Sarah Palin's Remarks at the GOP Convention

Remarks by Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin to the 2008 Republican National Convention - including an introduction of her family. Children; Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow and Piper and husband Todd, a world champion snow machine champion.

Fascinating.

Student Sentenced to Death For Downloading an Article

A 23-year-old student in Afghanistan is currently sitting on death row because he downloaded an article on women's roles in Islam on the Internet. Seen as blasphemy, the young man now faces death.

A video worth spreading to hopefully stop something unfathomnable.

[via Geek Sugar]

Off video of Sarkozy creates Dailymotion delight

Without his knowledge, someone filmed French President Nicolas Sarkozy waiting on the (somewhat chilly) set of Public TV France 3 before the show went on the air.

As his make-up is being applied, he gets annoyed at one of the cameramen who doesn't acknowledge his "bonjour" and says: "As a guest you would expect people to say hello, or we're not in the public service, we're with demonstrators. Incredible. Seriously. No, things are going to change. Things are going to change."

Brought to light by 89rue , it's been posted on Dailymotion.

France 3 is launching an internal investigation to find out who made the film.

Sarkozy was an online video hit previously, when he called a citizen a "bloody idiot" for refusing to shake his hand ("Casse-toi pauvre con!").

UK's Gordon Brown takes questions via YouTube

Gordon Brown launched a YouTube version of Prime Minister's Questions on Monday in an attempt to connect with younger voters and dispel opposition jibes that he is not in tune with the digital age.

Video questions can be submitted on any subject in an "Ask the PM" section on Downing Street's YouTube website.

Brown will answer the questions which receive the most votes at the end of June, but the plan is to run the initiative on a regular basis via the video-sharing site.

[via Reuters]

Political Music Videos

YouTube's has launched a new channel called "Trendspotting Tuesday. The political music video trend is schowcased as it's first highlighted feature.

And NewTeeVee on a similar subject, claims today’s most-watched Clinton video on YouTube is in fact, the latest in the attractive-girl-singing-about-political-candates genre, Hillary, Be My Best Friend.

Indonesia seeks to block YouTube over anti-Koran film

Indonesia has asked Internet providers to block access to the YouTube Web site for carrying a film made by a right-wing Dutch lawmaker which accuses the Koran of inciting violence, an official said on Wednesday. Reuters reports.

Indonesia has banned broadcasts of the film by Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch anti-immigration Freedom Party, and radical Muslims called for the lawmaker's death during protests outside the Dutch embassy in Jakarta this week."

Queen Rania on YouTube

Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah launched her presence on YouTube with an urgent message to the world's young people, Monday, asking them to join in a global dialogue to recognize our commonalities.

Press release

Citizen journalists: the Times says it’s the kids

A New York Times report this morning is headlined: Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On. Its lede is about a section of a response by Senator Obama to President Bush’s State of the Union address that newspapers and television barely noticed but that “caught fire” online. The report attributes this to young people:

It is not news that young politically minded viewers are turning to alternative sources like YouTube, Facebook and late-night comedy shows like “The Daily Show.” But that is only the beginning of how they process information.

According to interviews and recent surveys, younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out e-mailed links and videos to friends and their social networks. And in turn, they rely on friends and online connections for news to come to them. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter — reading The Washington Post, clicking on CNN.com — with a social one. ...

[via Smart Mobs]

Hillary wasn't lying. Bosnia gunfire footage discovered...

[via Metro]

Parliament 'should be on YouTube'

According to the the BBC, footage of Parliament should be freely available for use online on sites like YouTube to help "reconnect with the public", Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson said.

The "ridiculous" downloading ban should end to help to bring Westminster "into the 21st Century", she added.

But Nick Harvey, a member of the House of Commons Commission, said the ban was in place to ensure that images could not be "manipulated at a future point".

Current rules allow live streaming but forbid direct downloading."

Free Ingrid

Free Ingrid Betancourt from Columbian rebels and the 3 thousands other hostages. Spread the word.

[via Loïc Le Meur Blog]

Sound Bite That Has Some Teeth

A Barack Obama supporter quizzed on the street at the Hollywood Democratic Debate has drawn a million views on YouTube. The New York Times reports.

"Derrick Ashong, a 32-year-old musician, carrying a sign for Barack Obama outside the theater On Jan. 31, was asked by a series of skeptical and very pointed questions by a cameraman filming the event.

