Difference between revisions of "Al Gore"

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Al Gore
45th Vice-President of the United States
Term of office January 20, 1993 - January 20, 2001
Political party	Democratic
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Dan Quayle
Succeeded by	Dick Cheney
Born	March 31, 1948 Washington, D.C.
Spouse	Tipper Gore
Religion	Baptist

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. ( born March 31, 1948) was the 45th Vice President of the United States (1993-2001), succeeding Dan Quayle and succeeded by Dick Cheney, following service in the House of Representatives and the Senate, spanning 1977-85 and 1985-93, respectively. He is a Nobel-prize winner for his work on global warming; Gore spreads alarmist propaganda, proclaiming the end of the world. Gore likes to say that, "The Earth has a fever," ^[1] and is making millions of dollars through his fraud scheme.^[2] He has no degree in atmospheric sciences, meteorology, physics, chemistry, biology, or climatology. Gore took two science classes as an undergraduate, scoring a "C+" in one and a "D" in the other. ^[3] Among his notable achievements, the one he is least known for is casting the tie-breaking vote to tax elderly Social Security benefits who earn as little as $22,000 per year.

Gore was the Democratic Party's candidate for President in the 2000 election, running on a ticket with Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut.

In his early life, Gore attended Harvard University and (briefly) Vanderbilt University. He also served in the United States Army and worked as a war correspondent during the Vietnam War.^[4] He is married to activist Tipper Gore, but the two announced on 6/1/2010 that they were separating after forty years of marriage. ^[5]

Gore is currently the chairman of liberal television network Current TV, which receives low ratings and only broadcasts in about sixty million American homes.

Sexual Assault Accusations & Investigation

Not long after the split became public, Portland, Oregon police announced that they had investigated Gore on sexual assault charges over an encounter with massage therapist Molly Hagerty in October 2006. ^[6]

Hagerty, a massage therapist to the stars, has accused the former vice president of repeatedly groping and kissing her during a late-night, alcohol-fueled attack in a Oregon luxury hotel suite in October 2006. Detectives investigated the claims in 2006 and 2009 but decided not to pursue the case. However Portland Police Chief Michael Reese said on July 1, 2010, that "we have determined there were procedural issues with the 2009 investigation that merit reopening the case." Officers took the accuser's statement but didn't proceed further and didn't clear that decision with higher-ups. In addition, prosecutors were not made aware of the 2009 investigation until recently." ^[7]

Political Career

Al Gore followed his father, Albert Gore, Sr. a prominent Democratic Senator from Tennessee, into Congress. His father was a supporter of the New Deal who was finally defeated by Bill Brock in 1970, despite having sent his son to Vietnam in order to bolster the Gore senatorial campaign.^[8]

Al Gore was initially somewhat conservative on social issues, supporting Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court and, along with his wife, opposing offensive lyrics in rock music. But as his presidential aspirations grew, Gore became increasingly liberal.

Gore ran for president in 1988 but was defeated in the presidential primaries by Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts. Gore then continued to serve in the Senate.^[9]

In the 1992 Presidential Election, Democratic nominee Bill Clinton selected Gore as his running mate. They won the election, and Gore was sworn in as Vice President on January 20, 1993. Clinton and Gore were elected to a second term in 1996. Gore had little influence in the Clinton Administration, and almost nothing of significance is attributed to him.

As is often the case for incumbent Vice Presidents, Gore was nominated as his party's candidate in the 2000 Presidential Election. He lost to George W. Bush in the Electoral College after a close vote, in which Gore received more popular votes than Bush, but fewer electoral votes. Gore contested the results in Florida. On December 13, 2000, after an extensive court battle (Bush v. Gore), Gore accepted Bush's election to the presidency.^[10]

Cast tie breaking vote to increase taxes on Social Security

In 1993 President Clinton sought to increase taxes on Social Security benefits of the elderly and disabled.^[11] The final version of the bill passed by the Democratically controlled Congress increased taxes on beneficiaries from the first 50% to 85%^[12] of benefits (or "annuity payments" as they were originally called). Vice President Al Gore cast the deciding tie-breaker vote in the Senate to make the tax increase law. The Clinton-Gore tax increase on Social Security benefits imposed a 70% income tax rate on a retired couple making as little as $22,000 per year.^[13]

Al Gore and uncharitableness

See also: Liberal politicians and uncharitableness and Barack Obama and uncharitableness

The political magazine the American Spectator declared:

Early career

From left to right: Fred Phelps, Al Gore, and former Kansas Gov. Joan Finney.

In 1988 Gore courted the support of controversial activist Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. In appreciation for Phelps' help and support of Gore, Phelps was provided tickets to the inauguration of President Clinton in 1992 and 1996.^[15] Phelps has since changed his opinion about Gore when he joined Bill Clinton on the 1992 presidential ticket. Phelps turned on him and claimed Gore was a conservative icon of the Democratic Party that sold out on some critical social issues. Phelps also demonstrated against Clinton and Gore during the 1997 inaugural. ^{[16] [17]}

Current activities

Gore has started an investment firm to invest in environmentally sustainable technology and industries and a cable channel (Current TV), and is an adviser to Google. He was also mentioned as a possible 2008 presidential candidate.

Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change.^[18]

Gore is the author of The Assault on Reason. He also starred in the 2006 film about global warming entitled, An Inconvenient Truth, which won an Academy Award. In 2007, the British High Court directed teachers to inform students to whom they show the film that it "is a political work and promotes only one side of the argument" and to draw attention to eleven specific inaccuracies. Furthermore, the court advised, "If teachers present the Film without making this plain they may be in breach of ... the Education Act 1996 and guilty of political indoctrination."^[19] Despite the errors, the judge also concluded "four main scientific hypotheses, each of which is very well supported by research published in respected, peer-reviewed journals and accords with the latest conclusions of the IPCC.” ^[20]

Speaking in Manhattan to the fourth annual Clinton Global Initiative, Gore wants to use "civil disobedience" to combat the construction of coal power plants without the ability to capture carbon. ^[21] Civil disobedience or the call for intentional violation of laws is an extremist point of view. It is believed that he was speaking in regards to Western nation coal plants. No mention of China and their coal production. The gravest threat from coal pollution comes from China, in which two plants are constructed per week and 500 more plants over the next 10 years. ^[22]

Quotes

• Gore said, "I took the initiative in creating the Internet." ^[23]

• Gore falsely claimed that he discovered problems in Love Canal and fixed them. He said:

"I called for a congressional investigation and a hearing. I looked around the country for other sites like that. I found a little place in upstate New York called Love Canal. Had the first hearing on that issue."^[24]

"That was the one that started it all. ... We made a huge difference and it was all because one high school student got involved."

"I love Van Jones. I love his work. I love his heart and his commitment and his intellect. I love his mission. He has wisely picked a part of this set of interwoven challenges that should have been addressed much more forcefully by me and others long ago.”^[25]

• During an interview with Slate, regarding the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University, a question was asked concerning a sense from the Climategate e-mails and from data that was "hidden and hoarded." These truths are the opposite of the case Al Gore made in his book about having an open and fair debate. Gore responded with a lack of command of the most basic details of anything related to Earth and climate. He said,

The most recent emails in Climategate were from November 12, 2009.

• In an interview aired on the CBS Early Show, Al Gore read his global warming poem to Harry Smith.^[28][29]

Criticism

Cartoon by Greg Sheffield

Ann Coulter claims Gore exaggerated his military service record: "Al Gore endlessly bragged to the media about his service in Vietnam. 'I took my turn regularly on the perimeter in these little firebases out in the boonies. Something would move, we'd fire first and ask questions later,' he told Vanity Fair. And then we found out Gore had a personal bodyguard in Vietnam, the most dangerous weapon he carried was a typewriter, and he left after three months."^[30]

In 2007, Al Gore received criticism for his high electricity use. When it was discovered that Gore's electric utility bill is 20 times higher than the average American's^[31] many of his detractors accused him of not living up to his own standards. In the year since the 2007 criticism, energy use at Gore's mansion increased 10%.^[32] Gore's defenders claim that the majority of that power came from "green", or environmentally friendly, power sources such as solar and wind power. These power sources are much more expensive than traditional power sources such as coal and nuclear power.

