Al Gore gave a speech at Power Shift 2011, a conference for student activists, and stated some powerful truths that will now be mocked and derided by the ignorant, anti-science right wing: Gore to young advocates: Battle industry lobbyists to turn the tide on climate.

“It’s true that governments by and large have been politically paralyzed because the energy companies, the coal companies, the oil companies, the coal-burning utilities, they have spent enormous amounts of money and they have succeeded in many countries in paralyzing the political process,” the former vice president said.

“There are four anti-climate lobbyists on Capitol Hill in this city for every single member of the House and every single member of the Senate,” Gore said Friday night at the opening of the April 15-18 conference.

“What is the answer for this?” Gore asked. “It has to come from you. It has to come at the grassroots level. It has to come from young people, and I believe that you are up to it and that you can do it.” …

Gore said it’s vital to continue pushing for policies that would put a monetary cost on industrial emissions. “Putting a price on carbon” is the goal of cap-and-trade plans and other proposals to ensure emissions cuts, but such measures face gigantic hurdles in the current Congress.

Gore said the Civil Rights movement was fueled by youth questioning their parents about legal discrimination, and he drew a link to climate change.

“When they could not answer that moral question coming straight from the conscience of young people, that is when the laws began to change,” Gore said. “You need to ask, ‘tell me again why its al right to put 90 million tons of global warming pollution into the atmosphere every 24 hours, 20 percent of it will still be there in 20,000 years.’”

“You need to ask that question and other related questions. Don’t they see the evidence, don’t they hear what the scientists are saying, do they actually believe this lying from the large carbon polluters, that the scientists are making this up?” Gore added.

I’ve done my share of Gore-bashing in the past, and it hasn’t always been unwarranted, but he deserves a lot of respect for fighting back against the big corporations who are trying to mislead America into the disastrous mistake of ignoring the inevitable consequences of climate change.

If the human race survives its own nest-fouling, we’ll owe a debt of gratitude to people like Al Gore.

And speaking of ignoramuses, wingnut blogger Ed Morrissey responds to this call for action by posting a photo of the snow on his porch. Take that, stupid scientists!

This incredible high definition time-lapse film by Terje Sorgjerd was shot on Spain’s highest mountain, El Teide, and has some of the most stunning views of the Milky Way galaxy I’ve seen.

This was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011. I had the pleasure of visiting El Teide. Spain’s highest mountain @(3715m) is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the world’s best observatories.

The goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy along with one of the most amazing mountains I know El Teide. I have to say this was one of the most exhausting trips I have done. There was a lot of hiking at high altitudes and probably less than 10 hours of sleep in total for the whole week. Having been here 10-11 times before I had a long list of must-see locations I wanted to capture for this movie, but I am still not 100% used to carrying around so much gear required for time-lapse movies.

A large sandstorm hit the Sahara Desert on the 9th April and at approx 3am in the night the sandstorm hit me, making it nearly impossible to see the sky with my own eyes.

Interestingly enough my camera was set for a 5 hour sequence of the milky way during this time and I was sure my whole scene was ruined. To my surprise, my camera had managed to capture the sandstorm which was backlit by Grand Canary Island making it look like golden clouds. The Milky Way was shining through the clouds, making the stars sparkle in an interesting way. So if you ever wondered how the Milky Way would look through a Sahara sandstorm, look at 00:32.

The Republican/Tea Party activist who sent an ugly racist email to a conservative list in Orange County, Marilyn Davenport, has issued one of those non-apology apologies that blames the whole thing on the “liberal media,” and she defiantly refuses to resign from the central committee of the Orange County Republican Party: UPDATED: Davenport Defiant.

