Iron(y) Man

8 airplanes, 6 cities, in 4 days. Tough week of business travel.

And to top it off I had to watch the Al Gore speech to MoveOn.org. Okay, I didn't have to. But I am a newsjunkie. So I had to.

Vice President Gore gave a passionate left-wing speech to a stridently partisan left-wing organization, MoveOn.org. (If you remember, this is a left-wing website that started up during President Clinton's impeachment to defend the president. The concept was "it's only about sex, there's nothing to see here, let's move on..."). The speech was an attack on President Bush, and his Attorney General John Ashcroft, and their record on civil liberties in the aftermath of 9-11. It was all one-sided of course. There was no real recognition that we are at war. Only rebuke of our reaction to war. And it was distorted of course. Gore painted every issue in the worst possible interpretation.

He closed his speech with a recap of the 2000 election. He opined that, while he did his duty by conceding the election for the good of the country, he had no idea that the Bush administration would trash out the "rule of law".

As to style - Gore was his usual stiff self. The Iron Man.

But he was more the Irony Man. Irony abounds in his speech.

Let's start with recapping the 2000 election in a speech to a group called "MoveOn". I guess he's not moving on.

Gore railed at the adminstration about not providing more airline security in spite of warnings about terrorists wanting to hijack aircraft. The irony, of course, is that Gore chaired a Presidential Commission to improve airline security. 19 men proved his commission's work to be woefully and fatally ineffective.

Gore railed at the administration for poor treatment of immigrants since 9-11. Improper searches and detaintments and such. The irony, of course, is that Gore spearheaded an effort for the Democrats in 1996 called "Citizenship USA" to pressure the INS to circumvent immigration laws in order to get more immigrants eligible to vote in time for the election. (see this article) They bypassed background checks and rushed naturalization for up to a million immigrants to get them eligible to vote. Who knows who they let in. TheClinton-Gore administration's trashing of immigration laws is directly responsible for allowing terrorist to infiltrate America and set up terrorist cells in our midst. All in the name of political correctness and Democratic votes.

Gore quoted a recent study that indicated that Al Qaida membership has reformed (after their devasting defeat, I would add), in Afghanistan to a membership of approx. 18,000. He was implying that Bush had not succeeded in stopping Al Qaida. The irony, of course, is the Clinton-Gore administration's total inattention to terrorism for 8 years while Bin Laden was running 10,000 terrorist through his training camps and dispersing them throughout the world. It was those cells that formed in the 90's that have allowed them to regroup after the pounding that Bush gave them.

Oh, the irony. Actually, the absurdity.

I have not doubt who I would want leading the War on Terrorism, that was not of our choosing but was forced on us. Bush and Ashcroft. Or Gore and Reno. No doubt of that at all. I'm very thankful for the results of the 2000 election. I'm moving on.