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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (126096)	2/8/2001 6:49:35 AM
From: RON BL	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

"I am certainly a Democrat, but I believe that the Sierra Club has gone too far with many of their exploits. They started out with good intentions but those intentions got lost along the way!! But, that's a post for another thread" Yes they lost their way a long time ago. I went to a protest rally about 4 years ago in Sacramento to urge the banning of MTBE. There wasn't 1 member of the Sierra club to be found. They were walking the halls of Sacramento counting dollar bills with the MTBE lobbyists. At a later point I will find some of the articles that show the success of deregulation in other states and other countries. In the meantime Californians show that they can dig in as you have noted and conserve. Orchard SUpply and Home Depot run their stores with 1/2 the lights off, Reasonable Democrats and reasonable Republicans need to grab power away from the fanatics on both sides.

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (126096)	2/8/2001 7:47:15 AM
From: Zoltan!	Respond to of 769670

Gore lied again. He demanded that free speech end at Columbia in order to hide his usual gaffes and lies and then said that was "normal": What's the Gag? By Tunku Varadarajan, the Journal's deputy editorial features editor. Albert Gore Jr. -- remember him? -- has blundered into our midst again, and the first indications are that he hasn't changed one whit. He's still too cautious, and he's still too careworn. And he's still his own worst enemy. Mr. Gore, who has fallen on professorial times, taught the first of a series of classes at Columbia University's Journalism School on Tuesday. Intended as the start of a sabbatical from politics -- right down to the discarding of his dark D.C. suit and its replacement with a woolen jacket of aptly pedagogic brown -- the occasion was a public-relations disaster. It provided a lesson not so much in journalism as in the dark arts of paranoia and presumption. As the entire planet probably knows by now, Columbia muzzled the students attending the class. Mr. Gore's tutelage is, by university fiat, strictly off the record. This imposition has been touted as the brainchild of the associate dean of the Journalism School, who was appalled, apparently, at the prospect of Mr. Gore's students dashing off after each class to file their copy to newspapers. (And this is supposed to be a journalism school?) But I have learned (on deepest background) that this is a decanal smokescreen, and that the demand for a gag came as a precondition -- i.e., no gag, no Gore -- laid down by the former vice president himself. Ever the fumbling strategist, Mr. Gore has ensured that every one of his students is now talking unstoppably about how he won't let them talk to anyone. And the press, never entirely kind to him in even the best of times, has unleashed its own displeasure. "Hypocrites Triumph at Free Speech Temple" was the headline on a frothing piece by the New York Post's Steve Dunleavy, who described Mr. Gore as a "rat fink." The New York Observer's Gabriel Snyder was equally dismissive, though in more conventional idiom. He called the Gore lectures "a classic ivory-tower boondoggle," and remarked that the gag was "sure to make Joseph Pulitzer and Edward R. Murrow roll simultaneously in their graves." Columbia, an inherently liberal institution, snapped to attention when Mr. Gore first approached it in January with his offer to teach there. Judging by the alacrity with which the J-school has gagged its students, it is clear that Columbia believes that the allure of Mr. Gore's presence outweighs the cost -- in terms of free speech now curtailed -- to the institution's reputation. It's also clear, from an off-the-cuff remark made by Mr. Gore after his lecture, that he has a scant understanding of the working of modern universities. According to the New York Times, he said: "I think normal classes are off the record. . . . I think the students will get a better experience if it's as much as possible a normal classroom experience." Now I was once a university professor, and I gave lectures, and Mr. Gore's remark struck me as distinctly bizarre. Students were always free to do whatever they wanted with my pearls of wisdom, though I suspect no one ever prized them highly enough to make them part of any "record." But I taught at a funny old university in England where a number of odd practices flourish. So I called a few friends yesterday -- professors all, at American universities -- and they guffawed. Clearly, said one, "the poor dude can't tell the difference between a class at Columbia and a West Wing briefing." Shouldn't Columbia reconsider the terms of its association with its visiting professor? Quite apart from being a restriction on the students' First Amendment rights, the gag also raises obvious questions of contract law. Who do the lectures "belong" to? Surely the buyer (in this case, the student who has paid tuition fees, and who was unaware of the gag at the time of entering into a contract with the university) should be free to deploy the lectures' contents in any way he wishes, provided always that he acknowledges his source and does not pass the ideas off as his own. If I were a student in Mr. Gore's class, I'd consider testing these rules in the real world (of which Columbia's Journalism School is clearly not a part). I'd call a newspaper -- The Wall Street Journal, in all likelihood -- and ask to speak to the editor. "I have a story for you," I'd say, and offer it for publication. To Mr. Gore, and to my school's administrators, I'd have one blunt message: "Try and stop me." interactive.wsj.com The gag was required no doubt because AlGore is known mostly for his lies and his gaffes.

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (126096)	2/8/2001 10:04:32 AM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769670

ragingbull.lycos.com

To: Patricia Trinchero who wrote (126096)	2/8/2001 10:23:19 AM
From: dave rose	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

<<I am certainly a Democrat, but I believe that the Sierra Club has gone too far with many of their exploits. They started out with good intentions but those intentions got lost along the way!!>> Wow!!! What a statement from Pat. Probably the most intelligent thing she has said since coming on the thread!! Keep it up Pat. Maybe you will see the light.