draft gore

AL GORE WINS 2007 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE Al Gore and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to spread awareness about the effects of climate change. Click for more.




Draft Gore Runs Full-Page Ad in the New York Times A big thank you to the thousands of Draft Gore supporters who came through over the past week and helped us fund this ad.




Newsweek: A Nobel Candidate Oct. 8 -- The national movement to draft Al Gore for president (including Draftgore.com and ballot efforts) is covered in a Newsweek feature.

Will Al Gore Run in 2008?
Everywhere he goes, the winner of the 2000 popular vote is asked: "Would you consider running for President in 2008?" His answer is that he has no intention or plans to seek office. But he hasn't decided not to run, either. We're convinced that Gore can be persuaded to run. The purpose of this website is to encourage him to do so, while helping build a grassroots movement that will put him into the White House.

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Al Gore's statement on winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
Posted October 12th, 2007 by Janet in Al Gore Climate Crisis
Al Gore's statement on winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize:

I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis -- a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.

My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.



Janet's blog 5 comments
Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize
Posted October 12th, 2007 by Janet in Al Gore Climate Crisis
Breaking - - The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore 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."
According to the official press release from The Norwegian Nobel Committee: "Al Gore has for a long time been one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians. He became aware at an early stage of the climatic challenges the world is facing. His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change. He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.
By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to the IPCC and Al Gore, the Norwegian Nobel Committee is seeking to contribute to a sharper focus on the processes and decisions that appear to be necessary to protect the world's future climate, and thereby to reduce the threat to the security of mankind. Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control."
Congratulations, Mr. Vice President!



Janet's blog 12 comments
Al Gore for President (by Brent Budowsky)
Posted October 12th, 2007 by Janet in Al Gore Civil Liberties Climate Crisis Iraq War Politics Social Issues
As these words are written the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize has been chosen but not yet announced and for purposes of the future of America the great and inconvenient truth is that this does not matter.

America does not need another prize, we need another president.

Americans deserve a president who aspires not merely to wield power but to use the office of the presidency as the center of action to lift our land to the greatness that was bestowed to us by Americans who came before us.



Janet's blog 2 comments Read more
Nobel rumors energize groups hoping to draft Gore
Posted October 11th, 2007 by earthmother in Al Gore Politics
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer

Thursday, October 11, 2007
Ex-Vice President Al Gore's chances of winning the peace ...

(10-10) 18:28 PDT San Francisco --

He has been honored with an Emmy and an Oscar as an innovator and environmental leader, but supporters of former Vice President Al Gore say he deserves still more - the White House.

Hundreds of loyal "Draft Gore" activists in California and around the nation hope Gore hits a trifecta of public recognition on Friday when the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize is announced. The award of a Nobel Prize could prompt the 2000 Democratic presidential candidate to change his mind and launch a 2008 presidential run, they believe.

Read the rest of the article here: DG08 PAC is dedicated to draft Al Gore as the Democratic nominee for President in 2008 and to persuade the American people to elect Al Gore as the next President of the United States.

We will focus a grassroots, distributed campaign strategy on early primary and caucus states to send delegates committed to Gore to the 2008 Democratic convention.

DG08 PAC se dedica al bosquejo Al Gore como el candidato democrático para el presidente en 2008 y persuadir a la gente americana elegir a Al Gore como el presidente siguiente de los Estados Unidos.

Enfocaremos los pueblos, estrategia distribuida de la campa?a en los estados primarios y del caucus tempranos para enviar a delegados confiados a la sangre derramada a la convención democrática 2008.
Ganan Gore y Grupo ONU cambio climático el Nobel de la Paz
Fri, 10/12/2007 - 07:52 ― ebw
via El Universal: Agradece Al Gore concesión de Nobel de la Paz

El ex vicepresidente de Estados Unidos advierte sobre emergencia planetaria por cambio climático, que es un reto moral y espiritual

El ex vicepresidente de Estados Unidos, Al Gore, agradeció hoy la concesión del Premio Nobel de la Paz que comparte con científicos y defensores del medio ambiente y advirtió de que el cambio climático constituye "una verdadera emergencia planetaria" .

"Me siento muy honrado de recibir el Premio Nobel de la Paz" , se?aló Gore en una declaración.

"Encaramos una verdadera emergencia planetaria" , a?adió. "La crisis del clima no es un asunto político, es un reto moral y espiritual para toda la humanidad" .

