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Hail to the Chief?
Topic Started: Feb 2 2006, 08:55 PM (175 Views)
catfriedrice
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Anatidaephobic
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I had the opportunity to read an interesting collumn in my local paper last week. Take a peek yourself

Quote:
 
In a galaxy far, far away and yet

INTERVIEWER: Mr. President, thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me on the eve of your State of the Union address. Five years into your administration, what do you see as your greatest accomplishment?


PRESIDENT GORE: Well, as a fellow Tennessean, I would like to say my greatest accomplishment was in carrying my home state in two presidential elections, ha-ha, given the mess in Florida five years ago, but of course, that would be disingenuous (laughs).

INT: So, seriously, sir .

PRES. GORE: Oh, there's so much to choose from. Election reform, the hydro-solar initiative, which has cut our dependence on foreign oil by 12 percent; the Healthy Children Act, resulting in reduced diabetes and asthma rates for the third year in a row. The progress we've made toward universal health care. The resulting decline in abortion rates due to increased child-care and nutrition options. A decade of federal budget surpluses, going back to President Clinton, reforming Social Security, the compromise we reached permitting increased medical stem-cell research, which holds so much promise, the corporate reform act.

On the international end, stopping the genocide in Darfur has to rank up there. Empowering the Nunn Commission to purchase all those leftover Soviet nuclear missiles, which were just waiting to be sold on the black market. The fact that we've yet to lose a single American in armed conflict on my watch. Then there's the dramatic worldwide reduction in AIDS. It's hard to narrow it down to just one thing (laughs modestly).

INT: OK, choose three.

PRES. GORE: Well, I was going to say, at the close of the day, the thing Tipper and I both find most gratifying is bringing our country back together after the Florida election mess in 2000. Tipper is constantly reminding me that I'm the president of all the people, not just the majority who voted for me.

INT: And the other one?

PRES. GORE: That would have to be our success in foiling the plot by al-Qaida - I trust you're familiar with that term - to hijack those airplanes back in September of 2001. People scoff because it's easy to write off the whole episode as much ado about nothing, and I've been accused of exaggerating the threat, but I really believe stopping that plot was our finest moment.

INT: Seriously?

PRES. GORE: Yes, people tend to forget that al-Qaida actually had plans to fly jetliners into the World Trade Center, the White House, the Pentagon and possibly nuclear power plants, but we stopped them, and there's so much credit to go around. From those gumshoe FBI agents in Utah and Minneapolis and Florida who alerted us that Saudis had enrolled in flight schools - to the whistleblowers in the CIA who sniffed out insider elements to this scheme, to the Treasury Department, which noticed the stock market anomalies in early September.

Richard Clarke's anti-terrorism group here at the White House deserves a lot of credit and the generals at NORAD who scrambled jets to escort the one passenger plane back to safety after it was temporarily hijacked - they all deserve our heartfelt gratitude. Every time I fly into New York, I feel a bracing sense of affirmation when I see those twin towers rising there against the Manhattan skyline.

People have a hard time believing a handful of Arabs and a few disgruntled politicos could've actually pulled this off, but ours would be a very different world today had they done so. Not only might thousands of Americans have been killed, but our way of life, our civil liberties, our economy, indeed the harmony of our planet would be at risk. It's still going to require lots of good police work and intelligence to keep America safe, but eventually we'll win by winning the hearts and minds of the people who formerly provided aid and comfort to terrorists.

INT: What else?

PRES. GORE: I'm gratified we were able to reach a compromise on the Kyoto Accords on global warming and get that ratified. Who knows, had we not acted when we did, we might one day be watching as oceans swallowed entire cities, particularly around the Gulf of Mexico, where the water absorbs so much heat from the sun. Already our skies and waters are getting cleaner, and there's evidence global warming is measurably slowing. This is something for which future generations will sing our praises.

Written by Don Williams, The Knoxville News Sentinel

EDIT: Part II
Quote:
 
In a galaxy far, far away, and yet ...

INTERVIEWER. Mr. President, thanks for letting me talk to you again so soon after your State of the Union Address, in which you proposed bold new initiatives for the remainder of your presidency. Real tax cuts for the middle class. A Project Apollo-style energy program. Reinstating the Fairness Doctrine. Shutting down offshore tax havens. Banning lobbyists from the Capitol Building, but let's start with global warming - long a passionate concern of yours.

PRES. GORE: First, allow me to extend greetings to Tennessee. It's great talking to you; I really mean that, but to get on point, we have to face the fact that our planet is in peril. We no longer have the luxury of fighting wars of choice that waste human potential and increase the terror and disunity of this Earth.

