Following in the footsteps of the SEIU, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) hasn't endorsed a presidential candidate. But that hasn't stopped them from sending out an email to members that (nudge nudge, wink wink) links to a video statement from John Edwards.

Now you see it, now you don't.

I tried to show my Internet Advocacy Communication class the new McCain Girls video this evening. We have been following their adventures as we study YouTube's impact on the election, and POOF!, it was gone.

America is using these relatively quiet days of summer to carefully weigh John McCain and Barack Obama's differing visions for putting America back at the cutting edge of scientific innova...no, not really. Sigh. We're busy talking celebrity this and celebrity blah blah blah blah; Sprinkled across the U.S.A. are nearly 200,000 returned Peace Corps volunteers, and now some of them are trying to bring home some votes for Barack Obama; The Democratic side of the House Education committee has released a snappy movie-trailer style short video promoting the upcoming premiere on the House floor of the Higher Education Opportunity Act; and so much more that it would take a full two episodes of "Behind the Music" to cover it all.

Building on yesterday's post about the scattered but telling signs of public opposition to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion Wall Street bailout proposal, here's an update on what's been bubbling today. First, and most telling, is the entry of an infamous Internet meme, the FAIL sign, into this morning's nationally televised congressional testimony by Paulson and Fed chair Ben Bernacke. Details below the fold...

How often do you think MoveOn's Adam Green and conservative firebrand Grover ("drown it in the bathtub") Norquist are of one mind? Trust me, not that often. But Norquist has just jumped on the bi-partisan Open Debate Coalition train led by Green, Change Congress's Larry Lessig, and others; No matter whether the thought of Sarah Palin as the next President of the United States puts a smile on your face or a chill up your spine, you have to admire excellent Flash work where you find it; The SEIU HQ down in DC has been busy putting together something of a web all-star team; and much more.

When a top Republican official in Florida reports getting 7 phone calls from Obama volunteers (because she signed up on the Obama site to keep track of its activities), and none from McCain volunteers, you know something is up. Here's a quick look under the hood of the Obama calling operation.

It's been clear for some time that the McCain campaign is way behind the Obama campaign in all kinds of social media metrics. But maybe all that webby stuff doesn't matter as much as the ability to turn out the troops on the ground. But it doesn't look like the McCain phone banking operation is anywhere as big as Obama's.

Obama's HHS appointee Tom Daschle has taken to the transition website Change.gov to respond to comments about how to cure what ails the American health landscape. But, of course, "interactivity" isn't necessarily limited to the web...By dissecting a single blog post, the Sunlight Foundation's Greg Elin makes the case that, yes, even cautious, handcuffed government can make the web more interactive, more transparent, and even more fun!...[O]ne unnoticed but much welcomed change to Change.gov: blog posts are now signed by their authors -- even retroactively...and more.

Republican State Assemblyman Chuck Devore of California is the subject of compelling online experiment as he attempts to unseat sitting Senator Barbara Boxer -- a Twitter-based fundraising drive, under the banner of #TCOT (that is, Top Conservatives on Twitter)...he President-elect's weekly YouTube'd appeals to the American public aren't as popular as they once were...Resolved: Appending "2.0" to anything is incredibly dorky...and much more.

Yeah, we probably should have seen this coming from a mile away. The Obama transition launched a series of house parties and community events to be held between now and the first of the year, focused on gathering together Americans interested in health care reform. And you know you, as it turns out, has a rather keen interest in the topic? Health care industry figures, from insurers like Aetna to drug companies like Pfizer and Merck...Al Giordano is one tough grader. Giordano, proprietor of The Field blog, gives the presidential transition team a big ol' F for its Open for Questions effort, dinging them for delivering "gimmickry, sloganeering, curt and almost snide 'responses'"...The liberal online organization MoveOn is often criticized for being a top-down effort that taps in to our collective desire to exert minimal effort and still stay politically engaged. But the group has put out a call to members to participate in a week-long agenda-setting process...and more.