Hi. I think I should have sent out the slate earlier as I've now gotten other emails on the subject and could really provide a debating blog (if that's the proper term) on the subject. I may, only may send out a note or two tomorrow morning, for your consideration. I'm actually delighted, just very busy right now to do justice to the issue. I couldn't even fly to Cannes, but understand the logic and excitement around the issue, below.
Ed The Huffington Post via Progreso Weekly - Jun 1, 2006 http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Arianna_Huffington&otherweek=1149138000 Al Gore Takes Cannes by Storm Will the Oval Office be next? By Arianna Huffington Over the weekend, I flew from Washington to Cannes. In Washington, the talk was all about 2006. In Cannes, the talk is all about 2008. That's because even with Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Penelope Cruz, Jamie Foxx and Halle Berry here for the film festival, the hottest star in town is Al Gore. In Cannes for the European premiere of his powerful global warming documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," Gore has been surrounded by adoring crowds and deluged with interview requests. He told me that he gave 23 back-to-back-to-back interviews on Sunday, Hollywood junket-style (all on only one hour's sleep), and had another 23 scheduled for Monday. "This is my second visit to Cannes," he said. "The first was when I was 15 years old and came here for the summer to study the existentialists - Sartre, Camus... We were not allowed to speak anything but French!" Which may explain his pitch-perfect French accent. It's clear that the film, and the engaging "New Gore" on display both in the film and his public appearances promoting it, have connected with people in a big way. The film is an environmental punch in the gut. Gore 2.0 is a revelation, and a critical smash. When asked at his press conference how he should be addressed, he replied, "Your Adequacy." "Hanks himself could not have delivered the line more smoothly," gushed The Guardian. The Washington Post's Sebastian Mallaby labeled him "a hero." Time's Anne Marie Cox called him "a rock star." New York magazine touted his "amazing comeback." And even Fox News' Roger Friedman described him as "funny and relaxed." Talk about killer reviews. Of course, as potent as the film is (Friedman says the minds of skeptics "will be changed in a nanosecond" and Franklin Foer says "it will certainly change elite opinion"), the other reason is the "Will he or Won't he?" speculation about 2008. He's saying no - but you can hear the "Run, Al, Run" chant growing louder. "Democrats are looking everywhere to find their presidential candidate," Graydon Carter told me. "But the solution may be right under their noses." And I think that the pressure on Gore to run will only increase as we move toward 2008. Sure, that's a lifetime away in politics. And the shelf life of movie buzz isn't very long - I doubt that people will be debating the relative merits of "X-Men 3" and "The Break-Up" two months from now, let alone a year and a half. But the debate over global warming is only going to heat up - and Gore has a whole campaign planned to ensure that it does. "We are planning to train a thousand people to be able to deliver the presentation all over the country," he told me, "so we can more quickly reach the tipping point." With "An Inconvenient Truth" likely to move the discussion about global warming toward critical mass - and the White House and the oil companies and the likes of Sen. James "Global Warming is a Hoax" Inhofe making a mockery of the crisis - the issue, with Gore as its leading spokesman, will remain in the spotlight. So at no moment between now and the Democratic convention in the summer of 2008 will those eyeing the Democratic nomination be able to fully relax about not having Gore as a potential rival. Because of his unique position in the political landscape - i.e., the 2000 White House winner who wasn't allowed to move in - and because of the platform his environmental moral crusade provides, Gore won't have to abide by the standard running-for-president timetable. He won't have to hit the usual marks of when to form an exploratory committee, when to officially announce, when to show up in Iowa and New Hampshire. Instead, he can lay back, bide his time, continue doing what he's doing - and is so clearly passionate about - and perhaps be able to chart a path to the Oval Office while avoiding the things about politics that he says "feel toxic" to him. So his repeated denials don't really mean very much. Not because he doesn't mean it, but because so much can happen between now and the convention. Especially if it appears that Hillary is close to securing the nomination. Then the pressure for him to enter the race - to act as the anti-Hillary - will increase significantly. But it's not just that so many Democrats fear a Hillary-led ticket. The pressure on Gore to run will continue to grow because watching him speak out so eloquently, so passionately, and so personally on this issue - in other words, displaying real leadership - is like suddenly being