In this episode Kenneth badgered the staff of the "Tracy Jordan Show" into going green, and at the very end he runs into everyone's favorite climate change doom-bringer: Alfred (?) Gore. Is it weird to wish on some secret level that Al Gore were president after watching this? DRAFT GORE. (Oh, and the thing after the "recycled joke" line is a reference to a joke earlier in the episode where Jack Donaghy claims his father had invented putting up a single finger for silence. Classic "30 Rock" callback right there, guys.)

Current announced it will eliminate 80 jobs while shifting away from its trademark short-form video packages and "towards proven 30-60 minute formats" from more outside sources. This would mean less video production in Current's Bay Area home base, as reported previously by former Valleywagger Jackson West at NBC Bay Area.

Which means everything is totally awesome and on track, according to a Current press release:

This re-organization was not the result of a need to cut costs. Current Media will have its most profitable year. This financial stability will allow the company to re-allocate resources in order to put further emphasis on areas of the business believed to best position Current Media for continued long-term growth.

Financial stability leads to sad job layoffs glorious resource re-allocation, gotcha. More good news: Current journalists no longer have to travel all the way to North Korea to hear propagandist doublespeak!

UPDATE: Current COO Joanna Drake Earl said in an interview that the layoffs hit San Francisco and Los Angeles offices the hardest; and while the firings were not "driven by a need to cut costs," they will indeed result in a net reduction of costs.

She added that "It's always a very sad day to eliminate positions" but that the layoffs were "about being a good media company listening to our consumers... any media company in the business of show production is... watching the dial" in terms of results and adjusting as necessary.Indeed, it sometimes seems like Current is becoming more like the traditional media companies it was intended to serve as counterprogramming against, what with the outsourcing of production, devotion to "consumer" feedback (like ratings!) and layoff rounds.

But Earl said the company remains "very committed" to audience contributions, albeit in "different ways" than through collecting short-form videos, a format now dominated by YouTube and "somewhat confusing" to viewers anyway, according to Earl. Not all short shows have been eliminated; some, like Vanguard Journalism, have actually been lengthened.

So maybe Current TV can grow with its hippie, San Francisco soul intact. That's going to mean acting more like ruthless capitalist media barons. But it's probably the best hope for the remaining employees at the all-too-baffling (and all too obscure) cable network.

(Pic: Gore at a Current TV event last year. By Simone Brunozzi.)

Current is mulling layoffs at its San Francisco home base, a source tells former Valleywag contributor Jackson West at NBC Bay Area. The cuts would, in part, eliminate San Francisco-based video production jobs and either outsource them or relocate them to Los Angeles, where some San Francisco jobs also ended up following November layoffs of 60 Current staffers. Current hasn't aired as much cheap user-generated content as it first planned; instead that content, such as it is, has tended to flow to sites like YouTube. No one, Clinton included, has figured out how to save the network from that expensive conundrum.

(Pic: Steve Rhodes)

Gore, you see, is a prominent backer of Fisker's Fisker Automotive, which just last week got a $529 million government loan to build a hybrid sports car. Gore also is a partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, another Fisker investor. The Department of Energy said the former vice president's involvement did not sway its decision, but his involvement with the company can't hurt the firm's credibility with investors in this down economy. Musk's electric car company Tesla, meanwhile, is backed by rival Valley firm Draper Fisher Jervetson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and is a media and celebrity darling. It got $465 million in government loans back in June.

Fisker once had an $800,000 contract with Tesla to design the Model S, the car central to the company's plan for profitability, and Tesla accused him in a lawsuit of stealing company secrets. Tesla also claimed Fisker did shoddy work, sabotaging their design and setting the company back three to six months, a delay that came during one of the company's darkest periods. Fisker won an arbitration ruling saying he did nothing wrong, but there's no reason to think that settled the grudge.