“So why are you for Obama?” he asked. It was clear from his approach that he expected a dimwitted answer, an expectation that he was about to talk to another acolyte smitten by Senator Obama’s rock star persona.

But, as it turned out, Mr. Ashong, who was raised in Ghana and elsewhere, was glad to be asked. For almost six minutes — about a century in broadcast television years — Mr. Ashong, who has an immigrant’s love of democracy and the furrowed brow of a Brookings fellow, held forth on universal health care, single-payer approaches and public-private partnerships.

There's more... On Feb. 2, the interview of Mr. Ashong was posted on a YouTube channel called “The Latest Controversy,” where supporters of both Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Obama are asked very aggressively to justify their choice of candidates.

The video blew up, drawing more than 850,000 views. And after that huge response to his policy analysis, Mr. Ashong decided to double down and explain the emotional component of his support for Obama in a follow-up video that was posted Feb. 11 and received 300,000 views."

Read full article.

Saudi woman seeks driving acceptance on YouTube

According to CNN, a Saudi woman has posted a video of herself driving on YouTube in an effort to urge the Saudi government to expand the rights of women to drive in Saudi Arabia.

"Wajeha Al-Huwaider has a driver's license, but she is only allowed to drive in rural areas of Saudi Arabia. She said that restriction "paralyzes half the population." She wants authorities to let women drive in Saudi cities.

"On the occasion of this Women's Day, we appeal to our interior minister, his Highness Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, to permit us to drive," Wajeha said on the video in Arabic.

International Women's Day was Saturday. The video, nearly three minutes long, has been viewed about 23,000 times in its first four days on the video sharing site."

Sleeping girl in Hillary's ad supports Obama

File under "no one could have seen this one coming".

It turns out that one of the sleeping girls featured in Hillary Clinton’s “3 a.m.” ad is an Obama supporter. Oops! To be fair, the stock footage in the ad was shot nine years ago, when Casey Knowles was 8 years old. (The Clinton campaign bought the footage from Getty Images.) But Knowles, now 17, has been campaigning for Obama, and denounces the “3 a.m.” spot as an exercise in “fear-mongering.”

[via Adweek]

Related: - Did Hilary Clinton "xerox" the 3 am red phone ad"?

Jack Nicholson Endorses Hillary In a Videoclip

Using lines belonging to five of his most famous roles, Hollywood actor Jack Nicholson took his endorsement of presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton to a whole new level in a video posted online this weekend. eFluxMedia reports.

"The notorious Hollywood heavyweight asked the help of his director friend Rob Reiner to put together a series of scenes from "The Shining," "A Few Good Men," "Batman," "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest" and "Five Easy Pieces" in a short, amusing video entitled "Jack and Hill," which was posted on YouTube (1,151,115 views so far since Saturday).

... The video, made without Clinton's knowledge, ends with 70-year-old Nicholson giving his approval, "I'm Jack Nicholson, and I approve this message."

Did Hilary Clinton "xerox" the 3 am red phone ad"?

Barak Obama responds in kind to Hillary Clinton's "Its 3 am - Red phone" ad with his own message.

Turns out, reports BuzzFlash , a similar "3 am" pro-John McCain video has reportedly been on YouTube since January and also bears a remarkable resemblance to a similar scare piece (produced by the same ad agency as Hillary's) for Walter Mondale in 1984.

So Senator Clinton, having accused Senator Barack Obama in one of the debates of "xeroxing speeches" and insisting that it was an important issue because it got to the "heart" of Obama's campaign, appears now guilty of having "xeroxed ads " herself. Obama campaigners are having a field day with this one.

Bill Clinton's New Obama Campaign Ad

Slaughterhouse video prompts unprecedented beef recall

An undercover of sick and crippled cows being brought to slaughter in an abattoir in southern California has prompted the largest recall of beef in US history, reports The Times Online.

"The US Department of Agriculture yesterday ordered that 143 million lb of beef from the slaughterhouse be recalled. Officials estimate that some 37 million lbs of the recalled meat had been heading to schools across America though they fear that most of it will have already been eaten.

... Because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection, Food Safety and Inspection Service has determined them to be unfit for human food and the company is conducting a recall,” Ed Schafer, US Secretary of Agriculture, said in a statement.

The evidence referred to by the authorities was contained in an undercover video shot at the abattoir, showing workers kicking, electric shocking and otherwise maltreating “downer” animals: cows that appear to be too sick or injured to walk. The video was produced by a representative from the Humane Society of the United States, who had been working undercover at the plant.

