In 2008, CNN and YouTube paired up to pose citizen questions to presidential candidates through YouTube videos. But, Daniel Teweles of the Personal Democracy Forum notes, the questions were still selected by journalists and presented in a typical debate format. This time around, the Personal Democracy Forum has a new project, 10Questions, where citizens can pose questions to candidates in their local races, and the candidates post video responses on the Web for all to see.

"What we are seeing is a dagger directed at the heart of our democracy, with this money," says Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation, of the ongoing influx of corporate cash on election spending this cycle. She notes that this has been a $5 billion--with a B--election, with $1 billion spent just on the House, and no matter what Karl Rove tries to say, there is nowhere close to parity with spending from left-wing causes.

The Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United is being felt right now, argues John Nichols of The Nation. When the decision came down, many thought it would take years to sort out the effects, but instead, he says, "We may have our first fully corporate-defined election this year, in 2010."

Following a recent spate of well-publicized suicides by gay teenagers, Dan Savage, Savage Love syndicated columnist, started a YouTube channel recording videos to tell LGBT youth "It gets better." The first videos included messages from Savage and his partner, and now even President Obama has recorded a message for the project.

"The chamber’s increasingly aggressive role — including record spending in the midterm elections that supports Republicans more than 90 percent of the time — has made it a target of critics, including a few local chamber affiliates who fear it has become too partisan and hard-nosed in its fund-raising."

"The chamber’s increasingly aggressive role — including record spending in the midterm elections that supports Republicans more than 90 percent of the time — has made it a target of critics, including a few local chamber affiliates who fear it has become too partisan and hard-nosed in its fund-raising."

"The one thing I couldn't live without in Iraq was my own humanity," says Iraq veteran Ethan McCord, who came home from dropping his children off at school to find a video of himself rescuing an child from a bombed-out van. That was the now-infamous Wikileaks video, and McCord has been collecting his own video and stories from his fellow veterans, speaking out about what he saw at war and what his friends lived through.

"Women's rights are nothing but human rights when women exercise them," notes Ann Jones, but Afghanistan has never been big on women's rights. Still, as highly-touted negotiations continue between Taliban representatives and the Karzai government, where are the women? Can real peace come when it's negotiated without women when, Matthew Hoh notes, the population of the country between the ages of 20 and 45 is four to one women to men?

"The one thing I couldn't live without in Iraq was my own humanity," says Iraq veteran Ethan McCord, who came home from dropping his children off at school to find a video of himself rescuing an child from a bombed-out van. That was the now-infamous Wikileaks video, and McCord has been collecting his own video and stories from his fellow veterans, speaking out about what he saw at war and what his friends lived through.

We need another word for silly season. It's way beyond silly how some are competing in this midterm race. In Illinois in particular, it's not been pretty in the tight fight for Barack Obama's old seat. At three different points in a recent televised debate, Democratic contender Alexi Giannoulias challenged Republican Representative Mark Kirk over his claims that he had been shot at in a plane when he was serving in Iraq. 
"The question, Congressman, is, why would you not tell the truth? Why would you make all this stuff up?" Giannoulias asked.