Or so the seemingly Conservative author of this piece in a South Carolina paper trashing our last press release thinks. Wow, I made the papers.
Gore PAC Begins Attack on President Bush
Excerpt:
Gore's many speeches across the country have made a splash both in the mainstream media and the so-called new media --blogs, Internet news sites, talk radio and Fox News Channel. And many political observers believe that's the point of his emotional, vitriolic language and his shouting like a Pentecostal minister caught up in the Holy Spirit.
For starters, a Political Action Committee, Patriots for Al Gore, has called for a special counsel to investigate the current NSA surveillance program being employed by the Bush administration, in response to its admission that this program has existed and "has wiretapped millions of Americans without obtaining proper warrants as outlined in current FISA laws." Of course, no one except certain members of the Bush Administration, congress and the intelligence community knows how many Americans were wiretapped. And one truly wonders if there were warrants issued to spy on millions of Americans, would that be honky-dory with the left-wingers?
The Patriots for Al Gore PAC claims it is in solidarity with remarks made by former Vice President Al Gore on January 16, 2006, that "rightfully challenged the administration and Congress to fulfill their oaths and to abide by the Constitution."
(One lawyer friend told me that the Constitutional clause that prohibits the NSA surveillance program is right next to the clause that guarantees a woman's right to abortion.)
PAG says full disclosure of all information pertinent to any illegal and/or unconstitutional activity must be provided to this special counsel and Congress in order to ensure a proper balance between liberty and security. In other words, they want all top secret information to be delivered to the special counsel process -- a process known more for leaks than for effectiveness.
One would think that with Gore's involvement in electronic surveillance during the Clinton Administration, he'd wish to avoid the topic. During the eight years he served as Vice President, the NSA performed far-reaching surveillance in a program code named "Echelon." The program even had it's own vocabulary known as the Echelon Dictionary. Echelon reportedly was domestic spying in every sense of the term.
Not surprising is the fact that not one Democrat complained about Echelon when the program was revealed by the New York Times and CBS News in 2000. And because of the Clinton impeachment fiasco, Republicans, true to their nature of being weak-kneed, were gun-shy when it came to calling for any more special prosecutors.
The Patriots for Al Gore's first order of business appears to be a petition to the Congress to do its duty as representatives of the people to restore the rule of law. It's been initiated by Patriots for Al Gore in the hopes of collecting enough signatures by fall 2006 to be delivered to the Capitol in Washington, DC by its Chairperson, Jan Moore.
There's no coincidence that PAG is looking at a fall target date -- just around the time of the 2006 election cycle.
According to statement released by Ms. Moore: " [T]he threats that remain to our national security now cannot be properly dealt with if taxpayers' money is being spent to wiretap millions of innocent Americans in violation of the very rights we need to fight to preserve, which gives terrorists freedom to plan attacks. They also cannot be preserved with partisan bickering. Such methods that skew the balance between liberty and security for partisan reasons only further the goals of terrorism and are counterproductive to the survival of Democracy. They must know that the American people object to such practices."
While Ms. Moore is only now starting to make serious noises, her work for Gore goes back to the 2004 "Draft Gore for President" campaign that ended when he endorsed Howard Dean. While many found this early endorsement a surprise, it's understandable that Gore felt a kinship with Dean. Both men display rather odd public-speaking behavior and both men are shrill demagogues of the left.
Moore also chaired an organization called "Progressives for Gore" which worked on Gore's presidential campaign. As the chairwoman, her accusations that Bush stole the 2000 election resonated with some moderate democrats, but her allegations that Bush stole it again in 2004 left her with ... well, the far-left.
Right after Gore lost to Bush in 2000, Ms. Moore said, "[We] remain committed to restoring the Peoples' President Albert Gore, Jr." Of course, "restoring" would mean Gore was inaugurated President at some time, which never occurred, a fact that eludes Ms. Moore.
Anyone claiming that Bush's secret NSA program is illegal is either ignorant about warfare or deliberately trying to mislead Americans. Congress gave the President the power to wage war in their September 14, 2001 resolution. Besides killing or capturing the enemy -- in this case terrorists -- part of warfare is the gathering of tactical -- as opposed to strategic -- intelligence. Critics claim the resolution doesn't say anything about NSA surveillance. True. But it is also silent on the use of tanks, but it's assumed tanks are part of warfare. So too is intelligence gathering part of warfare.
Chinese warrior-philosopher Sun Tzu once wrote, "Whenever you want to attack an [enemy], first you must know the identities of their [leaders], their associates, their visitors,
their gatekeepers and their chamberlains, so have your spies find out."
Military operations are not police investigations that require warrants, rules of evidence and other protections and rights. Military operations should be designed to kill the enemy, disorient their followers, capture "intelligence assets," and win each and every battle. Someone should drum that fact into the heads of the appeasers and the Goretics.
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Hmm, I'm a Goretic? I thought I was an American. So since I also agree with Bob Barr on this topic, does that make a Barretic too? And this is what passes for intelligence on the Right.
This appears to be a Conservative paper in South Carolina. I'm absolutely heartbroken that it trashed me... Not. You know when you wind up in the paper, a Conservative one no less, that you hit a nerve. They just hate that people are actually out here supporting the Constitution and holding Bush accountable for thinking he is a King. It is also truly sad, because this is a pathetic response.
Notice there was nothing in this column to back up WHY this program is legal without a warrant. It's just the same old blowhard Conservative rhetoric. And Al Gore can most definitely touch upon this topic, because he never broke the law. And even this article tried to make some sort of intimation that this means Mr. Gore is running for President, because obviously the author had nothing else to write about regarding the spying program because it is correct. Even Republicans like Arlen Spector today questioned the legality of what is being done in this program. This is not a partisan issue.
I will be formulating a response to this partisan hack to send to him to also correct the innaccuracies he printed regarding our release. And oh God, where to begin... This was not an attack on ANYTHING but the unconstitutional power grab being undertaken by an illegitimate president in violation of prescribed laws and the Constitution. That would be the case regardless of Party. It's called putting your country first.
And NO where in our release did I ever suggest TOP SECRET information be revealed publicly. I stated that all information pertinent to the wiretapping program be made available to a special counsel. What is he afraid of? What terrorists have been apprehended as a result of this? Where is evidence to back up the legality of this, and if it above board, where are the warrants? Again, they have nothing to back up their defense of this program that violates the law, so they attack the messenger. Perhaps I should also send the actual LAW to him as well to back up the fact that he doesn't seem to know anything about what he defends. Wiretapping an American's phone without the proper court warrants is ILLEGAL. That is not partisan, that is truth.
Our PAC is also not endorsed by Mr. Gore, so he needs to understand that as well... And we were serious about him in 2004 when we were working behind the scenes in hopes to still see his name on the ballot. He needs to be able to better assess the sites he spies on. However, since the Bush Republicans don't have any other mentality but cronyism, that must be hard for him to understand.
And it looks like our petition and support for Mr. Gore's words are making Freepers and others nervous. Good. The more crap they add to it, the more they prove it is not insignificant. Keep making my point. Al Gore was elected President in 2000, and I will call on Congress to do their duty to bring justice for that. But I do have to state one thing good about this article. He didn't call me nuts... That seems to be only something certain other Gore supporters here call me. Go figure.
Anyone wishing to address him can do so at the link above. I know I sure will be doing so.