Al Gore's Viral Videos

This is just a couple of quick notes about a fascinating development Thom Hartmann discussed this morning on his AirAmerica talk show.

Everyone has heard about Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize and his Oscar, but not everyone may be aware that he also won an emmy for CurrentTV, a user-driven cable channel and web site that broadcasts media creations from individuals. It's not a YouTube clone, but there are similarities.

Over the past couple of days, Al has created a few small videos (three that I know of), and uploaded them to the CurrentTV web site. You should be able to watch them from the link I've provided (although the web site still seems to be a little buggy).

Thom Hartmann questioned whether these videos might be the precursor to a "guerilla presidential campaign" by Al. I respect Thom very much, but I just signed up with CurrentTV as a member, and saw these videos in their proper context. There is a "Viewpoints" section on the web site where numerous participants upload a video on a given topic. Thumbnails of each video are displayed with that topic's heading, and members can vote for the opinion they like the best. On these pages, Al's video opinions are simply displayed as one of many. There's nothing surreptitious involved here but a little legwork to support a feature of his web site. Of course, word has gotten around, and Al's opinions are getting lots of support, which should surprise no one.

But the other point Thom made, and with which I wholeheartedly agree, is how wonderfully refreshing it is to see one of our most central political figures in such an informal environment -- relaxed, wearing a casual shirt, and spouting off for a minute into his video camera like drinkingwithbob -- and just coming right out and saying so many of the things that need to be said. Hallelujah!

Here are the topics:

• Health Care -- "It is time to have universal health insurance"


• Government Eavesdropping -- "I think we need to have stricter laws that require the government to follow the requirements of the Constitution"


• Iraq War -- "Our primary goal should be to get our troops home as quickly as possible"

The question of universal health insurance is still being debated, and it means a lot for Al just to come out and say things like this. The same applies to the other topics. But overall, for those of us who've experienced the Bush Years as something that must be endured, the mass availability of this video material from completely outside the mainstream news arena is like air to someone who's been suffocated by the current climate (hmm, I need to watch my metaphors around Al).

That's all. I just wanted to give a shout out about this.

Blog Action Day: Pre-Emptive Peace

Some folks are really upset with all this talk about global warming. Guys like "drinkingwithbob" here are practically beside themselves:

I'm sorry. I don't like it any more than you do. But it's just science. The same science that figured out how to make that video camera, so you could yell at us.

How did Bob get so angry, do you think? Did someone say something that got him all riled up?

This seems like a problem. Maybe we should listen to what the President has to say about all this:

Wow! I still don't understand! What has Al Gore been saying that's got everyone so shook up?

Well, it sure sounds scary. And Hollywood gave Gore the Oscar for this movie. Leave it to Hollywood to jump on the Tree Hugger Bandwagon! I bet they can't leave this alone.

Oh, no! It's Leonardo DiCaprio. Didn't he go down with the Titanic? Oh, well, let's hear what he has to say.

This is starting to sound pretty scary. I'm not sure what our President thinks. What does the rest of the world have to say?

Oh my! They gave Al Gore the Nobel Peace Prize! (Poor Amy Goodman with her Bell's Palsy problem. Hope she feels better soon!) Hmmm... These folks don't seem to be much interested in "spin", do they? They seem to think this stuff is pretty important. But the Nobel Peace Prize? For raising awareness about global warming? How does that make sense?

Hmmm, here's Seth Borenstein on LiveScience.com saying U.S. and Global Water Wars Loom. That doesn't sound very good.

Here's Jeffrey Sachs writing about current War Climates -- like Darfur!

Here's a report from Reuters Africa called Global warming impact like "nuclear war". Here's what it says:

"We can all see that climate change is a threat to global security, and you can judge some of the more obvious causes and areas," said IISS transnational threat specialist Nigel Inkster. "What is much harder to do is see how to cope with them."

I get it now. Is this like Bush's pre-emptive war? A little bit, I guess. But this seems like a much better idea. Maybe we can do this for other problems, too. Congratulations, Al. What a great idea!

Pre-Emptive Peace!