The headlines across the b’sphere were blazing about Al Gore’s hypocrisy. His house uses 20 times the normal person’s energy, they claim.

At the same time, the Leftists were blazing about the triumph of their environmental standard, the Mockumentary An Inconvenient Fiction Truth’s predestined Oscar nod. Only Michael Moore has won with more lies in a truth based film.

He claims steadfastly he will not run again for office, yet the acclaim of the left and his own careful posturing speak to the possibility of a plan to announce later.

Al is truly a modern enigma. What is he?

The Al most of us remember was a stiff wooden faced drone with as much personality as one of his party platform’s planks. Al was like the geek at the dance, who bobbed when the other dancers dipped, and clapped when they snapped. Think of the movie Footloose¹ and the Chris Penn character Willard. Al is the Willard of Washington DC. He was out of place, out of step and out of touch and desperate to be cool.

His defeat in 2000 was a harsh slap in the face, winning the popular vote but losing by a close margin due to the Electoral College, something the liberals still grumble about to this day. He never has recovered from it, and though he jokes about it, he represents the grandest tradition of imagination: A gigantic what if.

What if Al had won? Would 9/11 have happened?² If so, would we have gone to war? Would the Computer Keyboards in the Whitehouse have had W removed?³ The Liberals still count Bush as Selected⁴ not Elected. So the Whitehouse has never been far from Al’s mind, and his supporters. His by right, by election and even by birthright.

But he bowed out in 2004, you may say. A comeback election, a do over would have played great, right? Marshall the forces to “get it right this time”. Perhaps so, but my personal belief is that all that time Al has been scheming.

Consider this: By not running in 2004, he allowed someone else⁵ to deal with an incumbent president who was sitting on top of a booming recovering economy and good poll numbers. Bush had the advantages and he knew it.

But his plans are nearing fruition. No, I have no smoking gun here, no secret documents outlining Al’s grand plan, just my idle speculation. So follow me here.

Al has an Oscar win and a popular movie under his belt and is poised to win a Nobel Peace Prize. He has been the voice of the Global Warming Alarmists with his exaggerated claims and selective use of facts in his movie. All along, all the way back to his book for that matter, he has suffered from a lack of factual basis, and over statements, just as he has had a history of shooting his mouth off about things he has or has not done.

Who else do you know who claims to have taken the initiative in creating the internet?⁶

Al has this truth problem. He cannot seem to grasp it. Oh much of it is the appealing politicized sophistry that marks a good politician, the Clintonesque “depends” defenses or even the “perspective” answers, that allow his supporters the chance to deflect the accusations and obviously factual problems.

Take the internet claim. Yes, he was involved in helping move forward what the internet later became, as one of many Congressional sponsors. How does that translate to “took the initiative”? Well it depends on how you define it right? Bingo. Sure, he had a vision above all his peers. That explains it.

Thanks for all the Spam and the Porn Al. Was that in your vision also?

His over hyped, inaccurate fear fest, An Inconvenient Fiction Truth is a perfect example. Numerous reports surfaced about the sloppy science in it, and how it is totally inconsistent with the consensus of the scientific community. Take these three conclusions Al has made:

1. Man is totally to blame for GW- Well the IPCC, the group that represents the consensus Al claims he is documenting, they will not go above saying that man probably is responsible, as opposed to Al’s claim that man is totally responsible.
2. Coast line flooding will reach 20 feet- Even the most pessimistic model shows a possible level increase of around 17 inches, down from previous estimates of 3 feet. Close…no cigar.
3. What can we do? Ironically Al claims we can reverse Global Warming with CO2 emission reductions and other dramatic efforts. The IPCC? They claim it is unstoppable.

So Al’s totally accepted dogma is actually at odds with the scientific community he claims to represent.

This is the sweetest irony. While the GW consensus battles the nay sayers, their worst contradiction sits anointed in their back seat.

So how does he manage to continue to build this momentum? The oldest political trick. Demonize the critics and never waver. The old “A lie told often enough becomes truth⁷” trick, it works every time.

Al is clever. Take for example the latest claims of his blatant hypocrisy:

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash.htm

POWER: GORE MANSION USES 20X AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD; CONSUMPTION INCREASE AFTER ‘TRUTH’

Mon Feb 26 2007 17:16:14 ET

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research, an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization committed to achieving a freer, more prosperous Tennessee through free market policy solutions, issued a press release late Monday:

Last night, Al Gore’s global-warming documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, collected an Oscar for best documentary feature, but the Tennessee Center for Policy Research has found that Gore deserves a gold statue for hypocrisy.

Gore’s mansion, [20-room, eight-bathroom] located in the posh Belle Meade area of Nashville, consumes more electricity every month than the average American household uses in an entire year, according to the Nashville Electric Service (NES).

