"(My son) died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives,"

While it may be true that many people are oblivious to the really important things, such a blanket indictment of the citizens of this country is being awfully careless and appears to fail to take into account the fact that people do get to the point of overload with serious matters and, at times, need some diversion from that. (I am not familiar with American Idol other than I know it is some TV show that probably provides some diversion just like attending a ball game). No, Cindy Sheehan has now apparently realized what has not yet struck The Mighty Algore, that the sun really doesn't revolve around them. (although I am sure Good Old Fat Albert is trying to invent that concept now that he is done with inventing the internet and global change). AlGore should walk the plank.

nothing more to it than hositle name calling and character attacks.  

Al Gore and Cindy Sheehan are saying EXACTLY what you are saying, but apparently are unable to grasp because you have been brainwashed by the hateful indoctrination of the rightwing.  People like GW Bush, Dick "Halliburton" Cheney, Kenneth Lay  DO think the world revolves around them and are willing to send thousands of young men and women to die so that they become more wealthy by stuffing war crime oil dollars into their pockets.

Of course, we all need time to forget about the serious matters that plague this world. But Americans are flocking to their televisions in unprecedented numbers to watch shows like American Idol, and turning a blind eye to the travesties and unjustices that threaten not only our nation's position in the world as a leading beacon of freedom, but the very survival of the humankind.  As Eldridge Cleaver said, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."  

nothing more to it than hositle name calling and character attacks.  

Al Gore and Cindy Sheehan are saying EXACTLY what you are saying, but apparently are unable to grasp because you have been brainwashed by the hateful indoctrination of the rightwing.  People like GW Bush, Dick "Halliburton" Cheney, Kenneth Lay  DO think the world revolves around them and are willing to send thousands of young men and women to die so that they become more wealthy by stuffing war crime oil dollars into their pockets.

Of course, we all need time to forget about the serious matters that plague this world. But Americans are flocking to their televisions in unprecedented numbers to watch shows like American Idol, and turning a blind eye to the travesties and unjustices that threaten not only our nation's position in the world as a leading beacon of freedom, but the very survival of the humankind.  As Eldridge Cleaver said, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."  

he doesn't want to be bothered.  

He's got a yellow ribbon, he bitches about his taxes but mostly pays them (like all the rest of us) he cheers when the bad guys splatter, and waves a flag when one of ours gets splattered.  Beyond that, he doesn't want to be bothered.  He wants to wander into the politics forum, or onto TV, and not be disturbed.

And that's what Sheehan is saying, too.

That's the reality of politics.   People have every right to leave it alone, but they're fucking crazy if they think they can wander into a barroom brawl and people will or should make way for them - but they do.

That's politics.   And it makes soldiers cynical as hell.   After a few months in country, nobody wants to hear it.

It's not oil that's making/costing money (at least now) in Iraq.  It's defense contracts - they "rebuild" something, and of course under the conditions it costs far more than it normally would, and then the ragheads blow it up and they do it over.   Later on, when the Iraqis pass this oil bill, there may be some money.  But the minute we leave, the Shia majority will cozy up to the Iranians, and we'll have the fucking nightmare that Saddam prevented.

Shit, we may as well handed the place to the Iranians, and saved the 25K casualties and fucking billions of $$$.

Mistakes are one thing, but ya know, you could have seen this coming (and we in fact did) 5 years ago.

Why the fuck does George think his daddy didn't take out the Republican Guard 15 years ago?  Because Daddy wasn't as totally stupid as Junior - he knew to ask, what happens next?

This is how i see it...some Americans like Cindy are extremely vocal, but most, and this is sad to say, live in this country but are basically invisible.  As long as they can get up, go to work, pick the kids up, and keep the bills paid they are happy.  As far as the managment in this country, all the really smart, gifted individuals go to work for private industry because the governmment doesn't pay well at all.  When they had recruiters and such at my college, the tiny internet company i work for now, with about 250 employees, offered me a better living than the US government.  We basically have a bunch of B and C students running this country, and untill that changes, we will be at the mercy of average morons with great power

love to make statements that are outlandish enough to get people's attention. But these statements are frequently exaggerations or a misrepresentation of the truth with just a bit of factual accuracy so that it can be sold as the complete truth.  

