I meant to post something about this earlier today. In the morning, when I’m feeding my son and getting him ready to head out with his Papa in the morning, Sometimes I turn on the television just to have some background noise or see what’s on. Since we have sattelite, we get WorldLink TV, which I like to check out for news and documentaries once in a while.
This morning, I turned it on to find they were airing an uncharacteristically rousing speech by Al Gore in response to the Bush administration’s response to terrorism, assaults on civil liberties, etc. It was good to see Al, for many of the same reasons it was nice to hear news about Clinton. More than that it was nice to hear someone saying some of the things he had to say. Some gems include:
I want to challenge the Bush Administration’s implicit assumption that we have to give up many of our traditional freedoms in order to be safe from terrorists.
and
And meanwhile, the real story is that while the administration
manages to convey the impression that it is doing everything possible to protect America, in reality it has seriously neglected most of the measures that it could have taken to really make our country safer.
For example, there is still no serious strategy for domestic security that protects critical infrastructure such as electric power lines, gas pipelines, nuclear facilities, ports, chemical plants and the like.
They’re still not checking incoming cargo carriers for radiation. They’re still skimping on protection of certain nuclear weapons storage facilities. They’re still not hardening critical facilities that must never be soft targets for terrorists. They’re still not investing in the translators and analysts we need to counter the growing terror threat.
The administration is still not investing in local government training and infrastructures where they could make the biggest difference. The first responder community is still being shortchanged. In many cases, fire and police still don’t have the communications equipment to talk to each other. The CDC and local hospitals are still nowhere close to being ready for a biological weapons attack.
The administration has still failed to address the fundamental disorganization and rivalries of our law enforcement, intelligence and investigative agencies. In particular, the critical FBI-CIA coordination, while finally improved at the top, still remains dysfunctional in the trenches.
The constant violations of civil liberties promote the false impression that these violations are necessary in order to take every precaution against another terrorist attack. But the simple truth is that the vast majority of the violations have not benefited our security at all; to the contrary, they hurt our security.
What was even nicer was seeing the crowded audience that applauded many of his statements. Even Parker turned as I was feeding him to see what all the fuss was about.
But don’t believe me, just go online and read or watch the speech for yourself.
It might even make your day a little better. It did for me.