Al Gore Should Endorse Barack Obama If He's Not Going To Run For President

As you know unless you've crawled under a rock, Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize , and the media's immediately speculating on what his plans will be -- in other words, will he run for President?

Gore has stated several times that he will not run and that at some point in the future, he will endorse a candidate running for President.

Gore should endorse Barack Obama, and not just because Barack's the best candidate, but because Senator Obama -- of all the candidates -- is the only one who signed the Live Earth pledge, encourages his supporters to do so , and takes Gore's efforts so seriously he consistently refers to them and to the Global Climate problem on the campaign trail.

Moreover, Senator Obama's energy plan is specifically designed “to combat global warming and achieve energy security." In fact, the campaign website states...

"Global warming is real, is happening now and is the result of human activities. The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years. Glaciers are melting faster; the polar ice caps are shrinking; trees are blooming earlier; oceans are becoming more acidic, threatening marine life; people are dying in heat waves; species are migrating, and eventually many will become extinct. Scientists predict that absent major emission reductions, climate change will worsen famine and drought in some of the poorest places in the world and wreak havoc across the globe. In the U.S., sea-level rise threatens to cause massive economic and ecological damage to our populated coastal areas.:

By contrast, Senator Hillary Clinton did not have her supporters back the Live Earth pledge or give it attention on her website. And while she mentions her admiration for Gore, she does so with a caveat that she does not agree with all of his ideas -- like what?

She said ....

"You know, I have a great deal of respect for Vice President Gore. He has been beating the drums and sounding the alarm of global warming for many, many years. He has never given up on his mission to try and raise awareness and to get the country to take action. I may not agree with everything he proposes -- I don't agree 100 percent with anything that any one person proposes -- but I am certainly grateful to him for being such a public spokesman."

Well, now that spokesman is a Nobel Prize-winner. Gore should back Barack Obama.

Barack Obama On CNN's Situation Room Attacks Hillary Clinton - Video

Barack Obama comes out swinging in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer:

Steeler RB Charged for Domestic Incident in Cleveland

Article retrieved from www.myfoxcleveland.com

Last Edited: Thursday, 11 Oct 2007, 8:09 PM EDT
Created: Thursday, 11 Oct 2007, 8:09 PM EDT


After investigating an early October domestic incident involving 29-year-old Najeh Davenport, the Cleveland Police department announced today that charges have been brought against the Pittsburgh Steeler's running back.

According to Cleveland Police Lt. Thomas Stacho, Davenport has been charged with domestic violence, endangering children and unlawful restraint.

Davenport is not currently in custody and will be given a chance to surrender to police on the charges.

On Thursday, October 4th, at 8:52 p.m., Cleveland Police investigated a report of a domestic dispute at 1374 E.115 Street.

According to Stacho, the incident involved Davenport and the mother of his 5-year old child, Anita Person, 27, of Cleveland.

The dispute resulted from a custody matter involving Davenport's and Person's child.

Cleveland Police received three 9-1-1 calls between 8:45 p.m. and 9:02 p.m. from individuals at the house where the incident took place.

No arrests were initially made as officers were unable to determine the primary physical aggressor in the dispute.

If convicted Davenport could face more than 1 year in jail, 6 months for domestic violence, 6 months for endangering children and 60 days for unlawful restraint.

Coulter: We Want Jews To Be "Perfected"

Disgusting, simply disgusting. How dare a woman who is supportive of the right wing strategy that has failed the American people miserably echo this sentiment. If not for the first amendment, I'd love to have her silenced and at the very least she should take an extended leave of abscene in order to revise her thoughts.

To say that Jews should ''be perfected'' is laughable and completely racist. Unquestionably, Jews have made stupendous advances in the American culture and have set the standard that the rest of the world follows. It's not a coincidence that Jews are people of class, professionalism, wealth, hospitality and respect.

People associate Jews to be doctors, lawyers, accountants and overall extremely successful individuals who do not get into much trouble. It would be a major story if a rabbi was found on the first, second or third page of the newspaper for committing an offense, but it has become second nature to expect Christan's to be getting into a whirlwind of trouble on a consistent basis.

The standard of excellence that the Jewish religion has established is outstanding and to state that we need to be ''perfected'' is completely reprehensible.

Shame on Ann Coulter.

(CBS News) Ann Coulter is stirring up controversy again.

The conservative commentator said this week that the nation would be better off if all Americans were Christian and that she wants "Jews to be perfected, as they say."

Appearing on the CNBC show The Big Idea, Coulter was asked to give her version of a better America. She told the show's host, Donny Deutsch, that it would look like New York City during the 2004 Republican National Convention.

Pressed for details, Coulter said, "People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend America ..."

