Al Gore, Criminal Billionaire

In his testimony in Congress on April 24, 2009, former Vice President Al Gore sneered at a Congresswoman who simply asked him about his interests in green business (that include carbon trading venture with ex-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson), and went into a taunting tirade: "Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business in this country?" (Here's the link to the video. You can watch Al Gore's staff sitting behind him laugh and sneer as their boss does.)

Well, first, the Congresswoman was not asking whether or not there's something wrong with being a businessman in this country. Second, in your particular case Mr. Vice President, yes it is a crime, even if you won't be the first one to profit immensely from government connection. John D. Rockefeller did, J. P. Morgan did. It's a fine American tradition of crony capitalism, but don't tell us it's a rugged entrepreneurism. (Investing in Apple Inc.'s stocks doesn't make one an entrepreneur.)

Lew Rockwell seems to share my disgust.

Al Gore, Criminal Billionaire (Lew Rockwell, 11/4/09 LRC Blog)
[emphasis is mine]

"Al may become the first man to rip-off a cool billion through government carbon tyranny. When a man becomes rich in the market, it is because he has been highly successful in serving consumers. When a hereditary member of the power elite like Gore becomes even richer through the state, it means he has been very successful in pushing the faces of consumers into the mud. He promotes climate lies and then poverty-producing state intervention because of the lies, and then makes big bucks from special deals with companies he helped enrich through the state. What a monster."

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