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Could Gore Be a Contender?Posted on Oct 18, 2007
I don’t know Al Gore’s plans, but here’s what I’d tell him to do if he wants to be president: Ignore New Hampshire and Iowa. Hope Hillary fizzles. Bet the house on early February when the big states have their primaries, and he could win the biggest, California. Something like this almost happened nearly 40 years ago when Robert F. Kennedy became a late entrant in the 1968 presidential primaries. Today, it is only a remote possibility. The nation has changed greatly since then. And Gore is a different man from Kennedy. Still, it is impossible to avoid thinking about a man who won the popular vote when he ran for president in 2000 but was cheated out of his victory by a Republican-controlled Supreme Court. Winning the Nobel Peace Prize sparked all the Gore talk, which has also been fanned by a certain reluctance among many Democrats to embrace the current favorite, Clinton, or Barack Obama or John Edwards. Another plus for Gore is his position on the Iraq war. He warned against the war before it started. On Sept. 23, 2002, he told the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, ” I am deeply concerned that the course of action that we are presently embarking upon with respect to Iraq has the potential to seriously damage our ability to win the war against terrorism and to weaken our ability to lead the world in this new century.” Advertisement In talking about a possible Gore candidacy, it’s tempting to see some resemblance between this year and 1968. Today we are mired in an unpopular, wrongheaded war led by a president who commands little respect or affection. Standing on the sideline is an articulate political leader who opposed the war while others dithered. But this is a different America. By 1967 the Vietnam War draft had reached deeply into the middle class. In contrast, a volunteer Army with many young working-class men and women just out of high school is fighting our current war. Today’s war machine impacts only the relatives, friends and neighbors of dead and wounded soldiers. The rest of America doesn’t even have to pay higher taxes to cover the war’s huge costs. Gore is no Kennedy. Robert Kennedy was afire with passion, a man of the ‘60s. Gore is a solid and sensible man, well suited for today’s techno-culture but not a great campaigner. He pulled his punches on the stump, which Robert Kennedy never did. To visualize a Gore candidacy, you have to throw out everything that is being written or said about the importance of the first two Democratic contests, the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. First of all, why should we give a damn about them? These two small states are of interest only to their residents and to the political writers who flock there. Thus Gore should let Clinton, Obama and Edwards damage themselves in these small outposts of democracy. The most important date is Feb. 5, 2008. That’s when the big states, and some small ones, hold primaries. It’s being called “Super Duper Tuesday,” the closest thing we have to a national primary. They include California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Also among them are smaller states that are much more reflective of the nation than either Iowa or New Hampshire, including Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri, Montana and North Carolina. One of the dilemmas faced by Gore is that he or his supporters would have to take some action before Iowa and New Hampshire. For example, Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2007, is the deadline to enter their delegations for the California primary, although there is some leeway. Perhaps history is a guide. In 1968, as opposition to the Vietnam War grew, Robert Kennedy could not decide whether to challenge President Lyndon Johnson and Sen. Eugene McCarthy, the leading anti-war candidate, who was not perceived by many as a winner. But on March 4, two days before the deadline, Kennedy, still undecided, called his California ally, Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, and said, “OK, get me on the ballot. But don’t get caught at it.” An Unruh aide got a draft-Kennedy group to file the papers. A day or two later, Kennedy entered the race; he won the primary and was assassinated on election night. Draft-Gore groups are being formed. The Web site AlGore.org, The 2008 Grassroots Draft Campaign, claims the existence of 249 of them. It’s up to these groups to put Gore’s name on Super Duper Tuesday state ballots. Then it would be up to Gore to disown them. “I am not planning to run for president,” Gore said on “The Today Show” in 2006, and he has not varied from that position. “I am involved in a different kind of campaign to change the minds of people in our country and around the world on why the climate crisis is the most serious crisis we have ever faced ... ,” he said. Nor does there seem to be a Gore ground swell. The Associated Press reported that the latest Gallup Poll showed that 54 percent of those surveyed said they would not like to see him run. Gore’s statements and the poll seem to be the final word. Yet, despite President Bush’s efforts to ameliorate the war’s impact, the Iraq conflict will be the central issue of this election, and except for Bill Richardson, the top Democratic candidates would keep us there for some time. Gore has a different and broader take on the war, tying it to global warming. “The climate crisis is caused by the burning of all these fossil fuels and our entanglement in the Persian Gulf region where the biggest reserves are to be found is linked to it, ” he said. Right now, the political correspondents and analysts are awarding the nomination to Clinton. But her lead is a product of polls and spin, ephemeral in a country bogged down in the Iraq war. Before the candidate is chosen, Democratic eyes may turn elsewhere. Elsewhere: . 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By Michael Shaw, October 30, 2007 at 11:35 am #
110112 Hey Inherit check this out!
Report thishttp://www.opednews.com/articles/1/genera_michael__071030_questioning_9_2f11_and.htm
By Inherit The Wind, October 28, 2007 at 4:25 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
My own emotional response to his stuff is standard and very basic. It boils down to what I said in the earlier post NOBODY wants to be lied on.
I’m getting used to it—you and your page 5 friends lie about me all the time—I guess you missed those two posts where I documented it, and that MS did NOT “lie on you”.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 27, 2007 at 12:55 am #
You know Al Gore is a smart gut. He knows who he is and cares little about those who portray him for something that he’s not. There are those who follow him around and search for weaknesses and when they can’t find any they invent them. Yet Al continues to be Al, Nobel prize and all.
The neocons have tried to smear him because he lives in an old house which is not energy efficient and point to Bush’s Crawford ranch which was recently and modernly built with all the energy efficient amenities. They’ve tried to call him a liar concerning the greenhouse affect and have even hired scientists to deny its existence. And after all of that, they now have to admit the truth, stall though they will to no avail.
As for Al, he’s still the same guy, plugging away for the facts, dispelling the fantasies and doing what he has to get out the word. God bless you Al! You’re a man after my own heart!
Report thisBy cyrena, October 26, 2007 at 11:14 pm #
Part 1 of 2 to #109272 by Ernest Canning
Ernest,
Your efforts are appreciated. In all honesty though, youd have to go back and examine the actual thread that MS is referring to, in order to see where this is pretty much irrelevant. Its pretty typical of neurotic people.
My own emotional response to his stuff is standard and very basic. It boils down to what I said in the earlier post NOBODY wants to be lied on. If I accuse you of something that you simply have not done, and do it on a live board such as this, or in the main stream media, or in any forum where it amounts to slander, then your reaction would be the same, although it might be more measured. (actually, my OWN responses to him were measured for quite some time).
If you were to read back through even a portion of the posts that got MS in such a state, youd be able to see the trajectory of the neurosis. MS has designated me as being in lockstep with the opinions of others, and thats a lie. Even in his most recent post, hes claimed that I have sided with others. That too is a lie. I do my own analysis of ANYTHING, based on obvious facts and their relevance, along with what may appear as secondary or circumstantial type evidence.
The underlying problem for MS, (among several) was what he felt was an attack upon him, by an entirely different poster. (FTF) In short, MY DOG wasnt IN that fight. And, I have to admit that FTF did sort of go at him, to the extent that even I asked him to sort of lay-off, because it became clear to me that MS was working himself into a real meltdown.
A large number of the posts on that particular thread involved MS trying to sway me, to a particular set of opinions which I didnt agree with, but most importantly, HAD NO BEARING on the topic at hand. And yes, I realize that all of these threads will veer off-topic to a greater or lesser extent, and that is to be expected. However, in this case, it had devolved into some sandbox-type pissing contest, and when he (MS) could no longer hold his own against FTF, he decided to drag ME into it. It also devolved into what I can only describe as some personal group therapy for MS, and his ethnicity issues.
So, I did in fact lose my patience (eventually) and explained to MS, that this forum simply WAS NOT about HIM, or his Jewish identity. And, it STILL isnt. Him being ½, ¼, blah blah Jewish, simply has nothing to do with the body politic, or the events of 9/11. Hell, for all I know, my OWN paternal grandma may have been part Jewish. (she certainly looked the part, though she was designated as colored.) Or, maybe mulatto was a more appropriate term at the time. Who knows? Back then, and in that part of the country, one was Negro/Black/Colored if they had a single drop of black blood. (or was it 1/16th?) Same with my stepfather and my half-sister. One might look at either of them, and assume the same. My point though, is that I really dont see it as having any bearing on the topic that was at hand.
Anyway, thats what the whole thing crashed into; a diatribe on Mr. Shaws questionable ethnicity, since earlier posts suggest a variety of genetic trails. Here again, I didnt think it much mattered to the discussion of the events of 9/11. Besides, there are MULTIPLE forums and organizations where MS could address all of these very personal neuroses, and with overwhelming support; one of the many 12-step programs comes to mind. But, thats not going to happen. And, for anyone whos paid attention to his pattern we see that it wont. In short, no matter WHAT the topic of the thread may be about, sooner or later, we all get to hear about his ethnic identity issues, and then about the politics of Israel, and on, and on. Most of us can put up with that, at least for a time. (and he generally stays with only ONE thread, until he gets pissed off, or somebody exposes him, and then picks another, with a potentially different audience and it starts over).
Report thisTBC
By cyrena, October 26, 2007 at 11:12 pm #
Part 2 of 2 reply to 109272
However, like nearly anyone else, I dont take kindly to being lied on or otherwise slandered. Im hardly shy about speaking up for myself, (and Im sure its the same with anyone of any sort of integrity) so I take full responsibility for my own opinions, and I make them based on what I believe to be sound and careful evaluation. I also gain much from constructive criticism when provided in relative context. BUT, I can also tell when any subject has separated from a group discussion, to a personal therapy session. And if it turns into an unwarranted attack ON ME, or an inaccurate and erroneous distortion of what Ive actually said myself, theres no doubt that I will respond to set a record straight.
It goes without saying that Im hardly a racist. It should also go without saying that I can spot a racist when I see or hear one. Like I said, Ive been interacting with greater humanity for many, many years. Maybe more importantly, my upbringing and my long term employment have provided a very diverse environment, so Ive never had any reason or occasion to develop biases, based on class, ethnicity or national origin. I see people and situations individually, based on the appropriate context and so it stands to reason, that I abhor a group think mentality that forms based on disinformation or distorted nuance.
So, contrary to what MS might have you believe, these disagreements have little or nothing to do with politics or political insights. In fact, we have actually agreed on a few undeniable facts. Rather, this disagreement came about as a result of his personal neurosis, and the fact that he just couldnt let it go. He waited and stewed for a while, only to re-appear on this particular thread, and then claim to hate to have to bring this up. Matter of fact, he said he was forced to admit his Jewishisness. Seriously, how has anybody FORCED him to admit this? Is there some sort of torture mechanism that we can administer over the internet? And why does he consider it an admission instead of a simple fact? (if it really is) And here again, WHY should anybody CARE? Is my own Native/African-American ethnicity at all important to the events of 9/11? Not only that; but my own personal and professional relationships with Jewish people in general, have been overwhelmingly positive. Im surrounded by BRILLIANT Jews!!! (at least now I am) and I love to argue with them, because I learn so much from them.
