Monday, June 12, 2006
Take Back America - The Apollo Alliance
I'm here blogging from the Take Back America Conference in Washington DC. This morning I had the distinct pleasure of joining in a bloggers-only discussion with Robert Redford, and Jerome Ringo, President of the Apollo Alliance. For anyone who has been spending too much time under a rock (or just getting news from the M$M - same thing), the Apollo Alliance is (from their web page):
While we were waiting for the VIP's, I realized I was sitting next to Taylor Marsh. We had a nice chat about blogging in general, and of course I didn't take notes so I will only remember details of what we talked about when I wake up for no good reason at 2 a.m. some night this week.
TayTay had thrust a voice recorder - the kind college students use for recording classes - into my hands right before I walked into the room, so I got a sort-of quasi recording of Redford's and Ringo's comments and replies. Redford spoke a little too quietly so the audio didn't come out well enough to post, but I could make out enough of it to remind me of what was said as I wrote this post - thanks, Tay!
After a few introductory remarks, the floor was open for questions. The first question was about the role of environmental issues in the 2006 elections. Redford expressed hope that they would play a role and get some attention in 2006, and spoke of how depressing it was that the environment was mostly ignored by the media in the 2004 election.
The response to the next question was more interesting and hopeful. The question was for a comment on Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." Redford commented that the language is moving to the visual media, and it's good to put environmental issues in that language. He then said that the film was especially important in the area of solutions - that we need to focus on solutions. Jerome added that he feels that Gore's film has ended the debate over whether global warming is real. He called it "an end, and a beginning" - an end of the argument over the reality of global warming, and a beginning of a real movement to address solutions.
There were a couple more questions, including one about whether the "category 5 denial" of global warming amounted to "an impeachable offense." (C'mon, we can't even get Bush impeached for outright breaking the law by ignoring FISA, yet the fellow asking that question thinks simple negligence and denial of reality is "impeachable"? Bob and Jerome got a good laugh out of that.) But I think Jerome's statement about "an end, and a beginning" was the most powerful, and I sure hope he's right.
The mission of the Apollo Alliance is to build a broad-based constituency in support of a sustainable and clean energy economy that will create millions of good jobs for the nation, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and create cleaner and healthier communities. Through policy alternatives, organizing, and on the ground results in states and cities across the nation, we are demonstrating that a social just, environmentally balanced and economically prosperous future is attainable.
While we were waiting for the VIP's, I realized I was sitting next to Taylor Marsh. We had a nice chat about blogging in general, and of course I didn't take notes so I will only remember details of what we talked about when I wake up for no good reason at 2 a.m. some night this week.
TayTay had thrust a voice recorder - the kind college students use for recording classes - into my hands right before I walked into the room, so I got a sort-of quasi recording of Redford's and Ringo's comments and replies. Redford spoke a little too quietly so the audio didn't come out well enough to post, but I could make out enough of it to remind me of what was said as I wrote this post - thanks, Tay!
After a few introductory remarks, the floor was open for questions. The first question was about the role of environmental issues in the 2006 elections. Redford expressed hope that they would play a role and get some attention in 2006, and spoke of how depressing it was that the environment was mostly ignored by the media in the 2004 election.
The response to the next question was more interesting and hopeful. The question was for a comment on Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth." Redford commented that the language is moving to the visual media, and it's good to put environmental issues in that language. He then said that the film was especially important in the area of solutions - that we need to focus on solutions. Jerome added that he feels that Gore's film has ended the debate over whether global warming is real. He called it "an end, and a beginning" - an end of the argument over the reality of global warming, and a beginning of a real movement to address solutions.
There were a couple more questions, including one about whether the "category 5 denial" of global warming amounted to "an impeachable offense." (C'mon, we can't even get Bush impeached for outright breaking the law by ignoring FISA, yet the fellow asking that question thinks simple negligence and denial of reality is "impeachable"? Bob and Jerome got a good laugh out of that.) But I think Jerome's statement about "an end, and a beginning" was the most powerful, and I sure hope he's right.
The Bush Administration's
public statements on Iraq
