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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: geode00 who wrote (187158)	5/24/2006 2:10:26 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Al Gore Gives Ominous Warning on Global Warming in Movie, Book _____________________________________________________________ May 24 (Bloomberg) -- During his eight years as vice president and his chad-hanging loss in the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore displayed all the charisma of a tax accountant. Since leaving the political rat race, though, he's loosened up, cut down on his geek-speak and ditched those widely lampooned robotic gestures. The new, improved Gore is on display in ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' a documentary that's essentially a dressed-up version of his PowerPoint presentation on the looming environmental disaster. Sounds boring, but it isn't. This 100-minute movie provokes a reaction rarely experienced in theaters these days: serious thought. Wearing an open-collar blue shirt and sports jacket, Gore seems much more relaxed than he did during the campaign. Today's Gore is less clunky but more chunky, perhaps due to all those airline meals he's devoured during his 1,000-plus globe-trotting missions to spread the word about global warming. The former VP even cracks a few jokes -- ``I used to be the next president of the United States'' -- that indicate the presence of a funny bone some thought had been surgically removed at birth. In his computer-aided lecture/slide show/sermon, Gore presents compelling scientific evidence to back his claim that, without a major shift in public policy and private behavior, the world is heading for a disaster of biblical proportions. Drowning Polar Bears The culprit is carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere by gas-guzzling cars, coal-hungry power plants and burning forests. The gas forms a thick blanket that traps the sun's heat and warms the planet, causing glaciers to melt, oceans to rise and weather patterns to change. Gore says the changes are already evident in more severe droughts and storms (the film crew was planning a trip to New Orleans just before Katrina hit), the spread of new diseases and drowning polar bears, whose glacial stomping grounds are disappearing at an alarming rate. ``What we take for granted may not be here for my children,'' warns Gore, who delivers the same message in a companion book, also called ``An Inconvenient Truth'' (Rodale, 328 pages, $21.95). Skeptics of global warming have included presidents Reagan and Bush the Elder, who in a 1992 news clip shown in the film warned that tree-huggers like Gore would leave us ``up to our necks in owls.'' But, as Gore points out, virtually every reputable scientific study has found that global warming is a real and present danger -- one far more grave than owl overpopulation. 'Wake Up' Gore spices up his lecture with colorful photos, video, charts and cartoons, all shown on a theater-size screen. He's even boosted on a mechanical lift so he can point to the top of a graph illustrating the increasing levels of carbon dioxide. Director Davis Guggenheim wisely breaks up the filmed lecture with autobiographical snippets designed to humanize Gore. During a visit to his family's farm in Tennessee, he recalls how his older sister's death from lung cancer convinced his father to give up tobacco farming. Gore also explains how the near-death of his 6-year-old son in a 1989 car accident made him rethink his purpose in life and rekindle a passion for environmental causes that began when he was a student at Harvard. When Gore told these stories on the campaign trail, critics accused him of using personal tragedies for political benefit. Here, they seem like genuine attempts to explain why he's made global warming a personal crusade. Over the closing credits, we hear the booming voice of Melissa Etheridge singing ``I Need to Wake Up.'' There's nothing subtle about the message of the song or the movie, but the time for subtlety on this issue is over. _____________________________________________ "An Inconvenient Truth," from Paramount Classics, opens today in New York and Los Angeles. (Rick Warner is the movie critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.) To contact the writer of this story: Rick Warner in New York at rwarner1@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: May 24, 2006 00:07 EDT

To: geode00 who wrote (187158)	5/24/2006 9:01:08 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

