Gore Rocks Republicans Who Don't Believe in Global Warming

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LyricalDrug

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Gore was incredible yesterday. I geeked out and watched all 4 hours on C-Span last night...


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Some Heated Words for Mr. Global Warming

By Dana Milbank
The Washington Post
Thursday, March 22, 2007; A02


Al Gore, star of an Academy Award-winning film, was in town for a double feature on Capitol Hill yesterday. But instead of giving another screening of "An Inconvenient Truth," the former vice president found himself playing the Clarence Darrow character in "Inherit the Wind."

"You're not just off a little -- you're totally wrong," Joe Barton (Tex.), the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told the former vice president at a hearing on global warming yesterday morning.

"One scientist is quoted as saying, 'This is shrill alarmism,' " said Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.). The reviews only grew more savage when Gore crossed over to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in the afternoon for a second hearing. "You've been so extreme in some of your expressions that you're losing some of your own people," announced Sen. James Inhofe (Okla.), the committee's ranking Republican and the man who has called man-made global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

Inhofe informed Gore that scientists are "radically at odds with your claims." Displaying a photograph of icicles in Buffalo, Inhofe demanded: "How come you guys never seem to notice it when it gets cold? . . . Where is global warming when you really need it?"

Evening was approaching when the ordeal ended and the movie star turned to the committee chairman, Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). "You don't give out any kind of statue or anything?" he inquired.

It was, in many ways, a 21st-century version of the Scopes trial. Only this time, Gore, like William Jennings Bryan a failed Democratic presidential nominee, was playing Darrow, champion of scientific thought. Inhofe was playing the Bryan character, defending his beliefs against the encroachments of foes such as the National Academy of Sciences, the United Nations and the Oscar-hoisting former vice president.

There was opening-night enthusiasm as hundreds lined up to see Gore make his first appearance in the Rayburn House office building. The demand for seats led staffers to set up two overflow rooms. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, by contrast, attracted barely a glance as she arrived for another hearing moments before Gore's appearance.

Gore entered the room with wife Tipper clutching his hand and cowboy boots gripping his feet. His face was puffier, his body thicker and his hair grayer, but he retained his inner wonk. "The concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere up here on Capitol Hill," he announced, "is already 383 parts per million."

He also displayed the passion that made his documentary a hit in Hollywood. "What we're facing now is a crisis that is by far the most serious that we've ever faced," he declared. His eyes narrowing to slits, he proposed a series of questions future generations might ask about the current inaction on greenhouse gases. "What in God's name were they doing?" he asked. "What was wrong with them? Were they too blinded and numbed by the busyness of political life or daily life to take a deep breath and look at the reality of what we're facing?"

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called Gore a "prophet" -- and his Democratic colleagues treated him as such. Gore got a hearty ovation when he visited the House floor during a lunchtime vote.

Republicans found all the fuss rather distasteful. A sour Dennis Hastert (Ill.), the former House speaker, called him "a personality and now a movie star."

"Rin Tin Tin was a movie star," Gore demurred. "I just have a slide show."

Barton informed Gore that some of his ideas "are just flawed." Under Gore's plan, Barton said, "we can have no new industry, no new cars and trucks on the streets, and apparently no new people."

But this was no match for Gore. "The planet has a fever," he lectured Barton. "If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame-retardant. You take action."

The audience laughed. Barton started reading the newspaper, then discovered he wasn't getting much support even from his own side. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) admitted he paid to see "An Inconvenient Truth." Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), implicitly rebuking flat-Earth colleagues, said: "It's possible to be a conservative without appearing to be an idiot." Barton flashed a grin of annoyance.

Over on the Senate side, Inhofe was determined to avoid a fate like Barton's. Given just 12 minutes to question Gore, Inhofe warned him that "I want the same ad-lib time that you have." When Gore didn't answer his questions succinctly enough, Inhofe ordered: "I'm going to ask you to respond for the record in writing."

"Well," said Gore, "if I choose to respond to you verbally here, I hope that'll be okay, too."

"If it's a very brief response," Inhofe directed, then declared that Gore could not answer any questions until Inhofe had finished his allotted time.

Boxer broke in. "You're not making the rules," she said, raising the gavel. "You used to when you had this." The hall filled with applause.

Gore, given ample time to rebut Inhofe, had no shortage of material. "One of the leading scientific experts said the consensus supporting this view on global warming is as strong as anything in science -- with the possible exception of gravity," he said.

The audience laughed. Boxer smiled. Inhofe did not. He left the show early.
 
Republicans found all the fuss rather distasteful. A sour Dennis Hastert (Ill.), the former House speaker, called him "a personality and now a movie star."

"Rin Tin Tin was a movie star," Gore demurred. "I just have a slide show."

Barton informed Gore that some of his ideas "are just flawed." Under Gore's plan, Barton said, "we can have no new industry, no new cars and trucks on the streets, and apparently no new people."

But this was no match for Gore. "The planet has a fever," he lectured Barton. "If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame-retardant. You take action."

