When Democratic consultant Nancy Leeds saw the "Hey Girl, It's Ryan Gosling" meme spread late last year, she decided to start a reaction GIF tumblr of her own, devoted exclusively to campaigns and named "Campaign Sick," after a blog she also maintains. What she didn't realize was that staffers and consultants around the country — even some Republicans, she says — would take advantage of the opportunity to send their own submissions in numbers, creating an anonymous escape valve for campaign pressure.

"You're not supposed to be posting stuff on the Internet outside of the campaign because you're a representative of the campaign," Leeds told me by phone Friday. "And second of all, you want to be a soldier. You don't want to be complaining and venting and asking for advice, you want to look like you're in control and nothing ever bothers you."

The White House uploaded video over the weekend of President Barack Obama answering questions on Twitter after delivering remarks May 24 in Newton, Iowa. The president, who appears to be a touch-typist, is enthusiastic after posting a tweet that took up all 140 available characters and not a letter more. "I'm the master Twitter!" he exclaims, as one of the staffers in the room calls the tweet a "twoosh." Read More

Chick-fil-A had a record-breaking business day yesterday after an Internet-powered show of support drove throngs of people to chains nationwide, hungry for chicken and a chance to express their belief that two people of the same sex should not be allowed to marry. Poultry might never be this political again. Former Arkansas governor and 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee declared Wednesday “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” creating a Facebook invite for the event, sending out more than 3 million invitations and receiving more than 600,000 RSVPs. Read More

In a sit-down interview with C-SPAN, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argues that televising the proceedings of the court would "miseducate" the American public. Video, Scalia argues, carries more "impact" than the full audio of the proceedings which are now available. As a result, a 15- or 30-second video excerpt, taken out of context, could do more to create a false perception of the court than an audio clip of the same length. Similarly, he said, those excerpts would be all that the American public sees, as the court's business generally hews towards "all sorts of dull stuff that only a lawyer could understand and perhaps get interested [in]." Vast amounts of the Supreme Court's work would go unseen and what would be seen, he said, would be "uncharacteristic." Read More

Whenever something out of the ordinary happens — just plain weird or, in this case, tragic — it seems like someone who uses the social link-sharing site Reddit was there, and is willing to share their experience with others online. After a shooting at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colo. that has so far left a reported 12 dead and 24-year-old James Holmes in police custody as the alleged attacker, people affected by the violence turned to their friends and family for support. In some cases, this meant turning to fellow Reddit users. Over the next few hours it'll be safe to expect a lot of coverage about how the Internet offers a new lens for people outside of these events to connect with people who were there. In this case, though, we're also seeing people who went through a traumatic experience going online to share what they saw — partly, it seems, for help getting it off of their chests. Read More

In the 112th Congress, House Republicans have made much ado about efforts to gin up citizen input, like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's YouCut initiative or House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa's Madison platform for soliciting comment on individual bills. Now House Democrats are getting in on the act. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer announced today that House Dems will integrate citizen input and organizational position papers submitted on POPVOX, a website for tracking bills and contacting Congress about them, into a document repository shared by every Democratic member. Read More