W. sure was well versed in the fuzzy math for which he had ridiculed Al Gore back during the 1999 Presidential campaign cycle. Between the removal of all regulatory checks and balances, coupled with the failure to include all of the federal spending dollars in the national budget, the American people, yet again, have been misled, swindled and scammed by the Bush Administration and his Republican Party.
Thanks to the sources cited in my most recent diary on the make believe of trickle down nothing economic black magic, we are reminded that Phil Gramm, while serving in the U.S. Senate, had engineered the dismantling of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999. The Glass-Steagall Act had been passed in 1933 as a means to stem the wild and rampant speculation of banks that led to the Great Depression.
As I write this I am this I am looking at editorial cartoon from the Houston Chronicle today. I can't find it online oddly enough, so I can't link it. Its theme is simple: Al Gore is a self-aggrandizing politician. He is shown smugly claiming that he should have won the Noble prize for inventing the internet. Some lies never die. This is one of them. Sadly, I think "An Inconvenient Truth" leaves itself open to this kind of attack.
I must be the only one who had NOT seen all of "An Inconvenient Truth". I did on Monday, along with about 30 Republican teenagers. It was a mind expanding experience which confirmed some things I have been reading over the last 4 years.
Gore's documentary won the Nobel Peace Prize as you know. I think it a very good choice. I guess the audience he was aiming for was the choir of already convinced Progressives and Independents. Stylistically, the work epitomizes how we tend to do messaging. It starts with a heavy dose of facts, facts, facts. It is over halfway in that Gore first invokes a value claim, tries to put a moral frame on all these facts.
Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) won "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.
They were chosen to share the $1.5 million prize from a field of 181 candidates.
"Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control," the citation said of rising temperatures that could bring more droughts, floods, rising seas.
"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," the committee said of Gore.
"The IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming," it said.
Hello, and welcome to the headquarters of Step It Up 2007!
This is our organizing hub for a National Day of Climate Action--April 14th, 2007. On this one spring day, there will be hundreds and hundreds of rallies all across the country. We hope to have gatherings in every state, and in many of America's most iconic places: on the levees in New Orleans, on top of the melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, even underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West.
We also need rallies outside churches, along the tide lines in our coastal cities, in cornfields and forests and on statehouse steps. Every group will be saying the same thing: "Step it up, Congress! Cut Carbon 80% by 2050." As people gather, we'll link pictures of the protests together electronically via the web--before the weekend is out, we'll have the largest protest the country has ever seen, not in numbers but in extent. From every corner of the nation we'll start to shake things up.
Please feel free to contact us with questions, concerns or comments:
Today it was Al Gore bringing the wood to Republicans sitting on the committee who expressed doubts on global warming. Such skeptics include Texas' very own embarrassment, Rep. Joe Barton of the 6th district. Like another Texan, Barton embarrassed our state by casting doubts on highly suspect things like "science" and "research". I think he also still believes the Earth is flat (or was that another nutcase).
Now Barton, like many of Republican reps, says there's bad science behind global warming. I wonder if the fact that Barton's top two financial backers are the Oil & Gas ($1,108,720) and the Electric Utilities ($1,013,738) industries has anything to do with his position on global warming.
Hmmm, I wonder, I wonder...
Think Progress has the video of Al Gore's smackdown of Barton. Gore had to use words that even an idiot like Barton can understand but they're worth hearing! More videos & transcripts on the flip.
On March 21st, I will testify before Congress on the immediate action that needs to be taken to end the climate crisis. At the hearing, I will deliver the 294,374 messages you signed, demonstrating that hundreds of thousands of people share my sense of urgency.
snip
The reason Congress has so far failed to act is not because there are no solutions to the problem. Nor is it because the majority doesn't believe that the climate crisis is real. They have failed to act, because they have not yet faced a sufficient expression of political will on the part of the American people demanding they confront our climate crisis head on. You and I know that political will is a renewable resource, and enough already exists to start solving this crisis. We just have to communicate that forcefully to the political leaders of our country.
Right now it doesn't look like Gore will run - but then his stock is so hot, he doesn't need to run. Gore can wait till the fall (unlike Wes Clark who needs to announce by Summer at the latest IMHO), wait for the field to thin a little, and then make an announcement that would change the entire Democratic landscape.