Also, some conservatives have pointed to Gore's use of a private jet while spreading the message about the dangers of global warming.^[33]

Attention has also been called to Gore's profits from mining royalties, specifically the mining of zinc adjacent to his property that he leased in Tennessee, which has released millions of pounds of potentially toxic substances into the environment.^[34] The mine has been closed since 2003. New owner Strategic Resource Acquisition is planning to re-open the mine. From The Tennessean (3/12/07):

"Last week, Gore sent a letter asking the company to work with Earthworks, a national environmental group, to make sure the operation doesn’t damage the environment.

'We would like for you to engage with us in a process to ensure that the mine becomes a global example of environmental best practices,' Gore wrote."

However, this was after he had already made $500,000 from the mining operations.^[35]

Al Gore's fondness for using buzzwords became the focus of a prank played on Gore by students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996. MIT students distributed a bingo card containing meaningless buzzwords Gore was known for peppering his speeches with, including "infobahn", "knowledge worker", "vector", "high confidence", and "information marketplace". Sure enough, during Gore's speech at MIT, a commotion erupted in the audience when enough buzzwords were said to complete the Bingo card.^[36]. Gore's current favorite buzzword is "unified national smart grid", which he promotes in conjunction with his catastrophic global warming prophecies, earning him ridicule as "The Goracle" in a Washington Post article by Dana Milbank.^[37] Bjorn Lomborg has additionally criticized Al Gore for framing global warming using buzzword terms as some sort of transcendent generational quest, as when Gore called the so-called "climate crisis" the "chance to experience...a generational mission, the exhileration of a compelling moral purpose, a shared and unifying cause, the thrill of...the restless human need for transcendence."^[38]

Fabrications and blunders

• On February 20, 2000, Gore claimed he has “always, always, always” supported Roe v. Wade. However, in 1977, he voted for the Hyde Amendment, which says that abortion “takes the life of an unborn child who is a living human being,” and that there is no constitutional right to abortion. He cast many other votes favorable to the pro-life cause and earned an 84 percent rating over the course of his entire U.S. House career (1977 to 1984) from the National Right to Life Committee.^[39]

• On February 4, 2000, Gore claimed, “We had a huge event with 3,000 people at Ohio State University.” In reality, “Officials at that rally said the room where it had taken place did not hold more than 1,200 people, and, given the area needed for the staging erected for the occasion, they estimated the crowd at 500,” according to known liberal media source the New York Times.

• On February 2, 2000, on Good Morning America Al Gore claimed, “We won in every single demographic category” in the New Hampshire primary. In reality Bill Bradley carried male voters and voters aged 18-29, according to exit polls.

Gore's comment that he "took the initiative in creating the Internet" was criticized in the St. Petersburg Times (Florida):

This was not the first time Gore has overreached. A year ago Gore told reporters that he and his wife, Tipper, at the time when they were college sweethearts, were the inspiration for the novel "Love Story." That came as news to the befuddled author, Erich Segal. [3]

Gore wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times in which he said "[he] genuinely wishes global warming was an illusion," claiming it is very real. This despite mountains of fraud uncovered by ClimateGate. Fred Thompson replied, "Hey, Al... the genie says you still have two wishes left." ^[40]

See also

• Al Gore on Breaking News

External links

• Official website
• Al Gore, Ignoble Laureate, Investor's Business Daily, October 5, 2007
• Al Gore News and Commentary from the New York Times
• What Liberals Say - Al Gore, Accuracy In Media
• Yearly Frozen Gore Ice Sculpture In Alaska

References