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Al Gore: Modern Politics' Movie Star

By Anneli Rufus, AlterNet. Posted May 26, 2007.


Like the children's classic "A Fish Out of Water," Al Gore has outgrown his fishbowl. He has developed a following of millions simply by reminding people that they can use knowledge as a source of influence.
05262007story
05262007story
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For the organizers of Al Gore's one and only gig in Northern California promoting his new book, it was a little like that children's classic, "A Fish Out of Water," in which a boy overfeeds his goldfish and it grows and grows, outswelling its bowl, then a vase, then a bathtub.

Authors tour the country constantly, hawking their books. You see the fliers in bookshop windows. At night, in a space cleared for the purpose, you see that spectacle: three or four rows of folding chairs arranged to face the podium where a hopeful figure poses, looking so alone, scanning the empty seats while pretending not to. Bookstore owners have told me that attendance at author events has dwindled lately. Some stores around the San Francisco Bay Area, long hailed as America's second-biggest reading hub, have stopped hosting readings altogether.

Even so, planners at Book Passage -- an independent store in tiny Marin County -- expected a decent turnout for Gore. Ambitiously, they decided to charge for tickets to Wednesday night's event and co-sponsor it with Dominican University, a small, nearby Catholic school, and stage it in its 850-seat auditorium. A few weeks in advance, the forthcoming lecture was announced rather quietly on Book Passage's website and on a Dominican site. Within two days, the auditorium was sold out. The waiting list was hundreds long. Stunned, the planners chose yet another venue, the sprawling 2,000-seat Marin Civic Center. Tickets went back on sale. Two days later, the Civic Center was sold out too -- at forty bucks a pop, for what was scheduled to be a 20-minute talk. Again, the waiting list extended over the horizon.

Movie-star proportions, clearly. But Al Gore is modern politics' movie star, not in the metaphorical sense.

Like parts of Los Angeles, Marin County is one of those places whose residents would rather die than admit that they're awestruck by celebrity. It's the sort of semirural, estate-dotted sward to which rockstars and rebels-who-got-rich retire, and according to Forbes, it includes one of the five most expensive zip codes in the country.

And it turned out in droves for Gore.

The title of his new book, "The Assault on Reason" (Penguin Press, 2007, $25.95) is really just another way of phrasing the title of his previous book, "An Inconvenient Truth" (Rodale Books, 2006, $21.95), which accompanies the film of the same name which, of course, vaulted Gore to literal movie-stardom. Though "The Assault on Reason" is meant to allude to lies told by lying governmental liars about everything from uranium enrichment to wiretaps to emergency preparedness and "An Inconvenient Truth" concerns climate change. Both titles rail against violence done to some clear, intrinsic, real-world factuality, which -- as Gore said on Wednesday evening, patting his black-suited chest, "resonates in the human heart."

He would speak feelingly that night about "ripples" marring the media that "make the surface distorted" so that "the clarity of vision is ruined." One clear thing, he would tell the crowd, is "the 99 percent certainty that we're facing the greatest threat" imaginable in climate change. "Yet our leaders are dilly-dallying" about it. "How dare they?" he demanded, to thunderous applause.

But that was later.

I took public transit from San Francisco to the Marin Civic Center not by choice but by necessity, as I neither drive nor own a car (which I guess, since I could, since I actually have a license, is a choice). For others it would have been a choice, even a novelty. Braving the clamor and buying a ticket to see the world's most outspoken climate-awareness advocate, you might muse about the best way to reach and depart the lecture hall. You just might. In that same fist-to-forehead way you might rethink hosting an AA meeting at a bar, or hanging paper Halloween skulls at a funeral, which this kind of was. If you believe Gore -- who that night would describe evidence of impending ecological doom as being "so clear, it's so massive, it's so obvious" -- then the prospect of joining those rush-hour throngs behind the wheel might be -- well, even more embarrassing than looking starstruck.

For the record, from San Francisco's Transbay Terminal, the 80 Golden Gate Transit bus crosses the city, then the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin, where at the downtown San Rafael transit center, bus No. 45 climbs suburban streets and a wide, wooded scimitar of hill-road, stopping at the Civic Center.

