It might read like a Politics Online attendee list -- Joe Trippi, Zephyr Teachout, Jerome Armstrong, David Sirota, Mike Lux -- but it's actually just some of the big names in online politics behind a new effort called A New Way Forward, aimed at advancing a new approach to how the U.S. deals with the struggling financial industry. Step one in the New Way Forward approach: nationalize the banks. Follow that up with replacing CEOs and wiping out bonuses. Then wrap things up with breaking up banks into more manageable -- and more regulable -- parts. WireTap's Kristina Rizga interviews Tiffiniy Cheng, one of the founders of OpenCongress and a co-creator of the new project. Says Cheng, "I'm really sick of just signing a lot of petitions online. I do think that showing up at a protest or anything else is still the most potent way to express our political power." To that end, NWF is encourage supporters to organize "creative actions" (read protest rallies) in cities across the country this Saturday, April 11th. How popular will the rallies be? We'll see. But one protest at the intersection of of Northern Lights Boulevard and Seward Highway in Anchorage, Alaska has already drawn 55 committed attendees.

The half dozen contenders for the post of RNC chairman gathered yesterday for an event that was threaded through with what might fairly be called an obsession with technology...When we discussed a report in the New York Times yesterday that Barack Obama would finally (cue whiny voice) be naming a Chief Technology Officer this Wednesday, we commented, "we'll see." Well, looks like we won't...The Obama transition has gone down a somewhat different road than Bill Clinton in revealing its donors -- though, of course, the motivations and expectations are entirely different...and more.

With the American economy showing about as much useful forward momentum as as a stripped-down Chevy up on cinder blocks in the front yard, people are naturally starting to get a bit curious as to whether the $700 billion Congress put to bailing out banks' troubled assets was a smart use of the peoples' dollars. Elizabeth Warren is wondering that too. Warren, a professor at Harvard Law, was Harry Reid's appointment to the Congressional Oversight Panel that was created under the same Emergency Economic Stabilization Act that launched the TARP program. "It's tough out there and it's scary, and frankly I'm worried," she admits in a recent YouTube video -- which is either endearingly forthright or downright terrifying, depending on how you look at it.

Now's a good time to ask, what the heck happened with the defeat of the bailout bill on Capitol Hill on Monday?; Debate? What debate? Oh, there's a debate tonight. The Internet has bubbled up some ways to play along with Palin vs. Biden; Wow. The Obama campaign has released a gorgeous new iPhone app; Congress has okayed a bill that requires the government to regularly and accurately assess who in the U.S. has broadband access and who doesn't. If we may humbly advance an opinion: excellent!; and a good deal more. Honest.

How does a protest go from online to off? Andrew Boyd -- activist, street theater veteran, and the driving force behind Billionaires for Bush -- was inspired by the launch of the website BuyMyShitpile.com to organize a festive anti-Wall Street bailout rally that ended up drawing hundreds of protesters to Bowling Green Park on Manhattan's southern tip this afternoon. I caught up with Andrew after the rally to ask how an idea that spread quickly like wildfire online brought people into the streets of New York City. Video after the jump.

I'm pleased to have played a small part in helping our friends at the Sunlight Foundation pull together this nifty piece of 3-D (Dynamic, Data-Driven) journalism on the Wall Street bailout: a Google Motion Chart built on top of data from the nonpartisan, invaluable Center for Responsive Politics that lets you see just how big the big money from FIRE (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) has grown in the last 20 years, and who gets it. Trust me, this is cool.

I'm trying to find ways to describe what 700 billion means, and would like some help. 2,000 McDonalds Apple Pies for every American? Almost as much as the federal government takes in in income tax each year? 140 billion dollars more than has been spent on the Iraq war?

I wondered what the presidential candidates and other politicians were saying about the Federal Reserve's unprecedented interventions in the financial sector, including today's provision of $30 billion to guarantee JP Morgan Chase against the risks it will incur as it takes over Bear Stearns for pennies on the dollar (and inherits its subprime portfolio).

It's not that often, after all, that the government decides to socialize someone else's losses--I can't remember many manufacturing businesses or agricultural businesses that were deemed "too big to fail." So, while looking for their public statements from today, I also went online to follow the money trail a bit further.