WARNING: The video contains very graphic images.

Silicon Valley Executive Sticks Up for His Hillary Video

The kitschy yet catchy tribute to Senator Clinton video made by Gene Wang, a Silicon Valley success story and amateur musician, dubbed “Hillary4U&Me ” at first went largely - unnoticed until last week when it started making the blog rounds Then came the backlash, reports BitsBlog

"A blossoming chorus of critics is calling the song “cringe-inducing,” and saying that it could do more harm than good for Clinton. Some conspiracy theorists have even posited that the video must have been secretly created and planted by Obama supporters intent on damaging his competitor through song.

He said he’s willing to concede that he may not have the star power of will.i.am’s Obama-backing crew, but he’s sticking by the song’s larger themes.

“I do agree that some of the Obama videos are better. But we have the better candidate by far,” he wrote in an e-mail message. He added: “For all the naysayers, I’d like to see their YouTube music video.”

Putting Candidates Under the Videoscope

Many young journalists have been hired by the networks to follow the candidates across the country, filing video and blog posts as they go, reports the The New York Times.

"Originally hired to cut expenses — their cost is a fraction of a full television crew’s — these reporters, also called “embeds,” have produced a staggering amount of content, especially video. And in this election cycle, for the first time, they are able to edit and transmit video on the fly.

"As a result, the embeds have changed the dynamic of this year’s election, making every unplugged and unscripted moment on the campaign trail available for all to see.

... "There have always been cameras around campaigns. What is different now is how much more portable they’ve become and how much more prevalent,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, who was the traveling press secretary for Mr. Romney’s campaign until the Republican candidate dropped out last week."

[via NewTeeVee]

The Naked Campaign

Illustrator Steve Brodner is sketching the candidates in on ongoing series of animations for The New Yorker called The Naked Campaign. There are eleven videos so far.

A truly wonderful idea.

His latest is Mad World, where he gives the candidates tattoos of the states they’ve won.

[via Neotorama]

Obama's oratory "Yes We Can" put to music

Of all the videos created in his honor, this one produced by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas stands apart. Obama himself gave it high marks. It's packed with celebs, including John Legend and Scarlett Johansson.

The "song" was essentially written by Barack Obama, since the lyrics are adapted from his "Yes We Can" speech after the New Hampshire primary.

[via Boston Globe]

YouBama: The Citizen Generated Campaign

TechCrunch reports on a new site called YoubBama launched a few days ago, designed by two Stanford grad students Christopher Pedregal and Eric Park, to drum up grass-roots support for Obama.

The site lets supporters upload videos explaining why they are going to vote for the candidate. The videos can then be voted up or down Digg-style. According to Pedregal:

The idea was to make it personal and individual. Everyone says this will be the YouTube elections. This can democratize the campaign process. It is an experiment. We don’t know if voters have a lot to say.

Obama's Bush Rebuttal Breaks Another YouTube Record

As The Nation reported on Monday, Barack Obama was the only presidential candidate to Btape a rebuttal to President Bush's State of the Union for YouTube. It's paying off.

By Tuesday afternoon, "Barack Obama's response to Bush's final State of the Union" drew over 300,000 views in under 20 hours.

The public has shown overwhelming and sustained interest in hearing from Obama directly. This is the third Obama video to shoot into YouTube's top three in the past 10 days -- past clips of naked celebrities and Scientology rants -- and the first video that was shot specifically for web viewers, rather than broadcasting documentary footage of a speech.

[via The Huffington Post]

NATO's new Afghan battleground: YouTube

NATO is acknowledging YouTube as its new battleground in the six-year war on Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, as the military alliance posts formerly secret surveillance and attack video. CNN reports.

"The strategy aims to counter years of propaganda video posted on the Internet showing Taliban attacks on NATO forces which fighters use to claim that NATO's position in the Afghan war is deteriorating.

"The Taliban, who are literally cave-dwellers, are doing better than we are on a key battleground -- and that's video," said NATO spokesman James Appathurai. "They deploy with videographers. We don't. They have DVDs out in an hour, we don't."

Wielding video cameras like weapons, fighters quickly upload images of their attacks and create a valuable morale booster for their supporters.

Now, after much internal debate, NATO has begun declassifying and posting top secret combat video on YouTube and other Web platforms to try and beat the Taliban at its own game."

Anti-Clinton Video Draws Web Audience

According to The Washington Post, a stinging 13-minute video by a bitter Clinton foe is finding its own Internet audience.

