Category Archives: Al Gore

Happy Birthday C-SPAN!

cspan_wj_conyers_dsm_050616-011

C-SPAN and Congress are celebrating their 30th anniversary!  C-SPAN first aired from the House on March 19, 1979, and according to Roll Call, “Tennessee Democratic Rep. Al Gore was first to speak live on the House floor.”

C-SPAN 2 went on the air on June 2, 1986, and the two channels have been vital in giving the public greater access to their government.

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Star Gores by Rebecca Egler

There once was a heat wavering all over space-
Too balmy, so sweaty, plus increasing pace!
But maybe this grey, evil ship
Is truly green after sip
And thus Lord Vader has shown some community grace.

Posted in Al Gore, Blog, Energy, Environment, Limerick, Torture | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Shocker Poll – Arizona in Play?

Two polls today show Obama within either a 5 or 4 points deficit of McCain… Remember how much it sucked that Al Gore lost his home state?

I do.

It sucked.

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From the NY Times: A Devastating Look at "Conservatives"

The Mask Slips

Published: October 10, 2008 

The lesson for Americans suffused with anxiety and dread over the crackup of the financial markets is that the way you vote matters, that there are real-world consequences when you go into a voting booth and cast that ballot.

Bob Herbert

For the nitwits who vote for the man or woman they’d most like to have over for dinner, or hang out at a barbecue with, I suggest you take a look at how well your 401(k) is doing, or how easy it will be to meet the mortgage this month, or whether the college fund you’ve been trying to build for your kids is as robust as you’d like it to be.

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Obama Veepstakes: Wht up, J Biden is my VP. TTYL.

Joe Biden doing his best McCain.

The big veepstakes decision is imminent. Barack Obama could be hitting up our cellie in mere moments. Who is excited?!

To hold you over until the big unveiling, NYMagazine just published a roundup of predictions.

•NYMag thinks we’ll be seeing this text in our inbox tomorrow: “Wht up, J Biden is my VP. TTYL.”

• Jonathan Cohn thinks that picking Biden “would speak well of Obama’s judgment,” as Biden has a “deep and impressive resume” and is a “bona fide expert on foreign policy.” On the downside, he “has a habit of straying off message and making impolitic comments.” [Plank/New Republic]

• Ezra Klein is so high on Biden that he reruns an old post outlining why he’d be a good pick, noting that the only thing that’s changed is that “Obama has shown himself more, not less, in need of an attack dog able to engage McCain on national security.” [American Prospect]

• John Nichols agrees that “[e]vents in Georgia and Pakistan have made the prospect that Obama will choose” Kaine or Sebelius, two governors, less likely. Bayh also probably doesn’t fit the bill because he lacks “foreign policy stature.” That leaves Biden, Clinton, and, yes, there’s even “been a bit of Al Gore buzz.” Regardless, we can expect Obama’s choice to be “safe.” [Campaign '08/Nation]

• Michael Crowley is still kind of hoping for Al Gore. Is it curious that Gore is still absent from the convention speaking list? [Stump/New Republic]

• Dan Balz writes that Tim Kaine may have been hurt by the reemergence, with the Russia-Georgia conflict, of national security matters as a priority in a running mate. Kathleen Sebelius is still risky because it would anger Hillary Clinton’s supporters if Obama picked a woman other than Clinton. [WP]

• Mark Silva contends Obama’s veep needs “a certain measure of excitement,” and ability to “rekindle that fire.” Biden and Bayh are lacking in that regard. Kaine, a fresh face, might be able to “fill the bill of the excitement of the newcomer on the national stage.” [Swamp/Chicago Tribune]

• Michael Moore claims a surefire way for Obama to lose the election is to “[p]ick a running mate who is a conservative white guy or a general or a Republican.” [Rolling Stone]

• Adam Nagourney and Jeff Zeleny pare the veep finalist list down to three: Biden, Bayh, and Kaine. All three choices reflect that “Obama is likely to choose someone relatively safe and avoid taking a chance with a game-changing selection.” Obama has to make a big choice between “someone who would fill perceived holes in his résumé” and someone “who would reinforce his promise of change or one who might help him win a contested state.” [NYT]

• Nate Silver wonders if the Obama campaign is laying the ground for a surprise pick, considering that all of the reports on the veep finalists seem to be about the same people and are pretty vague. But the surprise pick would have to be an “A-lister” — meaning Clinton, Gore, John Kerry, Colin Powell, or two people who have pulled their names out and would produce a lot of shock value: Mark Warner and Jim Webb. [Five Thirty Eight]

• Taylor Marsh also “wouldn’t be shocked to be surprised by his choice,” and is still convinced that Clinton is his best option. [Taylor Marsh]

• Patrick Healy admits there’s a lot to overcome, and there’s little indication that it could happen, but speculates that it’s still within the realm of possibility that Obama is planning a huge splash by picking Clinton. [NYT]

[poll id="11"]

Posted in Al Gore, America, Blog, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John McCain, Unfounded Speculation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Liberal media my rear

It’s been pretty apparent to me that the media have been giving John McCain a free pass for the better part of a decade now.  Though McCain, and the right-wing talkers trod out tired old lines about the “liberal media,” a study shows the media are systematically harder on Barack Obama than they are on John McCain.  It’s a repeat of 2000 where the media fell over itself to ignore  misstatements and downright lies by  George Bush while  harping on any gaffe by Al Gore.  This analysis, which compares positive and negative stories for each candidate, comes in addition to research showing that subtle visual cues overwhelmingly work against Democrats in the mainstream media.

