Tag: Al Gore

.

.

UPDATE

I just returned from the AZ Democratic Progressive Caucus meeting, one hour of which consisted of a presentation by Scotty Johnson who works for the Arizona chapter of  Defenders of Wildlife. Mr. Johnson recently trained with Al Gore in Tennessee and now gives presentations around the region to spread the message. The presentation he gave today was called, The Climate Crisis: Awakening to Our Greatness. See the bottom of the essay for my summary of his presentation.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Good morning dharmapseudical dharma bums and misc dhrarmestids. I decided to put together a quicky for the series this morning in honor of Al Gore’s and the IPCC’s achievement of co-winning the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday. Below you’ll find some relevant links with lots of action information contained within.

I’ve been buzzing all day about Al Gore winning the Nobel prize!
I went to Google news and found he’s been the Dominator today, but at the bottom I found Sri Chinmoy!

Al Gore / Nobel Prize  3,499 news articles
Obama v Clinton  344 news articles
Astronauts  1148
HIV drug  276
Armenia/Turkey Vote  2118
Putin v US / Nuclear treaty  1,350
Bhutto/Musharraf Powersharing  615
Latin American Free Trade  298
Sri Chinmoy Died  175

I have a tin box that I keep special things in and one of them is a little red heart pillow from Sri Chinmoy.
I got it from a Persian Sufi named Hossein Foruzani who got up to go for a 5 AM run along Lake Washington with Sri Chimnoy.  I went to see Sri Chimnoy at Kane Hall, University of Washington.  He was carried in on a pillow by his entourage, and played God-inspired flute and painted spontaneously. 

(inspired by Sri Chinmoy)

Forty-Six
My blue-red heart shall face ignorance-base,
My blue-red heart shall face.
My green-white life shall fly
in oneness-sky,
My green-white life shall fly.
Sri Chinmoy (divinely inspired poem)

I read about Sri Chimnoy in the New York Post, which if I’m not wrong is a tabloid, and also the New York Times.

More about the wierd Sri Chimnoy, from the New York Times:
. born in India
. used strenuous exercise and art to spread message of world harmony and inner piece
. died at a concert
. was able to power lift pickup trucks
. lifted Muhammad Ali and Sting
. said he drew 16 million “peace birds”
. slept only 90 minutes a day
. wrote 1500 books, 115,000 poems, 20,000 songs, 200,000 paintings, gave 800 peace concerts
. advocated seemingly impossible physical challenges
. was an inspiration for Olympic sprinter Carl Lewis
. was guru to John McLaughlin and Mahavishnu Orchestra (a name he came up with) as well as Roberta Flack!
. had more than 7000 disciples when he died
. came from Bangladesh to NYC and worked as a clerk at the Indian consulate
. swam the English channel
. ran a 3100 mile race every year
. began lifting weights after a knee injury and lifted schoolhouses, airplanes and pickup trucks
. He also lifted Jesse Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Susan Sarandon, Yoko Ono, Desmond Tutu and Richard Gere as well as 20 Nobel Laureates and a team of sumo wrestlers, not to mention Sid Caesar and a (reformed) headhunter from Bornea.
. He lifted a Democrat (Representative Gary Ackerman) and a Republican (Representative Benjamin Gilman) at the same time, possibly his most amazing feat.
. Condolence letters were sent by both Mikhail Gorbachev and Al Gore.

The Dark Side of Sri Chimnoy, from The New York Post:

. He was just a “creepy Queens guru”
. he ran a “cult”
. he cased “disturbing personality changes” in members
. he ordered dreamy-eyed female followers to engage in exploitive sexcapades
. he summoned them for extended sex romps
. he ordered them to have sex with other women while he watched
. he paid for one’s abortion after he got her pregnant
. he was called “vindictive” by Carlos Santana, who jumped ship in 2000, and said, “He told all my friends not to call me ever again, because I was to drown in a dark sea of ignorance for leaving him.”
. he brainwashed people, according to cult deprogrammer Rick Ross
. he had a disciple who drowned in his own bathtub trying to perfect a stunt to impress him for a circus
. he had followers who tried to get attention by breaking records such as for underwater juggling, piggyback riding and balancing a pool cue on one finger
. he airbrushed pictures to exaggerate his weight-lifting prowess, according to his former photographer
. He died while waiting to hear if he’d won the Nobel Peace Prize for his “ceaseless efforts” with the United Nations (Chinmoy led a meditation group at the U.N. building). He didn’t.

