Momentshowing

On 11/18/08, Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt took the stage at the New America Foundation to lay out Google's top policy proposals
for 2009. In his talk, Eric said that the government has a critical
role to play in supporting economic growth, innovation and creativity.

This specific clip has Schmidt discussing how
government can be more effective by using the internet to allow people to get directly involved in policy decisions. It's funny because Ryanne and I were sitting with some cool folks from the Sunlight Foundation…and we all looked at each other because he was speaking straight out of their vision.

For more on Eric's talk and policy priorities, go to Google's Public Policy Blog.
I posted the video of his entire talk here.

Tomorrow we have a new US President.
Tonight is my next video for VloMo08 where you post a video a day for the month of November.

Every spring, tent caterpillars infest the trees where I live. They especially seem to love apple trees where they can eat all the leaves off a tree in under a week. Neighbors say the best thing to do is pick them off and put them in a bucket of vinegar. One day, I didn't have any vinegar. No surprises here.

(original music by Chuck Stern)
Ryanne and I spent a week with the Wreck and Salvage gang, tearing down an old barn in Vermont.
It was a long days of work and plenty of long talks about the future.
None of this you'll see here. These are just the moments in between.

My friend, Charles Hope, and I have been having a great political discussion about Libertarianism for the past six months. I'm a relative new comer to this political philosophy, and Charles has been good enough to debate with me over emails. Plenty of links and books shared.

This video shows Craig Newmark, the founder of Craig's List, explaining his political stance. He says he's a "Libertarian Moderate", right of center. He admits that he made up this term and is searching for a label that fits his world view. Funny enough, he says that Markos Moulitsas of the ultra liberal Daily Kos calls himself a "Libertarian Democrat".

I tell Charles that many people on the "Left" probably lean more towards Libertarianism. We believe in free speech, separation of church and state, government out of our personal lives, self-responsibility. We start getting skeptical when the Freemarket is touted as a solution to all problems though. Too many rigged games on all sides. But like Craig says, "I just want to give people a break." I doubt he means welfare, but a system where everyone truly has equal access and are kept honest. I think Craig's List is a great example of a fair system: everyone has equal access to information, basic rules apply to everyone that help avoid/punish fraud, moderators track any problems and keep rules enforced, and all members of the community can help flag/police negative players. If I act fairly, I should be treated fairly.

(Today is also Day 1 of Videoblogging Month 2008 VloMo08)

Update: There is a a great podcast with Naomi Klein Naomi Wolf on the LewRockwell Show here. She is considered a liberal, but admits she's leaning more and more towards Libertarianism, especially on human rights. Lew and Naomi have a great conversation where they share how they got to this way of thinking. The economic worldview is the real key. What does a "Free Market" mean, and how would it really work in reality?