served a steak after a steady diet of fast-food burgers. It's a stark reminder of just how far we've lowered the bar on what we expect from those we elect. It's as if we've been so pummeled by ersatz candidates espousing focus-group-approved piffle that we've come to accept as normal the idea that if you are going to be in politics you are going to have to sell out - shaped and molded by campaign consultants and pollsters, your ideals and principles wrung out by the very process of becoming a candidate. Each disappointment (et tu, John McCain?) is like a wound, and the scar tissue that remains has desensitized us. When people are exposed to the new Gore - authentic, funny, self-deprecating - you can almost feel their relief and surprise as they suddenly come to face to face with what a real leader could be. Even major skeptics like myself (and I've never been shy about attacking Gore) can't help but be affected. It's why he suddenly finds himself surrounded by people all but begging him to run. And here's an interesting grace note from Cannes: One of the films generating the biggest buzz at the festival is "Climate," by Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Despite its title, the film has absolutely nothing to do with global warming or climate change. Rather it's the story of a man's inner change. Festival audiences have been mesmerized by the powerful rendering of his transformation. Is this a cinematic omen of things to come in 2008? © 2006 Arianna Huffington. Distributed by Tribune Media Services, Inc. *** Dixie Chicks Return to No. 1 on Charts By JOHN GEROME Associated Press Forbes.com 05.31.2006 The Dixie Chicks appear to be more popular than the president these days. President Bush's approval rating has plummeted, but the Chicks are on top of the pop and country charts with their first album since publicly criticizing Bush three years ago. They did it without the support of country radio, which largely ignored the Dixie Chicks after lead singer Natalie Maines told a London audience in 2003 that the group was ashamed Bush was from their home state of Texas. The new album, "Taking the Long Way," took the No. 1 spot Wednesday on the country albums chart and the Billboard 200 overall chart - which are based on sales rather than radio airplay - with 526,000 units sold in its first week. For the year, the Chicks' first-week showing is behind only Rascal Flatts' "Me and My Gang" (722,000 units), according to Wade Jessen, director of Billboard's country charts. Jessen said the strong sales figures may show that hardcore country fans are not as bothered by the controversy as many in the music industry thought, or simply that the group is attracting a broader audience. "There also might be a certain amount of support that may have been thrown their way by folks who are a little more liberal and that maybe never bought a country album in their lives but want to show their support," he said. The new album hit stores May 23 amid a flurry of media appearances (including a Time magazine cover story) and its first-week sales are the trio's best since "Home" sold 780,000 units in its first week of release in September 2002. First-week sales on "Taking the Long Way" were better than Chicks' longtime nemesis Toby Keith, whose latest album, "White Trash With Money," sold 330,000. Tim McGraw's "Greatest Hits Vol. 2: Reflected" sold 242,000. The new album's first single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," came out in March and stalled at No. 36 on Billboard's country songs chart. It did slightly better on the adult contemporary singles chart, peaking at No. 32. The song was co-written by the trio and addresses the controversy head on, with Maines singing in the chorus, "I'm not ready to make nice. I'm not ready to back down. I'm still mad as hell and I don't have time to go round and round and round." The latest single, a more conventional song called "Everybody Knows," reached No. 48. The group did not respond Wednesday to a request for an interview. In January Maines told Entertainment Weekly magazine that she was disappointed with country music and that she's "pretty much done" with the genre. Jessen suspects that most country stations have already made up their minds about the Chicks' new album and probably won't come on board even if sales remain brisk. For a lot of programmers, the group is still too polarizing. "Programmers are directly or indirectly responsible for the health of the bottom line, and if anything happens that distracts from that in the way they run their business, they won't deal with it," Jessen said. Ken Boesen, program director at WPOC in Baltimore, said his station played "Not Ready to Make Nice" a few times, but never added it to the playlist. "Regardless of whether country radio plays them or not, they're going to sell," Boesen said. "There are too many ways for people to hear about and get new music these days." http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/ap/2006/05/31/ap2785095.html ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Everything you need is one click away. 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