(photo by D. Grieser)

crossposted at Daily Kos and Truth & Progress

Earlier this evening, I watched Fox News’ “All Star Panel” of talking heads.  It included Fred Barnes, Mort Kondracke, and Nina Easton.  The moderator, Brett Baier, highlighted some Fox poll which showed non-candidate Al Gore with about 10% support among Democratic voters, third behind Hillary and Obama.  What’s noteworthy is that the poll was taken on October 10, 2007 BNPP (Before the Nobel Peace Prize).  But what really caught my attention was this insightful statement from Fred Barnes, who some of you may remember was once a liberal reporter for the Washington Star newspaper which went out of business in the early 1980’s

“Al Gore has really debased the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Which got me thinking.  Are there other such examples of people really debasing their chosen professions and dishonoring respected institutions in recent history?

The answer below the fold. 

Crossposted at Daily Kos and Truth & Progress

Like most of you, my first thought this morning, when I opened my eyes, was “Did he win?” And I came straight here for the answer, only to find ecstatic confirmation in my first bleary glance at the Recommended list. Yes, friends, the dream is beginning to become true, thanks to him, and also thanks to all of you! This is a force 8 tremor on the political Richter scale. But until he announces, his “chances” of entering the race will be endlessly poo-poohed by every Beltway voice, from Right Wing pundits to establishment scribes claiming personal knowledge to unofficial spin easily traceable to the Hillary campaign (Dan Gerstein on Hardball last night, anyone?). But none of all that really matters.

Yesterday, I spent a fun and very worthwhile morning collecting voter signatures with Louisa, the 6th District (Marin and Sonoma Counties) volunteer coordinator for the campaign to place Al Gore on the California Democratic primary ballot.*

This drive is part of a larger grass roots effort to convince Al Gore that we need him as our next President.  Today was our first day collecting signatures.

Later that afternoon, Louisa emailed a fantastic account of the morning’s events.  Louisa’s words were so inspiring that I asked her if I could repost them.  Louisa, who is nearly eighty (you’d never know it), has graciously agreed:

Al Gore has won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He is sharing the Nobel Peace prize with the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change” The complete text committee’s announcement is available.

Here is one reason Why Al Gore deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the 20th century peace was something to be achieved after the horrifying bloodletting of world war began. In the 21st century, although the world faces a new era of turmoil, peace ultimately must be about identifying and resolving the sources of conflict before battles break out. That’s why no one deserves the Nobel Peace Prize more than Al Gore.

Congratulations Mr. Vice President!

Now about 2008…

According to the LiveScience.com story picked up by Yahoo!News,  the website BetUS.com is taking bets as to who will win the Nobel Peace Prize.  (LiveScience.com is a great website which I wholly recommend; BetUS.com is a subscription site I’ve never participated with.)

Al Gore is currently the favorite at 5:2.

Long shots paying at 100:1 right now include George W. Bush, Rush Limbaugh, and Tony Blair.

Note: Revisiting a topic originally posted over on The Big Orange. Given our current discussions about extraordinary rendition and torture, it seemed worth dusting off (actually this is a major rewrite) and posting in the new digs.

The seminal piece to date on the origins of extraordinary rendition is this piece over in the New Yorker. It is titled: Outsourcing Torture – The secret history of America’s “extraordinary rendition” program. (by Jane Mayer).

The main focus of the article is to discuss how egregiously the government of George W. Bush has crossed the line in its decisions to use extraordinary rendition as a tool to fight terrorism.

But my interest in the piece was tweaked by the discussions about the origins of the program. And with a little research, the picture proved not to be pretty.

You read that right. When. Why am I so certain? I have of course no inside knowledge. None. Yet I’ve been certain that he would get in ever since I first saw An Inconvenient Truth, a year and a half ago. And my certainty has only grown since then. Am I delusional? Hardly. I just use a different primary premise for my opinion. Disclaimer: I am not an American. I can’t vote in your election, though I’ve followed your politics almost obsessively ever since watching the 2000 election debacle live on television (Canadians have a front-row seat when it comes to watching you). No, my friends. The timing of Gore’s entry is not so much to do with Hillary, ballot deadlines or any Hamlet-like hesitations on Gore’s part as it is about a meeting of world leaders on climate in Bali in December and all the meetings that will follow in the coming years and that will ultimately decide the fate of humanity on this planet.