Gore stopped for speeding on Oregon coast

[Nambe]

ASTORIA, Ore. (AP)

Former Vice President Al Gore was cited for speeding as he drove a rented car to visit family on the coast, authorities said.

Gore, who was alone, was issued a $141 ticket for driving 75 miles per hour on Highway 26 in the northwest corner of the state, police said. The speed limit is 55. ..

A lot of that highway is 2 lane with motor homes galore. Once you get around a slow motor home, it's catch up time! Sorry Al, our troopers love those rental cars with that wonderful out-of-state credit card oozing with tax relief.
Use your Head

Put a Lid on It!

[PretzelWarrior]

1. Amazing. Bush rapes, pillages, and murders. <cricket><cricket>

but Gore speeds (ALONE?!?) on a rural stretch of highway in Oregon and gets busted?

Yeah. Life is fair. My president. sigh.

[Nambe]

4. That highway is bumper to bumper 8 months of the year.

4 months in the summer, cars are stacked three high at 70 MPH.

[Selwynn]

45. I know that highway well, Gore needed a ticket, sorry :)

That is a gorgeous highway, but doing 75MPH on it is just reckless. I'm not blaming Gore - I have no idea if he knew the highway well or was just spacing out, but having driven that highway all the time, especially in summer, doing that kind of driving can almost guarantee a fatality on that crazy stretch of road. I've you haven't driven it, you can't understand what I'm talking about..

Hey, its probably comforting to be treated like a regular citizen for him. Oh, and just because Bush is doing terrible things doesn't mean officers should stop protecting public safety in Oregon. :)

[Cha]

44. You're so right! But it ain't over yet, honey!

[Zan_of_Texas]

58. Okay, but let's keep track.

Ted Kennedy blocked from flying 5 times this spring (until supervisors intervened).

Now member of Congress John Lewis says he too has been stopped while trying to board airplanes.

Now Gore ticketed for driving too fast.

Just keep track.

[Selwynn]

46. It is far from rural - it is a very dangerous stretch where going 75 is..

..really not responsible. It is a twisting winding two line highway that often is bordered by mountain wall on one side and sheer drop off to ocean on other side. In the summer, you can come around the corner and be bumper to bumper with RVs going about 2o MPH trying to climb the hills, there is very little long range visibility because of all the curves, there are tourists out along the sides of the roads taking pictures everywhere, and traffic is often heavy.

Now, I'm more familiar with the stretch from Florence up through Canon Beach, going south from Florence, I'm not quite as sure that that stretch of road is like. I'm not sure where Gore was at, but he probably needed to slow it down for safety a lil bit :)

[LauraK]

2. Thank you Al. We'll spend it wisely.

We fought for you and now you're paying us back. Radar detectors are legal here and half the price of one ticket.

[kimchi]

3. No politics involved in that ticket.

Nosiree.

My friend has been an EX cop for 20 years and has been stopped countless times and ticketed zero times. Professional courtesy and all that. Methinks the trooper might just be a republican.

[sventvkg]

5. I hate Cops.sorry

Most of them are serious assholes....How could anyone ticket the former Vice president, elected president and senator who gave such service to this country, unless they were a brainless Right Winger..Add cop in the mix and it just gets worse...

[markses]

9. That's the dumbest post I've ever seen on DU

Sorry doesn't cover it. Just plain stupid.

[sventvkg]

29. well I have extensive experience working with them.sorry

How many do you know? how many have yuo worked with...Most are assholes...Seems to be a personality trait you need to have to even want that job....The few that are not though are some of the most caring and heroic people I have ever met. so it seem to me at least to be one or the other....My experience and my opinion...Sorry.

[markses]

39. I know plenty and I've worked with plenty

And in NYC no less. Your experience and your opinion. Fine. It's my opinion that your opinion is fucking stupid. So I guess we're alright.

[Sputnik]

40. Well, I'm married to one

Yes, just as with any other profession, some are jerks. However, we know city, county, state, and federal officers. It's a mixed bag, but most are decent people just trying to get home alive. Some of the finest people I've known in my life are or have worked in law enforcement.

My husband has cut many people breaks, but he's cautious as to whom he offers that. One of his fellow officers cut a guy a break and was fatally wounded in the neck for not being an "asshole."

I think it's easy to criticize someone when we don't have the guts to do the job they do. I'm sorry you've encountered so many assholes in your time. Maybe, just maybe, they have the same opinion of you....

Fair is fair. :)

[Cronus Protagonist]

30. That's the most inaccurate claim I've ever seen on DU

And my post title is a member of the same group as yours - hyperbole.

:(

SHOVE IT! - Drop Bush Not Bombs! - Hero Kerry AWOL Bush
http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13

[sventvkg]

31. That's your opinion......I don't care what you think of mine.

Who the hell are you to tell me that my opinion of my experiences with police are inaccurate...Good for you that disagree....good for me for my opinion...Move on.