The right-wing lied about media bias over and over until their story was finally accepted as true.  Even the media itself started to believe it, or at least fear that their viewers and readers did.  As a result, the media, has slowly, involuntarily, even accidentally moved to the right.  Unless countered by facts like the ones in this study, the continual cry of media bias will continue moving media outlets further and further to the right.

Posted in Al Gore, Barack Obama, Blog, George W. Bush, John McCain, The Media | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

It was only a matter of time…

OMG AL GORE AL GORE AL GORE AL GORE AL GORE AL GORE AL GORE OMG

Posted in Al Gore, Barack Obama, Blog, Detroit | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Obama In Detroit

A Happy Family with Papa Gore

“Take it from me… elections matter”

~ Vice President Al Gore endorsing Senator Barack Obama last night at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

Last night Al Gore joined Barack Obama and Jennifer Granholm on stage in Detroit in front of a packe crowd of 20,000 Obama supporters. Obama’s third visit to the state in a month has reinforced that he is going to fight tooth and nail to keep this state in the blue column.

A few things were significant about about last night…

1) This is the second time Obama orchestrated a major endorsement in Michigan – the first one being the infamous John Edwards endorsement. It used to be Obama would announce a big endorsement when  Clinton was about to grab the news in a big way, but with the primary over there are other reasons they announced this today.

This was meant to further activate Detroit, which many have seen as a difficult target considering Obama’s potential surrogate Kwame Kilpatrick is radioactive. Geographically I think it is important to note these two big names were released on both the west and east side of the state. Barack Obama is going to put the entire state into play, and he is going to do it in a big way.

Pushing Al Gore in Detroit sends a big message to the auto makers… Don’t be complacent. Obama is making it clear global warming will be a priority and that the auto industry isn’t going to be ignored in the way Bush was adept at ignoring it.

2) Jennifer Granholm – a former staunch Clinton supporter spoke before Gore and Obama in order to bring Clinton supporters back into the party. Granholm gave a “mad as hell” speech that concluded with her takin offer her navy pump and declared:

“These high heels have carried a lot of weight for first women everywhere. But I’m proud to say that I’m supporting Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States.”

Many were worried that her initial endorsement of Obama via press release indicated that this was the extent of how Governor Granholm was going to support Obama. Yesterday Granholm accompanied Obama to both Flint and Detroit campaigning for him all the way… Ah party unity feels so right.

Posted in Al Gore, Barack Obama, Blog, Detroit, Jennifer Granholm | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Complicit Solicit by Rebecca Egler

You would think in light of this East Coast heat wave,
We’d all settle down, listen to Al Gore, and behave.
But instead I watch smog spitting cars,
Bottled water and other eco-flesh scars.
Yet I can’t even chide when canned seltzer’s what I crave.

Posted in Al Gore, Blog, Energy, Limerick | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fairness and the Electoral College

I read an article that made me rather angry here: here. I disagreed with him on the merits, that the electoral college favored Kerry, but also on the level of analysis he did on the electoral college.

There is an argument to be made about the merits of the electoral college against the popular vote. In general, I lean towards the popular vote side for reasons that will soon become apparent. I will readily concede Mellman’s point that in this one case, Kerry could have lost the popular vote and won the electoral college. It took a set of unique circumstances with a Democratic candidate who did not have the broadest appeal and a Republican president who played almost solely to his base. I accept what his computer said, but in my mind, Kerry should have lost the election by 12 votes. To understand this, we must first look at and criticize the electoral college.

The electoral college is rather simple. Each state is entitled to its total number of senators and representatives in electors who assemble to elect the president. An absolute majority of 270 of a grand total of 538 is needed to elect somebody president without throwing the election into the House of Representatives. It was designed like this for two main reasons:
a. They didn’t trust the people. This was a way to remove selection of the presidency from direct election of the people and put it in the hands of people who were removed from the rabble.
b. It reflects the Connecticut Compromise which struck a balance between the House and Senate and representation based on the states and based on population.

Both of these have intense problems. A. has led to the idea of “faithless electors”. Out of many stupid ideas that have been come up with in the Constitution, this is probably top 5. The people selected as electors are not obligated to vote for the candidate for whom they have been selected. Though it has not affected the ultimate outcome of any election, it is an absolutely ludicrous and unjustifiable process with the potential to. For instance, both John Kerry and Al Gore did not receive all the electoral votes that they were entitled to because electors in DC and Minnesota respectively decided to not vote for them for some petty reason.

That having been said, that provision, though immeasurably stupid, has not had an impact upon American history. The other provision has. The point of including the amount of senators for each team was to provide a body for equal representation for all states. This is something profoundly undemocratic. There is something to be said for giving states a voice within a federal legislative body. However, when looking at the presidency, it becomes something different all together. The president represents the entire nation. The electoral college has the effect of making the votes of voters in smaller states far more valuable than those in larger states like California. To see it, let’s go to the numbers.

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Posted in Al Gore, Blog, Elections, George W. Bush | Tagged , , | 3 Comments