USA today misquotes Gore

[il_lilac]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I never heard Gore say this?
Former vice president Al Gore on Monday denounced President Bush's wiretapping of al-Qaeda suspects in the United States and abroad, calling it part of a "dangerous overreach" of executive power that threatens the Constitution.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060117/pl_usatoday/goredomesticspyinggoesbeyondbushsauthority


edit to correct link

[Darkhawk32]

1. Liberal media my fucking ass. n/t

[zbdent]

17. Now, now . . . don't give them ideas

:evilgrin:

[jsamuel]

2. wow that is REALLY bad

it was obviously written with mallice...

[Fridays Child]

3. From the transcript of his speech...

"It is the pitiful state of our legislative branch which primarily explains the failure of our vaunted checks and balances to prevent the dangerous overreach by our Executive Branch which now threatens a radical transformation of the American system."

So, yes, they misquoted him or spun his words, at the least.

[G_j]

4. "al-Qaeda suspects" ? those are the author's words, me thinks

an obvious attempt at spin

[Junkdrawer]

7. The "ONLY al-Qaeda suspects" claim (by a proven liar) is the first...

thing to be investigated by an independent council. To believe "Only al-Qaeda suspects" were wiretapped, you have to take Bush at his word - and somehow I'm not ready to do that. Wonder why..... :think:

[G_j]

10. yep, ..dead ends or innocent Americans.

Spy Agency Data After Sept. 11 Led F.B.I. to Dead Ends
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/17/politics/17spy.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 - In the anxious months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the National Security Agency began sending a steady stream of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and names to the F.B.I. in search of terrorists. The stream soon became a flood, requiring hundreds of agents to check out thousands of tips a month.

But virtually all of them, current and former officials say, led to dead ends or innocent Americans.

F.B.I. officials repeatedly complained to the spy agency, which was collecting much of the data by eavesdropping on some Americans' international communications and conducting computer searches of foreign-related phone and Internet traffic, that the unfiltered information was swamping investigators. Some F.B.I. officials and prosecutors also thought the checks, which sometimes involved interviews by agents, were pointless intrusions on Americans' privacy.

As the bureau was running down those leads, its director, Robert S. Mueller III, raised concerns about the legal rationale for the eavesdropping program, which did not seek court warrants, one government official said. Mr. Mueller asked senior administration officials about "whether the program had a proper legal foundation," but ultimately deferred to Justice Department legal opinions, the official said.

..more..

[il_lilac]

12. but if you have nothing to hide

why should you care. :sarcasm:

[Loge23]

18. That's a great one to debunk

I've heard this before from freeps. I replied:
"You're right! I don't have anything to hide - either do you. They can come in my house anytime and look around - even if I'm not there! What's the problem - nothing to hide, right?"
They will get a little antsy when you feed them that back.

[Junkdrawer]

13. Keep 'em busy on wild goose chases and they can't compare notes...

on how they were hood-winked pre-9/11 and they can't track the Saudi agents who will inevitably execute MIHOP-II.

[NYC Liberal]

15. You also have to believe that there were THOUSANDS of Qaeda

suspects in the US. Which if that were true (it's not), then we'd have an even bigger problem.

[Rose Siding]

5. Here's Lie #2

"Gore was introduced by former U.S. representative Bob Barr, R-Ga., a conservative who has also criticized the surveillance program."


It looks like USAToday has 2 articles about the speech.

Here's the link to the one you snipped:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060117/pl_usatoday/goredomesticspyinggoesbeyondbushsauthority

but the other begins:

White House accuses Gore of hypocrisy
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House accused former Vice President Al Gore of hypocrisy Tuesday for his assertion that President Bush broke the law by eavesdropping on Americans without court approval.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-01-17-gore-whitehouse_x.htm

[il_lilac]

8. more lies

Gore "who lost the 2000 election"= He won!

[Minnesota_Lib]

6. I saw a crawl on FAUX saying basically the same thing...

..."Gore denounces surveillance of terrorists" or some such nonsense. Just goes to show you how powerful and pervasive the rightwing propaganda machine is.

[flordehinojos]

9. misquoting gore is an old tired tactic--that is what they constantly did

to him on the run for the 2000 election from hell.

[il_lilac]

11. we have to be louder

where are the dems backing him up today?

[flordehinojos]

14. i wonder if they are being silenced by the media.

do you think that they are not really there? more of them are corporatists too who look out for the corporatists' interests ... but hey, here is hoping that they will, in town meetings or other ways in which they can get their voices out, begin to sound the alarm that america is in peril and that it is bush who has placed her at the edge of a precipice.