"The clip, a preview of a longer film by one-time Clinton donor Peter Paul, has scored more than 1.4 million hits on Google Video and about 350,000 on YouTube

Paul is a Hollywood entrepreneur, former partner of Spider-Man creator Stan Lee and convicted felon who has sued the Clintons in connection with a celebrity-packed fundraiser he helped organize for her 2000 Senate race. A California appeals court earlier this month ruled that Sen. Clinton should be dismissed from the suit.

But Paul has devoted a Web site to the case and his film, "Hillary Uncensored," in recent days has been touring New England College campuses. On Tuesday, the film is scheduled to be screened at the Metropolitan Club in New York City. "

YouTube: Kevin Rudd gets an earful

Footage apparently showing the man tipped to become Australia's next prime minister eating his own ear wax during Question Time - 6 years ago - has now become a hit on YouTube. The Telegraph reports.

"Over 180,000 web surfers have watched four different clips of the Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd on the video sharing website.

The footage was taken at least six years ago, when the Member for Griffith was still on the backbench.

Mr Rudd, who has enjoyed a substantial lead in opinion polls heading into the November 24 election, may now face a backlash, according to news.com.au, which suggested the footage "could do more damage to (his) election chances than any policy blitz".

Blog Comments Become Fodder for Attack Ads on TV

TV ad points to a new form of negative campaigning in which information is sourced to comments posted on the Internet instead of news reports or public records. The Washington Post reports.

"Del. Timothy D. Hugo, a Republican state legislator from Fairfax County has launched an attack ad on cable TV against his Democratic opponent that features unidentified, unverified quotes from a blog.

Hugo's ad highlights critical comments about his Democratic opponent, Rex Simmons, that someone with the screen name "Pitin" posted on the Democratic blog Raising Kaine.

Ads that quote from blogs, on which it is often difficult to identify the author, represent a benchmark in increasingly negative political campaigns, several political analysts said.

This is one of the places where the old way of doing politics and the new way is coming into conflict," said David Weinberger, a research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. "We have developed a blogosphere that is full of lively debate . . . but at the same time we have political marketers who will use anything they can to advance their own cause.

... Karen S. Johnson-Cartee, a political science professor at the University of Alabama who has written several books on negative television ads, said Hugo's ad "means we have sunk to a new low. ... Most people, especially older Americans, are unfamiliar with the blogs," Johnson-Cartee said. "They have no way of testing the veracity of something posted on a blog."

Bin Laden to appear in new Sep 11 video

Al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden will been seen on a new video to mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, it has been claimed.

A terrorist monitioring group said an internet announcement included a photo of bin Laden from the upcoming video which showed his beard, which in previous messages had been streaked with grey, was black.

TheIntelCenter , which also monitors Islamic websites, said the video was expected within the next 72 hours.

A banner advertisement for the forthcoming video, written in Arabic, read: "Soon, God willing, a videotape from the lion sheikh Osama bin Laden, God preserve him."

It was signed by Al-Sahab, al Qaida's media arm, which usually puts out such announcements one to three days before the video is posted on the internet, the Site Intelligence Group said.

[via Metro.co.uk]

Australian Prime Minister posts YouTube Apec appeal

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has posted a video on YouTube appealing to people not to join violent protests during the Apec summit in Sydney, reports the BBC.

"The city is hosting the gathering of 21 world leaders amid massive security.

Demonstrators have vowed to disrupt the summit, with large street protests planned throughout the week."

Watch the YouTube video.

Rwanda: Political Group Loads Campaign Video On YouTube Website

The exile based party that hit the news recently over accusations against Rwandan Gen. Karenzi Karake has now taken its war of words to a video-sharing site YouTube with the hope to reach out to millions of people that access it everyday, RNA reports via AllAfrica.

"The Netherlands group United Democratic Forces FDU-Inkingi on Tuesday loaded a 9-minute video on YouTube.

... In the video that features hard-talking FDU-Ikingi president Ms. Victoria Ingabire, various clips of scenes have been edited purportedly showing grave living conditions of people in Rwanda that the party says it could put right.

There is also an image taken from a prison facility in Rwanda, to illustrate the ineffectiveness of the judicial system in the country. However most of the roll time of the video covers a conference that the top brass of the part attended.

There also appears an image of President Paul Kagame - who the group - some of whose members stand accused of Genocide crimes in Rwanda, claim they want to oust from office."