Remember this man not only has the heart of the Democratic base and activists, but he has very powerful friends in Hollywood and the Internet-Ebusiness arena.
His film has given him the kind of PR and respectibility which no Presidential candidate has had in my lifetime.
And now imagines if he wins the Nobel Peace Prize, which he has been nominated for and it becomes clear that Gore simply couldn't be stopped in the Democratic primaries - even by Obama's rock start status or Hillary organizational skills, connections and husband.
Besides, many Gore backers owe the GOP and Supreme Court one for 2000's botched election.
So, is Al Gore running for President? Nobody knows. And I doubt that Gore knows 100% for sure either.
Al Gore and "An Inconvenient Truth" at the Academy Awards Show with Oscar Nominations for Best Documentary and Best Song
Live Sunday, February 25, 2007.
Good luck, Al Gore. And thanks for already being more effective than anyone currently in office and working so hard to save all of our families from Thelma Bush and his Louise GOP's extinction-level job performance.
Gore has a great chance to win and deserves the nomination given the impact Gore's movie had in the States and world. But this is not the first time Al Gore had an impact on your life. In fact, you're using one his greatest gifts to humanity right now.
That's right. The Internet. The media may have lampooned him and George Bush had some great laughs boy (haha!) at a clumsy statement made to CNN by the then wooden Gore (he's gotten a little better at speaking while Georgie has, oh, Decider-errifically slipped). Bush lied about Al Gore in a 2000 commercial calling Gore the liar for claiming he "invented" the Internet. But Al Gore never said he "invented" the Internet - that was another lie by Declan McCullagh, in a Republican press release. Gore poorly worded it, but he simply state that he made a major impact on the Internet's development, which in fact as a Senator and Vice President he did.
But don't my word for it. Listen to what the best and original Internet minds and inventors have to say about Al Gore's effect on their work.
Hey folks - heads up!!! Al Gore is bringing his environmental presentation to D/FW. He'll be at the Nokia Live theatre in Grand Prairie, TX on Sat, Sep 30, 2006 08:00 PM.
(Many thanks for the report on Gore's talk in Houston. - promoted by boadicea)
An Inconvenient Truth" which is a companion to the movie by the same name. It is all part of a media blitz meant to bring awareness of the impending climate disaster to the awareness of all Americans.
Overall, Al Gore 2.0 brought together an amazing presentation of what is happening to our planet, what have the conditions been like historically, and what the expected results should be. Gore is working on spreading the word about what could be the greatest danger our civilization has ever faced.
We were able to not only see a first-hand, updated version of the presentation the movie and book were based on, but also to meet the man himself, plus walk away with two autographed copies of his book. Below, you will be introduced not only to the multimedia presentation of "An Inconvenient Truth" but also my thoughts on things such as Al Gore's future roll in politics and in society.
This will be cross posted all over the place.
Now, Sharon & all you Gore drafters, please don't bite my head off. That's what the man's said & believes & I will take him on his word.
That does not however make him politically irrelevant & in fact may make him a stronger player.
I am still incredibly proud of his film & am looking forward to see it. I am also grateful for the service he has given to us Americans (despite how little they appreciate it sometimes) & although the GOPers dismiss him, I believe History will remember this great man with reverence.
(Go! See! Report back like emmdasher did! - promoted by boadicea)
I just walked in the door after a 9:40pm showing of "An Inconvenient Truth" at the Arbor in Austin. The adrenaline is still pumping through my body, so I thought typing might be a better choice than caffeine at this hour.
Al Gore is making his swing through Texas for his movie "An Inconvenient Truth" and I suppose that was one reason for his surprise Saturday Night Live appearance.
(Title Edited to indicate timeliness - promoted by boadicea)
Hey guys,
An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's new movie on global warming - a Sundance Film Festival hit - is playing at the Magnolia Theater in Dallas. The website www.climatecrisis.com is asking people to "pledge" to attend on opening weekend.
Mid-Cities Democrats is organizing a group to go on opening night, Friday, June 2. As a group, we can get discounted tickets at $7 each (normally priced at $8.50).
AND, if we can scrounge up 150 democrats to commit to attend, we may even be able to get a private screening.
If you live in the DFW area or will be in town that weekend and would like to go, please email me at gnutpnut@yahoo.com so I can get a headcount, figure out a good meetup location and work out car pooling.
An Inconvenient Truth" which is a companion to 
