http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/8/10/101558.shtml

Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006 10:06 a.m. EDT

Al Gore's Hypocrisy Exposed

Al Gore insists the world must embrace a "carbon-neutral lifestyle" and make necessary sacrifices to head off what he warns will be an environmental cataclysm – but in his personal life he doesn’t practice what he preaches.

"Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb," warns the Web site for his global warming documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth.” "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin."

Gore tells consumers how to change their lives to curb their carbon-gobbling ways: Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use a clothesline, drive a hybrid, use renewable energy, dramatically cut back on consumption.

But "public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.,” Peter Schweizer, author of the book Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy,” writes in USA Today.

"For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.”

Gore doesn’t follow his own advice when it comes to energy consumption, either.

In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy, and similar programs exist in Nashville. Utility customers who pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour can take a big step toward a carbon-neutral lifestyle.

But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use wind energy in either of his large residences, reveals Schweizer, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

"Talk about inconvenient truths.”

Gore claims to be environmentally friendly, but he hasn’t dumped his family's large stock holdings in Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum. As executor of his family's trust, over the years Gore has controlled hundreds of thousands of dollars in Oxy stock, while Oxy has been beset by controversy over oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas.

Humanity might be "sitting on a ticking time bomb," but Gore's home in Carthage is sitting on a zinc mine.

Gore receives $20,000 a year in royalties from Pasminco Zinc, which operates a zinc concession on his property. Tennessee has cited the company for contaminating the nearby Caney Fork River with quantities of barium, iron and zinc.

"The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility,” Schweizer writes.

"If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth, and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life? Giving up the zinc mine or one of his homes is not asking much, given that he wants the rest of us to radically change our lives.”

I get sick and tired of BS lying articles like this. What is AL GORE supposed live in a one room dump and have no means of transportation or income???? AL has sacrificed alot of his life, time, money to help others and then I read absolute garbage like this. :angry:

The real hypocrites are the ones who WRITE this trash. :angry:

And another thing, what has the rich, lying, deceitful thief named George W. Bush ever done to help people or has ever sacrificed in his evil life???? Absolutley nothing. :angry:

I would like to know how anyone knows what he is paid for the zinc. If you have ever been in that area, just about every farm in the area is connected to the mining of zinc. It brings in thousands of dollars for the area. Most of the people are living just above poverty. The zinc is brought out like coal. It is picked out of the hillside, and brought to the surface. There is not that much pollution. He would have no say about the mining because Tennessee is one of the few places that can mine zinc. I wish these writers would get their stories straight and truthful.

If it involves strip mining, it's something he's very opposed to.

The company has to fill in the mine after it has been stripped. There are hills that you can't tell has been stripped. The countryside is left green and beautiful.

Halfway into this I realized it was from Newsmax! Newsmax has NO credibility especially when it comes to Gore.

Absolutely right, Erin. If it's Newsmax, it ain't news. :D

But I've been trying to get some more info on this zinc mine thing, and I'm coming up with only stuff that puts Gore in a bad light about it (big surprise). I'd like to find out the real story behind this.

I would really like to know how much truth, if any, there is to this information. Does anyone know how to find out? My internet research is just showing up more of the same, a lot of it from the time of the 2000 campaign.

There are libraries out there in the real world. Usually every small town has one, bigger towns have bigger libraries.
There are professors out there in the real world.
If you believe newsmax, ask them.

The Gore home in Carthage has been the same one he grew up on.
Would you want him to move the family estate for your own pleasure?

Odds are, most people's homes are built over something that at sometime was not good.
Should the world knock down every single home and apartment building.
At some point it was either all farmland or swampland, or mines, or whatnot.

How come you signed up here just to find out this particular question? When there is so much news out there?

Now there is a good excuse for everyone else to continue their selfish wasteful behaviors. Right? Buy big gas guzzling SUVs and drive them 80mph and drive around the parking lot till they find a close parking space. So what if there are a hundred spaces at the far end. Turn all the lights on in the house, no one wants to walk into a dark room. Turn up that AC and if it gets too cold, put on a sweater. Heck, we can always drill more wells in the ANWR.

We're Americans and it is our right to do whatever we want, no matter what the consequences are and if it wasn't for idiots like the slug who wrote "Al Gore's Hypocrisy Exposed", we might have to think twice, maybe even once. So as long as this knuckle head says these things about Al Gore of all people, then it certainly has to be just hunky dory to live our lives being wasteful, creating as much sickening garbage and pollution as possible. And to think I've been driving 55mph for nothing.

