Al Gore

I am deeply honored October 12, 2007 : 8:32 AM

I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis -- a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.
My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.

Who knew big Al had a blog? Would that make him the first President blogger ... or would that be John Edwards' honor?

This one is going to make the right wing nutosphere go absolutely bat shit --along with a few liberals and progressive. Last night during the Latino Netroots podcast Nic mentioned Al Gore's imminent departure to Europe. I said it was to go pick up his Noble Peace prize.

Boy, you would have thought I said he was going out there to skin some puppies.

La Bloguera brought up the excellent point that Mr. Gore was vice-president when Clinton bombed Sudan but also when the Clinton administration passed the horrid anti-immigration laws that we are now contending with. Check out her rant at about 41 minutes into podcast.

BTW : I am listening to the podcast right now and it's really, really fun.

Check out the committee's press release : The Nobel Peace Prize for 2007; and another naysayer at What has Al Gore done for world peace?

Last night at Nic's Latino Netroots podcast #2 we talked about a whole variety of topics.

Roberto Lovato gave us an in-depth report about the 2nd Annual Latino Congreso.

Marisa Treviño gave us her perspective on how traditional media coverage of immigration and other important issues impact the debate.

Louis Pagán helped us sort out ways in which the Latino blogosphere could more efficiently get our message out and influence the political discourse about issues of importance to Latinos.

I chimed in on some of the historical issues involving US involvement in Latino America and how that interventionism is reflected in the way latino influentials are treated by the political machine here in the US.

La Bloguera cracked us up telling us of the Mexican ambassador's awful adventure “outside the walls” of the White House during the celebrations for Hispanic “Hysteria” Month.

Chequéalo.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg used his first public appearance since announcing switching from the Republican Party to being an independent, a press conference celebrating the alleged success of his 311 program, to showcase his policy creativity to the media.

Bloomberg’s aware that his leaving the Republican Party would confirm to the media, his current constituents and potential presidential voters, that he’s pursuing an independent Presidential candidacy, despite saying wink, wink, I’m not running, and knew the world be watching his first appearance after making public his official political independence. This is why Bloomberg is using a press conference honoring 311, a program that he is particularly but unjustifiably proud of, as the location of his personal Presidential Debutante Ball.

Bloomberg hoped touting 311 success would perpetuate the myth that he’s a non-partisan problem solver. But the emperor has no clothes. 311 is useless.

For non-New York readers, 311, which New Yorker City residents can dial like 411 directory assistance or 911 emergency services, is an information system designed to help people navigate the government maze. Sometimes it’s useful, mostly it’s not, often directing people to call the same agency whose action or lack of such inspired the 311 call to begin with. But the primary reason why 311 is a joke is that Bloomberg doesn’t let 311 operators have internet access. I first mentioned this in the blogosphere in a comment on Andrew Rasiej’s Huffington Post blog in 2005. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-rasiej/the-power-of-many_b_5892.htm...

You might not recognize the words at first, but it's still the same old tune. And if we get this one right, our Bilderbergers handlers good friends in gummint have promised us that we can all hold hands and sing "Kumbayah" next.

Oh, why can't everyone tell
A statesman from a thug
Who's got our telephones bugged
A frat boy who took drugs
Who Lays down with thieves
The one who deceived
About the Dubya MDs

How did you get us to trade
Our heroes for shrubs
Democrats for Repubs
A stain we never could scrub
A living, breathing oil spill
How did we reject
Surplus safety net
For nine trillion in debt

How I wish
How I wish you were Gore
It's been two lost terms swimming in a cesspool
Of malfeasance and shame
Trashing all of the Bill of Rights
And starting losing fights
With pre-emptive war
Wish you were Gore

http://www.myspace.com/vastleftdotcom

For most Americans, hearing about global warming involves a fair amount of taking things on faith. When Rush Limbaugh blatantly lied and claimed that the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide was due to the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, how would most people know he was telling a lie based on a something like 10-fold overestimate in the amount of carbon Pinatubo was ejecting and on a conflation of two different kinds of carbon: carbon dioxide and particulates.

When Al Gore tells us what's up, most people would consider it just as reliable as Rush Limbaugh's lies. But I am lucky. First of all, I do keep up on the scientific literature, including climate research to some extent. But my ability to understand the details is limited because I am a biologist.

But my wife is a climatologist. So when I hear Al Gore, either live, as I was lucky to do some years back, or watching An Inconvenient Truth right now on Showtime, I am watching it with my wife and her friends, who all know the science behind it backwards and forwards. They know this material the same way you and I might know addition and subtraction. They know the facts Al Gore is talking about.

Both times I have heard Al Gore's presentation on Global Warming, I have one or more fact checkers right next to me. My fact checkers pretty much approve Al Gore's message in its entirety.

Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth is not controversial. That is what we have to realize. It is not based on controversial data. It is based on solid science.

Al Gore has done more to publicize the real global warming situation than practically anyone else. Through personal presentations (one of which, through MoveOn.org, I was lucky enough to see in the presence of two approving climatologists), an Oscar-winning movie and a book, Al Gore has helped make people aware that we really do have a problem AND that there are very real things we can do about it.

Enter the right wing liars. A story "broke" purporting to show that Al Gore was a hypocrite, consuming huge amounts of energy while preaching to everyone else that they must conserve. Not surprisingly, this smear attack misrepresents facts and is, like most right wing statements these days, a bald faced lie. You can read some of the exposure of those lies here. The main thing left out by these smear pieces is the fact that Al Gore's family offsets their carbon usage with "carbon offsets," and that they get a substantial amount of their energy from green sources (see end of article for more on reducing your carbon footprint). Also excluded was the fact that energy use counted both domestic and business usage. In short, the attacks were one more example of right wing sleaze, reflecting more on the lack of integrity of the right wing extremists than on the integrity of Al Gore.

Well, turns out the origin of the attack on Al Gore comes from Nashville. And on Daily Kos a boycott of the offending paper is being called.

He's got it!

Al Gore WON!

"Can Parents Trust These Nice Conservative Brothers?"
Full post at Snook today -This is about a young couple who. . .make up a story to tell Susie's parents.

For their (shuddering as I notice this for the first time) millennium collection!

It's not just the internet tubes that make my life of the mind so rich. Without my radio, I wouldn't have nearly as much off-the-wall selective-perception stuff to think about . . .turn the radio on, turn the radio on now, no, that was the Chemical Brothers I think. .. but I digress, did you know that the dynastic Governing Brothers both have the exact same favorite song?? (WHAT ARE THE ODDS??)

Yes, it's a highly rated crowd pleaser of a song that has stood the test of time, its power of story about lying to parents and pleasing the country-western crowd, but they are so gosh-darn earnest and church-going and clean-cut about it . . .

So JEB (says my radio) has doffed his official state title and reclaimed his personal three letter nickname. Subliminally this is very presidential, like FDR, JFK, LBJ -- hmmm, are there any famous Republican prez initials, can't think of any known by three letters except Ike, which weren't his initials -- and like another music-message-muddled, big-and-tall candidate-man (Dem, and four-lettered when three would do, Gore) my ex-governor reportedly has slimmed down since leaving office. Getting into shape for the next run? Maybe he needs a musical makeover too . . .