GORE: I guess what surprises me most is his incuriosity

[kpete]

Get Your Gore On

The Fresh Air interview is pretty good.

I recommend listening, but here's the transcript also. Gore seems to get just about everything these days. Here's a good b it:


GROSS: You got to see George W. Bush close-up when he was your opponent for the presidency. What surprises you most about how the Bush presidency has turned out?

Vice Pres. GORE: I guess what surprises me most is his incuriosity. That's a real mystery to me because he's clearly a smart man. He has a different kind of intelligence, as everybody does. There's so many varieties of intelligence. He's clearly a smart man, but it is a puzzle that he would ask no questions about important matters. When his first secretary of the Treasury came in for their first meeting and spoke for an hour about economic policies of the new administration, he asked not a single question. When he received the briefing in August of 2001 that Osama bin Laden was planning a major attack soon, you know, on the United States, he did not ask a single question. When he was briefed several days before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the weather service people were saying it may mark a return to medieval conditions, he asked not a single question. And that same incuriosity seems to be a factor when he just accepts hook, line and sinker the ExxonMobil view that global warming is not a problem, in no way related to the massive volumes of pollution we're putting into the Earth's atmosphere every hour of every day.

When they tell him that the scientific community is wrong and that they're just lying because they're greedy for more research dollars, he doesn't apparently look under the rug. He doesn't ask questions. And in the American system, the president of the United States is the only person who is charged with representing all of the people in every state in every district and looking after the welfare of the people as a whole. And if the special interest has one view, at least you should ask questions about how the public interest is affected, and I really do not know why he is so incurious.


More at:
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_05_28_atrios_archive.html#114935928995994979
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/duncanblack/gore.html

[DesertRat]

1. good interview. thanks. n/t

[DemonFighterLives]

2. He's the man, not incurious george

:dem:

[Stephanie]

3. Lookie here - I have been promoting my favorite new slogan: Al 08

And i just went to register it at godadddy - and somebody bought it already! Hmmmmm. Wonder who?

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: AL08.COM
Created on: 16-Feb-06
Expires on: 16-Feb-08
Last Updated on: 16-Feb-06

[Stephanie]

6. .com, .net, .org - all taken!

I'll take that as a good sign!

[DemonFighterLives]

7. We're on

:bounce:

[etherealtruth]

4. I heard the interview when it aired ...

Al Gore is smart and charming:loveya:; such a contrast to the Chimp.

I loved the way Gore could barely veil his disgust r/t Chimpy's lack of curiosity.

[badgerpup]

5. Oh, now THERE is a gentlemanly SLAP!

Points out that he is a lying, uncaring, profiteering bastard without saying a single word against him except 'incurious'.

Methinks that will become the new epithet, right up there with "heckuva job".

:patriot: :applause: :toast:

[buff2]

8. How in the world can Gore think Bu$h is a "smart" man????

Bu$h is clearly the most ignorant bastard on the face of the earth. To put smart in the same sentence with Chimpy is outrageous.This is the same guy that has phucked up everything he has tried to do,he can't talk in sentences without mangling his words and he is the dumbest acting individual on this planet.Can someone please tell me what that idiot has done that is SMART? Sorry Al.....nothing smart about dim-son in any shape or form.

[Richard Steele]

12. The "smart" comment was just set-up for the smack-down.

And I think Al made it clear that the word was actually meaningless
when he went on to say it was a "different" kind of smart...

[xxqqqzme]

19. chimpster is probably 'smart' about blow;

where 2 stash his booze so pickles doesn't find it; you know the important stuff - it's hard werk!

[LuckyLib]

26. It's a different kind of smart, alright. The kind that sits there

and is manipulated and told how to think, what to say, and when to use the restroom. * is a lame. He's the kind of good-ole-boy in high school that might have had a functioning brain, but never bothered to exercise it. And if he had, it wouldn't have proven very productive anyway.

[Richard Steele]

27. And that's pretty much what Gore was saying, in my opinion.

I really can't describe it better than "Colbertian".

Al calls him 'smart', while making it very clear
that he's a dull-eyed, slack-jawed drooler who is
barely aware of his own surroundings unless his handlers
describe them to him.

[Lisa]

47. I especially love how, while insisting George W. is smart ...

... he brings out a long list of examples which appear to show the opposite. By the end of it, even Barbara Bush must be having some doubts about her boy!

[Shakespeare]

9. That's because he's a S-O-C-I-O-P-A-T-H.

Something I'm sure Gore knows, but wouldn't dare say on the air.

[sueh]

10. Thanks for posting this.

How refreshing. Terry Gross asked the questions, Al Gore answered and Terry Gross did not jump down Al's throat or interrupt Al while he was speaking. Is this a "new" interview technique? :applause:
I do wonder, though, what Al meant by * having a 'different kind' of intelligence?? :)

[Samantha]

18. One might have, for instance, a lot of "street smarts" but absolutely no

organic rationality whatsover....

[dalaigh lllama]

24. *'s "different kind of intelligence"

is what they used to call "low animal cunning."

[eppur_se_muova]

37. DING DING DING DING! (I know that's annoying, but so appropriate!)

Yes, deviousness can be characterized as a form of 'smarts' .

[rosesaylavee]

41. In reading that, I had this image of

* sneaking down the hall at the WH, crouching low to the ground, peering around corners as he sneaks into the oval office to watch tv or whatever he does there... tee hee :)

[many a good man]

42. He was once a Man

[rosesaylavee]

43. Yeah, yeah... that's the pic I had in my

mind! Are you psychic!!!
:rofl:

[dalaigh lllama]

44. There's that new rug in the oval office

that he obsesses about ad nauseam. I suspect he spends quite a bit of time "marking" it as his territory.

[young_at_heart]

11. How can he make decisions without asking questions?

This is mind-boggling! If he's the "Decider" what exactly does he base those decisions upon? I'm guessing Karl and Dick feed him the necessary info.

[DBoon]

22. God "talks" to him

That's how he makes his decisions.

I think God started "talking" to him during one of his substance abuse bouts.

[kpete]

13. Good night and Heads up

Al Gore on This Week
Tomorrow, Al Gore will sit down with George Stephanopoulos on This Week. It's the Vice President's first Sunday show in over three years—don't miss it!

Tune in to ABC at 10:00a.m. EST / 9:00a.m. CST / 8:00a.m. PST!

[mazzarro]

14. I Beg To Disagree With Al Gore

I do not see any sign of shrub*'s smartness in anything or anyway at all. The fact that he has kkk-rove stealing election after election for him and/or intimidating the congress to go along with looting the treasury and passing corrupt laws; or putting his cronies in positions does not make him smart. IMO all these make him devious!

[stevietheman]

15. Deviousness requires a kind of intelligence. n/t

n/t

[stevietheman]

16. If this were an interview question for the Presidency, I'd give him...

the job based on this one answer.

He's basically saying "I care about the country."

[987654321]

17. Thanks for sharing this interview!

The best Presidents we've had have always been the ones who ask the most questions and search for the most input from their staff. They are even willing to listen to people they trust when they have an opposing view. This president does none of that.

Bill Clinton would publicly get chastised for spending too much time seeking out what other people thought about the issues. For some reason this was perceived as being weak. I think when people look back they will find that one of the things that made his Presidency so successful was his willingness to have people around him with varying views. He was smart enough to do that. Of course he was criticized for this. Well, I'd take that any day over someone who was perceived as being stronger like the "decider," who gets rid of anyone who disagrees with him or the few people he has in his inner circle.

[upi402]

20. incuriosity = arrogance + ignorance

:grr:

[ariellyn]

21. Incuriosity = Pre-established agenda n/t

[upi402]

29. true, how about ...agenda 'BORN OF' arrogance and ignorance?

:toast:

[Warren DeMontague]

23. Well, sure. He's a drunken frat boy.

He's never spent five minutes in the land of give a shit.

[ContraBass Black]

25. Funny, that sounds like a very polite way of calling G-Dub an idiot

And citing numerous examples.

[Swamp Rat]

28. Will Incurious George nuke Iran?

[Pachamama]

34. Hey Swamp'r! You need to update that image to have it say "Incurious"

as well as "Bombs the World" ..... since that is his real goal....

:hi:

[Swamp Rat]

35. Oi Pachamama!

:hi: How are you? ... and the pachababies? :hug:

[Pachamama]

36. Oi Swamp Rodent!

:hi: I'm good...been busy with the Pachababies...boy, do they keep me busy!

We are also trying to get ready to "move out" in the next 6 weeks in preparation for our house being raised above the flood plain and repaired from the damage we incurred back in January from the floods. Nothing like the damage you all got ofcourse in NOLA and you at your house, but it was bad enough that its going to run us six figures to fix and be homeless for awhile.