So, thats why MS is just so totally out of the box. If he has the occasional logical point, it all just gets lost in the bullshit of his personal demons, and hell drag anybody he can into the drama. (like hes done here with you). Reminds me of my all-girls Catholic High School, and those arent particularly good memories. When we dig back through the entire he-said, she-said, they-said, we-said BS, it often comes down to -nothing said-. (at least nothing that has anything to do with the topic at hand). Thats how and why FTF was able to get him so worked up. MS made his mistake by dragging me into it, and thats where the disagreements came up.
Still, Ive retracted my intent to kick his ass. At some point, hell do that to himself. Kinda like giving anyone enough rope to hang themselves.
Meantime, I admit to losing sleep over a lot of things in this new 21st Century; MS just isnt one of them. Ive got a built-in intuitive filter. The majority of the time, it works pretty well. And, these are the kinds of times when we need that more than anything, just to separate the irrelevant form the important issues.
Thanks again for your efforts. It must be the ‘attorney in you’.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 24, 2007 at 10:27 pm #
109392 Interesting analogy MAR and hail to all of Canada!
Though it is true that most of Gore’s popularity stems from his work with the environment, I see him as a well rounded, diplomatic, world conscious individual who would actually listen to the people around him, be they democrat or republican. Part of what stems in being a great leader is the ability to listen, even to those you might not agree with before you make critical decisions. I believe Gore has this ability, unlike the guy in there now.
Report thisBy MAR, October 24, 2007 at 9:43 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Well, Michael, I did register some time ago but I guess the pseudo-paper work got lost. I comment on only a few topics as they are relevant to Canada - and believe me, your elections are relevant to Canada. As one Canadian PM commented, the relationship is like an elephant to a mouse - watch when the elephant rolls over!
Seriously, I think the biggest problem in the US to Al Gore must be his image as a one-issue [potential] candidate.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 24, 2007 at 9:21 pm #
109324
LOL! Hey MAR, that’s a big ball of yarn coming from a non registered poster who has only made one comment thus far. But you’re right, the conversation is about Gore. Believe me, I’m praying to stay on Gore and had always intended to.
Had Gore won in 2000, there is no doubt in my mind things would have been a whole lot different and for the better. At least on an international scale, there would have been some form of actual negotiation, rather than a breeze of ultimatums laced in fabricated intelligence and outright lies to serve one narrow agenda. Here is an example of what we face today.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/102407B.shtml
I believe if Gore ran he’d win in a landslide. Unfortunately I don’t believe he will run and all the big money is backing Hilary Clinton. Personally I like Dennis Kucinich because he isn’t bought and paid for by multinational corporations. That said, I also like Al Gore and if he is nominated he will get my vote as he did in 2000. As you say, sober and rational. That’s not something we’ve seen in government for a long, long time.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 24, 2007 at 4:40 pm #
109277
Ernest I appreciate your olive branch approached but alas it is futile. I’ve tried that myself in that last horrible dig to no avail. That last dig concerned Questioning 9/11(with caution). In my quest to contribute and because some of the statements being made in there that didn’t seem accurate, I wanted to examine where this information was coming from before I took it at face value (as Cyrena did). The fact that certain elements of the 9/11 movement(not the entire movement) had ties to neo-Nazies and racists, and thanks to the very sources of my protagonists(who in some cases wanted to count the hairs on my ass), I found this to be accurate. Even after showing Cyrena this relevant information she still chose to side with these people along with their ties to white racists and Nazi’s, even though all the while Inherit and myself were being attacked, simply because of our Jewish heritage. All we were doing was showing a whole lot of the information they were spewing came from neo-Nazi websites and in fact several of the authors they quoted even went to an event where one of the guest speakers built a memorial to Adolf Hitler! That was when this suddenly became a racist issue.
To search for truth one must be willing to investigate all of its aspects before drawing conclusions. Is not seeking to discover who is behind the 9/11 for truth movement relevant, especially when some of their information comes from dubious sources? That was all I was doing. Investigating! That and making my findings available. I never turned this into a poor “Jewish” me scenario once(especially since I am not Jewish).
I do not intend to comment about this further, but as far as I’m concerned Cyrena and I are through. Though at times she comes off as reasonable, she is not. In fact I have discovered she can be downright unreasonable and would rather believe the lies of some KKK nut than see the facts for what they truly are. I don’t believe she is a neo-Nazi or a racist herself, but in that last dig that was exactly who she was siding with(whether she knows it or not).
Report thisBy MAR, October 24, 2007 at 3:48 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
After years of nominating and electing evil crazies like Bush 1 and Bush 2, not to mention smiling no-minds like Reagan who imagined Flash Gordon etc., I would think that it would be obvious that the US voter should give the major chance to a sober, rational person such as Gore. So he’s wooden? Americans (and others) have been too influenced by the soap ads and the money involved. If I were an American voter I would turn away all that crap and bring in Al Gore who would have written a different history from that of Bush clan, tied as they are to Saudi Arabia and Giant American corporations. The Saudis have persuaded the US to fight a war for them so that they (Saudis) won’t be swept away by eruptions in the Middle East.
And I am appalled how this blog has become a private debating place for a few regulars who think they are God’s gift to opinion. Look through the last few posts and I’ll bet you will be able to count on the fingers of one hand the number of times Al Gore was mentioned. What is it with someone who would pour his life into 942 posts on this thread.? Where is the relevance, Mr or Ms Oversight?? Why don’t they get their own web site?
Report thismes
By cann4ing, October 24, 2007 at 12:12 pm #
Michael Shaw and Cyrena: Any chance of my placing an olive branch between two posters I admire? In politics there are often subject matter that are quite touchy and can trigger emotionalism. I think both of you have conflicting insights that would benefit one another. There is no reason why, whatever your disagreements have been, the two of you cannot agree to disagree in the course of polite discourse.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 24, 2007 at 12:11 pm #
109124 Ernest you can never be trusted again! It’s obvious you’re an agent of the MOSSAD, disguised as an atheist and hellbent on America’s destruction.
I’m mostly Irish, English, Scottish and a little German too, and a Christian who favors the Gnostic verses. But it doesn’t matter, my grandmother was a Greek Jew, thus I’m an agent of evil.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 24, 2007 at 11:58 am #
109165
Cyrena I could care less if you are pissed, especially in light of how you assisted your buddies in that last dig. What was it you said about my commentary? Oh yea! “I don’t give a fuck!” Well in your case, either do I. Anyone with eyes can see for themselves who is lying here. I’m content to leave it to them! Also remember that every time you can’t figure out how to place a post or it mysteriously disappears, it’s me and the thought police at work. That’s right! Me, Amy Goodman, Robert Fisk, Chip Berkel, and all the other liberal journalists who are helping MOSSAD and Bush cover up 9/11. We’ll be watching! As for your future commentary, don’t bother aiming it at me. I’m finished with you and your neo-Nazi buddies. So kindly tell Robert and Franker than Frank they needn’t bother.
I will not let you (or your cronies)turn this current board into another circus. So kindly piss off!
I apologize to this board for this post!
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, October 24, 2007 at 7:01 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
And then there’s this.
Heres a series of flat-out LIES you posted about me. Your outrage is simply hilarious.
cyrena on 10/12 at 10:23 pm
(1355 comments total)
Robert, as for ITZW, Im not sure what the deal is there. I say that because Ive read him have reasonable discussions with a few others, from time to time. It ALSO seems like I remember him being registered at one time, like before we (or I at least) got hacked/censored. But, I could be wrong. Maybe I have him/her mixed up with somebody else. Like, for whatever the reason, I somehow always got the impression that he and lilmamzer might be one in the same. At least their themes are very much the same. Still, from time to time, ITZW is perfectly reasonable. But, sooner or later, they jump in on how those Palestinian Terrorists want to destroy Israel, and force a fundamentalist regime in the occupied territories. Common themes for both of them.
cyrena on 10/12 at 10:22 pm
(1355 comments total)
So, I dont think MS was a troll, but its questionable on ITZW. Very questionable. Others are more obvious in their agendas, some of whom DO register.
You know the old farm saying that if you roll with the pigs you shouldn’t complain about getting dirty. Well, you’ve been rolling with the pigs Robert-abu, LFTF, Peter the Raver et al over on the Fisk thread, telling each other how bril you all are—and posting all kinds of phony lies about MS and me, and now you’ve been called on it.
So you are “outraged”. Big deal. ROTFLMAO.
For the record: I post as ITW, and nobody else.
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, October 24, 2007 at 6:53 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
cyrena on 10/23 at 8:41 pm
(1355 comments total)
#108999 by MS
You should go into Fisks 9/11 with Caution dig and see the ugly(and insane) realities for yourself. In fact it was so ugly it compelled me to be ugly too, something I have never had to do previously on this board….youll see for yourself why Inherit has been forced to battle these right wing protagonists, a group that Cyrena was(and perhaps still is) in complete lockstep with.
Michael,
You are out of line, and I am pissed!! You are lying on me, and its the one thing I will not tolerate, from you, or anybody else. You will NOT put words in my mouth, or intents in my mind, or attribute motives to me, seeing as how I have always, and will continue to always, think and speak for myself.
What you did, was to turn the Fisk thread into a topic about YOU and your ethnic identity. What I did, was to tell you that the subject of 9/11, was NOT ABOUT YOU, or your ethnic identity. That is what I said to you. I made it very clear to you, that your genetic heritage had ZERO to do with our discussion on the aspects of 9/11, and that is STILL the case.
Last but not least, if you lie on me again, Im coming to kick your ass. So, dont do it. You can remain in denial about the events of 9/11 for the rest of the days of your life, and it will be fine. You will not be alone, and no one need be harmed by it. But, dont drag your personal issues into a subject that doesnt concern your personal issues.
Cyrena, you know what they say about people who live in glass houses shouldnt throw stones.
Here you are marching lock-step with the other tin-foil hats on the Fisk thread.
cyrena on 10/21 at 6:56 pm
(1355 comments total)
#108623 Peter
but concluded that your principal place is among us-the infamous theoreticians of 911 conspiration.
Hi Peter,
Im sooo HONORED really, I am. Thanks for the vote of confidence, and the welcome. Surely we all need that from time to time. (especially when we find ourselves under constant attack).
cyrena on 10/19 at 11:48 pm
Report this(1355 comments total)
Jezze Louise
You guys were supposed to look out for me. Didnt cha miss me? cyrena on 10/07 at 7:55 pm
(1355 comments total)
#105428 by Robert on 10/07 at 5:58 pm
A Missile, Not Flight 77
Defense Secretary:
and the missile to damage this building
ROBERT THANK YOU!!! This (for me at least) is a FIND. It confirms what Ive always suspected, but hearing it from the horses ass is the final confirmation. I always knew that an airplane didnt do that damage to the Pentagon, though the first clue to that, was .the was nothing there. The second clue was that the description of how it allegedly happened, (like sky acrobats 175 mile hair-pin turn, to come up and around and down, and ram right in .leaving nothing behind.) PUHLEEESE!! A fighter jet .maybe I dont know. Never worked one of those. A Boeing 757 impossible! I feel like Ive been vindicated, even if nobody acknowledges it.
