Nobel Winner Al Gore

This year has been a banner year for Al Gore. His informative Movie An Inconvenient Truth first won an Oscar and now Mr. Gore is being honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. Many Conservatives attacked Gore and said that he did not lead a Green lifestyle. The point of the movie was not Gore's lifestyle, but how we can make small changes to save the Earth.
I met Mr. Gore back in 2000, he was kind enough to pose for a picture with me. I will post that soon.

An Inconvenient Truth

We watched a special screening of this movie tonight and it is indeed an eye opener. First of all to watch a documentary movie with Al Gore as announcer would seem as exciting as spending your Friday night watching grass grow. However this was Monday night and it is time that people face the truth about the direction our earth is going. Anyone living in the Seattle area would notice that the winters and the summer have become much warmer in the last few years. We have just worst wind storm in years and our rainiest month was last November.

The movie really is not boring, on the contrary Mr. Gore presents the evidence in a very elementary fashion to illustrate the phenomenon. He also presents ways to reverse the current trends, sometimes with minor lifestyle adjustments. No matter what opinion you have of Mr. Gore, I would deeply recommend watching this movie.

With Al Gore In 2000

He's won a Nobel Prize and an Oscar since this was taken, this picture was taken of Vice President Gore and I during the imfamous 2000 presidential campaign.

Inslee Running For President

Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, has announced his candidacy for President of the United States, becoming the first Washingtonian to do so since Senator Scoop Jackson, who made his second run for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1976.
As home to Microsoft and Amazon, as well as Starbucks and Costco, our state has a much higher profile, however on the national stage, Inslee is still rather unknown.
Inslee's has worked his way from state legislator to congress, losing his seat in Washington's 4th CD in 1994, to being elected in Washington's first CD in 1998.
In 2012, Inslee took on the heavily favored Attorney General Rob McKenna and defeated him to become governor of Washington.
Inslee, sometimes compared with Al Gore, has made the threat of global warming, his top campaign issue.
With Washington's booming economy, Inslee has been relatively popular.  He has drawn some wrath with Republicans for pushing some progressive issues and some Democrats for compromising on others.
Picture is curtesy of the Seattle Times.

Senator Joe Lieberman--First Jewish Candidate On A Presidential Ticket

 Joe Lieberman, the senator from Connecticut who became the first Jewish Vice-Presidential candidate, has died of complications from a fall.  

Lieberman was named by Al Gore to be his running mate in 2000, the first known Jew to run on a major party presidential ticket. He may have become the first Jewish vice president if the US Supreme Court would have allowed a recount of the Florida vote. He was later under consideration to run as a Republican VP by Senator John McCain. 

With moderate views on social issues and hawkish defense views, Lieberman found himself in a political no-man's land in the increasingly polarizing political landscape. He left the Democratic party after losing in the primary to retain his senate seat, he would run as an independent in that election and keep his seat. 

Joe Lieberman was 82. 

The Apprentice: Arrow Takes Back The Mansion

I have to wonder if the reason they always skip the week after Arrow wins because that is the only way they can stay in the mansion. Probably not but once again we will have to wait 2 weeks for the next episode.
The candidates meet Trump at the airport, about to fly out for business on his own jet (he must not have seen Al Gore's movie), he introduces the candidates to executives from Priceline.com
the executives will be supervising the task which consists of sending the candidates to shopping malls to sign them up for the latest promotion something about naming you own hotel price.
Aimee is in her second week as PM for Kinetic, her team seems to feel that they won the task in spite of her. Suryea takes over as PM for Arrow, he is still the square peg, James seems to think that he takes himself too seriously, maybe that's why he is called Suryea (sorry). The Arrow team shows it's energy and wins the task.
Arrow is rewarded, Nicole gets hurt and it seems like the Rebecca incident all over again, will she quit or go through the task on crutches? Rebecca was the candidate who broke her leg in a reward while playing Ice Hockey, she would have been a co-Apprentice had the winner let her aboard. This was not the case with Nicole, she only had a jellyfish sting. She undoubtedly was treated with lotion and was back so she continued her romance with Tim, they connect with a kiss that would make the viewer aware that there was more to the story off camera.
Meanwhile Kinetic arrives at the boardroom, Donald Trump Jr is sitting in today. Daddy Trump of course says what a good job he is doing. I never hear Donald say that about his other employees. In the biggest non surprise of the season, Aimee is fired.

Reality Star Omarosa Leaves Trump Staff

Omarosa Manigault-Newman, who gained a  reputation as bombastic and temperamental even before the President was seen that way, has left the White House staff.  It's in dispute as to whether she had quit or was fired.  Reports are that she was fired by Trump Chief Of Staff General Kelly and had to be escorted off the grounds by the Secret Service. 
Even though Omarosa is reportedly worked for Vice President Al Gore in the Clinton White House, her behavior on various reality shows such as The Apprentice, which Trump hosted, made it difficult for her to be taken seriously. 

Keith Olbermann--Fired Again!

TV writer Ken Levine reports on his blog that mercurial Liberal commentator Keith Olbermann has been fired from his latest network, Current TV.   Olbermann had been at the network that was co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore for less than a year after losing the job that brought him the most fame, hosting countdown at MSNBC.  Previously a sportscaster, Olbermann had also worked for ESPN and Fox Sportsnet.

Good Bye To Lloyd Bentsen

Former Texas Senator and Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Lloyd Bentsen has died at 85. A Conservative Democrat at a time when Al Gore was considered a Conservative Democrat, Bentsen was picked by Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis to be his running mate in his campaign for the presidency. The Liberal Dukakis picked Bentsen to balance the ticket, but the choice did more to alienate Liberals than to attract new voters. His most memorable moment was debating Bush's VP nominee Dan Quayle. Youthful Quayle said that he had the same legislative experience as John F Kennedy. Bentsen shot back the now famous quote "Senator, your are no Jack Kennedy"