When I heard about the Terra Pass gift cards being handed out at The Oscars, it reminded me of the Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences. I thought about Luther, The 95 Theses, and the righteous rebellion against money and influence. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought about this. Thomas Lifson at American Thinker wrote about this, and also another analogy: the “commutation fee” during the American Civil War.

During the Civil War, it was possible for well-to-do men who were drafted to pay a $300 “commutation fee” and escape the draft. The move sparked much public outrage, creating the impression that the war was a “rich man’s war” and probably contributing to the disgraceful draft riots in New York City, which led to the lynching of African Americans.

So, Al Gore buys carbon offsets as forgiveness for his sin of producing too much carbon dioxide, or something like that. BUT who does he buy these offsets from? According to a story published at Ecotality by Bill Hobbs, he buys them from Generation Investment Management, a company he co-founded, and serves as chairman.

Gore helped found Generation Investment Management, through which he and others pay for offsets. The firm invests the money in solar, wind and other projects that reduce energy consumption around the globe…

As co-founder and chairman of the firm … he “buys” his “carbon offsets” from himself, through a transaction designed to boost his own investments and return a profit to himself. To be blunt, Gore doesn’t buy “carbon offsets” through Generation Investment Management - he buys stocks.

And it is not clear at all that Gore’s stock purchases - excuse me, “carbon offsets” purchases - actually help reduce the use of carbon-based energy at all, while the gas lanterns and other carbon-based energy burners at his house continue to burn carbon-based fuels and pump carbon emissions - a/k/a/ “greenhouse gases” - into the atmosphere.

I wrote previously that Gore has decided to try and re-frame global warming as a “moral issue”, and the irony of the neo-moralists™ who reject any semblance of traditional faith, but have embraced the global warming cause with true religious zeal. It has become a matter of unquestioned faith - even though Gore himself admitted that the premise of his film was based on exaggerated rhetoric that he described in a 2006 interview as “over-representation of factual presentation”.

TV pundit and former congressman, Joe Scarborough, believes the stars have aligned for Gore.

Anyone vaguely familiar with Nixon’s long path to the presidency who was watching the Oscars had to be thinking that history was aligning Gore’s fate with that of the 37th president. And judging from my discussion with Joe Klein and Pat Buchanan last night on Scarborough Country, political experts are beginning to believe that Al Gore may be the last Democrat standing in 2008.

As Buchanan pointed out, Mr. Gore has been right on the war from the beginning. And unlike Barrack Obama, he has the experience to soothe the jangled nerves of Democratic party bosses. The Nation’s John Nichols also pointed out that Gore has more experience in Washington than Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama and John Edwards combined. That may not mean much when things are calm across the globe but these are not normal times.

As support for Hillary begins to dwindle in the African-American community, and Obama’s lack of gravitas becomes even more apparent, could Gore actually be the last Democrat standing?

hat tip: Swampwoman

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There has been an unconfirmed sighting of back-bone from the Republicans in the House ……….

Republicans plan to force a floor vote on Rep. William Jefferson’s move to the Homeland Security Committee in an unprecedented maneuver to force Democrats to go on the record supporting their embattled colleague who is the target of a federal bribery investigation.

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) pledged to call for a recorded vote on the House floor when Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) introduces a resolution to make the Jefferson move official.

Pelosi removed Jefferson from the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee in response to Justice Department allegations that the Louisiana Democrat had accepted $100,000 in bribes and stored $90,000 of them in his freezer. The speaker then gave Jefferson a seat on the Homeland Security, and Democrats agreed to the change in a closed-door caucus in February.

“The idea that Homeland Security is less important than the tax-writing committee is ludicrous,” Blunt said Wednesday.

Read more

Cooper Union in New York City is sponsoring the “Lincoln at Cooper Union” dialogue series. The purpose of the series is to encourage serious discourse and debate from various sides of the political spectrum. The first of these dialogues will be held February 28th with Mario Cuomo and Newt Gingrich in attendance to talk about current issues.

“LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH, LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT.” Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union Address, 1860

6:30 EST … TONITE …. Should be interesting … Watch it ((((( HERE ))))

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NY Sun:  Come to Cooper Union

In the wake of disclosures showing that Al Gore uses more electricity at his home in a month than the average family uses in 5 years, the hypocrisy alarm has sounded for another Democrat: 2008 front-runner Hillary Clinton. Who can forget her much publicized rant against Exxon Mobil for having the audacity to make a record profit?

She referred to those profits as the highest in the history of the world, and she said: “I want to take those profits…” Not I want to take part of those profits. “I want to take those profits,” she said.

Confiscatory taxes are a desirable thing for Democrats who time and again fail to understand that for corporations to survive, they must make a profit. Corporations are a convenient boogeyman for Hillary, who not only knows much better how to spend those profits than you and I, but also better than the Boards of Directors of these publicly traded companies. In Hillary’s world, corporations exist to serve government. Period. Stockholders be damned.

BUT, in an “oversight” of truly Clintonian proportions, The Washington Post revealed today that Hillary has some disclosure problems which violate the Ethics in Government Act.

“… members of Congress [are required] to disclose positions they hold with any outside entity, including nonprofit foundations. Hillary Clinton has served her family foundation as treasurer and secretary since it was established in December 2001, but none of her ethics reports since then have disclosed that fact.

The foundation has enabled the Clintons to write off more than $5 million from their taxable personal income since 2001, while dispensing $1.25 million in charitable contributions over that period.”

Hillary dispensed just 60% in charitable donations than she would have paid in taxes without the write-off. Tax cuts for the rich. indeed.

Kent Cooper, recently retired from the Federal Election Commission, made an interesting observation about these and similar “oversights”. Candidates “know there is no great consequences, and so the habit has developed that people dismiss an omission as a clerical error, when in fact it is a crucial piece of the puzzle about a member’s finances that is being hidden.”

read more at Sweetness and Light

Gibson: Hillary already making policy