(of course, Robert is a HUGE proponent of the slander that Israel was behind 9/11)
By cyrena, October 24, 2007 at 12:41 am #
#108999 by MS
You should go into Fisks 9/11 with Caution dig and see the ugly(and insane) realities for yourself. In fact it was so ugly it compelled me to be ugly too, something I have never had to do previously on this board….youll see for yourself why Inherit has been forced to battle these right wing protagonists, a group that Cyrena was(and perhaps still is) in complete lockstep with.
Michael,
You are out of line, and I am pissed!! You are lying on me, and its the one thing I will not tolerate, from you, or anybody else. You will NOT put words in my mouth, or intents in my mind, or attribute motives to me, seeing as how I have always, and will continue to always, think and speak for myself.
What you did, was to turn the Fisk thread into a topic about YOU and your ethnic identity. What I did, was to tell you that the subject of 9/11, was NOT ABOUT YOU, or your ethnic identity. That is what I said to you. I made it very clear to you, that your genetic heritage had ZERO to do with our discussion on the aspects of 9/11, and that is STILL the case.
Yes, there are posters/commentors on that thread, (as well as others) who would link the Mosaad, Israeli Operatives and any number of other Israel related anything- to the 9/11 operation. I personally, have NEVER asserted a direct connection, because while that may indeed be the case, (because there IS some evidence to suggest that) I personally, have never ASSERTED that as my own informed opinion. So, dont EVER accuse me of being in lockstep with any opinion other than MY OWN, which I am never afraid of, or intimidated from making crystal clear. Get that NOW Michael, and get it well. I am not in lockstep with anything. I never have been, and I never will be.
MY criticism of you on that post, had to do with the fact that you wanted to play victim to a distraction, and make yourself all wounded by the truth of the 9/11 operation, AS I SEE IT. And, I didnt see where your Jewishness had a damn thing to do with it, and I still dont.
I told you what I KNOW and ‘suspect’ about the 9/11 operation, based on facts and logic, and my own experience in the aviation industry. And, NONE of that has anything to do with Israel/Jews/Arabs etc. You allowed yourself to get distracted because of the stuff directed at you from FTF. That was YOUR undoing, because you made it all about YOURSELF.
So AGAIN..my point(s) on that thread, in following the topic…QUESTIONING 9/11 WITH CAUTION.
1. The attacks of 9/11 were NOT a result of 19 Arab highjackers carrying boxcutters.
2. The towers at the WTC were blown up by explosives, and the airplanes (that we ALL SAW crash into those towers) DID NOT cause their demolition. I will repeat. The airplanes DID crash into those towers. The airplanes DID NOT bring them down.
3. NO BOEING 757 ever hit the Pentagon. I dont know what became of the passengers and crew on that airplane, but I DO KNOW that they did not die in that incident, because it NEVER HAPPENED.
4. The United flight did not crash in Shanksville PA. If it had, there would have been evidence presented as such. It has not been. I do NOT know what happened to those passengers and crew either, or what became of that airplane. I only know that along with everything else about the official Commission Report, that is a lie.
Yes. I WOULD like to know what actually DID happen to those people on those flights. It is important to me, as an American citizen, and as a long term member of the professional aviation community. And NO, for the last time, it has nothing to do with you or your ethnicity.
Last but not least, if you lie on me again, Im coming to kick your ass. So, dont do it. You can remain in denial about the events of 9/11 for the rest of the days of your life, and it will be fine. You will not be alone, and no one need be harmed by it. But, dont drag your personal issues into a subject that doesnt concern your personal issues.
Report thisBy cann4ing, October 23, 2007 at 10:07 pm #
Michael, my mother was Jewish, my father British and I am an atheist. When my Jewish friends tell me that because my mother was Jewish, I am Jewish as well, I always respond, “What does that make my father, chopped liver?”
Report thisBy cann4ing, October 23, 2007 at 6:22 pm #
ITW, I could agree with you partially. Gore would be superior to any who are running for President, save one—Dennis Kucinich. Since Gore has made it clear he will not run, well….
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 23, 2007 at 4:49 pm #
109005 Inherit Ditto! and go Al go!
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, October 23, 2007 at 1:17 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Ernest Canning on 10/23 at 7:07 am
(991 comments total)
ITW, is there any topic at Truthdig that does not involve Israel?
I hear you…I apologize for the thread drift, but I wanted to get something out in the open that’s going on back on page 5 that Cyrena’s a participant in.
Actually, lots of topics get Israel dragged in as the bad guys, not by me or by MS.
I’m happy to drop it now and talk about how Gore WOULD be the best person to be President.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 23, 2007 at 1:05 pm #
108968 Ernest you know me fairly well. You also know Inherit. As much as I truly hate to bring this up again, if you only knew what the two of us went through in that Fisk dig, I’m sure you would have been right there in the trenches with us.
Simply because I admitted(actually forced to admit after the fact) my grand mother was Jewish, something I never made a secret of and in fact mention a long time ago, I was labeled as an agent of the MOSSAD and the truth police, even though as you know, I have been very critical of Israel, particularly in regards to their treatment of the Palestinians. I am also critical of AIPAC and the other Jewish lobbies and was particularly disturbed by the recent events at Columbia University, discovering since it’s president is planning a massive renovation of the campus and depends upon Zionist owned contractors to get the job done. I also abhor the actions of the University of Minnesota, which banned Desmond Tutu in accepting his Nobel Prize because he compared the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory to South African Apartheid. I am in total agreement with Tutu and see this much lobby power as absurd. I will even go further out on a limb to say I’m in much agreement(not lockstep) with the holocaust survivor Israel Shahak who is probably one of the most critically anti-Zionist Jew’s in its history. But none of this matters to these folks. My grandmother was Jewish, thus I am a liar.
That said, Inherit is correct that these people use neo-Nazi websites to promote their ideology and frankly I see it having very little to do with seeking the truth about 9/11(or any truth for that matter), but rather to blame Jews in general for all the problems of the world. There is no doubt that Israel has created many problems for the US but we must realize that no one was holding a gun to our heads. In fact it was the actions of the US in the first place which allowed a Jewish state. Even Hollywood shares responsible, depicting Arabs in a negative light since the end of WW2, around the same time US interests in oil peaked there and at the dawning of the new Israeli state that US corporations saw as a golden opportunity to lay foothold to the region. I even see AIPAC(an American made organization) as setting up the Jews in “a cry wolf situation,” even though many Jews realize this and are in fact opposed to radical Zionism and wish for a peaceful rather than militaristic solution.
But none of this matters to these folks. To them I am an agent of Israel sent here to disrupt this board and stifle the truth.
You should go into Fisk’s 9/11 with Caution dig and see the ugly(and insane) realities for yourself. In fact it was so ugly it compelled me to be ugly too, something I have never had to do previously on this board. As you read while you’re ducking “thought bombs,” “mother ships,” and a whole lot of fascism, you’ll see for yourself why Inherit has been forced to battle these right wing protagonists, a group that Cyrena was(and perhaps still is) in complete lockstep with.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 23, 2007 at 12:15 pm #
108912
Verne I agree with you though I think you may have misconstrued my point.
Man can live in harmony with nature. Essentially he has until the industrial age. He can stop warring and he can seek cleaner more efficient ways of getting and utilizing his energy and he can utilize environmentally friendly tactics to manufacture products. The only reason he doesn’t is because he is governed by a few greedy corporations whose products and pollution create our greatest problems. That is not natural. In fact it could be construed as downright psychotic. War is not natural. Living in our own filth is not natural either but essentially that is exactly what we’re doing.
Report thisBy cann4ing, October 23, 2007 at 11:07 am #
ITW, is there any topic at Truthdig that does not involve Israel?
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, October 23, 2007 at 6:05 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
cyrena on 10/21 at 9:46 pm
#108439 by Inherit The Wind
This is a good one ITW..
I can clearly agree with you on this, and I certainly couldnt have said it as well.
Cyrena, don’t bother trying to “make nice” to me. I’ve read how you agree with “Less Frank than Frank” about me, how I only “appear” reasonable—as a deceptive tactic. I also see how you are still “exchanging ideas” with this rabid nazi/klansman troll. More and more he reveals, like so many trolls here, that he is TOTALLY in favor of the white-supremacist neo-nazi/KKK agenda, complete with all its lies. Here’s what the prick wrote on Friday:
Israel did it by constantly whining and complaining about how tough the world is for them, sort of like ITZW demonstrated on this message board. Whining and complaining is born and bred into these people. No matter how good they have it, it is not good enough. There is always the horrible fact that some of them have died in wars that they, themselves, started. For example, did you know that prior to WWII (another war fomented and funded by Jews), the Jews declared war on Germany and urged all the Jews on the planet to join in? Yep, it is a historical fact. Its little wonder that Hitler was plagued by the Jewish Question.
So he’s defending Hitler, saying Hitler was “plagued” by Jews, Jews STARTED World War II (not Hitler when he attacked Poland on 1 Sept 1939) and that Jews are GENETICALLY different than other people—classic nazi biological racism.
This is your pal, “Less Frank than Frank”.
Report thisBy Verne Arnold, October 23, 2007 at 4:38 am #
#108865 by Michael Shaw on 10/22 at 4:59 pm
(636 comments total)
“Most of what mankind does is not natural, at least in the relevant sense. We lend chaos to any natural development on this planet, unless that is what our predestined DNA orchestration was meant to do, destroy this planet so it will eventually clean itself up to serve as host to another dominant species.”
We are prisoners of our DNA.
I would suggest that it is tacitly impossible for any human to act against their nature because everything we do is within the purview of our nature. We may judge something to be repugnant to our world view but that is just our judgment. We can not possibly understand ourselves as humans, if we look with expectation (pre-judgment) at our behavior.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 22, 2007 at 8:59 pm #
108827 Dr Knowitall,
As fruitless as this probably is, the domestication of cows is an act of man, not nature. Like any other industrial activity, harboring literally millions of them is not a natural event. In fact it can be argued in doing so it wastes a whole lot more then it gives back. It also pollutes the environment in more ways then one.
Most of what mankind does is not natural, at least in the relevant sense. We lend chaos to any natural development on this planet, unless that is what our predestined DNA orchestration was meant to do, destroy this planet so it will eventually clean itself up to serve as host to another dominant species.
Being natural would be living in harmonic compliance to our natural surroundings, being ecologically symbiont. Since man shapes and “tames” the environment to suit his own needs rather than worry about the needs of the planet, or any other living entity on it he deems as valueless, what he does in essence comes at the expense of the planet and ultimately himself. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Regardless of who or what really started global warming, any reasonable person would realize our actions contribute to the problem, in fact far more so then anything short of a cosmic collision.
