Monday, January 16, 2006

Go, Go, Gore

Al Gore celebrated the holiday with a stemwinder of a speech in which he called for an independent counsel to investigate whether Bush broke the law in authorizing domestic eavesdropping without court approval. Money quote:

"The founders of our country faced dire threats. If they failed in their endeavors, they would have been hung as traitors.

The very existence of our country was at risk.

Yet, in the teeth of those dangers, they insisted on establishing the Bill of Rights.

Is our Congress today in more danger than were their predecessors when the British army was marching on the Capitol? Is the world more dangerous than when we faced an ideological enemy with tens of thousands of missiles poised to be launched against us and annihilate our country at a moment's notice? Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march-when our fathers fought and won two World Wars?

It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it is up to us to do the same.

Of course there was no sign of this on the nightly news broadcast I watched, and I'll bet the cable news networks also gave it no coverage. [I have high hopes for Jon Stewart, though] So much for the liberal media. I guess it isn't news when a former vice president all but calls the president of the United States a lawbreaker. The minority in this country might as well be invisible.

Afterthought: Maybe the network suits were keeping their away teams close to home, in case they were needed to report on another shark attack on a runaway blond.