The audience laughed. Barton started reading the newspaper, then discovered he wasn't getting much support even from his own side. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.) admitted he paid to see "An Inconvenient Truth." Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), implicitly rebuking flat-Earth colleagues, said: "It's possible to be a conservative without appearing to be an idiot." Barton flashed a grin of annoyance.
 
Taking potshots at him about being a "movie star" and a "personality" just makes them look bad and diminishes their credibility. They ought to stick to arguing the science and the research-but why do that when you can make it partisan politics and insults?

I give Lyrical Drug a gold star for watching that whole thing-30 minutes max and I woulda been outta there.
 
They are playing with our future for their politics, just because they think that their political view has to be different from the other one's.

Inhofe informed Gore that scientists are "radically at odds with your claims." Displaying a photograph of icicles in Buffalo, Inhofe demanded: "How come you guys never seem to notice it when it gets cold? . . . Where is global warming when you really need it?"

That's so laughable, really. How can someone be a high profile politician when his argumentation is kindergarten level?

Today there was snowfall in Berlin, so global warming can't possible happen, because if it's global warming temperatures have to rise by 10°C immediately, and snowfall must never happen again. :|

What a poor state of mind.

"It's possible to be a conservative without appearing to be an idiot."

Yes, and it's even possible to be a politician but not refuse to accept any common knowledge only because your opponent believes the same.
 
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It was, in many ways, a 21st-century version of the Scopes trial. Only this time, Gore, like William Jennings Bryan a failed Democratic presidential nominee, was playing Darrow, champion of scientific thought. Inhofe was playing the Bryan character, defending his beliefs against the encroachments of foes such as the National Academy of Sciences, the United Nations and the Oscar-hoisting former vice president.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called Gore a "prophet" -- and his Democratic colleagues treated him as such

It's official, the Church of Climate Panic has jumped the shark.
 
why dont all the republicans bugger off to some dead planet and fuck it and themselves over in peace and quiet. i'm not being impolite here; it's what they'd love, afterall. no one to tell them they are fucking up the environment, no taxes, god and religion can be government, they can choke on their manufacturing fumes, but be happy that there is no moral corruption out there to sway the youth...
meanwhile back on earth, we can clean up this place, enforce genuine individual freedom and equality, pool money and resources so we are all healthy and educated, and everyone will be happy.
 
One of the interesting things about watching the entire hearing was that you could tell how irritated Gore was getting, by both the Republicans AND the Democrats. The Republicans were taking shots at him, and the Democrats were fawning over him, kissing his ass, and enjoying their new-found power over the Republicans. Gore seemed pretty embarrassed by it all.

All he wanted to do was get to the debate over the solutions, not the debate over whether it's a problem. He said he was in England last week, and met with both parties, and over there, NO one debates the scientific evidence. Over there, the debate is over who can come up with the best solution.
 
INDY500 said:


And people call me a conspiracy theorist when I say that at the center of modern environmentalism you'll find a Marxist core.

That is precisely what is going on.
 
coemgen said:


I wish that was the case here, but everyone has to act like children. (Mainly the Republicans)

Why is it nobody can disagree with Gore without being considered childish? I thought liberals liked skepticism.
 
Angela Harlem said:
meanwhile back on earth, we can clean up this place, enforce genuine individual freedom and equality, pool money and resources so we are all healthy and educated, and everyone will be happy.
Build your fascist federation, I want anarchy on the frontier.
 
AEON said:


Why is it nobody can disagree with Gore without being considered childish? I thought liberals liked skepticism.

Skepticism, yes.
Denying, only because it doesn't fit your political views, no.

Yes, Gore is an alarmist and with some figures he might exaggerate.
But have you ever seen any progress or change when people got presented the right figures? Normally not, because the figures were too low, so people thought it can't be that bad.
Because in our times, through to the tabloid media among others, people lost the perception of what figures really represent.
It has to be a huge number, otherwise they don't take any notice.
And in such a debate as the global warming you probably need both the alarmist who makes the people listen and the scientists that tell you the facts and explain it.
Of course it is questionable whether Gore's alarmism is really such a good idea, as he provides a platform for people that want to smash all the findings about global warming.

But as said before, in other countries this debate simply isn't taking place. We are more interested in solutions than in endless debating over something overwhelmingly excepted among scientists.
 
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It seems like a lot of Christians in this country (USA) feel it's their God-given mission to twist and bend and misinterpret Scripture into their own wacky ideas that discriminate against fellow human beings, while ignoring the VERY explicit Creation Mandate, commanding us to take care of the Earth.

I don't get it. I won't ever get it. :|


That, and I really think a lot of people just don't care about global warming. Wars, millions starving, lack of decent health care and education, lagging economies....it gets bumped down the priority list pretty darn quickly when it's not causing direct effects right now.
 
AEON said:

Why is it nobody can disagree with Gore without being considered childish? I thought liberals liked skepticism.

It's the way that some people disagree with him that's childish-like mocking his "celebrity". Maybe they're just jealous :shrug:

Or taking potshots at his weight-that sort of thing.
 
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