Report thisBy Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, October 22, 2007 at 5:42 pm #
How could the person who can’t see the cause of global warming to be cow farts make a good president of the US?
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 22, 2007 at 5:28 pm #
108821 Rosemary, like you I like Al Gore(better than Hilary but not Kucinich). However since Blackwater and Rupert Murdoch(both neocons) are throwing more money at Hillary than anyone else, including any of the republican candidates, it seems at least they believe her chances are pretty good.
I believe short of a real blunder by the democrats, any one of them can defeat the republicans. They have created such a mess, most people realize the need to get rid of them. Either way we’ll still be entangled in the same ball of sting, an ongoing war on terror(and in Iraq and God help us Iran too), spiraling deficits, unfettered capitalism, outsourced jobs and insurmountable debt.
Hilary is the worst of the democratic nominees, but all the big money is behind her and big money wins elections, not issues. Hell the whole thing is a big corporate beauty contest involving candidates sponsored by corporations. As they say in the big tent, the show must go on.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 22, 2007 at 5:10 pm #
108801 IE….To him, that was the ONE place where the separation of powers was immutable and without exception….
Well at least he got something right but alas it’s too late. The supreme court is owned by the schrub and will be for at least another 2 decades unless an act of god falls our way.
You are right of course. I merely wanted to point out Rehnquist for what he’s always been, a right wing racist.
I agree that O’Connor tried to hang in there too but obviously couldn’t. But really I see them both as I do Blackwater. Here is a company that started with Reagan, became even further important to Clinton when he downsized the military and have now essentially replaced our military, making them play second fiddle to them. As a proponent to war in general, I would suggest that if we doubled the size of our military presence in Iraq and dumped private mercenary contractors, we’d be saving the tax payer a bundle. But that after all is not the agenda.
Today Blackwater supports Hilary Clinton just as they do George W. Bush. In my view these corporations not only pose a general threat to democracy but also detract from the actual numbers in casualties and perhaps even present reason(beyond no draft) as to why the anti-war movement is not as big as it was during Vietnam.
My biggest fear of course is what will happen when either Bush or Hilary declare Marshal Law, leaving all of us in the hands of these contractors who are in fact out of the legal process. Now what will the Supreme Court do about that? We know the answer.
By the way, good to see you back! How in the world did you make out in that last horrific dig? Sorry to have abandoned you. Never in spirit though my friend!
Report thisBy Rosemary Molloy, October 22, 2007 at 4:49 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Geez, these people are writing whole books for “comments.” Forget all the high-blown rhetoric and learned opinions; here’s the straight goods: The American people will NOT vote for a woman or an African-American anytime within 50 years, maybe more. Second truism: People DON’T LIKE Hillary Clinton. They just don’t and they’re not going to elect her.
Report thisAl Gore is the only Dem I can believe can win the presidency. Hope he comes out of obscurity (ha!) and runs.
By Rune, October 22, 2007 at 4:25 pm #
Gore is a hawk, as is Clinton, who leads all candidates in contributions from employees of the defense industry. He would no more make a priority of getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan (and, soon, Iran) than would Clinton—or the other Republicans not afraid to identify themselves as such.
The quote in the article taken from Gore’s September 23, 2002 presentation to the Commonwealth Club does not indicate that Gore is anti-war, as the author implies. Gore was for the war, he just wanted to make sure it was well planned and ended with the thugs in Saudi Arabia and the dictator of Pakistan happy with the results. (Moreover, in the same speech quoted in the article above, Gore repeated Bush’s lies about Saddam’s unstoppable pursuit of WMD and the notion that U.N. resolutions from the end of the Gulf War gave the U.S. all the legal authority necessary to invade Iraq again.)
Gore’s own words from just a few days earlier make his true position regarding Iraq and the willingness to invade it all the more clear. This is what he had to say to the Council on Foreign Relations on February 12, 2002:
“As far as I am concerned, a final reckoning with that government [Iraq’s] should be on the table. To my way of thinking, the real question is not the principle of the thing, but of making sure that this time we will finish the matter on our terms. But finishing it on our terms means more than a change of regime in Iraq. It means thinking through the consequences of action there on our other vital interests, including the survival in office of Pakistan’s leader; avoiding a huge escalation of violence in the Middle East; provision for the security and interests of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Gulf States; having a workable plan for preventing the disintegration of Iraq into chaos; and sustaining critically important support within the present coalition.
“In 1991, I crossed party lines and supported the use of force against Saddam Hussein, but he was allowed to survive his defeat as the result of a calculation we all had reason to deeply regret for the ensuing decade. And we still do. So this time, if we resort to force, we must absolutely get it right. . . .”
Gore has never been against what most of the world recognizes as an illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003. He said he didn’t trouble himself much the principles behind such an action. Gore just wanted (and wants) to make sure the U.S. and its rogue allies of oil and convenience come out on top so they can be in a position to knock off the next country that stands in the way of easy profits and (hopefully) favorable prices for American businesses and consumers. And, by the way, if you care to look, Gore’s record as a legislator was one of saying all the right things about the environment but backing down when big, polluting businesses opposed him.
That is hardly the sort of leader to turn things around. Gore’s mystique is not supported by Gore’s actual words and deeds. Ah, but how soon we forget when we want to believe. Which is exactly how the conservatives ended up backing the worst president in U.S. history (so far). Are the Democrats really dumb enough to follow that example? So it would appear from all the hype about Gore as a presidential candidate in 2008.
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, October 22, 2007 at 2:43 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
MS:
All that stuff about Rehnquist is certainly true. NOBODY was a better contortionist with the Constitution, and he LIED at both his confirmation hearings.
But…his decisions in the later years were not always predictable—especially AFTER the 2000 election decision. See, Bush committed the blunder of alienating Rehnquist when he had Gonzo (when still WH shyster) determine that the Federal courts needed to be “watched” and “monitored” to see that they were making the “correct” decisions. That was when WR’s ox was gored. One thing WR was known for was being anal-retentive about certain things. But the biggest was that ONLY the courts could monitor the courts’ decisions, and the FINAL and LAST arbiter of that was the Supreme Court—his court. To him, that was the ONE place where the separation of powers was immutable and without exception.
So when President Mussolini attacked THAT, he made an enemy of WR. Many people were very surprised that he didn’t retire, being so sick and let a Republican president name his successor. Clearly he wasn’t about to do that. Why? My guess is he didn’t want Bush appointing a John Roberts who would cave on separation. Again, look at his later decisions…they aren’t the lock-step Scalia/Thomas decisions all the time.
Justices at some point realize they don’t owe parties allegiance (well, most do—unlike Scalia) and don’t care if they piss off politicians.
O’Conner was recently revealed to have regretted her 2000 election vote. Of course, being an intelligent woman she saw the utter mess Mussolini made of the country, but she, too, is elderly and ill and wanted and needed to have some family time (WR was a widower). She stepped down first thinking WR wasn’t leaving…then he died.
BTW, WR HATED Scalia, who has been good friends with Ginzburg for years. Remember how WR was super-anal? One of those things was punctuality and time limits. Scalia would DELIBERATELY be late to meetings just to irritate the CJ…And Ginzburg with him (They were on a lower Fed court together when they became friends). WR’s VERY best friend over the years on the Court was…..... (wait for it)....Thurgood Marshall! Yup. From their decisions and writings you’d think they hated each other but they didn’t. Rehnquist delivered the eulogy for Marshall.
So I’m not unrealistic about Rehnquist and O’Conner. Sure one was a Nixon and the other a Reagan appointee. But 2 of the 4 “liberal” justices were appointed by GOP presidents—Souter and Stevens.
Harry Blackmun was appointed by Nixon. Earl Warren was appointed by Eisenhower. And they were marvelous justices.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 22, 2007 at 2:23 pm #
This administration is playing the fear card. They want us to be afraid of everything from terrorists hiding behind every corner to a superflu that will wipe us out. That’s why when someone like Gore comes forth to expose certain environmental realities people find it hard to believe and see it as one more thing to detract us while the ripoff continues. The truth is this planet is dying and there is a whole lot of things we can do to slow down the process, but we aren’t. The almighty dollar and power lust are far more paramount. I picture these despots who rule and in fact own most of the world, counting their dollars and plotting their schemes right up to the last minute. They are so caught up in themselves and their money they couldn’t give a damn about this planet, its people or even their own grandchildren.
Report thisBy Louise, October 22, 2007 at 12:49 pm #
#108697 by cyrena
“I hope you found something good from Molly. Well, everything from Molly is good.”
I never did read Molly. Seems I loaned out all my books! So I settled for The Texas Observer, until the lights went. I sat in the dark, listened to the wind and thought about Gore.
This isn’t the first time violent wind storms, driving rain, record setting tornadoes, out of control wildfires, extreme high temperatures, extreme low temperatures, hail, snow, floods and drought have all happened at the same time in two days in mid October from sea to shining sea, is it?
Just a coincidence.
Gore did put up a battle. He was handicapped by a running mate named Lieberman [whom he did not pick] and a prejudiced media. After a six week siege of his home and family by “Hire a Protest” maybe Gore decided some things are more important than trying to save a country that doesn’t want to be saved.
There’s as many compelling views justifying the Supreme Court overstepping their bounds as there are condemning. Either way both sides now agree, the supremes did overstep their bounds!
I find that interesting.
A friend told me [apologizing] she had voted for Bush the first time around. Then, in spite of her remorse she said,
“You understand though, how could I vote for Gore after the things he said?”
I asked her “what things,” not having a clue what she was talking about.
After a bit of humming, hawing and generalizing, it appeared to be just one thing.
He spoke way over her head.
Even if Gore was talked into running, he would never win. He’s far to intelligent for the American people. When people lack the wisdom to understand clear articulation and factual elucidating ... aren’t even smart enough to follow the lead of intelligent comment to an obvious conclusion, they deserve no more than the “sound-bite.”
So many words without any substance. The best way [I think] to describe campaign blabber.
Maybe it’s not that people cant follow an intelligent observation to an obvious conclusion so much as they don’t understand it’s THEIR responsibility to do so!
Or maybe folks are buried so deep under the daily grind of survival they prefer the sound-bite.
Like instant food. Open, nuke and eat.
No brain-strain required!
Maybe the American people have been de-feeling’ed. [who wants to be creative anymore?] and can only respond to a sound-bite.
Case in point, long before Gore versus Bush, Greg Palast had clear proof that the election outcome in Florida was a fraud! The few who hunt for food for thought new that early on. The majority who want to be spoon-fed spit it out, because the sound-bite in their funnel didn’t say that.
Speaking of funnels, that whole sorry mess was a clarion call to main stream media that it’s time they start earning the adulation and attention heaped on them.
But they didn’t hear. The so-called conservatives, hell-bent and determined to trash democracy, still heap praise on them. As does corporate America, as do the folks who get a headache if forced to remove funnel, insert brain.
As do they, on each other!
But things will change. Even the “intelligence challenged” are looking for change. Success in our society equates with how much stuff we have. Buying power’s diminished by a falling dollar and collapsing credit. Hence less stuff! Folks may not understand why that’s happening, but it is and they want it to stop.
Clearly current administrattion policy is not stopping it, so some things will change.
“As people do better, they start voting like Republicans——unless they have too much education and vote Democrat.”
Karl Rove
Education can come in the form of a hit in the pocketbook!
Education can come in the form of attending the funeral of someone returning from Iraq in a tin box!
So even though many still prefer to be fed by funnel, like it or not, they are getting an education.
And like Karl says, they’ll vote Democrat.
Report thisBut not for Gore, he’s too smart.
By Michael Shaw, October 22, 2007 at 12:40 pm #
108439 A Blunder Inherit? I’m not so sure! In fact I believe it was intentional. Don’t forget that Rehnquist and O’Connor were products of the Reagan administration and devout conservatives. The sad part is the news papers practically depicted them as liberals when in reality, most of their decision making has done much to bring us where we are today.
This comes from David Corn:
I confess: I have a hard time saying William Rehnquist, rest in peace. Supreme Court Chief Justice Rehnquist, who died on Saturday night, spent much of his adult life trying to restrict the rights of American citizens and to empower further the already-powerful. He rose to prominence as a right-wing attorney who decried the Earl Warren court for being a hotbed of judicial activism (left-wing judicial activism, as he saw it). He then became, as a Supreme Court justice, a judicial activist of the right-wing sort, overturning laws made by Congress (that protected women against domestic violence, banned guns near school property, and prohibited discrimination against disabled workers) and steering the justices into Florida’s vote-counting mess in 2000 (an act that only coincidentally—right?—led to George W. Bush’s presidency). In that case—Bush v. Gore—Rehnquist, for some reason or another, placed aside his much heralded belief in state sovereignty, which led him on other occasions to grouse about limits on the abilities of states to execute criminals. When it came to states frying prisoners, he advocated a hands-off approach. In vote-counting, he was all for intervention.
But let’s be clear: in recent years there has been no other Supreme Curt justice who had a personal history so loaded with racism—or, to be kinder than is warranted, tremendous insensitivity to racial discrimination—as did William Rehnquist. As a law clerk for Justice Robert Jackson in the early 1950s—when the Court was considering the historic Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation case—Rehnquist wrote a memo defending the infamous 1896 decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the separate-but-equal doctrine. Rehnquist noted, “That decision was right and should be reaffirmed.” In other words, he favored continuing discrimination and racial segregation. During his 1971 confirmation hearings, after he was nominated to serve as an associate justice on the Supreme Court, he said that memo merely reflected Jackson’s view not his own. But few historians have bought that shaky explanation.
It’s not hard to conclude that Rehnquist was on the wrong side of history and then lied about it—especially given actions he took later. In 1964, Rehnquist testified against a proposed ordinance in Phoenix that would ban racial discrimination in public housing. As The Washington Post notes in today’s stories on his death, Rehnquist wrote at the time, “It is, I believe, impossible to justify the sacrifice of even a portion of our historic individual liberty for a purpose such as this.” In other words, people are not truly free if they are not free to discriminate. In his 1971 hearings, Rehnquist repudiated that stance. But did he really mean it? Twelve years later, he was the only justice to say that Bob Jones University—that hotbed of racial discrimination and religious bigotry—had a legal right to keep African-Americans off its campus.
“He Lived for The Law”—that’s how AOL headlined the story on Rehnquist’s death. But it’s not that Rehnquist had a blind spot on race. He was an active proponent of discrimination. Yet this fellow—without truly making amends—became chief justice of the highest court of the land. Only in America.
Report thisBy Akira_Maritias, October 22, 2007 at 8:32 am #
But, RdV, you do see my point, even if there is a greater desire to see me as wrong.
We’ll fuck it up long before we’ll make it right.
If you are right about the destruction of the Earth’s climate because of mankind’s industrial revolution, then we’re already screwed. Wiping with two pieces of toilet paper and reusing tissues won’t save you at this point. Hummer sales and SUV sales have skyrocketed in the last few years; gas guzzling beasts that ultimately tear up the ozone layer faster than a chain smoker can tear up their lungs.
Some of the biggest people that are seeking to stop ‘global warming’ are the same people that behave hypocritically. Private jets and hummers for the rich ones, SUVs and hybrids for the middle class ones. Hybrids actually -cause- quite a bit of pollution in order to be created. Shocking, ain’t it? But that’s what environmentalists push for: hybrid use. What they fail to realize is that eventually, these unused SUVs will go down to the poorer people who can’t afford to be fuel efficient. So, they’ll be screwed out of house and home, and they’ll cause as much pollution as possible as they do it.
If you really think that global warming is real, then you have already silently admitted one thing: we’re all dead. The damage done is irreversible, after all, and there’s been quite a bit of damage. Most of the things that rich people do to try and stop global warming end up -causing- a lot of harm. For example, a news crew wanted to raise awareness about global warming, so they flew their reporters to 6 continents. Never mind that such an act supports the expulsion of chemicals; we’re trying to raise awareness!
Of course, transportation is a HUGE chunk of pollution, and guess what? Transportation is used every day by the people trying to stop global warming. That would be like a pacifist trying to say that they wanted the war to end…but they were in the army killing people, then going to protest rallies. In short, they were contradicting their own message.
Look, I know that you really, really, really want global warming to be real so we can all bow down to Gore the Great and fantasize about him being president so we can all fight the war on global warming, and I respect that desire of yours. I, however, want nothing to do with it. I do as much as I can to try and stop pollution-cause I know that pollution is bad and I -know- that we are losing our Ozone layer. But global warming? Don’t be ridiculous. If you need some loud-mouthed windbag to make you ‘environmentally aware of Global warming’, then you were a fool.
In ten years we’re gonna feel the shit that happened because we are losing our Ozone layer. You’ll feel that nice 50’s pollution. And Gore’ll probably be sitting there with aluminum on his head, grinning and saying that he was right about Global warming, and everyone will cry out about it (a few conservative Christian’s will say that Jesus is about to come down on a golden cloud naked). Me? I’ll be sitting there, laughing my ass off. We’ve known about the Ozone layer issue for a while; at least since before Clinton was naughty. We’ve known, and yet Hummers were released after this knowledge. It took Gore telling you lot to realize that hey, that’s a bad thing.
This problem can’t be fixed, and at our current rates of consumption, it won’t even level out after a while. The problem will get worse and worse until we use up Earth’s patience and have to move out.
Of course, I don’t think that we managed to completely destroy the planet. That’s what you’re saying; that we’ve doomed the planet. No; we doomed -us-. There’s a big difference. Earth goes through a lot of changes; Earth ain’t gonna care if we all die and change her chemical structure. New things will grow that live just fine in the new environment, and life will go on. It’ll just go on without the whiniest species alive.
Report thisBy RdV, October 22, 2007 at 7:47 am #
Akira_Maritias writes:
“Several hundred years ago there was a mini ice age, where the temperature dropped a few degrees lower than what it was before. I honestly do not think that WE caused global warming. This planet has existed for billions of years; are you saying that the less than one hundred years of pollution caused by us has completely destroyed that which has survived for so long?”
As a matter of fact, yeah, I do think human beings have the capacity to trash the place. After living in the same place for almost 50 years, you become familiar with the seasonal climate patterns and become aware when something is drastically out of kilter. I do think it is a combination of factors, including over-development and the swarming SUV situation- which slipped through the “light truck” loophole, but especially the mindset that you yourself display: we are irrelevant in relation to our living environment. That lack of consciousness is cultivated so “progress” is always at the expense of the environment for the temporary exploitation of the profit margin. Dismissing contributing factors that certainly have a measurable impact as natural forces is simply shirking reality.
You will have to pardon me, but your responses are so silly they barely warrant a response:
“... you are daring to state to me that mankind can so greatly destroy a planet in such a small amount of time.”
You are either very young and inexperienced in the sense that you haven’t been on the planet long enough to note the shifts over time or subject to embracing a mythology that denies our destructive capacities. There is no reasoning with a mindset that is stalled in denial.
As for the Right-wing talking points regarding Gore’s dependency on modes of transportation to get the message out, what do you want him to do, walk on water? The very fundamental point is we haven’t got alot of options because the very forces that deny the existance of global warming as a result of our present technology, profit greatly from our present technology and either repress development of alternative technologies—or spend millions to deny that the present technology has any scientifically measurable influence—-that and seeking to kill the messenger. Then there are the predictable fools subject to such PR campaigns- they actually adopt views that ultimately are against their own future best interests. Unfortunately, the rest of us suffer along with the fools who still believe the shadows on the wall of the cave, while calling those concerned about what is going out in the world, the ones living in a cave.
Report thisBy Stephen Cassidy, October 22, 2007 at 2:18 am #
“Americans are fed up with the President’s stalling and Congressional failure to act. Frankly, it is well past time we make a choice. And the only responsible choice left to us is to get all of our troops out of Iraq, with no residual forces left behind—no combat forces, no non-combat forces.”
“A hungry world will also hunger for scapegoats. A thirsty world will thirst for revenge. A world in crisis will be a world of anger and violence and terrorism.”
Sounds like Gore? It is not. It’s Bill Richardson. If you’re looking for a Democrat who believes all of our troops, and he means all, should be brought home from Iraq now and has global agenda to address climate change, environmental destruction, energy, poverty and hunger to save our planet and improve the welfare of the human race, learn more about Richardson.
You can start with
Report thishttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/gov-bill-richardson/its-time-to-make-a-choic_b_68860.html
and
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/20/183131/33
By cyrena, October 22, 2007 at 1:46 am #
#108540 by Louise
What was that scripture about boils on those who profess to believe? Somebody else find it. That book is depressing.
Not me Louise. NO WAY JOSE!! It IS a depressing book. I had nightmares the last time I tried. And, if somebody else finds it, I dont even need to read it.
I hope you found something good from Molly. Well, everything from Molly is good.
#108439 by Inherit The Wind
This is a good one ITW..
Gore didnt realize, or believe, JUST how dirty, corrupt and evil George W. Bush is, or he might have fought harder and dirtier. He did fight—just not as effectively as he could have—and he TRUSTED the courts to be honest.
I can clearly agree with you on this, and I certainly couldnt have said it as well. No doubt his error was in TRUSTING the courts to be honest. But then, Ive made the same error myself. Because, until December 2000, didnt we mostly think that we could? (well, I take that back, for people of color, weve pretty much always known it was a toss up, even after the CRM)
Still, what else could he have done, other than to trust the Courts? Ive often wondered how he might have fought harder and dirtier but in the end, it means stooping down to that same level GW Bush-Cheney, and even then, its still a crap shoot. So, you lose anyway, and the loss becomes permanent. (like, dead instead of just wounded)
Its interesting, (and informative) to know about Justices ODay Connor and Rhenquist. I remember Thrugood Marshall making a similar comment, many, many years ago, something to the effect of Ill OUTLIVE the bastards!!
Unfortunately, he didnt. And, Im not holding it against him. Hes still my Justice Hero.
Anyway, thanks for the take. Rhenquist is gone, but I suppose Justice ODay Connor has nightmares of the blunder. If only we could have all learned from it. Did she ever SAY even in retirement, that this was a huge blunder, and explain why? Im just curious, because I wouldnt necessarily expect her to. Its really not SC Justice Decorum.
The only one who does stuff like that is the worst of the worst Clarence the hate monger. Well, Scalia too, but nothing on the scale of Mr. Bitter Hate Himself.
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 21, 2007 at 11:07 pm #
108616 Scott I agree with you. All this leading the world crap began when we dropped two atomic weapons on Japan, not to so much shorten that war but to show friend and foe alike there is now a new world power.
Here’s a great article by John Cory, a former Vietnam Vet. This is about what’s really going on here and by whom and who we really are and damn well better be. This nation was created by men who were fearless. We are now being governed by the biggest group of chicken hawks in world history.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101707R.shtml
Report thisBy Michael Shaw, October 21, 2007 at 8:24 pm #
What burns me up is as always Dennis Kucinich isn’t even mentioned. He voted against the war and he supports impeachment yet even Richardson, who wears a flag on his lapel like Bush and company to remind us they are good Americans is.
I like Al Gore. In fact I voted for him in 2000 and was disappointed he didn’t run in 2004. If he won the nomination I’d vote for him again. But frankly the best in the lot is the guy that everyone says has no chance. Not only that, but they never even bother to mention his name. Dennis Kucinich.
Report thisBy srelf, October 21, 2007 at 12:55 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Yes, Gore did come out against the Iraq invasion before it happened, like Obama. Yes, he has done a great job at heightening awareness about climate change. Yes, he seems like a nice guy. But, this is the same guy that under Clinton was party to NAFTA, starvation of Iraqi children through the sanctions regime, and stood by while the “Contract on america” was rammed down the throats of the poor. I don’t know. Until Americans (including the Bill Boyarskys) start focusing on their own power, it will be the same ol’ same ol’.
Report thisBy Scott, October 21, 2007 at 12:46 pm #
I am deeply concerned that the course of action that we are presently embarking upon with respect to Iraq has the potential to seriously damage our ability to win the war against terrorism and to weaken our ability to lead the world in this new century.
Al Gore
Why do Americans always feel they have to be leading the world everywhere it goes? Why don’t you just try following for awhile or better yet get out of the way?
Report thisBy Groovesmoothly, October 21, 2007 at 1:18 am #
Rovian Politics 101: Get a misleading header run by, let’s say the NY Times that reads something like “Nobel Winner Issues Apology for Comments About Blacks.”
Report thisIt’s extra salty when it’s one of those perfect timing moments and you can get to lodge a notion in the back of there heads. I’m talking about the kind of notion where even though you’re one of the people that reads more than headers, you’ve learned it was Watson and it’s still too late because of the “shock” you felt initially when you thought of the first guy you could that won a Nobel this past week. Now imagine how many people just read headers and not to mention the ones that get the news from the people that only read headers.
By Louise, October 20, 2007 at 9:53 pm #
#108267 by driving bear on 10/19 at 9:08 am
(112 comments total)
“I feel sorry for Al Gore , not because he lost the 2000 election, but because he has turned himself into Richard Simmons Remember back in the 1980s Richard Simmons started the exercise fad that lasted a few years. In the 2000s people are fatter then ever Gore will end up being the same thing for the global warming movement . in 2020 I bet both the USA and the world will be releasing more CO2 than in does today.”
***
Possibly, but since we’ll all be sick and dying from the super bugs our antibiotics have created, and drug reactions from drinking groundwater contaminated by already dead and dying “legal” drug dependents who did and do pee, and depleted uranium which by then, at the rate we’re releasing it, will be everywhere, not to mention the nuclear cloud created by Bush and/or those who follow his wicked example, that will encircle the globe, and the few who are still healthy enough to pack a gun, if they can find a bullet, will be fighting the wars on the borders [because our military will be gone, dead or dying] trying to keep the crippled but determined invading hordes from Mexico and Canada and Europe and China and Russia and everywhere else in the world where people are fed up with what our stupid fascist empire has done to us and them, at bay ... by then, it wont much matter.
Phewww!
I don’t feel sorry for Gore! At least he speaks up, and enjoys life, which might be a good example for politicians and their hanger-ons everywhere, if they were smart enough to pay attention. I for one like to follow his example, especially the enjoy part. Which I intend to do for the rest of my days, even though the stupid among us think God will come and sort it all out. He wont. Why should he bother when none of his self professed followers will? What was that scripture about boils on those who profess to believe? Somebody else find it. That book is depressing.
I’m going to go read something good and funny. Something by Molly I think.
Report thisBy Thom Hobbes, October 20, 2007 at 9:24 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Gore would make an excellent Secretary of State. After the last two who have had that position, we could certainly use someone with wisdom and diplomacy.
Report thisBy Dr. Knowitall, PhD, PhD, October 20, 2007 at 3:31 pm #
Just so you know, “I coudda been a contenda” too.
Report thisBy Verne Arnold, October 20, 2007 at 1:07 pm #
#108362 by cyrena on 10/19 at 4:28 pm
(1309 comments total)
Bless your good heart. Gore apparently fought in Nam; I believe this to be true. But, in this modern world politic, he is out of his element and I think he knows it…that is why he will not run…window of opportunity….very narrow…he missed it and knows it. Good on him. We need to focus on the now and the now requires a dynamic leader, a future seer who can deliver a vision of a positive future. Just think of a team of Gravel, Kucinich, and Ron Paul crossing all party lines for a selfless run at the best we could be, and a world view that unites and supports the best that we are. God .what a rush but alas, we dont have this vision in our hearts and minds. Would that it could be so !
Report thisBy cann4ing, October 20, 2007 at 11:29 am #
Boyarksi’s article typifies the devoid-of-substance nonsense that passes for journalism in the corporate media. He devotes an entire article to the chances that Al Gore could win, despite the fact that the man has made it abundantly clear to any who would listen that he will not run, period!
Boyarski makes the obligatory reference to the three candidates (Clinton/Obama/Edwards) whom the corporate media had dubbed the “front runners” from day one—before the first poll let alone before any of us get to vote upon whom we feels should lead this country away from its flirtation with a fascist America. But even then, he provides not a hint of where any of these candidates stand on issues that truly matter, other than a cursory reference to Bill Richardson’s opposition to the war in Iraq. (God forbid he should mention Kucinich or Gravel when referencing the war in Iraq). He says that Obama is “farsighted.” What does that tell us? The rest of the article is devoted to polling data, including the fact that 54% of the people don’t want to see Gore run.
So if Gore has made it clear that he does not want to run and if the majority of Americans don’t want him to run, why devote an entire article to what would happen if he ran? Simple—its filler. More nonsense that gives the corporate media the excuse that it does not have the time to cover substance, because if the media actually devoted time and pages to comparing where candidates stand on issues that truly matter, another poll would come into play—a poll that Boyarski and the punditocracy wish to avoid mentioning at all costs—the blind poll which was based on where candidates stand on the issues but which did not mention candidate names—the one in which Dennis Kucinich receive a whopping 58% of the vote.
The real question I have is why what purports to be an alternative media site called “Truth”-dig provides us with so many articles from these empty-headed corporate media pundits?
Report thisBy rage, October 20, 2007 at 8:36 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Alas, NO!
When Dennis Kucinich wins in 2008, Gore can take Todd-Whitman’s old job in the new, improved, revamped, re-tasked, toothier cabinet-level United States Environmental Protection Agency, if he’s interested. If not, Gore can contend for another Oscar or something, spreading the word about the dying planet in terms American simpletons can understand.
Kucinich 2008!`For a much needed global greening!
Report thisBy Inherit The Wind, October 20, 2007 at 7:58 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
I’d love Al Gore to run. I don’t think there’s anyone out there who would make as good a president—and I think he’s far wiser now then he was in 2000.
Gore didn’t realize, or believe, JUST how dirty, corrupt and evil George W. Bush is, or he might have fought harder and dirtier. He did fight—just not as effectively as he could have—and he TRUSTED the courts to be honest.
Now we know that Sandra Day O’Conner, who openly detested Gore, made what SHE knows is the worst decision of her life, one that negates what a fine justice she was, and, as she realized it, she remained on the Court far longer than she intended until she couldn’t do it anymore.
Rehnquist, never said it, but CLEARLY recognized that he made a colossal blunder, clearly HATED Bush for interfering in the courts (his personal bugaboo—the Courts are independent), and refused to leave the Court until they carried him out dead. His actions after that awful December decision show again and again that Rehnquist, like O’Conner, knew what a dreadful mistake he had made.
But I don’t think the groundswell for Gore is there, I don’t his running is realistic, and I think we have to play the hand we are dealt and make sure THAT hand is a winner—the Hillary Clinton wins the election handily and has long, LONG coattails to finally have a 60 seat Democratic presence in the Senate and shut those fascist idiots running the GOP down.
Report thisBy adamjohn12, October 20, 2007 at 5:59 am #
What a puff piece…
Report thisBy Paracelsus, October 20, 2007 at 2:55 am #
So you are floating a trial balloon for Gore. Yawn.
Report thisBy zyx, October 19, 2007 at 10:21 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Great campaigner is an oxymoron.
There is absolutely nothing great in US campaigns. They are manipulative and shallow. Kennedy was no different. He wanted the voters to feel first then think only after that, if at all.
Kennedy didn’t challenge people’s intellect.
He merely wanted them to like him. How stupid is that?
Because of what is considered a so-called good campaign in the US most voters do not even know what a president does day after day. They don’t understand the job of governance. They only understand how someone looks and sounds in those 30 or 60 minutes while he is giving a speech or an interview or participates in a debate. But those moments say almost nothing about
what a president would do if for example the CIA sent him a memo titled “bin Laden is determined to strike in US”.
In my view a great candidate can only be someone who would make a great president. As these campaigns are there because a job in the Oval Office is there.
Report thisWhether someone is passionate or loose or funny or
whatever on the stump is completely irrelevant in terms of how he would make decisions as president and how he would run the executive branch.
By DennisD, October 19, 2007 at 9:32 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Is there any end to this Al Gore crap. He couldn’t even carry his own state when he ran in 2000, anyone remember that. To me that says it all. Nobody knows you better than your own.
Bill, if you have nothing better to write about then stay away from the keyboard. To incite an endless would have, should have, could have, if debate doesn’t address the problems this country faces now. Leave Al out on his mega bucks speaking tour where he belongs. Al thanks you and I thank you in advance.
