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Al Gore, who galvanized public opinion with his advocacy on global warming, sees danger in another poisoned environment, this one metaphorical: In his book The Assault on Reason, just published in paperback, he argues that what used to be called civil discourse is threatened by a combination of public apathy and political cynicism. In our infotainment-mad culture, Gore writes, the public attention span is short, the media are easily distracted, and a politics driven by fear and uninterested in facts has undermined the essential functions of democracy. "When evidence that any reasonable person can see and understand is completely ignored...

Last night, Al Gore preached to the choir. The polar ice caps are melting at an alarming rate, droughts are dragging on, floods are getting stronger and today alone, an additional 170 million tons of carbon dioxide has been dumped into the Earth's atmosphere, he told a crowd of believers at Value City Arena. "The planet has a fever," he said. It needs to be saved, to be fixed immediately. "This is our home. We don't have another planet to go to. Don't let anybody tell you we're going to get on rocket ships and go to a new planet....

It's one of the toughest and most divisive issues facing the American people. And how we respond will have a profound impact on future generations. Yet many elected officials refuse to even talk about it. President Bush proposed a plan to deal with the issue but couldn't even get members of his own party to go along. Congress blew its shot at reform in a flurry of distortions, sound bites and fear-mongering. And most of the presidential candidates won't go anywhere near the subject, perhaps sensing that it could cost them votes. The issue, of course, is Social Security reform....

NEW YORK — It's a bust of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — in more ways than one. Cast in resin and bearing ample cleavage, a bust of the New York Democrat was unveiled this week at the Museum of Sex in Manhattan. Calling his creation "The Presidential Bust of Hillary Rodham Clinton: The First Woman President of the United States," artist Daniel Edwards said he wanted to depict the 58-year-old Clinton "with her head held high, a youthful spirit and a face matured by wisdom." Indeed, while the former first lady's face is shown with a few wrinkles, Edwards cast...

I'm thinking this guy is going to be the one ala Nixon after JFK. Who will be his running mate?

Former Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday he had no intention of ever running for president again. "I have absolutely no plans and no expectations of ever being a candidate again," said Gore, who lost the 2000 election to President Bush.

October 5, 2005 -- A pep rally to be held tomorrow in Central Park for Al Gore's new cable channel for young people, Current TV, is sold out, according to the event's Web site. Tickets were free... Instructions on the site indicate that there might be some tickets at the entrance available to those who register online for a waiting list. The event, called "Take Back TV," is scheduled to run from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Central Park's Rumsey Playfield, best known as the site of SummerStage. Besides promoting the fledgling cable channel, Take Back TV is aimed...

AS SEN. Hillary Clinton ratchets up her attacks on Presi dent Bush, some Democrats think they smell an explanation: the threat of a 2008 Al Gore presidential bid that could come at her from the left on Iraq. The former vice president is suddenly re-emerging as a vocal and visible Bush-basher — he's slated to star at a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser for big donors in Washington next Tuesday. "He's keeping a very strong public profile. He was the first major Democrat to oppose the Iraq war. He's keeping in touch around the country and doing a lot of speeches....

Background: Gore gives a speech about global warming at the Sierra Club Summit in San Francisco. He is driven away afterwards in a gigantic gas guzzling planet killing Cadillac Escalade SUV. ========================================================== MIDI - BEEP BEEP Al went to San Francisco to give a great big speech We do not know whether he hit all the bars that they have at North Beach Poor Al it seems was disappointed 'cause Carol Doda is there no more But, after all, she's old enough that they'd hang to the floor Bleep bleep...bleep bleep...what Al said we must bleep His driver parked the...

Former Vice President Al Gore urged Americans on Friday to hold the Bush administration accountable for failing to adequately prepare for and respond to Hurricane Katrina. "When the corpses of American citizens are floating in toxic flood waters five days after a hurricane struck, it is time not only to respond directly to the victims of the catastrophe, but to hold ... the leaders of our nation accountable," Gore told environmentalists at the Sierra Club's national convention. Gore had been scheduled to give a speech to state insurance commissioners in New Orleans this weekend about the likelihood that global warming...

