So you want the people, that disagree with GWB's policies and that are upset with their associated mistakes, to "stand down"? I think that we "dissenters" are sending GWB a wake up call. If GWB ignores the dissent (which is likely) he will have really tough sledding to win in November. If GWB does wake up and rights his ship, damn he might even win in November. Thus, you should actually appreciate the help we are giving GWB. If you turn back the clock to the fall of 2002, you willl easily remember the political gameship of the GWB WH. They scheduled the UNSC vote and their associated vote in Congress wrt Iraq at the height of the campaign season for political reasons. Did you vehemently complain then about our CiC? I strongly suspect what is really going on here is that Gore message has traction and is causing some temporary political damage to GWB. His message condemns GWB and his Admin as incompetents. These are very strong words. His message also appears to match the mood of the country wrt the occupation of Iraq.
Now we see what was wrong with the Gore speech. He spoke with passion. Nobody has argued the substance of his speech, but at last we come to the real problem. When speaking of serious issues Gore's passion and voice level rose. That is a crime we just can't forgive. I'd rather we had an executive who appoints people who commit felonies and risk national security by exposing members of our intel team, while we have troops in the field. Bush can do that, appoint people, who have let those under them commit horrible acts of torture etc. as long as he doesn't raise his voice. Once a guy raises his voice it's ok to misrepresent his view on movies etc. as long as it serves to make him look bad.
Sorry I don't live up to your high intellectual standards. That was not meant as "flame bait". But, I guess the answer to your question is "no".
Yelling and screamin = passion? Can you develop passion 50 years into life? He didn't seen to have it before. I bet if I go yell at my wife to make me breakfast she's going to consider it passion. I did argue with the substance to his speech. I said blaming Bush for the prison abuse is a stretch and that was the meat of his speech.
It depends on why he's yelling and screaming. If it's because he's talking about serious issues, then it's passion. When I'm watching a Rockets game and yelling and screaming it's passion. Rocket games are serious issues. As for developing that passion late, there could be reason. Now is when the country's image has been tarnished, now is when the U.S. is losing respect, and credibility. These times are unique and for many people who love the country, and what it's stood for, passion may surface where it was rare to do so before.
A Speech That's No Joke By BOB HERBERT It has always been easy to make fun of Al Gore. But if there's any truth to the thunderous criticism he's turned loose on the Bush administration this week, it's time to dispense with the jokes and listen seriously to what the man is saying. If Mr. Gore is right, the nation is faced with a crisis of leadership that is perilously close to an emergency. If he's wrong, then all the folks who have made the easy jokes at his expense can consider themselves vindicated. The war in Iraq, said Mr. Gore, in an interview on Wednesday, "is the worst strategic fiasco in the history of the United States. It is an unfolding catastrophe without any comparison." In an echo of the growing chorus of criticism here and around the world, he said the war has not only damaged "our strategic interests" and isolated the U.S. from its allies, it has also made the country more — not less — vulnerable to terror. In a widely covered speech earlier in the day, Mr. Gore said that Iraq had not become, as President Bush has asserted, " `the central front in the war on terror.' " But he said it has become, unfortunately, "the central recruiting office for terrorists." The speech was extraordinary — blunt, colorful and delivered with the kind of passion you seldom see in politics anymore. The former vice president described Mr. Bush as incompetent and untrustworthy, and said his policies had endangered the nation. The president, said Mr. Gore, had "planted the seeds of war, and harvested a whirlwind." In the view of Mr. Gore (and many others), the essential problem has been the triumph in the Bush crowd of ideology over reality. The true believers knew everything better than everybody else, and the arrogance born of that certainty led, step by tragic step, to the war with no exit doors that we are locked in today. That arrogance gave rise to the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war, the contempt for international agreements like the Geneva Conventions, the dismissal of concerns by some of the highest-ranking military professionals about the way a war in Iraq should be fought and the willingness of top administration figures to blow smoke in the eyes of ordinary Americans who were traumatized by Sept. 11 and worried about the possibility of further terrorist attacks. "The same preference for ideology over reality has turned trillion-dollar surpluses into multitrillion-dollar deficits," said Mr. Gore. "And that same approach has led to the locking up of American citizens without recourse to lawyers or access to courts or even a right of their families to know they're being held in secret." These and other matters are transforming the United States into a country that is more warlike, more brutal, less free, less just, less admirable and much less appealing than the nation that existed when Mr. Bush stepped into the presidency in January 2001. Those who disagree with Mr. Gore should challenge him on his facts. Those who agree must look for ways to defend the honor and perhaps the very identity of the United States as we've known it. The least serious part of Mr. Gore's speech was the part that got the most attention, his call for top officials of the Bush administration to resign. As an attention-getter, it worked. But this was a speech in which the former vice president said: "What makes the United States special in the history of nations is our commitment to the rule of law and our carefully constructed system of checks and balances. Our natural distrust of concentrated power and our devotion to openness and democracy are what have led us as a people to consistently choose good over evil in our collective aspirations, more than the people of any other nation." This is a time to remember the principles that made this a great nation, and to reaffirm them. I don't know what will happen in the election in November. What I know is that the nation is facing a crisis now. The Bush administration needs to step back from the abyss its ideology has dragged us to. It may be that the president never understood what made the U.S. great. In that case, he'd be among those who could benefit most from a reading of Mr. Gore's speech. If he followed that up with a look at the Bill of Rights (it would only take a few minutes), he'd have a better understanding of what this country, at its best, is about.
If Mr. Gore is right, he also invented the internet. Algore is in a really tough position right now. He endorsed Dean, who party leaders hated. After the Deaniacs picked their new flavor of the month, Forbes Kerry, Algore was left high and dry. Now he has to resort to this type of vitriol to even get noticed. Sad, really, how far this man has fallen.
It's a relief to listen to a Republican who only reads political writers who are equally critical of the Republican party.
I wasn't considering it, but knowing how much it would probably bother some people, it's definitely an option. There's no such thing as a writer who's "equally critical" of either party. I read Herbert, Molly Ivins, and Maureen Dowd regularly (they're published in the Austin American-Statesman), as well as the Statesman's gaggle of local op-ed writers, and they're universally critical of Republicans.
Come on TJ, I'm sure you know that idea that Gore claimed to have invented the internet is false. I only bring it up since we talk about being right.
Ho, ho, ho! A fantastic thread! What is Gore's political future? What is he trying to accomplish with these outlandish speaches? He is approaching Howard Dean's level of lunacy.