How Bush Brewed the Iranian Crisis ____________________________________________________________ by Paul Craig Roberts* Why did the Bush regime create a crisis over Iran? The answer is that the Bush regime is desperate to widen the war in the Middle East. What has Iran done? Unlike Israel, Pakistan, and India, countries that developed nuclear weapons on the sly, Iran signed the nonproliferation treaty. Countries that sign this treaty have the right to develop nuclear energy. The International Atomic Energy Agency monitors their energy programs to guard against the programs being used to cloak a weapons program. Until the Bush regime provoked a crisis, Iran was cooperating with the inspection safeguards. The weapons inspectors have found no Iranian weapons programs. There is no evidence for the Bush regime's accusation that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. What the Bush regime is trying to do is to unilaterally take away Iran's right under the Nonproliferation Treaty to develop nuclear energy. It is the Bush regime that is violating the treaty by attempting to deny its benefits to Iran. The Bush regime is acting illegally because of its paranoid suspicion that five or 10 years in the future Iran will use what it has managed to learn about uranium enrichment to develop a weapons program. Why is the Bush regime concerned about what Iran might do in the future? Is it because the U.S. government intends to continue its bullying in the Middle East and is worried that Iran will get tired of it and develop nuclear weapons as a check on U.S. hegemony over the Muslim world? Why does the Bush regime think that its interest in the Middle East takes priority over the interests of the countries that are located there? In a CNN TV interview on Sunday, May 21, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, said that it was only a matter of months before Iran would be making nuclear weapons. Olmert's claim is absurd, as every weapons expert knows, and, indeed, as he knows himself. The only possible purpose of such a nonsensical claim is propaganda. Olmert is helping the Bush regime use fear to prepare Americans to accept an attack on Iran, just as Dick Cheney and Condi Rice invoked images of mushroom clouds to prepare Americans for the illegal invasion of Iraq. One might think that having been deceived by the Bush regime over Iraq, the American people would have their eyes open to deception this time around. But apparently not. The same public that gives Bush a mere 30 percent approval rating, largely because of the Iraqi fiasco, is making no demands that Bush stop his march to war with Iran. Not a day passes without new threats and lies issuing from Dick Cheney, Bonkers Bolton, and Condi Rice, and no one holds them accountable. The U.S. media is proud to be complicit in lies and war crimes. Ah, but the Iranian president said that he was going to "wipe Israel off the face of the earth." He did not. He said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the Middle East in the sense of being removed to Europe. He was making the rhetorical point that if the Europeans so favored a Jewish state, why did the Westerners not give the Jews part of Europe or North America? Why did they give the Jews Palestine, which was not theirs to give? One may agree or disagree with the Iranian's point, but it was not a threat to kill the Jews. The Iranians cannot kill the Jews even if they wanted, because Israel has nuclear weapons. Being somewhat paranoid – not altogether without reason – Israel is not going to sit there and be destroyed. The U.S. cannot forever dominate the Middle East on behalf of its interests and Israel's. The U.S. is running out of resources. The U.S. is heavily in debt, yet continues to hemorrhage red ink. Washington is dependent on foreigners to finance its wars. The American middle class is beginning to experience employment problems and income stagnation. The neocons' idea that the U.S. can patrol Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Syria in perpetuity is insane. The Bush regime has proven that the U.S. cannot even occupy Baghdad. Unless the U.S. government intends nuclear genocide against Muslims, it cannot prevail in war in the Middle East. A solution in the Middle East requires diplomacy and good will, not threats and aggression. Yet the Bush regime refuses to even meet with Iranian leaders. By refusing to meet, talk, and negotiate, Bush is telling Iranians that they have no choice. Either they comply and do what Bush demands, or they will be attacked. That is the Iranian Crisis in a nutshell. _____________________________ antiwar.com * Dr. Roberts is John M. Olin Fellow at the Institute for Political Economy and Research Fellow at the Independent Institute. He is a former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal and a former assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. He is the co-author of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.

To: geode00 who wrote (187158)	5/24/2006 9:27:26 AM
From: Lou Weed	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

The data is there that proves that CFC and CO emissions have altered our global climate for the worse. Bottom line, our globe is getting warmer and we CAN do something about it. Every little bit helps. What I find very discouraging is this attitude that because India and China aren't doing their fair part (visa vi Kyoto) then what the hell, we should just abandon any thought of a global solution because it really hurts our economy!!!!!! This is the mind-spew that is being currently sprayed upon the masses....weak minds are susceptible to the FORCE. It's just another part of the right-wing idea kit that comes along with membership......including; Pro-life yet pro death penalty, Christian values yet pro war, Christian values yet pro torture, Anyone that questions Israel's illegal activities or their massive lobby is anti-simitic, Pro war, Trickle down economics, Rush Limbaugh rules, Fox News is "fair and balanced" Deficits are keenly encouraged, Ditto to illegal wire-tapping, Pro war, Al Gore is a nutcase, Sam Brownback isn't, Putting Arab mgmt. in place in our ports is not such a bad idea, Big Oil and Pharma have every right to price gouge..... Oh yeah, and did I mention pro Jesus yet pro war? MON

To: geode00 who wrote (187158)	5/24/2006 3:29:01 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

As I said, it's ridiculous to gamble with this particular issue Without adequate knowledge to understand the mechanisms involved - knowledge that I am convinced does not exist today - ANYTHING we do or do not do will be a gamble. Because we don't know what is happening, we cannot know what the effect of a change in our behavior will be, and the most likely result is no appreciable difference to what would have happened anyway. Is that really a good and sound reason to cripple your own economy?