Maybe it is my nature because I'm a Scorpio, but could there be some other reason I would like to step on the slug who wrote that?

Yeh, find something wrong with Al Gore and that makes everything okay. :dripple:

All the same, I think if we are to win the battle of public perception we must be prepared to answer such questions. Yes, the validity of the points Gore makes are completely independent of his own lifestyle. Not to mention that he cannot be expected to live as a hermit given his name and stature. However, the general public doesn't like hypocrites and are ripe to be swayed by such drivel.

Well said, erapp. At some point, Gore will have to address these things, and I'm sure he'll handle it well, but if he decides to run, these questions will follow him and he'll have to find a way to lay them to rest.

Thank you erapp and earthmother. I couldn't agree with your comments more, which is exactly why I originally found myself at this forum to begin with, in the hope that Gore HAD in fact addressed these issues already. After all, the same accusations seem to have been slung at him since at least 2000. I might add too, that the newsmax.com "op ed" piece wasn't the only place quotes from Peter Schweizer's book were excerpted. There were also pieces like it in USA Today and the NYT. Those are obviously mainstream media outlets and not as easy to dismiss as newsmax.

The more we run from the debate, the more we allow "them" to frame it. They look for diversions such as Gore's personal life to avoid discussing the real issue. Gore needs to break out of the traditional politician mold and answer such questions head on....and be completely unapologetic. Just say yeah....thats the way it is.

There are a few other things I would like to hear him say, but probably not in polite company. :P

That is how the swift boaters do things.

Get it printed by their papers, then have conservative talking point columnists
repeat it in the NY Times. Big whoopdeedoo.


George Bush has killed 100,000 people or more in his term, that is important.
George Bush lies to get into war.
Bill Clinton got himself impeached.

That is important.

Is this the best they can come up with?

Shows you how scared the republicans, the gas companies and the Clinton's are of Al Gore running.
To have their attack dogs out


(btw- I put the clinton's in this because that stops someone from using the excuse
well, Bill Clinton got away with this and that. No, I never liked Bill Clinton, so I feel no obligation to have false loyalty to him, so that doesn't work with my answer.IMHO of course). And of course IMHO his wife is the main opposition to Al for 2008. Perhaps the only opposition we need worry about.)

By the way-
These days, the New York Times is no friend to democrats or Al Gore as a whole.

When Al Gore gave his major speech on Martin Luther King day, not one word was printed in the now rightwing New York Times. In the old days it was more to the left, but after the last few events, it has changed.

Any drivel Hillary says is printed, but any substance from a democrat is completely ignored.

So again, saying a swift-boat book was picked up by USA today or the NYTimes is meaningless, because neither is a friend to democrats, and both have some of the most ultra-conservative hacks on their staffs.

Why does George Bush take 100s of campaign fundraisers a year using 40 limos
and helicopters and planes?

I agree with what you said, erapp. And it's important for people to know that Gore isn't saying that we need to make huge changes in our lives to be able to change the direction things are going. So what if he owns three houses? If he didn't own them, someone else would. The houses are still there. That doesn't mean they're running the AC or heat all the time at all three houses, does it? And I'd be surprised if he didn't use the curly-cue fluorescent lightbulbs in his residences. Besides, I think he gets a pass for doing so much to educate people about the problem. But I'm sure he's living as green a life as he'd expect others to live.

Here's a good rebuttal to the article in question:

http://consciousearth.blogspot.com/2006/08...crosshairs.html

Sunday, August 13, 2006
Al Gore in the Conservative Crosshairs

Proving their deftness with manipulation and hypocrisy, the Conservative propoganda machine is continuing to fire on all cylinders in its relentless and manufactured assualt on Al Gore and the movie that has catapulted global warming into the forefront of human awareness.

In a USA Today column widely cited by conservative websites and blogs, Peter Schweizer compiles a largely distorted and baseless assualt on the credibility of Al Gore. Rather than recognizing the success of his impact on the global warming debate, and his personal leadership in embracing a carbon neutral lifestyle, Mr. Schweizer instead attempts to paint Mr. Gore as an environmental hypocrit by focusing on three irrelevant details of his personal consumption habits and the peripheral environmental impacts of his business and investments.

