Mark & Juanita said:

Greg G. wrote:

Need I continue?
At least Gore was well meaning, affable, not criminal or on the take.

You seem to have forgotten his "no overriding legal authority" remark vis
a vis a certain bunch of donations from some Buddhist nuns (who supposedly
had taken vows of poverty).

They all seem to have questionable means of finance.
Try getting elected with no funding - whatever the source.
But I'll take points away for that.

He wasn't a hypocritical,

Let's see, jetting around the world in a private Gulfstream while
lecturing the rest of us on our need to reduce our "carbon footprints",
living in a house with annual energy bills greater than the entire income
of many US families again while railing against greenhouse gases and the
need to reduce consumption, pushing people to buy carbon offsets then
buying his own from his own company that sells carbon offsets. Excoriating
oil companies while his own personal wealth was a product of Occidental
oil.

Nope, no self-serving hypocrisy there at all.

OK - I'll deduct another point.

, had a genuine interest in public
service,

If the desire to see and oversee an increasing federal presence in
everyone's personal lives and business constitutes a genuine interest in
public service, yeah, I guess that is as good a description as any.

No different that any other frontrunner. Personally, I'd rather see
small, efficient accountability than what we have now. Yet unbridled
capitalism is as bad a failure to society as is bloated, ineffectual
bureaucracy.

and further, is not even a consideration at this point.

No, he is trying to achieve the same goals through his global warming
scam. His open trashing of the US at the Bali conference is hardly
commendable for a former US VP.

I would hardly call this statement a trashing:

"But the outcome will be decisively influenced by two nations that are
now failing to do enough: the United States and China. While India is
also growing fast in importance, it should be absolutely clear that it
is the two largest CO2 emitters -- most of all, my own country -- that
will need to make the boldest moves, or stand accountable before
history for their failure to act.

Both countries should stop using the other's behavior as an excuse for
stalemate and instead develop an agenda for mutual survival in a
shared global environment."

He is free to speak his mind, whatever his opinion. And the statement
is true in that we are the primary contributors to world resource
consumption, much pollution, and greenhouse gas release. We are pigs
in contrast to the majority of the world by virtue of population and
"standards of living" - for now. Competition for all resources is
rising due to the spread of "modern" standards of living. As they
grow, we lose ground. At some point in the future, it will equalize
somewhat worldwide, but I sure wish it hadn't been during MY lifetime.

Yes,
he was paid well, but I trust his intentions more so than most of the
current crop of miscreants.

Damned if I'd want the job - at any salary. Major portions of this
country have become a morass of the most loudmouthed, arrogant,
misguided, unappreciative, simplistic louts in the free world; who
really need to get over the shrieking media whores and form
conclusions based on facts - or reasonable facsimiles thereof.

I get the fact you don't like the other politicians (most notably the
Republican side), but please, Al Gore was another of those people whose
attitude was that he was born and raised to the office (per his father).

OK - I'll concede that he is yet another privileged asshat with an
agenda - possibly more benign than a few others. I've yet to see one
in the last 30 years that wasn't. So where do we turn now?

Personally, I'm for my own personal anarchy on a tropical island full
of scantily, yet tastefully draped women serving margaritas at the
beach. Wind, wave, and solar powered, of course.



Greg G.