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Al Gore Buzzword Bingo
Rodger Crawford writes "Apparently Al Gore has a history of latching on to high-tech buzzword. So much so, that 3 years ago, MIT student played a friendly game of 'Buzzword Bingo' during Gore's graduation speech. "
I figured we might as well go with the trend and just continue
ripping on the yutz. I've never been so excited to vote
against someone before *grin*.
And for good reason. Anyone born after about 1962 or so cannot remember the government bringing together SQUAT. Previous generations have had common threads: the government getting people to work, getting armies together to fight evil, and in its last great collective breath, sending a man to the moon. Generations since then have seen government generating more problems than it has solved. 91% of people born after 1962 feel there won't be any social security money for them. (And they're right; amazingly, the fund is now due to call it quits just as generation X hits 65. Coincidence?)
Slashdotters reaction to all of this is to turn away from government to solve its problems. And it *has* been solving problems -- in spades. We've started by popularizing a concept so revolutionary that it could do away with any collective control of production in an entire industry. Howzat! We've shrugged off the government-for-life model, are busy shrugging off the company-man-for-life model and are establish a NEW model that works better than those dinosaurs.
You're right, Al Gore may well be the best candidate available in the next presidential election. Why doesn't that scare the shit out of you? Point made: if we seek true leadership, we must find it outside of the usual channels. Every one of us has more principles, more leadership ability, more guts and moxie than any politician in the old system. Nobody here is waiting for the USDA stamp of approval on software we write; we've found a new guarantee of quality better than any envisioned before.
And if you haven't "ruled out" Al Gore and every last one of those blood-sucking, egomanical Washington leeches, you may also be stuck trying to make the old models work. So I have one last word for you: if you aren't going to participate in this new model, at least help by getting Gore and his cronies on both sides of the aisle to stay out of the fucking way as much as possible... before they, too, are hit by the cluetrain.
The only other announced Democratic candidate is Bill Bradley.
Geez, some of you people need a humor transplant. The person who wrote those 35 reasons was just heaping ridicule on Gore, not outlining a detailed case of why not to vote against him. I was interested to see Owen defend Dan Quayle though. (Not that his analogy was even correct: Dan Quayle mis-spoke because he was stupid, Al Gore just plain lied). It is interesting to see some people parroting the radical leftist party line on the affects of humans on the environment. Accuse your opponents of bad science without presenting any scientific evidence whatsover.
Al Gore would be just about the worst president I can possibly image. Here are a few articles with reasons why:
35 Reasons Not to Vote for Al Gore.
How to Tell the Difference Between Al Gore and the Unabomber
Apocalypse Gore
Not only is Al Gore a pathological liar like his buddy Clinton, he's also full of very whacky and very scary ideas.
Whenever slashdot focuses it's collective mind on a political matter, I have to stop and suppress the temptations put forth by this beloved Hyde Park. I will not stoop to petty bickering. I will not participate in a thread that relies on two-sentence come-backs, such as, "Democrats want to to control the boardroom. Republicans want to control the bedroom," or, "Republicans support small government. Democrats support unemployment, big brother, and other liberal programs." I refuse. This stupidity (err, "political naivite") is insulting, and the shame of the matter is that there is a _real_ issue at hand.
The issue at hand is not as transient as Al Gore or the election in the year 2000. It's how this community views itself politically. How does it look at politics? Five years from now, will young politicians in training be joking about computer freaks? I can hear the jokes beginning: "Did I tell you the one about the computer nerd who tried to take his computer into the voting booth?"
And there will be grounds for the jokes. Not because the computer users will be recluses who didn't get a date for the prom, but because they (we) will be sitting on the biggest gold mine of raw power and they (we) will have no idea how to use it or how to control it. This community has only begun to comprehend that this young medium has the opportunity to take control of the staple of politics: images. Who will set the standards for communications over the Internet, Internet2, and its successor? Who will produce the technology and the content? Technology and content do go hand-in hand. (Note the controversy over MP3.)
Does Al Gore realize? He at least acknowledges as much. Does George W. Bush realize this? Who knows? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe he's scheming. I'm not George W. Bush, and I don't know enough about him to judge. (Of course, many of the members of the slashdot community are themselves too ignorant to judge Al Gore, but, hey, he's been VP for seven years. Since we're all naturally good and take not note of what our government has been up to for the past few years [or months? days?], we have the inherent right to judge him for one boast if we damn well please.) I know,though, I certainly am not going to rule out Al Gore until I look around hte political landscape a bit more.
It seems right now that there's reaction to some foreign entity. The electronic world is sending its white blood cells out to kill the political bacteria. I'm just disappointed that we've jumped the gun on him.
I just the 35 reasons not to vote for Al Gore, and I must say they are simply wrong. Let's look at number one:
> 1. Gore thinks "human civilization is now the
> dominant cause of change in the global
> environment." Nevermind the sun, the oceans,
> volcanoes, and other natural phenomena that
> actually do control the environment.
So I guess Los Angeles has a brown sky because of the volcanoes in the area? That's a good one.
How about
18. Gore has claimed during a 1999 interview with
> CNN's Wolf Blitzer that "During my
> service in the United States Congress, I took
> the initiative in creating the Internet." The
> preliminary discussions for the creation of the
> Internet took place in 1967 and, in 1969,
> the Defense Department commissioned the creation > of the "Arpanet." Gore was 2l years
> old at the time and it would be eight more years
> before he was elected to the US House of
> Representatives.
If this is a reason _not_ to vote for someone, then I guess you should completely eliminate Mr. Potatoe Head.
> 21. Despite the viewing public's disenchantment
> with the television show, "Ellen", starring
> Ellen DeGeneris, an outspoken advocate of the
> lesbian lifestyle, Gore lauded the star for
> "forcing" millions of Americans to "look at
> sexual orientation in a more open light." They
> stopped looking and the show was cancelled.
Sorry, people, you can't vote for anyone who liked a show that was cancelled. Nope, off the ticket. Nevermind that this comment is probably based off of the author's homophobia, and he thinks that people didn't like the show because she was a lesbian.
> 23. Gore is on record declaring William
> Jefferson Clinton as one of the greatest
> Presidents of modern times.
What _else_ is the freaking VICE PRESIDENT supposed to say? "Clinton sucks ass"????
> 32. Both Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, have
> admitted to being "recreational" marijuana
> smokers when he attended Harvard. The
> Clinton-Gore Administration is notorious for
> having failed to stem the flow of drugs into the
> country.
And George W. Bush probably took cocaine. What's your point? You think it's _easy_ to stop drug trafficking?
I could pick apart every single one of these, but I think I've made my point.
Owen Williams
Not trying to talk you out of voting against AG, just wondering how are you going to vote for anyone if having personal understanding of technology is part of criteria :-)