Big news events like the Olympics and the Democratic National Convention usually spark new media technologies and breakthroughs.

Here's one, pointed out to us by Lost Remote. Washington Post reporter Ed O’Keefe recorded the clip above using his cellphone and streamed it live onto WashintonPost.com.

"This is one of the first times a newspaper organization has had the ability to bring this level of live video coverage to viewers," according to a WashingtonPost.com publicist.

The Washington Post and Newsweek.com equipped its journalists with cell phones featuring an application produced by Comet Technologies. According to the company's Web site, the technology has been in development for four years and is the first and only technology that allows reliable video to be transmitted to and from common cell phones. Cool stuff.

What happens when thousands of politics wonks descend on one poor, defenseless mile-high city for a few days? Why, lots of Craigslist posts offering or soliciting politically minded sex, of course.

Take this 39-year-old man, who is offering a "free spa quality sensual massage for Obama supporters!" He adds: "Would love to meet and greet and touch a good energy soul in for the convention. Tall and fun with a great touch."

Or the 32-year-old man staying at the Aurora Hotel who was looking for a "cowgirl": "Are you a lady voting Obama? Are you looking for a little fun tonight during the convention? Perhaps you like to cum over and "Watch" with me? I'm serious about meeting up with a good-looking lady for the afternoon/evening and if you're serious about meeting up with a good-looking guy; what are you waiting for? Get back to me!"

Perhaps this  read more »

The Culture Czar has always had a soft spot for Gilmore Girls, the beloved mother-daughter dramedy that thrived on the WB channel for six seasons. In 2006, before the seventh season, the show's new studio and its creators, Amy Sherman-Palladino and her writer-producer husband Daniel Palladino, couldn't come to agreements on a new contract, and the couple left the show and left usheartbroken. Gilmore Girls' suffered and was cancelled last May, but we still DVR the repeats on the ABC Family Channel (every weekday at 11 a.m!).

So we're happy to report that the witty couple is still going strong and getting in on the action in Denver. They're guest blogging on Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch Blog during the convention.

"Our first impression of Denver: It's Reno, but bigger," starts out their first entry, titled "Insanity in Denver." They've been running into Christians in street malls and "feverish nutballs," as they put it. What about the Hillary supporters?  read more »

You don't have to believe that the weekly column is an obsolete form to feel the digital imperative—especially if, like me, you used to blog every day as I did five years ago for Salon.com, my other home.

So now I'm on the blog again, live from the Democratic National Convention, and I'll be posting regularly from today forward.

(Evidently I miss being flamed on a daily basis...)

Florida will not hold a do-over primary and, while the public haggling between campaigns will continue for weeks and maybe months, this final compromise is looking increasing likely: A delegation based on the results of January's "outlaw" primary will be seated at the convention, but with each delegate only receiving a half-vote.

What this would mean, in terms of the zero-sum nomination contest, is that Barack Obama will have dodged a bullet.  read more »

The Super Tuesday stalemate has only reinforced comparisons between the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama contest and the fight for the Democratic nomination 1984, another one-on-one race that pitted an insurgent against the party establishment -- and one that wasn’t settled until the party’s July convention in San Francisco.

In that ‘84 campaign, the Obama role was played by Gary Hart, whose “new ideas” fueled a stunning 13-point victory in New Hampshire that rocketed him to the top of the race and, within weeks, brought Walter Mondale -- who had entered the campaign as the most prohibitive favorite in primary history -- to the brink of capitulation. A Hart sweep of Super Tuesday in early March 1984 would have flushed the former vice president from contention, but when Mondale narrowly won two states that day (to Hart’s seven), the press declared him reborn. When the primaries and caucuses finally finished in June, it was a draw: Both men had won about the same number of pledged delegates and Hart had even edged Mondale in the combined popular vote.

But the nomination was Mondale’s because most of the superdelegates -- party leaders and elected officials who account for 20 percent of all convention votes -- had been with him from the start, long before Hart had emerged as a viable option.

“My wife and I called every one of them personally between the California primary (on June 2) and the convention, and overwhelmingly they said, ‘I wish I hadn’t committed to Mondale, but I’m committed,’” Hart said.

More after the jump.  read more »

In an interview taped yesterday for Inside City Hall, Howard Dean expressed opposition to a brokered convention if the Democratic primary contests fail to produce a candidate with enough delegates to win the nomination.

Dean told Dominic Carter he thinks there will be a nominee by March or April, and if not, "we're going to have to get the candidates together and make some kind of an arrangement."

Transcript after the jump.  read more »

John Edwards is suspending his candidacy, as opposed to officially dropping out, because it will allow him to hold onto the 26 pledged delegates he has accumulated—plus any other he might pick up with his name still on the ballot across the country.  read more »

In theory, the idea of John Edwards as the kingmaker of the Democratic convention makes sense: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama finish the primary season essentially tied for delegates, with Edwards running far back with 400 or so of his own. Then, with both front-runners short of the 2,026 delegates needed to win the nomination, Edwards could essentially pick the nominee, in exchange for some kind of concession--Attorney General, maybe?

But it’s unlikely to happen. Right now Edwards has only 26 pledged convention delegates (14 from Iowa, four from New Hampshire, and eight from South Carolina). He also has support from an estimated 32 super-delegates (elected leaders and party officials), but they can back out at anytime. Chances are that his total is not going to get much higher.

To add to his pledged delegates, Edwards needs to get at least 15 percent in every state yet to vote (not necessarily at the statewide level, though, since delegates are apportioned by district). But his failure to break through in the first four states is making him less relevant to the Democratic race every moment. He was always overshadowed by the Hillary vs. Barack storyline, but now he's utterly eclipsed by it.  read more »

Today is the deadline for Democratic presidential candidates to file with the state Board of Elections to get on the New York ballot, and Barack Obama’s campaign just announced that he has qualified for a full slate of delegates.

Here's the slate, and the lists of delegates for Obama and Edwards.

If you notice anything interesting, let us know.