Al Gore: A User's Manual

The book Al Gore: A User's Manual, by Cockburn and St. Clair, illustrates the lies that have been the legacy of Al Gore. Throughout the book, the thin veneer of liberalism that Gore wears is stripped down and the reader sees the real Gore: a closet conservative whose record is anti-environment, anti-choice, and anti-labor. This book details the numerous "reinventions of Gore" and shows that if you side with him, he'll let you down. Just ask the people in East Liverpool Ohio, who now live next to the WTI Hazardous Waste Incinerator that Gore promised to shut down. This book is an important part of the literature that demystifies Gore and his treachery to the progressives of this country.

It's nice to see lefties like Cockburn and St. Clair and Sam Smith from the Progressive Review go after Clinton/Gore. It's heartening that right-wingers aren't the only people who recognize what a cynical and corrupt administration we're living under. My own views have strayed from some of the liberalism the authors espouse, and I think part of the reason for that has been watching a lot of people on the left blindly defend these crooks. I don't agree with everything Cockburn and St. Clair believe, but they're smart guys, and they recognize hypocrisy and corruption when they see it. AND IT'S SO BLATANT. I do agree with one of the other reviewers that there's a conspicuous lack of sources, but a great deal of what the authors discuss has been out there for a while (Elk Hills, Occidental, Armand Hammer, Buddhist Temple, uncountable fabrications, etc), and a lot of their attacks on Gore are based on his votes in Congress and as VP, not unsubstantiated rumors or accusations. I learned a great deal from this book, but most of it confirmed my intial beliefs...

Al Gore: A User's Manual By Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair Verso 2000 $23.00He Really Will Say (and Do) Anything to Get Elected A Review By Michael DonnellyAl Gore is on the cusp of becoming the first American president who grew up in a hotel suite (rent-free courtesy of a relative who owned the hotel), ordering breakfast from room service and riding a limo to his private school for the elite. Like everything else about Gore, this reality clashes with the public myth of the hard-working, pig shit-shoveling, mule team-plowing farm boy from Carthage, Tennessee.Authors Cockburn and St. Clair's excellent dissection of Gore's public myth is a must read for any progressive - especially those who continue to bleat the fear-inflating nonsense that the wagons must be circled around Gore as George W. Bush is an oil-drenched, military thrall out to roll back worker's rights, environmental protections and a woman's right to choose. This, the first thorough examination of Gore's 25-year public career from a Left (or any for that matter) perspective shows that those very feared rollbacks have been the bases of the chameleon Gore's slimy rise.In Al Gore: A User's Manual, we learn that Gore, himself, has been a major Defense department sycophant. After a politically-motivated short tour of Vietnam as an Army reporter complete with constant bodyguard (note to Creedence: he was a Senator's son), Gore, once in Congress (how he got there another great story) became one of the Pentagon's most trusted water carriers. The hawk Gore virtually invented the Midgetman missile, midwifed the MX missile, voted against every effort to cut the Defense budget, backed the invasion of Grenada, supported the contras and, then in what he called his "finest hour," voted for the Gulf War - only after shopping his vote on the very day of the debate to each side in order to secure the most favorable TV slot during the debate.While in Congress, Al Gore was not only a hawk, but also a voice against homosexuals, whom he called "deviants." Gore also preposterously claims to have always "supported a woman's right to choose" when, in fact, he has an 84% pro-life rating from National Right to Life, even stating that he believes in "the fetus' right to life" and voting for the Hyde amendment AND Rep. Mark Siljander's effort to undercut Roe v Wade.The authors relate tale after tale of Gore's use of personal epiphanies to explain his beliefs. The book exposes how Gore used the death of his sister, Nancy, from smoking-related cancer as a prop, saying in 1996, "that is why until I draw my last breath, I will pour my heart and soul into the cause of protecting our children from the dangers of smoking." Seven years after her death, Gore was still on the Big Tobacco dole - accepting tobacco money and accepting government subsidies for the tobacco he still grew on his Tennessee farm. Though Al and Tipper once smoked a lot of pot, Gore now opposes its use, even for medical purposes, ignori

This is Al Gore as you've never seen him before: a prevaricator, a conniver, someone who exploits his sister's death and son's tragic accident for naked political advantage. Cockburn and St. Clair have presented an unsparing account, which cuts through the mythology and political spin to show the real man: the man who betrayed his father's liberal legacy on matters of war and peace, civil rights and the nuclear arms race. Gore has now taken to calling himself a populist; yet, Cockburn and St. Clair disclose the fact that time and again he has sold his services to big oil, telecom giants and the nuclear power industry. He calls himself a liberal, but he has referred to gays as "abnormal", has supported tax breaks for racist schools, has voted against federal funding for family planning for poor women and has tried to end affirmative action. If there's one book you read before you cast your vote in November, this is it. Don't say you haven't been warned.

It has been clear to many of us for some time that Al Gore is a Judas when it comes to the interests of American citizens and their living life-support system, the environment.And just like with child abuse where 80 percent of the abuse is not at the hands of the "bad guys" but at the hands of trusted friends and family members - so too with Al Gore. Because he has been perceived as a friend of the environment, and still is by many as a "lesser evil," he has been able to engineer and get away with doing worse harm. Much of the Clinton/Gore illegal environmental destruction would never have been allowed under Reagan/Bush by those now supporting the most right-wing, conservative Democratic ticket in 50 years, Gore/Lieberman. This book brings to light some of the irrefutable evidence and once again reveals that Gore has clearly and callously abandoned his principles, our citizens and our environment while fundraising for corporate cash. Yet many in the Democratic cult continue to support what is more accurately described as the New Republican wing of the Democratic Leadership Council's version of the Democrats.This book is a must read for all non-voters and Democrats and hopefully we can then avoid being sheep to the slaughter. Fellow conservationists & Democrats, where is the will to win? With so much of our Civil Liberties already lost; with less than five percent of our original native forests left, we must start fighting for what's right; saving what's left and restoring everything that has been lost. It's time we started fighting as if our lives (and the lives of our children) depended on it. Because, ultimately, they do. (This is my personal opinion)Tim Hermach, President Native Forest Council [email protected]