Thanks for the thread, Lodestar.

eom

And what would have come of the NSA apparatus that was already in place at the time?

Al Gore speaks for me.

I have been trying to say what Al Gore says in this speech and have felt that no one was listening -- perhaps because I am nobody.

To hear Al Gore say what is in my mind and heart is just so reassuring.

Thank you, Lodestar. Thank you, Al Gore.

The dangers we as Americans face today in the world are great, but not nearly as great as the dangers our American forefathers, our ancestors, the heroes of freedom faced.

I think of the poor men and women who, in the 17th and 18th centuries left their homes, the countries of their birth and came to America to work, to marry, to have children.

If you ever have a chance to visit Abraham Lincoln's childhood home, it will remind you of how early American pioneers lived. Their lives were simple, their possessions few, but they believed in liberty and in opportunity. They left a legacy for us, lessons in courage that we forget at our peril.

http://www.nps.gov/abli/planyourvisit/boyhood-home.htm

We do not have to become mass murderers or engage in violent revolt. We have the vote. We should use it to regain our sense of community, to practice responsibility toward ourselves and others and to join together to leave a heritage of good will, respect, freedom and opportunity to our children and grandchildren. That is what our ancestors did when they elected the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt and other great presidents.

The NSA spying, the overly powerful executive and the courts owned and paid for by the corporations must be replaced by police and security who answer to us, the people, an executive that limits itself strictly according to the Constitution and courts that answer not so much to the corporations but fairly to all the people.

How much we have forgotten. Thanks to Al Gore for reminding us.

Thank you al Gore.

Even more unfortunately, he won't.

...when these kinds of things were being done under Bush, he took Bush to task for it. But since it is his party in the White House, he will no longer hold the president's feet to the fire on this issue. Civil liberties and government secrecy have been achilles' heels for both administrations.

Al Gore has been and is still speaking to this as being unConstitutional.

By doing this, Gore is De-Facto holding Obama's "feet to the fire."

It's a natural part of politics to go more personally aggressive against the opposing party, for damaging your own too much would serve in putting Republicans back in the White House and they damn sure would never reform the NSA, if anything they would make it worse.

Bush was also a much more tempting target because of his dismal record in starting a war based on lies, disgracing the U.S. by instituting torture, totally ignoring the implications of Global Warming, wrecking the economy, starting all the illegal surveillance of the American People in the first place, etc. etc. etc.

By acutely criticizing the policy instead of going directly after Obama, Gore maintains a greater influence with the President and the Congress versus burning bridges by damaging the party and thus reducing the possibility of reform.

If Obama and the Congress don't act, this issue will most certainly play a role in the elections this fall and in 2016, I have no doubt that Gore will then make it clear as to which candidates wish to stand on the right side of history and those opposed.