Click to enlarge“I’m sorry if my email offended anyone. I simply found it amusing regarding the character of Obama and all the questions surrounding his origin of birth. In no way did I even consider the fact he’s half black when I sent out the email. In fact, the thought never entered my mind until one or two other people tried to make this about race. We all know a double standard applies regarding this president. I received plenty of emails about George Bush that I didn’t particularly like yet there was no ‘cry’ in the media about them. One only has to go to Youtube or Google Images to see a plethora or lampooning videos and pictures of Obama, Bush and other politicians. That being said, I will NOT resign my central committee position over this matter that the average person knows and agrees is much to do about nothing. Again, for those select few who might be truly offended by viewing a copy of an email I sent to a select list of friends and acquaintances, unlike the liberal left when they do the same, I offer my sincere apologies to you—the email was not meant for you. For any of my friends or acquaintances who were the recipients of my email and were truly offended, please call me so I may offer a sincere verbal apology to you.”

Another Orange County Republican activist, Tim Whitacre, defended Davenport by pointing out, “she is just real big on Birther stuff.”

“Marilyn Davenport is a staunch, ethical Republican lady. There is nothing unethical about this from a party standpoint because it wasn’t sent out to the party at large with any racist statements and it wasn’t signed as a central committee member. As a private individual, she is just real big on Birther stuff. One of her passions that drives her is the president’s lack of forthrightness about where he was born. Marilyn believes that nobody knows where he was born and so this picture says a thousand words.”

Here’s American Taliban leader David Barton, a man who is very influential with top Republican politicians and the Tea Party base (thanks to Glenn Beck’s relentless promotion), explaining that everything should operate according to Biblical principles, because America’s founding fathers wanted it that way. This bizarre revisionist view of America’s founding is completely false, but it has become accepted dogma in the religious right echo chamber.

And he does mean everything. Barton wants to see a Christian theocracy covering the entire world. “Insane” doesn’t even begin to describe people like Barton — and his is the dominant religious ideology in today’s GOP.

Related:
Glenn Beck Promotes Theocracy and Interviews David Barton - Speaker at Neo-Nazi Rallies

(h/t: Right Wing Watch, via iceweasel.)

Pat Metheny wrote this beautiful piece for the people of New Orleans. Yes, that’s Bill Clinton with Elvis Costello, listening on the side of the stage.

“Go to hell!”Here’s an update on the pitiful attendance at today’s Teabagfest in Madison, Wisconsin, featuring Andrew “Go To Hell!” Breitbart and Sarah “Fight Like a Girl” Palin, who had to scream to be heard over the counterprotesters. Earlier reports of about a thousand people were slightly under the mark, but not by much; at its peak, police estimated the crowd at 6,500 (but warned that the estimate was inaccurate). Compared to the ~100,000 who attended the demonstrations against Scott Walker’s union-busting bill, this was a tiny crowd.

The tea party supporters were lined along the sidewalk in front of the podium, surrounded by small barriers, perhaps to keep the sounds of counter protesters out. Several thousand counter-protesters surrounded them, chanting “Recall Walker,” blowing whistles and horns, beating drums and sometimes booing the speakers.

Even though they used a sound system, it was hard to hear everything the speakers were saying over the counter-chants. …

Only the shrill Vicki Mckenna, talk show host WIBA, seemed to be able to cut through the chanting, when she told them: “Shut up.” The crowd didn’t listen. Andrew Breitbart was similarly annoyed and told the crowd, “you’ve been so rude, go to hell. You’re trying to divide America.”

Actually, Breitbart screamed, “Go to hell! Go to hell! Go to hell!” like a madman. This was Sarah Palin’s introduction.

DERPJim “Dim” Hoft, with his customary knack for ridiculously inflating Teabag crowd sizes, is claiming “between 10,000 and 15,000 patriots,” and an indeterminate number of “thugs” who heckled the Madonna of Morons: SARAH PALIN – ANDREW BREITBART Join Thousands of Patriots at Madison Tea Party (Live on UStream) …Update: Thugs Heckle Sarah Palin …Update: Sarah to Obama, “Mr. President, Game On!”

The left is out in force today in Madison, Wisconsin.

