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August 09, 2007 Al Gore Slings Bogus Borrowed ChargesBy Marc SheppardMr. Gore went to Singapore and peddled a phony story, one he appears to have borrowed without attribution. Echoing nearly verbatim Newsweek's recent Hillaryesque hokum that there exists a vast right-wing corporate Global Warming conspiracy, the Delphic Goracle even went so far as to repeat the most brazen among the story's falsehoods - that "deniers" had offered bribe money to potential authors of articles specifically trashing a then-pending IPCC report. Speaking Tuesday in the island nation, Gore shamelessly repeated point after nonsensical point of Senior Editor Sharon Begley's The Truth About Denial, apparently favoring credit upon neither the author nor the publication. Quite astounding, as the basis of his cerebral petty-larceny was ripped straight from the article's core contention that, in Gore's words, there lurks an organized campaign,
Gore then feigned fair use by cueing up the weary marching tune of the left-wing's own genuine Global Warming conspiracy parade (of which he is the undisputed Grand Marshall) to the Singapore forum:
Of course, repeatedly screaming consensus at the top of his lungs won't make the claim any less antithetical to reality. Any more than Begley's attempts to deep-fry the reputations of noted contrarian scientists will prove any less transparent than have Gore's. But Gore droned on, "borrowing" again from the Newsweek article - this time an observation by former senator Tim Wirth (sorry Tim - no mention of you either) comparing money spent by these evil polluters to that once invested by tobacco companies:
Curiously, the alarmist-in-chief offered no more facts to support his hyperbolic accusations than did Begley. Were the former presidential candidate not such a studied man, one might even suspect that he accepted and regurgitated these new talking points based solely on their rhetorical face value. But it was actually this purloined furtherance of the lie furthered by Begley that really hit the Gore gall ball out of the park:
Which was strikingly similar to what Begley had written just days before:
Which itself was recycled hogwash lifted from a slam-piece unsuccessfully peddled by Greenpeace for months in the US late last year, and ultimately picked up only by British tabloids. In its February 2nd article, intentionally published on the same day as the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) and sensationally entitled Scientists Offered Cash to Dispute Climate Study, the Guardian was first to promote the Greenpeace deception that:
The article included a vicious quote from Greenpeace's Ben Stewart referring to the AEI as the "Bush administration's intellectual Cosa Nostra" with nothing but "a suitcase full of cash." Not by chance, Greenpeace ran a similar piece the very same day, which called the AEI Bush's "favorite think tank" (laughably in part because Lynn Cheney is 1 of its 85 senior fellows) and its letters invitations to "attack" the UN report. To hear tell, the great think-tank was headed for the dunk-tank. That is, until the allegations were scrupulously proven -- much to the chagrin of all manner of greenies -- to be unmitigated gibberish. Responding to these frivolous claims, AEI resident scholars Kenneth P. Green and F. K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow Steven F. Hayward proved each one of them to be either "false or grossly distorted." For starters, the AEI does not engage in any form of lobbying. And to imply that the honorarium offered to busy scientists for the time necessary to compile a 7,500-10,000 word analysis of several thousand pages of evolving material is "bribe" (or "bounty") money is utterly absurd. Dispatching the bogus allegation of being "ExxonMobil-funded," the two scholars pointed out that the oil company's donations represent less than 1 percent of AEI's annual revenue. Then AEI president Chris DeMuth adroitly eviscerated the accusations of residing either in the pocket of the administration or big oil, citing the institute's distinguished history of alternately criticizing and praising both based solely on merit, adding that:
Indeed. Yet most despicable of all were the deceitful uses of the damning words "attacking," "disputing," "undercutting," "undermin[ing]," and "emphasiz[ing] the shortcomings [of]" in the various descriptions of the organization's intent. On balance, the invitation specifically outlined the project's goal of highlighting both the "strengths and weaknesses" of AR4 and its climate models. And, contrary to Gore's claim, there was absolutely no mention at all of "disputing the consensus." Furthermore, the invitations were sent to a broad spectrum of scientists and policymakers, with no attempt made whatsoever to avoid those with favorable opinions of the IPCC reports. In fact, one of the letters (PDF) quoted in the Guardian article was written to Professor Steve Schroeder of Texas A&M -- a known proponent of the UN Panel. As explained by DeMuth, the institute had:
In other words, the accusations leveled by Gore were blindly based on accusations leveled by Begley based on accusations leveled by an anonymous Barbara Boxer staffer based on accusations leveled by the Guardian based on fabricated and disproved accusations spoon-fed to them by Greenpeace. Astonishingly, it was Gore himself who complained on Tuesday that,
Nobody has ever accused Al Gore of being a self-reflective man.. Marc Sheppard is a technology consultant, software engineer, writer, and political and systems analyst. He is a regular contributor to American Thinker. He welcomes your feedback.
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