Al Gore's "The Assault on Reason"

Good book. It was a tough read for me, however.

The following is a post I made on a forum on the net when I was about halfway thru Al's book...

I'll read a couple of pages and get thoroughly disgusted at what the Bush Gang - with the far-too-frequent complicity of the Democrats - has pulled off in this country. What hurts most is that Al can see everything so clearly and put it all on paper succinctly.

Most of the current crop of Dems can't seem to grasp much. Al seems to be the only one who really "gets it," and just the thought that this very wise man might not run, when he sees things so clearly, really bums me out. Who else out there approaches his insights?

I don't know if I'll be able to finish it. If I'm still reading it and Al announces that he WON'T run for President, I may just rip it to shreds. Much like Bush has done to this country.

and now, after finishing the book, another post, on another Forum...

Finally finished the book, and I'm a little miffed....

After all the decimating detail that Al demonstrates about what has been going wrong over the years of George W. Bush,

After all the charges of misinformation, disinformation, secrecy and outright lying on the part of George W. Bush,

After all the wonderful quotes from the Founding Fathers,

After all the citations from the United States Constitution, from Articles 1, 2, 3, etc., etc.,

Even after outright charging that "President Bush has repeatedly violated the law for six years," (page 221) in regards to the warrantless surveillance program,

Al Gore cannot bring himself to even discuss the impeachment of George W. Bush. Indeed, the word "impeachment" does not even appear in the Index to the book. Yes, Al does write the word "impeachment" a few times in the book, but only in reference to impeaching judges for one cause or another. Never does Al deign to even mention the word impeachment in relation to George W. Bush, even after Al has detailed with precision the violations by Bush. This rather pisses me off.

At least he could have approached the topic. He could have said something like, "Yes, many believe that impeachment would be a proper remedy for Bush's actions. Indeed, some think that impeachment is even REQUIRED by the Constitution, in light of Bush's actions. But I disagree with that for these reasons...." Or he could have approached it in a hundred different ways.

But no. Nothing. Nada. I feel insulted. Al leaves those of us out here in the real world who think impeaching Bush would be a good corrective action to twist in the wind. Considering that the Republicans impeached President Bill Clinton for far, far less than Bush is guilty of (and how "unreasonable" that whole charade was), I'm somewhat surprised at - what can only be, to my mind - the calculated omission of any discussion of impeaching Bush. And that leaves a pretty bitter taste in my mouth. In a word, it is unreasonable. I hesitate to use the word cowardly, but there it is.

I think I've lost some respect for Al Gore. I am offended by Gore's glaring avoidance of the impeachment topic.

On top of that, another item in the book bugs me, and that is Al's glossing over the Telecommunications Act of 1996. He addresses the topic in two ways:

1) Towards the end of the book, he states that the Act needs to be revisited in light of the latest developments in technology.

Yes, I agree with this, but...

2) The other way he addresses the topic, albeit obliquely, is to bemoan the vast concentration of media outlets, be they newspapers, radio or TV, in the hands of fewer and fewer mega-corporations, and how that shuts off a lot of the "conversation" necessary in a democracy. What Al does NOT address is his own culpability in the passage of that very same Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Act expanded the number of outlets that companies could control in each market, and then Al turns around and complains that the media is in too few hands, but he won't discuss the Act in any detail. Not even something like, "Oops, that didn't turn out too well."

I'm not so convinced any longer that Al Gore should be President, and that really bums me out. I think this nation is going to go a lot further downhill before we pull out collective heads out of our asses.

If we ever do.

Have a nice day.