But… So are the tea partiers. Andrew Breitbart and Sarah Palin will speak to the throngs of patriots this afternoon. I just heard from a trusted source that, despite the cold weather, there are between 10,000 and 15,000 patriots in attendance.

You can watch the prostes [sic] live here.

Once again, a prominent Republican and Tea Party activist has been caught circulating a vicious racist email about the first African American President, this time in Orange County, California: Racist Orange County Republican Email: President Obama and His Parents Are Apes.

This latest sickening example makes the connection between Birtherism and old-school racism utterly explicit.

The Weekly has obtained a copy of an email sent to fellow conservatives this week by Marilyn Davenport, a Southern California Tea Party activist and member of the central committee of the Orange County Republican Party.

Under the words, “Now you know why no birth certificate,” there’s an Obama family portrait showing them as apes. …

Reached by telephone and asked if she thought the email was appropriate, Davenport said, “Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people—mostly people I didn’t think would be upset by it.”

Some other cases of Tea Party photoshop racism:
Obama as a shoeshine boy
Instapundit: ‘Shoeshine Boy’ Picture Not Racist
Obama as a witch doctor with a bone through his nose

Reports are that less than a thousand people have turned out for the Koch Brothers-sponsored Teabagger rally today in Madison, Wisconsin, despite the featured appearance of half-governor Sarah Palin. And the few wingnuts who showed up were confronted with hundreds of pro-union counter-protesters.

It’s still going on, with one deranged Tea Party loon after another taking the microphone. Here’s a live video feed; they’re using Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” as background music, which probably irritates him enormously. They’re using the music of one of the most pro-union musicians in America in an agenda to destroy unions.

Andrew “Fraudster” Breitbart just took the stage, proclaiming “the death of community organizing.”

Gail Collins makes an important point about the right wing vendetta against Planned Parenthood, in her New York Times op-ed column: The War Behind the Abortion War.

For eons now, people have been wondering why the two sides can’t just join hands and agree to work together to reduce the number of abortions by expanding the availability of family-planning services and contraception.

The answer is that a large part of the anti-abortion community is also anti-contraception.

“The fact is that 95 percent of the contraceptives on the market kill the baby in the womb,” said Jim Sedlak of the American Life League.

“Fertility and babies are not diseases,” said Jeanne Monahan of the Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity, which has been fighting against requiring insurance plans to cover contraceptives under the new health care law.

Performing on the German TV show Rockpalast, the great Joe Bonamassa tears the roof off the sucker with a classic B.B. King blues tune, “You Upset Me Baby.” This is also on the album Blues Deluxe.

Tennessee is a very active front (but not the only one by a long shot) in the Republican Party’s all-out war against science. As we noted last week, Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives passed an absurd anti-evolution bill deceptively labeled as “academic freedom” — the latest tactic of the creationist right.

And as we’ve seen many times, creationists very often tell outrageous lies to prop up their Dark Ages magical thinking. Here’s GOP state representative Frank Nicely during the debate on this anti-science legislation, telling the House that Albert Einstein, as a “critical thinker,” would have been in favor of teaching creationism.

Why isn’t the audience laughing?

Brad Johnson notes that Einstein never said this (which is what you should always assume when creationists quote scientists, because they routinely lie). In fact, Rep. Nicely butchered a quote by Francis Bacon.

Nicely falsely attributed his quotation to Einstein, a Jewish humanist and professed agnostic, who never argued that scientific knowledge leads one to Jesus Christ. The statement is actually a mangled paraphrase of the 16th century philosopher Francis Bacon, who argued that “a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion.”

The 16th century lives on in the minds of people like Frank Nicely.

A new poll from Public Policy Polling now shows Donald Trump leading the field of potential GOP presidential candidates by nine points.

Obviously, Trump took a close look at the numerous polls that show the tremendous popularity of the Birther conspiracy theory among the Republican base, and gambled that he could grab the lead simply by pandering to these lunatics. He was right.