Al Gore is a truly liberated soul.
Bursting the bonds of earthly manners and morals, Gore has transcended his lowly origins as an American politician and has entered the rarefied stratosphere of cultural and political godhood. He is worshipped as a prophet, a doomsayer on global warming, especially in Europe where the secular masses need someone or something to activate their “God Gene” – at least until Sharia law arrives in a couple of decades. Then, our European cousins will get all the “God” they can handle…and then some.
These Euro-weenies nearly swooned in admiration when our transmogrified Al turned up at the Cannes Film Festival – not quite as anti-American as Hollywood but only because the attendees are too busy preening for the international paparazzi and participating in an endless, orgiastic, self congratulatory seance about how clever and beautiful they truly are.
Al was one of the brightest lights on display at this gussied up cattle call thanks to his starring role in the anti-capitalist, anti-globalization movie An Inconvenient Truth. As we all know, there are many “inconvenient truths” in the world including the fact that Al Gore is a solipsistic nincompoop with the brains of a warthog and the personality of a three toed sloth. The glitterati in Europe went ga-ga over the film, largely because, as Gore readily admits, it “speaks truth to power” by spreading propaganda and lies about climate change:
“...I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous (global warming) is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis.”(HT: Maggies Farm)
We should actually amend Gore’s admission to “speaking scary lies to frighten the masses.” In other words, the sky may not be falling but if we all sacrifice our first born to Gaia, we may stop it from happening anyway. This went over very well with that segment of the population that longs for the days of horse drawn carriages and using whale oil for indoor illumination. Maybe New Bedford can make a comeback in the coming years as the center for Shamu killing.
Basking in this hagiagraphic halo courtesy of the socialist press, our Al has also demonstrated that he hasn’t forgotten how to trash the United States while on foreign soil – something that he and Jimmy Carter have become so adept at doing that they are now the most sought after anti-American Americans in the world, eclipsing even the long shadows of Noam Chomsky and Ramsey Clark. Just yesterday, Gore delivered a few brave broadsides at President Bush and, by extension, the United States. Dissing the office he so rightly was denied while proving his cowardice by doing it in Great Britain, Gore gave a curious assessment of what is wrong with the Administration:
Al Gore has made his sharpest attack yet on the George Bush presidency, describing the current US administration as “a renegade band of rightwing extremists”.
In an interview with the Guardian today, the former vice-president calls himself a “recovering politician”, but launches into the political fray more explicitly than he has previously done during his high-profile campaigning on the threat of global warming.Denying that his politics have shifted to the left since he lost the court battle for the 2000 election, Mr Gore says: “If you have a renegade band of rightwing extremists who get hold of power, the whole thing goes to the right.”
What “thing” Gore is talking about remains undefined. If he is talking about the freely elected government of the United States of America, I daresay someone should sit the former inventor of the internet and model for Love Story down and lecture him on the efficacy of democratic rule. As a man of the left, however, there is never an electoral defeat of liberal ideas. Either the American people are too stupid to realize how truly good and noble their potential liberal masters are or the vote is rigged by evil conservatives and their buddies in giant corporations. Anything else is unthinkable. Why, being rejected at the ballot box because of their loony ideas would be like rejecting peace, love, and unsustainable tax increases.
What is it about being overseas that seems to bring this hatred out in Mr. Gore? Maybe its no fluoridation in the water. Perhaps its the dearth of “chunky monkey” ice cream. Or it could be that Gore just doesn’t have the common decency to keep his mouth shut so that the Anti-American left in Europe won’t have the ammunition to trash the United States and make it harder for the left leaning governments of Europe to deal with us. Having Jimmy Carter running around the world like a global electoral fruit fly, flitting hither and thither with his pronouncements about elections in Venezuela and Iran actually being models of democratic contests is one thing. No one really thinks of Carter as being an American citizen anymore. He has given himself over to the thugs and enemies of freedom so completely, that he has become the third world tyrant’s favorite enabler.
But Gore should know better. Even during the worst of the Clinton scandals, former executive branch employees Bush and Quayle never dared utter the kind of wild, out of control claptrap that passes for political analysis and that is eagerly lapped up by the lickspittle left overseas. Alluding to “renegade right wing extremists” is so over the top, so laughably idiotic that only the simple minded, the deluded, and the certifiably insane actually agree. For in truth, while Bush may be a lot of things (and not all of them flattering), accusing the United States government of being a “renegade band of right wing extremists” under his leadership sounds more like General Sheridan describing the Indian wars of the 1870’s.
