Gore Vidal Quotes
In essence, Clinton's Anti-Terrorism Act would set up a national police force, over the long-dead bodies of the founders.
Vidal, Gore. "The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh." Vanity Fair, Sept. 2001.
Barstow the Democratic Governor who had no serious opposition in 1853 found himself challenged for reelection by Coles Bashford of the new Republican Party. The Board of Canvassers reported that Governor Barstow had won reelection but by less than 200 votes in the whole state. The Republicans charged that there had been fraud in some of the rural districts and petitioned the Wisconsin Supreme Court which ruled that nonexistent precincts had indeed voted for the Governor. The Barstow however refused to recognize the decisions of the court claiming that the court had no jurisdiction over the Board of Canvassers who were part of the executive branch. The Republicans held their own inauguration and two men claimed to be Governor. But the Governor claimed that the state constitution did not give the court any authority to deal with the crisis, He even called out the State Militia to maintain his office and intimidate the Supreme Court and keep the “other governor” from the state house. Nonetheless the court ruled that even the Governor had to obey the law and the Supreme Court would determine what the law was. Barstow finally “resigned.” See {587917} & {587914}.
In a 1949 dissenting opinion in Terminiello v. Chicago Jackson claimed the majority view would “convert the Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.”
He was the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senator Church was the chairman of the committee. It’s reports (14 in all) are the most extensive documentation of U. S. intelligence ever compiled.
Edward Snowden, a defense contractor and government employee, publicly revealed that the U. S. intelligence agencies were intercepting and keeping a data base of ALL telephone calls and all Internet e-mails. The government had denied that this was so, and had classified the domestic spying program as Top Secret. Snowden had signed an agreement not to reveal any classified information, and he violated the agreement. Therefore the government was trying to extradite Snowden from Russia at the time so that they could criminally prosecute him. However, there was great debate as to whether the spying on all Americans was legal and Constitutional. Many saw Snowden as a “whistleblower” and pointed out that the government which had lied wanted to prosecute Snowden for telling the truth. Fein, an attorney, was representing Snowden and his family.
The agent, at J. Edgar Hoover’s instruction had approached the editor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s hometown newspaper and offered Patterson a photograph of King and a white woman in front of a motel with the “information” that King was having an affair with the woman. The agent suggested that the story was that the minster while pretending to respect Christian morality in his public persona was actually violating basic moral standards. Patterson, like any qualified editor would realize that the photograph proved nothing about an affair. There might have been other staff nearby who were not framed in the picture that the FBI agents had taken. There might have been a meeting to discuss civil rights strategy or something else. To Patterson it was unheard of that a Federal Official should try encourage a newspaper to slander an American citizen. Even if true, the Federal Role was astounding. Actually, this was a very common tactic of J. Edgar Hoover and not at all unusual. Also, although it is not known whether King was having any kind of affair with the woman in the picture, King was not a faithful husband from a sexual point of view. At the time, facts about extramarital sex were not printed about politicians and other political figures even if the journalists knew of them (as with John F. Kennedy’s many liaisons) unless they affected the person’s job or made them less effective. It is not known whether Patterson knew anything of King’s peccadillos but that kind of keyhole journalism was not practiced by serious newspapers at the time even if the pictures could be confirmed. That would be “keyhole journalism”—peeping through keyhole to invade the personal privacy of people.
to enhance its ability to conduct surveillance
In the face of terror bombings, Britain passed some anti-terror laws which also somewhat infringed on civil rights, liberty and privacy.
Eugene Luther Gore Vidal was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, patrician manner, and polished style of writing. Vidal was openly bisexual and his novels often dealt with LGBT characters, which was unusual at the time. Beyond literature, Vidal was heavily involved in politics. He twice sought office—unsuccessfully—as a Democratic Party candidate, first in 1960 to the United States House of Representatives (for New York), and later in 1982 to the U.S. Senate (for California).
