Our Mad Mad World: Al Gore at MoveOn    
 Al Gore at MoveOn4 comments
28 May 2004 @ 14:00, by Paul Quintanilla

I kind of like Al Gore nowadays. And the speech he gave recently at MoveOn struck just the right note. "How dare they," he exclaimed, allow Abu Ghraib to happen. And all the rest. All the dirt which is immediately swept under the rug as soon as it appears. When Bush was elected president many of us knew we were in for an extremely corrupt presidency. And it wasn’t long before the felons began to appear in his administration: Elliot Abrams, John Poindexter, John Negroponte, [link] ,et al.

Many of us knew things would be bad when Bush became president but he has far exceeded anything we expected. We knew he would be terrible, horrible, just awful, but he has been even worse. For those of us who hadn’t kept up on PNAC, or who ever even heard of it, such as myself, didn’t see what was in store for us and the world in the way of foreign policy. These past three years, I don’t believe, have been surpassed in my lifetime in sheer madness. Perhaps even in American history. And millions and millions of us are grasping now for a semblance of sanity. This was what I heard in Al Gore’s magnificent speech. The sane indignation we all, as Americans, should feel toward our administration.

Yes, the Neocons have taken off the gloves. They openly rejoice in exerting American power. And believe that they have a right and responsibility to do so. They believe in war as an instrument of foreign policy.

Democrats and Republicans have all engaged in RealPolitik and monstrous arrogant abuses of American power. But the Neocons have fully revealed the fangs of our darker side, in a most open and blatant manner. Would Al Gore and some other liberal Democrats reverse this trend? Or are they merely asking to put the gloves back on? To conceal our fangs once again? That is what many of us are asking about John Kerry’s approach to Iraq. Is he merely “Bush light,” or will he reveal the same hatred for war he displayed when he came back as a young man from Vietnam? Is the hope, the thought, of demilitarizing the United States at all possible? Lopping off two hundred billion, let’s say, from the defense budget? Do we need to be able to destroy three fourths of the solar system in order to guaranty our security? Wouldn’t having merely a huge deterrence, while simultaneously maintaining a military which is only three or four times larger than the next five largest militaries in the world, suffice? Do we need to spend four hundred billion dollars a year, off the top, to be able to sleep soundly at night? And, following Bush’s spectacular propaganda campaign, would it be possible to convince the American people that we don’t need to spend four hundred billion on defense? For we know that to suggest cutting that amount would raise a howl. Those who would like to live in partnership with the rest of the world, without arrogantly exerting American might, would be accused of irresponsibility, of weakening America’s defenses and selling out to terrorism. We would be reminded, as if we are simpletons, that we live in a dangerous world, and that we need an immense military to be secure, even if our infrastructure falls apart. If education and health are neglected. Yes, we would be derided and scorned as unrealistic. Would Kerry have the strength to face that?

Nice people, those far right-wingers. I should think that being able to blow up the Earth ten or twelve times over would be sufficient enough, don’t you?

I think I would rather give Al Gore the benefit of the doubt. Vice presidents, as a rule, tend to disappear, lose themselves. And even can become corrupt, as Hubert Humphrey did. (In our current case he, Cheney, already came corrupt.) No, if Gore were running again he might strike a different tune. The Bushies like to chastise us for being "angry," as if unreasonably so, and "Bush haters," as if irrationally so, confusing vehement criticism, which they deserve, for "hatred." They’re touchy folks, the far right, and see the revelation of unpleasant truths in the press and elsewhere as bias and hatred. Gore may have his faults, but his speeches to MoveOn have been magnificent, and a reminder that there are responsible politicians in this country who are fed up with Bush's escapades. "How dare he!.... " Gore exclaimed. Right on! Perhaps now that he’s out of it he can openly dare to speak the truth.

Even the NY Times is singing a new tune. For an editorial on Gore’s recent speech go this [link]

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4 comments

28 May 2004 @ 19:38 by vaxen : Al Gore...
should also come clean. Very clean. He ca'nt. After all he is 'one of them.' Ask yourself the question: "Who is making all the money from this endless war?"

Do a little research on Conformist Al's past and present, for that matter, and you will soon get an enlightened understanding of just who is pulling his strings. Same old same old.

You may be interested to read the article I put up in my news log entitled 'Al Gore.' Some food for thought there. The only thing that will end this madness is to take back the 'power to issue money' from the hands of the 'private international bankers' who are creato-funding this endless wartime scenario and making such heavy profits from it at the cost and sanction, I might add, of the peoples of this world. They are truly evil. Debt based economy is no economy at all! Fractional Reserve Banking, the Federal Reserve Banking System, the IMF, World Bank, etc., etc., these are the real culprits. Al Gore works for them not the people of this once upon a time 'Republic.' Same goes for all the traitors in 'Washington District of Criminals.'

