Do millennials need to start strengthening their collective action muscles?; the anti-telecom immunity group on MyBarackObama.com is on track to be the social-networking site's top group later this week; Wesley Clark makes use of his Facebook status line to stand his ground on comments regarding John McCain's national security chops; is Newt Gingrich's Drill Here, Drill Now group poised to become the conservative equivalent of Move On?; and much, much more.

Political blog readers know that Condi Rice recently lost it.

Asked about her role advancing torture during the Bush administration in a meeting with college students, Rice claimed that no torture occurred in Guantanamo (false); Al Qaeda poses a greater threat than the axis in World War II (dubious); and -- this was big -- the President can make an act legal by authorizing it (official Frost/Nixon alert). Along the way, Rice also berated one college student, chiding him to "do your homework first" and read a report supporting her views -- an exchange that was unbecoming and uncomfortable to watch.

Harpers' Scott Horton already demolished Rice's arguments, so I won't repeat his points here. But this incident also shows the prospects for what we might call a substantive Macaca Moment - using YouTube and citizen media to scrutinize our leaders on the issues, not gaffes.

We wanted to remind everyone that applications for Google Fellowships are due this Friday, 5/8 at 12 noon EST.

Are you an entrepreneur or activist with ideas about the next big thing to change government? A non-profit professional trying new technologies with great results? A former campaign staffer still blazing new trails in online politics?

Google and Personal Democracy Forum are teaming up to offer registration fellowships that cover the full forum registration costs and a meal with Googlers for twenty well-qualified, creative political entrepreneurs to attend this year's conference on June 29-30 at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Fellows will be chosen based on evidence of how you've turned ideas into action and into new applications of technology in the political or civic arena.

Apply here.

We're hard at work on this year's sixth annual Personal Democracy Forum, taking place June 29-30 in New York City, and I thought this would be a good time to share more details on all the incredible breakout sessions in the works. (We'll also have an announcement soon with more of our confirmed speakers; the current list is here.) As you know, this year's theme is "We.gov"--in other words, all the ways that people are using the internet and interactive communications technologies to transform politics, campaigns, media, governance and civic action. And that includes more transparency on how the sausage is made. Hence this post.

Right now, we're envisioning roughly four thematic tracks to the breakout sessions, which run in the afternoon of both days of the conference: 1) State-of-the-art online politics; 2) The rise of government 2.0; 3) New organizing opportunities, tools and challenges; and 4) The future of political journalism, blogging and networked media. There's also a couple of sessions that don't quite fit any of these categories but we think will be pretty interesting as well.

Keeping in mind that this is still very much a work in progress, and names and topics may be added or changed, here's a more in-depth look at how things are shaping up. (More after the break.)

I'm going to start posting, as much as possible, about the variety of fantastic speakers and panels we're having at Personal Democracy Forum this year, and I'm starting with one of the most unusual, our session with authors Doug Rushkoff and Tara Hunt on "Building the Social Economy: CraigBucks, NewMarks and Making Whuffie."

Hillary Clinton has been talking up online diplomacy, as Micah Sifry and Nancy Scola reported in this space, and her husband is getting in on the act, too.

Here's an updated guide to the breakout sessions in the works for Personal Democracy Forum 2009. This year's theme is "We.gov"--in other words, all the ways that people are using the internet and interactive communications technologies to transform politics, campaigns, media, governance and civic action.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we're envisioning four main thematic tracks to the breakout sessions, which will run in the afternoon of both days of the conference: 1) State-of-the-art online politics; 2) Exploring government 2.0; 3) New organizing opportunities, tools and challenges; and 4) The future of political journalism, blogging and networked media. There's also a couple of sessions that bridge several of these categories that we think will be pretty interesting as well.

Here's how things are shaping up. We're still tweaking these sessions, adding speakers and moderators, but what you see here now is pretty close to solid, and we're about to put them on a clear timeline as well. If you haven't registered yet, click here: now's the time.

The New York Times convened several tech experts this weekend to debate online privacy and the "overuse of social networking tools." Professor Clay Shirky stole the show, recounting a college tequila run that ended with his hair on fire. That youthful indiscretion was a harmless secret for Shirky, back in the days went you had to be physically present to witness a private event:

Society has always carved out space for young people to misbehave. We used to do this by making a distinction between behavior we couldn’t see, because it was hidden, and behavior we could see, because it was public. That bargain is now broken, because social life increasingly includes a gray area that is publicly available, but not for public consumption.

So nowadays, a tequila flaming head incident cries out for instant memorialization via cell phone, Facebook and YouTube. That may ding some millennial reputations, Shirky contends, but eventually it will recalibrate societal norms to tolerate a greater range of benign misconduct – as long as adults “cut young people some slack.” So if President Clinton dabbled in pot and President Obama once tried some blow, the argument goes, then surely we can chill out on today’s kids:

Just as Bill Clinton destroyed the idea that marijuana use was a disqualifier to serious work, the increasing volume of personal life online will come to mean that, even though there’s a picture from when your head was on fire that one time, you can still get a job.

The arc of social networking does bend towards reality; a society that sees more of itself should eventually discard some delusions about its own behavior and propriety. The examples of Clinton and Obama, however, actually cut in the opposite direction.

Together with our friends at Google, we're happy to announce the twenty remarkable recipients of this year's Google Fellowship to the Personal Democracy Forum conference happening in New York on June 29-30.

This year's Google Fellows stood out from our largest and most competitive pool of applicants thus far. Fellows were chosen based on their experience in turning ideas into action and developing new applications of technology in the political or civic arena. This group of creative political entrepreneurs includes developers producing innovative solutions for local and national governments here and in the UK; the co-creator of The Great Schlep; an award-winning blogger for the labor movement; and one of the youngest elected officials in the State of New York.

Dan Ancona, California VoterConnect
Faye Anderson, Tracking Change
Farid Ben Amor, ACORN
Daniel Bennett, Advocate Hope
Paula Brantner, Today's Workplace
Nicholas Ryan Brown, TheLobbyist.net
Dominic Campbell, FutureGov
David Carlucci, Town Clerk for the city of Clarkstown, New York
Justin Hamilton, U.S. Department of Education
Laura Hertzfeld, PBS.org Vote 2008
Leonard Lin, Blue State Digital
Larry Meyer, Meyer Communications & The Communications Network
Mik Moore, The Jewish Council for Education & Research
Joey Mornin, Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School
Don Morrison, Civio
Joseph Peters, Public Performance Systems
Brian Reich, consultant
Ali Savino, GastroNomalies.com
Merici Vinton, Obama for America
Nathan Woodhull, Democratic National Committee

Google Fellowships cover the full cost of conference registration; Fellows are also invited to share a meal and exchange ideas in a special session with Google staff during the conference.

Congratulations to you all and we look forward to seeing you soon!

"Mock not," pleaded blogger Andrew Sullivan as he posted an instaclassic of hyperbole, "The Revolution Will Be Twittered" in praise of Iranian supporters of Mir Hussein Moussavi who took the streets and - in some cases - used the short-form blogging services to post about the scene in Tehran.

Mock on, says I.

There is something like digital catnip on the breakfast bar for western politicogeeks in the story of Iran's disputed election and the ensuing power struggle roiling the Middle East's largest theocracy. Anything that suggests that some of the tools and tricks adopted among the wired, iPhone-wielding politically active classes in the United States may be used to - dramatic pause - start a revolution in one of the world's most dangerous countries carries the potency of a synthetic narcotic injected into the great XML vein of the Internet...