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Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
'Green' Gore falls foul of a polluted river
Matthew Campbell, Washington
Up the creek: Gore has written of protecting waterways
IN AN unwelcome development for a presidential candidate who
bills himself as
a champion of the environment, Al Gore, the Democrat contender,
is being
accused of profiting from the pollution of a river in his native
Tennessee.
The state's environmental authorities have warned a zinc mining
company
operating on Vice-President Gore's farm that waste is
endangering wildlife.
Over the years, Gore has collected $500,000 in royalties from
the mining.
After allegations that he is also benefiting from the plunder of
virgin South
American rainforest, the latest complaint has promoted charges
of hypocrisy.
In 1992, his book Earth in the Balance, an impassioned plea for
action
against pollution threats imperiling the planet, cautioned that
"the lakes
and rivers sustain us; they flow through the veins of the earth
and into our
own. But we must take care to let them flow back out as pure as
they came,
not poison and waste them without thought for the future."
Gore appears to have fallen short of this noble ideal in his own
back yard.
On May 16, the Tennessee Department of Environment and
Conservation issued a
"notice of violation" to Pasminco Zinc, a company that has been
paying Gore
$20,000 a year for the privilege of extracting metal from
beneath his farm in
the picturesque Cumberland river valley.
The department warned of high zinc levels in the Caney Fork
river and said
Pasminco "may be subject to enforcement action". Although Gore
grew up mainly
in Washington, where his father worked as a senator, he has
often waxed
lyrical about the summers he spent as a youth on the farm in
Tennessee.
Writing about his father, Gore said: "We loved to swim together
in the Caney
Fork river off a big flat rock on the back side of his farm."
That may seem
less appealing today.
Another complaint said effluent had put toxic metals in the
river. "The
combined effect of these pollutants may be detrimental to fish
and aquatic
life," said authorities in 1996, warning that a species of water
flea was at
risk of being poisoned. The river is home to a species of
crayfish and to
birds such as the red-headed woodpecker.
It is not only his dealings with Pasminco Zinc, however, that
are casting
doubt over the extent of Gore's commitment to the
environmentalist
gospel.Activists accuse him of turning a blind eye to the rape
of rainforests
in Latin America through long-standing ties to Occidental
Petroleum, the
original owner of the land being mined on his farm. Armand
Hammer,
Occidental's founder, supported Senator Gore, bought and sold
the mineral
rights to him and later contributed to his son's political
campaigns.
A multi-billion-dollar oil- drilling scheme by Occidental in
Colombia has
provoked violent protest and threats of mass suicide from the
U'wa Indians
protecting their ancestral land. Supporters of the Indians link
Gore's
failure to intervene in the dispute with the fact that his
family stands to
gain financially from any increase in the worth of Occidental's
shares. A
Gore family trust holds $500,000 worth of stock.
Gore has long been plagued by charges of hypocrisy. In 1996 he
famously
invoked his sister's death from lung cancer as a way of
attacking the tobacco
industry. Then it was revealed that the family farm had
prospered from
growing tobacco in the past.
Similarly, he has repeatedly tried to attach his name to
campaign finance
reform efforts while under investigation for alleged fundraising
offences -
which he denies - in the 1996 presidential campaign.
As this year's campaign intensifies, however, the alleged
contradictions
between his public rhetoric and private arrangements are proving
more
damaging than stories of the misspent youth of George W Bush,
the Republican
rival leading him by 12 points in the polls.
Gore was ridiculed recently when asked what had happened to
e-mails that had
gone missing from his White House office just as investigators
were seeking
evidence of illegal fundraising. "I'm not an expert on
computers," he said.
It seemed a surprising admission for a politician who once
claimed to have
played a vital role in inventing the internet and whose
enthusiasm for
technology - he travels with a Palm Pilot on his belt - has led
to
suggestions of "nerdism".
At the same time, Gore's commitment to building
energy-efficient,
environmentally friendly homes - last week he proposed $2,000
tax credits for
Americans who implement his blueprint - seems at odds with grim
conditions
for the family renting a house he owns 150 yards from his
Tennessee farm.
Tracy Mayberry says she complained more than 30 times to Gore's
property
managers about overflowing lavatories, peeling plaster and
cracked floors.
She, her disabled husband and their eight children were
eventually served
with an eviction order.
When a television station went to the house, Gore pleaded
ignorance, reversed
the order and promised repairs. Last week, however, the family
remained at
odds with their "slumlord", as some critics christened Gore. "I
don't think I
trust Al Gore any more," said Mayberry.
Judging by the vice-president's dwindling support in the polls,
she is not
alone.
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A vote for Bush or Gore is a vote to continue Clinton policies!
A vote for Buchanan is a vote to continue America!
Therefore a vote for Gore or Bush is a wasted vote for America!
Don't waste your vote! Vote for Patrick Buchanan!
Today, candor compels us to admit that our vaunted two-party
system is a
snare and a delusion, a fraud upon the nation. Our two parties
have become
nothing but two wings of the same bird of prey...
Patrick Buchanan
