Join me in live-blogging the CNN/YouTube debate tonight

If any debate is worth watching, this should be it, so please join me in covering it. I'm so excited to go to the Citadel in South Carolina for the CNN/YouTube debate tonight. On Friday, I shared your questions with Anderson Cooper and I've been thinking, and writing, a lot about this debate's impact on us citizen journalists (or maybe we should be called voter-journalists. Although one would assume all journalists are also voters...).

Online discussion about the debates ranges from hopeful (Jeff Jarvis) to pissed-off (A Citadel cadet has a new take on user-generated content: "You see, on Monday, July 23rd, the South Carolina Democratic Party

is hosting all the candidates at the Citadel. They arranged this knowing that an audience of uniformed cadets would attend, so as to offer the national television audience a tacit military endorsement for their leftist, anti-military positions...Whatâ€™s worse is my fellow students at the Citadel wonâ€™t even be allowed to ask questions of the candidates. They are to be seen but not heard...)

On BlogHer, one woman alone--a bad typist, natch--doth not good coverage make. So please, if you're watching the debate, start coverage under the "Politics and News" category. Maybe you want to pick a particular candidate to cover, or you want to critique the videos chosen. What would be really interesting is if someone would monitor the Internets while the debate is happening, covering coverage from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

Updated: I'm going to try to use Twitter during the Debate, because I don't think I can bring my laptop in. I've never used it, but if it's good enough for John Edwards, it's good enough for me!

Viewing info here: cnn.com

Looking forward to it!

Submitted by Morra Aarons Mele (view blog

) on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 06:46

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Politics & News

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Video submissions from Planned Parenthood
supporters

I'm very curious to see if they choose any questions about women's rights and women's health. Planned Parenthood supporters submitted more than 20 videos about issues like sex education, birth control and access to abortion, so there's certainly no shortage. Check out the Planned Parenthood videos here.

Submitted by emmykendrick on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 05:07

Thanks Emmy

I'm curious too! Esepcially since early reports showed many fewer women than men submitted videos...although apparently it's even out since. We shall see.

Submitted by Morra Aarons Mele on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 05:16

Morra, you rock!

This is so exciting Morra! Your insight in the New York Times today and here is so smart and right on! Can't wait to read your live blogging of the debate -- way to go!!!!!!!!!

Submitted by cooper and emily on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 06:23

Great job

Morra, you're doing a great job covering this, and huge congrats on the mention in the NYT. Since I've been watching politics for a *long* time, I'm fascinated by how the process is changing.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Submitted by Kalyn Denny on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 06:40

Thanks for the props- but read this about how

the process is NOT changing, or changing for ill. Great piece from the Washington Post:

Less than a mile and a half from the Citadel, the site of the Democratic presidential debate tonight, sits Cooper River Courts, a public housing project. Forget the Web. Never mind YouTube, the debate's co-sponsor. Here, owning a computer and getting on the Internet (through DSL or cable or Wi-Fi) is a luxury.

"I am low-income and computers are not low-income," says Marcella Morris, sitting on the front step of her apartment building on a sweltering day last week.

Marcella Morris (with her son Donny) will be given a refurbished computer upon completion of a class. But then "I have to worry about the Internet."

The unemployed 45-year-old adds: "I know how to use a computer. I just can't afford one right now."

There exists "two Americas," as John Edwards, South Carolina's own son, likes to say: an America for the rich and an America for the poor. But what Edwards and the rest of the presidential field have yet to adequately address are the two Americas online: one that's connected to high-speed Internet -- socializing, paying bills, uploading debate questions to presidential candidates on YouTube -- and one that's not. This is the digital divide, now more than a decade old, a rarely discussed schism in which the unconnected are second-class citizens. In some parts of this so-called Internet ghetto, the screech of a telephone modem dialing up to get online is not uncommon. And with dial-up, YouTube is impossible to use.

Between 40 to 45 percent of Charlestonians, city officials here estimate, subscribe to high-speed Internet.

Submitted by Morra Aarons Mele on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 08:40

This is a real problem.

I agree that this is a real problem, and needs to be addressed as soon as possible. The Internet is a great way to get more people involved in the process...and it should be available to all people that want it.

