Gore Accuses Bush of 'Big Brother' Policy

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20031109_969.html

WASHINGTON Nov. 9 — Former Vice President Al Gore accused President Bush on Sunday of failing to make the country safer after the Sept. 11 attacks and using the war against terrorism as a pretext to consolidate power.
"They have taken us much farther down the road toward an intrusive, 'big brother'-style government toward the dangers prophesied by George Orwell in his book '1984' than anyone ever thought would be possible in the United States of America," Gore charged.

Gore, who lost the disputed 2000 presidential election to Bush, said terrorism-fighting tools granted after Sept. 11 amount to a partisan power grab that have led to the erosion of the civil liberties of all Americans.

<snip>

Go, Al!

On edit: Looks like Spazito and I posted at the same time. Pls lock this thread. Thanks.

[Cha]

1. Well it looks like Spazito's thread was locked

for dupeness. So I will post again on this one!

bush_he loved Big Brother! Gore was Great! I knew he had it in him!

[Spazito]

2. I agree!

He was extraordinary! To encompass 3 years of all that has gone wrong and tie it all up with facts, examples and appropriate quotes was amazing.

[TennesseeWalker]

3. But have any republicans ever actually read 1984?

Or do they just think about Ronald Reagan when they hear that year?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

4. I think Orwell got in the way of Ayn Rand study...

</sarcasm off>

[meow2u3]

22. If Republicans indeed have read 1984...

They've been interpeting it as a how-to manual, as in How to Make the Perfect, High-Tech Dictatorship or High-tech Tyranny for Fun and Profit.

[ninkasi]

5. Not only has he failed to make this country safer...

but he has made the world as a whole unsafer. He might be delusional enough to believe that the world is a safer place under "his leadership", but as in most other things, he is mistaken. It particularly irked me that he now presumes to lead, not just the United States, but the world.

It's very difficult for me to accept that so many people seem to still be blind to his glaring inadequacy. He has unleashed an era of hatred and spitefulness that I thought we had, as a nation, outgrown. I admit to being as deeply flawed as any other human, and readily admit that our country is not as evolved as I had hoped.

[54anickel]

6. Love this line....

"In my opinion, it makes no more sense to launch an assault on our civil liberties as the best way to get at terrorists than it did to launch an invasion of Iraq as the best way to get at Osama bin Laden,"

[bleedingheart]

7. Gore's speech was Great! He was so Eloquent it made me cry

that we have that completely illiterate moron in the White House now...

Gore was robbed of that election!

Its almost cruel to watch and listen to someone so smart when we are stuck with Dumbo.

[anakie]

8. your only hope is with the proles

how do you get the 50 odd percent of people who didn't vote last time to vote? Maybe then you will have a chance to get rid of Shrub.

[Voltaire99]

18. Precisely. Forget the Fox News man

Orwell saw it, and so should the Dems.

There's no hope in leaning rightward for suburban SUV-driving white males - they simply despise the Democratic Party in greater and greater measure. Nor should the party corrupt itself further by pandering to such values.

Return to the base. Cultivate the urban vote. Repeal state disenfranchisement laws. Campaign on the overarching theme of economic justice.

Urban voters are among the savviest in the nation: they don't bother to vote at present because they know they won't be represented even if they do. That needs to change.

This is probably the best and only hope the Dems have - but the corporate-minded leadership of the party isn't going to go for it. Nor will Dem voters in the south who settle for a filigre's worth of difference between their leaders and those of the Republicans - the constituencies of Breaux, for instance, or those of Miller. So we're at someting of an impasse...

[Unknown Known]

9. Our President in exile...

watching him give this most important speech, it saddened me to think of how few would here it. :cry:

[Tatiana]

10. Great!

Looks like the speech is already getting some traction!

[teach1st]

11. How dare they!

Way to go, Al! What a persuasive, strongly worded, and scary speech!

"And in the name of security, this Administration has attempted to relegate the Congress and the Courts to the sidelines and replace our democratic system of checks and balances with an unaccountable Executive. And all the while, it has constantly angled for new ways to exploit the sense of crisis for partisan gain and political dominance. How dare they!"

Link to the speech at MoveOn.org:

http://www.moveon.org/gore/speech2.html

[newyawker99]

28. Hi teach1st!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[DiverDave]

12. Just think.

He could have been calling the shots...What a different world it would be.

DAMNIT AL!!! RUN!!! WE NEED YOU!

After listening to him speak, then just thinking of the thief makes me wanna vomit.

[peacetalksforall]

16. I usually don't hold grudges this long....

but hearing Gore and all the realization of what happened makes me angry all over again at Nader, Moore, Donahue, Robbins, Sarandon and all the Greens. How could they not know that it was going to be down a steep mountain and over the cliff for this country.

I will never forgive Nader (after decades of admiration I can't stand to hear his name) and I am cool to the Greens for not having more vision. To have visions for honorable and urgent world and earth agendas and not have a vision for the agenda of the right wing is an absolute mystery. Who cares how wrong Dems can be when you have to put up a fight against imperialism and nazism. But, none of us knew it would be this bad.

I'm an Independent who is still extremely angry for the lack of foresight. In fact, I tend to think Nader was paid off and used the Green Party. He and his association have a minus billion credibility with me. I have to vent. You can ignore.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

13. the only thing missing was the presidential seal

on the podium. he looked and sounded great. i tried to imagine bush* making a speech like that, but the image never materialized.

