Dissent with your dollar

I am posting this to try and encourage people to buy Al Gore's new book called "The Assault on Reason" which is available tomorrow 5/22. I am very excited about this book because I am very excited by Al Gore. He may not be a candidate now and may not be again but he is a voice of Dissent, and with passionate eloquence he has documented the fundamental problems that our country is facing today and articulates intelligent, compassionate solutions.

I have often been grateful for the times over these dark years that Al Gore has set pen to paper and found a podium somewhere to speak out against the crimes against our Constitution and the foolish, reckless, if not criminal choices of our current administration. He has now taken the time to share it all in this book. Of course he never loses his focus on the global climate change crisis, but he connects the lack of intelligent discourse about that problem, with the lack of debate about all of our other problems. If we have lost the ability to reason, the reverence for science, academics, facts, and fair debate, we cannot solve any of the problems facing us and more importantly we risk losing our entire democracy. If our country is based on the consent of informed citizens but there is no method of informing the citizens, or the method has become corrupt with acceptable falsehoods, the foundation of democracy is lost. Whether it is the Climate, or the debate before invading a country, or disregarding the constitutional precedent of the balance of separation of powers, with the loss of reason and facts in discourse we cannot solve any issue and we are all in danger.


As far as I can tell, no candidates are speaking this clearly in these terms about what has happened, what is currently happening, and what is truly in jeopardy right now. Even if he doesn't run, if his book is successful it will state a clear message to the candidates that his is a good message, popular, supported by facts and truly how "the base" feels. Remember how sweet it was when we made "Stupid White Men" the #1 Bestseller? That was during a time when dissent was so rare and the RWM all claimed that Americans backed the president. Well they couldn't ignore the #1 NYT Bestseller. They couldn't ignore books flying off of the shelves. They could not suppress success.

So I have no connection with AL Gore personally, professionally or financially. I can gain nothing from this and if it against DU rules to petition people to purchase something I respectfully apologize and submit to my earned "locking". However, I had to take a chance and hope that perhaps we can organize and make this statement.

To buy at amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Assault-Reason-Al-Gore/dp/1594201226/ref=pd_ts_c_th_4/002-8504310-3841637?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=right-5&pf_rd_r=0TY384KVC22K791ZBRWD&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=283787101&pf_rd_i=507846

A link to a good article about the book:

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/Story?id=3195676&page=1

Quotes from the article about Book:

"In the book, Gore is accusatory, passionate, and angry. He begins discussing the president by accusing him of sharing President Richard Nixon's unprincipled hunger for power -- and the book proceeds to get less complimentary from there. While Gore stops short of flatly calling for the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, he certainly gives the impression that in his view such a move would be well deserved. He calls the president a lawbreaker, a liar and a man with the blood of thousands of innocent lives on his hands.

Most of Gore's ire stems from, not surprisingly, the war in Iraq, a war that Gore opposed from the beginning. Bush, he writes, "has exposed Americans abroad and Americans in every U.S. town and city to a greater danger of attack because of his arrogance and willfulness."

The Democratic Conversation
"The Assault On Reason" begins as an academic discourse about the one-sided, corporate-controlled television medium with no interactivity.

Gore argues that television not only creates a dynamic that runs contrary to Thomas Jefferson's desire for a "well-informed citizenry" but lulls viewers in a partially immobilized state and allows unreasoned communicators to sell false bills of goods, such as, say, that there was a connection between the Sept. 11 hijackers and Saddam Hussein.

As an example of the failed democratic conversation, Gore said Monday that prior to the war in Iraq, "if we had a full debate and a full airing of the pros and cons of the invasion that brought out the fact that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with attacking us on 9/11 then we would have been much less likely to have these troops trapped over there now in the midst of a civil war."

"...saying that if "Bush and Cheney actually believed in the linkage (between Iraq and al Qaeda) that they asserted -- in spite of all the evidence to the contrary presented to them contemporaneously -- that would by itself in light of the available evidence, make them genuinely unfit to lead our nation. On the other hand, if they knew the truth and lied, massively and repeatedly, isn't that worse? Are they too gullible or too dishonest?"


Good question AL. I wish more were saying it.

:patriot: Peace.

:applause:

We can all demand of the people who have declared their candidacy to respond to them. We can ask them about the attempts to thwart the Constitution with signing statements, the unitary executive theory, and what exactly got us into Iraq. If this book is successful than the ideas are successful whether or not Al throws his hat into the ring.

Am I hoping he still will? You betcha! I think if his book was very successful he could take that as a sign of support and momentum. This can be a dialogue between us and him. Thanking him, agreeing with him, and ENCOURAGING him. We can stand with him out loud by buying this book and it can clearly be a positive force for change by changing the dialogue.

For instance, a certain favored candidate has come forward with thoughts about pre-school children today. That's just lovely and important but when the house is on fire you don't talk about decorating. You put the fire out first. Al is pointing out the fire? If he doesn't put it out himself we can at least validate the observation.

Pass the editing time or I would have added this.

"He calls for a repeal of the Patriot Act, and for the Bush administration to disclose all of its interrogation policies."

What are the other candidates thoughts about this? I would completely endorse anyone saying this but who else is?

I want the war crimes to be front and center from a candidate who shamelessly opposes them. I want statements against torture, acknowledgement that it has happened, still happens, and often results in death. I want someone against Rendition and Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and says so without nuance or apology.

I want a candidate who says that the president has been breaking the law, a law written specifically for presidents not to break. I want someone who considers FISA just fine and respects the privacy rights of all Americans inherent in the Constitution.

How do we know that a candidate is not going to repeat the same lawlessness if they don't boldly identify them and reject them?

If the book is successful but AL Gore does not run we must have candidates that address these issues or they imply Complicitness