The government is now subsidizing both sides as they go head to head in the market for affordable electric-powered cars. Sure, one makes a plug-in hybrid and the other a pure electric, but the market for pricey, super-environmentally-friendly sedans is relatively small at this early stage. Not the best time to help the companies potentially undercut one another's profit margins. It would have been better to let Fisker get money from a government closer to where he'll be manufacturing the car, over in Finland.

After all, "I'm buying a Fisker!" probably doesn't sound nearly so dirty over in the European market.

Look, Rush Limbaugh ran over a carboard cutout of Al Gore, in an electric car, and then he backed up and did it again! COMEDY! AT TEN O'CLOCK! HAVE YOU EVER IN YOUR LIFE SEEN SUCH A THING??

(To be fair it is hard, but possible, to ignore both of them. It is actually much harder to ignore Jay.)

As Jo Becker reports in today's New York Times, former George W. Bush attorney Ted Olson filed a federal lawsuit challenging California's recent ban on gay marriage. Olson's hope is that his arguments in the case will lead the Supreme Court to reverse the California law and thus reshape the country's social landscape in ways similar to past monumental Supreme Court decisions. Preparing his opening statement for an initial hearing in federal court in San Francisco, Olson said the following:

California's ban is "utterly without justification" and stigmatizes gay men and lesbians as "second-class and unworthy."

"This case," he said afterward, "could involve the rights and happiness and equal treatment of millions of people."

Interestingly, Olson was brought onto the case by one of the biggest big shit liberals in Hollywood, director Rob Reiner, at the suggestion of Olson's ex-wife's sister, who is an acquaintance of Reiner. Olson then recruited David Boies, the attorney for Al Gore in the Bush v. Gore proceedings, to join him in the fight, and with that one of the more unlikely alliances in American legal/political history was formed. Olson, for his part, seems confident.

Paul Katami, one of the plaintiffs recruited for the lawsuit, recalled Mr. Olson's words shortly before it was announced: "He put his arm around me and said, ‘We're going to plan your wedding in a couple of years - this is going to happen.' "

What is it that they say about politics making strange bedfellows?

CNN, citing "a source with detailed knowledge of the former president's movements," (Insert your own joke here.) said tonight that Bill Clinton is traveling to North Korea to negotiate the release of Ling and Lee. Clinton's visit to the rogue totalitarian country comes at a time when North Korea's done just about everything in their power to piss of the United States, its Asian neighbors and the world at large, with batshit-crazy missile launches and outlandish threats to develop an arsenal of nuclear weapons to annihilate their enemies. It's also been widely rumored that North Korea's cuckoo despot ruler, Kim Jong Il, is presently gravely ill. The last American cabinet official to visit North Korea, coincidentally, was former Clinton Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

On the face of things it seems that the United States of America probably has no better bullet in its diplomatic gun than Bill Clinton for handling situations like such as these, so sending him in seems to make all kinds of sense. However, it's hard not to think that if he's successful, he'll once again steal the spotlight from his long-suffering Number Twos, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, but hey, whatever it takes, right? Maybe Bill can take Kim Jong Il for a spin on Ron Burkle's sex-jet, "Air Fuck One," to close the deal? Again, whatever it takes.

UPDATE: Clinton has landed in North Korea.

Via a Page Six item, the joke in question came during a talk on climate change moderated by Charlie Rose: Gore was discussing the discovery of small pockets of oil (probably something about the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, a favorite topic of his), relating such events to "the way junkies find things between their toes."

Funny? Not so much, (A) because drug arrests kinda run in the family and (B) as reported this morning, Laura Ling and Euna Lee - the two journalists under his employ at Current.TV who were detained by the North Korean government for enterting the country illegally - are going to be facing further trials this week, with no definitive end or positive resolution in sight.

'I don't think North Korea is holding back the trial results, but is actually continuing the trial,' said an unnamed source described by South Korea's Yonhap news agency as being 'familiar' with the case.

Gore has been silent on the issue, Current.TV told their people to not say a word about it. It's no less disconcerting that Gore was, according to the Page Six item, at a fundraiser for Andrew Cuomo earlier in the day, instead of working - doing something, anything - to free his employees from what's probably the worst work-related trip of all time. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's now threatening to put North Korea back on our country's list of "Terror States" as of this morning, and President Obama just told them that we're not playin' when it comes to nuclear proliferation as of yesterday. Things are absolutely getting worse, and it's pretty clear that if North Korea views Ling and Lee as diplomatic pawns, our government sure as hell doesn't.

Gore's got several points of entry he can make: among the few political issues Pyongyang takes "public" is climate change. The North Korean government loves to have their asses kissed, and the Department of State hasn't ruled out Gore's involvement, so him coming simply as a diplomat couldn't be a bad thing.

So what's Gore waiting for? Our government's approval? A PR angle? Whatever it is, it better come quick. There's virtually no idea out there of what Ling and Lee are going through, or how they're being treated. Ling and Lee could be fine. They could simply get deported, get off scot-free. But Lee's got family in South Korea. Who, you know, North Korea doesn't really like. Which is besides Americans, which Ling and Lee both are.

And this thing just continues to get worse by the second.

Al Gore Has Foot-In-Mouth [Page Six]
2 US journalists still on trial [The Straits Times]

There's no word yet on what happened at the trial yesterday. But Gore has to feel a certain sense of responsibility. He's the chairman of Current, and Current—at least publicly—hasn't done anything for Ling and Lee. It looks bad for him. Hopping a plane to Pyongyang to issue some false "apology" that North Korea could use for internal propaganda purposes might be the smoothest way out of this.

Of course, Gore's role is being totally inferred by the fact that it hasn't been denied, explicitly:

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly did not rule out the possibility of Gore being sent when asked if it would make sense for him to go.

"It's a very, very sensitive issue, I'm not going to go into it," Kelly told reporters. "This is such a sensitive issue, I'm just not going to go into those kinds of discussions that we may or may not have had," he said about whether Gore himself had raised the matter with the State Department

Presumably someone knows something about Gore's discussions on this. It makes sense. You know you're not doing anything else except sitting at home and waiting for football season, Al Gore. You ain't Delta Force, but you'll do.
If you know more details, email us.
[Pic via]

As we previously reported, nobody's really given a shit (or said anything) about Ling and Lee's detention for "hostile acts against the state" and "illegal entry." Not even the Al Gore-backed Current TV, whose employ they're under - the first item that's been tagged in regards to her imprisonment is here: it was user-submitted, and it's probably going to be removed in due course, either because they don't want to get involved or they were told by the Department of State to GTFO of this one.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Not wanting to aggravate the (notoriously touchy) North Korean government, Lisa Ling's laid low until now. But she's run out of options, with Pyongyang being virtually unresponsive other than allowing a Swedish diplomat limited access to both women. They're going on Today and Larry King Live, and they'll be meeting with Anderson Cooper, whatever that does. The statement Ling and Lee's families released together:

"We have been holding our breath everyday as we've watched the political situation on the Korean Peninsula grow increasingly tense. Our loved ones sit in the midst of it. We desperately urge the governments of the United States and North Korea to keep our issue separate from the larger geopolitical stand-off. We hope that our two countries can come together to secure the expeditious release of Laura and Euna on humanitarian grounds. Euna Lee is the mother of a four-year old daughter. And Laura was being treated for an ulcer prior to her departure, and in our limited communication with her we fear it has become more serious since her detainment and requires immediate medical attention."

They could be sentenced up to five years in a North Korean labor camp - the prospect of which only seems incredibly fucking terrifying - and the few commentators that were around for this when it started (incidentally, People, primarily among them) noted that North Korea had nothing to gain by keeping them around for more than a few weeks when they were first detained in March. Which was before North Korea got all nuke-horny and starting performing successful test launches. So: shit's about to get real. Prayers, fingers crossed, whatever for both Ling and Lee. Here's hoping for their safe return.

The FTC, which polices antitrust violations along with the Department of Justice, is investigating Apple and Google for a potential violation of a 1914 law against overlapping boards which may hinder competition.