It's a wonder you're even reading this piece. I mean, it's a compliment of course -- for which I'm grateful. But it's a surprise. I was certain that most of you would be spending the day glued to your television sets. August first was, after all, the debut of Al Gore's new television network, Current TV. Are you still with me? Or have I already lost you to your TV rooms and TiVos? It's okay. I'd understand. The prospect of an entertainment vehicle as fresh and lively as the former vice president is awfully hard to resist. That's why I'm...

Ever have a teacher who tried way too hard to be "down" with the kids? Who never knew that he was using out-of-date lingo or patronizing the intelligence of the people he wanted to befriend? If you have a masochistic desire to spend hours with that kind of person, you could tune into Current TV, a new cable channel that debuted in 20 million homes nationwide Monday. (In South Florida, Current is available on DirecTV.) For a channel that is supposed to be aimed squarely at 18- to 34-year-olds and reflect their views and concerns, Current (whose chairman is Al...

The day after President Bush announced his first Supreme Court nominee, his opponent in the hotly disputed 2000 election was a continent away from the White House, sitting in a darkened conference room in a converted coffee warehouse here. Surrounded by more than a dozen people in their 20's and 30's, Al Gore was screening prospective videos for a cable and satellite channel that he, along with several investors, is scheduled to introduce next Monday. It is called Current, and he is not only its co-founder and its chairman, he is also one of the people who has an occasional...

The conventional Beltway wisdom says Social Security reform is dead, thanks to near-unanimous Democratic opposition. Well, not so fast. Republican reformers are introducing a new plan to invest Social Security surplus funds into personal accounts that has the potential to shake up the debate. Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan and South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint are calling for legislation to bring an immediate halt to the ongoing political raid on the surplus payroll taxes.... Instead of spending this retirement money, the reformers would allow individual workers to divert every surplus Social Security dollar--from now until the extra cash runs out in...

Gary Halbert's Weekly E-LetterDelivered Every Wednesday5/10/2005Did President Bush Cave On Social Security?IN THIS ISSUE: Introduction Chalk One Up For The Democrats & The Press Bush Caves On The Issue Of "Means Testing" Give 'Em What They Want & They Still Object Washington Post: No Problem, So Do Nothing Disclaimer Introduction Last week, President Bush began a political process which gives him the option of abandoning his call for private savings accounts as a central point of his push for Social Security reform.  His nationwide push for private accounts has not been met with overwhelming support, and his poll ratings...

Many supporters of Social Security reform are already declaring it a lost cause. Columnist Charles Krauthammer says the idea "isn't dead, but it's pretty sick." Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard says President Bush needs an "exit strategy" because "it's hard to see how a reform measure can pass." Bill Kristol, editor of the Standard, says that if the White House is "willing to unwind the Social Security proposal and accept defeat sometime this year, it won't do them any damage" in next year's elections.

Annual Report on the United States Government When Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, the federal government was spending $200 billion per year more than it took in, and was borrowing more than $100 billion per year from the Social Security Trust Fund. Republicans ushered in an era of fiscal restraint, and balanced the federal budget for the first time since 1969. This enabled us to change the nation's deficits to surpluses, so that we borrowed less and lowered interest rates. Lower interest rates, in turn, produced greater investment and, greater investment produced more jobs and higher take home...

"The Trust Fund is a debt, not an asset" (refers to "AARP's Double Game," Wall Street Journal, Review & Outlook, April 18). Amen, you said it. It is the biggest component of the nonpublic debt. You might also mention that the Social Security "trust fund" is not a trust fund, but a reserve account in the U.S. Treasury. And the "trustees" are not really trustees because there is no trust fund. And the actuaries are not really actuaries because there is no insurance policy to analyze. And all those references to insurance in the Social Securities Act really mean "tax-and-transfer,"...

[snip] What is guaranteed about Social Security is that it's facing a demographic tsunami. In 1940, there were 42 workers per retiree. The ratio today is down to 3-to-1 and it'll be 2-to-1 before today's 20-year-olds are eligible for Early Birds. More young immigrants would help, but a recent report by Stuart Anderson, a senior official at the Immigration and Naturalization Service in President Bush's first term, concludes that a hefty 33 percent jump in immigration over the next 75 years would only trim Social Security's impending multitrillion-dollar deficit by 10 percent. More domestic babies would also help, but there...

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