There is apparently a $99 laptop developed for the poor in other countries, I wonder if something like this could work here? This article also addresses the internet acceptability problem. It may not be "the" answer, but maybe it is a start?

Here is an article about this laptop...

Nicholas Negroponte, the former director of MIT's vaunted Media Lab, came up with an idea several years ago to build a $100 notebook PC to be sold in developing and poor nations. The goal is to get computing devices into the hands of those least apt to afford them in an effort to bridge the global Digital Divide.

Negroponte -- who says the device now costs $175 -- could show up in U.S. schools as well as those overseas. And he's been working with Microsoft to get Windows to run on it, as well as Linux.

At the moment, the device is in prototype form only:

The laptops will enter mass production in September if the One Laptop Per Child Foundation that runs the project receives orders for at least 3 million devices, Negroponte said.

Formal orders begin in May but Negroponte said he thinks he has 2.5 million so far. The project will be delayed if he doesn't reach 3 million.

If the device does come to the U.S., it's likely to cost even more. But the fact that the notebook -- which includes a hand crank to charge its battery -- comes with built-in Wi-Fi raises an intriguing possibility here at home.

The city is working with EarthLink to build a Wi-Fi network to blanket Houston's more than 600 square miles with Internet connectivity. Economically disadvantaged residents will be charged less to connect to the network, but they'll still need the hardware to do so. So far, the city has not said specifically how it will address that issue.

I could easily see businesses and individual underwriting the cost of Negroponte's notebooks as part of a civic campaign, once the network's in place. If the cost of the notebook is low enough, it might be possible to use purely private funds -- with the city helping organize a fundraising effort -- to cover the cost of the devices.

It seems to me that Negroponte's One Laptop per Child project could solve a problem here in Houston, as well as in the Third World.

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope and Informed Voters

Submitted by Catherine Morgan on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 10:28

Also...I will be watching/blogging on the
debate tonight.

Hi Morra, I will be watching and blogging on the debate tonight. Let me know if there is something specific you would like me to cover. And congrats on the New York Times article...woo-woo...way to go!

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope and Informed Voters

Submitted by Catherine Morgan on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 10:46

Excellent Citadel blog link

Prime example of what's wrong with The Citadel and has always been wrong with The Citadel.

And an example of why I'm glad this event is being held in my home town at a school I love to hate.

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High & Flamingo House Happenings

Submitted by Denise on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 06:43

Isn't it funny how they chose the Citadel?

Definitely a statement. I look forward to seeing the cadets. Why do you love to hate the Citadel (past examples of sexual harassment, etc notwithstanding)?

Submitted by Morra Aarons Mele on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 08:38

It's complicated

And I really am feeling driven to write a post about my history with The Citadel - as a Charlestonian and a military dependent. I just don't have the time right now, but that post is brewing.

I will be interested to hear your feelings about seeing those cadets during the debate. They are a presence and they represent "something" - but what and why and how and ... ugh, now back to work for me!

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High & Flamingo House Happenings

Submitted by Denise on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 09:43

Now I really need your help live blogging!

Because I am stuck in the Charlotte airport (nothing like leaving a 6 hour window and sitting in the airport for 6 hours fretting).

Blog on!

Submitted by Morra Aarons Mele on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 13:31

Oh no.

Umm, yikes. The Charlotte airport is not a bad one to be stuck in except for smokers, lol, but you surely don't want to be there for six hours. No no no.

Get outta there!

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High & Flamingo House Happenings

Submitted by Denise on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 13:37

Are you going to make it to the debate?

What do you mean "stuck" are you not going to make it to the debate?

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at Women 4 Hope and Informed Voters

Submitted by Catherine Morgan on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 13:43

she's not answering...

I called her and she's not answering her phone, so maybe she's in the air now. If so, she'll definitely make it in time.

~Denise
Fast Times @ Homeschool High & Flamingo House Happenings

Submitted by Denise on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 14:03

Totally unaware

I was totally unaware this was taking place at all. I am so glad I logged in today. I will watch tonight and write as much as I can but there will be some delay (computer on one floor, TV on another).

I hope they let you out of the airport soon! If not try to get the use of one of the lounges (special place for special passengers) they have TVs and Internet access!

Submitted by MommasWorld on Mon, 07/23/2007 - 13:36