In his documentary, the former Vice President calls on Americans to conserve energy by reducing electricity consumption at home.

It seems damning, doesn’t it? Well of course, Al can explain it. He told Think Progress⁸:

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.

So how does that work? Green Power Switch is basically paying a premium on the price of your power to ensure that “your” power comes only from Green Sources.⁹ That makes it all better, right?

Not really. It is an artificial feel good solution, as is Carbon Offset Purchases¹⁰. In both cases, you pay someone else to conserve a little extra to make up for your excesses.

Let me repeat that: You pay someone else to conserve a little extra to make up for your excesses. How friggin elitist is that? Pay your way out of ecological excess. You don’t need to go green, you go $green$.

Are you traveling too much? Don’t worry about the emissions, pay someone to plant a tree. Too much electricity use? Don’t conserve, just pay extra so they can assure you that your excess power usage was from clean sources.

Sure, the average person in the middle class has to actually cut back. The rich can buy their cutbacks. Typical.

It is the worst of liberal snobbery, a way to buy your way out of feeling guilty. The funny thing is that failed Kyoto protocols that Al signed, then opposed and now supports operate under the same misguided philosophy. Countries that come in under the quota on CO2 can trade those leftover credits to a country that maybe went over but is lower in Methane. Or something, maybe for a player to be named later.

Rather then comprehensive pollution control and reduction, we allow an IRS worthy complex formula that essentially allows them to rob Peter to pay Paul. And they can all feel good and have happy warm thoughts about their contribution.

If the crisis is real, then EVERYONE needs to address it, not just the working class who cannot afford to buy their way into compliance.

And the leftists buy it because he is their demigod, their Green Saint. And no doubt the growing murmurings will swell into a mighty crescendo that will clearly demand that he accept the nomination for President.

He with all humility and dignity will put aside his holy task, his prophetic travels, and will accept, with perfectly feigned reluctance, the nomination.

Maybe I am wrong. But the signs are there. First the movie, which despite its fictional content wins as best documentary. The Nobel Peace Prize will solidify his position as the world’s number 1 environmental advocate.

He has always opposed the war, so the Nutroots will not have to contend with a shifting position.

He will have name recognition, a Hollywood base of all the environmentalists, and International recognition making his candidacy almost a sure thing.

And in a year maybe someone shove this in my face, and show me I was daft. OK fine. It is my opinion and my speculation. We shall see.

But with Hillary defending herself against the unforgiving Sheehanistas, and her and Obama slicing each other up, there really is no other candidate who can galvanize the far left wing and the mainstream.

So what is he? A hypocrite? Yes in the sense that he demands we do what he is unwilling to do himself: Actually conserve, not just buy his conservation in a greenhouse shell game.

Is he a fraud? Yes in the sense that he uses mis-truths to convey a message.

Oh to be sure, I think he has a genuine passion for environmental matters. The problem is he has no scruples about how to address it, and how to scare you into dealing with it, while he just tosses a little cash at it to make sure he is not to blame.

He is the epitome of the ends justifying the means, the master of rationalization and blame shifting and a gifting wielder of sophistic logic. And that makes him a class A Washington DC grown Politician, and a clever an ambitious one at that.

And a great actor, that personality class he has been taken has paid off, he almost seems real now.

Ann Coulter is on a video clip at Hot Air.com, and she makes a great point regarding his hypocrisy.  You can also see Daryl Hannah feebly attempt to defend Al and the other liberal elitists who live under the “Do as we say, Not as we do” banner.

And Hannity agrees with me, that Carbon Offsets are a farce.

The Anchoress has a great read how Bush is actually greener then Gore.

Sister Toldjah looks at this with some great links including Blue Crab, Iowa Voice, Wizbang, and Dan Riehl who also debunks the Carbon Offsets.

This post is Linkfast friendly.

1. http://imdb.com/title/tt0087277/ [back]
2. They Had A Plan [back]
3. White House ‘cataloguing’ pranks by departing Clinton staffers… [back]
4. By the SCOTUS [back]
5. Kerry, who has slightly more personality [back]
6. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,18390,00.html [back]
7. Vladimir Lenin [back]
8. Emphasis original [back]
9. How much does it cost? You can buy green power in 150-kilowatt-hour blocks (about 12 percent of a typical household’s monthly energy use). Each block will add $4 to your monthly power bill. Green power cost more because the technology used to capture these renewable resources is more expensive than traditional power generation methods… [back]
10. As more and more people, small businesses and large companies become hip to carbon emission offsets and the carbon-neutral lifestyle, Ecobusinesslinks.com has done some homework for us and completed a comprehensive comparison of the nonprofit and for profit organizations providing carbon offsets. The survey found that most companies provide nearly identical service [offsetting carbon emissions] using a couple different means [tree-planting or investment in renewable energy, or both]…Source… [back]