[markses]

37. Hyperbole is a completely legitimate rhetorical device

And perfect for exposing stupidity.

[Selwynn]

50. It's only contexutally legitimate

It is sometimes, though not always, well used.

[stldemocrat]

11. I agree totally

[YoQuieroLiberty]

12. Here here

Speeding is speeding. I don't like speed limits in rural areas, but for now they're posted and they have to be obeyed. Cops enforcing the law says nothing about their politics.

[JSJ]

19. roger that, sventvkg n/t

[Selwynn]

49. Well, I guess because he was breaking the law! ?

Geez.

[Warren DeMontague]

6. At least he didn't run anyone over...

[pinniped]

34. That "boozed" up * pic is hilarious! Does the idiot and Nick Nolte...

have the same personal shopper?



Looks like PS 7.0 time.

[Warren DeMontague]

51. You know, you're the second person who's pointed that out.

It really is an uncanny resemblance.

[Cleita]

7. Last time I was there,

we came across a sixteen wheeler that fell half off one of the cliffs on one of the sharp turns. It blocked the road but it took a long time to get a rescue crew there. In the meantime the gravely injured driver was bleeding profusely. By the time the rescuers got there the rest of us were told to move on. I never knew if the driver survived or not. That is a really treacherous road and I don't think anyone should drive faster than the limit. Sorry!

[Rocinante]

8. Can't wait to hear what the wingnuts say

This should be good for a couple of days of latest breaking on Faux.

[YoQuieroLiberty]

13. Oh yeah

And Hannity will smirk his heinie off over this, looking for a way to make it matter somehow. I seriously dislike Hannity.

[unslinkychild1]

10. BY WHOM????

the ONE freakin' State Trooper who works the Oregon coastline (as per F911)???

Jeeeeeeezus! Welcome to Oregon, Mr. Prez.

[0rganism]

17. The state trooper in F-9/11 was working 101, the coast highway

The blurb here sez Al was stopped on 26, which runs perpendicular to 101.

Not surprising, tho. My brother came here to windsurf a few years back, and got pulled over on Day #1 for speeding in a construction zone, so it was doubled to $300. You just don't speed in Oregon without a radar detector, unless you're going with the flow of traffic. Our state budget is so thrashed by Norquist pawns that the cops have to anally enforce speeding laws just to make ends meet.

[janx]

21. People who want to do some real driving need to get off of

the coasts! Wyoming and Montana are great, for instance...Fewer people, more SPEED!

[unslinkychild1]

23. sorry, I was just being an idiot.

I saw this article, and my immediate thought was of that scene in F911. I guess I just wasn't paying any close attention. BTW, I LIVE in Oregon, so I KNOW how rough things are. They don't even enforce child support orders anymore, cuz they can't afford to arrest 'em or DO anything meaningful by way of penalty. The latest news I got from child support agency, Dept of Justice, actually, was that they were gonna report him (ex) to the Credit Bureau. Whoop di LA! I bet he's just quaking in his fucking BOOTS, especially since he just bought a BRAND NEW FUCKING CAR!!!!!!!!


GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[0rganism]

24. Hey, welcome to DU! never mind the bollocks, stop over in the Oregon forum

Nice to see some fresh Oregon blood spilling in the underground every now and then. :toast:

[unslinkychild1]

27. THANKS for welcome

I''m not REALLY a newbie--I've lurked here forever, and I will check out the Oregon room. Funny, I have virtually NO clue what's going on in my own STATE, but you can quiz me about national/international stuff any time :). Oh yeah, I voted once, when I was 18, but this misadministration has just about blown my head off. I'm 40 now, AND registered to vote, and I will forever more vote to throw every last rotten repub out of office. Green and Dem, but never for a repub.

[neomonkey]

14. What really surprises me

I thought a former VP could pretty much write off "solitude" for the rest of their life due to Secret Service protection. I'm quite astonished to hear that Mr. Gore was driving anywhere alone.

[Lisa]

47. he's been pretty much alone since 2001, I believe ...

I read somewhere that ex-VPs were allowed 6 months of Secret Service protection after leaving office, but that the Gores actually waived it early. He did his own driving through upstate NY en route to Bill Clinton's place in Chappaqua after 9/11 (though I think the Canadian Mounties supplied someone to get him to the border after his plane was routed to Toronto).

When he campaigns for people these days, he usually rents a car and drives it himself. (Apparently one of his warm-up jokes to audiences is that he's surprised when he looks in his rear-view mirror and doesn't see a motorcade!) I seem to recall that he was caught speeding in his younger days (and he should know better, given that he rolled his dad's car in Tennessee when he was a kid) -- but doesn't drive drunk, though. I for one would be pretty upset if he injured or killed anyone in an accident (or himself, for that matter).

[goclark]

53. I think Bush had him followed

I am sure that he was not the only one on that highway over the speed limit. Funny how he got caught.

