Congrats Al!

2007 Nobel Peace Prizes to:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - Geneva, Switzerland

Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. - USA

"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"

Hodge Podge

You gotta give it to the Republicans. Only they would use something like Katrina to justify huge spending cuts in essential programs ... rather than eliminating tax cuts for the wealthiest, eliminating subsidies for big oil or getting the hell out of Iraq. The House Republican Study Committee outlines many cuts including:

• cuts or increases in premiums for medicare/medicaid
• freezing of aid to Global AIDS Initiative, Peace Corps
• eliminate state grants for Safe and Drug-Free school programs
• eliminate Even Start

Without any sense of irony, they list items such as the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative and the Applied Research for Renewable Energy Sources Programs as "corporate welfare" that can be eliminated and are better served by the private sector. I'm so sick of all this "free market" crap they spout. It was the "free market" people in the 60's that didn't want civil rights legislation to go through. They said that the market would eventually see that they shouldn't descriminate. Capitalism is the answer to every problem to them. Do you know what capitalism and real corporate welfare are doing? They're creating a have and have-not society. And these moronic cuts they are recommending will hit the have-nots the worse, especially the elderly.

In addition, they suggest eliminating the National Endowment for Arts and publicly funded TV. This is not a shocker because these programs represent culture and the Republicans in power right now (not all Republicans, mind you) wouldn't know culture if it hit them between the eyes. Larry the Cable Guy is not culture, you hayseeds.

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Former President Jimmy Carter told a panel at American University this week something that most of us already know, but that is suprising coming from a former president, Gore won 2000 election.



I like the fact that Carter and Clinton earlier in the week are not being afraid to tell it like it is ... abandoning this nonexistent unspoken rule forbidding former presidents from criticizing a standing president. The rule is bogus, as George Sr. had no problem savaging Bill while he was office.

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It's good to see that Homeland Security is doing it's job ... protecting us from those evil vegans:

ACLU sues Homeland Security for arresting, spying on vegans who protested ham




We all know how violent vegans can get. Think of the bedlam that would ensue from a booby-trapped tomato or cauliflower in a crowded area. :-)