if by "prescient" he means "responsible for putting a barely literate madman in the white house who slept through advance notice of a terrorist attack, launched an uncessary and poorly-planned military campaign that sent a country into a civil war (in the middle of the most volatile region of the world), and allowed a manageable weather crisis to turn into a parade of destruction and human fatality," then yes, they were definitely prescient.

I'm still mad at those Nader voters for designing those confusing butterfly ballots, putting Katharine Harris in power, bribing the courts, and telling Gore to not act like the winner.

you just couldn't resist putting up that masturbatory praise, eh?

Actually, I recognize it as a joke more than anything else. But it's a funny joke.

Prescient? No, Gore's award doesn't make them seem prescient at all. What foreknowledge did they have? That global warming was a problem? There were lots and lots of Gore voters who agreed with that statement (and some Bush voters too). The Naderites voted for a candidate with no hope of victory and--unbeknown to them--may have lost Gore the presidency because of their defection. The result was the worst possible outcome (in terms of the 42nd president), new environmental standards rollbacks that damage ecosystems, and a host of other disastrous new policies.

Now, there may be something to be said about a documentary that raises global awareness of environmental problems; but to say the Naderites knew that if Gore lost the presidency he would become an environmental spokesperson is silly.

A joke!

Funny. 1.2 million Iraqi's think so too.

Please. I still don't understand why people are angrier at Nader voters, who were just voting their beliefs in a validly democratic way, than the 1,000 other reasons, some involving highly circumspect ethical practices, that Bush became president in 2001.

I'm not angry at Nader voters; hell, I was working at RNC in 2000! I just think the Nader voters were silly insofar as the defection was designed to have positive effects on national policy in the short-run.

"the defection was designed"

For me, there was no defection, and there was no design. But, then again, I voted in Massachusetts.

So that means you fall outside the group of voters i was talking about ("insofar as the defection was designed"). If you liked Nader like I like Ron Paul, so be it.

Well, I also believe that the Florida Nader votes probably also had no defection nor design, and were probably people like me who were voting their beliefs. (How naive!)

I actually agree with many of Ron Paul's beliefs, except that I don't hold nearly as much contempt as he does of government services and taxes. Then again, it's been easy to confuse incompetent bureaucracy with unnecessary bureaucracy with the Bush administration in power.

"Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it." -- attributed to P.J. O'Rourke where I've seen it.

There's at least one Nader supporter who voted by design (Nader himself).

I hate Bush as much as anyone, but "from manageable weather crisis to parade of destruction" is a convenient way of shifting blame that we all share, no matter what. Plus, does China really give a shit who's president of the States when it comes to burning coal? Our looming environmental catastrophes are a much bigger problem than a single presidency can account for.

It's nice that Gore's a nice figurehead blahblahblah. I hate to be a spoiler, but Live Earth? Give me a fucking break. I realize there's more to Gore winning and that I'm simplifying radically, I just have a really hard time thinking he's all that special. I mean, thanks for using your platform to say some worthwhile things and all, but how hard is it to set yourself apart from the other wealthy, powerful, visible individuals who do hardly anything about our situation? Now as for the 2000 scientists...

How do we all share blame for the government's response to Katrina?

My bad, I misinterpreted that as being a general lamentation. Sorry 'bout that particular point.

It would be nice to think global warming is manageable. (It would also be nice to think it's fictional, which could explain the conspiracy theorists.)

the fundamental problem with the concept of global warming (and its subsequent politicization) is that global warming IS a natural phenomenon. AND it is also being accelerated by human factors. so those obnoxious conservatives that turn it into a political issue ("hey! those faggy liberals are trying to tell us what to do! let's git 'em!") actually have ground to stand on when they cry "natural phenomenon!"

but they don't even get why they might be right. and THAT'S what pisses me off.

sigh. i wish we could pull sagan back from the dead.

I don't doubt that it might be in part a natural phenomenon that would happen even if we weren't here- but the very nature of that statement (there is in fact no way to consider us as separate from the dynamics of the earth) contributes to the fact that we really don't know how much of it is our fault. So in my mind, they actually have completely zero ground to stand on. A) There really hasn't been a single credible scientist who has, that I know of, conceded any ground on that point (if I'm wrong, please correct me), and B) given the likely ramifications of the problem, it is in our best interest as a species to act as though it is entirely our fault because of the unknowns, and to do everything we can to roll back as much of what we're doing to contribute to it as possible. Though I see what you're saying, JBG, I cannot even give those obnoxious conservatives even that much credit.

I sure hope it's manageable- it's a beautiful world, even if it sucks most of the time. But my god are we slow...

well, not being in any way an expert, i have to disagree with you on the "we don't know how much of it is our fault" thing. i think a lot of the historical (geological?) evidence AG presents in 'inconvenient truth' shows the natural course of an atmospheric warming trend, and then shows the ridiculous spikes in the last half of the 20th century. so, it's normal, normal, normal, then way fucked up.

you don't have to doubt that it's a natural phenomenon: look at venus. venus is the grandaddy of global warming.

of course, it's possible that millions of years ago, greedy capitalist venusians pumped shitloads of greenhouse gases into the air, causing pretty much everybody to melt like the nazis at the end of "raiders." again, i'm not an expert.

Yeah, ok, well true enough. Although I don't put anything past the greedy capitalist venusians.

it's like they didn't even see it coming.

venusians - blind.

I voted for Harry Browne, and as we all know, a vote for Harry Brown was a vote for Al Gore... so I did MY part.

Except, of course, that I can't spell his name consistently.