Can a loosely-organized Facebook group best the biggest name progressive blogs when it comes to fundraising? That's the question that longtime online organizer Jon Pincus is asking; Ever since Obama selected Joe Biden as his running mate, we're heard a lot about the role that the Catholic vote will play in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan. But when it comes to who Catholics might cast a ballot for, Church officials and advocates aren't letting the campaigns dictate to them -- or be the only ones using social media to persuade voters; The Obama campaign has kept its powder dry on the so-called Keating Five scandal -- until now; and a good deal more.

With the stomach-turning shakiness on Wall Street reverberating around the planet, our global interconnected is painfully apparent today. But it's perhaps fitting that today also happens to be the day on which we celebrate the wonders and promise of the networked world; What do Nancy Pelosi and Starbucks have in common, besides the west coast thing? They've seen the power of online-based idea tools in action; Tomorrow in Reno, Nevada, the Obama campaign will kick off a timely series of swing-state discussions focused on how technological innovation can power economic revitalization; and a great deal more.

CNN reports:

Tina Fey may be the best but she's far from the ONLY Sarah Palin impersonator. CNN's Jeanne Moos rounds up the imposters.

CNN has a piece about Sarah Palin impersonators, and posts links to most of the videos as 'FROM YOUTUBE.COM.'

You'll notice when CNN displays video from NBC they show a graphic that says, 'Saturday Night Live from NBC', or 'Nightline From NBC News.'

They also add a graphic for Funny or Die, but most YouTube comedians don't get credit.

Can we get some link backs to the YouTube comedians?

Where is Michelle Obama?

It's hard to find a high quality combination of both good audio and video of Michelle Obama's DNC speech.

In the end, Google video had the best experience with good audio and user control. It was a better experience than watching on the C-Span site, where the video comes from. Ironic. The DNC site had great video but poor audio. The YouTube version, on the Obama '08 page, edited the introduction.

When it finally arrived, I was disappointed. Barack's team missed an enormous opportunity to communicate personally, to me, from Barack.

Let me explain to you where I'm coming from...

Video war continues between Obama and McCain, McCain is using Wikipedia, David All is impressed with McCain's online ads, Jame Hamsher has a new PAC to boast about, #dontgo campaign gets a little more support,

New vs. Traditional media is apples and oranges, Cybersecurity advice for the next President, DNC responds to "Democrats Praising McCain" ad, McCain offers prizes to spammers and realizes his recent YouTube dominance, and the #dontgo Twitter debate continues...

Citizen-journalists chosen by Decision '08, contest for "Why are you a Democrat/Republican," what do pollworkers of the 21st Century look like?, fears of security threats at the Democratic National Convention, Twitter scandal erupts over fake "speakerpelosi" account, and coded messages directed at Evangelicals in John McCain's "The One" ad.

It's been a while since I've checked in on our charts tracking how the campaigns are doing on the web, and even though we're now firmly headed into the August doldrums before the national conventions, some interesting trends are worth noting. In a word: Obama keeps adding friends, but McCain has been gaining traffic. And Bob Barr seems to have some real grass-roots support...

John McCain finally turns to his Senate record defend against attacks on his tech cred; we consider whether MoveOn is a movement or a marketing machine; the newest stars of YouTube seem to be the guys and gals (well, guys, at least) running the presidential campaigns behind the scenes; and an overflowing bucket of other stuff.