Like it or not (and most conservatives don’t like it), the Bush Administration has been a moderately conservative President governing closer to the middle than the left will ever give him credit for. One need only look at his Supreme Court picks to realize that both Roberts and Alito are fully in the mainstream of conservative jurisprudence – a fact that galls liberals to no end since anyone to the right of Ted Kennedy is considered a conservative extremist. And if I mention the words “Prescription Drug Plan” the first thing that comes to your mind should be “statist boondoggle” not “right wing extremism.”
Perhaps we should yank Mr. Gore’s passport and declare him an enemy combatant. That way, he could preach about global warming to the gimlet eyed jihadists at Guantanamo rather than bothering us with his fear mongering and anti-American rants.
At least he’d almost be on foreign soil when he did so.
UPDATE
Dean Esmay points out that Gore also was the first to make comparisons of right wingers with Nazis (“Digital Brownshirts). I guess “renegad right wing extremists” should be considered an improvement then, huh?
He still swears he’s not running. We’ll see. I don’t believe it for a second. I’ve wanted no one as my president besides Al Gore since I was 16 years old; I have always been convinced we needed him—flaws and all—and I’ve never been more sure about that than I am now. And I think he feels the same, whether he’s ready to admit it or not.
Methinks she is trying to give hagiography a bad name.
Joe Gandleman offers some curious analysis:
Has Al Gore stuck his foot in his mouth or has he articulated a view that even some Republicans may be privately saying?
Wha? Run that by me again?
I talk to a lot of Republicans – privately and otherwise – and the idea that this Administration is made up of “renegade right wing extremists” proves that Mr. Gandleman should set the kool aid down on the table very carefully and walk away. Outside of the Lincoln Chafee wing of the Republican party – both of them – there’s nary a Republican soul who thinks this President or this Administration is too “right wing” or “extremist” in any way, shape, or form.
As a genuine right wing extremist (according to my critics, anyway) I can vouch for that.
10:57 am
Why do Capitalists persist in accepting the distortion by our friends on the left that Fascism (e.g., National Socialism)is not leftist? It’s a system of tightly government regulated but privately owned institutions for the production of goods and services. In effect, a product of leftist (statist) thinking. In economic terms the “New Deal” was a blend statist Fascism and Socialism. It could well be argued that until the deregulation initiated by Reagan in the ‘80s, American production was largely sociofascist in nature.
To me it lays out from left to right: Communism, Socialism, Fascism, Centrism, Capitalism, Anarchism. I find Bush to be a Fascistic Centrist, Kerry a Socialistic Fascist, and Gore a Communistic Fascist. Bush 1 was a Centrist and Clinton a weathervane enjoying the fruits of Reaganesque Centristic Capitalism.
Of course, the civil society scale is a whole other matter ranging from moralism to libertinism.
enough “-isms” for one day.
11:16 am
So…..you defenders of the right-wing faith would rather be described as Fascists? I wouldn’t disagree with that decription….own it.
11:33 am
Yes, yes, this really helps me understand! Criticizing Bush = anti-Americanism! How did I not see it earlier?!—Bush of course is coextensive with what America is all about: whatever Bush is, America is; and whatever he is not, America is not—so to criticize Bush is necessarily to criticize America, to be a euroweenie at best, an islamofascist appeaser at worst. Thanks!
11:40 am
I won’t argue with you about Gore; you’re right, Rick. But I’m more than discouraged about treading water while we wait for Iraqi version of the Founding Fathers to show up and save the day. It’s not going to happen. The average Iraq will remain noncommital and the ultimate resolution resides in Shi’ite mosques, not with the US. It’ll be a Shi’ite theocracy with a democracy component as window dressing. My guys Colin Powell, James Baker and Brett Scowcroft predicted it in ‘91. To paraphrase Townshend: ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
11:41 am
Bart:
Whether you acknowledge it or not (something most adults do) George Bush is President of the United States, head of state, chief executive, and representative in the flesh of the American government.
Saying what Gore did on American soil would only make him look silly. Saying what he did in a foreign country is a slap in the face to the American government.
Why this fact fails to penetrate your anteater brain is a continuing source of puzzlement to me and most thinking people. To believe that there’s no difference between what a former Vice President says here and abroad is ridiculous – and the Europeans know that. This is proven when Gore makes idiotic comments like this when on the stump in the US. How many European publications would have carried his remarks? Maybe the Guardian and that’s about it.
Why not grow up a little and stop being so provincial in your outlook – you might learn something besides “Bush=Hitler.”
