I have been talking about this for what seems like ages. Ever since i went to my first conference with live back channel chat projected above the heads of the speakers. I think it was the PDF in 2004. The idea is that during big national political televised events, like debates, conventions, state of the union.... events that are carried on major media outlets uninterrupted... you have a live IRC or similar type of back channel chat where smart folks can talk about the event, point out lies, or truths, crack wise, etc.

Well, [l:http://nytimes.com/2005/11/29/politics/29bush.html?hp&ex=1133326800&en=8ed882717b3b0cd8&ei=5094&partner=homepage|from the sound of it], Bush was catching up on his [l:http://www.nbc.com/The_West_Wing|West Wing] viewing while down at Crawford for the holidays.

[l:http://feeds.feedburner.com/echoditto?m=253|EchoDitto Blog as a story this week about how a simple email list can be part of an egovernment solutioon]. In the example, a local councilperson asked people on a neighborhood email list about a traffic issue.