CNN-YouTube GOP debate rescheduled for November

According to the Hollywood Reporter, after a few weeks of uncertainty following a less-than-enthusiastic response from the GOP presidential candidates, the CNN-YouTube Republican debate is back on and will be held November 28.

TechPresidentTV

TechPresident.com launches TechPresidentTV on YouTube with Josh Levy and others weighing in with post-debate analysis.

[via PrezVid]

Republican Edition of YouTube Debate on the Rocks?

Political blogs like The Caucus are picking up reports that Republican interest in the CNN*YouTube debates may be flagging. Rudy Giuliani may be dropping out due to “unspecified scheduling conflicts.” Mitt Romney is criticizing the Democratic version this week for being too cheesy.

[via NewTeeVee]

Leterme’s blunder gets 225,000 hits

Last weekend Belgium's prime minister-in-waiting, Yves Leterme, made a very public mistake when asked to sing Belgian's national anthem, he sang France's Marseillaise instead of the Brabançonne.

The video of his ‘blunder’ has been downloaded 225,000 times on YouTube.

[via Expatica]

What YouTube doesn't change

Another interesting (negative) analysis of last night's CNN*YouTube debate, by Matthew Yglesias for The Guardian.

"Last night's YouTube-sponsored Democratic presidential debate just took an old question-and-answer format and made it much, much worse.

... It would have been fantastic if CNN, Google (YouTube's parent company), or the Democratic Party had figured out some way to harness it for the purposes of Monday night's debate. Instead what happened is that a bunch of people made videos of themselves asking questions, CNN's staff watched the 3,000 or so videos, they picked some that they liked, and then played them on CNN's cable broadcast of the debate.

The results, predictably, were less entertaining than watching a DVD, but much less informative than trying to, say, read something.

In this neither entertaining nor enlightening manner, of course, the debate greatly resembled, well, the debates of the pre-YouTube era."

Related: - Their Debate - According to Jeff Jarvis, the CNN*YouTube debate was a bust.

Their Debate

According to Jeff Jarvis, the CNN*YouTube debate was a bust.

In his own words:

I am sorely disappointed.

CNN selected too many obvious, dutiful, silly questions.

Anderson Cooper didn’t pace the debate; he tried to trip the runners.

The videos were too tiny to be given justice.

The candidates’ videos were just commercials.

There were far too few issues.

There were too many candidates.

The candidates gave us the same answers they always give.

I have no doubt — no doubt — that we, the people, would have done a better job picking the questions than CNN did.

Read on in Buzzmachine and live blogging of the debates on PrezVid.

YouTube role grows as U.S. election nears

From rapid dissemination of political blunders, often with funny tunes, to a new wave of music videos featuring scantily clad women singing the praises of their presidential favorites, YouTube has sparked a new interest in politics. Reuters reports.

"Many candidates vying for their party's nomination to run for president have embraced the technological changes, holding polls via YouTube, asking for campaign input and making announcements on the site.

"In the past, the campaigns sort of stuck their toe into technology and innovation -- it was a small detail of what was going on," said Phil Noble, founder of PoliticsOnline.

"The difference in this election is that technology has become fundamental. Every campaign has figured out ways to use YouTube all the time."

It's not just the candidates. YouTube members are getting in too, with thousands of people uploading video questions for the upcoming CNN/YouTube debates.

The YouTube debate

On Monday, reports The LA Times, "CNN plans to host a debate in which Democratic presidential candidates will answer questions sent to YouTube".

"So far, people have submitted more than 1,500 video queries, many about problems faced by their families or friends.

Predictably, most of the videos bear little resemblance to network television. The unvarnished look, however, is part of the charm. The point isn't to replicate the look and feel of past debates, it's to use a different medium to create something new and, potentially, more powerful.

The best of the submissions give abstract policy issues a human face, as when a father shows pictures of his young Marine son and asks, "Please tell me what specific steps you will take in order to ensure Middle East stability so that my son will not have to go back."

... The most popular topics aren't geeky issues like high-speed Internet access and Net neutrality, but mainstream issues such as Iraq, the United States' image abroad, education, healthcare, energy policy and climate change.

Granted, there are some signs of infiltration by political professionals and lobbying groups. Maybe it's just a matter of time before the political establishment learns how to dominate this kind of event too. But one of the most refreshing aspects of the submissions is the blunt tone and the eagerness to ask questions that politicians are rarely willing to answer."

'Obama Girl' sequel is instant YouTube hit

"I got a crush on ... Obama" - which has drawn more than 2