Help me, please. I spent years wondering where in the world is Carmen San Diego, and I'm having a here-we-go again moment with Al Gore's voice and Barack's sword. More about our Prez in a few moments.
Al is more famous among literate adults, having being Bill Clinton's VP, and running for President against George W. Bush, only to be cheated out of that election. Afterwards, he wowed the world with his book and documentary on global warming titled, An Inconvenient Truth.
So lately, I'm dealing with what may turn out to be an inconvenient truth of Al Gore's near-absence on the Gulf Oil Spill since that began on April 20, 2010.
Al Gore uses Twitter. On April 7th, he tweeted, "Another great post from Maggie Fox: http://bit.ly/dzp1qh #climate." This linked to his blog, were Gore did a copy 'n paste job of the commentator and partner he endorsed, Maggie Fox.
She wrote: "Expanded oil drilling will simply continue our reliance on dirty fossil fuels, while doing little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The President must now deliver a comprehensive plan for curbing carbon pollution so we can invest in the clean energy technologies we will need in the 21st century..."
Blah blah blah.
Dryly written stuff by well-paid white academia that bores the shit out of the general population, and is ignored by the media because it doesn't serve the desires of their avaricious, corporate masters.
The next day, The Hill ran an article titled, Oil Drilling Prompts Al Gore's First Public Split On Climate With President Obama.
The gist of that was, "The statement (Al's tweet, for God's sake) is significant because it marks Gore’s first break with Obama on his signature policy issue..."
Something is not right, and those WTF moments continued to roll through my soul.
I perused through his blog, "Al's Journal". For someone who writes so much about oil and carbon emissions, and climate change, if you go to "Edit" then "Find" on your Firefox browser, not one friggin' time did he pen the words "Gulf" or "spill" from the day of the disaster through the end of that month.
"Well," I thought, "maybe he got his bearings in May."
Again, I searched his May page. On the 7th, he did another brief journal entry, No Fooling Mother Nature, and said, "Tom Friedman publishes another great column in The New York Times..." with a link to TF's article of the same title.
On May 8, he directed his blog readers to an article he did for The New Republic article, "The Crisis Comes Ashore". It was so short I could have made a cup a coffee in the amount of time he must have spent writing it.
Finally, something found, from google searching - not his blog.
On May 17, Al Gore spoke at the Panetta Institute in a lecture, Saving A Planet That Sustains Us.
Gore said of BP:
"I respect a lot of the folks at BP... but ladies and gentlemen, I know a cover up when I see one."
direct video link
Also, here's a YouTube link w/o the commercial
but embedding is disabled.
Whoa!
I leaned into my chair, waiting... and waiting... in vain. He ain't said nothing beyond that, at least in the video, his site, or any thing that I could find on the World Wide Web.
As he left Panetta, a mob of 75 to 100 global warming deniers waited for him and chanted outside. This is typical; they're the small, nuisance crowds. A a few hundred years ago they were the ignorant loudmouths who hated science and believed that the earth was flat, or were paid to lie to support of those in charge.
What is also amazing about that moment caught on film is how it's gotten about zero publicity. The news station who ran the clip has it so that the video can't be embedded. The stories about his lecture at Panetta focus on the protesters afterwards, and either didn't know about or sanitized his suspicion of cover up.
I particularly found it odd that Gore, a Nobel Prize winner on climate change, made no mention in his own journal of his lecture at the Panetta Institute, or more detailed thoughts of BP, and has otherwise been publicly silent about our planet having a stroke.
Surely Al Gore knows what I painfully figured out all by myself and posted about on 5/19: that the oil and toxic dispersants will find their way from the Gulf Loop to the ocean's freeway known as the Ocean Conveyor Belt. It will wreak barely imaginable havoc on Mother Earth. Short of Divine Intervention, we are fucked.
I ain't even wrote in super specific details how fucked I think we are, it's too painful. Maybe that's been Gore's problem too.
Al Gore is the man who won the 2000 Presidential election by popular vote (50,999,897 to Bush's 50,456,002), but lost through what many consider theft by two states and particularly Florida.
How different the world might be now... probably no wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and perhaps stronger regulations put in place which if implemented because that was Al Gore's thang. This would have prevented off shore drilling - and this catastrophe going on now in the Gulf of Mexico.
I wonder if Al Gore looses sleep over not fighting harder for what he won, but was stolen from him - and us - in November 2000.
Perhaps it's a different lesson he learned the hard way of who is really in charge of this nation.
I no longer believe it's democracy or even our current President. Under his directive and the EPA, they were blown off by by BP when told not to use the toxic oil dispersant, Corexit which is banned in the UK. Can you imagine? These bitches treated the order as though this were a suggestion.
I hope Al Gore finds the courage to join the conversation he's been ducking, and do so with passion, like Rep. Charlie Melancon, who cried during a hearing last week, and James Carville and Bobby Jindall with CNN's Anderson Cooper at the sites of the oil disaster in Louisiana.
The world desperately needs more well-known and credible voices like Al's to raise fucking hell.
This goes for Barack too. Realistically, and after spending a huge amount of time this month studying the major and minor players in this deadly game, his role is a delicate as the Gulf of Mexico itself, and may not last as long no matter what he does.
In terms a child can understand, this could be a mega-battle of good vs. evil, if only good will pick up their weapons, and be willing to die for the cause.
Thus, in the end, for the political careers, safety, and lives of those public figures we look up to, it may come down to how they want what's left of history to remember them.
Rep. Melancon breaks down and cries
at a subcommittee hearing over disaster
Anderson Cooper interviews Bobby Jindal this week.
They note (at 3:18) they are under surveillance by air. BP's goons?
and impassioned James Carville this week.
Don't get it twisted KIT, Al Gore cheated himself out of that election. He ran that campaign by running away from the success that he had been tied to for the previous 8 years, as Bill Clinton's VP. He was so sure that people would be put off by Bill Clinton that he forgot to mention that he'd been a successful VP in two successful administrations. The old Gore gets, the smarter he gets; but back in 2000 he had a serious case of the dumbs.
ReplyDeleteKIT, I have come to the conclusion that there is a backdoor agreement between BP and the Obama Admin. How else can one explain what's going on and Obama's lack of direct action.
ReplyDeleteAnd BP totally ignoring Lisa Jackson was a wow, who's really in charge moment for me too. As far as I'm concerned the EPA just showed the world that it only exists to give big business cover.
Reggie, Don't get it twisted? My oh my, aren't you in an aggressive mood tonight.
ReplyDeleteBut to respond to your statement... Since Gore didn't fight election fraud, particularly in Florida when he won, was he being dumb, or was he scared - possibly for the same reasons that Barack hasn't used more muscle with the Oil Gangstas or backed off from offshore drilling?
Val, It is mind-boggling. These back door agreements have the stench of a corporatocracy that rules the White House throne.
Even if President Obama wanted to take charge of this disaster in the Gulf of Mexico,the U.S. Government has no people on it's payroll to do what's needed to cap this well.
ReplyDeleteThe privalization of governments jobs have prevented President Obama from doing what needs to be done.
He is at the mercy of BP in this case!
Thank you for your hard work Kit. I followed your "painfully figured out" link and learned from it.A feeling of dread has begun to fall over me, as this disaster unfolds.
ReplyDeleteWhat you and Reggie touched on is also my initial reaction.Gore didn't fight the fraud which cost him the election, he isn't fighting now.Maybe he's just a well-meaning privileged White guy who needed to be reminded by his peers not to be a traitor to his class?
Whatever.
I share your pain and fear on this. I followed the link to Grimey News Cafe, there is a picture from one of the posters there,Sista Sagacious, of a dying young heron. Weakened and dying from the pollution.God in heaven,Kit.What will become of us?
Big Mac, I'm thinking now how it must be hard feeling, although not necessarily 100% being, at the mercy of a group that has no mercy...
