This is...spooky in a way :)

[The Straight Story]

We are fighting terrorism on all fronts with a three-prong strategy. First, we are working to rally a world coalition with zero tolerance for terrorism. Just this month I signed a law imposing harsh sanctions on foreign companies that invest in key sectors of the Iranian and Libyan economies. As long as Iran trains, supports, and protects terrorists, as long as Libya refuses to give up the people who blew up Pan Am 103, they will pay a price from the United States.

Second, we must give law enforcement the tools they need to take the fight to terrorists. We need new laws to crack down on money laundering and to prosecute and punish those who commit violent acts against American citizens abroad; to add chemical markers or taggants to gunpowder used in bombs so we can track the bomb-makers; to extend the same power police now have against organized crime to save lives by tapping all the phones that terrorists use. Terrorists are as big a threat to our future, perhaps bigger, than organized crime. Why should we have two different standards for a common threat to the safety of America and our children?

We need, in short, the laws that Congress refused to pass. And I ask them again: Please, as an American, not a partisan matter, pass these laws now.

Third, we will improve airport and air travel security. I have asked the Vice President to establish a commission and report back to me on ways to do this. But now we will install the most sophisticated bomb-detection equipment in all our major airports. We will search every airplane flying to or from America from another nation -- every flight, every cargo hold, every cabin, every time.


....I still believe in a place called Hope, a place called America.

Thank you, God bless you, and good night.


1996.
http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itps/1096/ijpe/clin1.htm

Some 11 years later and it all sounds the same in some ways.

I guess I was not paying attention back then.

[Hissyspit]

1. I remember it well. Repubs STOPPED legitimate attempts to prevent a 9/11.

Because it was a Democrat trying to do it. Simple as that.

"The Path To 9/11" was paved by Republicans.

[The Straight Story]

2. Well, the odd thing about it is this to me:

First off - Outcome Based Education was sort of a fore runner of NCLB act. And repugs and christian groups fought that, they did not want teaching to a test, etc and so on. They get in power, we get it passed, and now dems don't want it when they did before.

I am seeing the same sort of thing on the war, terrorism, wire tapping, and so on.

Which leads me to believe, I suppose in some ways, that no matter who we get in someone else is pulling the strings on the bigger issues (but obviously not on all the issues).

[sandnsea]

3. Devil is in the details

Yeah, the Patriot Act was ready because Democrats had been trying to pass parts of it for years, particularly after OKCity. That Republicans got credit for being "tough on terror" because they passed the Patriot Act, when they had fought it tooth and nail for years, yeah that's a good one. Although I do think they went beyond what Democrats had wanted. Funny Clinton doesn't remind people of this speech, seeing how they're so great at fighting the right and all.

NCLB. That was a Teddy Kennedy bill, I think a lot of people forget that. It's not just that the money was left behind though, it's that the bottom up implementation never happened. The money that was supposed to flow to troubled schools identified by testing - ended up punishing the schools instead.

But yeah, it is important to look past what people are saying today, to a lifelong record and the intentions within a record. To go back to an FDR worker based society?? I don't see it happening any time soon. Too much of the world needs jobs and the rich will never stop being greedy bastards. But at least a lifelong record gives an indication of someone's values. The fact that folks in Arkansas had to work to even get food stamps, well that should have been an indicator of the kinds of policies he would implement. Kind of hard to look for a job while working to get the food stamps to keep your kids fed too.

[Ravy]

4. I remember that Gore came back with putting doors on cockpits.

I wonder if that ever came up for an appropriation, and if so, who voted against it.