“An Inconvenient Truth,” the documentary that turned former vice president Al Gore’s power-point presentation on global warming into an engaging and entertaining film, won the Oscar Sunday night.

Oscars press

Former Vice President Al Gore wins Oscar

The best-documentary win was a triumph for Gore, who has kept a sense of humor about his loss in the 2000 election that was decided in George W. Bush’s favor by a U.S. Supreme Court decision, according to the Associated Press.

“I am Al Gore. I used to be the next president of the United States of America,” Gore says in the film, repeating a line he has used often.

Sunday, Gore used the Oscar win not to further his political career but to boost his campaign to find solutions for global warming and other environmental problems.

“My fellow Americans,” Gore said to laughter from the crowd. “People all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It’s not a political issue, it’s a moral issue. We have everything we need to get started with the possible will to act. That’s a renewable resource. Let’s renew it.”

Earlier in the evening, Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio took the stage to unveil a series of efforts the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences took to make this year’s awards more environmentally friendly.

Pressed by DiCaprio about any other major announcement he might like to make, the former vice president pulled out a statement.

“My fellow Americans, I’m going to take this opportunity right here and now, to formally announce my intentions to …” Gore said before the orchestra broke in and he walked off, arm-in-arm and laughing, with DiCaprio.

Backstage, Gore put speculation to rest, saying “I do not have plans to become a candidate for office again.”

We’ve written about the alternate universe we could be living in many times before – if only the 2000 election had turned out differently. There’s a blogger or two who may have touched on it, and maybe a columnist or two.

But it is interesting to see a smart New York magazine finally coming around to a point of view we’ve had since writing at Southerner.Net from New Orleans nearly four years ago.

According to David Remnick’s column in the current New Yorker, it is useful to reflect on “how much better off the United States and the world would be today if the outcome of the 2000 election had been permitted to correspond with the wishes of the electorate.”

While the attacks of September 11, 2001, may not have been avoided, he concludes, “there is ample evidence, in the 9/11 Commission report and elsewhere, that Gore and his circle were far more alert to the threat of Islamist terrorism than Bush and his.”

Can anyone seriously doubt that a Gore Administration would have meant, well, an alternate universe, in which, say:

1. American troops were sent on a necessary mission in Afghanistan but not on a mistaken and misbegotten one in Iraq?

2. The fate of the earth, not the fate of oil-company executives, was the priority of the Environmental Protection Agency.

3. Civil liberties and diplomacy were subjects of attention rather than of derision.

4. Torture found no place or rationale?

In increasing numbers, poll results imply, Americans are disheartened by the real and existing Presidency, and no small number also feel regret that Gore – the winner in 2000 of the popular vote by more than half a million ballots, the almost certain winner of any reasonable or consistent count in the state of Florida – ended up the target of what it is not an exaggeration to call a judicial coup d’état.

The New Yorker on Al Gore

According to the Associated Press and other news organizations and oddsmakers, Gore’s film on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is the odds-on favorite to win the Oscar tonight for best documentary.

If the oddsmakers are right, it might also give a boost to the recruit Al Gore for President campaign.

We will be watching – and wish him well.

Editor’s Note: Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men is routinely listed in the top five novels in American literature, although it appears to have dropped off the radar screen of the masses in today’s so-called “conservative” TV-driven American culture. It is still available in book stores and worth the read, especially for the middle class and working poor who are often misled by politicians who really do not have their economic interests in mind. It may be “the culture stupid,” but the remake of this movie should be at the top of their list to see before the Nov. 7 election.

Movie Website and Trailer

Key Quote: “If you don’t vote, you don’t matter.”

by Henry B. Rosenbush

Charismatic, controversial and mendacious best describes the life of Huey P. Long, whose political career included tenures as railroad commissioner, state senator and finally governor of Louisiana (1928-35). His assassination in the State Capitol building on the evening of September 8, 1935 has historically been attributed to Dr. Carl Weiss, although evidence culled in the 1990s suggests that Dr. Weiss was framed. Trained in law, Long’s journey to the gubernatorial mansion was filled with personal corruption, but on the other side, Long brought numerous benefits to his dirt-poor state.

Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer winning novel, All the King’s Men, was a scathing examination of Populist Southern Governor Willie Stark’s rise and fall. The novel inspired four films, the 1949 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Actor (Broderick Crawford) and Mercedes McCambridge (Supporting Actress), a 1953 version produced by James Cagney, the 1989 Paul Newman version “Blaze,” a comedic retelling from the point of view of stripper Blaze Starr, the recent 2006 film with Sean Penn, two made for television adaptations, a TV special, an opera, and an excellent Ken Burns documentary in 1987.

While the 1949 film remains the best of the lot the most recent version at least was released during the upcoming election season. It’s a shame that this one has slipped quietly away, dropping off the top 50 list last week. Roundly panned by critics (of 134 national reviews it only received 14 positive nods) for myriad reasons; casting numerous Brits in the roles of Southerners, murky subplots, a shaky narrative, well, you get the idea.
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Now here’s a must see movie, for fans of Southern politics and literature…

Sony (Columbia) Pictures Presents: All The King’s Men

Opening Sept. 22, 2006…

The much talked about Al Gore documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” will be opening at the Rave Theater in Vestavia (Vestavia 10) this Friday, June 30.

The Alabama Rivers Alliance, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, and Cahaba River Society say they would like to have a good showing of environmentally conscious citizens at opening night, so they are inviting everyone to come out – and wear a green shirt. They will meet in the parking lot of the theater at 6:45 p.m. on Friday, June 30. The event may sell out in advance. You can order tickets online at https://www.movietickets.com/purchase.asp?perf_id=20495077.

You can also call or visit the theater at 1911 Kentucky Ave, Vestavia Hills, 35216 – (205) 978-3655.

The clubs also urge people to carpool, ride a bike or the bus to show a committment to the fight against Global Warming.

There are also some other events planned for the evening. The Sierra Club will have a Hybrid Parade and Si Reasoning is organizing a biker’s presence at the opening. For more information on these events, please contact: the Sierra Club’s Peggy Griffin at Peggie.griffin@sierraclub.org or 256-538-3885 or SI Reasoning si@choosepeace.info.

To learn more about the film, visit climatecrisis.net or stopglobalwarming.org.

The new batman movie, Batman Begins, was the best yet, further inspiring a new super hero we have in the works to bring a heroe’s credibility back to the press in democracies.

More Sunday afternoon when the focus of Connecting the Dots will involve the Downing Stree Memo scandal and a sidebar on the status of copyright law for online publications. Check back after Sunday dinner.