Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Gore's speech & my Looong day


Read Al Gore's Speech here. I wish there was more coverage on TV of this, and that more prominent members of the government would start listening and maybe start echoing these ideas.

Here are some snippets: (my emphasis added)

As we begin this new year, the Executive Branch of our government has been caught eavesdropping on huge numbers of American citizens and has brazenly declared that it has the unilateral right to continue without regard to the established law enacted by Congress to prevent such abuses.

It is imperative that respect for the rule of law be restored.

**snip**

Yet, just one month ago, Americans awoke to the shocking news that in spite of this long settled law, the Executive Branch has been secretly spying on large numbers of Americans for the last four years and eavesdropping on "large volumes of telephone calls, e-mail messages, and other Internet traffic inside the United States." The New York Times reported that the President decided to launch this massive eavesdropping program "without search warrants or any new laws that would permit such domestic intelligence collection."

During the period when this eavesdropping was still secret, the President went out of his way to reassure the American people on more than one occasion that, of course, judicial permission is required for any government spying on American citizens and that, of course, these constitutional safeguards were still in place.

**snip**

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution - our system of checks and balances - was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: "The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men."

It's a good read, quite long, but definitely worth it.

This topic gets my blood boiling. I wish there were more I could do to stop our president and all his cronies from everything they are doing. But it certainly seems that little ole me has very little say in all that goes on. Sure, i write my congressmen, and sign petitions and all that, but what good does it seem to do. Sometimes I wish for the possibility to just slap some sense into them (literally). Maybe it would work. Maybe it would just feel good. I dunno. I certainly feel very frustrated with the state of our government.

Well, that seems to be all the time I have today. I watch my sister's baby two days a week (at 8hours each) and today is one of those days. These are the 2 longest days of the week. I know now for sure: I do NOT want any more kids. Thank you very much, but One is enough for me. I dont wanna start over, and it is just too much work. Kudos to those of you out there insane enough to have multiple children. Good for you. :) (bad for me)

Well, have a great day all...
Kristie :: 9:12 AM :: 2 comments

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