The insidious thing about Al Gore is that he superficially sounds pretty good to environmentalists—so much so, that his ideas are even blasted as extremism by right-wing idiots. But if you scratch them, there is always less there than meets the eye. Let's examine. From the NY Times, July 16:

Gore Calls for Carbon-Free Electric Power
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts.

It is axiomatic that the closer Obama gets to the White House, the more beholden to oil interests and imperial designs he will become—and therefore the more equivocal his opposition to the Iraq occupation. Watch this process in action. Andrew Malcolm writes for the LA Times' Top of the Ticket blog, July 16:

With all eyes on the Tribal Areas, the insurgency in Pakistan's bordering Baluchistan province continues. A roadside bomb wounded seven security personnel and two passers-by in Mastung district July 15. (AP, July 15) On July 4, an eight-year-old beggar was killed when a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded at a crowded market in Quetta, Baluchistan's capital. "The blast killed an eight-year-old girl and injured her beggar mother who were sitting near the motorcycle parked by some unknown man," a police official said. (AFP, July 4)

Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme submitted his resignation July 14, citing the inability of his coalition government to successfully divide powers between the Flemish and French-speaking communities. Leterme had set a deadline of July 15 for the four-month-old coalition to agree on constitutional reforms to grant greater autonomy to the two regions. Belgium's King Albert II is said to be "weighing" the resignation.

The Chinese Railway Engineering Company is rebuilding 2,050 miles of roads in the Democratic Republic of Congo, abandoned in the jungle after the Belgian colonialists pulled out 48 years ago and further shattered by years of war. The vast project, which will triple Congo's current paved road network, is part of China's largest investment in Africa, a $9 billion infrastructure-for-minerals deal signed in January. Beijing has also pledged to repair 2,000 miles of railways, build 32 hospitals and 145 clinics, expand the electrical grid, construct two hydropower dams and two new airports. In return, China wins the rights to five copper and cobalt mines in Congo's southern mineral belt. (The Telegraph, July 14)

Is this satire? Please tell us this is satire. From AsiaOne News, July 12:

Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have executed two Uighurs and sentenced 15 others accused of terrorist ties. The Kashgar Intermediate Court sentenced to death two men, identified as Mukhtar Setiwaldi and Abduweli Imi, and immediately executed them July 9. Most of the rest received prison terms ranging from 10 years to life. All were charged with being members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). (Radio Free Asia, July 12)

In a piece entitled "Bush & Cheney Always Saw Iraq as a Sweetheart Oil Deal," Noam Chomsky writes that "US war planners want an obedient client state that will house major US military bases, right at the heart of the world's major energy reserves." (AlterNet, July 12) Chomsky references reports by Andrew Kramer in the New York Times last month that "Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq's Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq's largest fields." Since then, the soup has considerably thickened: