I Don't Like You Either.

Al Gore: Too Valuable to Waste in the 2008 Election?

I've always been up front about my love and admiration for Al Gore, whom I admired even when he wasn't cool and nobody gave a damn about global warming.  Maybe because I'm southern, I always regarded him as attractive and genuine.  Because I'm intelligent myself, I was never put off by the fact that he spoke in sentences and not in sound bites.  And I always thought he had immense authority, passion, and gravity (which is different from the glamour that surrounds Obama like a haze).  It was a sad day for this county when we lost him.  But it was obvious then and after that the media didn't love Gore; he was consistently cast as awkward, inflexible, unappealing, "wooden." 

So now  he's  trendy and  charismatic and  rubs elbows with rock stars and moguls and heads of state. Now that he's getting the same swoony treatment from Time as Bush got back when he was still cool,   .I'm the last to gainsay the reporters and pundits who have suddenly discovered that they (and their corporate backers) had him all wrong.   And I am grateful for, and deeply impressed by, the excerpt from his book, The Assault on Reason. 

After reading the article, I've almost come to the conclusion that Gore is too valuable to waste in politics.  Why should he risk the work he's done so well by jumping into the ugliness of a political campaign in which the press and the opposing campaign will seek to discredit his beliefs and humiliate him the way they did John Kerry?  Since he won the 2000 campaign, Gore has gone a long, long way in a completely different direction.  Why spend the goodwill and influence he's earned battling for the presidency?  I don't want to see his mission attacked or his credibility threatened by the sort of disgusting tactic that's become known as "swiftboating."   If he remains out of the fray, he can be useful regardless of who wins.   

In any ideal world, my ideal ticket would be Gore and Richardson (because I think the two are ideally suited to deal with the precise problems facing this country).  But this is not an ideal world:  this is 21st century America, where the least civically aware or globally savvy people need to feel an emotional connection to the president.  And as Gore's book (and film) show, he has learned to use emotional arguments to appeal to people's reason.  I hope his book helps to create a movement to restore it to its proper role in decisions that affect the life and future of the nation. 

As much as I admire him, I think he is most valuable on the sidelines where the frightened because ignorant knee jerk right winger can't touch him or his causes.   It's a sad comment on the state of the system when the best man for the job  and the highest office in the land is too good and to useful to waste on it.   I signed the petitions at the Gore netroots sites....but if I could, after reading that article, I'd withdraw it.

(Don't let him do it, Tipper!)

Better Late than Never....Conservatives Launch a Movement to Reclaim Power from the Executive Branch.

Two articles at The Huffington Post of interest to those of us who have been watching the erosion under the Bush Administration of constitutional checks and balances.

Why, hello, guys, what took you so long?  Melissa Hanneberger at The Huffington Post:  Four Prominent Conservatives Launch Effort to Restore Civil Liberties Under Assault by the Executive Branch.

Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, who led the effort to impeach President Clinton, is one of the organizers of the effort, called the American Freedom Agenda. Others are David Keene of the American Conservative Union, writer and conservative direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie, and constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, who served in the Reagan administration as associate deputy attorney general.....

At a 1 p.m. news conference today at the National Press Club, they will pitch a legislative package "to restore congressional oversight and habeas corpus, end torture and extraordinary rendition, narrow the President's authority to designate 'enemy combatants,' prevent unconstitutional wiretaps, email and mail openings, protect journalists from prosecution under the Espionage Act, and more."

In a statement, the four said the president "has encroached on the power of Congress to make laws, and on the power of the courts to interpret the law - a scenario that the Founding Fathers foresaw and warned against." As a result, they said, "We are issuing this call to Americans of all political and philosophical persuasions to join us in urging Congress to enact The American Freedom Agenda."

"The AFA would roll back the alarming recent concentration of power in the White House and its end runs around due process... The AFA seeks to restore America's tradition of respect for the rule of law and the benefits of dispersed as opposed to concentrated power, to redeem the principle that no man is above the law, and to prevent injustices that undermine national security."

"We are conservative scholars, activists and writers. We do not favor a crippled executive or enfeebled government. In a time of danger, checks and balances make for stronger government because the people will more readily accept a muscular authority if barriers against abuses are strong. If at some future time Congress, in turn, aggrandizes power and invades the executive or judicial domains, we will be equally alert to sound the alarm. But today, the clear and present danger to conservative philosophy is the White House."

[quote ends]

IN ADDITION, and also at The Huff Post:  The FBI's evidently been warned by Democrats and Republicans "that it could lose broad spying power following revelations of abuses."  Well, well, well. 

Evangelicals Step Up. Hallelujah?

Kudos to certain members of the Christian Right for stepping up on some current issues that ought to be concerns of Christians of all stripes (including marginal ones like me). 