As with most right wing smear efforts, the article entirely misses the point. Al Gore is championing action against global warming, not recycling, not sustainable mining, and not the green character of the democratic party. What he is doing is advocating explicit action to curb and control carbon emissions, and he is living his life 100% consistently with this aim by going carbon neutral. This is the entire point behind Kyoto and other efforts, not to prescribe what we should and should not do or consume, but rather the leverage the power and innovation of the free market and allow businesses and citizens the maximum amount of flexibility in bringing our carbon impact under control.

The so called free market champions of the right should be embracing these efforts, but instead they are showing their true motivation and hypocrisy. The modern conservative movement does not believe in free markets, human innovation or freedom itself. What is at the heart of modern conservativism is the world's most complex and well funded propoganda machinery, whose sole purpose is to misdirect people's values into thinking we can anything without facing consequences, while bolstering the power base of the fossil fuel and military industries. And each time a threat to that structure bubbles to the surface, the full power of that propaganda machinery is turned loose against it.

Al Gore has now found his way into the crosshairs of that machinery, during a time of the current Bush administration where the right has perfected the manipulation of disinformation and the world of truth and fact has been ground in its gears. For decades, the right wing has built up grass root support, funding and a massive public relations infrastructure that can now be turned against any threat to its interests. Now the progressive community in general, and the blogging community in particular, is charged with providing the counterbalance - to build a network that can face this well tuned conservative machinery and support the true champions of progress, human freedom, and a sustainable world.

That begins by taking a stand against the systematic smearing of true leadership. Provide your feedback to the original article here, and email Peter Schweizer at peter.schweizer@stanford.edu and let him know your opinions on his style of journalism.

And here's another one:

http://www.politicalcortex.com/story/2006/8/15/83429/1339

Where is the blogosphere in standing up for Al Gore?
08/15/2006 08:34:29 AM EST

A few days ago this hit piece on Al Gore was printed in USA Today. Unfortunately, I haven't seen much of anything of a response from the blogosphere or supposed Al Gore support venues in defending this good man and standing up to these Conservative shills for all of the talk that they would have Al's back this time... I suppose it is obvious now that was only said in context if he decided to run for "political" office to fulfill their fantasies. If not, then he can twist in the wind.

Anyway, this is my reply because I think this brand of character assassination needs to be responded to. I also believe it is being exacerbated in part because certain blogs, groups, and the media for their own selfish reasons have done their damndest to continually speculate about him running for President and tying his movie to that, even though he has continually and sincerely stated this is not a political movie and is meant to reach out to all Americans regardless of politics, because it IS that important.
Therefore, by continuing to speculate and prognosticate without facts by tying this movie in with it, I believe the negative and personal press against Al Gore coming out of this is also hurting progress on this issue. I also believe there is another reason to all of this, and I divulge that below. And it angers me as a supporter of this man but more importantly as someone who is taking this issue and this crisis seriously, because it is unfair to this issue and to Mr. Gore.

The trash piece:



Gore Isn't Quite As Green As He's Led Others To Believe
My response:

Well, it would appear that Mr. Schweizer is a Conservative author who is a member of the Hoover Institute. His Hoover Institute Bio. Only Republicans would name an institute after a President who brought us the Great Depression... But I digress...

Anyway, his current book, "Do as I Say Not As I Do", (which BTW is not number one on the NY Times bestseller list because Al Gore's book is, was lauded by Bill O'Reilly.) Right there that gives you much insight into why he wrote this piece of sh**. Also, the Occidental stock and zinc mine "talking points" were already debunked during the last Gore Presidential campaign. Do they truly not get that Al Gore is not campaigning politically here?

I had previously stated on my forum that I was going to write a rebuttal on this tripe and send it to him. Now I'm thinking about not doing that after coming across this information simply because it would only be a waste of my time to do so. It is obvious he was put up to it, and it is simply just part of the typical ignorant response from most of the media Conservatives who are bigger hypocrites than those they write about. However, they exemplify so well the reason why Al Gore had to make this movie and write this book in the first place...because they simply don't give a damn about this planet. Hmm, maybe he should contact Pat Robertson, who seems to be a global warming convert now and ask him if he has a "green" home, or if he is exempt because he has an "in" with the big guy upstairs.

I also notice in looking at Mr Schweizer's areas of expertise that the environment isn't one of them. Perhaps that is why in this sorry excuse for an article he didn't even touch upon the scientific facts in the movie or attempt to show the reader he has any sort of knowledge on the topic whatsoever....because he doesn't have any.

