The Pathetic Swiftboating of Al Gore

As if he were running for office, the GOP smear machine is up and running - fueled by the jealousy of Academy Awards for "An Inconvenient Truth" - Al Gore's movie on Global Warming, and apparently fueled by jealousy of Gore's success and lifestyle. Thanks to Terry Frank and Drudge for the swiftboats. Unfortunately, these types of pathetic attacks wreak of jealousy, desperation, and ignorance. When I tried to present an opposing view, posts of mine on Terry Frank's blogs were deleted on this and other subjects - perhaps as colleague Jon remarked, "GOP denial syndrome." So, don't post too convincing of an argument over there - or it will be deleted. Lest we forget, much of the Republican War on Science depends on ignorance. Major KUDOS to Brittney, using that Terry Frank "stain" quote on your blog header was brilliant... awesome, love it!

First, let's cut to the chase on the politics of Global Warming. In case you've not discovered why Global Warming has become a political issue ($) , I summarized it neatly in a previous blog as follows. (Please visit the link for a thorough explanation):
GOP War on Global Warming = War on Al Gore = War on Dems = War on the Environment = More $ for Polluting Industries = More Campaign $ for GOP

Gore's office responds to the charge (from thinkprogress):

1) Gore’s family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology.

2) Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon offsets to offset the family’s carbon footprint — a concept the right-wing fails to understand. Gore’s office explains:

What Mr. Gore has asked is that every family calculate their carbon footprint and try to reduce it as much as possible. Once they have done so, he then advocates that they purchase offsets, as the Gore’s do, to bring their footprint down to zero.

It’s the latest in a series of desperate attacks by Drudge to paint Gore as a hypocrite. Some other examples:

These are the lengths that climate skeptics must go to suppress action on global warming. There is no meaningful debate within the scientific community, so the right-wing busies itself with talk about how much electricity Al Gore’s house uses — and even then they distort the truth.