The current spin on Fox News and about a billion conservative blogs this morning is about Al Gore’s recent speech at the Jeddah Economic conference in Saudi Arabia critical of American treatment of Arabs after Sept. 11. The bloggers are claiming he ‘defamed’ the US in the speech, and try to link Mr. Gore to the Bin Laden group who sponsored the conference. These are both laughable claims considering that Gore is currently a professor of political science, not a politician and his comments were not ‘Anti-American’, but rather ‘Anti-Discriminitory’ and that the Bush family has *actual* ties to the Bin Laden group. I suppose Karl Rove is hoping we’ll all forget that Osama’s brother provided the cash for G.W.’s oil company (which ultimately failed and led to G.W. selling a bunch of stock right before the stock dived – hmmm, he could get away with this, but Martha Stewart had to go to jail?). To attempt to somehow slander Gore for an association to the Bin Laden group when the Bush family has *real* ties to that group (which, it seems has *no* ties to Osama anyway) is a cheap shot aimed at swaying the opinion of folks who haven’t been paying attention, and won’t bother to investigate.

If the bloggers and Fox wanted to report on the speech, they might have mentioned that Gore also called for other Arab nations to express their displeasure with what was happening in Iran. “Is it only for the West to say this is dangerous?” Gore asked. “We should have more people in this region saying this is dangerous.”

Most of the attendees were Saudis who have been educated in the United States which explains why Gore expressed his feelings about restriction of Visas to Saudis. Since most of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, it seems reasonable to me to restrict access, but I do understand his point that because of these 15, hundreds of otherwise friendly Saudis will not have the opportunity to study in the US, build friendships here and help build good will toward the US in that country.

There were other folks there too, not just Al Gore: ‘Irish President Mary McAleese urged Saudi Arabia to learn from Ireland’s economic transformation, which hinged on opening the country to the outside world and ushering women into the workplace.’

Vice Chairman of Chevron Corp., Peter Robertson, said President Bush’s desire to cut U.S. dependence on Mideast oil shows a “misunderstanding” of global energy supply and the critical role of Saudi Arabia. Personally, I think cutting our dependance on mid-east oil is of vital national security interest, but I understand Chevron’s vested interest in our continued association with that revenue stream.