AZ Senate Candidate Pitches Free Money in 2007 Infomercial

A 2007 infomercial uploaded to YouTube on Sunday shows J.D. Hayworth, a Republican candidate for the US Senate, pitching a seminar that promised to explain, for a fee reportedly of up to $1,200, how to get "free money" from the federal government. Hayworth is challenging Sen. John McCain in the GOP's August primary race.

The clip was described on the Arizona Republic political blog, AZ/DC:

"Hayworth ... helped convince viewers that they could rake in big bucks by attending seminars that would teach them how to apply for federal grants that they wouldn't have to pay back. National Grants Conferences, the Florida-based company that hosted the classes and produced the informercial, has faced criticism from multiple state attorneys general and Better Business Bureaus."



User name: NatGrantsInfomercial
Date uploaded: June 20
Views: 339
Synopsis: Hayworth first appears at 1:48 in the clip.
Click here to watch this video on YouTube.

Congressman Scuffles with Student

Videos posted to YouTube show Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-NC, tussling with two men who approached him on a sidewalk asking about his support for the Obama administration.

One of the men, who identifies himself as a student, asks, "Do you fully support the Obama agenda?" Etheridge responds by asking three times, "Who are you?"
The man says, "I'm here for a project, sir." The congressman swats at the camera and grabs the man's wrist at 0:08, refusing to let go. When the student declines to say which university he is affiliated with, the congressman grabs the man by his neck at 0:30 before finally letting go.



User name: DCCameraGuy
Date uploaded: June 11
Views: 328
Click here to watch this video on YouTube.




User name: DCCameraGuy
Date uploaded: June 11
Views: 328
Click here to watch this video on YouTube.

Year One Review: The U.S. Government on YouTube

It's been one year since the U.S. government came to YouTube with the launch of the official White House YouTube channel and President Obama's inaugural address. Soon after, we launched our Senate and House Hubs with the U.S. Congress, and then we brought the entire federal government to the site on YouTube.com/usgovernment. On the heels of a presidential election in which YouTube became a key tool for most political campaigns, politicians took their lessons from 2008 and started applying them to governing. The results were interesting and, at times, quite surprising.

Here are some of the highlights, statistics, and milestones of year one of the U.S. government on YouTube:

The White House:

• The White House ended it's first year on YouTube with 21 million video views and close to 100,000 subscribers.
• President Obama's first YouTube Weekly Address brought FDR's fireside chats into the 21st Century.
• The White House's July health care townhall, brought in 300 citizen-submitted video questions for the President to answer in a live townhall.
• Some of the most talked-about videos from the President focused on international diplomacy, including his Nowruz message directed Iranian citizens and government, his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, his video addressing Turkish Parliament, and his Ramadan and Diwali holiday greetings.

The U.S. Congress

• A total of 430 Members of Congress have started YouTube channels to inform and engage with their constituents.
• Capitol Hill caught up with YouTube trends, learning the power of the viral hit, the mash-up, and even cat videos.
• Though the Democrats captured the majority of the seats in Congress, 89% of Republicans have channels, compared to just 74% of Democrats. In yesterday's big win for the GOP in Massachusetts, Scott Brown's campaign had an undoubtedly superior YouTube channel to his opponent Martha Coakley.
  
• Eight of the top 10 most-viewed and most-subscribed YouTube channels in Congress are from the GOP.
• The House seems to be using YouTube more effectively than the Senate - only one Senator makes the list of most-viewed and most-subscribed channels.
  

Top 10 most-subscribed YouTube channels (in order):

• Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL)
  
• Representative Ron Paul (R-TX)
  
• Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
  
• Representative John Boehner (R-OH)
  
• Representative Randy Forbes (R-VA)
  
• Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI)
• Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN)
  
• Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA)
  
• Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC)
  
• Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI)
  

Top 10 most-viewed

• Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI)
  
• Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL)
  
• Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
• Representative Randy Forbes (R-VA)
• Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA)
  
• Representative John Boehner (R-OH)
• Representative Tom Price (R-GA)
  
• Representative Don Manzullo (R-IL)
  
• Representative Don Young (R-AL)
  
• Representative Ron Paul (R-TX)

The Federal Government

• Over 150 federal agencies have started YouTube channels since our agreement went into place on May 22.
• The State Department continues to use YouTube in innovative ways, such as the Democracy Video Challenge, the Alliance of Youth Movements, and videos like this one from Secretary Clinton about 21st Secretary Statecraft.
  
• In summer 2009, HHS launched an H1N1 Flu PSA contest on YouTube - the first-ever effort by the government to get citizens to create PSAs. The winning video as voted by the YouTube community was from a doctor whose H1N1 rap made him an Internet celebrity for a few months.
• The IRS Channel on YouTube features dozens of videos informing people about new credits and deductions and other changes in the tax law.
• NASA's Astronauts used YouTube and Twitter to take questions from space, the Library of Congress started uploading it's archives (check out this video of a sneeze from 1894), and the CDC uploaded emergency preparedness clips.

- Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics

Congress Responds as Health Care Heats Up on YouTube

Congress may be in recess, but that doesn't mean its members are taking a vacation. For the past few weeks, elected officials from both sides of the aisle have been fanning out across the country to speak to their constituents about the issue on everyone's minds: health care. In turn, citizens are more engaged than ever before and are using YouTube to voice their discontent or approval of the White House's proposed plan for reform.

Some are opting to sound off about the issue in the privacy of their homes, but many more are participating in public protests and rallies to spread their message, then uploading this footage to YouTube. For example, this footage of a town hall with Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), uploaded this week, has received a remarkable amount of attention.

In the wake of these protests, some members of Congress have chosen to take their townhalls online, using YouTube as a direct line to their constituents. In this video, posted yesterday, Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) answers questions from members of his district about health care. Israel isn't the only one: Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), and President Obama have all used YouTube to find the citizen pulse on the issue.

And on Wednesday, we asked you to submit your questions to Congressman Bob Latta (R-OH) using Google Moderator. Not surprisingly, the majority of questions you asked were centered around health care. Congressman Latta responds to the top-rated questions, including those about the public option and the state of Medicare, in this interview:



Want to engage with your Representative on YouTube? Find them by visiting the YouTube House Hub or Senate Hub.

Party Politics: 40 Fundraisers in One Day

The American News Project recently set out to visit every Congressional fundraising shindig on Capitol Hill in a given day (total number of parties: 40) and created this video documenting the results:



Definitely an intriguing way to highlight the issue of campaign finance and how money is spent in Washington.

Abercrombie Announces Run for Hawaii Governor on YouTube

Congressman Neil Abercrombie, representative for the 1st District of Hawaii, announced his candidacy for Governor of Hawaii via YouTube last Friday.



He's already uploaded another video to his personal channel -- an informal address to his supporters bringing the message of hope and change from Washington D.C. back to Hawaii. Given his parallel announcements on Twitter and Facebook, it's safe to say Abercrombie is riding the wave of his state's hometown hero and taking a page from Obama's new media playbook.

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