Report thisBy Bobzmcishl, October 19, 2007 at 9:00 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
I don’t believe the polls either and I’m getting a little tired of the media trying to pick our candidates for us. If Gore announced his candidacy, within weeks he would be within striking distance of Clinton and would easily bypass Obama and Edwards. I would love to see an Gore-Obama ticket. As a liberal I would like to see Hillary and Bill retired. Their day has passed - we need Democrats who are true Democrats and not ones wedded to Wall Street and the status quo.
Report thisBy cyrena, October 19, 2007 at 8:28 pm #
#108181 by Verne Arnold on 10/19 at 2:47 am
Speaking only for myself…Gore failed all of us that night in 2000 when he acquiesced, without a fight. Some say it was the right thing to do, but in hind sight I think he is not a fighter.
Verne,
I get your point. I really do. EXCEPT Al Gore DID fight!!(depending on when youre talking about). He fought the crime (that is nearly impossible to win under these circumstances) by filing the appropriate law suit, Gore v. Bush. I would tell you that it was worth the read, but that depends on where your interests lie. It could simply be depressing.
The bottom line is that he was very much cheated, and it was all very deliberate, and it can be so very difficult to explain, if one hasnt really gone through it themselves. (and, I wouldnt want you to). But, just as a sort of broad parallel, think for a moment about how racism and sexism, and all of the other socio-political injustices and inequalities manage to continue, (and thrive) even though we supposedly have laws on the books, as well as an agency or two, the Justice Depts Civil Rights bureau) the EEOC, and various State equivalents of the same. Or, have a look at it on the smaller level, in examining the case of the Jena 6.
In short, despite all of these alleged safeguards that are in place, if a Cabal with the power of the Bush-Cheney Thugs plans their targets, there is little that would stand in their way, (as weve seen) and Gore was obviously one from the start.
So, Im not sure that its fair to say that he didnt fight it. I believe that he DID, to the extent that he could. The Supreme Court decision in Gore v. Bush was the Coup that weve spoken about before, even though it appeared bloodless. Do you think that if Al Gore had somehow chosen to fight BEYOND that very highest level of power, (at least as recognized by the Constitution) it would not have led to his eventual demise? (as in, some sort of an assassination attempt successful or not?)
Seriously, Im not being theatrical in suggesting this. The fact of the matter is, this regime that highjacked out government, is far more dangerous than I believe the average person can comprehend, and thats understandable.
So, in all honesty, there was nothing MORE beyond the Supreme Court Challenge, that Gore could have done, maybe short of refusing to move out of the White House, or barricading himself inside, disallowing any of the Thugs to move in. Again, that sounds far-fetched. The only OTHER thing that would have made a difference, is if he hadnt been expected to fight this Mob on his own. The American people didnt get themselves up in arms, or storm the White House when Dick Bush moved in. So, at some point, we always have to return to looking at ourselves. We allowed the Coup and subsequent highjacking of our country, and weve continued to allow it, (even for those of us who have tried to work within the established system) and thats what it ends up boiling down to.
Having said that, I believe what Al Gore says when he says that he does not want that job now. And, as much as I would like to have him in the job, I very much respect that. I dont believe that he owes us (now) anymore than he has already provided, and will obviously continue to provide, by mobilizing awareness about what is a VERY REAL danger, not only global warming, but in the chaos that the world now finds itself, in struggling for sustainable resources. Quite honestly, he can be of far more value to us and the rest of the world, if can maintain an independence from the horrifically corrupted US political nightmare.
At this point, its on US, to save ourselves, and I dont see it yet happening, because none of us can do it alone.
Report thisBy Akira_Maritias, October 19, 2007 at 5:48 pm #
Ed, there’s no doubt that I’m crazy. I know I’m not entirely sane, but that don’t change my opinion any. I know that you must think that I’m crazy, holding a minority opinion; hell, I ain’t exactly proud of the people who agree with me and would sooner be wrong than see them gloat. But I still hold to that opinion, through and through. You can gloat if you end up being right (not that there’ll be much gloating, we’ll all probably be suffering if you’re right) because frankly, I don’t care. I know that we won’t change for a few more years. Nothing will be done, nothing noticeable anyway, and the damage will accrue until we are incapable of fixing it. We wait until it’s too late. So, either way we’re fucked. I’m just taking an ‘optimistic’ approach and deciding on a different path of us getting screwed over.
“is this Sean Hannity, be honest now, come clean, its you, isnt.”
If I am Sean, then I guess Sean is an atheist girl; something that Fox would probably kill if they saw it anywhere near their people.
“Listen Sean, ignorance is a choice not a virtue.”
What is with people and busting into my conversations like they know me? Sorry, personal peeve. Not that it matters; I have a distinct feeling that multiple people want to rail on me.
“Can you please explain how can one of the most respected international bodies (the United Nations) who is not partisan in the US politics (like you and your gang of thugs), all world nations, including China, Russian and god knows how many more countries be so concerned about this issue and be so wrong.”
They were wrong about Global Cooling 20 years ago. It’s speculative science, and someone debunked it a few years back, but the article was buried so fast that I honestly can’t seem to find it.
“How is it that you SEAN and your bodies over at Fox news know so much more about this issue, than majority of most respected scientist around the world.”
I’m pretty certain that Fox is backing the Global Warming issue, too. You can whine freely to me about conservatives, though; I don’t much like them. Hell, even Bush fervently supports trying to stop Global Warming. Your entire argument is false, but I’ll continue.
“Looking at your resume Sean, your last position was in CONSTRUCTION, now as your buddy Glen Beck would say, Please Sir explain to me how does that qualify you as an expert on climate change.”
And what has Glen Beck done to make him an expert on climate change? Construction, by the by, is merely a job. It takes just a few months of calmly digging to get a basic grasp of the last few hundred years of climate change, but you are POSITIVE that Gore, who has no knowledge of climate change, suddenly is a complete expert on it? I’m not saying that pollution is good, but I’m saying that we’re wrongly tackling it.
“Sean Dear being able to read the thermometer does not qualify one as an expert global warming. So please stick to what you know and understand, drywalls and 2 by 4s.”
You know, the common census seems to be that construction workers are stupid. Get rid of the trades, and you have nothing left but thinkers. Oh, it sounds jolly good, but you do realize that talking don’t build a house or make dinner, right?
“By the way Sean how is that Iraq situation working out for you. You were so adamant freedom is going to reign there, looks more like atrocity is raining.”
As I have said, I’m anti-war. But, I guess that people go blind with idiotic rage whenever they see someone who goes against Gore’s thinking. Original thoughts, no! Be a blind sheeple right now! Gore is right, and if you say otherwise, you’re a conservative moron! Sound familiar? Remember the conservative ‘if you are against Bush, you’re a terrorist’ crap? That’s what you’re spewing right now, and it amuses me to no end to see hypocrisy rain down like this.
Report thisBy aafshar, October 19, 2007 at 4:47 pm #
Akira_Maritias
Report thisis this Sean Hannity, be honest now, come clean, it’s you, isn’t.
Listen Sean, ignorance is a choice not a virtue.
Can you please explain how can one of the most respected international bodies (the United Nations) who is not partisan in the US politics (like you and your gang of thugs), all world nations, including China, Russian and god knows how many more countries be so concerned about this issue and be so wrong. How is it that you SEAN and your bodies over at Fox news know so much more about this issue, than majority of most respected scientist around the world. Looking at your resume Sean, your last position was in CONSTRUCTION, now as your buddy Glen Beck would say, Please Sir explain to me how does that qualify you as an expert on climate change. Sean Dear being able to read the thermometer does not qualify one as an expert global warming. So please stick to what you know and understand, drywalls and 2 by 4s.
By the way Sean how is that Iraq situation working out for you. You were so adamant freedom is going to reign there, looks more like atrocity is raining.
By Ed, October 19, 2007 at 3:53 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
It never ceases to amaze me how people like Akira Maritias and Senator Inhofe dismiss man-made global warming outright (and against indisputable scientific proof). Apparently their lust for money is worth using the entire planet as a sewer for human created waste. I think people like Maritias and Inhofe belong in an insane asylum.
Report thisBy Akira_Maritias, October 19, 2007 at 3:39 pm #
RdV:
“The house that I grew up in was over three hundred years old. We spent years restoring it over the course of the 40 years that we lived in it. During that time there was not one flood. In less than 10 years there have been 6 floods—each one worse than the previous one, and we had to abandon our home. We lost everything, and all the equity in it as well. It sits vacant, the next flood inevitable, just a matter of time.”
Several hundred years ago there was a ‘mini ice age’, where the temperature dropped a few degrees lower than what it was before. I honestly do not think that WE caused global warming. This planet has existed for billions of years; are you saying that the less than one hundred years of pollution caused by us has completely destroyed that which has survived for so long?
“I am on a first name basis with the consequences of global warming. My experience is a harbinger of things to come. Do you dare state there is no global warming to my face?”
I do dare, because you are daring to state to me that mankind can so greatly destroy a planet in such a small amount of time. You state this because yeah, it seems real bad that you had a ton of floods in a row. We had 10 deaths at a high school in less than a years time, as well as 2 parents of a child who died in the same time frame; should I assume that some alien force came to wipe them out? Or should we say ‘coincidence’ first?
“Gore has to work within the confines of the present circumstances to get the word out—there are no options to our modes of travel, but it is something we can work towards.”
His option is a private jet. If he really wanted to ‘get the word out’, he could take a commercial flight, then ride the bus to events. He could do a lot more to limit his own pollution, but he instead chooses to make more pollution on his own than the average person.
“But first we have to acknowledge there is a problem. I do get annoyed with people who seem to think if Gore isnt living in a cave he isnt credible. Then, of course, he would be dismissed as a luddite.”
I’m not saying that Gore should live in a cave…but come on, let’s be reasonable here! Gore currently consumes more energy at home than the average three person family. Him telling us about Global Warming is like a drunkard saying that everyone needs to stop drinking.
I acknowledge that we need to stop using so much excess pollution. In fact, ‘Global Warming’ wouldn’t even be an issue if humans weren’t chronically stupid. Recycling consumes more energy to do than just throwing out something (i.e, it’s more wasteful), using corn as fuel is, again, more costly than regular fuel, and even if we converted ALL of our land to corn production, it STILL wouldn’t be enough to cover just OUR oil expenditure.
We waited too long, and now that we’re on the fringe, it’s time to use scare tactics.
Report thisBy hazmaq, October 19, 2007 at 2:13 pm #
An AP report says 54% would not like to see him run?
AP??
I wouldn’t buy those results for two cents.
Right after Gore’s spring appearance in Congress, C-span’s Brian Lamb did a Washington Journal bit based soley on the question -“Would you support Al Gore if he ran?
Lamb asked only for Democratic callers.
Almost every caller enthusiastically said yes!
A showed a complete willingness to dump their current candidate of choice.
Everyone is coming to know, that Al Gore’s time is now.
Whether we or he ever planned it that way.
