Friend "Bush & Gore must be happy with the high oil prices..."

[NewJeffCT]

due to their extensive holdings in oil companies"

A friend of mine & I were lamenting the high cost of gas/oil via emails recently & then he came back today with the saying above about how Bush & Gore must be happy...

Now, before I fire back and say that he must mean Bush, Cheney & Rice, I want to make sure I have my facts straight.

Does Al Gore have extensive investments in oil companies & related energy industries?

[etherealtruth]

1. Hmmm, I'm replying to kick your post ...

I'll be interested to see what the answer is...

[NewJeffCT]

2. thanks, me too

Unfortunately, I have a meeting to run to, so I hope it doesn't fall off the page.

[NewJeffCT]

18. 1:00 kick

hoping for more info

[Algorem]

3. Google "Al Gore,oil stocks",This stuff probably had a funny way of be-

ing put out during the 2000 campaign-'Gore's just like Bush so go ahead and vote for Bush because you know you really want to anyway(because you're a bigot too)'.I don't spose Karl Rove had anything to do with spreading this stuff then.

Gore's Oil Money

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20000522/silverstein


Ken Silverstein

...Traditionally a Republican firm, Occidental was linked to the Democrats for many years primarily through Gore's father, Senator Al Gore Sr. The elder Gore was such a loyal political ally that Occidental's founder and longtime CEO, Armand Hammer, liked to say that he had Gore "in my back pocket." When Gore Sr. left the Senate in 1970, Hammer gave him a $500,000-a-year job at an Occidental subsidiary and a seat on the company's board of directors. At the time of his death in 1998, Gore the elder's estate included hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of Occidental stock. The Vice President is the executor of the estate, which still includes the stock and whose chief beneficiary is his mother.

But Occidental's funneling of money to the Gore family doesn't end there. In the sixties, the Gores discovered zinc ore near land they owned in Tennessee. Through a company subsidiary Hammer bought the land for $160,000--twice the amount offered by the only other bidder. He swiftly sold the land back to Al Gore Sr. and agreed to pay him $20,000 a year for mining rights. After receiving his first payment, Gore Sr. sold the land for $140,000 to Gore Jr., who has received a $20,000 check nearly every year since he acquired it. Strangest of all, Occidental has never actually mined the land. Al Jr.'s coffers swelled further in 1985 when he began leasing the land to Union Zinc, an Occidental competitor. (For a full account of the Gore-Occidental relationship, see The Buying of the President 2000 by Charles Lewis and the Center for Public Integrity.)

According to Neil Lyndon, who worked on Hammer's personal staff and ghosted his memoirs, Witness to History, the Occidental chieftain was as cozy with Gore Jr. as he was with Gore Sr. When he came to Washington, Hammer regularly met Gore for lunch or dinner. "They would often eat together in the company of Occidental's Washington lobbyists and fixers who, on Hammer's behest, hosed tens of millions of dollars in bribes and favours into the political world," Lyndon writes. Gore also hosted Hammer for Ronald Reagan's second inaugural and won him a prominent spot when George Bush was sworn in as President in 1989.

Hammer's death the following year did not end the back-scratching between Occidental and Gore. In 1992 Occidental loaned the Presidential Inauguration Committee $100,000 to help pay for the ceremony. Four years later, the company gave $50,000 in soft money to the Democrats in response to a phone solicitation from Gore. All told, Occidental has donated nearly half a million dollars in soft money to Democratic committees and causes since Gore joined the ticket in 1992. For his current presidential run, Gore has raised $92,000 from the oil and gas industry. Occidental is his number-two donor in that category, with company executives and their wives donating $10,000 to fuel Gore's campaign...

[Bridget Burke]

4. Not as happy as Bush & Cheney....

Owning stock is not quite the same as being on the payroll.

President Gore might have done more to wean us from oil. And he probably would not have started a war or 2 to get more....

