Since the 2004 campaign, more and more U.S. politicians have latched on to YouTube as a way to "go viral" and reach the increasingly powerful "netroots". Witness Democratic presidential long shot Bill Richardson's clever new job interview ad, which has already been viewed over 50,000 times since Tuesday. And as Kevin Drum cynically observed yesterday, the real prize for the attention-starved New Mexico governor will be when the New York Times writes "another thumbsucker about the power of new media, complete with chin scratching quotes from [new media gurus] Jay Rosen and Jeff Jarvis."

Well, here's something altogether new for the gurus to ponder: politicians who wish to be journalists. Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey recently debuted his own YouTube channel, where he has so far advertised not himself, but ... YouTube. Here's Markey's interview with YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley:

Andy Richter sure gets around. Two weeks ago, Passport noted the late-night comedian's eerie resemblance to Swedish Defense Minister Mikael Odenberg. But Richter may have had a prior second job—as first president of the Russian Federation. Take a look at the video tribute to Yeltsin below, this week's Thursday Video: 

Could Andy Richter have actually secretly ended the Cold War?

President Bush has kept his dance moves mostly under wraps for six years, preferring, it seems, to let subordinates step into the limelight when the music comes on. At a recent White House event on combating malaria, though, the president just couldn't help himself. His rhythmic stylings are today's Thursday Video. Personally, I think he's got Karl Rove's moves beat.

Every spring, massive sandstorms whip through China's northern cities. As industrialization and farm growth have spread, the trees that hold back the country's gigantic deserts have spread. As a result, the Gobi is now at the footsteps of Beijing, while the Taklamakan Desert threatens to swallow China's north and west.

One consequence of growing desertification has been an increase in the frequency severity of the sandstorms, which can bring entire cities and regions to a standstill. This week's Thursday Video comes from the northwestern province of Qinghai, where particularly fierce sandstorms at times cut visibility to 100 meters:

The sandstorms are beginning to have wider effects internationally as well. This year Taiwan has reported environmental risks from dust clouds that originated in the Gobi. South Korea is feeling the added effect of industrial pollutants that the sand from Inner Mongolia picks up as it drifts over heavy industrial zones. The international community should be worried— assurances from Beijing notwithstanding—that the 2008 Olympics might be a very sandy affair. At least the beach volleyball squads should have a good time.

On August 5, 1966, Bian Zhongyun was brutally attacked and tortured by 10th-grade students at her own school in Beijing, where she was a vice-principal. At the age of fifty, she was an early casualty in China's Cultural Revolution. A documentary film about her murder, "Though I am Gone," has reportedly caused the suspension of the Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival, which was scheduled to begin tomorrow.

In yet another demonstration of the YouTube Effect, someone has posted the entire film on YouTube, broken up into ten parts. Below is the graphic first section of the movie, this week's Thursday Video:

The U.N. Human Rights Council, it seems, is not entirely without backbone. This week, of course, it excused the human rights records of Iran and Uzbekistan without comment, as Passport noted yesterday. Criticism of the Council itself, however, is far too much for the delicate sensibilities of the ambassadors. A representative from U.N. Watch called the Council out on its dereliction of duty in testimony before the august body, and in return was pointedly "not thanked" by the chair. That's about as close to an outright slap in the face as modern diplo-speak at the U.N. gets.

U.N. Watch has learned its lesson, though, and put together an instructive video on what is, and what is not, acceptable in the U.N. Human Rights Council, a bonus Thursday Video this week:

A quick summary:

IN: Personal insults, excusing violence against women, attacking gays, defending terrorist groups, denying the Holocaust, and accusing Israel of committing its own Holocaust.

OUT: Pointing out that the dictators "who run this Council couldn’t care less about Palestinians, or about any human rights."

Every so often, a seemingly trivial individual battle dramatizes something bigger and becomes a focal point for debates about an entire society. That seems to be the case today in China, where the Chongqing "nail house," which Passport noted last week, continues to feed a media frenzy. A debate is raging in China's blogs and newspapers over every facet of the story: Is the holdout justified? Why was this homeowner able to stay, unlike the others? Property rights and economic development are usually thought to reinforce each other, but here they conflict. Where's the proper balance?

The episode also demonstrates the power of the media, even in a relatively controlled place like China. There are literally thousands of cases of property rights conflicts far worse than this everyday in China; two people were killed in different protests over land seizures in just the last week. The disputes mostly involve marginalized rural residents, though, and go completely unreported unless there's violence.

The homeowner in Chongqing, however, is tough and media-savvy, orchestrating publicity stunts like sneaking her brother-in-law past guards into the house to plant the Chinese flag. The government seems to have tried to stop coverage of the incident, but evidently gave up in the face of overwhelming interest from the online community. At the very least, its efforts aren't working; the issue is currently a top story on the Party's own People's Daily website and shows up pretty much everywhere else. Someone has even composed a cheesy music video to commemorate the struggle, this week's Thursday Video:

The uproar has provoked a backlash from some in the media who are uncomfortable with the uncritical pack mentality of journalists rushing to sensationalize the event. After all, the woman was probably offered hefty compensation for a pretty lousy shack, and is almost certainly just holding out for a bigger payment; few who hold out against developers are rewarded so handsomely. All of which just goes to show that China's growth will probably be messy and conflicted for a long time still, filled with unexpected developments, and above all, fascinating to watch.

Selected song lyrics after the break.

In January 2004, Reem Riyashi blew herself up at a Gaza border crossing. She killed four Israelis. The 22-year-old also left her two children, aged 18 months and three years, motherless.

Yesterday, al-Aqsa TV, the television mouthpiece of Hamas, broadcast an imagined song from one of Riyashi's children to her dead mother as a music video during a children's program. Palestinian Media Watch has posted the clip, this week's Thursday Video, online. The video ends with the kid finding her mom's stash of explosives and vowing to follow her:

Send greetings to our Messenger [Muhammad] and tell him:
'Duha loves you.'
My love will not be [merely] words.
I am following Mommy in her steps.

Hamas, incidentally, runs the Palestinian education ministry.

China is not known for its moderation. From mammoth construction projects to extreme public health measures, the government's reaction to perceived problems or obstacles is usually big, fast, and mildly frightening to outside observers. So, it should come as no surprise that official concern about overly-enthusiastic Internet use by teenagers has come to its logical conclusion in teen bootcamps. This week's Thursday Video, via China Digital Times, is a look inside one of the camps: 

There are two possible interpretations here. One is that this is a classic overreaction to a small-scale social problem. The Chinese government reflexively distrusts the chaos and independent nature of the Internet, and it's a small step from there to equating the medium with dangerously substances like alcohol and heroin. (On Monday, Passport noted a host of other ways China is showing its fear of the online world.)

A more menacing possibility lurks, however. China has recently proclaimed a new military doctrine dubbed "informationalization," which basically means dragging the military into the Internet age. It is also actively seeking ways to counter U.S. technological superiority. What better way to do this than to recruit obsessive and accomplished online gamers? The military will give these kids purpose, discipline, and exposure to sunlight for the first time. In return, they may be able to draw on their talents in a future cyber conflict.

Turkey has again put itself in the news in an unflattering light and inadvertently demonstrated the absurdity of its censorship laws. For some reason, a Turkish court found it necessary to intervene in a video feud, of sorts, between Turkish and Greek posters on YouTube, by banning access to the site. The Greeks alleged that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic, harbored homosexual proclivities. Patriotic Turks retorted that this was untrue, and that in fact the Greek nation itself bore these characteristics. Of course, they didn't use such high-falutin' language. The debate would be pretty familiar to any twelve-year-old, though.

YouTube has bowed to Turkish pressure and removed the original inflammatory post. What remains are a large number of strangely overwrought Turkish defenses of their hero—one of the less offensive of which is this week's Thursday Video:

Ordinarily, a ridiculous exchange like this stays in the schoolyard. Those posting may actually still be in grade school, for all that anyone knows. With the global commons that is emerging online, however, governments prone to meddling with free speech no longer know what to leave on the kiddie table and what to treat as dangerous. Which just serves to illustrate how ridiculous government concern over "insulting Turkishness," as the law phrases it, are. Adults in a free society should not be so delicate as to require government protection from juvenile insults to their nationality or religion. Taking these taunts so seriously only brings them greater attention and dramatizes a deep insecurity in those who feel so insulted.

A song about a Boer general from the turn of the 20th century is provoking a pretty heated controversy in South Africa. "De la Rey," a catchy rock ballad by solo artist Bok Van Blerk, and this week's Thursday Video, portrays the travails of a young Boer soldier fighting the British and yearning for his general's leadership:

South Africa's Afrikaner minority has seized on the song as a statement of pride and identity. Others are troubled by the divisiveness that it implies. They have a point. It's understandable that a group feeling its loss of status would want to reach back for icons and moments in history to be proud of. But, aside from the fact that chanting a general's name is a strange habit in a democracy, the cause that De la Rey fought for was less than commendable. Sure, the Boers were resisting British imperialism, but it was for the sake of their own right to marginalize and exploit the African population without British interference. 

