Jose Antonio Vargas has been covering the intersection of politics and technology for the Washington Post since February of last year, and he's got a pre-New Year's wrap up of what he's learned along the way...Some of the digs against Digg, the community-ranking site, is that it's biased against women and weighted in favor of liberals. On the latter, enter #diggcons...MoveOn's Eli Pariser is out with a nice Washington Post op-ed laying out the case for why a President Barack Obama will need to tap into the wisdom and passions of the electorate if he's truly going to make transformational change on health care, the Iraq war, and energy policy -- the issues at the top of both his and the American people's agendas...and 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.

While most of the country's attention is focused on the transition underway in Washington, another vitally important transition is taking place right now in Chicago. I'm referring, of course, to the future of the Obama movement and network, or what some organizers refer to as "OFA2" (as in, Obama for America II). Thanks to reporting by Peter Wallsten in the Los Angeles Times, we know that "This weekend, hundreds of field staffers and some key volunteers are planning a marathon closed-door summit at a Chicago hotel to begin negotiating details of what the network might look like when Obama takes office in January. A group of field organizers from battleground states has been enlisted to draw up a plan."

What exactly is going on? The Obama people are saying very little. For a team that has been refreshingly open about the transition in Washington, the transition to OFA2, which seems to be de facto centered in Chicago, has been a totally top-down, one-way affair.

Yes, the Obama political team has been asking for input from its supporters about the future of OFA2. But what kind of guidance can isolated individuals and disconnected house parties give, other than vague affirmations of the need for "change" and their desire to pitch in? (The suggested agenda for the hosts of these meetings, as posted on the Obama website, is also mostly focused on each group determining its own priorities, rather than being part of a national conversation about the future of the Obama grassroots movement.) And how motivating can it be to participate in a one-way process, especially when the internet makes multiway communication and collective deliberation so energizing and empowering? That's the question; let's dig into the details after the jump.

"In just a few short days, this private citizen has become a national pariah," intones the blown-dry anchor. Cut to sweet looking older woman, who is less sanguine: "I waited in line five hours to vote, with an arthritic hip, and this mother-[expletive] [expletive] lazy [expletive] couldn't get of bed in time to vote?"

MoveOn's sassy video that cast you as the sole American who deprived Barack Obama the White House was almost unavoidable in the days before the election. The organization reports that it has been viewed more than 21 million times, putting it in the ballpark of being the single most viral video of the year (and perhaps of all time), alongside Will.i.am's "Yes We Can," released in February.

The liberal mini-media empire Talking Points Memo is out with an inventive "Map of GOP Sleaze" that plots campaign robocalls and mailers against a map of the United States; Former Hillary Clinton Internet adviser Peter Daou is arguing that what shouldn't be forgotten on November 5th is how the netroots did its part to close the famed "Daou triangle" formed by the blogosphere, traditional media, and political establishment; MoveOn's new CNNBC video stars *you* in the role as the one single pro-Obama voter who failed to vote, thus keeping him out of the Oval Office; and much more.

This election cycle has given rise to a number of independent fact check sites, from Factcheck.org and PolitFact.com to those run by various newspapers. But now some are wondering if there's a downside to so many truth sniffers; A brand new public service announcement up on YouTube features the obscured face of a "famous Hollywood actress" making the case that what matters isn't her world renown, but that you get out and vote; Looking at how and where campaigns, lobbying groups, and 527s as spending ad cash is a fascinating perspective on their election strategy; and quite a bit more.

The American web is buzzing with activity around Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's proposed $700 billion bailout bill, a test if there ever was one of the new balance of power in the digital age. On one side, we have the most powerful and well-financed sector of the economy pushing for urgent and sweeping action. On the other side, we have a bunch of disorganized minorities ranging from anti-Big Government and taxpayer groups on the Right, open government advocates in the Center and progressive and labor groups on the Left, each for their own reasons starting to question Paulson's proposal. Will Congress pass a "clean" bill, one that gives Treasury near-dictatorial powers to buy up distressed assets with taxpayer funds, bailing out troubled Wall Street firms and banks, and all with no meaningful oversight or judicial review? Or will the Paulson proposal be stalled, blocked or even killed by emerging and disorganized forces of opposition? This is a fight of gargantuan proportions, one that makes the civil confrontation over a Supreme Court pick seem like a nap in the park.

The Wall Street Journal's Emily Steel highlights a fascinating example of a seemingly new online tactic we focused on yesterday when it came to DNC's new "Count the Lies" compendium. Let's call it pushback by proxy; "How can graphic designers best support Barack Obama?" That question was the inspiration for a new project that aims to mine the talent of the more artistically-gifted Obama fans among us; Next Friday kicks off the start of the McCain-Obama debates, and Current TV will be trying out a new way of framing the match-ups: overlaying Twitter traffic over the feed; McCain policy advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin tried making the case this morning that McCain's long-time service on the Senate Commerce Committee gives him tech cred. "He did this," said Holtz-Eakin, holding up his BlackBerry. The "John McCain invented the BlackBerry" joke writes itself, but we're not going to make it; and much, much more.

Young voters are asked to make a tremendous sacrifice: lay off the bottle the night before Election Day; the debate continues over the nature of MoveOn; the RNC goes after Barack Obama on his supposed audacity; 10 Downing Street embraces Twitter with both hands; and more -- more, in fact, than you can shake a stick at.

A new spot from MoveOn that will become MTV's second ever political ad involves jokey references to STDs and a confusing chicken metaphor -- both things that are big hits with the kids!; an activist group spawned online is pioneering in the cable TV space, using a service that brokers tiny slices of airtime for as little as the cost of a sandwich; the RNC riffs off Facebook to shed some negative attention on Barack Obama's "friends," it we ask if the effort is worth it; and a great deal more, my friends, a great deal more.