Taking Sides: Gore v. Bush

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Sure Bush is embarassing, but would Gore be any better in this time of crises? He is possibly an even worse communicator. How about Nader? Which of the three would you like to see in charge of the U.S. right now and why?

― Mark, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Didn't the Minutemen release an album titled "3-Way Tie For Last"?

― Mark, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not a precise answer to your question, but having Lieberman for a VP right now would most probably be the cause of some distinct tension.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Gore would be better.

― Sean, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I still belive if Gore were elected none of this would have happened

― Pennysong Hanle y, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Who's the say?... but...

I bet this still would have happened if Gore were president. Osama wasn't exactly a Clinton fan; and I think the world at this point would still have seen Gore as an extension of Clinton just as much as they see Bush Jr. as an extension of Bush Sr. Just ask all the burned effigies.
I'm not too sure this still would have happened if Nader were president, though. It really depends on how Nader would have handled the Mideast situation by now.. so who's to say?
A slight aside: I'm a little peaved at Nader for bowing out of the public eye ever since he didn't get his 5%. Unless the press is purposefully ignoring any public statements by Nader.. in which case, I'll take that back. Speaking of which... is there a Nader/Green party based URL that's commenting on all that's happened since 9/11?
Nice call on the Minutemen album reference! I'm frankly jealous I didn't use it first.

― Brian MacDonald, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm a little peaved at Nader for bowing out of the public eye

It would be nice to hear from Gore as well. Maybe I've missed it, but I haven't heard a word from the man during all this.

― Sean, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

these attacks had been planned for two years. how did bush trigger them? gore has no leadership skills and he would likely have retained madeleine albright who engineered the kosovo campaign for the sake her own ego and would likely have made a huge mess now.

― keith, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bush hasn't done anything and people are happy with it. Gore probably would've destroyed an aspirin factory or two by now, just to prove to "middle America" that he isn't a wuss. Nader is a leftist, an Arab, and a lawyer; the CIA would probably have murdered him by now (first woman president: Winona La Duke!). I'd prefer Buchanan; he'd be the only guy who'd be able to get the message that "the American way" is not the only way across to all the pitchfork-wielding yayhoos, but crown prince Bush is probably the next best thing (for this, not necessarily for anything else).

― Kris, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Kosovo campaign = only one of 90s engagements which actually and eventually ended up with the 'bad' govt. being removed. The opposition to Kosovo was mostly not along the lines of this is immoral but this-won't-work. But, surely, it did 'work'?

― Tom, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'd take Gore but he would have to dump his wife for Bush's alcholic daughter?

― Mr Noodles, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was thinking today about those pivotal moments when everything could have gone right but went wrong instead. And now things just seem wrong forever, don't they? We will just be killing each other for religious reasons now forever. We had a chance to be adult, and we couldn't rise to it.

Pivotal moments that spring to mind for me are:

Reagan and Thatcher coming to power.

Bill Gates ripping off the Mac OS with total impunity, then doing it again to Netscape.

Bush Snr. getting all triumphalist about the New World Odour (right now it's the odour of some kind of disinfectant they seem to have sprayed on the decomposing bodies at Ground Zero, and it's invading my flat.)

Jubilation on hearing that Gore had won Florida (I leap out of the bath) ebbs away as the state is put back into the 'too close to call' list.

If we imagine an exercise in 'back to the future' style history tampering, I think most of the things we'd have to change would be US policies. Like, we'd have to say to the US in the late 70s, 'Don't finance muslim movements to fight the godless soviets, because one day they will turn against you and their tactics will make the soviets look like gentlemen'.

― Momus, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, and I almost forgot those ten centuries of superstition and persecution after the fall of the Roman Empire.

― Momus, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Brian, Nader is speaking at my university like this week or a week later or sometime.

Fucker's charging admission too.

― Josh, Tuesday, 25 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I voted for Gore -- I thought that he was not only best qualified candidate last year, but one of the best qualified candidates we've ever had (but then again, so was Adlai Stevenson) and don't get me started on what I think of the Supreme Court -- and I would much rather have Al Gore in the White House now. But since this terrorist thing was pretty well planned, which probably means that it took a lot of time to put everything together, I don't know if I could say that had Gore been in office that the attack would not have taken place.

And I'm going to keep my mouth shut about Ralph Nader, because every time I open my mouth around here about Ratfuck Ralphie I get in trouble. (Not that he doesn't deserve for Al Gore to put his foot WAY up his ass for helping put Bush in the Oval Office, but as I said I'm keeping my mouth shut.)

