The TCPR is a think-tank based in Nashville focused on issues of government accountability, smaller government and lower taxes. The TCPR was recently in the news for being denied state budget figures it requested from the Tennessee Department of Revenue. Revenue department employees in state emails claimed the TCPR was not a “legitimate” group.
Originally posted by Shakka
I dunno. When have I ever claimed to be an environmentalist? I can tell you that my "carbon footprint" is virtually zero compared to Mr. Gore and I don't even have to buy carbon credits to achieve that. I even have my own house and 2 cars. Yay me!
I have my own house and 2 cars.
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No, but it doesn't mean he's beyond reproach either. I'm just calling 'em like I see 'em. God forbid we be honest here.
Sympathy bid / free speech shield
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Yes. I mean he's truly showing us the way with his leadership by example. Christ, gimme a ing break. Can we stop with the Al Gore dick-sucking festival for just 5 minutes puh-lease?
I don't like Al Gore.
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Well if he wasn't constantly being exposed for this exact sort of hypcorisy maybe he wouldn't be such an easy target, eh?
I really don't like Al Gore.
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Hey genius--I haven't blamed anyone for anytyhing other than to point out that monsenior Gore is a flaming bag of alligator poo.
I hate Al Gore.
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Here's a better idea. Let's just play the ole "do as I say, not as I do" game. Waddaya think?
I have my own house and 2 cars.
occrider
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Originally posted by Shakka
I dunno. When have I ever claimed to be an environmentalist? I can tell you that my "carbon footprint" is virtually zero compared to Mr. Gore and I don't even have to buy carbon credits to achieve that. I even have my own house and 2 cars. Yay me!
Methinks you are not understanding the broader concept of the overall message. Gore isn't advocating that people live in trees and give up modern technology because it pollutes. Gore is advocating that people try to attain carbon neutrality by investing in green technology that absorbs the carbon proportionate to what you "spend" in carbon. So attacking Gore because he doesn't travel across the US in a bicycle or because he doesn't correspond on hemp paper is rather pathetic at best because carbon neutrality has nothing to do with extremist environmentalism. It has everything to do with spending money to neutralize your carbon footprint. If you're claiming that your carbon footprint is zero, what measures have you taken to verify that and what measures have you taken to neutralize it much like Gore has done?
josh4
Go Al! Go Al! Go Al!
Q5echo
listen folks, the bottom line is Al consumes 20 times the national average in just one of his homes (he has three. not that that matters). that is EXTREMELY wasteful by any standard.
he cannot purchase credits for that, ok? he purchases credits for the carbon he releases burning jet fuel. a very dubious way of atoning for his self-described "moral" sins.
the man could be just as effective living in a house like Bush's and cutting down on the jet-set speaking tour but he chooses not to. fine. as a Republican, there shouldn't be any reason for me to judge him based soley on that. but i'll be damned if i'm gonna take seriously him telling me how i should live my life based on his "moral" standard.
i don't need that collasal user to tell me about global warming. none of us do. (even you Josh4) and if i don't need him, then i'll damn sure criticize his every move diametrically opposed to what he preaches.
Q5echo
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Originally posted by MisterOpus1
Someone already posted a bit of a refutation of this smear campaign. A few questions do need to be asked:
1. Who is the Tennessee Policy of Research?
Well, prior to this smear campaign, their website received absolutely no traffic:
So this no-name, nonpartisan think tank with no traffic gets an immediate posting by Drudge at 5:16 PM on Monday immediately following Gore's academy win, and almost immediately you see the Right Wing Noise Machine engaging in full gear:
Coordinated smear attack anyone? Look familiar? Have the markings of a one infamous Smear Boat attack of a Democratic Presidential candidate, by chance?
More to munch on - the President of this think tank group is Drew Johnson, the same fella who comes right outa the wonderful "nonpartisan" American Enterprise Institute:
As of Feb. 16th, the Tennessee tax dept. labelled this group "not a legitimate organization" as a result of their deliberate lying on questions about the group's opposition to their state's crackdown on drugs:
And of course we all heard that nonpartisan Rush Limbaugh and slanthead Hannity have their whack at this non-story as well yesterday and today.
Coordinated, and disgusting. One has to ask oneself just how threatening Al Gore really is to these people. He's not even ing running for the Presidency FFS, yet there's just something about that darn environmental message that just gets underneath their skin. Hmmmmm.....
Gore's response is worth noting:
I am curious as to a valid response by the Right Wing Noise Machine on this.
Oh, one last thing - how did this group get a hold of Gore's electricity bill? Is that not uhh, kinda sorta illegal?
any of this is so not the point.
Magnetonium
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Originally posted by Q5echo
any of this is so not the point.
If Gore spent most of his life preaching from his home instead of flying over to places, I'm pretty sure that today there will be less people interested in global warming . The fact that Al Gore talked to many audiences around the world, convinced of threats and offered solutions is way more effective than most other politicians who fly and pollute for the fun of it to make it look like they're doing something while things stay the same. Al Gore has a positive impact, you have to admit, and even bigger credit for that is that he has more credibility because he's not just some crazy radical poor environmentalist this guy is from the "ruling elite", a rich guy who talks like this - quite odd, considering how rich people usually dont give a flying funk about stuff like this. Al Gore is not biased, but for example a crack-addict advocating legalizing drugs is biased. Al Gore doesnt fit this stereotype, but I am sure if he did, he'd be dismissed by some of you guys just because he's a nobody. But instead, some of you pick on him because of his social class, and quite frankly, thats not a solution to the environmental problems either. By blaming Al Gore to be a hypocrite, and then deciding to leave things the way they are is much worse than doing something positive about.
