Gore on KOOP Radio at 3 pm EST: Our Constitution

We still remember the fiery speech Al Gore gave last January at Constitution Hall titled "Restoring the Rule of Law."  

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

The Nation noted that Gore's aides were framing the speech as a "call to action in defense of the Bill of Rights and the rule of law."

Well, Al Gore will be speaking again about our Constitution this afternoon on KOOP radio down in Austin, Texas [Where Netroots Nation will be holding our next convention... YEAH!!!]

Links are on the flip...

Alternative Radio has Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Al Gore speaking on the US Constitution this afternoon from 2:00-3:00 CST (that's 3-4 pm EST).

Click on the brown button Listen Now at the top left to download the VLC player or click here to get your choice of different streams to play this Window Media Player/WinAmp/iTunes).

Al Gore told us last January in his Constitution Hall speech:

...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... 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.

But surprisingly, the President's soothing statements turned out to be false. Moreover, as soon as this massive domestic spying program was uncovered by the press, the President not only confirmed that the story was true, but also declared that he has no intention of bringing these wholesale invasions of privacy to an end.

...

An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution - an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free. In the words of James Madison, "the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

The NY Times provided further information on the upcoming battle, Spies, Lies and FISA

As Democratic lawmakers try to repair a deeply flawed bill on electronic eavesdropping, the White House is pumping out the same fog of fear and disinformation it used to push the bill through Congress this summer. President Bush has been telling Americans that any change would deny the government critical information, make it easier for terrorists to infiltrate, expose state secrets, and make it harder "to save American lives."

There is no truth to any of those claims. No matter how often Mr. Bush says otherwise, there is also no disagreement from the Democrats about the need to provide adequate tools to fight terrorists. The debate is over whether this should be done constitutionally, or at the whim of the president.

...

...Bush’s lawyers tacked dangerous additions onto a bill being rushed through Congress before the recess. When the smoke cleared, Congress had fixed the real loophole, but also endorsed the idea of spying without court approval. It gave legal cover to more than five years of illegal spying.

Fortunately, the law is to expire in February, and some Democratic legislators are trying to fix it. House members have drafted a bill, which is a big improvement but still needs work. The Senate is working on its bill, and we hope it will show the courage this time to restore the rule of law to American surveillance programs.

Chris Dodd has bowed out from the presidential race, but he has NOT bowed out from protecting our Constitution.

... I want to make one thing clear to all of you:

The fight to restore the Constitution and stop retroactive immunity does not end with my Presidential campaign. FISA will come back in a few weeks and my pledge to filibuster ANY bill that includes retroactive immunity remains operative.

You've been an invaluable ally in the battle, and I'll need you to stick by my side...

Once again, Al Gore addresses in a timely manner an issue that is critically important as our Congress will soon again "debate" the FISA bill and the electronic eavesdropping on American citizens by the Bush administration.  This expires in February, so Congress needs to do the job right this time and not rush through bad legislation.

"We are a government of laws, not men."

Listen to Al this afternoon on KOOP radio.