Striking a balance between pride in one's people and acknowledgment of historical crimes is always difficult; Americans still struggle with how to evaluate slave-holding founders and populist crusaders against the Indian population. South Africa's sins are more recent; the amount of feeling this little ditty has called forth is just the latest in a number of signs that the divisions they created might still be deeper than it seems on the surface.

Lyrics (translated by Mail and Guardian newspaper) below the fold:

We're always hearing terrible news about the Middle East—bombings, sectarian violence, religious intolerance, government repression. But what about all the good news that doesn't get covered?

That's what Comedy Central's Maz Jobrani wants to know in today's Thursday Video:

This week, Chinese preservationists suffered the loss of a relatively recent cultural touchstone—the Wulihe Stadium in the northeastern city of Shenyang. In 2001, the People's Republic qualified for soccer's World Cup for the first time there, and the stadium has had a place in many a footy fan's heart ever since. Shenyang is hosting several soccer matches during the 2008 Games, and is building a shiny new venue for the purpose. Wulihe, now redundant, was cleared to make space for a shopping center. On Monday, the structure was brought down—boom!—in less than 7 seconds. What you'll see when you watch today's Thursday Video is China's dynamism in action:

The demolition was not without its critics. The head of a local fan club had raised a huge sum to build memorial statues outside the stadium; he hinted on his blog that he would hide in the stadium and "go down with the ship." (He didn't.) The move may have ticked off others in higher places too - the Communist Party's flagship news site has posted an unusually critical article in English dwelling on the grief of fans and players, such as midfielder Zhao Junzhe:

I don't understand why they had to raze it to the ground. We should not demolish everything, good or bad. I think we need to keep some reminders of China's past soccer glory.

When not busy developing nuclear weapons or purchasing oversized garden animals, Kim Jong Il uses his spare time to cultivate a "robust" animation industry in North Korea. It ain't exactly Warner Bros.—the cartoons are designed to "implant into the minds of children warm patriotism and towering hatred for the enemy," according to official news agency KCNA. I'm not sure if that's also the underlying message in today's Thursday Video, episode 27 of the hit series A Squirrel and a Hedgehog. Politics aside, the technical and artistic skill is pretty impressive for a country that can't even feed itself:

The skill of North Korean animators is so well-regarded, in fact, that South Korean studios often farm out work to them. The industry is one of the few legitimate sources of foreign currency for Kim Jong Il's rogue regime.

Even more advanced computer animation is sometimes done in the hermit kingdom. As early as 2002 North Korea was producing episodes of the popular Lazy Cat Dinga, a Korean series evidently inspired by the American Garfield. The cat's taste for delivery pizza and lazy indulgence mean the show hasn't been broadcast in the North, which of course has neither of those things. But in South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia, Dinga has been the smiling face of one of the few exports of a very unsmiling government:

Yesterday, President Putin used a wide-ranging and lengthy press conference to forcefully rebut growing criticism of his country's energy policies. Supply cut-offs and price increases, he argued, aren't an attempt to batter states in the near-abroad into toeing Russia's line; they're merely the rational application of market principles. It's actually a little more complicated than that, writes French energy banker Jérôme Guillet in a new Web exclusive for FP, but the big picture is that Europeans are unfairly blaming Putin for their own mistakes.

Energy isn't the only area in which Russia is causing concern. The Bond-esque intrigue surrounding the poisoning of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko got a little deeper this week when word leaked that the British government might point the finger at a former KGB officer. But during the press conference, Putin dismissed concerns about possible Russian state involvement in the affair:

He was not privy to any secrets, he had been convicted in the Russian Federation for abuse of office, specifically, for beating people when arresting them when he was a security man and for stealing explosives," Mr Putin said. "All the negative things he could have said about his previous employer, he had already said a long time ago."

Which makes our Thursday Video this week all the more intriguing. In it, Litvinenko makes an appearance from beyond the grave—as a shooting target for Russian special forces:

If he was so insignificant, why did someone feel strongly enough to use his face for target practice?

