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Q: What happens when freak snowstorms strand hundreds of thousands of angry Chinese in railway stations on a major holiday?

A: This—

(Hat tip: Tim Johnson) 

We've heard a lot about how folks around the world are tuning in eagerly to the '08 campaign in the United States. But what about China? "Sufei" from Sexy Beijing wanted to know what the Chinese "man on the street" thinks about the U.S. elections. The answer? Not much:

Judging from the video, Chuck Norris is not exactly a household name in China, either.

Fox News sent the police sirens after FP in this substantial segment from The Fox Report with Shepard Smith. Check out the interview with Ethan Nadelmann, head of the Drug Policy Alliance and author of "Think Again: Drugs" in our current issue.

In the piece, Nadelmann argues that the so-called "war on drugs" has been a costly failure that has only bolstered the fortunes of drug lords and created narcostates like Afghanistan. Legalization just might be the answer, he says, and it's more politically realistic than you might think. But Fox is having none of it:

Don't worry, Ethan. We're good for the bail money.

Please, block traffic. Tie up intersections. Drive down the wrong side of the street. No, those weren't my prized rose bushes—and they were clearly in your way. I know you were in a hurry. Do whatever you like. Be my guest.

Behold, the presidential SUV:

I don't know what's scarier, the 4,000 rounds-per-minute machine gun, or the Miami Vice background music.

(Hat tip: Gizmodo)

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?

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:

In case you missed it, here's Richard Holbrooke, former FP managing editor and mastermind of the Dayton Peace Accords, brokering a truce between Stephen Colbert and Willie Nelson on the Colbert Report last week: