Al Gore: USA Needs Its Own 'Arab Spring'

Appearing on Countdown With Keith Olberman for the second night in a row, which airs on his own Current TV, former vice president Al Gore declared in an interview with the host that the USA needed it's own "Arab spring", referring to the popular uprisings that toppled long-ruling autocratic regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

The comments came in response to the debt ceiling legislation that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama on Monday.

Gore said the new law demands the “reinvigoration of democracy” or an “American spring,” to get the country back on what he thinks is the right course

“[I] want to focus on one particular suggestion you had about using the wonderful digital tools that are newly available for the reinvigoration of democracy,” Gore said. “Now, they have been around for a while, but they are spreading far and wide and more people are getting involved. We need to have an American spring — you know, the Arab spring. The non-violent part of it isn’t finished yet, but we need to have an American spring, a kind of an American non-violent change where people on the grassroots get involved again. Not the, you know, not in the Tea Party-style.”

Gore took his attack to favorite left-wing targets: the Fox News Channel, and David and Charles Koch.

“There are people who are genuinely upset in the Tea Party,” Gore continued. “I understand that, but that movement was funded with seed money from right-wing billionaires, the Koch Brothers, and promoted on Fox News and turned into a stalking horse for this right-wing agenda that a lot of people have been trying to push on this country for a long time.”

According to the former vice president, this movement was instituted behind the scenes to clear the government out of the way of special interests.

“What’s sacrosanct for them is to have absolutely no tax increases on the wealthiest Americans. They are at a low level now. And to try to shrink down government so they can get it out of the way of powerful corporations and special interests so they can have free rein,” Gore said. “And the Supreme Court, of course, has now declared that they are persons and to make these secret contributions

[Is it just me, or does Gore seem particularly bitter when the words 'Supreme Court' come up?- NANESB!]

So to sum up what Al Gore has to say, if you don't like a costly, ever-expanding and increasingly invasive and unaccountable government, then you are on on the payroll of the Koch brothers or Rupert Murdoch.

In other words, Gore is basically arguing that the ruling party in America be given more power and less people should question or protest their activities, lest they be considered dupes of the Koch Brothers or- according to Vice President Joe Biden and Pennsylvania congressman Mide Doyle (D-PA14)- terrorists. It's Gore's own network, so he cen be as wrong as he wants on it while an adoring Keith Olberman puts on his best 'Look at me, aren't I a serious journalist like Edward R Murrow?' face, but last time I checked I'm well within my rights to point out Gore's flawed comparisons and his just plain being wrong.

Gore's call for an 'Arab spring' style uprising (not all of them are peaceful, as we can see) is based on the supremely flawed premise that the protesters would turn up en masse to support the ruling party. Were all those demonstrators in Tunisia or Cairo's Tahrir Square this spring calling for MORE of Ben Ali or Hosni Mubarak? And that's to say nothing of some of the more disturbing developments that have been taking places in Egypt since Mubarak's ouster.

One has to wonder if the 2000 Presidential campaign changed Al Gore somehow or if this was the real Al Gore all along, successfully able to pass himself off as a moderate if bland official during his time as Senator, Vice President and Presidential candidate. I had my misgivings about Bush in 2000, but seemingly every utterance from Gore in recent years tends to vindicate W.

Reports: Acting ATF Director May Resign Over Fast & Furious Program; WaPo Covers For Obama Administration

Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is expected to step down in the next couple of days in the wake of controversy and damning testimony from field agents before a Congressional oversight committee.

In the operation, straw buyers were allowed to purchase illegally large numbers of weapons, some of which ended up in the hands of cartels in Mexico.

Attorney General Eric Holder will meet Tuesday with Andrew Traver, head of the ATF field office in Chicago, about possibly becoming the agency's acting director, according to senior federal law enforcement sources, who are familiar with the details of the controversy.

The Justice Department refused comment. White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters he had no new information on the issue.

The operation has come under intense criticism since the December killing of a U.S. Border Patrol officer.

Operation Fast and Furious was "a colossal failure of leadership," Peter Forcelli, a supervisor at the bureau's Phoenix field office, said recently.

The program focused on following people who legally bought weapons that were then transferred to criminals and destined for Mexico. But instead of intercepting the weapons when they switched hands, Operation Fast and Furious called for ATF agents to let the guns "walk" and wait for them to surface in Mexico, according to a report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The idea was that once the weapons in Mexico were traced back to the straw purchasers, the entire arms smuggling network could be brought down. Instead, the report argues, letting the weapons slip into the wrong hands was a deadly miscalculation that resulted in preventable deaths, including that of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Terry was killed last year north of the Mexican border in Arizona after confronting bandits believed to be preying on illegal immigrants. Two weapons found near the scene of the killing were traced to Fast and Furious.

