Gore in the News - Weekend Edition, June 16 & 17, 2007

Today's quote . . .

"[If we subscribe to] the idea that we have entered a perpetual state of war, the implications of this theory stretch as far into the future as we can imagine. These claims must be rejected, and a healthy balance of power restored to our Republic. Otherwise, the fundamental nature of our democracy may well undergo a radical transformation." - Al Gore, Assault on Reason

Today's talk . . .

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1075
Top Dems Catch Giuliani In '08 Presidential Race, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds - 6/8/07
The top three Democratic presidential contenders all have caught up with former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the Republican leader: New York Sen. Hillary Clinton gets 45 percent to Giuliani's 44 percent; Illinois Sen. Barack Obama ties Giuliani 42 - 42 percent and (polling best against Giuliani) f ormer Vice President Al Gore gets 45 percent to Giuliani's 43 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=13151&channel=0
Al Gore to present green awards
Mr Gore said in a statement: "The Ashden Awards are a powerful reminder that well designed and managed local sustainable energy initiatives can tackle climate change while meeting the needs of local communities.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/g...307&newsLang=en
Public Relations Campaign Team for Al Gore's Oscar-Winning Film ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Named Public Relations Professionals of the Year by the 31,000-Member Public Relations Society of America
"The public relations campaign created and implemented by this team helped to ignite a worldwide conversation about climate change, and the cultural and social impact has been undeniable," said former Vice President Al Gore on a video clip he prepared for the Silver Anvils to congratulate the public relations team for their extraordinary efforts. "One can' t turn on the news or pick up a paper without reading about the issue and the mobilization of people and corporations working to restore our planet's health. It's a dream come true for me to witness, and I know it would not have been possible without the publicity Megan, Buffy and Mike put into motion. The filmmakers took a slide show and made it a movie. Publicity took that movie and helped make it into a movement."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3281925
Clinton, Gore get rich after leaving White House
McGirt believes Gore's fortune will make him less likely to run for president, because he won't want to answer questions about his business dealings. Another political analyst, however, said that that amount of money would make it easier for Gore to run a campaign.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frances-moor...as_b_52352.html
Baffled by Al Gore's reason
The problem, Gore tells us, arises when wealth can be exchanged for power and it was intractable until the United States arrived on the scene. Then, "for the first time in history, large numbers of individuals were empowered to use knowledge on a regular basis to mediate between wealth and power."

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus....T20070615a.html
Supporters defend Gore climate concerts
. . . six weeks after the concerts, an "audit" would be carried out of the environmental costs of Live Earth. If needed, the organizers would then buy "carbon credits" to offset the excess CO2 generated.

http://servingiraq.blogspot.com/2007/06/pe...ate-of-war.html
A perpetual state of war
Of the issues on which I agree and disagree with former Vice President Al Gore in his new book The Assault on Reason, one to which I highly subscribe is the unhealthiness of being in "a perpetual state of war" with terrorism.

http://sev.prnewswire.com/publishing-infor...15062007-1.html
Barack Obama Narrows the Gap and Closes in on Hillary Clinton; Al Gore and John Edwards Still a Long Way Behind Them
These are some of the results of a Harris Poll of 3,304 U.S. adults surveyed online by Harris Interactive® between June 1 and 12, 2007. This survey included 1,196 adults who expect to vote in a Democratic primary or caucus

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/...a_lot_of_s.html
Obama's 'bad news' has a lot of silver linings
Finally, there's the unknown, which can be summed up in two words: Al Gore. Gore is currently polling north of 15 percent. Who does he hurt most by getting in? And if he stays out, where will that 15 percent support go? Unknown.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/9deb730a-19ca-11dc...0b5df10621.html
Freedom, not climate, is at risk
As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not in communism. This ideology wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central (now global) planning.

http://www.bluejersey.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4998
Young Dems presidential straw poll
The New Jersey Young Democrats' Unofficial, Non-Binding "Slurpee Straw" Presidential Poll Results In Descending Order: John Edwards, Barack Obama, Al Gore, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, and Bill Richardson.

http://www.alternet.org/story/54164/
Does the Internet spell the end to political spin?
. . . in an age of declining deference and empowered individuals, most voters will trust the opinion of peers who endorse a politician much more than a "top-down" message.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19140634/site/newsweek/
Guys gone wild
Campaign operatives like to argue that worthy-sounding position papers have nothing to do with governing. Not so. While many challenges and specific policy proposals will likely be different after the election, the only way to build a mandate for transformative change is to begin laying the groundwork during the campaign. And we learn something essential about the candidates from the scope of their visions, even if the boldest ideas usually originate outside the presidential campaign, from books by people like Gore and Bradley, now liberated to think big.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/6/15/83928/4232
The geopolitics of 'energy independence'
If you think that the current governmental and corporate interest in ethanol has something to do with global warming, think again. It is dawning on the U.S. government that (1) most of the remaining supplies of oil are in unfriendly hands, and (2) that there isn't enough oil remaining to feed a constantly growing global demand.