I try to keep things "normal" for the Pachababies, and then I see the sh*t going on in this country and this gov't and I swear, its scary. I keep wondering when this nightmare is going to finally be over and yet it seems these Neo-con scheisskopfs just are getting started. I have a bad bad feeling about things to be coming this summer/fall. For you its the coming storms in the gulf coast and then I think about how badly this administration wants to bomb Iran and I think about how they are going to pull it off and "justify" it....They are nuts....and I fear that they are going to take us all down....

[Swamp Rat]

38. Well, I think you experienced quite a catastrophe as well

I wish I could have offered help. :hug: I hope y'all fully recover. Send me photos when the house get done. :)

Guess what? We got a new roof, finished just yesterday evening! :bounce: Now we have a LOT of clean up! :eyes: Hopefully we can fix the interior over the next few months too, depending on the insurance money. I also FINALLY got hot water in my bathroom just Friday. Last Winter and Spring was very rough when it came to bathing, but it had to be done.

Talk about coming storms, one of our levees collapsed Thursday because the builders royally screwed up. We still have no pumping stations, or maybe just one, so we can't even handle a huge downpour if we get a tropical storm. x( I plan to buy a new life raft ASAP because I have a feeling I'm not getting out the next time... or I at least am planning for the worst... if it can even get more worse than the last time. :eyes:

[Pachamama]

46. New Roof! Woohoo! Hot Water too!

:bounce: That's big news Swamp'R! A huge relief too I bet! You have been through hell, hard to believe that its been nearly 9 months since Katrina hit and the levees went....

I may have experienced a flood, but I can't complain when I think of what the Gulf Coast went through. I think of you all the time there....

Get that Life Raft and have lots of supplies up high...you just don't know what's coming.... :scared:

[hopeisaplace]

30. This says SO MUCH about *

In reading this, I was left with the impression - not that
* didn't know what to ask, etc..but rather, he didn't NEED
to ask anything - he/his admin are/were gonna do what they're gonna do,
..the blinders are on, the walls up, questions are for the undecided, I'm the decider.

[mark11727]

31. ...and Bush is an honourable man.

William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
Act 3, Scene 2,

Mark Antony:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interréd with their bones,
So let it be with Caesar…. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it….
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all; all honourable men)

Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral….
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man….

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.

You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.

[Uncle Joe]

53. My exact thoughts mark, thanks for the post.

:kick:

[Canuckistanian]

32. Incurious? He'd have to look it up in the dictionary

But he'd probably lose interest after noticing something shiny.

[autorank]

33. Gore's hard charge at the TYRANTS January 16, 2006, Wash.DC

Al Gore's Devastating Indictment of President Bush"
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0601/S00122.htm

[OneBlueSky]

39. incuriosity has but one outcome: Ignorance . . . n/t

.

[BlooInBloo]

40. Just in case it's not obvious - Gore is flat-out lying...

... He's NOT surprised by gw's incuriousity. No intelligent, sane person (which Gore is, and always has been) would be. He's just being nice "for the cameras".

gw's incuriousity is and was a known fact. The media and the American people deliberately chose to ignore it. We've lost around what - 50,000 Americans due to death and injury, and countless Iraquis as a result?

Good job, republican voters.

[WinkyDink]

50. It's akin to "And Brutus is an honorable man." Not "lying".

[Lisa]

54. similar to "damning with faint praise", maybe?

Which is an accepted rhetorical technique, the last time I checked.

[Amonester]

45. To make himself, Cheneyourself, the BFEE, haves & havemores...

richer each second that passes by at the expense of taxpayers, consumers, the poor and the environment, and always getting away with no punishments whatsoever can be considered for ** being a 'smart' then I think that's what Al meant by 'a different kind of intelligence, as everybody does' (meaning: as everybody who's HONEST does...)

Still... I would still prefer him to SAY it loud and clear...

}(

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

48. It's a very important interview.

Although Gore hasn't said he's running, if you listen you'll notice he's sounding just like a presidential candidate.

[Riga Marole]

51. Gore's tight jeans,

excellent hair restoration job, and rearrangement of his teeth, as displayed on Meet the Press last Sunday, are indicative of a desire to be drafted.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

52. Drafted?

Like his service in Vietnam, I fully expect him to volunteer to run for office.

[peabody71]

49. Gotta say it. Gore in 2008!

.