During an interview set to air on this Sunday’s 60 Minutes, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said that people need to get over the court’s 5-4 decision to select George Bush over Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election:
Scalia repeated his earlier statement that people should “get over” the court’s ruling in 2000 that halted Florida’s vote recount, giving the presidential election to Republican Bush over Democrat Al Gore.
“I say nonsense,” Scalia said, when asked about critics who say the 5-4 ruling was based on politics and not justice. “Get over it. It’s so old by now.” Read on…
This is an insult to America and the planet. The death and destruction that George Bush and his regime have unleashed since his selection will take decades, perhaps generations to repair and Scalia has the nerve to say something like this? Our Constitution is being shredded, our military is broken and bogged down in two failing military conflicts that have left hundreds of thousands dead, our economy is in the tank with more Americans on food stamps and lacking health insurance than at any time in modern history, and we’re supposed to get over it? No, Justice Scalia, we will not get over it — at least not any time soon.
As high profile leaders in the Republican Party go, John McCain deserves some credit for believing that the earth really is warming, and that climate change is real. When it comes to environmental policy, McCain’s votes are pretty unreliable, and his plans to address climate change are sad and thin, but at an absolute minimum, he is willing to admit, publicly, that the scientific data is accurate and cause for concern. In the GOP, this is progress.
But for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to compare McCain favorably to Al Gore just makes him look ridiculous.
“Climate change is the road less traveled but he’s traveled it even more than Al Gore,” Graham said. “Al Gore has talked about it and deserves great recognition but he was around here a long time and never introduced a bill.”
Let me get this straight. Al Gore has done less than John McCain when it comes to climate change? That’s the new argument from one of McCain’s top campaign surrogates?
It’s bad enough to hear Joe Lieberman argue that McCain knows what he’s talking about on Iraq, but Graham is just making a fool out of himself here.
Ben at Think Progress does a fantastic job in shredding Graham’s argument, which Ben said “rings of pure absurdity.”
The United Nations has been meeting this week in Bali to negotiate steps industrialized nations will take to reduce emissions and combat global warming. Predictably, the Bush administration’s delegation is doing what it always does — block progress, stall for time, and undermine the process.
Yesterday, Al Gore was on hand, and didn’t hesitate to take his country’s irresponsible approach to task.
“My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali,” said Gore, who flew to Bali from Oslo, Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping alert the world to the danger of climate change. […]
Gore urged delegates to reach agreement even without the backing of the United States, saying President Bush’s successor, who will take office in January 2009, would likely be more supportive of binding cuts.
“Over the next two years, the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now,” he said. “I must tell you candidly that I cannot promise that the person who is elected will have the position I expect they will have, but I can tell you I believe it is quite likely.”
In other words, “Ignore Bush and strike a compromise now — the United States can catch up once what’s-his-name is gone.”
Indeed, Gore drew a loud ovation when he “reminded delegates that President George W. Bush has only one year and 40 days left in the White House.”
Al Gore was in Oslo, Norway, this morning to pick up his Nobel Peace Prize. If you have a minute, his acceptance speech is well worth reading.
For example, I didn’t realize it, but this week is the seventh anniversary of Gore’s concessions speech after the 2000 race.
Seven years ago tomorrow, I read my own political obituary in a judgment that seemed to me harsh and mistaken – if not premature. But that unwelcome verdict also brought a precious if painful gift: an opportunity to search for fresh new ways to serve my purpose.
Unexpectedly, that quest has brought me here. Even though I fear my words cannot match this moment, I pray what I am feeling in my heart will be communicated clearly enough that those who hear me will say, “We must act.” […]
We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency – a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst – though not all – of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.
However, despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.”
He didn’t mention any names, but we could probably could come up with a few suspects.
This morning on Fox NFL Sunday’s pregame show, co-host and former NFL player, Howie Long, decided it would be a good idea to insult Al Gore to make a point about sports. Not only is this moron’s statement wrong, it’s unprofessional and he should be called out for it. Why do people like Howie and Al Michaels feel the need to mix politics with sports? You can write to FOXSports and tell them what you think about Howie’s hackery.
Long:”…Mike Martz suffers from a rare form of the Al Gore syndrome, where Al still thinks he’s the president and Mike Martz still thinks he’s the head coach…”
*Note to Keith Olbermann - If you’re looking for someone for your Worst Person In The NFL segment tonight, I think Howie is your man…
That’s right…the rightful President was invited to go to the office stolen from him. Boy, this had to be awkward. Bush has such a chip on his shoulder, I can’t imagine him being a big enough man to keep from making some snarky or insulting remark.
Al Gore slipped out the side door of the West Wing.
In his private Oval Office meeting with President Bush, the former vice president insisted that they had spoken about global warming “the whole time.” It wasn’t clear if the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who shared the honor for his work on climtate change, was serious.[..]
But Gore, calling the meeting with Bush “very cordial” and “substantive,” declined to elaborate on their meeting. “I’m not going to do an interview here,” Gore said in his walk down the streets outside the White House. “I don’t want to comment more.”[..]
Gore also has been outspoken in his criticism for other administration policies, most notably the war in Iraq.
The White House insists the president holds no ill will toward Gore, who carried his challenge of the outcome of the 2000 election to the Supreme Court.
“I don’t believe so,” Bush Press Secretary Dana Perino said of any “bad blood” between the two. “I know this president does not harbor any resentments. He never has.”
Jon Stewart and Senior Peacetime Correspondent John Oliver look at the absurdity of the coverage of Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize win, and can only blame it on the politics of the “liberal elite” in charge of the award.
