Al Gore for President! Oh, wait. He already WAS elected President once, you say? And the “powers that be” voted it away from him? Well he hasn’t shut down or shut up yet. In fact, he’s pushing ahead as enthusiastically as ever with a wake up powerpoint presentation on the very real FACTS (yes, facts, people) of our current Global Warming crisis. Yes, CRISIS! The hurricanes and tsunamis and earthquakes of the last several years are going to continue, and increase. Our ice is disappearing and FAST. In fact, the more ice that melts, the faster the rest goes too. Long term effect? Higher oceans - as in submerged coastal cities.

Oh yeah, and: reuse, reduce, recycle.

2 Responses to “An Inconvenient Truth”

1. Jack Says:
   June 2nd, 2006 at 10:12 am

   A straight answer?
   “The theories - the ideas she expressed about equality of results within legislative bodies and with - by outcome, by decisions made by legislative bodies, ideas related to proportional voting as a general remedy, not in particular cases where the circumstances make that a feasible idea… ”
   (Source: Vice President Al Gore, on ABC’s Nightline, asked about President Clinton’s withdrawal of Lani Guinier’s nomination to the EEOC )
   Is it a train? An eagle?
   In a letter, an elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Delgadillo explained to Al Gore how much they rely on the government-owned Amtrak trains to visit their children and grandchildren in Chicago and on each coast. The couple reminded the vice president that President Clinton relied on train travel to reach the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. “The train has been our main-stay,” the couple states. “Yet your administration is killing our Texas Eagle. This makes us sick.”
   The Texas Eagle is the Amtrak train that for years has operated between Chicago, St. Louis, Little Rock, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio. But facing a $243 million shortfall in 1997, Amtrak President Thomas Downs recently targeted four Amtrak routes for elimination, including the Texas Eagle service between St. Louis and San Antonio. “What can you do to save our Eagle?” the couple pleaded to the vice president.
   Gore responded with: “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Delgadillo, Thank you for your letter regarding the protection of the Texas eagle. I appreciate hearing from you. “I share your view that the urgent problem of species extinction and the conservation of biological diversity should be addressed. The first step in saving any plant or animal from extinction is to become aware of and respect the fragile ecosystems that make up our environment … “Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. I look forward to working with you for the future of our planet.”
   It’s strange he should talk about the ecosystem and extinction since the Texas Eagle is a TRAIN!
   (Sources: reported on Fox News Sunday on December 3, 1996, as well as quoted in the National Review and reported in the 12/6/96 Washington Times “Inside the Beltway” by John McCaslin)
   Mammogram…sonogram…honey graham…
   At an event in Las Vegas on Monday, 09/1800, Gore declared potential breast cancer victims faced “a long waiting line before they could get a biopsy or, uh, or a uh, another kind of, what am I looking for, a sonogram or….” People in the crowd shouted “mammogram.”
   (Source: Fox News 09/18/00; MSNBC 09/21/00 - The News with Brian Williams)
   “Had�that happened to Bush the news media would have used it to further the theme that the Texas Governor has a troubled relationship with the English language.” - Brian Williams 09/21/00
   Equal…if not more so?
   “When my sister and I were growing up,” Mr. Gore told a small audience made up mostly of women, “there was never any doubt in our minds that men and women were equal, if not more so.”
   (Source: NY Times, 08/12/00)
   Equal - if not more so? More so what? More “equal”? Who is more so? If two things are equal, what is the “more so” for?
   One thousand billion million trillion…
   Oct. 25 2000 JACKSON, Tenn. (Reuters) � Criticizing Bush’s Social Security privatization plan at a rally in Tennessee, Gore said, “He is proposing to privatize a big part of Social Security and he’s proposing to take $1 trillion, a million billion dollars out of the Social Security trust fund and give it as a tax incentive to young workers.”
   A trillion is one thousand billion, not a million billion.
   (Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/wires/1025/p_rt_1025_41.sml)

   Execute a pregnant woman? Uhh… I don’t know
   On July 16, 2000 during a “Meet the Press” interview, Gore was asked if he would be in favor of postponing the execution of a pregnant woman. His hesitant response was “I’d have to think about it”.
   Apparently not prepared for this curve ball of a question, Gore must have been so conscientious about upsetting his pro-choice constituency that he couldn’t even give the answer that was obvious to every member of the House which in uncharacteristically unanimous fashion passed legislation shortly after this interview to prohibit such a practice.