El Comité Nobel otorgó este viernes el Premio de la Paz 2007 a Gore y al Grupo Intergubernamental sobre el Cambio Climático (IPCC) de las Naciones Unidas.

En su declaración, Gore dijo que donará su porción del premio de 1.5 millones de dólares a la Alianza para la Protección del Clima, una organización en la cual él es el presidente de la junta directiva.

Gore, de 59 a?os de edad, fue senador por el Estado de Tennessee y vicepresidente de Estados Unidos durante los dos mandatos del demócrata Bill Clinton (1993-2001) .

En la campa?a electoral de 2000 fue el candidato presidencial del Partido Demócrata y perdió la contienda con el republicano George W. Bush tras una prolongada disputa sobre votos en el Estado de Florida.

Desde entonces, enfocó sus esfuerzos en los problemas ambientales y en 2007 ganó un premio Oscar por su documental "Una verdad inconveniente" , en el cual él es relator y que describe los cambios climáticos en el planeta, que él atribuye a la actividad económica de los humanos.


Al's in route to Oslo (or Beijing)
Thu, 10/11/2007 - 00:38 ― ebw
That's really all the news I have. He's asked to reschedule the Boxer event to "go abroad, etc."

The Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, announced tomorrow night (Oslo time), and on the anniversary of Albert Nobel's death, presented to the year's winner(s).

I hope Al is in route to Beijing, as China is the state that has the greatest needs for GW awareness and help.

ebw's blog
Creating demand for IPv6, and saving the planet
Mon, 10/01/2007 - 13:34 ― ebw
[A recent posting to the North American Network Operators Group (NANOG) mailing list. It is interesting how broadly Al is referenced as having something to do with something important. I've removed the author's contact information, leaving just the "what if" from deep in the heart of network operator country, where we all know how much Al did for the net. ebw]

A number of people have bemoaned the lack of any IPv6-only killer-content that would drive a demand for IPv6. I've thought about this, and about the government's push to make IPv6 a reality. What occurred to me is there is a satellite sitting in storage that would provide such content:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triana_(satellite)

Al Gore pushed for this satellite, Triana, to provide those on earth with a view of the planet among its scientific goals. The Republicans referred to it as an "overpriced screen saver," though the effect even of just the camera component on people's lives and how they treat the planet could be considerable.

By combining the launch of Triana with feeding the still images and video from servers only connected to native IPv6 bandwidth, the government would provide both a strong incentive for end users to want to move to IPv6, and a way to get the people of this planet to stop from time to time and ponder the future of the earth.

Of course getting this done any time soon would require getting the present administration to reverse its bias against Triana and global warming. But it seemed to me an interesting way to advance two goals in synergy.

climate science ebw's blog
Al Gore: Leader of the Courage Wing of the Democratic Party (Brent Budowsky)
Sat, 08/11/2007 - 11:09 ― ebw
While the Democratic fear caucus in Congress grows with progressively more embarrassing surrenders to executive abuse, and Hillary Clinton now debates herself about whether a presidential candidate should ever renounce first use of nuclear weapons, which she was for before she was against, Al Gore is the leader of the courage wing of the Democratic Party.

The true choice in 2008 is Bushism versus Goreism. Bushism is the complex of policies that promote massive profiteering and tax avoidance by the oil sector, destruction of the environment that follows from an economy addicted to oil, unwise wars inexorably tied to the oil fields of Arabia, massive campaign donations from oil profiteers to Republican candidates, and an infrastructure of secrecy, fear and deceit necessary to support policies that would be rejected in open and honest debate.

Goreism is a pro-American energy policy that promotes safer and renewable sources; the protection of the planet that inevitably follows from those safer energy sources; avoidance of unwise wars and the use of diplomacy to avoid them when possible; integrity and truth in public debate; a reduction of the corrupting influence of money in politics, and respect for the rule of law and constitutional Americanism.

Bush embodies the exploitation of fear; many Democrats embody their own fears in their repeated surrenders to fear. Al Gore embodies the politics of courage, the clarity of conviction.

Begin with Bush's premise, we end with Bush's tactics, policies, unwise wars, corruptions, and abuses of constitutional rights while the planet is polluted. Begin with Gore's premise, we end with honest public debate, political reform, less pressure for unwise wars, far more equitable distribution of wealth, far more respect for the rule of law, while the planet is protected.

With Bush, there is a synergy between lying and misrepresenting intelligence to promote war, lying to buy science to fraudulently deny the risks of global warming, and pressure to censor administration science that is based on truth.

With Gore, there is a synergy between telling the truth to educate the world about global warming and knowing the truth about why we should have avoided a disastrous war in Iraq.

This is a clash of civilizations, a war of the worlds, between the world of Bush and the world of Gore, between competing visions of America, competing aspirations for the Earth, competing ideals of integrity in politics, competing values of reason versus ideology and delusion, competing visions between reverence for the Constitution and the rule of law versus contempt for American traditions that were previously accepted with near universal consensus since Jefferson put pen to paper.

Democrats in Washington should close down the fear and surrender caucus in the Capitol, listen to what Gore is saying, and do what Gore is doing.

[This appeared in Brent Budowsky's column in thehill.com's Pundit's Blog. ebw]


The YouTube Debate
Tue, 07/24/2007 - 19:55 ― ebw
There is no doubt in my mind that John Edwards won, or that the format and "user generated content" was a lot less stale than the faux gravitas of whoever is doing "Tom Brokaw" duty for the network that was hosting/producing the prior moments of infotainment and soundbite gotcha.

But that isn't the most important conclusion to draw from yesterday's matchup. The most important conclusion is this: in alphabetical order, Dodd, Edwards, Gravel, Kucinich, and Richardson are, on the Iraq War question, and therefore its cognates affecting the Departments of Justice, Intelligence, Defense and State, indistinguishable from Al Gore and his position of record since 2002. On that question we are united, and divided from Senators Biden, Clinton and Obama.

Joe Trippi sent out a note after the event to the Edwards campaign's supporters. It was typical of the art, proud of his candidate's performance, and simultaniously effective as a fund raising tool, and he gave five planks of that should be the platform of the Democratic Party:

Ending the war in Iraq.
Taking on the insurance companies and HMOs to fight for universal health care.
Taking on the oil industry and fundamentally changing our energy policies to end global warming.
Taking on the powerful who care about nothing but profits and greed at the expense of working people, the middle class and the poor.
And returning our government of the people to the people.

But Joe's letter has a very serious error. The error is in this line:


Contribute and spread the word about the one candidate and the one campaign that will change America.


Al isn't the only candidate, and all of the Draft Gore campaigns rolled into one, isn't the only campaign that will transform what we have and don't want, into what we don't have and clearly need. Neither is John or his campaign and neither is Chris and his campaign and neither is Mike and his campaign and neither is Dennis and his campaign and neither is Bill and his campaign. Any one of these candidates and their campaigns will do, on Iraq, and the assault on reason.

Each fails on some part of the rest of these five planks, and the candidates and their campaigns can be ranked on how far each is from perfection (its not just big oil, its also big coal) but the difference between these is not so very great, compared with those with whom we are divided, in our own party or the party of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

We have to recognize that getting three or four or even five of the planks right is more important than which candidate and which campaign. No matter who or which it is, the work of scientific, social and political reasoning on some issue will still need to be done. If it is Al, he'll still need minding to divorce him from the Clinton/Gingrich "welfare reform" and reminding that NAFTA and CAFTA and fast-track generally have non-solved environmental, social justice, and economic dislocation consequences. John will have his must-be-minded issues, as will Chris and Mike and Dennis and Bill.

Any of five, or six, will do. Each of them will campaign for transformation. Any of three won't. Each is attempting to transact their way to 2,181 delgates, and there really is a difference.

Eric Brunner-Williams
Technical Director
Draft Gore 2008 PAC


Open water at 90 degrees north
Mon, 07/16/2007 - 22:58 ― ebw

Events
Is that a Gore button?
Mon, 07/16/2007 - 19:13 ― ebw
Suzie Madrake, our initial Communications Director prior going to a paid full-time position as CD in the Philly mayorial race, writes:


I was on a local TV show this morning to talk about the Draft Gore movement. The host was surprised to hear both from me and the other Gore supporter that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton weren't real worries for Gore backers.

"If Gore announces, it'll be a tsunami," the Gore guy said.

I agreed. "If Gore runs, it will suck most of the money and the attention his way," I said. I said I'd spoken to campaign staffers who say many of them took jobs with the understanding that if Gore announces, they're leaving to work for him.

A Republican consultant who appeared with us said he didn't think Gore would present a major problem for the Republicans, but you could tell his heart wasn't in it.

After the show, the Draft Gore worker and I went out to the local diner. As the waitress prepared to take our order, she pointed to his "Draft Gore" button and said, "Is that a Gore button?"

"Yep. Do you want one?" he said. He fumbled around in his pocket and handed it over.

"Oh my God, I would absolutely love it if Al Gore ran. He's really the only one running on either side that I want," she gushed. "I really hope he does run."

See, Al? This time, America knows we need you. Run, Al, run.

ebw's blog
Prep work at Makuhari Messe (Tokyo)
Sat, 07/07/2007 - 08:05 ― ebw

Events
Dick Gephardt signs up with Peabody Coal
Fri, 07/06/2007 - 10:57 ― ebw
The lobbying disclosure form for former Speaker of the House, Minority Leader, and candidate for President, Dick Gephardt, lists Peabody Coal has his client and the specific current and anticipated lobbying issues are: "avoidance of carbon caps, funding for production of clean coal technologies".

There is no such thing as "clean coal". The former Speaker also serves as economic advisor to the Clinton for President campaign.

via Melissa McEwan at Shakesville

Note: Tom Sansonetti and Bill Myers also lobby for Peabody Coal. For more see our work on corruption in the DOI and DOJ at Wampum.

climate change and elections
Al to speak at the NMAI Saturday
Fri, 07/06/2007 - 10:20 ― ebw
Al will speak at the National Museum of the American Indians "Live Earth" concert on Saturday, directly after the welcoming speech by Tim Johnson (Mohawk), the acting director of the museum.

We spent our "spring break" helping Stacy Leeds and Raymond Vann, the reform candidates, in the (always) problematic elections of the Cherokee Nation, so we're not exactly happy that Al is on the same bill as the last remaining of an original six Jack Abramoff client/contributor tribal executives who still control Indian Gaming operations and rubber stamp legislatures, and who's single-handedly brought the Congressional Black Caucus to the point of bringing a bill "To sever United States' government relations with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma until such time as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma restores full tribal citizenship to the Cherokee Freedmen ..." to the floor of the House.

Because DG08 is an non-connected campaign PAC under FEC rules, we don't communicate with the other Draft Gore PACs, nor with Al. We just hope he doesn't do a photo-op with Chad Smith and burn bridges with Indian voters who don't confuse Treaty Rights with Jack Abramoff or racism, and Black voters who know Jim Crow when they see him.
As former US vice-president Al Gore waits to learn whether he has won this year's Nobel Peace prize, the campaign to propel him into the 2008 US presidential race is gathering renewed momentum.

A group known as "Draft Gore" has taken out full-page newspaper advertisements pleading for Mr Gore to bring some vision and experience to the race for the Democratic nomination.

Even though the man himself maintains he has no intention of running, his army of supporters are optimistic he will change his mind.

Mr Gore has made it very clear just what his thoughts are about running for the presidency again.

"No plans to run, thank you," he said.

Having no plans to run, is of course very different to saying you definitely will not enter the race and Gore fans across the country are turning up the heat on the man they believe can save America.


Media campaign

Draft Gore has mounted its own campaign this week, taking out expensive full-page newspaper ads and radio slots to persuade its man to jump in.

The ads are not exactly subtle.

One says "America and the Earth need a hero right now, somebody who'll transcend politics as usual and bring real hope to our country and to the world".

Monica Friedlander is the woman behind Draft Gore.

"We hope to demonstrate to him the enormous groundswell of support that he enjoys amongst the grassroots in this country, and probably around the world again," she said.

"We also would like present him in a way with an army of supporters ready to go should be decide to make a very late entry in the campaign."

She says Mr Gore would make a good president because he has extraordinary experience and extraordinary vision, unlike other candidates who would probably need some training on the job.

"I think he has the experience that nobody else has of having been in the White House, having been in the Senate and obviously in Congress for a long time, and having such an enormous role as a global statesman," she said.


Nobel Peace Prize

Not coincidentally, the Draft Gore ads are running in the lead up to tonight's presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm.

Mr Gore has been nominated for his campaign to focus world attention on global warming.

His supporters hope a win could just be the catalyst to enter the presidential race, particularly with the all-important Iowa caucuses less than three months away.

But some of the more hardheaded observers say even a peace prize will not be enough for Mr Gore to stop the juggernaut otherwise known as Hillary Clinton.

Jenny Backus, a Washington-based Democratic strategist, says she is not holding her breath waiting for Al Gore to jump into this race.