OLIVER: No doubt the Nobel Committee is suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome, using this award as a personal bitch slap after the Commander in Chief. They’ve done it before. Remember Mother Teresa? Yowza!
STEWART: Mother Teresa’s Peace Prize, that was controversial?
OLIVER: It was a slap in the face to Mother Sophia. She worked her whole life with tuberculosis sufferers in Bombay. But you know the liberal elites. If it ain’t leprosy, they ain’t interested. But Mother Teresa, she milked those lepers for all they were worth. And the media just lapped it up.
STEWART: Alright John…that’s just….please, let’s just move on and…
Stephen Colbert looks at Al Gore’s recent Nobel win and rather ingeniously suggests that all the Gore Derangement Syndrome may be disguising Gore’s guilt in hogging the most precious resource of all: good will and the global prizescape.
Clearly, anti-Bush sentiment is fueling Al Gore’s rampant and wanton destruction of the global prizescape. Nation, if we want to preserve the splendor of congratulatory pageantry of generations, it is our sacred task to conserve hatred of President Bush, measured in BHUs, or Bush Hate Units.
Rockridge Nation: Isn’t the “real” story about what winning this prize means for Al Gore? Shouldn’t we be talking about his prospects for the ‘08 Presidency? A quick scan of major news sources shows that this is the main focus of discourse here in the U.S. …
The big story today is that the Nobel Peace Prize recognizes the climate crisis as a genuine threat to humanity. It now has official standing along with the proliferation of nuclear weapons, conflict in the Middle East, landmines, and poverty as something that causes harm to people within and beyond conflict zones. Read more…
Nicole noted the first few minutes of Fox News Sunday yesterday, and just how angry the conservative Republicans were about Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Kristol disparaged Gore and the Nobel prize itself, saying “it’s a prize given by bloviators to a bloviator.” Charles Krauthammer insisted the award goes to “people whose politics are either anti-American or anti-Bush, and that’s why [Gore] won it.”
These pundits were obviously bitter, much the same way National Review’s Iain Murray was late last week, when he suggested Gore share his award with Osama bin Laden, “who implicitly endorsed Gore’s stance” in a September video harangue. (Apparently, to accept global warming is to embrace a terrorist philosophy.)
It led Paul Krugman to ask a good question: “What is it about Mr. Gore that drives right-wingers insane?”
The headline on Krugman’s piece is entirely appropriate: “Gore Derangement Syndrome.” The whole “derangement syndrome” phenomenon stems from an increasingly common problem — when contempt for a leader strays from simple political opposition to irrational, reflexive antagonism. If so-and-so says “day,” I’ll say “night,” even if the sun is shining. It’s more important to fight the perceived opponent than to make sense.
And for far too long, that’s exactly how the right has approached Gore and the science on global warming. The evidence must be wrong, because Gore believes it. The Nobel Peace Prize must be worthless, because Gore won it.
These aren’t arguments. They’re sad and nonsensical temper-tantrums.
Awwww, the poor widdle neo-cons have their pretty pink knickers in a twist over being forced to call Al Gore “Mr. Nobel Laureate”. It’s so hard to be on the absolutely wrong side of EVERY issue, isn’t it? As the comedy duo of Kristol and Krauthammer try to detract from Gore’s win by dismissing his work as “bloviation,” smearing him by association with other award winners (I note with no little amusement that Krauthammer names Arafat but NOT his buddy, Kissinger) and denouncing the Nobel Committee as some sort of leftist organization–pretty much throwing up as much mud as possible to see what sticks.
The sole voice of sanity (and that’s not saying much), Juan Williams accuses the blood-thirsty, amoral war-mongers Bush apologists (nah, I don’t like them very much, can you tell?) of enjoying their little wine (whine?) of sour grapes. Me? I think it’s Gore Derangement Syndrome…they are just out of their head because they backed the wrong horse. Think for a moment they’d be so dismissive if Bush or Petraeus had won the award?
Ah, you have to love the predictability of Pravda FOX News Channel. When Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize, you KNOW they started scrambling to find ways to diminish him. And Friday, they found their mouthpiece in the conservative NY Sun’s Seth Gitell.
Gitell thinks that the Nobel committee awarded the Peace Prize to the wrong American, arguing that it should have gone to…wait for it…Gen. David Petraeus.
So the general presiding over a horrendous civil war of our own making, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and the displacement of millions more, not to mention the deaths of more than 3,800 American troops should be given the Peace Prize???
I don’t think that even Orwell could have imagined FOX News.
Climate change campaigner Al Gore and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Congratulations to Al Gore! His office has issued this statement (from an email):
I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change–the world’s pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis–a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.
My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.
Al Gore still hasn’t definitively ruled out a bid for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president — and until he does, one hopeful California group is assuming no news is good news.
California Draft Gore, a grassroots political action committee, has hatched a plan to get their reluctant candidate off of theoretical fantasy polls and onto a real-life primary ballot.
Capitalizing on a provision of the state election law which allows for any name to be placed on a ballot provided enough signatures in favor of that candidate are secured, volunteers will begin scrambling next week to get 26,500 registered Democrats — 500 from each of California’s 53 congressional districts — to sign off on the former vice president before a Dec. 4 deadline. Read more…
(Nicole): Here’s a blast from last year to remind you of what a Gore presidency would be like.
(h/t 99 for vid. by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at Live Earth)
Malkin, fresh from her idiotic “shamnesty” talking point has a new one… “global Gore-basm.” I’m not joking. It must be the science of Global Warming that really bothers them. Reality has no place for the wingers. And their pals from the CEI are stepping up to the plate to attack the Live Earth Concerts…
Vice President Gore appeared on NBC’s 
Via