[dArKeR]

14. Did Gore read or memorize? I just think this is a great challenging point

for all Dems to take up and surely Junior could never match. Dems. announce they DO NOT read speeches from teleprompters. (Reminder NOTES allowed.) Chimpy doesn't have the mental capacity for being and kind of leader. We all know this.

I feel Americans are tired of Junior standing up and reading bedtime stories. He's so phony. He has no concept of what he's reading. Here's a chance for the Dems. to unify and bring down this sleaze of a pResident Bush. No more reading stories. The Dems. are going to tell you what they're THINKING and we challenge Bush to do the same.

Who's running the Democratic Party? Bush Lite?

31. saw this done

Dean in Bryant Park, NYC gave his entire hour stump without notes or a teleprompter.
Stuff of that sort creates a perception of sincerity.
Are other Dems doing the same thing?
I hope so!

[PartyPooper]

15. Junior couldn't write a decent speech if his pResidency depended on it!

Hell, he can't even speak extemporaneously...all we ever hear from him are just a few simple, tired sound bytes...his speeches are always written by his staff and delivered via the ever-reliable teleprompter.

What a disgrace he is to our country...not to mention of the office of the president!

[teach1st]

17. Comparing a Bush speech with this Gore speech...

..for readability level (a rough test, which anyone can do using a word processor grammar checker):

I omitted the first few opening and the last paragraph of each speech:

I used the "President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended" speech to compare to the Gore speech discussed in this thread because in my limited reading, it was the most complex speech I could remember him giving - I could easily be wrong there.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/iraq/20030501-15.html

* The Bush speech is rated at approximately at a 9.5th grade reading level.
* The Gore speech is rated at approximately at a 15th grade reading level.

Gore's sentence complexity was rated twice as high and vocabulary complexity was higher, too.

By the way, the higher level writing is not necessarily a good thing for the Gore speech and for Gore. Although listening comprehension is usually higher than readng comprehension, it is still possible that a substantial number of Americans may not fully comprehend the Gore speech.

(One interesting note - the Bush speech most closely resembles an 1040EZ form in complexity when compared against standard documents. Except for vocabulary complexity, the Gore speech compares to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.)

[kodi]

20. and he quoted Lincoln's Gettysburg Address too.

along with churchill, robert jackson, mentioned the alien sedition acts (right on the year too), the palmer raids,

gore knows so much more about america than bush that it is a crying shame that he is not president.

[meow2u3]

23. The toughest thing for an intellectual to do

To condescend without sounding condescending.

Gore needs to learn how to convey his message so that people with inadequate schooling can understand him. He, through no fault of his own, goes over the heads of the Americans saddled with a dumbed-down curriculum. If he wrote his speeches on a seventh-grade level, which is hard to do if you don't write for kids, he'd have this country captivated.

[54anickel]

26. The Presidential seal remark..

reminded me of another thread here earlier this week. I don't know how to post pictures, so you'll need to go check it out you're interested.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=203604#203956

It was a shot taken at the NED, weird photo, DU member, sinookas caught it....

The podium with the seal is empty.
Bush is way over to the right of it, his right.
And behind * ,all that is showing of the banner is:

"MENT FOR DEM"

Whoever selected that photo knew exactly what they were doing.
It is mispelled but phonetically it makes perfect sense.
Do I get a prize for catching the phrase ?

[NastyRiffraff]

19. I was there...

...and I had tears in my eyes. Gore not only nailed it all, but he did it with passion and clarity. Reminded me yet again what a tragedy the 2000 selection was.

[Gingergal]

21. I think that this may be most important speech made since the bush

junta was installed. The man with the most votes made a perfectly delivered speech, made a well reasoned attack on the pretender in the office, and made it in Constitution Hall in D.C. with a fantastic audience. He stood up for democracy. It was magic...

[Gingergal]

24. Gore to give two more speeches in November!!

Gore to speak on the state of democracy

9:10 AM PST

What:
Al Gore will give two speeches about the current state of democracy as part of the John Seigenthaler lecture series.

When:
1.) Tuesday, November 11
4:30-6:30 p.m.
Topic: Media and democracy

2.) Tuesday, November 25th (date change)
4:30-6:30 p.m.
Topic: Race and democracy

Where:
The State Farm Room
Business/Aerospace Building
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, TN

Details:
Both lectures are free. However, seating is limited and reservations are required. From reservations please email Pat Thomas at [e-mail].

* There will be a question and answer session after each speech. However, questions will be limited to the topic of each speech.

<http://algoresupport.proboards19.com/index.cgi?board=newsalerts&action=display&num=1066684192>

[ParanoidPat]

25. Do it again, do it again!

Yee Haa! :evilgrin:

:kick:

[Gingergal]

27. American Democracy Project is sponsoring his Nov.11 speech.

<http://www.aascu.org/programs/adp/default.htm>

[tom_paine]

29. If only Gore had run...

He deserved to be President (and not just President-in-Exile).

We are running out of time as our nation tranforms itself into Empire.

This election SHOULD have been about the Bloodless Coup of 2000! It should have been about pointing out that every single thing Gore said turned out to be true true TRUE!

[Baconfoot]

30. Write or call Al Gore NOW and ask him to run.

Office of the Honorable Al Gore
2100 West End Avenue
Nashville, TN 37203
Phone: [phone]

:think: