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'We are facing a massive assault on our liberties' (interview with Al Gore)
The Observer (U.K.) ^ | 11/05/06 | Henry Porter

Posted on 11/04/2006 5:24:22 PM PST by Pokey78

HP: I wonder if you feel that a constitution like the American one makes people more aware of their rights.

AG: I think it does. Those who wrote the constitution were very steeped in the culture of the printed word and the essays that were written to define the theory of representative democracy. The debates and the Constitutional Convention were all re-capitulated in elaborate written accounts. The debates over each precise word actually did focus public attention then, and continue to influence public attention now, to individual rights.

HP: Is a constitution a way of putting certain rights beyond the reach of ambitious men?

AG: If I felt that was the principal effect of having a written constitution, I would say yes. If I were a citizen in your country, I would be in favour of it. But being a citizen of the US and seeing the shocking ease with which these principles have been violated in the US, I'm worried that the causes of this invasion of rights may be deeper.

HP: The public here and in America have been prepared to put these rights on hold to a degree.

AG: Well, they have, but [in America] these rights have been weakened since the Bush-Cheney administration chose to use the war against terror as a basis for both political argument in a partisan context and for an assault on the individual rights, including the right to be free of government eavesdropping. The conversation of democracy has been degraded, emotions and appeals to fear have been given a priority over reasoned debate.

HP: Has there been a pumping up of this climate of fear?

AG: Yes, sure.

(Excerpt) Read more at observer.guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: albore; europeankoolaid; the4thditzychick
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To: Pokey78

If our liberties were really threatened, someone would have shut up this idiot long ago. The fact he can still blather his particular brand of incredible BS shows, more than anything else, that the First Amendment is alive and well.


21 posted on 11/04/2006 5:45:16 PM PST by hsalaw
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Comment #22 Removed by Moderator

To: Pokey78
C'mon! This twerp is a self promoting pseudo-intellectual gasbag. Algore is the same guy who, when visiting Monticello, saw the statues of the founding fathers in a room asked "Who are these guys?"
23 posted on 11/04/2006 5:48:50 PM PST by WorkingClassFilth (Ever learning . . .)
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To: Pokey78

He IS talking about the 2nd, isn't he?


24 posted on 11/04/2006 5:51:39 PM PST by patton (Sanctimony frequently reaps its own reward.)
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To: Dallas59
Take a smooth bore musket, walk into Congress with it.

It will rapidly become clear to you, what rights you have lost.

25 posted on 11/04/2006 5:55:28 PM PST by patton (Sanctimony frequently reaps its own reward.)
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To: NewLand

I have a list of names I would add to your fart list.

The list is long and contains many names of people of dubiuous patriotism. Including Bill Clinton.


26 posted on 11/04/2006 5:55:33 PM PST by sgtbono2002 (The fourth estate is a fifth column.)
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To: cardinal4
Name one right we have lost, ya dope. They love this argument until someone asks them to enumerate the rights lost..

Probably the "right" of liberals to force their perverted beliefs down their enemies' throats, and the right of their enemies to bend over and assume the position. The bastards.

27 posted on 11/04/2006 5:56:02 PM PST by KStorm (They are weak-spined, pusillanimous, and craven-hearted. And then there are the Democrats.)
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To: Pokey78
AG: Well, they have, but [in America] these rights have been weakened since the Bush-Cheney administration chose to use the war against terror as a basis for both political argument in a partisan context and for an assault on the individual rights, including the right to be free of government eavesdropping.

This is a laughable lie. What interest do President Bush and Vice President Cheney supposedly have in "government eavesdropping"? Do they want to know what you're having for dinner? What your idiotic teenage daughter has to say to her equally idiotic friend? The very idea is absurd.

And the politicization of the war comes from the Democrats' desire to see us hamstrung in Iraq.
28 posted on 11/04/2006 5:57:03 PM PST by Jaysun (Let's not ruin this moment with words.)
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To: Pokey78

These Communists never quit.


29 posted on 11/04/2006 6:01:45 PM PST by TheCrusader
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To: Pokey78

Who was the man behind the curtain when Gore was running for President? While he was rather strange then he didn't seem totally deranged. His major handler must have gone on to other pastures.


30 posted on 11/04/2006 6:05:26 PM PST by pepperdog (I hate the lying MSM)
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To: Pokey78

He's right. We're facing a massive assault on our civil liberties by Muslim extremists. Boy, this guy is a nutcase.


31 posted on 11/04/2006 6:25:59 PM PST by popdonnelly
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To: cardinal4

We lost the right to have manicure scissors in carry-on bags.
But that wasn't because of a diminishing of the role played by a reasoned debate (whatever that means).


32 posted on 11/04/2006 6:26:05 PM PST by Ludicrous
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To: Pokey78
(interview with Al Gore)...we are facing massive assault on our intelligence......
33 posted on 11/04/2006 6:26:48 PM PST by Intolerant in NJ
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To: buffyt
Gore and Clinton have no self control over their mouths, whether it's food or idiotic political statements.
34 posted on 11/04/2006 6:28:47 PM PST by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
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To: Pokey78
I do feel that there is a chance to redeem Al Gore as an American. In the very country that he is able to decry his own native land, freedom is only relative. The various laws that have been passed there,include one that "the truth is no defence". This is to say that, if one tell the truth and it is deemed to be hurtful to a certain group it is a crime.

It is in my native country England, where the refinement of an Orwellian nightmare has come true. One might ask- then why is there no revolt of the masses? The answer is in the profusion of consumer goods and the "Brave New World" as indicated by Aldous Huxley- unbridled sex.

Canada is a slight improvement though. Slander Christianity and it passes. Call Islam a violent religion and one could be destroyed by legal process.

Reading for Mr Gore. (1) 1984: George Orwell. (2) Brave New World: Aldous Huxley (3) Blue Highways: William Least Heat Moon. (4) The Devil and Daniel Webster: Stephen Vincent Benet.

35 posted on 11/04/2006 6:29:58 PM PST by Peter Libra
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To: All

36 posted on 11/04/2006 6:30:07 PM PST by MaineVoter2002 (If you dont vote on election day, then who are you electing?)
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To: Pokey78

When I hear some RAT talking about "an assault on our liberties", I get very angry.


37 posted on 11/04/2006 6:30:21 PM PST by ozzymandus
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To: Pokey78

I'm assuming he was referring to his massive attack on national sovereignty and indiviudal rights and his climate of fear as posited by his environmental emergency alarmism. Any diminution of rights during wartime right now would pale to what he wants to do to "save the earth" from mankind. Hypocrite!


38 posted on 11/04/2006 6:34:10 PM PST by caseinpoint (Don't get thickly involved in thin things.)
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To: Pokey78

More Imbecilic blathering from the High Loon...


39 posted on 11/04/2006 7:06:39 PM PST by NickatNite2003
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To: Pokey78; All

"... facing a massive assault on our liberties ..."

I see algore is projecting again .. thanks al for warning us what we're up against if your crowd wins the election.


40 posted on 11/04/2006 7:30:08 PM PST by CyberAnt (Drive-By Media: Fake news, fake documents, fake polls)
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