Posted on 11/08/2001 3:49:14 PM PST by Alberta's Child
In recent weeks radio announcements have heralded a special appearance by former U.S. President Bill Clinton at a reception hosted by an organization called Calgary Renaissance. The timing of this appearance by the disgraced ex-president is particularly noteworthy in light of recent events in the United States, as the attacks of September 11th were clearly the result of a failure on the part of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials to protect the citizens of that nation from foreign terrorists operating within its own borders. This appearance is billed as an opportunity for Calgarians to meet the former president, but these "meetings" are predictable episodes of self-praise in which Mr. Clinton does not expose himself to unscripted questions about the shortcomings of his administration.
And what shortcomings they were. Beyond his legal troubles, several questions about his administrations incompetence in recent years must be asked. Why did Clinton devote far more energy to a legal case against Microsoft than to any efforts against Osama bin Laden? Why was the CIA expending substantial resources to combat foreign pirating in the U.S. record industry, at the expense of its normal intelligence work? How can anyone expect Mr. Clinton to provide intelligent, thoughtful insight into his years in office when he has spent most of that time claiming in various courts that he doesn't remember anything at all?
Any organization that invites this man to speak is placing its own credibility at risk, for beneath the charming personality and public adoration is a self-centered narcissist who was one of the most corrupt individuals ever to hold public office in the United States. He was truly a man of his times, a perfect figurehead for a society that never grew up and never bothered to maintain even minimal standards of public conduct. Canadians themselves have paid a price for his depraved approach to governing, though the human toll of that tainted blood from Arkansas may never be known. It appears that Calgary Renaissance has placed itself firmly on the side of those millions of American voters who confused notoriety with fame, celebrity with honor, and popularity with virtue.
A man who wanders among crowds in New York City in the days following the September 11th attacks, offering unsolicited remarks to strangers about how he "just missed getting Osama bin Laden, maybe even by only an hour," is a pathetic, hollow man indeed. The human mind cannot imagine Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, or even Richard Nixon approaching people in a similar manner, inserting themselves into the days headlines by telling us what they "almost" did when they were in a position to do something, or anything, to prevent a disaster of this magnitude. In offering his apologia of sorts to the masses in New York, Mr. Clinton correctly assumed that people still coming to grips with such a horrific event would overlook the inconsistencies in his own background.
In October of 2000, Clinton issued an order granting clemency to sixteen members of the FALN, a Puerto Rican terrorist organization responsible for 130 bombings in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s. In response to criticism from law enforcement officials and even prominent Congressional leaders in his own party, the departing chief executive offered the incredible rationale that, while these terrorists were convicted of offenses including bomb-making, conspiracy and armed robbery, "none of them were convicted of doing bodily harm to anyone" a description that fits Osama bin Laden to a T (though nobody has even accused bin Laden of making any bombs or robbing anyone). Oddly enough, those FALN pardons represented one of the oddest clemency cases in U.S. history, as the convicted terrorists never made a formal request for clemency in the first place!
Perhaps Calgary Renaissance will follow in the footsteps of all those special interest groups in the U.S. that find themselves utterly irrelevant on the political scene as a result of their unwavering support of such a hollow man the labor unions that threw their weight behind a global free-trade advocate, the feminists who hit the airwaves in 1998 to defend a sexual predator in his legal battles, and the civil rights advocates and opponents of capital punishment who held their noses and supported a candidate who once interrupted his campaign so he could fly back to Arkansas to witness the execution of a retarded black man.
One might have been tempted to buy a ticket to this event, if only to raise a few points like these in public and maybe even get thrown out in the process. It seems, however, that $400 is a steep price to pay for the privilege of hearing Mr. Clintons self-congratulatory remarks. A man who is too untrustworthy to hold a private-sector job seems out of place in a city that prides itself in its entrepreneurial spirit. As they say on Wall Street every day, some people are just born to be customers. Heres hoping that there arent too many of them at the Roundup Centre on November 8th.
I want to offer my sincere apologies to any Calgary Freepers who were looking to me to organize a welcoming party for Mr. Clinton here in Alberta. I have been in the process of packing things for a move back to the U.S., and there simply hasn't been time to get everything done.
Having said that, it looks like the e-mails that we sent to Calgary Renaissance have had an impact and a Freep would not have been possible in any case. I heard yesterday that X-42 will NOT speak at the Roundup Centre, as was announced previously. People who paid to hear him speak have been told to go to the Centre at 6:30 or so, and they will be taken by bus to an undisclosed location for the gala event and the glad-handing session. The parallels to Adolph Hitler hunkered down in his bunker as the Third Reich collapsed are amazing.
Like Freddie Kruegger, he just won't go away. And worse yet, some idiots still admire him.
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