Shakka
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Originally posted by occrider
Methinks you are not understanding the broader concept of the overall message. Gore isn't advocating that people live in trees and give up modern technology because it pollutes. Gore is advocating that people try to attain carbon neutrality by investing in green technology that absorbs the carbon proportionate to what you "spend" in carbon. So attacking Gore because he doesn't travel across the US in a bicycle or because he doesn't correspond on hemp paper is rather pathetic at best because carbon neutrality has nothing to do with extremist environmentalism. It has everything to do with spending money to neutralize your carbon footprint. If you're claiming that your carbon footprint is zero, what measures have you taken to verify that and what measures have you taken to neutralize it much like Gore has done?
Well that's silly. Basically we can all pollute the out of the environment guilt free as long as we throw away enough money to let us all sleep better at night. Tell me how that is geniuinely an honest way to help our environment? How does that help the ozone layer? How does that prevent global warming? If anything it might encourage people to be more reckless knowing that they can just pull out their wallet and everything will still be copacetic, right? THe only thing that gets neutralized is the guilt--the environment still suffers.
I recycle. I drive 10 miles to work and I don't do it in an SUV. I keep my thermostat at 68 in the winter and 78 in the summer. I don't take private jets when I travel.
And yes Josh, I really don't give two s for Gore. Way to read between the lines.;)
Shakka
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Originally posted by Magnetonium
If Gore spent most of his life preaching from his home instead of flying over to places, I'm pretty sure that today there will be less people interested in global warming .
YouTube has a far bigger audience that Gore does. He should give it a try! Do you disagree?
Fir3start3r
I'll join the Gore bashing wagon! This is fun! Gore is not!
Clearly a, 'do as I say and not as I do'
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Gore isn't quite as green as he's led the world to believe
Updated 12/7/2006 5:45 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this
Enlarge By Rusty Kennedy, AP
Former Vice President Al Gore shakes hands with a woman after signing a copy of his book An Inconvenient Truth for her, in Philadelphia last month.
By Peter Schweizer
Correction: In this column that appeared Aug. 10 on the Forum Page, writer Peter Schweizer inaccurately stated that former vice president Al Gore receives royalties from a zinc mine on his property in Tennessee despite his environmental advocacy. He no longer does, as the mine was closed in 2003.
Al Gore has spoken: The world must embrace a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." To do otherwise, he says, will result in a cataclysmic catastrophe. "Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb," warns the website for his film, An Inconvenient Truth. "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tailspin."
ON DEADLINE: Your thoughts?
Graciously, 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. Better still, responsible global citizens can follow Gore's example, because, as he readily points out in his speeches, he lives a "carbon-neutral lifestyle." But if Al Gore is the world's role model for ecology, the planet is doomed.
For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film's distributor, pays this.)
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.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.
Then there is the troubling matter of his energy use. In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy. In Nashville, similar programs exist. Utility customers must simply pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour, and they can continue living their carbon-neutral lifestyles knowing that they are supporting wind energy. Plenty of businesses and institutions have signed up. Even the Bush administration is using green energy for some federal office buildings, as are thousands of area residents.
But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences. When contacted Wednesday, Gore's office confirmed as much but said the Gores were looking into making the switch at both homes. Talk about inconvenient truths.
Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, "Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence." The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has "tried to move people to act." Yet, astoundingly, Gore's persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee.
Maybe our very existence isn't threatened.
Gore has held these apocalyptic views about the environment for some time. So why, then, didn't Gore dump 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. Oxy has been mired in controversy over oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas.
Living carbon-neutral apparently doesn't mean living oil-stock free. Nor does it necessarily mean giving up a mining royalty either.
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 adding large quantities of barium, iron and zinc to the nearby Caney Fork River.
The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. 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.
...and there was a huge front page artile on Gore's hypocracy in our National Post rag but doesn't appear that aricle is online...
XaNaX
I don't care at all about his use of jet fuel or gas to go to and from his speaking engagements. The message he is spreading has value. For me this is the problem:
"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.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself."
Any real, serious environmentalist would not have two massive energy hog homes, especially a 10,000 square foot one. Unless you have 30 kids all living at home its flat out unnecessary and wasteful, I'd love to hear Al justify it in terms of the amount of environmental resources he is using.
The problem here is that Al Gore is, was, and always will be a talking head. Now he is scrambling to install solar panels and energy efficient light bulbs so he does not look like such an idiot. If he really loves the environment so much and wants to save the planet maybe he should look at how Ed Begley Jr. lives and copy what he is doing. I still believe Al Gore's message is valid, the problem is that he is the wrong messenger.
Shakka
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Originally posted by XaNaX
If he really loves the environment so much and wants to save the planet maybe he should look at how Ed Begley Jr. lives and copy what he is doing. I still believe Al Gore's message is valid, the problem is that he is the wrong messenger.
Several good points. And the mention of Ed Begley Jr. gave me flashbacks of St. Elsewhere and his much more comedic invisibile man performance in Amazon Women on the Moon. Woah!