Just so you'll know. Like, for next time? Because there was no one else on that big silvery No. 45 when it reached the Civic Center but me.

I rolled my eyes at eager lecture-goers rushing toward the hall clad in leather jackets and carrying leather bags. One woman even had a snakeskin clutch. You've gotta pick your battles in this world.

The ovations began the moment Gore strode onstage. Soft lighting in the auditorium caught the tweeds, the silks, the suede, the pearls and gold and jade and lovely shoes and creamy complexions and frosted hair. Tanned pinkish-brown, the author had just arrived from Beverly Hills, where he'd kicked off his book tour at the Wilshire Theatre the night before. His palms pressed together and half-bows, as he thanked the crowd, might have been namastes -- that traditional Indian gesture of reverence.

"I can feel that," he said. "There are days when I need that."

Wags in the crowd held up placards saying PLEASE RUN. (For president, that is.)


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See more stories tagged with: al gore, the assault on reason

Anneli Rufus is the author of several books, including "Party of One: The Loners' Manifesto."

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Why Gore will run.
Posted by: HughScott on May 26, 2007 1:12 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Last night on my favorite TV show, “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Michael Moore, who appeared by satellite to plug his latest documentary, “Sicko,” tacitly endorsed Al Gore for president in 2008.

When asked why by Maher, MM explained (and I’m paraphrasing him now), “To right a wrong that happened six years ago.”

The “wrong,” of course, is the stolen 2000 election that led to where America is today -- teetering on the brink of ruination because George W. Bush cheated his way into the White House.

How the theft occurred, I believe, merits publicity because next year a new group of voters, those presently 17 through 19, will cast general election ballots for the first time. Plus the rest of us deserve a fresher course. Otherwise, as the axiom goes, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. And there can be no doubt that Republicans will be up to their old tricks in 2008 -- trying to steal elections.

Looking back at 2000, besides president of the United States, then Texas Governor Bush was running for the more important position of commander-in-chief. For the welfare of our armed forces, we the people needed to judge his fitness to serve as America's top military leader. Full disclosure of George W.’s National Guard history was and is an inalienable right paid for by U.S. soldiers, sailors and aviators who lost their lives in all past conflicts.

In the 1998 book, The Stuff of Heroes, its author, Major General William A. Cohen, USAF RES Ret., listed eight Universal Laws of Leadership. Number one was to "maintain absolute integrity."

Former Air Force Chief of Staff General Ronald R. Fogelman said in the Forward to Cohen's book that "integrity in professional relationships remained the singularly most important attribute of any leader."

Time and again, in virtually every publication written about military leadership, integrity is one of the most crucial factors to consider. Yet when reporters confronted candidate Bush about his missing Guard time, he ducked their questions and changed the subject.

Dub-ya knew his evasiveness was wrong. He was a mature adult with a history degree from Yale. But quite clearly in his selfish twisted mind, he had no choice. The 2000 election was too close to call. Disclosing his AWOL military service would most certainly have caused some of the 25 million war veterans and active duty personnel to switch their support to Al Gore, who served in Vietnam and won the Bronze Star.

Despite Shrub's ability to hide his past transgressions, he still lost the popular election by 538,000 votes and only became our 43rd president after winning Florida's Electoral College with a paper-thin margin of 537 ballots. A mere 300-vote swing would have made former Army Sgt. Gore the winner.

Of the thousands of enlisted servicemen who supported Bush in the Sunshine State, how many do you suppose would have voted as Democrats after learning he had shirked his sworn military duty during the Vietnam War?

Three hundred, perhaps?

How about a slam-dunk 3,000 -- the reason Bush cheated in 2000 and did so four years later. Winning obviously meant everything to him; being an honest candidate with integrity did not.

For details about Dub-ya’s AWOL Guard service, including a falsified Bush biography I found on the Internet and reported to the Boston Globe, visit my nonprofit Investigative website, King-George.biz, the only one with hardcopy proof of White House corruption (the bogus Bush bio).