   RUSSERT: Right now there’s legislation which says that a woman on death row, if she’s pregnant, she should not be executed. Do you support that?
   GORE: I don’t what you’re talking about.
   RUSSERT: It’s a federal statue on the books that if a woman is pregnant and she’s on death row, she should not be executed.
   GORE: Well, I don’t know what the circumstances would be in that situation. I would–you know, it’s an interesting fact situation. I’d want to think (OFF-MIKE).
   The full transcript is available here.
   $29 dollars a week can buy a lot of Diet Cokes
   In his 2000 convention acceptance speech, Gore said the Bush tax cut would save the average family 62 cents a week (”enough for a diet coke”). He later clarified it and said 62 cents a day per family… which is still wrong. Even at 62 cents a day, that’s only a little over $226 a year. Under the Bush tax plan, the average family would save $1500 — $4.20 a day, which is almost $29 dollars a week.

   I was there with James Lee Witt…oh, wait….
   In the Presidential debate on October 3, 2000, Governor George W. Bush gave credit to the Federal Emergency Management Service (FEMA) for their work in Texas during fires and floods in Parker County. Vice President Al Gore said “I accompanied James Lee Witt down to Texas when those fires broke out.” Carl Cameron, of Fox News first reported that Gore had not, in fact, been to Texas with Witt to look at the damage in Parker County. Gore WAS in Texas, but FEMA officials said Witt never went to Texas to deal with the 1998 fires.
   To say that he was traveling with Witt implies strongly that Gore was traveling to a location in an official capacity. Gore was on his way to a fundraiser, and happened to run into FEMA people at the airport. The purpose of his trip was to attend a fundraiser, NOT to see the damage, as Gore implies. While Gore has accompanied Witt on other occasions, Gore didn’t on this occasion, AND the purpose of this particular trip wasn’t even connected with the disasters. Some claim Gore just “forgot” that Witt wasn’t with him on this occasion… did Gore also forget the purpose of this particular trip?
   “If James Lee was there before or after, then you know, I got that wrong then,” Gore said on ABC’s Good Morning America on October 4, 2000.
   (Source: New York Post, October 5, 2000 “Gore’s nose is growing again”)
   I was part of those discussions! Really!
   At a Sept. 22 press conference, Gore stated “I’ve been a part of the discussions on the strategic reserve since the days when it was first established.” However, President Ford established the Strategic Petroleum Reserves when he signed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) on December 22, 1975 � two years before Al Gore became a congressman
   (Source: Washington Post, Sept. 24 2000)
   (note: it was actually 13 months, not 2 years as the Post states)
   Now, technically, 1975 was when it was declared U.S. policy to establish a reserve, but the reserve was not established (sites purchased or built, etc) until 1977, when Gore was in Congress. However, isn’t this yet another case of “fuzzy wording”? Gore phrases the initial statement to give the impression that he was somehow responsible or “part of something” from the outset, but leaves wiggle room so that he can later justify the statement. And isn’t saying he was part of “discussions on the strategic reserve” meant to leave the impression that he was was part of the planning process, prior to the sites being purchased, etc? Decide for yourself.

   Hey! It’s Super Tuesday… oh wait…
   Several Tennesseans tried to cast votes in the presidential primary, thinking that their state was part of Super Tuesday. They weren’t alone. Vice President Al Gore seemed to think so, too. Knox County registrar Pat Crippens said, “I just got off the phone with a gentleman. I had to explain we’re not Super Tuesday, we’re just next Tuesday.” His office got about 30 calls from confused voters. In 1988, Tennessee and 12 other Southern states decided to hold their presidential primaries on the second Tuesday of March, dubbing it “Super Tuesday” in hopes of gaining national political clout. Several Northern states also held their primaries that day. More than a dozen states have since moved their primaries to the first Tuesday of the month, creating a new “Super Tuesday.” Tennessee - the vice president’s home state - is among six that have stuck with March 14. As reporters and photographers watched from the lobby of his Nashville headquarters on Tuesday, Gore called a “Miss Ferris” and told her, “Today is the presidential primary in Tennessee .” His expression changed as he listened to her. “Well, you know, that is right. You are absolutely right,” he said before hanging up and quickly dialing the next number on his voter call list.
   (Source: Houston Chronicle 3/8/2000 by Houston Chronicle News Services)