So now we pretty much know why he instead attempted to paint Mr. Gore as some sort of hypocrite simply because he doesn't peddle a bike everywhere he goes and lives in a mud hut. This while he is more than likely driving an SUV himself as he spews his hot air all over the place. If his logic wasn't so pathetic, it would look downright desperate ... come to think of it, it is. It is about as desperate as that EXXON hit video that was on You Tube about a week ago. Sad.

However, if we can get anything out of this hit piece it is this. Substance is definitely lost on these people. God, they make it so easy, don't they? But hey, Mr. Schweizer, let us know when you go green... then maybe the mud (or actually that other substance) you fling at others won't smell so foul on you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Then of course, I find this hit piece spreading all over the country faster than any real response from Progressives in backing him or this issue up. This is one example I responded to this past Sunday:


Gore isn't so green: Unless you count the color of money
This was my response to them whuch of course won't be printed because only hit pieces are allowed:

Why are you continuing to feed this misrepresentation of Mr. Gore's words and attacking his character? Is Peter Schweizer "green?" What does he drive? How does he live his life? Does he even know what carbon neutral means? Does he also know that Mr. Gore is giving all of his profits from this book and movie to the Alliance for Climate Protection, which is a bi-partisan organization started by Mr. Gore and Theodore Roosevelt's grandson to bring this issue to the forefront? Of course not. Why should facts get in the way of his feces throwing?

This project isn't just some lame attempt to make money like RW pundits do in writing Liberal attack books. This is about bringing a clear and present danger regarding our sustainability to people of all political persuasions who need to know it. Of course, I do understand how that inconvenient truth has raised the hackles of those who make their living on keeping people in the dark, hence tripe like this being written.

And BTW, may I remind your readers that Al Gore's book An Inconvenient Truth is still number one on the NY Times bestseller list. I think Mr. Schweizer wrote some obscure book his article referred to that isn't even close... HMMM, do I detect a bit of jealousy here as well? Where are the profits from Mr Schweizer's book ( if there are any) going btw? His pocket? Talk about hypocrisy.

It is clear to me that this is a concerted effort by the same old crowd to put Mr. Gore under a microscope personally in order to escape having to discuss the scientific facts of this movie because they cannot be disputed. It is the same type of character assassination of Al Gore that took place in 2000, and if it wasn't so desperate it would be funny.

This also isn't just his information as much as it is the scientists who have been studying this for the last twenty plus years and warning people what would happen if we continue, if we ALL continue our rapacious way of living. Mr. Gore is the messenger for all of the scientists from the IPCC, to the ACIA, down to NASA who have been saying this for years! Many of whom like Jim Hanson, have been intimidated by the Bush administration which definitely has an aversion to the truth.

928 peer reviewed scientific papers conclude that humans are contributing to the continued exacerbation of the conditions that are causing this climate crisis. They are there to read if Mr. Schweizer cares to write substance instead of high school bully rhetoric. And when Schweizer and his ilk begin noting their own lifestyles for all to see and start riding bikes wherever they go and living in mud huts, maybe diversionary tripe like this won't sound as desperate as it is.

The climate crisis we face is real and its effects are now being felt globally. Hit pieces like this do absolutely nothing to further action on this issue, and are a great disservice to the people. Mr. Gore is doing something as a private citizen to raise awareness of an issue that has been kept in the shadows for way too long. And I for one support his work and join with him in it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And in reading all of this after a couple of days and watching it gain momentum, I had to wonder. Why all the Gore bashing on this topic? I mean, Jim Hanson who worked for NASA and originally claimed we may only have a ten year window to work with regarding this climate crisis isn't being questioned about his lifestyle or the size of his house... Neither is Tom Brokaw, Bill Clinton (who started a climate organization on August 1st clearly to steal attention from Al Gore) Robert Kennedy Jr., Robert Redford, or any of these socalled "green" celebrities like Julia Roberts, Brad Bitt, or Baba Streisand who lives in a mansion... So why the constant ganging up on Al Gore?

Well, I think I know why Al Gore is the target and now the poster boy to hit regarding this issue and it has nothing to do with this issue. Do you SERIOUSLY think those trashing him give a damn about global warming? It is because he went against the status quo in 2000 and continued to fight to have votes counted for the RIGHT reason...because he actually wanted them counted. You see, I believe Al Gore was coronated by the elitists in 2000 who thought he would be a soft touch. He had played the game in Washington DC for a while so they thought he was totally "one of them" and would be pliant to the will of the warmongering corporate masters who really run this country.