"Christian ... so we should be Christian?" Deutsch interrupted. "It would be better if we were all Christian?"

Coulter answered "Yes" once, and after being asked the same question again by an obviously surprised Deutsch, answered "Yes" a second time.

When Coulter tried to shift the conversation to the diverse congregations in Christian megachurches, the show's host brought the topic back to Coulter's statements about Jews.

Media Matters, the liberal media watchdog group which is publicizing the encounter, provided this transcript:

DEUTSCH: ... we should just throw Judaism away and we should all be Christians, then, or ...

COULTER: Yeah.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Well, it's a lot easier. It's kind of a fast track.

DEUTSCH: Really?

COULTER: Yeah. You have to obey.

DEUTSCH: You can't possibly believe that.

COULTER: Yes.

"We just want Jews to be perfected, as they say," Coulter said later in the show. "That is what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express."

"Candidly, I had her on not to talk about politics but to talk about her brand strategy," Deutsch later told AdWeek . "Whether you like her or not, her strategy is to be extreme and that's a way to make money. But because it's her, it drifted into politics."

"I simply asked her a question, something like, 'If the world was her way, what would it look like?' And she said something to the effect that everybody would be Christians," Deutsch told AdWeek. "I was somewhat baffled and asked if that meant there would be no Buddhists or Jews and I think her words were, 'perfected' Jews [would be OK]."
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Al Gore Wins Nobel Peace Prize - BREAKING NEWS

Gore, U.N. Body Win Nobel Peace Prize
By Howard Schneider and Debbi Wilgoren

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 12, 2007; 5:52 AM

Former Vice President Al Gore Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today along with a United Nations panel that monitors climate change for their work educating the world about global warming and advocating for political action to stop it.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee characterized Gore as "the single individual" responsible for convincing world governments that climate change was real, caused by human activity, and posed a threat to society.

Gore has focused on the issue through books, promotional events and his Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, incorporating the work of some 2,000 scientists, has been monitoring evidence of climate change and possible solutions since 1988. The panel is a joint project between the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization.

Between the science showcased by the panel and Gore's advocacy, the two helped "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 committee said.

"Whereas in the 1980s global warming seemed to be merely an interesting hypothesis, the 1990s produced clear scientific support."

As with last year's award to Bangladeshi banker Mohammad Yunus, whose pioneering use of small loans to the very poor helped contribute to the stability of developing nations, this year's prize focused on an issue not directly related to war and peace, but which was seen as critical to maintaining social stability.

The panel said that global warming "may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the earth's resources. Such changes will place particularly heavy burdens on the world's most vulnerable countries. There may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states."

Highlighting those risks, and the role of man in both creating and mitigating them, has defined public life for Gore, 59, since he lost the closely fought presidential election in 2000 to President Bush.

From that difficult race, in which he won the popular vote but lost the electoral college in a case ultimately decided by the Supreme Court, he emerged as a controversial figure -- ridiculed by opponents as an environmental extremist, and hailed by supporters as "the Gore-acle" for his foresight on issues like the Internet and climate change.

The Nobel is a vindication that could impact the upcoming presidential race: Gore's supporters have repeatedly urged him to enter the race, and the luster of the peace prize may add to that push.

But the former vice president, whose background includes a Harvard education and deep roots in Tennessee politics, has seemed disinclined to enter the fray. He has focused more on undertakings like last summer's "Live Earth" concerts, which promoted environmentalism in a series of star-studded rock and roll shows around the world.

John Edwards Affair? | Enquirer, Part-Owned By Clinton Backer Says John Edwards In An Affair In 2006?

UPDATE: JOHN EDWARDS CAUGHT VISITING RIELLE HUNTER AND CHILD JULY 21, 2008.

FLASH: Clinton Campaign head sticks foot in mouth in Iowa.

FLASH: Barack Obama and African American fear of success.

Video UPDATE:



This is one of those stories you aren't sure what to do with but figure you should cover to some extent. Apparently the National Enquirer is reporting that John Edwards had been cheating on his wife. It's all the more hurtful because his wife's battling breast cancer and doesn't need any more stress, even from the mere existence of the story itself.

Yikes.

The person who some are pointing fingers at is named Rielle Hunter. She's a video producer who was hired to cover Edwards for a period of time during the campaign and made a special set of videos. Here's one of them..




Hunter released the following statement through a spokesperson:

"The innuendoes and lies that have appeared on the internet and in the National Enquirer concerning John Edwards are not true, completely unfounded and ridiculous.
My video production company was hired by the Edwards camp on a 6 month contract, which we completed December 31, 2006.

When working for the Edwards camp, my conduct as well as the conduct of my entire team was completely professional.