   The Republicans controlled the Senate in ‘93? Do the Democrats know this?
   From Meet the Press 12/19/99
   MR. RUSSERT: Senator, what did you think of the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign’s approach to fund-raising?
   MR. BRADLEY: I thought that a lot of people in politics were embarrassed by it, quite frankly. I think Republicans and Democrats were disgraceful in that fund-raising program in 1996. Now, I think Al had the right point. It’s the lessons that you learn. In 1990, I raised a lot of money for my Senate race. I raised too much money. I discovered that you can have too much money in a political campaign. I think that’s what George Bush is going to discover. Now, in Al’s case, the attorney general investigated it fully and determined that an independent counsel was not needed. And so - and the Republicans might make that an issue, but that’s the reality. But I think the question is what you learn from this. And what I learned is that you’ve had seven years to actually do something on campaign-finance reform, and nothing has happened. I remember visiting the White House in 1993, Democratic Congress, both Senate and House, and urging the president to act on campaign-finance reform. Now, I don’t know if you were in the loop or not, but the fact of the matter is that no action took place. And when we say what we…
   VICE PRES. GORE: Because all the Republicans voted against it.
   MR. BRADLEY: …what we need to do…
   VICE PRES. GORE: And they controlled the Senate.
   MR. BRADLEY: …what we - where was the effort made, Al, in 1993?
   VICE PRES. GORE: We got every single Democratic senator to vote for it.
   Gore and the Internet
   “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet” Gore said when asked to cite accomplishments that separate him from another Democratic presidential hopeful, former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, during an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN on March 9, 1999.
   Gore supported technological advances related to the advancement of the Internet, but to say that HE took the initiative in creating the Internet is a bit much.

   A spotted Zebra.
   “A zebra does not change its spots.” - Al Gore, attacking President George Bush in 1992.
   (Sources: The Toronto Sun, 11/19/95; May 13th page of the “365 stupidest things ever said, 1999 Calendar.” ALL quotes from this calendar are from a book called “The 700 Stupidest Things Ever Said”) The book and calendar are by a brother and sister team called Ross and Kathryn Petras. The original book “The 776 Stupidest things ever said” was printed in March 1993, and the calendar was printed August 1998.)

   E plu…what?
   “We can build a collective civic space large enough for all our separate identities, that we can be e pluribus unum — out of one, many.” E Pluribus Unum is the motto on the Great Seal of the United States of America, and is Latin for “out of many, one,” not “out of one, many.”
   (Source: January 1994. From a Milwaukee speech to the Institute of World Affairs as quoted in Investor’s Business Daily, October 25, 1996.)

   Mary and Joseph were homeless??
   “Speaking from my own religious tradition in this Christmas season, 2,000 years ago a homeless woman gave birth to a homeless child in a manger because the inn was full.”
   Hello! Mary and Joseph were not homeless!
   (Sources: Press Conference at HUD, 12/22/97; George Will column, Sunday May 17 1998)

   A new type of tree!
   Al Gore, giving a speech for Yellowstone National Park’s 125th Anniversary, Albright Visitors Center, Sunday, August 17, 1997: “When we come here, we see the longpole pine and the Douglas fir.”
   Sorry Al, it’s LODGEpole. There is no such thing as a LONGpole pine.

   Michael who?
   Maybe Michael Jordan hasn’t made an indelible impression on everyone outside Chicago. Speaking at a D.C. function, Vice President Al Gore, wowed by the Bulls, said: “I tell you that Michael Jackson is unbelievable, isn’t he. He’s just unbelievable.”
   ( Source: The Chicago Tribune June 17, 1998 )

   James who?
   In his first appearance in a nationally televised candidates forum, Gore was asked to name a past US president from whom he drew personal inspiration. He replied that he especially admired another “dark horse” candidate, and a product of his home state, the great “president James Knox”. The only problem is that the history books show that nobody named Knox ever occupied the White House. He most likely meant James Knox Polk.
   (Source: Chicago Tribune of 7/24/87; The British Sunday Times; Michael Medved of KVI radio (570 AM based in Seattle).
   Daily Town Hall Meetings
   “I certainly learned a great deal from 3,000 town hall meetings across my home state of Tennessee over a 16-year period” in Congress, the vice president told NPR�s Bob Edwards.
   Do the math. That�s 187 town hall meetings per year, or a meeting in Tennessee every other day for 16 years, including weekends, holidays, vacations, and time spent running for president in 1988 and for vice president in 1992.
   Now, Gore never specifically claimed that he was actually at all of the Town Hall meetings, but it certainly sounds like he is trying to imply that he was there when he states that he learned a great deal from 3,000 meetings!
   (Source: http://www.cei.org/UpdateReader.asp?ID=777)
   Special exception for Clinton.
   “I seek this office to restore the rule of law and respect for common sense to the White House.” …

   “Americans in every region and in both political parties have been shaken by the betrayal of public trust … and the dishonesty of the public officials.”…

   “Any government official who … lies to the United States Congress will be fired immediately.”
   (Source: Seattle Times, June 29, 1987)
   Gore must be talking about the standards he’d apply to a Republican White House! After all, he referred to Clinton as “one of our greatest presidents” at the White House Post-Impeachment Pep Rally on December 19, 1998.
   Gore Loves Courtney Love.
   Finding himself talking to the controversial rock star Courtney Love at a Hollywood party, Mr. Gore attempted to charm her by telling her he was a fan. Rather than just accepting the easy compliment, Love cross-examined him.
   “He goes ‘I’m a really big fan’,” said Love. “And I was like ‘Yeah, right. Name a song, Al’.” The answer came limply back: “I can’t name a song, I’m just a really big fan.”
   Mr. Gore and his wife, Tipper, were the driving forces behind the campaign to make record companies put stickers on records that contained lyrics with sexually explicit content.
   (Sources: The [London] Times, 10/1/98; Courtney Love recounted this event on the May 20, 1999 Late Show with David Letterman )

   Left-wing idiot.
   Back in 1994, Al Gore called Oliver North “the colonel of untruth” and said Mr. North was counting on political contributions from “the extra-chromosome right wing.”
   (Sources: White House Special Briefing, 10/28/94; Washington Times, September 4, 1997 )
   AL APOLOGIZES: Vice President Al Gore sent out a letter apologizing for his embarrassing “extra chromosome” jibe at Oliver North supporters, saying he had “learned an important lession [sic].” (Source: National Review, December 31, 1994.)

   Does this mean he’d fire Clinton?
   “My first pledge will be to restore integrity to the White House. And I’ll fire anyone who has lied to the American people or the United States Congress.”
   (Source: Al Gore, in a February 2, 1988 presidential debate)
   The earth is upside down!
   In the spring 1998 - Gore called The Washington Post’s executive editor to tip him off on an ”error” in the paper. ”I decided I just had to call because you’ve printed a picture of the Earth upside down on the front page of the paper,” Gore said.
   (Source: Florida Times Union 4/3/98 ) There is no ”up” in space; only on maps that orient the Earth’s surface north and south.
   For more examples of Al Gore’s vast knowledge of space, take a look at the Florida Times Union article
   Gore loves tobacco.
   “Throughout most of my life, I raised tobacco. I want you to know that with my own hands, all of my life, I put it in the plant beds and transferred it. I’ve hoed it. I’ve dug in it. I’ve sprayed it, I’ve chopped it, I’ve shredded it, spiked it, put it in the barn and stripped it and sold it.
   (Source: [New York] Newsday, 2/26/88
   Oh wait.. I didn’t mean that…
   “Sometimes, you never fully face up to things that you ought to face up to.” — Al Gore, discussing why he accepted checks from his family tobacco farm and contributions from tobacco companies for years after the tragic death of his sister that he spoke about so emotionally at the 1996 Democratic convention.
   (Source: “‘Numbness’ Let Gore Accept Tobacco Help,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 30, 1996)

2. Jack Says:
   June 2nd, 2006 at 10:16 am

   Al Gore, author of the book “Earth in the Balance,” has tried to distinguish himself from other capitalist politicians based on his identity with the environmental movement.