As an example.  Al Gore NEVER said that he invented the Internet.  Rather he has said that he was a strong proponent in the Senate of passing legislation to encourage and further the development, reach, and scope of the Internet.

the multi-billion, no-bid contract that was awarded to Halliburton to rebuild the oil infrastructure in Iraq. The fed govt is giving away huge no-bid contracts?  When did they start doing that? Was it when Dick Cheney came into office?  It can't be.  He said he severed all ties with the company.  Do we have any reason to believe he is lying?  Nope.  He just doesn't want to turn over the internal memos that the GAO has asked for to see if there was a conflict of interest when the Bush administration was formulating energy policy.  

But eventually, there will be lots of oil money flowing into the pockets of Dick, GW, and all their accomplices in perpetrating this crime against society.

Transcript: Vice President Gore on CNN's 'Late Edition' - WOLF BLITZER

March 9, 1999

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

I SAID "I took the initiative in CREATING the internet.

Just because you are in love with me does NOT give you license to misinterpret my words.

Figure it out.

Here's a clue:  it ain't CREATING.

As Jack points out the verb is Al Gore's sentence is "took."  He says he "took the initiative in creating the Internet."  Gore probably wasn't given the questions ahead of time and did not have prepared answers.  He was speaking extemporaneously and, as people are prone to do under such circumstances, he probably made a slip of the tongue and unintenionally left a word out.  (Just as Neil Armstrong said "One small step for man..." when he meant to say, "One small step for A man..."  In this case, Gore probably meant to say he "took the initiative in helping to create the Internet."  No other members of Congress had a vision of what the Internet can do, and so he took the initiative in introducing legislation to help expand and develop the Internet.  

You may disagree with Gore on every issue, but you can't actually believe that he is so stupid that he thought he could fool anyone into believing he "created" the internet.

I think it's ironic that you take Gore to task for a rare slip of the tongue, but have no problem with the dozens and dozens of ignorant statements by Bush that reveal a genuine lack of intellect.

he was one of the primary authors of the funding bills for the research that led to the internet.

But don't be thinking people won't believe anything.  Shit, how many billionaire televangelists do we have?

with the added feature that "Al Gore and Cindy Sheehan are saying EXACTLY what (I) am saying." Now, please fix the script, or at least clarify the script. Are they brainwashed too? Damn'd rattleheaded sophmoric pseudo liberals do kind of confuse an old man so please clear this up.

the Internet was originated as the ARPANET.  It was originally described in a memo written by Licklider of the Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN Technologies) Company in 1962.  Planning began in 1967 with the government issuing an RFP (request for proposal) in 1968.  Finally a contract was awarded on April 7th, 1968 to BBN (where the original concept was hatched).

ARPANET contains most (if not all) of the information sharing features of the internet as we know it today.

Gore was elected to Congress (the first time in 1976 - a full 7 frickin years AFTER the original funding.

Get over it, the man took credit for that which he did NOT do!  He lied....

Jeez, I wonder if there guys compare notes.  Or maybe have some sort of bet going about who can make the most money from the biggest whopper.

Ya think?

was aware of this stuff - prior to 1976!  Became aware of it as a Computer ops. officer.

brains or grades alone are overrated; and money as an incentive alone can distort public service.

Most politics gets driven by billboard responses, like YAY TROOPS (wave yellow ribbons) BOO RAGHEADS (toss bomb) and few people ask to look behind the curtain.

The extreme example of this is the power of televangelists to swing elections to people who wave crosses, because it puts money into their pocket, I mean church.  