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If only Black Adder were here! He could have convinced Henry Ford to not build cars on a mass scale!

― Pennysong Hanle y, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

gore gets it everytime because of his appearence at the national prayer serviced -al's the jim morrison of the 21st century, all bloated and bearded, the sage drunk to satnd aside, looking on, eternally posing the question what if, and reminding himself that ppl get the government they deserve...pretty soon, he's gonna be whipping his dick out, and all you'll hear from tipper is"Put a sticker on that one Al."

― Geoff, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Attack wouldn't have happened if Gore President'? Attack probably planned as far back as 1993 tho

― dave q, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Also unremarked is that Bush's GPA was actually higher than the self- proclaimed inventor of the internet. Anybody who suffered through the blizzard of anti-intellectual grandstanding bullshit that was 'Earth in the Balance' is relieved Gore 'lost'

― dave q, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Bill Gates ripping off the Mac OS with total impunity

It always amuses me when this comes up. A few points: 1) DOS based Windows is not really very similar to MacOS. The UIs have many similarities, yes, but the underlying stuff that does the work is quite different. 2) The whole WIMP UI concept was invented at Xerox, not Apple. If MS ripped off Apple, did Apple in turn rip off Xerox? 3) If Gates hadn't finally cottoned on to the need for a half decent GUI and Apple had dominated the PC market, the biggest difference is that we'd be living in a world in which PC hardware and software was dominated by one firm. Don't you just love a monopoly? 4) Finally, do you really think Steve Jobs would have behaved any better than Bill Gates has?

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

2) The whole WIMP UI concept was invented at Xerox, not Apple. If MS ripped off Apple, did Apple in turn rip off Xerox?

yes. and steve jobs is absolutely shameless about it. which is why he would be a more interesting super-billionaire than bill gates. but then, who wouldn't be?

― jess, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

1) Gates first ripped off a previous operating system. IBM looking to make its first personal computer using completely outsourced products, asked him if he could do an operating system. He said no that he did software and sent them to his friend Gary. Gary was out surfing as the story goes and his wife refused to sign the nondisclosure agreement while they were waiting for him to return (a normal operating procedure for a large companies like Big Blue). They went back to Bill and said anyone else, so basically he said 'screw it I'll do it myself' and bought the rights to a clone of a than popular operating system which Gary designed and sold it under the name DOS, which isnt really an operating system anyways. 2) Mac OS was a ripoff of Xerox's operating system but Apple got away with it cause Xerox never really thought there was much money in it. Jobs talks about his tour of the park on a PBS series cause he won the eventual lawsuit. Xerox was so far ahead of its time it wasnt even funny. If they had marketed their inventions computer science would be advanced b at least a decade. They also repopularized the mouse but that was originally invented earlier. 3) The real genius behind MAC's and Apples was Woz (Wuz?). 4) First digital computer was created in Germany by a eng student Conrad Zuse beacuse he was too lazy to do his heavy calculations in the late 30s. Thanks to the war though no one found out about this later.

― Mr Noodles, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What? I thought the first digital computer was built in Birmingham by Turing's gang during/just after the war (but no one found out about till later cos of Secrecy Act, and ENIAC in US claimed all the credit). Speaking of secrets, did you know that Public Key encryption was invented by a British mathematician in a govt. institute a few years before Whit Diffie and the other US guys did it? Again, this only came to light later.

― Sam, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Manchester's computer was early, though I forget if it beat the one where Ned's from. It was devolped during the war right? Zuse first computer was made in his family's living room before the war. It used mechanical switches, like telephone system at the time. The switches are about 1000 times slower then vacumm tubes but they didnt cost near as much. Another triumph of price over quality, just like pc over mac.

― Mr Noodles, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

though I forget if it beat the one where Ned's from

Where I'm from? Bremerton, Washington?

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

For some reason I though KUCI was in Iowa, just checking now its in Irvine, CA. Someone here is from Iowa right? Please tell me Im not crazy. I remeber it cause I came across this page... America's first computer, not ENIAC

Ack, maybe I am going crazy. Sorry, i thought it was you Ned, now your probably as confused as I.

― Mr Noodles, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Here ATT claims the first computer in 1939.

A good timeline though it gets started half way through.

I gotta get back to work now, sigh.

― Mr Noodles, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

OK, from what I know of Dubya and his entitlement issues, would it be completely out of linje to suggest he had a little bit of 'help' come exam time, or was a rote learner?

― suzy, Wednesday, 26 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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