JUMP TO THE MARGINAL CHRISTIAN'S HANDBOOK.

Richard Branson Steps Up

[quote begins from AOL News, "Tycoon Offers $25 Million Climate Prize"]

British tycoon Sir Richard Branson on Friday announced a $25 million prize for the first scientist to come up with a way to extract greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

Branson compared it to the competition launched in 1675 to devise a method of estimating longitude accurately. It was 60 years before English clock maker John Harrison discovered an accurate method and received his prize from King George III.

"The Earth cannot wait 60 years. We need everybody capable of discovering an answer to put their minds to it today," Branson said....

In September, Branson pledged to invest $3 billion to fight global warming, saying he would commit all profits from his travel firms - including Virgin Atlantic airline and Virgin Trains - over the next 10 years.

[quote]

Full props to him for doing something about it. . 

The Decider as Conciliator.

It turns out that---now that Rumsfeld is gone and the Dems are back in control of Congress---it's totally okay to question the legitimacy, necessity, and utility of the Iraq War! 

[quote begins from Yahoo.News, Bush Offers Democrats Some Conciliatory Words, by Laurie Kellman]

"You know, I welcome debate in a time of war and I hope you know that," Bush said in opening remarks at the guest speaker at a retreat that drew about 200 lawmakers to a Virginia resort.

He said disagreeing with him over the war — as many in the room do — does not mean "you don't share the same sense of patriotism I do."

"You can get that thought out of your mind, if that's what some believe," the president said. "These are tough times, but there's no doubt in my mind that you want to secure this homeland as much as I do."

[quote]

He also told Democrats that the war [quote from Yahoo.News article] "is "sapping our soul," according to two officials who attended the session." They spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a closed meeting.

How nice, and how very unexpected.

Seriously, is he kidding me?  Now he decides to approach the other party in a manner that I personally can only describe as "endearing"?  Evidently the meeting was quite the little likefest.  Consider this:

[quote begins from Yahoo.News, Bush Offers Democrats Some Conciliatory Words, by Laurie Kellman]

The president also had a little fun at his own expense, hoping it would prove his willingness to find bipartisan consensus. His reference in his State of the Union address to their party as the "Democrat majority" — as opposed to the "Democratic majority" — caused grumbling and offense and he sought to make up for it.

"Now look, my diction isn't all that good," Bush said to laughter. "I have been accused of occasionally mangling the English language. And so I appreciate you inviting the head of the Republic Party."

[quote ends]

Well, it is too late for little jokes and mild concessions to sway me.  I remember being very frightened of this man and even more of the people with whom he surrounded himself, not to mention many fallen politicos who held themselves out as his supporters and enablers. 

Remember two years ago before Katrina when to question anything the Administration did was tantamount to giving aid and comfort to terrorists?

Remember Cindy Sheehan?  Remember how Bush had to be protected like Catherine the Great from the spectacle of people protesting the war and demanding that he listen?  Remember how he couldn't know about the full extent of the Katrina devastation because it might upset him?

I don't mean to diss the President for arriving at this view---better late than never---but I am still pretty bitter about the preceding six years.

Remember?   Remember when the Democrats were too shit-scared to question the basis on which we went to war in Iraq?   Remember how the press seemed incapable of criticizing the Administration?  Remember?  Remember how Bob wrote a mostly laudatory book that he subsequently lived to (in effect) retract?   

Remember how  Melanie Morgan and Ann Coulter gleefully dated which method of execution ought to be used on the "traitor" Bill Keller?  Remember how all you heard on every side were the increasingly insane thunderings from right-wing nut-jobs yelling that any person who presumed to question the wisdom of the Administration and its representatives was no better than a traitor?   Remember when a lot of Republicans who had to resign due to various and sundry political scandals were actually running things?  Remember when you couldn't get away from Ann Coulter?

I could go on and on, but it would just make me angry. 

I haven't forgotten any of it because I was afraid.  I was afraid the whole time.  I couldn't believe any more in the press; I didn't trust my state officials (after all:  Florida:  Katherine Harris).  It seemed as if all checks and balances had disappeared, and would continue to disappear, just as New Orleans eventually did.

It's nice that the President is now being conciliatory, now that he really hasn't got any other choices.   Even my relatives in the Carolinas have stopped trumpeting his praises (for what? why?  what did he ever do, more than others, to deserve them?) and have begun talking sadly and reminiscently about that old knowledge-denier, Ronald Reagan, which---honestly---makes me laugh out loud. 

I'm glad he has to conciliate; and I hope that the inglorious defeat of his cronies is a sign that Americans on both sides of the spectrum are waking up and moving back toward the center