Report thisBy RdV, October 19, 2007 at 1:12 pm #
Akira_Maritias:
The house that I grew up in was over three hundred years old. We spent years restoring it over the course of the 40 years that we lived in it. During that time there was not one flood. In less than 10 years there have been 6 floods—each one worse than the previous one, and we had to abandon our home. We lost everything, and all the equity in it as well. It sits vacant, the next flood inevitable, just a matter of time.
Report thisI am on a first name basis with the consequences of global warming. My experience is a harbinger of things to come. Do you dare state there is no global warming to my face?
Gore has to work within the confines of the present circumstances to get the word out—there are no options to our modes of travel, but it is something we can work towards. But first we have to acknowledge there is a problem. I do get annoyed with people who seem to think if Gore isn’t living in a cave he isn’t credible. Then, of course, he would be dismissed as a luddite.
By driving bear, October 19, 2007 at 1:08 pm #
I feel sorry for Al Gore , not because he lost the 2000 election, but because he has turned himself into Richard Simmons Remember back in the 1980’s Richard Simmons started the exercise fad that lasted a few years. In the 2000’s people are fatter then ever Gore will end up being the same thing for the global warming movement . in 2020 I bet both the USA and the world will be releasing more CO2 than in does today.
Report thisBy RdV, October 19, 2007 at 12:56 pm #
Yeah, I guess some would consider Dean looney for bucking convention the way he did. Have to admit that I loved the populist threat he posed to the entrenched DLC Clintonistas iron grip. Of course they had to smack him down, but by god, it felt good while it lasted seeing Dean ride that wave that was messing with the Insider’s plans.. It was interesting to me to note the pundits consensus that Gore made a fool of himself when he endorsed Dean. Someone has to point out to these inside-the-beltway idiots that although they may be mouthpieces to spin the conventional wisdom, the fact is Dean was right—and Gore backed the right horse not only on Iraq. For those who hold up Gore’s record in the Clinton administration as evidence of his present mindset, they are missing the pivotal moment when he backed Dean. That was a repudiation of the present Democratic party still under the sway of the Clintons. And the fact that Carter pressures Gore as well, suggests that Gore would have a more “balanced” perspective on Middle East policy. Of course, carrying this all out could be problematic due to the Clintons holding all the cards. They will see to it that another Dean-like populist movement is crushed, not only because it threatens their power and the steps they had to take to get it—even if those steps handicap their effectiveness—but they drip with jealousy because they can not inspire that kind of enthusiasm on their own merits: “But her lead is a product of polls and spin, ephemeral in a country bogged down in the Iraq war”. Then by the same token the claim that there is no groundswell after Gore won based on polls isn’t credible either—especially considering the hugh increase in signatures on the DraftGore sites after he won.
Report thisWithout Gore they are going to shove Clinton on us because we all know who controls the “fizzle”. Judging by the messages the media set up in response to the possible Gore bid, they will still promote Clinton at the expense of Gore whether we all prefer him over her, or not. And that sucks.
By Inherit The Wind, October 19, 2007 at 12:01 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
Akira_Maritias on 10/19 at 7:37 am
(436 comments total)
Actually, my father knew Howard Dean; said he was unfit to be a President (a wee bit looney).
******
And President Mussolini, an ignorant arrogant incompetent cowardly dry-drunk paranoid sadist is your definition of QUALIFIED to be President??????
You must think so since you called Gore an idiot—something even Re-Thuglicans who know him NEVER do.
Compared to Bush, Dean is FDR, Lincoln, Washington, King Solomon, and Gandhi rolled into one! In fact, I can’t think of ANYONE in the Democratic Party who would NOT be far, far better for America and the World than “The Decider” President Mussolini.
Al Gore would easily be my very first choice among ANY candidates now. I think he’s much wiser now then he was in 2000. I just don’t see a realistic way for him to get to the nomination.
Report thisBy Akira_Maritias, October 19, 2007 at 11:37 am #
Actually, my father knew Howard Dean; said he was unfit to be a President (a wee bit looney).
While I will agree that the media does quite a bit to sway the masses (read: gullible fox news network crowd) it’s not always the case. Was it the media gunning Bush down, or your own opinion that gunned Bush down?
In the end, this too acts as a double edged sword. Yes, the media blasted Dean (they tried to blast Obama for smoking, but then they just quietly moved to Hillary and stopped talking about Obama altogether), but could we not argue that Gore did the same to you? He swung the media around to say that Global Warming is very real, and now every form of media (even Bush) is supporting his idea. If we were brain washed into hating Dean, then we were brain washed into believing in Global Warming.
But, I doubt that such musings will make it very far. Media brainwashing only works when it’s being used in a certain way; not a contradictory way at all.
Report thisBy ctbrandon, October 19, 2007 at 10:16 am #
WR Curly, your post is so refreshing. It is always a wonderful moment for me when I see someone else point out the obvious truth, that our candidates are chosen for us by mass media and the elite behind the curtain. We have one chance to get this right, we better do something with this election.
ctbrandon
Report thishttp://www.actforyourself.org
By Maezeppa, October 19, 2007 at 9:21 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Mighty, Mighty Al Gore. I wish he was going to be our President. If he ran I’d go anywhere he wanted me to and I’d work for him for free.
If I were Hillary Clinton I’d give him the sun, moon, and stars to be a part of my administration.
Report thisBy Akira_Maritias, October 19, 2007 at 8:55 am #
“Could Gore Be a Contender?”
I have the answer: NO. No, no, no-ity no-no!
The guy’s a moron! He couldn’t beat a chimp (literally) when he tried to run, and he hasn’t had a good point since then. He went completely insane when he lost!
For those of you people that think that Gore is some kind of genius, you probably all think that Global Warming is real as well. Wake up! Twenty years back they had something called ‘Global Cooling’ as a huge issue, and thirty years back, guess what? It was called Global Warming! This is fad politics, nothing more, and nothing less. The same morons who think Gore is a genius are the same people who probably thought that Global Warming benefit concert was a great thing; never mind that the concert (including the people who had to drive and fly in) would have sped up Global Warming considerably. Gore wastes so much energy, then preaches to all of you to stop. Actors and actresses are telling you to stop polluting, when THEY have private jets and H3’s. Don’t you feel stupid yet for falling for this crap?
Yes, it’s a good thing that we’re FINALLY concerned about pollution, but we’re concerned for the WRONG reasons. We shouldn’t need a false premise in order to stop destroying ourselves. Hell, when BUSH is agreeing that Global Warming is a problem, shouldn’t warning bells go off? Bush? Agreeing that Global Warming is a problem?
Of course, Gore supporters are probably just gonna wedge their fingers into their ears, shake their heads, and scream at me for calling Gore stupid. He is a moron, and a hypocrite at that. Now all he needs to do is force Christianity down my throat and I won’t be capable of hating him much more. Gore fell to the wayside; became a mere blip until he announced that global warming was evil.
So, go ahead. Flame at me. Yell at me for not seeing the terrible danger of this problem. I’ll be over here, waiting for ten or so years to pass and then the Earth will get cooler, and we’ll scream about ‘Global Cooling’ again. Fad science, fad politics, fad stupidity.
Report thisBy Verne Arnold, October 19, 2007 at 6:47 am #
Speaking only for myself…Gore failed all of us that night in 2000 when he acquiesced, without a fight. Some say it was the right thing to do, but in hind sight I think he is not a fighter. We need somebody to fight like hell and give as good as you get, to rid us of the present scum. I just think he will fold at the critical time. I would like to be wrong; he has many good qualities, but we cannot afford to screw-up this time. Hes too much of a gamble, the outside straight.
Report thisBy WR Curley, October 19, 2007 at 6:32 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Please note Mr. Boyarski’s phrase, “Right now, the political correspondents and analysts are awarding the nomination to Clinton.”
This is how your President is chosen, folks. The media does it.
Satisfied that Hillary is on message, and that she is vulnerable enough to be crushed if she deviates from message, she becomes the anointed “front-runner”, and the rest of the pack of hang-dog hopefuls fade from the daily news cycle. You don’t hear much about Obama or Edwards on NPR these days, do you. You never heard much but snide derision about Kucinich.
Remember Howard Dean? Remember the trail-hand holler with which he capped a wildly succesful rally of the faithful away back when? Remember the uniform wave of ridicule and vitriol that rose the very next morning from the ranked forces of the “political correspondents and analysts” of yore? These hired-gun media pros, all of them on message, colluded to assassinate the last great hope for an honest-to-god, grass-roots messenger from the people, chosen and funded by the people, to ascend through the gates of the mighty and the mightily corrupted citadel that is rooted in the ancient swamp that is Washington, DC.
Killed him and his entire movement by turning one extended monosyllable back into his face. It’s like something out of JK Rowland.
Where in hell did Bush come from anyway? How did he become the instant “front-runner” without soliciting a single vote? How is Hillary the nominee, absent a single vote cast for her name?
Why are the Iowa Caucuses - basically glorified bake sales attended by a miniscule fraction of the Iowa citizenry - the bellweather events that make or break a candidacy?
Because the Man behind the curtain who owns and runs the Punch and Judy show that is our mass media wants it that way. Democracy is messy; you can’t predict the outcome. The fewer people you enfranchise, the easier it is to manipulate the process. And the Man behind the curtain absolutely will have the outcome he wants.
So “right now”, it’s Hillary and Rudy, folks, with no votes cast. The “political correspondents and analysts” - Mr Boyarski smugly nesting in their ranks - have chosen.
You don’t count.
WR Curley
Report thisElizabeth, Colorado
By Douglas Chalmers, October 19, 2007 at 6:11 am #
“And Gore is a different man from Kennedy….”
Perhaps the Iraq conflict will not be “the central issue of this election”... Perhaps it will already be too late? Kennedy was in power and stopped a war with Kruschev’s USSR (Russia now) just by saying “no” to an attack.
I think we understand that Bush would rush to say “yes” to a nuclear attack on any country regardless of the consequences. While we are thinking about it, it could soon be too late!
Al Gore would make a really good president - after WW3, uhh. Sadly, it will then be too late to think about climate change!
Report thisBy Joe Francis, October 19, 2007 at 5:27 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Excellent article, except why would Gore let Michigan go to Hillary when it is there for the taking? Michigan has been exceptionally good to Gore in the polls.
Also, if he ran as in independent he would split the democrat vote and give the republicans the white house for another two terms.
Michigan filing deadline is OCT 23. Four days to go…the Gore clock is ticking quickly.
Report thisBy driving bear, October 19, 2007 at 4:19 am #
As a christian conservative I say to the democrats who are looking for another candidate besides Hillary, Welcome to the club. Now who know how christian conservatives feel about Rudi, and now you can understand why christian leaders like Dr. Dobson are so dissatisfied with their party front runner they threaten to form a 3rd party. I am curious about something , what is the filing deadline to get on the 08 presidential ballet as an independent. If gore waits til after super Tuesday to enter the race he might be force to run as an independent. Would democrats vote for gore in the general election if he ran as an independent. Also dumb idea but has the green party talked to gore about being their candidate in 08.
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