ReplyDeleteOso, Given the history of assassination and murder of those who bucked any system to tell the truth and have a better society, I've wondered if this is the reason Gore wasn't and Obama isn't more aggressive. I've been mad at both, but then I remember this, and wonder if it's partly fear. It takes superhuman courage to be a good leader.
Glad you liked this post about the impact on the global Ocean Conveyor Belt. It is one of my best, and lays the groundwork in answering your question, what will become of us?.
I think the answer is grim. Those who have a really good idea are having a very hard time; one top notch investigator and writer I'm very familiar with is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Btw, when you get a chance, email me: kitsmailbag@gmail.com.
Damn Kit, you've missed your calling. I'm thinking something like Mrs Black Sherlock.
ReplyDeleteI believe all the comments says it all. If one puts a finger in front of their face(real close or far away), in preparation to point it at the offender (or savior), that finger becomes a very small object. Really, try it. Even if that finger is position right in front of the eye, it's focus is fuzzy.
Consequently, those that wish to point the finger @ our president is simply on bullSh*t. Or, terribly misinformed or just plain stupid or your garden variety negro.
Popular opinions are just like chitlins to some negroes. They love it. And they can't eat just one.
[BigMacAttack] "The privalization of governments jobs have prevented President Obama from doing what needs to be done.
He is at the mercy of BP in this case!"
5 STARS!
Carey, Let me know when you give up hero worshiping.
ReplyDeleteKit, I've had several WTF moments about how the O-Man is handling this, and so are several other respected liberal black bloggers. Yes, we admire him for a lot of reasons - BUT - this situation is critical.
ReplyDeleteObama has GOT to step up his game, step up fearlessly to Big Oil, and have his peeps file CRIMINAL CHARGES asap. Some fights must be fought, and this one of them.
President Obama fight and war with BP and the other Oil Giants must be fought,but let's be clear he will not win in the legal courts because the pockets of big oil are deep( see Exxon Valdez case).Where President Obama needs to go is into the moral court of America.
ReplyDeleteGurl, you are doing it over here. You have opened my eyes...you have made me pay attention. In fact you have my attention. You have a calling my sister to share this information in a broader forum. You have me thinking, challenging, wanting to know more. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteOh and btw, BP must have some political connections that exist well beyond Barack. If our Prez isn't going after them, it's bc he is crippled to do so. This ish has been going well before him, the money that is contributed to the gain and the folks who contribute have already paid their debt, therefore don't expect any retaliation when they do wrong. It's a slippery slope for sure, but imo, i think he needs to just go the fuck off and do something drastic.
ReplyDeleteMizRepresent, Thank you. I agree, and the reason is, I think, our country has become a Corporatocracy.
ReplyDeleteBig Mac, I see this as a national security issue. When he does, if he hasn't already, as Commander In Chief, he has a lot more powers at his disposal than he has used.
Dark Comedy, You said, "Some fights must be fought, and this one of them." I agree.
For the sake of this country, the planet, and the future, now all he has to do is pick up his sword and use it, and trust in the Lord that he won't fall on it.
Re: Corporatocracy I first thought you made that shit up, lol. Sums up nicely what the real deal is. I agree the President needs to stop pussyfootin' around.
ReplyDeleteYou break it down like 4 flats..just wow!
I take Kit over the MSM any day of the week.
Penny Wize, Thank you!
ReplyDeleteReaders, Al and his wife, Tipper Gore, announced yesterday that they're breaking up.
You know, I have a what if question. Nobody in the press covered his "I know a cover up when I see one" about BP. BP, btw, is very cozy with Halliburton. Throw Blackwater into the mix and the Coast Guard being accompanied by goons to keep out and/or survey journalists.
Marriage problems or not, it's just too out of character for Al Gore to have said nearly nothing about this oil spill, and when he did at Panetta, it was a doozy - and then not reported by the mainstream.
What if he's concerned about death threats, and the break up is a way of keeping his family safe for when he's ready to fight? Time will tell, but it's just a thought to ponder on...