when someone's running offices out of his home, conducting business meetings, and hosting a secret service contingent?  Or is that even important to you?  Gore's gone as green as he can on his energy usage, but for heaven's sake he's running an entire organization out of his house.  It's basically a business property where he and his family and his secret service detail all happen to live.

Last time I checked a lot of great Democrats who happen to be wealthy did a whole hell of a lot to help the poor and underpriveleged.

If I ever make a seven-figure salary I'll be sure to join the Republican Party because I don't want to be a "Limousine Liberal."

Chris, I hope that you make a ton of money and do a lot of good with it, but, more importantly, when you do, I hope that you avoid the hypocrisy demonstrated by the Gores.

Limousine Liberals aren't called that just because they have money.  I'm not the kind of liberal afraid of great wealth in private hands, rather, what scares me are the kind of Limousine Liberals who want to dictate national policy then opt out of the parts that pinch them.  These are the folks who see the value in raising taxes to support national programs, but then hide their money in tax shelters. 

The Gores are using 221,000 kWh per annum. Average household use is around 1100 kWh/a. Average houshold size in the U.S. is 2.6 people (according to the Census Bureau). That means the average person in an average household consumes about 423 kWh/a. If we generously round up to the "whole person" then we'll say 650 kWh/a. 

While I recognize that the Gores have a large home, an extraordinary lifestyle, staff to consider, and could not be limited to the consumption of the 'normal' households they demand green compliance from, is it possible that they need to consume enough energy for 340 average Americans? 

then this isn't just a home, it's a place of business. What difference does it make if they consume the power at his residence or at an office building?

Also, if you're a wealthy and you vote for Democrats, you're saying that you're willing to pay higher taxes so others don't have to. Democrats also want to find ways to close those tax shelters you mention so that the upper-class can't continue to get away with these tactics. If these Limousine Liberals really cared about tax loopholes, they'd vote Republican.

You can't equate the KWh usage of a 2.6 person family in a typical home with someone who is running a business out of a large property.  What's the square footage?  How many people work there?  What are the comparable statistics for 24 hour businesses of approximately the same square footage and numbers of personnel?  These are fair questions to ask.  The average American family lives in a home which is actually empty during much of the day as the kids go to school and the parents go to work.  No one's using up KWh because they AREN'T there.  The same can't be said for Gore's operation, which is more akin to a business which is open most of the time and has numerous personnel running in and out of it. 

Just admit you're out to smear Gore, Houdon, and you're not interested in being fair. 

What else is new?  Republican bloggers just don't get it.  They are so off base, and they will continue to lose elections bc of it.  GOOD.

You guys are doing what you always do, distract from the real issue which is what we're going to do to prevent our planet from burning up, and instead attack the messenger.  Lame, lame, lame.  So, what are YOU doing to fight global warming, "Houdon?"  You're certainly putting out an awful lot of hot air, so I hope you're at least buying green credits to offset!

I seriously doubt the meaningfulness of the figures from the Tennessee Center for Policy Research that this "conservative" smear job is based on, but you've changed them, intentionally or not, to exaggerate the difference by another factor of 10. The TCPR press release says the average American household uses 10,656 kilowatt-hours per year, not 1,100.

It's funny how these math errors keep happening in stories about Gore's energy usage.

difficult to see around.

High 5s all around for the guy who said THIS:

*[new] Never Prouder (1.00 / 1) 
It was once said of an older Goode statesman, that people would travel from miles around just to hear him delivery a passionate speech. I would do the same for this generation's Goode. I have never been prouder to call Virgil my congressman.  In this speech, he has displayed the great rhetorical skill of his ancestors and let the voice of Southside Virginia be heard on the floor of the United States House of Representatives.

----------------------------------------------------------

by: Houdon @ Thu Feb 15, 2007 at 20:30:05 PM EST 

was one of the most horrific things I've ever heard in my life. And I'm not just saying that for dramatic effect. I had to take a shower after hearing that speech.

You can discredit me with my opinions about Virgil another day. Do you disagree with my assessment about the Gores?

Shocked, right?

It's always fun to see the trolls come out on issues like this.  While the conservative worldview continues to destroy the world, the purposefully ignorant who choose to bend their knees to the republican elites come out in force to attack progressive champions like Al Gore who face reality and want real solutions.

