As part of its $1 Billion lawsuit against Google, the parent company of YouTube, a judge has ordered the video sharing site to hand over its entire database containing the history of all user actions, including what videos each visitor has watched and uploaded. This database includes users' IP addresses and their usernames, if applicable. This decision represents a hideous breach of privacy and brings to light several very important, and scary, issues.

Okay, we have all had the problems today.

Here is the fix for now, look at the embed text and remove these two lines

(param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param)</p>

and

allowfullscreen="true"

Jed Report put up a video that perfectly enunciates the sheer absurdity in the press's portrayal of McCain as a Straight-Talker and audacity of McCain's statement that he isn't like Bush at all.

Straight-Talking Express? I say Straight-Talking BS.

I read Jonathan's post on the "Lincoln-Douglas Debate" proposal with a lot of interest. It's a topic that fits into a bigger question on the role of debates. If we put aside the merits and drawbacks of the Lincoln-Douglas format, what's abundantly clear is that nobody has been completely satisfied with this cycle's debates. Republicans were annoyed with the questions selected for the CNN YouTube debate, while Democrats have been consistently unimpressed with the efforts of network moderators. We all remember the famous Dodd Clock, which laid out the lack of speaking time for the unfashionable candidates. Clearly, the debates we're having have a lot of shortcomings.

All of this unhappiness could be resolved if the moderators would just picked better questions. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. While I'm sure the networks would love to stop catching criticism, the most loyal debate viewers are political junkies who follow the political horse race plot lines. Their ratings are their vindication. For all the criticism of last week's ABC debate, it was the most watched of the election cycle. We need a big rethink on debates.

Some people think the CNN YouTube debates were progress, but their were also some valid concerns that they were only superficially different from the standard MSM fare. If anything, I'd argue that those debates were simply grafting user-driven technology onto a dying medium. The debate format as we know it - two candidates at podiums delivering pre-hashed soundbites while operatives simultaneously spin the press - is nothing worth clinging to. If we're going to go through the effort of putting Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the same stage, then we've surely got to make the product more worthwhile then when we're getting right now.

Someone in my precinct went around with his video camera at the 16th senatorial convention in Texas and started recording this message about how all kinds of people are supporting Clinton. It is up on You tube now. Take a look and then do as he says and add your voice. Send it to your friends and all the people you know who are Hillary supporters. Lets get noticed!

View here and add your own voice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLHav_ysd rI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNAro1B_F V0&feature=related

The real story of Hillary's Bosnia trip . . .

Redacted

Cross posted at Future Majority.

Since I've been traveling so much, I've taken the opportunity afforded by long plane flights to revitalize my reading habits.  So far I've read and reviewed Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody, and David Kinnaman's UnChristian.  I've been enjoying this chance to read again.  It's a good habit that unfortunately dropped well below previous levels as I worked on my book and struggled to juggle a full-time job and blogging.  I've been able to do a new book every 12 - 15 days, and hope to keep that  up through the spring and summer (no promises once the Fall gets here and the campaign really kicks into high-gear).

Most recently, I finished Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the Future of American Politics by Morely Winograd and Michael Hais.  Winograd is a former policy advisor to Al Gore, and Hais is a retired executive for communications research firm Frank N. Magid Associates.  Together, they've pooled their expertise and produced a compelling look at the historical, demographic, and technological trends that have shaped American political history, and how those cyclical trends might play out as the Millennial Generation comes into it's own as a force in American politics.