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» The Bigger Thief Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: The Bigger Thief Posted by: Lauren
» RE: The Bigger Thief Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: The Bigger Thief Posted by: Lauren
» RE: The Bigger Thief Posted by: bulbman
» RE: The Bigger Thief Posted by: Conservasaurus
» Sadly, same old Dino . . . Posted by: Knowmad
» RE: Sadly, same old Dino . . . Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: Why Gore will run. Posted by: gracefounddog
Al Gore is right
Posted by: algodees on May 26, 2007 1:37 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
when he talks about the Assault on Reason. When truth is whatever an individual wants it to be we end up in situations such as the Iraq war. When enough of the American people seem scared enough or unwilling enough to face the truth then special interest groups such as those now occupying the White House can manipulate enough of us to get them close enough to power to steal it as has happened in the last two elections. When too many of us can't be bothered to pay attention to the real issues in our country we end up in this mess. The intellectual laziness of most of us is astounding. When reality t.v. is what turns us on and not the serious issues confronting our nation we end up in this mess. All the information about George Bush and his mob was out there before 2000 but not enough of us could be bothered to read it. Ultimately, it is not the failure of the current White House and the radical right in this county that got us into this mess but rather the disengagement of too many of us with the political side of life. More of us have to get angry at all our politicians and demand they do what they were voted into office to do. That is to develop our country and our politics to provide as just and good a society for as many of our fellow citizens as is possible. And that is impossible to do if reason is abandoned in the ongoing pursuit of power at any cost.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

There is more substance with Gore.
Posted by: williameon on May 26, 2007 5:08 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Please run Mr. Gore
We need a sane voice in the debate.
I am sick and tired of the same old
BU__! SH__!
Coming out of everybody’s mouth.
At the same time.
Are there any original thinkers out there?

Old Politicians,
Judges,
&
High Priests
The Three Stooges of Power!
Never die,
Never retire.
They just
Whine away,
Forever.

The Illusion is over.
Old Proper-Gander Tools like;
The Faux Network
And
The CIA rag,
The Times
Are dying.
Who are they listening to?
more
Corpirate.
Stink Tank
Bass-Turd
Hypnotic
Illusion?

Billionaire’s-R-Us
Own everything.
Isn’t that enough.
I would rather be on the Riviera
They pay to be Famous?
Buy political post!
Trying their best
To
Squeeze
The last Nickel
Out of
The Poor
Working Class.
How sick is that?

The Fascist rule
Wielding
Stolen
Money and Power!
Fat Cats swollen with LOOT
Prostitize the System.
It’s old and dated.
Broken and corrupt.
Change will come.
We will change it
One by One
The more they beat us down
The more powerful
We become.

Change the system.
Kick the
Oil Conglomerates out of power.
Old Tech will die
The sooner the better.

Laws were made for
The betterment of Man
Now we must make them for,
The
Betterment
and
Humanization
of
The
Machine.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Obi-Wan
Posted by: kepstein7777 on May 26, 2007 5:28 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Sometimes presidents and vice presidents are more powerful when they're not presidents and vice presidents. And perhaps more importantly, heckling from the sidelines is more fun.

Carter and Gore should keep doing what they're doing and not let some of their followers try to pull them into things that don't make sense. In Gore's case, running for president would seem to be giving in to a washed-up option involving too much compromise. In his case, working outside the system seems to be working as much as could be expected in today's climate.

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» RE: Obi-Wan Posted by: Lauren
» RE: Obi-Wan Posted by: LeftCoastProgressive
» RE: Obi-Wan Posted by: Lauren
» RE: Obi-Wan Posted by: Basenjis
Dear Mr. Gore (My Message To You)
Posted by: ZPaul on May 26, 2007 5:36 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Dear Mr. Gore:
If you happen to be reading this, please consider running. You would win. You know damn well we don´t want Hillary - don´t you? And who else can win? I actually had some hopes for Edwards, but now that those hopes are fading, I am looking -- desperately, if you will -- to you.
I don´t even care if you don´t lose weight. Although, come to think of it, it would be a good idea for you to shed a few pounds. But the heaviest weight we need to get rid of in this country is the Bush administration and the Republican party. I have almost lost hope in the Democrats, too. I´m serious. What are you going to do about it?

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Excellent Aticle
Posted by: Conservasaurus on May 26, 2007 5:54 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
With respect to global Warming, there is compelling discussion on both sides..nature taking it's course and man "dumping" where he eats.

Looking around, I'd have to say at best, it's a combination of the two but being a nature lover at heart, I'd like to error on the side of the environment and say "man" is killing himself.
Our foot print expands at alarming rates at the expense of the place we live!

I'd vote for Gore as President .......of the environment - he already had a hand in messing up 8 years in the whitehouse.. not sure I'd want a repeat of the same.

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» RE: xcellent Aticle Posted by: Lauren
» RE: xcellent Aticle Posted by: wonkywriter
» RE: xcellent wonkyness Posted by: LeftCoastProgressive
» RE: xcellent wonkyness Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: xcellent Aticle Posted by: Conservasaurus
» RE: hexcellent Aticle (hic Article) Posted by: LeftCoastProgressive
» RE: hexcellent Aticle (hic Article) Posted by: Conservasaurus
Gore Rocks
Posted by: Gravitas on May 26, 2007 6:23 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I have always like Gore, even way back when Dukacakas (sp) was the nominee. I remember watching the debates in the primary, ticking off the candidate I agreed with most, and Gore won. But I hope he doesn't run. We have made such a mess of things the next few candidates face overwhelming odds. And people haven't learned their lessons. When they face the hard realities of global warming, peak oil and economic ruin they will look for scapegoats instead of comprehending their own responsibility in the situation. We all could have at least tried to do something sooner. I think Hopi prophecy is inevitable. We will have to go through another mass destruction with only a few people left to survive and carry one. Those who are spiritualy advanced enough to handle the sophisticated technology and abilities we have now, but most only know how to exploit for their own gain.

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» RE: Gore Rocks Posted by: wonkywriter
» RE: Gore Rocks Posted by: Gravitas
» RE: Gore Rocks: Gravitas Posted by: Basenjis
Amnother Democrat-
Posted by: WitchyNy on May 26, 2007 6:23 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So if he gets in power-he can sell us out like the other Democrats just did? I am not buying it anyone.

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» RE: Amnother Democrat- Posted by: Radicalizer
Help me out here
Posted by: p4th on May 26, 2007 6:38 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm a real fan of Al Gore but I have no good answer to give my right wing friends when they ask: if he is really so committed to environment then why didn't he really do anything/bring much attention to the issue when he was vice president? He says in his movie that the environment has always been the issue that he feels the most strongly about but his past actions just don't seem match his current words. Did he just pick this issue as a hot button issue to cynically build his popularity?

Can anyone help me to rebut this line of reasoning?

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» RE: Help me out here Posted by: COC
» RE: Help me out here Posted by: albrechtkrausse
» RE: Help me out here, not! Posted by: LeftCoastProgressive
» RE: Help me out here, not! Posted by: albrechtkrausse
» RE: Help me out here Posted by: DBachmozart
» RE: Help me out here Posted by: COC
» RE: Help me out here Posted by: wonkywriter
» OIL $$ Posted by: matty848
A man of integrity....
Posted by: kgs1947 on May 26, 2007 7:28 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This is Al Gore. If he would run, there would be a landslide for him of voters who have had enough of lies, manipulation, deceit, rigidity, and assinine behaviors in the White House and Congress. Al Gore needs to be our next President. George Bush and Cheney need to be impeached.

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Gore vs Bush - that shows the difference, doesn't it?
Posted by: thoughtcriminal on May 26, 2007 8:31 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
On the climate issue, the GW Bush Administration is once again attempting to throw a wrench into the works:

Activists: U.S. to Reject Warming Deal, By DAVID STRINGER Associated Press Writer

Currently, the US is aiming for a 20% increase in CO2 emissions, while the rest of the world is calling for a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions - meaning that the US is not only behaving like a war criminal, but also like a climate criminal.

I don't think Al Gore would have allowed this situation to arise if he had taken office in 2000, as the Consitution demands (despite what the 5-4 US Supreme Court had to say - the worst decision in the history of the Court). He would have agreed to an international treaty designed to begin the process of reducing CO2 emissions.

Bush and Cheney are so deeply in bed with the fossil fuel industry that they will never do anything that reduces their market share and profit margins, period. They went into Iraq for oil; they certainly aren't going to agree to any international treaty that reduces oil consumption.

Still, don't expect any politician of any stripe to save you - as soon as these politicians get into office, they are bombarded by K street lobbyists - and they often end up forgetting the promises they made during the campaign. The only antidote for this is for ordinary people to turn off the American Idol and the 24 and to start paying attention to what the corporatocracy is up to.

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» RE: Overly broad brush Posted by: lessbread
» RE:Puritanical Censorship Posted by: LeftCoastProgressive
Some truly alternative views:
Posted by: rwa on May 26, 2007 8:39 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
How Global Warming And Al Gore May Rescue the Nuclear Power Industry .... Al Gore, who wrote of the potential green virtues of nuclear power in his book ...
www.counterpunch.org/nukes.html
--------------

Jeffrey St. Clair: Al Gore, the Origins of a HypocriteIn 1984, Al Gore took Baker's Senate seat and over the next eight years voted for the nuclear lobby 55 percent of the time. As vice president and author of ...
www.counterpunch.org/stclair03032007.html

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» RE: Some truly alternative views: Posted by: wonkywriter
» Dogma Posted by: rwa
» RE: Dogma Posted by: particle
» The nuclear scale Posted by: themotie
» RE: rwa must be related to conservasaurus- Posted by: LeftCoastProgressive
» Spot on Posted by: themotie
Who do the billionaires support?
Posted by: picket on May 26, 2007 9:21 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There is GREAT POWER in the voting booth....elections have been stolen by all sorts of crimes and dirty tricks or just better "moves" like in the 2004 election putting issues on the ballot that drew out Republican voters in droves.

The fewer groups that candidates need to pander to the better for them. Kerry won the young voters last time by huge numbers without even speaking to them[IMO]. Did he even care? Kerry/Edwards gave up without a fight just like Gore/Lieberman did.

There are 371 billionaires in the USA, 322 more than 20 years ago. Who do they want as a candidate? I don't think that party affiliation makes that much difference to them, they will support environmental issues even if support is used as deception. It is all about PROFIT and beneficial government policy.

Monetary policies trump civil rights or social justice issues. It is about PROFIT, like who is selling wheat gluten cheapest.....China....don't worry there's not that much diethylene glycol[antifreeze] in the MR Cool toothpaste. People don't swallow that much...unless it is marketed bubblegum flavored for kids !! Doesn't the FDA always makes you feel better? The FDA will protect us, not. Upper, middle or lower they are just "not into you". The spoils belong to the Upper 2 or 3% of the population contrary to the belief of people who THINK they have it made.

Getting out the vote is very important. What candidates do not take AIPAC or other Corporate $$$$$$$ Who does BIG PHARMA, Big Insurance or Military Industrial Complex lobbyists support? What candidate will be in your loved ones best interests? Decide and get like minded voters motivated and registered to vote.

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Gore is Frodo
Posted by: gracefounddog on May 26, 2007 9:23 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That Intoxicating Power that comes with political success is very difficult to not be overcome by, no matter how sincere a politician's intentions are going in.

I was very hopeful for Obama, being that he doesn't look too fondly on Big Money's influence in politics, and he has proven this by being funded by the people instead. But unfortunately I have my doubts about him now, because already I am seeing signs that he might cave into That Intoxicating Power. I don't blame him for this, any more than I blame Hilary for already being overcome by IT. It takes a very special kind of person to be able to hold That Intoxicating Power without allowing it to possess them. It takes someone who doesn't really want IT; someone who is truly content without IT; and someone who sees it more as a necessary burden that must be carried FOR THE GOOD OF ALL.

I am not 100% positive that Mr. Gore doesn't want to possess That Intoxicating Power. He may have all this planned. Political power may indeed be his very own 'precious' that he will stop at nothing to partake in. But I don't think so. My deepest heart tells me that Mr. Gore really DOESN'T want anything to do with politics and the power it comes with - and that HIS 'precious' is this Earth, and all living things that abide here.