The real story here is that this smear originated from a right-wing think tank that's funded by the oil industry.  Not surprisingly, this is precisely the type of thing one would expect to happen.  In the movie, Gore warns that money is the real compelling reason why people aren't doing anything about the Climate Crisis - $100 Trillion is a lot of incentive to deny reality.

Of course the oil companies want to discredit Gore.  As Americans actually wake up and start changing their way of life, taking the climate crisis into account, Oil Kompanies stand to lose trillions of dollars.

That's Pat Buchanan's reason for why he shouldn't run.

Can anyone else smell the fear of Al Gore?

excuses for Goode's anti-Muslim bigotry, and we disagree with you on your denial and minimization of global warming.  Any other topics you care to disagree about today?

...and stop cynically mouthing phrases like "limousine liberal" when you know very well that it's the Republicans who are the party of the rich and powerful in this country.  In contrast, Democrats are the party of the working man and the middle class.  Prime example: Jim Webb, Jacksonian Democrat. Who do you guys have?  Dick Cheney, Exxonian Republican?

If your labels/phrases were that accurate and the Democrats were really the only party that represented the working man and middle class, then Democrats would be the overwhelming majority of the country.  As the evidence suggests, things are not that simple.  Parties, like the people who make them up, do not fit within labels exactly and labels have different meanings to different folk. 

For instance: When you say Jacksonian Democrat, I think "patronage system", increased power of the Executive over the Legislature, and laissez-faire economics, all of which were major components of Jacksonian Democracy. But you might call that Exxonian Republicanism. 

I get it: I happen to think the Gores are limousine liberals and you do not. I hope that doesn't make me a troll. 

A great book on how the right-wing noise machine has used wedge issues to distract the working classes from their true economic interests.  Meanwhile, the Republicans have done nothing for their moral/religious interests either, all they really do is talk tough.

If you respect the working classes so much, why would you make them out to be buffoons who are easily distracted by a noise machine? Why not ascribe to them the ability to make rational choices based on their values? Just because you disagree with their choices, and likely their core values, doesn't make them fools.

Proponents of nanny government and totalinarianism the world over always seem to know what's best for the people they condescend to help. Liberal condescension will not win converts and the working class are not buffoons simply because they disagree with your agenda. 

Oh yes the valiant GOP, champion of the working classes, I suppose thats why Karl Rove said that he was pushing the emigration bill so his kids wouldn't have to clean hotels and pick tomatoes. 

Yes, indeed.

So do not try that bait and switch buddy, because there are more nice quotes like that one.

Quit simply 90% of the electorate is not hyper informed about the pertinent issues concerning our government and economy.

Are you really going to try to tell me that this isn't true?

Ever watch Jay Leno?

Further more, there is a lot of polling work out there making a strong correlation between the appeal of these "wedge", "value" issues, as proxies for economic issues. 

For instance the issue of Gay Marriage.

Where has this been the strongest?  Well of course Red States; what states have the highest divorce rates, well Red States; why do those states have such high divorce rates, well maybe it has something to do with their low per-capita income?

It is proven that it is hard for low earners to stay married: you know people feel marriage is under threat, because  for them it literally is. 

So when some politician comes along and says marriage is under threat, they are like, "hell yeah it is"

Average Kilowatt usage?

Try median Kilowatt usage, this average crap is totally misleading.

When you are averaging something, you are looking at big houses like Gore's and little apartments that probably use 250-500 kilowatts (approximately my electricity usage in my cottage)

Do yourself a favor, go look at the Kilowatts being used by a real single family home with a 4 person family in it, come back and tell me what you find.

Not to mention the point made about Gore's house being the center of his operations and acting as an office.

So, also please go over to the closest small business, with say 10-20 employees (with that many computers, faxes, copy machines, so on and so forth) and see how much electricity it is using?

Please report, ok?

The video referred to the Gore house having a "green switch" which actually costs them more money.  Can anybody explain that?  I'm guessing it is some sort of switch that allows them to feed solar generated electricity back into the power grid.  But I thought those devices were supposed to save money . . . .

Other than that, my response to this whole thing is, big deal. I don't know what the Gores have on their property.  Whether they have a house full of video conferencing equipment, computers, copiers and other business machines, close circuit tv's and motion detectors, or a heated Olympic-sized hot tub and networked Playstations and HD tvs in every room, doesn't matter.  It isn't about Gore, it's about reality. 

Which means switching to green energy.  Olberman calculates the cost, which amounts to thousands of dollars anually.