"The water is already too crowded and there's a chance he could sink like a stone," she said.

It is a prospect that may already have led Mr Gore to decide that life as a respected global statesman is not so bad after all.
Political analysts expect that Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize win will increase the pressure on him to run for president.


Ole Danbolt Mjos, chairman of the Nobel committee, displays a picture of Al Gore in Oslo, Norway, on Friday.

But those who know him well predict he'll resist the pressure and stay out of the race.

The former vice president and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the honor early Friday for their work in drawing attention to global climate change.

One source, who has been involved in Gore's political campaigns, told CNN that he won't get into the race for the Democratic presidential nomination because he doesn't want to battle Sen. Hillary Clinton. Gore would have given serious consideration to a run if Clinton's campaign had run into problems, the source said, but he has concluded her momentum is unstoppable.

"If she faltered, I think Democrats would probably turn to Al Gore because their argument is, 'Of course he's electable -- he's been elected,' " said CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider. But Schneider said he thought Gore's response would be that he had no interest in running.

A Gore adviser made a similar prediction to Slate.com's John Dickerson. "The view this morning is this will be energy he can just channel back into this cause he cares so much about," said Dickerson, a CNN political analyst.

Time magazine's Eric Pooley, who has reported extensively on Gore and his environmental efforts, makes the same prediction, but for a different reason.

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"Running for president would mean returning to a role he'd already transcended," Pooley wrote on Time's Web site. "He'd turn into -- again -- just another politician, when a lot of people thought he might be something better than that."

Former President Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2002, said on NBC's "Today" show Friday that he considered Gore the most qualified person to be president and that he hoped the Nobel Prize "might lead him to consider another political event."

"I've called Al Gore and urged him to run for president so many times," Carter said on "Today." "He finally told me the last time, 'President Carter, please do not call me any more.' "

Carter added, "I can at least do it indirectly through the news media."

Some of the candidates who would be Gore's rivals if he joined the race offered congratulations and praise.

"The Nobel Peace Prize rewards three decades of Vice President Gore's prescient and compelling -- and often lonely -- advocacy for the future of the Earth," said a statement from former Sen. John Edwards.

Sen. Barack Obama said in a statement, "By having the courage to challenge the skeptics in Washington and lead on the climate crisis facing our planet, Al Gore has advanced the cause of peace and richly deserves this reward."

Gore has said repeatedly this year that he doesn't "have any plans to be a candidate again."

But a group called draftgore.com apparently is hoping to change his mind. The organization, which describes itself as a group of grass-roots Democrats, took out a full-page ad in Wednesday's New York Times. Watch how the group is trying to persuade Gore to run ?

Its open letter urges the 2000 Democratic presidential nominee to enter the 2008 race for the White House, saying "your country needs you now, as do your party, and the planet you are fighting so hard to save."

The letter goes on to say that "America and the Earth need a hero right now, someone who will transcend politics as usual and bring real hope to our country and to the world."

The ad also states that 136,000 people have signed Draft Gore's online petition. Eva Ritchey, from the Draft Gore campaign, said the signatures are coming in by the thousands. She also said the group will start a radio campaign in Florida.

Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said the former vice president "truly appreciates the heartfelt sentiment behind the ad; however, he has no intention of running for president."

But some Democrats aren't giving up. In the most recent CNN-Opinion Research Corp. national poll, 13 percent of Democrats surveyed supported Gore for their party's presidential nomination.

In the poll, he was in fourth place in the Democratic race, two percentage points behind former Edwards and seven points behind Obama, and ahead of five declared candidates.

Clinton leads the poll with 39 percent.

Even if Gore changed his mind and decided to join the fray, the clock is ticking on any run for the White House. "Gore would certainly shake up the race if he changed his mind and decided to get in, but less than three months before the Iowa caucuses, his window of opportunity to actually make a serious run for the Democratic nomination probably has passed him by," said CNN political editor Mark Preston.

Gore was vice president under President Clinton. In 2000, he won the Democratic presidential nomination and faced Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the general election campaign.

Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his challenge of voting results in the key state of Florida.


"An Inconvenient Truth," a 2006 documentary featuring the former vice president, captured two Academy Awards in February. The film focuses on Gore and his worldwide travels to educate the public about the severity of global warming.

Last month Gore picked up an Emmy -- the highest award in television -- for "Current TV," which he co-created. The show describes itself as a global television network that gives viewers the opportunity to create and influence its programming. E-