12:47 pm
Madeleine Albright is pushing her new book in Germany tomorrow. In an interview I just saw, she says about the same thing as Gore. While pushing the crazy Christian aspect, the program (Kulturzeit on 3SAT) ran an inauguration picture of Bush and turned on the sound for the “so help me God” part. This is disgusting. I really wish someone could get a tape of this and run it with subtitles on FOX.
12:48 pm
There was a time when past administrations showed some semblance of deference and courtesy to a present Oval Office occupant, especially in statements to foreign media on matters of national security. Clinton, Gore and Carter regrettably have brought the curtain down on this judicious doctrine, with substantial undermining consequences for the Nation. I would remind Gore that Sadam Hussein’s son-in-law enjoyed a brief vocal defection before, upon being coaxed back into Iraq, he was promptly executed. Point being, many of the very same regimes at which Gore blows his sanctimonious prattle villifying the United States would not show Gore a great deal of tolerance as a returning mouthy ex-official to one of same. But, Gore being the same clueless clod he’s always been, any such advices are a waste of time. Blow hard, global warming wind bag. Blow hard.
Monsoon
2:50 pm
Saying what Gore did on American soil would be an expression of the very American right to freedom of speech. Saying what he did in a foreign country is a slap in the face to the Bush administration, not the American government. The office of the President is more important than any one person that serves in it, and I think most Americans can appreciate the difference between attacking the President and attacking the Presidency.
I also find the use of the word “provincial” rather ironic.
2:59 pm
Why is it that the Left always sees flagrant America-bashing (especially when done overseas) as the height of patriotism? That always slays me. It’s somewhat akin to the old saw that “they wouldn’t make fun of you if they didn’t love you.” Yeah, right- whatever.
3:17 pm
Gore’s unfitness for any elected office becomes more evident every day. He clearly is far more interested in his personal power than in furthering the interests of his fellow americans. His proposals would put millions of working people out of work based on unproven, and in some instances, unfounded science. Wealthy people like Gore and Soros are not concerned about the plight of average people.
I normally will not personally criticize other commenters, but Bartley, Scrivinor’s comment may be the most ignorant I’ve ever read on this blog. Gore’s comments about a sitting preisdent, made on foreign soil, have a far greater historical meaning than political speeches in Iowa. Anyone who has studied political science, interantional relations or history would recognize this fact. Reagan never personally insulted Carter’s idiocy even though the previous admin’s foreign policy was an interantional joke. It would not benfit the U.S. to have done so. Rarely in history has one party attacked a sitting president with such vitriol on foreign soil. If people actually took the time to study history and understand the politics of other nations (yes, including Europe Bart), they may have some understanding of Rick’s column. But in the typically unreal stupid vein that the left currently exists, Bart reduces this to a two word response. Hey moron, being anti-Bush does not make you anti-american. Being anti-american makes you anti-american.
P.S. Riverrat, could questions about -isms. Guys like Bart wouldn’t understand the statist basis of Facism and socialism when reduced to a nationalist scale, rather than as worldwide phenomonem. But conservative dummis like us probably need to stick to New Riverisms.
6:36 pm
Leftists, whether speaking on American or foreign soil, who see no redeeming quality in this country, and bend over backward to explain away the actions of totalitarian or rogue governments by referring to America’s endless crimes, leave the distinct impression that they are anti-American. There is no alternate explanation for this.
Gore or Carter taking digs at the administration in the presence of fawning foreign audiences is merely a subset of this anti-American tendency. It feeds into it, in fact.
9:09 pm
To Which We Can Only Reply…
“...We wish”:
Al Gore has made his sharpest attack yet on the George Bush presidency, describing the current US administration as “a renegade band of rightwing extremists”.
In an interview with the Guardian today, the former vice-president ca…
8:49 am
thanks for the link, Rick. that piece got “Farked”, and the numerous comments are just unbelievably hostile and nasty. But we had some fun with it. No fun – no blog
11:30 am
Page 1 NYT this morning says Dutch scientists who took borings under Arctic Ocean found evidence that temperatures in that region averaged 74 degrees F a few years ago (55 million years ago, specifically). I thought, wow, now the Gore-nicks will have to admit that global temperatures fluctuate natually. WRONG. Turns out, according to NYT report, that is all the more evidence of our need to curtail our production of goods and services. The Florida-like period in the Arctic was probably caused by green house gasses (probably from volcanos, since dinosaurs didn’t have cars) and that we still must curtail cars, smokestacks, etc., avers NYT.
7:59 am
[...] President Al Gore has criticized American policy while speaking in several parts of the world. Here is an example of what Al Gore said in England to a British newspaper: “If you have a renegade band of rightwing extremists who get hold of power, the whole thing goes [...]