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 ...
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.
He IS talking about the 2nd, isn't he?
It will rapidly become clear to you, what rights you have lost.
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.
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.
These Communists never quit.
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.
He's right. We're facing a massive assault on our civil liberties by Muslim extremists. Boy, this guy is a nutcase.
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).
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.
When I hear some RAT talking about "an assault on our liberties", I get very angry.
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!
More Imbecilic blathering from the High Loon...
"... 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.
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