Maybe the war on terrorism is just provoking nostalgia for the clear-cut lines of the Cold War. But, with journalists turning up dead in Moscow, KGB hands running everything, and Red Army surplus missiles making their way to a certain U.S. adversary, it certainly seems like a resurgent Russia is getting back its old swagger:

(Video hat tip: Russia Blog) 

Think the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Iraq have been rough? Last Friday, Taiwan's winter legislative session ended with an all-out brawl. In one of the highlights, an irate lawmaker launched a shoe at the Speaker:

This particular royal rumble was not the first by any means for Taiwan's unruly legislature. One committed legislator managed to block a vote last spring by grabbing the bill and stuffing it in her mouth, after having assaulted the podium with a phalanx of colleagues.

Despite the pugilistic theatrics, however, the underlying democratic system in Taiwan has proven to be amazingly resilient. Protests and repeated attempts to recall the president have filled the airwaves and the corridors of power for nearly a year now, yet the country manages to muddle along with no real danger of actual violence or a breakdown of order. At least, outside the parliament, that is.

Egypt is one of several Sunni Arab governments that have pledged to support President Bush's new strategy in Iraq. But despite repeated requests from American and Iraqi officials, Egypt continues to broadcast violent propaganda from Iraqi Sunni insurgents, 24/7, on its Nilesat satellite television provider. Today's Thursday Video is a taste of Al Zawraa's programming, provided to FP by Lawrence Pintak, director of American University in Cairo's television journalism program:

Al Zawraa divides its hatred between Americans and Shiites:

Al Zawraa began two years ago as an above-ground, hard-line Sunni TV station, based in Iraq, until the Iraqi government closed it down last November, around the time Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death. Today, it's an underground station with brutal, no-holds-barred content, often amateur, shaky footage showing American soldiers crumpling to the ground after being shoot [sic], and alleged American atrocities against Iraqi civilians. The station's anchors wear military fatigues and rail against the Shiite-led Iraqi government.

The sectarian strife in Baghdad is spilling into the wider region. Al Zawraa appears to be a symptom of Sunni unease about the rise of the so-called Shiite Crescent. Faced with growing threats, the Egyptian government may feel pressure to support its Sunni brethren.  There are probably healthier ways to do that, however.

For another video clip from Al Zawraa, see the MEMRI Blog, which flagged this last week.

As the world's eyes focus on Baghdad, problems in other parts of the world have a stubborn way of plodding along, whether or not anyone takes notice. In Bangladesh, a fragile democracy of nearly 150 million souls, caretaker president Iajuddin Ahmed has just resigned as "chief adviser" in the face of a general strike and growing protests.  Our Thursday Video takes you to the streets of Dhaka, where violence between police and protesters is getting increasingly out of control:

Demonstrations by the opposition Awami League have thrown much of the country into chaos; the League claims that the outgoing government of the Bangladesh National Party has rigged a general election due in two weeks. The UN and the EU have both left, claiming that the deteriorating situation make it impossible to hold a free and fair vote as scheduled. A state of emergency had been declared by President Ahmed last night. 

Why does this matter? As a country made up of mostly moderate Muslims, Bangladesh is an important counterweight to more politically repressive regimes elsewhere in the Islamic world. Countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Turkey, when their political systems work, show that democracy and Islam are not mutually exclusive. They also preclude the emergence of religiously-based terrorist groups by better channeling dissent. The success or failure of democracy in places like Bangladesh could reverberate in other countries, like nearby Pakistan and distant Iraq, that occupy more real estate on newspaper front pages.

The viral video rage du jour is, of course, the grainy mobile video of Saddam Hussein's hanging that has sparked an international debate over the conduct of the execution. I wouldn't call it shocking, but it's not for the squeamish. The most controversial part of the video is the shouting and taunting that took place, which had a distinctly Shiite cast.

Accompanying this video today, FP has an exclusive interview with Nibras Kazimi, a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute and an Iraqi of mixed Shiite-Kurdish heritage who worked for Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress in Iraq. Kazimi told FP he was "happy" about the execution, and expects Saddam's death to draw out the "poison" of sectarian violence. Check it out in this week's Seven Questions.

Videos from this year's hajj are hard to come by, so here's a quick peek at last year's scene in Mecca's Grand Mosque. Every year, several pilgrims die due to overcrowding and poor planning--four Chinese Muslims have died during this Hajj already. Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Hajj produced this safety video to help combat the danger.

Completely unrelated: via a YouTube video entitled "Tomorrow Begins Today," former Senator and 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards announces that tomorrow he will announce that he will run again in 2008.