I sincerely believe that the truth will come out, after all it is out there now, for the general public to view... but in such a dumbed down nation as this is will it matter one iota? I doubt it.

Al Qaeda has no existance, per se, outside the horrible machinations of the 'banking elite' who pay their salaries and supply them with the tools of their trade 'the weapons of eternal warfare' against the people of this planet by a self elected band of criminals who have created and manipulated every single war this world has ever known for their own profit. Albert Gore is the worst kind of man. Do'nt believe him or any of his cronies for you do so at your own peril.

A few links for you to examine for 'disclosure purposes:'


Two years ago, the conventional wisdom was that Al Gore was a squeaky clean, if dull policy wonk who would be a shoo-in to succeed Clinton in a country weary of Bill's various scandals. Now, after 2 years of almost continuous scandals of his own -- most concerning his relentless fundraising activities -- it was a major break for Prince Albert when his own party's Attorney General decided not to sic a special prosecutor on him. Here's the real question: is Al Gore corrupt compared to other politicians? Or is he just a run of the mill hack?

One thing is, like several of this year's candidates (notably George W. Bush), Gore has grown up in that protected, distorted world of wealth and privilege that makes it so difficult for him to understand normal people and normal life. That's not a "scandal", really, but it makes it hard to be sure how he will react ina crisis, and that is the most important role our president's have.

Click on the allegation of your choice:

[link]

and:

[link]

Should suffice to begin with. Plus take a peek at the article I posted and then I'd like to know if you begin to get a different picture of the buzzard which is Gore.  



29 May 2004 @ 08:10 by martha : Nice essay quinty
and I tend to agree with you mostly. but it is still mostly good old boy mentality. I doubt seriously that either a republican or a democrat will be able to pull our country out of the mess we have created around the world with our arrogance. I think an entirely new way is needed. Maybe America needs to be humbled before we see the error of our thinking. Unfortunately 9/11 on made many American's more angry and therefor more arrogant.
I do though tend towards Kerry in the coming election because he has been to war and seen the horrors of it. Also if we used many of the billions spent killing others to actually educate, then maybe American' wouldnt be so quick to tell others what to do. And i still ask the question is if Hussain was such an awful dictator, how come the other arab nations didn't put a stop to him? Where is their backbone!  



29 May 2004 @ 12:19 by Quinty @68.9.129.35 : Thanks much
for your thoughtful replies.

Well, by praising what Gore said at MoveOn I hadn't meant to praise the whole persona. Now that Gore is out of office he seems to have moved away from the DLC, and I was only thanking him for being a powerful voice against the current madness in Iraq. And, he first spoke up many months ago, before many establishment politicians had begun to rail against the war. And for that, and being an eloquent voice, I'm thankful. But I'm not going to defend Gore's record in the senate or as a VP.

He grew a beard, remember? Perhaps this small gesture was a way of moving away from promoting Clinton's so-called "third way." For he had become awfully wooden as VP. Anyway, who knows? Maybe what I just said was off track, perhaps even silly. That's the risk one runs when one dares opine, no? If I can really digress it is a wonder any one of us is ever actually correct about anything. Look at the history of philosophy. Has anyone seen eye to eye with anyone else in history who did his/her own thinking? Why, the odds are against us about being correct about anything. isn't it all, as the Bard said, a dream? So perhaps it may be prudent of us not to be too certain. For the odds are high on being wrong: at least once, maybe, in life?

I'm kidding slightly. I do disagree with one remark which has been made, and, of course, I may be entirely off base. But just as poverty is no guarantee of sainthood, wealth is no proof of depravity. There are those wealthy families, the Roosevelts, Kennedys, even some Rockeffers, who believe in "giving something back to society." We may not politically agree with them, but nevertheless, I think, they do at least stand for something. Not all rich politicians are Bushes who believe only taking as much as they can without giving anything back. Who see government only as an arm of their power.

Onward, Paul

End of sermon.  



24 Jun 2004 @ 17:47 by Quinty @68.9.129.35 : Al Gore for President?


Democracy Itself is in Grave Danger
by Al Gore
American Constitution Society
Georgetown University Law Center
June 24, 2004

"Symbolically, President Bush has been attempting to conflate his commander-in-chief role and his head of government role to maximize the power people are eager to give those who promise to defend them against active threats. But as he does so, we are witnessing some serious erosion of the checks and balances that have always maintained a healthy democracy in America. "

Al Gore's entire speach  



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