in this country is free, you hack. Free for me, free for you, free for Melissa Hughs to stand up to her government and say, “stick it.’”

Interrupted by the DA: “Objection.”

“I object to government abusing its power to squash the Constitutional freedoms of its citizenry. And God forbid anybody challenge it, they’re smeared as being a heretic.”

“Melissa Hughs is an American. Melissa Hughs is an American. Melissa Hughs is an American.”

“Last night I went to bed with a book. Not as much fun as a 29-year old but the book contained a speech by Adelai Stevenson, the year was 1952. He said,

‘The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live. And fear breeds repression. Too often sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-Communism.’

“Today it’s the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stevenson also remarked, “It’s far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.” I know we are all afraid. But the Bill of Rights… we have to live up to that. We simply must.”