[Kinkistyle]

15. I get the feeling that Al is going thru Mid-Life Crisis.

The sudden rebelliousness and rage, the slicked back hairstyle, the fast cars - sounds to me Al is trying to do some of the stuff he didn't get a chance to do in his youth because he was fighting a war in Vietnam, or studying hard at Harvard. ;)

[0rganism]

22. If anyone deserves a mid-life crisis, it's Al Gore

Holy shit. The man was cheated out of the presidency. He could have been The Great Leader Of The Free World At The Turn Of The Century, and instead he's just kind of wandering around aimlessly.

[MisterP]

25. while a squatter chimp rattles his cage bars and flings poo on

world TV

[0rganism]

28. It must bug the shit out of Al every time W is on TV being a dumbass

I personally can't stand to watch the dipshit fumbling to form coherent thoughts. My wife, not exactly a political junky, vomited the last time she watched a bush speech -- no shit, she really puked.

But much as it pains us, it must really fuck with Al Gore. I mean, I still have little petty foibles from 3rd grade that tick me off if I stop to reminisce about it. Now here's a guy who was on the edge of ultimate power, groomed for the job, among the smartest of the smart, after a lifetime of wonking, getting it all stripped away by a figurehead who can't even speak the English language. That's really got to hurt.

It's a miracle he hasn't spontaneously combusted.

[fujiyama]

35. When I just think

how different everything would have been had he actually been president, rather than how everything has turned out...I get this sick feeling in my stomach...The nation really lost out on its chance to have a great leader.

:(

[marlakay]

16. Feel for ya Al they got me too!

Last Thanksgiving Day late for dinner at Adobe Resort in Yachuts I didn't slow down in one of the small towns enough and they immediately got me! But I got permission and did traffic school via online. So my record is clear.

[senseandsensibility]

18. Yeah

it was wrong, but people get speeding tickets. It happens. It doesn't mean the cops are out to get him, or that he's evil.

[0rganism]

20. "OK, driver's license and registration..."

Trooper: Al Gore, huh?

Al Gore: Yes, that's me.

Trooper: Buddy, you'd better have a real license in there or I'm going to run your ass in.

Al Gore: That is my real license! See? I'm former Vice President Al Gore. Don't you recognize me?

Trooper: Yeah, yeah, you're Al Gore all right. Fourth one this year. And we've got Bill Clinton and Colin Powell in the drunk tank already tonight. You want to join 'em?

Al Gore: Wait. You don't understand. Maybe I can jar your memory with my nomination acceptance speech from 2000. My fellow Americans --

Trooper: Please step out of the car, Mr. "Gore"...

[Valerie5555]

26. I bet in a certain case, if it were Bill Clinton, he could have used a

"gubernatorial emergency" involving his dog as an excuse.

Let me explain or one word ZEKE, the cocker spaniel dog he had as Governor who also met the same fate as Buddy in a fit of unfortunate coincidence.

[allalone]

32. oh dear, now that will be all the news tomorrow

but, if you could see some of the gnarly accidents we have here in WA State on highways just like that, you'd see why he got stopped.

[Guaranteed]

33. Oh come on, why not give the guy a break?

He's a great man who's totally misunderstood. Let him go.

[fujiyama]

36. Well this kinda thing happens

Depending on the circumstances, he should have been let off with a warning. It's possible he was on a faster highway with a speed limit of 70 and then got on the 55 mph zone, or maybe he simply forgot.

It may or may not have been done for political purposes, but I'm sure this is a great way to get revenue out in these states.

I expect the RW idiots to talk about this especially cuz his son has also got a few speeding tickets.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[smb]

41. Gore In The Balance

Gore, who was alone, was issued a $141 ticket for driving 75 miles per hour

Really, he ought to set a better example.... :eyes:

[Lisa]

48. Yeah, think of the hydrocarbon consumption!

That's 2.4 kg of carbon dioxide emitted per litre of gasoline, Al -- not to mention the ground-level ozone precursors! I hope that wasn't an SUV you were driving!

[Vickers]

42. It would've been worse if the cop would've let him go...

"Former Vice President Gore used his political influence to get out of a speeding ticket..." etc. etc.

[Cha]

43. Cute! I remember his son was stopped for speeding on the

East Coast!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

52. At least he wasn't drunk unlike a certain asshole I won't mention. n/t

[Cha]

54. I just read on bartcop that today is Tipper's

BIRTHDAY! :party: :D Happy Birthday, Tipper!

[htuttle]

55. That explains it

"I’ve been drivin‘ all night my hand’s wet on the wheel.
There’s a voice in my head that drives my heel.
And my baby calls that she needs me here.
It’s half past four and I’m shifting gear."


:)

[Cha]

56. That's what I figured out!

Gore wanted to get to his Tipper!

[bluestateguy]

57. He'll pay the ticket and accept the consequences

I got a ticket for going 76 in a 60 zone and traffic schooled it away, so it seems reasonable to get a ticket for 75 in a 55.

President Gore, unlike the former Governor Bush of Texas who sits in the White House, does not believe himself to be above the law.