This concocted story is just dirty politics and I want no part of it."

But how in hell did this get started and generate 1,363 blog posts, according to Technorati? We'll get to that, but it appears the National Enquirer is part owned by Clinton backer and former staffer Roger Altman , according to Pat Dollard.

But A spokesman for American Media, Richard Valvo, said in an email that Altman has “no involvement in editorial, ever.” He said that Evercore owns 20% of the company through an investment fund. Altman didn’t respond to an email seeking comment or to a message left with his secretary.

American Media has also published terrible and negative stories about the Clintons since its acquisition, so that may just be coincidence.

But how did this get started?

According to Sam Stein over at the Huffington Post , the two met at a New York Bar (!) and the idea for a set of videos was hatched there. What Sam doesn't report, but does come from Rielle's own website, is that in 2004 she was flat broke. In 2006, just two years later, she scored a six-figure deal with Edwards. But how?

What appears possible is that Edwards got involved with helping a woman in her early 40s remake her life. Indeed, the production company that made the film, Midline Groove Productions, was brand new in 2006, according to its website.

"Midline Groove is a full-service production company committed to projects that reveal truth -- the authentic aspects of humanity that are right here and most often overlooked. Creating short and feature length documentaries for the web, broadcast, and big screen, the company was established in 2006 by producing partners Rielle Hunter and Mimi Hockman."

So it seems that the Edward project was Midline Groove Productions' first work, period. Thus it seems as if Edwards created a job for the new production company. It came at the right time for Hunter. Hunter's other website sends the constant message that Hunter was searching for a new self at the time. Check this out..

Back in bed the thought arises: Funny, I would ask Ramana for help and not Gangaji who is here in a body. Yes, that would be too intimate. Intimate intimate intimate. And because I have learned to move towards my fear, I have learned that under the fear is where all the great juice is hidden, it naturally occurs to me to ask her: Gangaji, PLEASE help me wake up from this dream.

There's a lot of text like that.

NYMag has a great timeline which I've reproduced here:



January 2007. John Edwards's One America campaign debuts a series of Web videos about him, made by relatively unknown documentarian Rielle Hunter. The pair met at a bar, where she sold the future candidate on the idea. Hunter subsequently followed Edwards around the country, filming. Newsweek reporter Jonathan Darman, upon watching the final cuts, notes that "in the midst of a short theme sequence that begins each Webisode, the camera lingers over the former senator's behind as he tucks a starched white shirt into his pants."

August 27, 2007. The Post's "Page Six" runs the following blind item: "WHICH political candidate enjoys visiting New York because he has a girlfriend who lives downtown? The pol tells her he'll marry her when his current wife is out of the picture." This is later reprinted by commenters on the Huffington Post blog.

September 26, 2007. Young Huffington Post blogger Sam Stein writes about his efforts to track down the Web videos, which have disappeared from Edwards's Website. Stein writes an oddly detailed account of his chase of the videos and points out that both the Edwards campaign and Hunter's production company blame one another for their vanishing act. Stein even checks with the Screen Actor's Guild to get more information and tracks down production assistants on the project, none of whom will say much. Finally, Edwards's people let him see the videos while accompanied by a campaign minder and Stein sees nothing sinister in them.

September 27, 2007. Daily Kos contributor Ben Bang links to Stein's post and viciously berates the reporter. "Are we supposed to infer something from this non-ending, douchebag?" Ben Bang asks, going on to call him a him a "no-article-finishing, character-assassinating hack fuck."

October 10, 2007. The National Enquirer reports that Edwards is having an affair with a mystery woman who had traveled with the campaign and met the candidate at a bar. An Edwards rep calls the allegations "false, absolute nonsense."

October 10, 2007. That same day, Stein posts a follow-up to his original Huffington Post piece. He questions why the filmmaker, Rielle Hunter, was paid upwards of $100,000 for her work and points out that she used to be a party girl who dated writer Jay McInerney in the eighties and inspired the main character in his book Story of My Life.

October 10, 2007. Ann Coulter, late in the day, mentions the Enquirer story on Tucker Carlson's MSNBC talk show. Daily Kos once again picks up on it and lists the reasons why Stein and the Huffington Post are irresponsible journalists for digging into it.

October 11, 2007. Mickey Kaus on Slate writes a post headlined "Emerging Edwards Scandal?" in which he notes the previous coverage, mulls what would happen to Edwards's campaign if the story were true, especially since he's been "tacitly and effectively used Elizabeth and her struggle" with cancer (the struggle with cancer no doubt being a large part of why the "mainstream media seems to be strenuously trying to not report it"), and wonders who might benefit. Obama?

October 11, 2007. Jezebel.com doesn't mince words, with a headline that screams, "Is John Edwards Cheating on His Cancer-Stricken Wife?" "Who the fuck sleeps with a married man whose wife has terminal cancer and THE ENTIRE WORLD FUCKING KNOWS ABOUT IT?"

October 11, 2007. Washington, D.C., gossip blog Wonkette.com picks up on the Enquirer story, too. After Ann Coulter (who once called John Edwards a gay slur) mentions it, they query: "But, um, Ann? Why would Edwards have a lady-affair when he's a 'faggot'?"

October 11, 2007. New York Magazine's Daily Intelligencer dutifully compiles all of the coverage of the rumor, without adding any information or making conclusions of any kind.

The AP Picks Up The Story

The Associated Press just picked up the story as did the LA Times. In total, 70 news outlets are running with the yarn. Let's see where this takes us as it's not going away.

9 children killed in U.S. raid in Iraq

When will the constant fighting and this errorneous behavior stop? Enough is enough and the killing of nine innocent children is disgraceful.

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - A U.S. attack killed 19 insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, northwest of the capital Thursday — one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in an American operation in recent months. The military said it was targeting senior leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq.

American forces have applied fierce and determined pressure on militants, especially al-Qaida in Iraq, since the full contingent of additional U.S. troops arrived June 15. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has recently confronted top American commander Gen. David Petraeus about what he sees as overly aggressive U.S. tactics that harm innocent civilians, according to Iraqi officials.

The military statement detailing Thursday's air and ground assault said soldiers were acting on intelligence reports about an al-Qaida meeting in the Lake Tharthar region. The southern reaches of the big, man-made lake are about 50 miles northwest of the capital.

The American account said U.S. surveillance confirmed "activity consistent with the reports and supporting aircraft engaged the time-sensitive target." The first air attack killed "four terrorists," said the statement.

The military said it then tracked some of those who escaped the initial attack to a place south of Lake Tharthar. It said ground forces moved on the site and came under fire. Air support was called in.

"After securing the area, the ground force assessed 15 terrorists, six women and nine children were killed," the statement said. Two suspected al-Qaida members, a woman and three children were wounded, according to the military account.

The military said its troopers "were reviewing information from the scene (of Thursday's attack) as well as assessing the level of damage involved."

The statement also issued regret "that civilians are hurt or killed while Coalition forces search to rid Iraq of terrorism."

On Oct. 5, a pre-dawn U.S. raid on Khalis, a Shiite city north of Baghdad, killed 25 people when U.S. troops called in airstrikes after meeting a fierce barrage while hunting suspected smugglers of arms from Iran to Baghdad. Village leaders said the victims included civilians, but the military insisted the 25 killed were militants.

President Bush ordered the 30,000 American forces to Iraq to stanch sectarian violence and give the government breathing space to foster reconciliation among the country's warring Sunni and Shiite Muslims. U.S. forces have chalked up notable success against militants, but the government has become nearly deadlocked and made no progress on healing wounds among Iraq's sectarian and ethnic groups.

The U.S. military announced the combat death of a soldier Wednesday in eastern Baghdad.

At least 35 Iraqis were killed or found dead in attacks nationwide Thursday, as suicide car bombers struck a market in the northern city of Kirkuk and a cafe in eastern Baghdad.

Also Thursday, the U.S. military revealed that rockets fired from a nearby abandoned school struck Camp Victory, U.S. military headquarters near Baghdad Airport, killing two members of the U.S.-led coalition and wounding 40 other people on the sprawling headquarters for U.S. forces in Iraq.

Most troops stationed at the base are American but there are small contingents from other countries. The military said those wounded in Wednesday's attack included two "third-country nationals," meaning they were not Americans or Iraqis.

Petraeus said 107 mm rockets were used. A number of other rockets also were found at the launching site, he said, adding the military had strong leads about who was behind the attack. A U.S. military official said the rockets were fired from an abandoned school nearby.

Both the Iraqi officials and the U.S. military official spoke on condition of anonymity because they lacked authorization to release information.

U.S. bases in Iraq frequently face rocket or mortar attacks, but Camp Victory is well-entrenched on the capital's western outskirts and such heavy casualties are rare.

On Sept. 11, one person was killed and 11 were wounded in a rocket attack on the complex, which includes lakeside palaces formerly used by Saddam Hussein that now house the headquarters of the Multi-National Forces in Iraq. The U.S. military said a 240 mm rocket provided to Shiite extremists by Iran was used in that attack.

By contrast, the U.S.-protected Green Zone, which houses the American and British embassies and the Iraqi government headquarters in central Baghdad, is far more vulnerable and has faced a series of deadly strikes in recent months.