"I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe it at first," Terry's mother, Josephine, said when she learned the ATF may have let some of the guns used in the attack slip through its fingers. Terry's relatives said they want all those involved in his killing and who helped put the weapons in their hands to be prosecuted.

"We ask that if a government official made a wrong decision, that they admit their error and take responsibility for his or her actions," Robert Heyer, Terry's cousin and family spokesman, said in a hearing last week by the House panel.

Reportedly, the Obama Administration is tapping former Chicago ATF Chicago branch head Andrew Traver to head the agency should Melson resign. Traver appeared in a misleading 2009 segment on a Chicago NBC affiliate's report on gang warfare implying that gangs were arming themselves with military style weapons purchased from retail outlets. Traver also reportedly supported Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's recent efforts to make public the name of Firearms Owner Identification Card (FOID) holders to the press available on request.

The successful nomination or appointment of Andrew Traver to the head of the ATF would basically be rewarding the Department of Justice and Obama Administration for this clusterfuck known as Fast & Furious.

In what can only be described as a pathetic, flailing attempt at damage control on behalf of the Obama administration, the Washington Post began circulating reports on Tuesday evening that House Oversight Committee chair Darrell Issa had already been briefed on Fast & Furious as far back as April 2010.

At the briefing last year, bureau officials laid out for Issa and other members of Congress from both parties details of several ATF investigations, including Fast and Furious, the sources said. For that program, the briefing covered how many guns had been bought by “straw purchasers,’’ the types of guns and how much money had been spent, said one source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the briefing was not public.

“All of the things [Issa] has been screaming about, he was briefed on,’’ said one source familiar with the session.

Wow...so even if I were to take the WaPo's VERY convenient anonymous source at face value that there was a private briefing for members of both parties regarding Fast & Furious, according to the WaPo, they discussed the number and types of guns purchased by 'straw buyers' and how much money was spent. I wonder if THE ATF INTENTIONALLY ALLOWING THE WEAPONS TO BE FORWARDED TO MEXICAN CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS came up in that same briefing.....which took place when the Democrats had a supermajority in the House of Representatives and were focusing on things like 0bamacare, cap and trade or card check.

Probably not- I'd like to think that if that was explicitly mentioned to members of Congress in that aforementioned briefing the WaPo assures us took place, that members of both parties would've demanded answers and hearings into exactly what the hell the ATF was doing right then and there.

But that's just me.

CNN Talking Head And Self Proclaimed Obama Foreign Policy Advisor: Founding Fathers, Constitution & American Exceptionalism Overrated

Last month, former Newsweek editor and current CNN talking head Fareed Zakaria had boasted that he had been advising President Obama on foreign policy matters concerning the Middle East.

One could be forgiven if one thought Zakaria's claims were mere bluster or hot air in an attempt to establish some credibility among peers in the media.

However, one look at this interview and I'm wholly convinced.

Note the derision and condescension directed at America's founding in Zakaria's smug monotone. After viewing that brief clip, I'm almost certain that not only is Zakaria advising President Obama on a number of domestic policy issues.

Although I'm just a lowly blogger and Zakaria is a highly-respected intellectual (who served as editor of a magazine that sold for $1), I would like to challenge Zakaria to find me what countries out there we're supposed to be learning from.

The European Union is an even bigger basketcase than the USA as far as finances and sovereign debt is concerned, with more productive countries like Germany and Holland having to bail out pseudo-welfare states like Spain or Greece.

While economic forces to be reckoned with, half the countries in the BRIC (Brazil/Russia/India/China) axis have an inglorious history of citizens being murdered by the millions in the last century- by their own governments, no less. While post-Apartheid South Africa didn't bring the full-fledged race war that so many had feared, high crime and the staggering murder rate has led to a massive 'brain drain' as sought-after professionals both black and white leave for more secure locales.

But like I said, as an intellectual Zakaria probably has an answer all lined up...perhaps even one of the aforementioned countries that he might view as a flawed gem. But I have one question for the naturalized citizen of America- and to be fair, it's the same question I ask of other American who hold similar views as he does: Why stay in America if you want it so badly to be like other countries?

Arizona Shooting Update- President Obama Speaks At Memorial; Police Had Prior Contact w/Shooter; Arizona Moves to Block Phelps' Protest

I had been meaning to do an update on the Tuscon shootings a little sooner, but the ex-post-facto information regarding the victims, the memorial services and the assailant has been coming fast and furious. And each passing hour seems to undercut the media and Democrats initial narrative that the Tea Party or former Alaska governor Sarah Palin were involved.

President Obama addressed a crowd of roughly 14,000 at the University of Arizona campus in Tuscon on Wednesday night, breaking the news that Congresswoman Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time since Saturday's shooting that killed 6 people, wounded 14 and left the Congresswoman fighting for her life.