And of course wall street money follows.   People are willing to buy total BS, and then they wonder why the country is FUBAR.

Like the health insurance debate - I think we're just gonna go from one big mess to another.  

if somebody were to concede your point 100%, it would be well within the usual resume poetic license by an out of work politician, and nothing compared to "WMDs" or "I did not have sex", or "I am not a crook", or any of the other massive lies that populate DC.

Have you been taking your Ritalin, Bizzy?!?

will be out-of-work Republicans writing books about how we could have won in Iraq if the Democrats had just given them another 20 billion $$ to create a Baghdad market in sand futures.

We should have drafted the Enron managers and sent them.  They could have come up with a second edition of the 1001 Nights, and the copyright would be worth $5, which would be better than we have.

when the morning papers are full of shit like Falwell and Robertson getting together to announce that lesbians are to blame for the WTC attack?

Gore MIGHT be right.  2/3s of the shit that flows thru DC is totally IMPOSSIBLE.

Once again, Gore is a bore.  Zero entertainment value.  He just doesn't get it, politicians are supposed to leave you laughing - or puking - when they go.

Balance is when you realize that BOTH sides are wrong - as they so frequently are.  Both are trying to appeal to fringe, marginally lucid dweebs such as underemployed attorneys who are gettin over a bad divorce from a woman driven to insanity by an overbearing short hubby.  

Or - a bot.

-- Modified on 5/30/2007 11:38:34 AM

-- Modified on 5/30/2007 11:39:04 AM

how many times does someone have to lie to be untrustworthy? Once.

I'm not saying that any of the others are trustworthy.... I'm just saying that thinking this guy is trustworthy is delusional.  'Cause he either knowingly lied or he knows little about what he spouts off about.

the question is not whether somebody lied.

The question is whether their statement is reliable.

Because there is a spectrum between lies and mistake.  You for example, could be mistaken all to hell and gone, about any random pattern of things, or you could be lying about the same pattern.

Most people lie at one time or another in their lives (Yes darling, it was wonderful.)  

So you often get back to, what do they lie about?

You're picking on a case that is reasonably open to interpretation, which is simply not so in most political denizens.

EG, who do you trust more, Hillary talking about Iraq (given her flipflops) or Gore talking about the internet (given that it doesn't make a rats ass of difference either way).

Who do you trust more, Bill Clinton (knowing he will stick his dick in anything that stands still for 20 seconds) or George Bush (knowing he can't string a sentence together, and is owned by Pat Robertson and Dick Cheney's partners?)

You for example, are not real reliable about much of anything.  Hell, we can't even rely on you to read a post accurately.  Doesn't mean you're lying, or dumb.  You just sound like a mental spaz.   But it all comes back to the same problem.

And that's before we even get to the question of, what are the alternatives?

and it doesn't take me THREE FUCKING TRIES to figure it out.

I think Gore would make a fair mid level bureaucrat or academic, where he'd subject to all the usual peer review.

But the MAJOR problem we have is any better CHOICES.  I keep hoping the skies will open and a B average student will fall from the skies.

Look at you - what the hell can you possibly do, riccocheting around and totally unable to read or interpret a 3 para post?

Look at what we elected for a President - can't fucking string a sentence together without a prompter, and too stupid to know when people tell him he's FUCKED UP.

Sigh.   I guess you 2 deserve each other.

BTW, what ARE you doing that you've managed to be top poster here since the Last Supper?  You don't have the skills to be pimping.

I was VICE PRESIDENT when I said that.

So I was sort of working....oh nevermind.

can still read my book. As orgasmic as he has been about it, I'm sure the pages are all stuck together by now.

He just doesn't understand that the real purpose of my new book is to gain support for eventual government control of free speech.

The "Assault on Reason" refers to those that do not reasonably agree with me.

then when verifiable facts are porvided which prove you to be in error, you switch the discussion.... Gimme a break... We WERE speaking about big al.... and the fact that he lied (at best he was misleading).