Tuesday, August 5, 2008

The Obama Energy Speech, Annotated

Sloth pays off! I didn't want to get into Senator Obama's speech. Although I am, of necessity, politically attuned I am also jaded. Politics is a necessary evil and let's face it, speeches have gone down hill since some hack speechwriter put these words in John Gaunt's mouth:

...This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England...


Here's Andy Revkin doing the heavy lifting for the New York Times:
Former Vice President Al Gore used a recent speech to call for weaning the United States from coal by 2018. On Monday, Senator Barack Obama proposed weaning the country from Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil in roughly the same time span....

...The speech transcript is below and I’ve begun annotating. As before, I hope you’ll join in (see earlier annotations to get the idea). Sorry about the delay, but my job these days bears more than a passing relationship to the plate-spinning circus act I used to see on the Ed Sullivan Show as a kid (yes, I’m over 50)....MORE

Here's the Wiener Philharmoniker playing Andy's theme music.
(they rev it up on the second encore)