[zalinda]

5. This is some of what I found

http://www.colombiasupport.net/200001/ft-goreoccidental-0120.html The stocks had belonged to his father, and he became executor of the will when his father died. The stocks are being used for the care of his mother.

zalinda

[MadHound]

6. I have no clue as to Gore's stockholdings

However I do know that Gore was definetley in the pocket of BP Oil for a good part of his political career. In fact it was his putting the the interests of his oily corporate master before the interests of his constituents that lost him the election in Florida, not Nader.

[Richard Steele]

7. You might have a point if Gore hadn't WON in Florida. But he did. nm

[MadHound]

8. Technically you are correct.

However officially the votes never were fully counted, and many of the Nader haters around here blame Nader's run for Gore's loss of Florida. I just like to point out every so often that it was Gore's backing of BP's scheme of offshore Gulf drilling that led to the alienation of 398,000 self described liberals and 198,000 registered Dems, and their subsequent voting for Bush that really led to Gore's downfall, not Nader.

[Touchdown]

9. Sorry, not buying it.

I have a hard time believing that a Survivor addicted populace, would know anything about any Gore/BP alliance, much less 198,000 "registered" Dems. They didn't know anything about Bushie's business failures, nor the disaster area he made Texas. Nader, conveniently never brought that up, but did attack Gore as much as possible.

[MadHound]

10. Go check out Greg Palast and Jim Hightower

They both wrote about this Gore blunder in their respective books.

[Touchdown]

12. I read Palast's book

I still can't see the bridge spanning your non-sequitur. He reported on it, but 198,000 "registered" Dems, as you say they are (big leap of faith there) probably haven't, and couldn't have in 2000, since the book wasn't out until after the election, which is the same book where Palast says Gore's victory was stolen from him.

[MadHound]

13. I'm sorry, could you restate your reply

I'm not trying to be smart or smarmy, but your one above makes very little sense.

You said you read about this in Palast's book. Then you should know the story. Since they were registered Dems, they could indeed vote, if that is what you are trying to refute. And in fact the aprox 600,000 votes that Gore lost over this offshore oil drilling issue were indeed voters, for if you read the book carefully, you would notice that Palast states that these pissed off, normally Dem voters, decided to double screw Gore, and voted for Bush instead. All over one big issue that Gore blew, off-shore oil drilling.

[Touchdown]

14. What I said has nothing to do with Palast.

It was you I took issue with. Approximately 97,000 Floridians voted for St. Ralph, so I saw that as an assumption on your part that every one of them was a registered Dem, the rest went with Bush. I read that book 3 years ago, and can't remember all the numbers and statistics.

You are also claiming that this is why Gore lost the election, not because of K Harris, J. Bush, Nader's lies about no difference, disenfranchisement , SCOTUS evoking the 14th, the list goes on. To make this claim, then you would have to believe that 600,000 people only cared about offshore drilling in Florida alone, and not Supreme Court nominations, OTHER environmental issues (of which Gore was a staunch advocate), or irresponsible tax cuts for the rich. I'm not even sure where Palast get his magic numbers. It's impossible to interview 600,000 unanimous agreers in the six months it took to publish TBDMCB.

[MadHound]

15. Yes, 97,000 people voted for Nader

I don't get why you were thinking that I thought that all of these 97,000 voters were registered Dems, for they weren't, and I never stated that they were. Actually, a great many, if not the majority, had dropped out of voting until Nader came along.

And no, I'm not saying that the reason that Gore lost is solely attributable to his handling of the off-shore drilling issue and his subsequent loss. However you have to admit that 600,000 votes would have gone a long way giving him a clear, overwhelming win in Florida.

As far as where Palast gets his numbers, go check his sources. Palast is a very good, very accurate journalist and doesn't publish BS stats.

[Touchdown]

22. Yeah. Where oh' where would I get that?

"I don't get why you were thinking that I thought that all of these 97,000 voters were registered Dems, for they weren't, and I never stated that they were. Actually, a great many, if not the majority, had dropped out of voting until Nader came along.
"

Hmmm...
"In fact it was his putting the the interests of his oily corporate master before the interests of his constituents that lost him the election in Florida, not Nader. "

" I just like to point out every so often that it was Gore's backing of BP's scheme of offshore Gulf drilling that led to the alienation of 398,000 self described liberals and 198,000 registered Dems, and their subsequent voting for Bush that really led to Gore's downfall, not Nader. "

When you have an unsourced announcement in the future, I'll try not to jump to conclusions.:eyes:

[MadHound]

23. Somehow I get the feeling that your comprehension skills

Aren't the best, at least right now. Where do you get that I thought that Nader's voters were registered Dems? My second part that you quote deals with the Dems and liberals who voted for Bush, which I sourced by referring you to Palast's book, which you said you read.