Just as Frodo was the only one who COULD carry the Ring of Power (in order to destroy its Power over the people who worship it) I believe that Mr. Gore may have an *obligation* - indeed a moral obligation - to carry this burden for us. Because at this critical time in humanity, when our children's future is threatened to be CONSUMED by power mongering sociapaths who are *possessed* by That Intoxicating Power, Mr. Gore may very well be the only one who CAN carry this burden for us.

We The People need to remove corporate privilege, and the Power it gives to those who play the Game, from American politics. We must elect a president who will not be overcome by That Intoxicating Power and who will act in OUR best interest - instead of theirs.

We are headed right into a worldwide fascist take-over. Our American government must be siezed back from Corporate Power and returned to the PEOPLE. I hope that Mr. Gore can feel the gratitude of those who trust him to carry this burden. We are counting on him to follow his heart and do what is BEST for all of us.

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» RE: Gore is Frodo Posted by: alternetrose
» RE: Gore is Frodo Posted by: Lincoln fan
Does no one change???
Posted by: henderson on May 26, 2007 9:27 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Are you doing and thinking the exact same things you were a year ago? Five years ago? I'm not, and neither are most of the people I know.

Perhaps Al Gore is becoming more and more "enlightened" as he gets older and (presumably) wiser. I know that I'd sure hate to be judged now on what I wrote and believed and thought about 2, or 5 or 10 years ago. Age does have it's benefits!

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Radical change
Posted by: snowhound on May 26, 2007 9:52 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I like Al Gore but I'm not sure he has the stones to make the changes this country needs right now. The only man I see that would could really right this ship is Ron Paul. He votes according to our Constitution and that's exactly what this country needs at a time when a New World Order is just around the corner.

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» RE: adical change Posted by: wonkywriter
» RE: adical change Posted by: lessbread
» RE: adical change Posted by: irenicus
» RE: adical change Posted by: snowhound
» RE: adical change Posted by: snowhound
Another inconvenient truth & assault on reason
Posted by: MartianBachelor on May 26, 2007 9:54 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
> Because there was no one else on that big silvery
> No. 45 when it reached the Civic Center but me.

Sheesh, even going to a pro hockey game a year ago for the first time, the light rail was packed to overflowing with fans (you can tell because of the jerseys or team colors they wear).

Things are seriously off-kilter when generic hockey fans are more environmentally conscious in their behavior than environmental groupies. I'm surprised the monkey-wrenchers weren't there letting the air out of all the cars in the parking lot at the Civic Center for a big laugh...

Take the bus. Duh.

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Al Gore For President
Posted by: Ms.Katmai on May 26, 2007 12:43 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As a citizen, I still believe in America. After reading this post and comments, I became curious: is there is a webby that is working to get Al Gore in the Whitehouse as President?
Yes, there is!
http://www.draftgore.com
I urge you to go to this website and sign the petition!

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...last chance to save America...
Posted by: ibemee on May 26, 2007 2:37 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I believe it's true that the Dems are as much FOR this war as the Repubs... oops, let me rephrase: the Dem and the Repub VOTERS are againsy the war, but the too many Politicians of BOTH Partys are FOR the war... the Dems like aipac-Pelosi and zionist-Hillary want the PNAC/AEI/Fascist-Corporation agenda for world domination and unending wars and all the profits that Corporations make from wars and from OIL. The "democratic" Congress has STALLED the war instead of stopping it, because they are bought-and-paid-for by all the same Corporate lobbys that own the Repubs.... and what the "dems" are stalling for is Iraq's OIL CONTRACTS... giving Oil Corporations very very longterm contracts on Iraq's oil, and leaving next to nothing for the Iraqi's themselves.

ALL THAT CAN SAVE US NOW IS A THIRD PARTY!!

There are enough Republicans, like Chuck Hagel who has publically stated that the GOP has been highjacked by the "neo-cons" to bring enough republican voters to join democrat voters in a THIRD PARTY! (the neo's are the fanatic PNAC's aka AEI's)
Rhis isn't about dems vs repubs. IT IS ALL ABOUT FASCIST-FANATIC-CHENEY/BUSH & COMPANY VS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!

Go to any 'conservative' forum and you will see that everyone there is saying the exact same things about the 'liberals' and vise-versa. The conversations are the same, only the labels are changed about! ...and that is by design, not by accident. They KNOW that if they don't keep us separated and hating each other, we would unite and they would be dead ducks!

In 2008 ALL of us Voters - regardless of our choice of label - should vote for all canidates who are NOT either dems OR repubs. IMAGINE 4 years of REAL people in our government! Instead of the same greedy corporate-snake with the two heads!!?? We truly only HAVE 'one' party - NOT 'two'! Because they are both vetted and both financed from the same fountain of corporate money!! and every canidate of both partys - to be "electable" have to kneel to them and exchange their souls before the corporate-owned media puts them 'in the running') Whomsoever fails to please the corporate GODS is automatically unelectable, and ignored by the press (like Kucinich and like Paul, for instance)

A NO-Party Party would be best, but
if Gore would run as a Green Party President, I BET WE COULD DO IT!!!!

BOTH partys would then be FORCED to go back to the drawing board and either fix the broken machine that runs them - or die off. (the latter would be preferable)

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Al Gore Doesn't Accept the 9/11 Cover Up, So Why Do You?
Posted by: johndoraemi on May 26, 2007 3:00 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Al Gore Doesn't Accept the 9/11 Cover Up, So Why Do You?

Crimes of the State Blog
 
Recent remarks by elected president Albert Gore reveal a serious distrust of the official 9/11 story. I wouldn't go so far as to call Gore a "truther," as he is a politician after all, but I will say that Gore is still looking for the truth.
See these comments:

"Most Americans have tended to give the Bush-Cheney administration the benefit of the doubt when it comes to its failure to take action in advance of 9/11 to guard against an attack. Hindsight casts a harsh light on mistakes that should have been visible at the time they were made. But now, years later, with the benefit of investigations that have been made public, it is no longer clear that the administration deserves this act of political grace from the American people."[1]

What is he saying?
This is couched in diplomatic language, but the intention is clear. He is not buying the Bushies' excuses for September 11th 2001. He's attributing this lack of trust to the "American people," which polls on 9/11 support. But he is also going out on a political limb and making a value judgment as to whether the Bush regime "deserve" any trust on September 11th issues.
Very few politicians have dared challenge the regime on September 11th. Gore is the exception here, which is notable. These are carefully chosen words that appear in his book The Assault on Reason as well as on the Guardian website and "progressive" US websites.
A lot of very committed peope have been shouting about the regime's "failure to take action in advance of 9/11 to guard against an attack" (as well as during the actual attacks) for a very long time, and yet are routinely attacked for doing so -- sometimes on the very same websites that re-published Gore's article. Well how's that for a bit of hypocrisy?
Back in 2004, Gore touched upon some 9/11 issues in a speech:

"Bush described this rigorous and formal analysis as just guessing. If that's all the respect he has for reports given to him by the CIA, then perhaps it explains why he completely ignored the warning he received on August 6 th, 2001, that bin Laden was determined to attack our country. From all appearances, he never gave a second thought on that report until he finished reading My Pet Goat on September 11 th." [2]

This is -- if you can believe it -- also diplomatic language, because the other explanation of Bush's actions is too politically unthinkable for him to say out loud. Gore belongs to a political caste that doesn't accuse others of the caste of criminality, or of high treason. It's just not done.
For clarity sake, let's have no mistakes here. The August 6 PDB is NOT the only warning this regime received by a long shot. Bush himself was moved out of his high rise hotel, by his own Secret Service, in Genoa Italy in July 2001 because of a warning of an "Al Qaeda plot" to hijack commercial airliners and "crash them into the summit of industrialized nations." [3]The ignorance excuse ends right there.

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» CONTINUES Posted by: johndoraemi
Does he have the gumption?
Posted by: phindrup on May 26, 2007 5:42 PM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I have a problem with Al Gore running for president. I believe I read that he said his reason for not fighting for the presidency was that 'he did not want to cause people to lose faith in the system'.
This must be one of the greatest mistakes in history!
Should he run, and win the votes, you can bet that the Republicans will again attempt to wrest the office from him.
Would he fight this time? Take to the streets, take up arms, if that is what it take