   Most environmental groups, while harboring some hope that Gore’s rhetoric may some day translate to action, are aware that it is mostly hot air. For example, Gore is known as an expert on global warming, and is regularly briefed by the nation’s leading climatologists. He has given much lip-service to this issue, calling for “vigorous action” on “the evidence of an ecological Kristallnacht.”

   But what has he done? During the climate treaty summit in Kyoto in 1997, Greenpeace accused Clinton and Gore of being in bed with Big Oil because of their retreat on greenhouse emissions in deference to oil companies like ARCO, Chevron, and Exxon.

   When George Bush used to call Gore “ozone man” it was an unearned compliment. U.S. News and World Report put it this way:

   “Gore’s vivid language in describing environmental problems is almost never matched by equally passionate advocacy for a solution, particularly when powerful economic interests are at stake. Conservative critics who brand Gore an ‘ozone man’ have it wrong. On the environment, Gore favors extreme rhetoric but only incremental solutions.”

   As a U.S. congressman, Gore’s environmental voting record was nothing to rave about. The League of Conservation Voters accorded him a mere 60 percent rating for his tenure in the House, and 73 percent for the Senate. Like his father before him, he was beholden to home-state investment interests associated with construction projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

   For example, the Tellico Dam became a national issue after biologists discovered that it would cause the extinction of the snail darter, a tiny fish that lived in the Little Tennessee River, making the dam a test case for the Endangered Species Act. Representative Gore was among those voting successfully to exempt the dam from the ESA.

   Gore also supported a “breeder” nuclear reactor at Clinch River, which was considered such a risky undertaking that the project was killed in 1983. From 1977 to 1984, Gore voted with the nuclear industry 55 percent of the time.

   In another example, Gore’s influence peddling on behalf of Champion International Paper Company was one of his more embarrassing hypocrisies. The Republican Party is unlikely to let him or Americans forget this one.

   For 90 years, Champion had released tons of chemicals and byproducts from bleaching wood pulp (chemicals including dioxins, some of the most toxic substances known) into the Pigeon River in North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. The river has been reported to have the color of coffee and the smell of sulfur. But Gore didn’t need to worry about it running through his backyard. It mainly runs through the most impoverished towns of Appalachia.

   Although Gore devoted campaign rhetoric to cleaning up the river, when confronted with capitalist pressures during his first presidential campaign in 1987, he succumbed to croneyism.

   Two congressmen beholden to Champion Paper (Terry Sanford and Jamie Clarke) convinced Gore to lobby EPA to cut Champion some slack in their waste discharge permit. Then in 1996, EPA under the leadership of Carol Browner, Gore’s former staffer, granted Champion a permit that waived water quality standards.

   At this point an irate citizens group intervened to save the day. Calling themselves the “Dead Pigeon River Council”, they threatened to put up a billboard labeling Gore a sell-out. After much waffling by Gore, EPA eventually issued a more stringent permit, and Champion spent millions on pollution control. Finally, in a typical display of patriotism, Champion put the plant up for sale.

   Here is another example: As vice president, Gore has campaigned for a substantial weakening of the U.S. law prohibiting the sale of tuna caught using fishing methods that incidentally kill dolphins. This was done within the context of international manueverings under the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade).

   As a closing vignette, much has been made of Gore’s trip to China, in which he was photographed toasting Li Peng, the Chinese leader associated with the Tiananmen Square massacre and with leading China’s market reforms.

   It has been noted that Gore was embarrassed by the photograph, but what about the occasion of the toast itself? It was a celebration of a $1.5 billion deal between China and General Motors to produce 100,000 Buick Centurys and Regals for the burgeoning Chinese auto market.

   But there is one important difference between the cars that will be produced for China and their American counterparts-the Chinese versions will not have pollution controls.

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