[wishlist]

16. He specifically denounced wiretapping of American citizens, not Al Qaeda

More than once, Gore specifically criticized illegal wiretapping of American citizens and explained any necessary surveillance should have been done legally under established system.

Typical smear job blatantly lying and misrepresenting Gore.

[pat_k]

19. Never let them get away with omitting "illegal" or "unauthorized" wiretaps

Write [e-mail]

The propagandists consistently leave out "Illegal" and "Unauthorized" or "Criminal violation of the FISA act, which the Congress passed as representatives of We the People."

You don’t need a law degree to know the violations are criminal abuses of power. You don't even need a high school diploma to know that the absolute power they wield is never freely given to a leader; it is only taken by deception or force.

Worse than spying, they terrorized us with the most colossal bomb threat in history -- mushroom clouds over our cities in 45 minutes -- to coerce us into the illegal war of aggression they were hell-bent on waging.

Arguments that we have divided power equally among the branches is a fascist fantasy. As the expression of our will, the Congress retains power over the other branches. We gave the House of Representative, the body most responsive to our will, "the sole power of Impeachment." Of course, we sometimes pass laws that conflict with the principles we have established in our Constitution. To ensure that, as we strive to create a more perfect union, our laws are the best reflection of our will possible in this imperfect world, we have given the task of resolving those conflicts to the Judiciary. We have NOT given the Judiciary the power to override our will, only to reconcile conflicts.

When they act in violation of our will, the Bush Syndicate is committing crimes against the most basic tenet of our Constitutional Democracy -- that WE THE PEOPLE are soveriegns and Congress is OUR voice.

[il_lilac]

20. thanks, I'm doing that

I'm tired of this corporate media getting away with this.

[AlGore-08.com]

21. I did a search through the text for "dangerous overreach" and found this

http://www.algore.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=325&Itemid=78

(snip)

Look for example at the Congressional role in "overseeing" this massive four year eavesdropping campaign that on its face seemed so clearly to violate the Bill of Rights. The President says he informed Congress, but what he really means is that he talked with the chairman and ranking member of the House and Senate intelligence committees and the top leaders of the House and Senate. This small group, in turn, claimed that they were not given the full facts, though at least one of the intelligence committee leaders handwrote a letter of concern to VP Cheney and placed a copy in his own safe.

Though I sympathize with the awkward position in which these men and women were placed, I cannot disagree with the Liberty Coalition when it says that Democrats as well as Republicans in the Congress must share the blame for not taking action to protest and seek to prevent what they consider a grossly unconstitutional program.

Moreover, in the Congress as a whole-both House and Senate-the enhanced role of money in the re-election process, coupled with the sharply diminished role for reasoned deliberation and debate, has produced an atmosphere conducive to pervasive institutionalized corruption.

The Abramoff scandal is but the tip of a giant iceberg that threatens the integrity of the entire legislative branch of government.

It is the pitiful state of our legislative branch which primarily explains the failure of our vaunted checks and balances to prevent the dangerous overreach by our Executive Branch which now threatens a radical transformation of the American system.

(more)

The real problem with the quote you provide is that it suggests Gore was complaining about the (stated) goal of the wiretapping - - monitoring Al-Qeada suspects. Gore was complaining about the method - - the lack of warrants; how FISA specifically makes warrantless wiretapping illegal; and that the Bush admin could have easily requested a change in the law, but decided to break the law without even requesting a change.

He also discussed a number of other major issues in the same vein, which showed the Bush admin acting above the law - - for example, he discussed the use of torture, and how even when Bush signed the anti-torture law, Bush said he "reserved the right not to comply with it".

[il_lilac]

22. but if you're not with us

You're against us! Bush makes us all appear as terrorist if we disagree with him. Watching the swift-boating of Gore now.

[AlGore-08.com]

23. Here's another snippet - - Gore talking about the threat of terrorism

http://www.algore.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=325&Itemid=78

(snip)

Don't misunderstand me: the threat of additional terror strikes is all too real and their concerted efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction does create a real imperative to exercise the powers of the Executive Branch with swiftness and agility. Moreover, there is in fact an inherent power that is conferred by the Constitution to the President to take unilateral action to protect the nation from a sudden and immediate threat, but it is simply not possible to precisely define in legalistic terms exactly when that power is appropriate and when it is not.

But the existence of that inherent power cannot be used to justify a gross and excessive power grab lasting for years that produces a serious imbalance in the relationship between the executive and the other two branches of government.

(more... )

[il_lilac]

24. I missed that

in other words, he is giving that in an extreme case, once or twice, it might be overlooked? Just trying to clarify his meaning especially after Scotty ripped him today.