And in fact you were the one who brought up the 97,000 votes for Nader, I was just responding.

Please read the posts for comprehension, not speed. Thanks.

[Touchdown]

25. I can't help what you feel.

I read your first two posts, and Palast's name, his article, or any reference to his research were nowhere to be found. His statistics were, which would lead any reader to conclude that you said them, especially if you say that YOU "like to point out every so often..."

Regarding comprehension, I tried to make it easy by boldfacing my reference to regarding the registered Democrats voting for Nader bit. Try insulting someone else's intelligence for awhile. You may not have meant it, but you did say it, and out of context.

[NewJeffCT]

17. How was he "in the pocket of BP Oil?"

Just curious, as I had never heard that charge before.

[Uncle Joe]

21. The main reason that the race in Florida was so close

was not Nader, nor Al's association with Armand Hammer it was due to the corpwhorate MSM that had been waging their War against Gore ever since 1998. Why would they trash and slander him so? because he helped you when he became the primary champion of the internet. According to CNN's poll the internet was the most significant technological development of the 20th century. It democratized information and threatened the corpwhorate media's monopoly on the truth like nothing else. The MSM wanted to remain the sole gatekeepers to the truth, for it is easier to control the masses if they are ignorant. Keep in mind only five corporations own 80+% of all the MSM. When in ancient Greek mythology Prometheus (the son of a Titan) felt pity on mankind because they were huddling in the cold and dark, he stole fire from heaven and gave it to man. Zeus was so angry at this loss of power that he had Prometheus chained to a rock where a vulture would eat his liver every morning, only to have it made whole again at night, this was supposed to go on for all eternity. As the corpwhorate MSM generally does not have a taste for liver, they slandered, demeaned, trashed, and ridiculed the man that helped us. At least Prometheus was not accused of having claimed to have invented fire, or accused of having claimed to have discovered Love Canal,(both lies) or be called stiff and boring, or have someone slam him because he was wearing earth tones, or have the MSM do a 180 overnight and say he lost a debate overruling themselves and their own focus groups. These same corporate prostitutes basically gave Bush a standing ovation if he did not drool on the podium, claiming "he did better than expected", the most important issue of the day with them was "who would you rather have in your home for a beer". (and this was after Osama had already declared war against us) The only time terrorism was ever mentioned in a 2000 debate was when AL brought it up. I have always loved history and I cannot think of anyone that has done so much for so many and been trashed for it by our so called "fourth estate watchdogs". Bush and the neocons are in power to this day because the MSM committed treason against the American People at least since 1998 all for their own agenda.

[HamdenRice]

11. Armand Hammer was very strange for an oil man ...

One of the posts mentions that Hammer's company was associated with the Dem party through Gore Sr.

I don't think any oil company is decent, but I do remember that Hammer was a very unusual guy for an oil man.

For example, Hammer was a big proponent of good relations with the Soviets and was an unofficial ambassador, or back door diplomat to the Soviets, as a result of his extensive mineral and oil dealings with them.

He also had a sense of humor. He once said something to the effect that so many people asked him whether he was the founder of Arm & Hammer baking soda, that he just gave up and bought the company.

[NewJeffCT]

16. thanks

I remember seeing Armand Hammer on a TV talk show way back in the 80s, and he said that he thought FDR was easily our best president ever. So, he can't be all bad.

[Javaman]

19. The question is...

how much did Occidental give to morons* campaign?

[Javaman]

20. The question is...

How much did Occidental give to morons* campaign?

[jpgray]

24. Gore had a lot of occidental oil investments in 2000

But then, so did Ralph Nader. I don't know what his portfolio looks like these days.