In all honesty, I thought it was a pretty good speech from President Obama. However, there were two things that bothered me tremendously. The cheering and applause when the President took to the podium seemed more reminiscent of a campaign rally or Daily Show taping than a somber memorial service. I know that Obama was the bearer of good news with that update about Congresswoman Giffords and praising one of Gifford's quick thinking interns for applying first aid on the spot, but that was well into his speech.

The President also had some line in his speech along the lines of 'While we may never know why the shooter did what he did', which set off some red flags for me. In a superbly delivered address about civility and toning down the hostile rhetoric, the cynic in me felt that he was leaving an opening for the likes of supporters and operatives along the lines of Paul Krugman, Congressman Clyburn, Sheriff Dupnik or the ensemble of MSNBC 'personalities' to continue blaming talk radio, the Tea Party and anybody to the right of Walter Mondale as being responsible for deadly, violent outbursts from moody, schizophrenic loners.

Meanwhile, the investigation into shooting suspect Jared Loughner continued. A search of his parent's home unearthed numerous handwritten notes with 'Die bitch' or 'my assassination' in a locked box that investigator's removed from the residence. Some of the writing was on a form letter or envelope that was addressed to him from Congresswoman Gifford's office dating back to 2007.

It was also revealed on Wednesday that Loughner was stopped by an Arizona Fish & Wildlife officer for running a red light the morning of his rampage. The officer took down his licence and registration number and upon seeing that there were no outstanding warrants, let him off with a verbal warning.

That was not his first run-in with police in the Tuscon area-

*In 2006, staff at Mountain View High School called Pima County Sheriff's deputies to report that Jared had shown up clearly intoxicated on campus.

*In 2007, he was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia after deputies found a marijuana pipe, rolling papers and a roach clip in a car that he was riding in.

*In 2008, he was arrested for vandalizing a road sign and fined $500 and sentenced to community service.

*In September 2010, the Pima County Community College suspended Jared after a number of run-ins with faculty and students raised the concern of the college's Administration. Teachers described him as 'creepy' with a 'dark personality' and some were concerned that arguments over grades would become physical. Campus police were summoned after Loughner disrupted a class by saying that his freedom of speech was being violated after a teacher told him he would only get half-credit for a late assignment. One of the responding officers said that through his training and experience, there was a likely 'mental health concern' involving Loughner.

A week after the incident, the College sent over two police officers with a letter informing him that he had been suspended. He barely acknowledged the officers, only saying 'I realize now that this is all a scam'.

*On Tuesday afternoon, Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed emergency legislation to stop members of Fred Phelp's Westboro Baptist Church from picketing the funeral services of 9 year old Christina Taylor Green who was killed in Saturday's shootings. Immediately after the attack, the excerable Phelps brood took to the internet to praise the shooting spree as an act of God and announced their plans to picket the services of Green. The law passed the Arizona legislature unanimously and was based in part on a 2008 Ohio statute meant to hinder protests at military funerals that Phelp's congregation and family have been known to picket.

The six killed on Saturday include:

The Honorable John M. Roll, 63 of Tuscon
Phyllis Schneck, 79 of Tuscon
Gabe Zimmerman, 30 of Tuscon
Christina Taylor Green, 9 of Tuscon
Dorwin Stoddard, 76 of Tuscon
Dorothy Morris, 76 of Oro Valley

6 Killed, Congresswoman Giffords Critically Wounded in Arizona Shooting

A gunman opened fire at a town hall style meeting hosted by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D- AZ; 8th district) outside a Tuscon-area Safeway grocery store, shooting 19 people on Saturday before being subdued and having his pistol wrestled away by bystanders.

A Federal Judge, a US Marshall, one of Gifford's aides and a 9 year old child were reportedly among those killed in the shooting. Early media reports had erroneously said that Giffords was one of the fatalities, but doctors at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tuscon said that the Congresswoman was responsive and is expected to recover from a gunshot wound to the head.

The gunman, believed to be 22 year old Jared Loughner, shouted something before opening fire on Giffords and the crowd. He was reportedly wrestled to the ground and subdued by bystanders after he started shooting.

Loughner left a farewell message on his MySpace page and left YouTube videos that consisted of white text on a black background saying that an individual could start their own language or circulate their own currency before ending with 'My Thoughts- Jared Lee Loughner' [Milblogger JR Salzman was able to post some of the videos at his place- NANESB!]. According to police, a preliminary investigations indicates that Loughner acted alone.

Already, the MSM and progressive blogosphere are showing their concern for Gifford's well-being by attempting to single-handedly pin the shootings on Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, even though Giffords is one of the more conservative House Democrats to win re-election in 2010. In fact, the Daily Kos felt it necessary to delete a diary entry marked 'My Congresswoman [Giffords] is DEAD to me' posted about 48 hours before the shooting that was captured elsewhere for posterity.