This is not going to be big news anywhere, but Secretary of State Condolezza Rice and First Lady Laura Bush went to Liberia for the swearing-in of Liberia’s first female President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 67, who is also the first female president of any African nation. Rice, in particular, was treated as a hero there. According to the White House transcript of an exchange with the First Lady on the plane en route to Accra, Ghana, afterwards:

Q : Speaking of Dr. Rice, what did you think of the cheer that went up? I mean, you have all these heads of states, heads of delegations, dignitaries, and Condoleezza Rice’s name comes up, and a big cheer. What did you think of that?

MRS. BUSH: Well, I think the people of Liberia are very, very proud of Dr. Rice. As all of you know, Liberia was started by freed slaves, African Americans founded Liberia. And if you looked at the program — I don’t know if you saw the program of the inauguration, but with the list of all of their former presidents, their first several presidents were born in the United States, starting about 1840*, I think, was when Liberia was founded.

So I think they feel a special fondness for the United States, and I think they feel a very special pride for Dr. Rice.

That little asterisk is treated at the bottom of the page with a correction, “1847.” (Imagine if all White House transcripts came with corrections appended — now that would be something.)

Also of interest, Bush seemed to accept the characterization of her legacy as First Lady, by a reporter, as a kind of “international feminism.”

MRS. BUSH: Actually, I think that what happened to me really happened also to the other people in the United States, and that is after September 11th, when we all looked at Afghanistan and saw the oppression of women there, it awakened a lot of people to the plight of women around the world. As we look more and more at AIDS and what we can do in the United States to help alleviate AIDS suffering around the world, we realize more and more that girls’ education is a key part of it.

So I don’t — although education has always been what I’m interested in for my whole life, I didn’t expect, really, when George was elected, that I would be interested in education worldwide like I am. But it’s just turned out, under the circumstances of what we’ve lived through in our country for the last few years that it’s a really important piece that the United States can help worldwide with.

She is, of course, quite right about this. Mary Wollstonecraft, the Enlightenment political philosopher and proto-feminist, wrote a whole chapter on the subject in her A Vindication of the Right’s of Women, arguing that the education of women — and, especially, mothers — was necessary for the health of the family and the well-being of children. It’s a shame that more than 200 years after she articulated it, that goal should have been so unevenly met around the world.

According to an Italian study, couples who have a television in their bedrooms have sex half as often as those with no television there.

Watching Gore, I can’t help but feel that this man has become America’s Cassandra, futilely sounding the alarm over and over again about the Bush administration, and destined to be repeatedly ignored even by members of his own party. As one DNC staffer sniffed recently when I asked him why he thought Gore’s speech was likely to be dismissed out of hand, “We hate losers.”

Though Gore is not going to be running for office in 2008, according to everyone I’ve spoken with who still works with the man, it might actually be to his benefit if he let people think he had plans to become a candidate again. Candidate Gore’s speeches would be taken more seriously than are former Vice President Gore’s remarks.

I could have gone down to Constitutiona Hall to see former Vice President Al Gore’s speech on Bush administration policies on domestic surveillance, however, I decided to watch it today on television, to see it as most people will. I find Gore is one of those politicians who plays much better in person than on TV, and wanted to get a sense of the mediated experience, since I saw his last speech live.

Liveblogging the speech:

12: 12. Bob “Mr. Privacy” Barr set to introduce him. He’s announced to the stage but…where is he? Much murmuring in the hall…

12:14. Still no Barr. Audience members shouting things out, clapping, laughing. Can’t tell what they are saying. Gore sits on the stage, dutifully waiting for the uncomfortable pause in the program to come to an end.

12:15. Some nervous announcer comes up to announce that he is sorry that Cong. Barr’s “connection to us isn’t working right now.” I guess he was supposed to be patched in remotely on a screen. The announcer, who does not, alas, announce his identity, seems really nervous.

12:17. Gore takes the podium. Thank, you, thank you, thank you. Barr was connected live when we walked out on stage…I know how he must be feeling right now.

12:20. It is imperiative that the rule of law be restored in our country…here to sound the alarm…join with us in demanding that our constitution be defended and preserved. (Thesis statement of the speech, sound bites)

12:21 For the last several years of his life Dr. King was illegally wiretapped…FBI labelelled him “most dangerous and effective negro leader in America”…Executive branch secretly spying on Americans for last four years. (We are in the set up phase of the speech.) Massive domestic spying program. President has no intention of ending wholesale invasions of privacy.

12:25. What we know about the spying “virtually compells the conclusion that the president of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and consistently.” Big applause.

12:26 “A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of government.”

12:27. President doing this becomes “the central threat to government.” Bush is like a king.

A commitment to openness, truthfulness, and accountability helps our country avoid many mistakes that we would otherwise make. Gulf of Tonkin based on false information, decision to authorize Iraq war based on false information, America would have been better off knowing the truth in both these situations.

12:29. Audience shot. Very full conference hall. Gore himself is much greyer than he used to be.

12:30. “Once violated, the rule of law is itself in danger.”

12:31. The president’s men have minced words about American laws. FISA self-evidently does not authorize what the NSA has been doing. Admin claims surveillance was implicitly authorized…but this argument simply does not hold any water. Quotes Frankfurter. Bush dissing the whole congress. Disrepect for law struck down in steel seizure case.

12:34. Republic “at the brink of a dangerous breach in the fabric of the constitution.” American citizens can be imprisoned indefinately without arrest warrants or talking to a lawyer. President claims authority to mistreat prisoners in ways that plainly constitute torture.

12:36. Abu Grhaib. “Executive branch interrogators.” Good phrase.

12:37. A shameful excersize of power that overturns a set of principles that have been observed by every president since Washington. Fire! President claims authority to kidnap individuals overseas and send for rendition. Quotes critic, “We are selling our souls for dross.” Our normal American safeguards have thus far failed…due in part to the fact that executive branch has been “dissembling.”

12:42. “The stakes are much higher than has generally been recognized.” Democracies are rare in history. When they fall, as did Rome and Athens, what emerges is a new strong man regime. We are experiencing something new. This cycle is different. Technological power is greater today.

(This is going to be a long speech. About half-way there.)

12:50. This administration is in thrall of unitary executive legal theory. Ought to be called “unilateral executive theory.”

12:52. “Common denominator is an instinct to intimidate and control.” Silence opponents. CIA analysts pressured. Same as FBI men under Hoover, also pressured.

12:55. The Orwell moment. (You knew it was coming.) “We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.”

Dishonesty is ecnouraged and rewarded.

1:00. Oh, heck — just read the transcript (as prepared for delivery) here.

1:01. Alito and Roberts won’t be effective checks on executive power.

1:03. Legislative branch acts subservient to executive.

1:07. Abramoff scandal but the tip of a giant iceberg.

1:16. One hour in, we’re back on the theme of the impact television has had on politics, the subject of Gore’s last big speech. Lots of tangents.

And then this, which meets great applause:

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 simultaneously?

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.

We have a duty as Americans to defend our citizens’ right not only to life but also to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

1:17. Recommendations. Appoint a special counsel. New whistleblower protections. Comprehensive congressional hearings. Reject extensions of the Patriot Act without new safeguards. Telecom companies that have helped in surveillance without warrants should cease and desist participation.

1:21. And yet, despite all this, I am optimistic.

Study:

Some 3.5 million of today’s Ashkenazi Jews — about 40 percent of the total Ashkenazi population — are descended from just four women, a genetic study indicates.