Our environment is failing. Coral bleaching is damaging the world's fisheries at an alarming rate. Sea levels might rise by the end of this century, destroying coastal cities and crucial wetlands. A shutdown of ocean currents that moderate the climate in northern Europe could lead to a new ice age. We're experiencing unbelievable hurricanes, tornados, droughts, famines, fires and witnessing the destruction of many species, which could unravel the fabric of life.

All life forms on this planet are related by their very DNA. We're all in this together. Now, I believe we can head off some of the problems if all modern countries and others come together and use this challenge as a unifying force, something I proposed in my book, "Earth in the Balance." It helps that many Republicans are admitting what I said two decades ago - that we're addicted to oil and that the oil is going to run out one day, but some of the energies they would rely on are extremely dirty.

INT. Such as?

PRES. GORE: Oil from tar sands greatly increased reliance on coal. Nuclear power is especially fraught with peril. We came awfully close to invading Iraq three years ago based on false documents showing that country bought yellow-cake uranium from Niger. Even as I speak, some propose bombing Iran for asserting the right to build nuclear plants. This may or may not be necessary, but we've had an incoherent policy in this regard, and it confuses our opponents and allies alike.

Some in Congress and certain right-wing think tanks have asserted the need to build more nuclear reactors, which they promote as the salvation of the world, but in practice, they've led us to the brink of war and environmental destruction time and again. No, solar, wind and hydrogen are better alternatives. That's why I recommend a Project Apollo for energy.

As I said in my speech, it's time for a bold new initiative to explore dramatic solutions in careful, yet dynamic ways. For instance, we'll look into the possibility of establishing solar collecting stations in space that could transform our sun's radiation - which never stops streaming out there - into power. We could then beam that energy down as x-rays, possibly, or even as electric current, which could then be fed through cables to the surface of the Earth, where we could use it to produce hydrogen energy from seawater.

Now, don't go reporting that I said I invented space energy. Let's be clear. The great British writer, Arthur C. Clarke - who first proposed modern communications satellites - suggested this solution many years ago. It sounds like science fiction, but then what doesn't in the realm of energy and communications? That's just one idea we'll explore.

INT. But do we have materials adequate to do the job, for instance, cables with sufficient tensile strength to reach all the way to satellites orbiting in space?

PRES. GORE: We're looking into that. The potential for nanotechnology in this regard is amazing. Also, one of the beauties of zero gravity is that it allows for creating all sorts of alloys. The point is, if this approach works, we'll solve our energy problems for all time.

INT. And if it doesn't?

PRES. In that case, we will have spent $60 billion to mark a dead-end approach off our list, an amount we might've spent in one year, say, by invading some oil-rich country in the Middle East, a gamble in itself. We'll also explore other ideas - maybe tapping thermal energy inside the Earth. And we'll open the power grid - and thereby the energy market - to lots of small entrepreneurs who might have ideas we've never even considered for generating earth-friendly power.

I have faith that, by empowering our citizens of all races and persuasions with hope and opportunity, we can build a future based on intelligence, science, faith and a proactive approach that will result in a better world for all who share this planet.

Silly as it sounds, it got me thinking. What would life be like if Al Gore had indeed won the presidency. Comment on your thoughts, but please don't turn this into a "lol bush suks" topic.
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Dyssomnia
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iRaq- The United States Statement:
"oops we blowed up a country over nothing lolz"

In all honesty, most people, when you tell them that you don't like Bush as president, ask what it would be like if Gore had been president. And, in all honesty, I have to say it would be probably be way, way better.

I liked Clinton, because of the political things he did, and I'm moderately sure that those would've been passed to Mr. Gore, should things in Flordia gone differently. While 9/11 could've been prevented, I would still find it doubtful that every one of the pieces of the plot would've been foiled.
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Ivanhoe
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SUPER GORE <3

Faster than a speeding plane hijacked by terrorists heading straight for the Trade Center...... or maybe just a bullet.

Lol... Basically they took all of our woes of the present and made him solve them. Though we really have no idea. He could of done worse. Pretty funny read though.
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Demockracy
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I think if Gore were in office, obviously Iraq would not have happened, taxes would (rightly) be higher, gas prices would be lower, responses to disasters would be better executed, gay marriage would be making a stronger push, we wouldn't have legalized semi-automatic weapons, less scandals, less corruption, less timely effictiveness, and halliburton would have a lot less money.

you decide which are good and which are bad.
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.Seraph
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Funny. If Gore was president, there would be a ***** / hippie in the whitehouse. Bit off topic, but "Gore sux!!"
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