Then he changed his campaign strategy towards the end and angered the masters because he gained momentum by doing so, so they had to do something to keep him out because as the more prescient among us know, a truly good decent man with morals and a conscience will NEVER be President of this country with the masters running it. Which is why all of the wheel spinning now is a complete waste of time unless those spinning them intend to go after the masters first. Yeah, good luck with that.

And they got fooled because Al Gore stood up to them until he couldn't go anywhere further legally, and he put the Republicans (and I believe some Democratic enablers and accomplices from the DLC) and the masters in a tight spot...so they spit him out. Given no support to run in 2004 he declined to run, and he will not get that support again unless he becomes one of them because the same masters still run the show. However, try making certain people understand that (even though signs of it are all around us) and that you then have to find a new way around the masters ,which he is doing now thus angering them again because they thought they had shut him up.

Anyway, what Al Gore did in 2000 by actually standing up (and at one point I believe he even filed a suit against Democrats in one county in Florida which shows you this was NOT partisan to him) went against the status quo of the two headed monster in DC. So now you have the paid shills on one side going after him, and the complicit shillsin the Democratic Party and those on blogs who have only now used his movie for "political" gain on the other letting it go on which is only perpetuating the speculation which is taking away from SERIOUS debate on the crisis we face. Nice way to have his back. Just like in 2000 when his own Party leadership abandoned him.

And of course, look at the stigmatism on Bush not only from this illegal war and his crimes against our Constitution... now no matter what Bush is remembered for, he will ALWAYS be remembered by millions for being an ILLEGITIMATE pResident that needed his daddy's pals to steal it for him because he couldn't win it fairly. So of course, Al Gore will be a target no matter what he does because he is someone who wouldn't play by their rules.

And it would also seem that the hype of his movie is just about over already on the blogs for all of their "we will have your back this time Al" rhetoric, so it's back to ignoring Mr. Gore 's work especially since he claimed he has no intention of running for political office. It only matters if his documentary is number three in all time ticket sales and his book is number one on the NY Times bestseller list if it can be used to win elections for Democrats. Don't then wonder why we sabotage ourselves on these important issues.

Politicizing THIS issue is hurting progress on it. Period. That in and of itself speaks volumes to me about why the blogs were buzzing about him just a couple of months ago, and now, nothing. And I suspect I was again correct... if people on "political" blogs can't find any use for the movie "politically" they don't care. And by not really standing up on this issue we only leave the door open for shills like Peter Schweizer to do all in their power to divert from it and cast others as hypocrites.

So yes, continue to tell people that the 2000 coup is an issue we can't discuss or one that is beating a dead horse, or would be forgotten in any other race he ran, even though we see it everyday behind the words of those who still attack Al Gore. And tell me again that he could actually run for President and have a campaign that was focused on issues...and tell me the media can be changed....and tell me politics is above board and everyone really cares about this issue...Then tell the truth. If people can't even stand up to them with this...well...

Looks like nothing has really changed.

Progressive blogs should be standing up for this man they claim they love so much out of principle, not because they just think he is going to run for political office. However, I have yet to see that and I find it to be very disingenuous and discouraging.

Al Gore is standing up for all of us at a time in his life when he doesn't have to for the right reasons. I think it's time it was reciprocated for the right reasons.

I am not surprised you couldn't find anything about that zinc mine on the web. I think it is about time we realized the way that Google works, and how it is used by the right wing.

While I once PMed an administrator of new computer help forum, he said that when a computer problem was brought up on the board and one of the members came up with a solution, the administrators all Googled the successful answer. The reason the board administrtors did that, of course, is that when anyone Googles for a answer to that problem, Google will put the board's answer at the top of the list and people will be directed to the board.

The method works, and the board now has many members. Which is good.

What is not good is that the right wing clearly is doing the same thing. I have very little doubt that there are bunches of right wing lackeys out there Googling Newsmax, CNS, World Net Daily and all the rest over and over, so that when anyone wants to Google an issue, all you get are pages and pages of the these articles again and again.

Ever try to search on Google for an answer to a question and all you see is the same posts from Free Republic repeated over and over? Gee, I wonder how that happens.

The right wingers have been ahead of us in this for some time. Maybe it is time for Gore supporters specifically, and Democrats in general, to start Googling some favorable articles on purpose just to get them higher up on the Google page.

I think it would make quite a difference.

Excellent post, tinkerer. :clap: