As noted in my dKos diary, we in the Fifth District of Massachusetts are in the middle of a special election to replace Rep. Marty Meehan, who's leaving to become Chancellor of U-Mass Lowell. (I also mentioned my own endorsement of state Rep. Jamie Eldridge in that diary, and the reasons therein.)

However, now you can get a look at the candidates for yourself. I got permission to post the video of the debate on Iraq (held May 23) online, and for the past five days I've neglected my own blog as I spent most of my spare time working to get all the video clips of the May 23rd Chelmsford Iraq/foreign policy debate online. (Yeah, I know, cry me a river...) Well, I may be no video guru, but I managed to finally get it done.

So, I'd like to invite you to peruse the webpage which lays out all the video in question. The clips are in chronological order, by round or question, and the questions are listed with each clip so viewers can pick and choose, or at least know what they're diving into. This is a good opportunity for folks inside and outside the district to know where the five Democrats vying for the seat stand on the Iraq war, Don't Ask Don't Tell, and a myriad of other issues.

Thanks to Chelmsford Telemedia for giving me permission to post their tape of the event!

Enjoy!

[Crossposted on Left in Lowell.]

Beat the Press today called their on-the-outs with the blogosphere last week "an education." At least they seem still interested in learning - that's something.

As I already stated here, they did address some of those core gripes, though they missed a couple points. As a "media critique" sort of show, they are well within their mission to look into the reporting of the NYTimes in their original story about bloggers, so I disagree with Dan Kennedy - if the NYT story seemed incomplete, they should have at least mentioned that. And word to the wise, when reporting what other media says, it might behoove you to talk about the caveats that were in the story.