CEI Struggles to Remain Relevant, Bashes Gore
The DC-based Competitive Enterprise Institute desperately wants to remain relevant in the global warming discussion, and has fallen back to some good old fashioned Gore-bashing to do so.
At a press conference yesterday, the CEI released a new ad campaign trying (again) to discredit action on global warming, by trying (again) to discredit the work of vice-president Al Gore.
You can check out the CEI's ads here - you'll find they're nothing more than a rehash of information long since made irrelevant. For example, the CEI claims that Mr. Gore's home uses 20 times more energy than the average home, which is simply untrue, and it takes only a quick google search to find this Oct, 2007 CNN story stating:
Al Gore, who was criticized for high electric bills at his Tennessee mansion, has completed a host of improvements to make the home more energy efficient, and a building-industry group has praised the house as one of the nation's most environmentally friendly." Either the "think" tankers at the CEI are not familiar with Google, or, more likely, they're willing to ignore the facts in an attempt to remain a relevant player on global warming in free-market, right-wing circles.
The CEI has been in a tail spin ever since its funding from oil-giant ExxonMobil was cut off quite publicly last year. Then there was the CEI's last embarrassing attempt at a television ad campaign.
And what better way for a right-wing think tank to pull out of a tailspin then to bash Al Gore.
They know that a little Gore bashing (no matter how inaccurate) is a sure-fire way to put them back in the good graces of the conservative cadre and hopefully get a few dollars from their fossil fuel friends.
Check out ThinkProgress for another take on the CEI ad campaign.
Hmmm. Sounds just like Rob, ZOG, Paul G/S, and Harold. Their arguments are irrelevant and have no standing, so they bash Gore, Suzuki, Oreskes, et al.
"Green Collar Jobs"! :)
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Frank Bi, fact-addict and anti-lie bigot
"Al `Fat Al' Gore [is fat]" -- Harold Pierce
It's kind of odd that the CEI thinks it can get away with that kind of nonsense in the current era, with this kind of technology available to anyone on the net! They are a generation out of date, a fact clearly exposed by the choice of that ancient "Where's the beef?" ad (how lame is that?). The target audience of the CEI is the leading edge of the Boomers, now the 60+ Grey Generation, who like their creature comforts. The message: Beware Al Gore! He wants to throw you back into the 19th century just in time for your retirement!
Fern Mackenzie
If only the CEI hadn't sunk their money into idiotic ad campaigns and instead spent it on, Heaven forbid, real research and development. Then they might have come up with something that's actually cool.
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Frank Bi, fact-addict and anti-lie bigot
"Al `Fat Al' Gore [is fat]" -- Harold Pierce
They (government employees on the NOAA NWS payroll) knew that a little Gore bashing (no matter how inaccurate) was a sure-fire way to put them in the good graces of their supervisors at NWS, even before Bush got in the White House in 2001, and those good graces meant dollars for their hard working patriotic American families.
There is not a dichotomy of choosing fighting climate change or being in favor of human achievement with CEI's event as you put it. The idea that I am getting from this and the explanation on the wiki site is that this is to celebrate human invention and achievement. Running a marathon is human achievement, and doesn't use any electricity at all. The only negative thing about it is the fact that one would have to exhale carbon dioxide to stay alive, which may promote climate change in some of your readers minds. But the point is all human achievements do not use electricity or "pollute" so there is no dichotomy of being for it or against it.
http://www.worldvacation.org/