People in Silicon Valley have long wondered at the close ties between Apple and Google. When Google CEO Eric Schmidt joined Apple's board in 2006, Apple had yet to launch the iPhone and Google wasn't a player in the cell-phone market. But the depth of ties seemed curious, even without that conflict. Genentech CEO Art Levinson already served on both boards, and two Apple board members, Bill Campbell and Al Gore, served as Google advisors. That's a block of four directors — half the board, able to stalemate any Google-unfriendly strategic move.

It's an obvious thing to investigate. But why now, since it's been the case for years? Schmidt campaigned for Barack Obama, and was recently appointed as a science advisor to the president. Fat lot of good that's done him. This is the second antitrust case Google is facing, following one over a settlement with book publishers which critics say would limit competition in book search.

The Obama administration, despite its ties to Schmidt, has signaled that it will be more aggressive in antitrust enforcement (as Democratic administrations usually are). But what else do Google and Apple share, besides directors? A common enemy in Microsoft. And Microsoft has hired Burson-Marsteller, a PR and lobbying outfit which lists "position[ing] technology firms in antitrust cases" as one of its specialties. A Burson-Marsteller executive has denied lobbying against Google on Microsoft's behalf. So modest! At the same time, the firm, run by loathsome unterflack Mark Penn, went as far as to hire Eric Schmidt's ex-girlfriend to help out its tech practice. Revenge is a dish best served with a summons from the antitrust cops.

Light bulbs have been a pretty solid and cheap technology for more than 100 years, but General Electric decided to screw it up by making a new kind that lights rooms and offers its users a feeling of smugness. But they are very expensive, kind of like when the record companies made you stop buying $5.99 LPs and start buying $25 CDs. But everyone who bought them is an idiot because:

Irritation seems to be rising as more consumers try compact fluorescent bulbs, which now occupy 11 percent of the nation's eligible sockets, with 330 million bulbs sold every year. Consumers are posting vociferous complaints on the Internet after trying the bulbs and finding them lacking.

Ha! Also: Electric cars give you cancer and organic food tastes bad. We know there are some good light-bulb jokes in here somewhere, but we couldn't think of any, so have at it in comments.

Back in September, Plenty may have foreseen it faced extinction as advertising cooled. It was trying to cut a funding deal, purportedly with global-warming evangelist Al Gore. (Given the losses and layoffs at Gore flagship media property, Current TV, news of the former vice president's interest should have been recognized immediately as a bad omen.)

But the do-gooder magazine apparently moved far too slowly.

Our tipster said the money from Gore or whoever didn't come through, and that Plenty editor and publisher Mark Spellun on Monday sacked everyone save for a skeleton crew of four or five people who will keep the website going. Which is actually a net positive for the environment, short term, what with the rescued trees and all. We just wish the likes of Vanity Fair and the Times Magazine would do the same with their own much more cynical "green" issues.

Remember a couple of days ago when that flowchart of unknown provenance came out that allegedly showed the frontrunners for all the cabinet positions, and they were all like political superstars? But then Colin Powell took himself out of the running for the Secretary of Education, and Gore is out, and do people really want RFK, Jr. running the Environmental Protection Agency? If you're going that route, why not Captain Planet? Why not Aquaman?

Other bad-idea frontrunners on that chart: Screamin' Howard Dean for Health and Human Services, Smilin' Bill Richardson for Dept. of the Interior, and NYC police head Ray Kelly for Homeland Security. It's like the lineup of ABC's Sunday morning talk show! Also John Kerry and Chuck Hagel and Tom Daschle and every other politician that any significant portion of Americans have heard of is on that list.

Barack Obama doesn't need a celebrity cabinet. He's the celebrity. Any further political celebrities require air, water, and attention that should be reserved for Barack Obama and his lovely family and a dog to be named later.
[Pic via MSNBC]

Current’s new programming strategy expands upon its pioneering use of viewer created content to include additional opportunities for participation, creating a far more viewer-influenced network, and further unifies the Company’s online and TV platforms by having each web channel paired with a companion TV show. In addition, these changes enable Current Media to reduce its cost structure, thereby assuring that it will be comfortably profitable in 2009 regardless the depth and length of the recession."

Initially, everyone thought Current was going to use this restructuring as a chance to go in the opposite direction: normal, sane, half-hour shows with linear narrative. It's the only thing that makes sense. Have you ever tried watching the channel? We turned it on once, accidentally, and honest to God the news was being read by some kind of female cyborg. Even the shows with actual humans in them are rendered unwatchable by neon graphics and distracting MTV-style quick cuts and sound effects. It's like a late-1980s vision of what News From The Future would look like. Max Headroom would look perfectly at home.

Why not just lay everyone off, put the money in some kind of investment fund (stocks are cheap! hell, so are bonds!) and fund a restrained menu of actual journalism, to be distributed for free, via YouTube? Who knows, that sort of venture might actually make money someday.

In late 2006, Gore's Current made an offer for Digg which valued the social-news startup at $100 milion or more. Wonder if Rose and Gore discussed business at all in this interview. As VentureBeat recently pointed out, Digg's traffic is flat, and it hasn't significantly increased its valuation since Rose and Gore's 2006 chat.

In many parts of Silicon Valley, it seems misguided to regard the U.S. economy as reliant solely on Wall Street. The future still depends on entrepreneurs and innovations — and green-tech businesses getting “traction.” Most of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’s ventures are long-term investments. And entrepreneurs are still bringing new ideas through the door at a steady pace. “I don’t expect the credit crunch will change that,” said partner John Denniston.

Some of the firm’s fledging green ventures are evolutionary improvements on current technologies that will soon hit the market, like the electric Think car. Others promise to revolutionize various aspects of the energy economy — solar power or biofuels — much as Netscape or Google remade the Web, or Genentech ushered in the biotechnology era.

Kleiner was not the only venture firm that had suddenly seen the future and decided it was green. But Kleiner’s past success tends to legitimize the prospects of business ideas that in many cases have spent decades on the economic fringe.

The most challenging aspect of Kleiner’s endeavor is for green tech to expand into the markets more rapidly than any energy technology has done before. Academics sometimes call this process the diffusion of technology. Diffusion can go very fast, with personal computers or Facebook. But in the field of energy, new technologies have moved quite slowly into the mainstream. It has been 54 years since the silicon solar cell was invented in New Jersey at Bell Laboratories. A front-page article in the Times heralded the breakthrough – in 1954 — as something that promised to revolutionize the world.

John Doerr: “To get solutions at scale, we’re going to have to find answers that are economic for all people everywhere. We’ve got to use policy to harness innovation to make sure that the right thing to do is a profitable thing to do — so it becomes the probable thing to have happen.”

Al Gore believes when the governments of the world assign a price to carbon—within a year or two — demand for carbon-free electricity will explode.

Partner Randy Komisar says the energy market is large and outdated: “I’m not very good at hitting the bull’s-eye. I need a big target. And this is the biggest target I’ve ever seen in my life.”

(Photo by Ausra)

Malik and Cashmore, perhaps taking a cue, didn't do any real reporting on the event, leaving that to Threat Level and Laughing Squid. The two simply blogged their Al-and-me pictures as news stories on GigaOm and Mashable, bringing themselves one step closer to the old media stereotype of the vain reporter who can't stop inserting himself into the story — or in this case, into the non-story.

After giving a short speech to attendees, in which he praised their efforts to break the "feudal" system of network television, Gore promised "By tomorrow, I'll be on Twitter." Then he left. Come on, Al. How hard would it have been to sign up for Twitter on the spot, then stick around for a few minutes to lob an inconvenient truth or two across John McCain's puss during the opening leg of the debate? Instead, here's the message Gore sent: Twitter is for kids. (Video by Laughing Squid/Scott Beale)