Or maybe not:
Drudge Attacks Gore Over Utility Bills - Rush Update
[...]Here's what we know, what we think, what we're trying to find out and how you can help.
Last night, Al Gore got very favorable national press and worldwide television exposure.
This afternoon, a group calling itself "The Tennessee Center For Policy Research" sent out a press release denouncing Vice President Gore for the size of his household electrical bills.
What's this nontroversy all about?
Apparently, the Right is claiming Gore is a hypocrite for trying to stop global warming while having a largue home electric bill (supposedly 20 times the national average in terms kWh). What the Tennessee Center for Policy "Research" and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and The Drudge Report and Ann Coulter and all the other right-wing deceivers want you to assume from this is that Gore is contributing to global warming with his large electric bill.
This is an advanced deception technique that Al Franken refers to as a "weasel". According to Franken, a "weasel" is something that is technically true but intentionally used to mislead. In other words, they are telling a half-truth to get people to believe a whole lie.
In this case, this is the half-truth they tell:
Gore's home uses 20 times the energy of the average home.
And this is the whole lie they want you to believe:
Gore is a hypocrite.
The reason they only tell a half-truth and not the whole truth is because the whole truth discredits their whole lie, their argument, and consequently their careers. Limbaugh, Hannity, Drudge, Coulter, none of them would have their jobs if they did not base their entire careers on lies.
Fortunately, the good guys have been busy working to tell the whole truth:
Olbermann on Gore’s Energy Use: Setting the Record Straight
You knew after his big night at the Oscars Sunday, the far right would come out in full force against former Vice President Gore. Since these single-minded sensationalists never let those pesky "facts" get in the way, Keith breaks down the utility bill.
Crooks and Liars has the video of Keith Olbermann debunking the smear. Watch it.
(W/ KO Video) Further Response from Al Gore's Offices
Considering the factors:Gores have a relatively large 10K square foot 5 bedroom home (latts) have two home based offices likely have staff helping in various capacities likely have several visitors (family, friends, former and present coworkers, those working with Gore on global warming, and maybe a friendly politician or two visiting them once in a while) use green energy which apparently costs significantly more (30-40% higher according to illinifan7)
their energy bills do not seem unreasonable to me.
There is a lot more info in that diary. Read it.
Gore Responds To Drudge’s Latest Hysterics
[...]Responding to Drudge’s attack, Vice President Gore’s office told ThinkProgress:
1) Gore’s family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology.
2) Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon offsets to offset the family’s carbon footprint — a concept the right-wing fails to understand.
And one more link just for fun:
Breaking news: Al Gore uses electricity, and other Great Moments in right-wing issue avoidance
[...]Yes, he uses more electricity than you or me, but the house of this former Vice President and his wife has offices and staffers and security needs that we don't have either. His car today is an SUV, but it's also a hybrid.
[...]There are, after all, some legitimate experts who don't think global warming is a problem, or at least not a manmade one. I even wrote about one of them -- Penn prof Robert Geigenback -- here on this blog, just to help you people out. I happen to think you'll lose the argument, and lose it badly, since you'll be going against most of the world's scientific community.
But at least try!!!
Instead, it's this same crap, again and again and again. There's a speech on global warming, and it's cold outside! Don't debate John Kerry's plans for Iraq, question his medals from Vietnam. It's not the war that's going badly, it's some freelance photographer for the AP who has a cousin that's an insurgent. Who cares whether Israel's assault on Hezbollah made the problems in the Middle East worse, when there's a picture with too much smoke. A serious debate on issues in Congress? Look, up in the sky, it's Nancy Pelosi's plane -- what was that all about?
This scenario is all too familiar. The Right-wing Attack Machine takes one small fact and twists it into a huge lie. Remember when Gore said this during the 2000 election campaign:
During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.They managed to successfully twist that into "Gore said he invented the internet", and people acutally bought that deception.
The Right bases their arguments on lies and wins elections through deception. They could not exist otherwise because their arguments have no merit without the lies.
They don't have the science or data to disprove global warming, so they lie about the scientific consensus on it, say the scientists are all greedy for that oh so infinite gold mine called grant money, or pay off other "scientists" to say that they don't believe in global warming.
They couldn't get the public behind the war in Iraq, so they lie about WMDs, yellow cake from Africa, and ties to al Qaeda.
They couldn't pass tax cuts for the rich, so they lie about how they will cut taxes for everyone.
They can't deny that universal healthcare would be better and less expensive for everyone, so they lie about long lines and medical shortages.
They can't deny they outed an undercover CIA operative, so they lie by saying she wasn't undercover.
They can't deny that the majority of the public want us out of Iraq, so they lie and say those who want us out of Iraq are just far-left, crazy people.
The list goes on and on. They base everything on lies.
Which is why when they tell a new lie, like they are now with Gore, we have to be ready to fight it with the truth every step of the way.
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