As some of you may have read over at Wired and the Washington Times, there's a modern "Meet the Press" in town covering the political beat.

It's co-hosted by me and Jerome Armstrong of the progressive blog, MyDD.com. And for the first time ever, politicians will have a chance to relax, take a breath, and simply have a discussion with the YouTube community about some of the issues we're interested in. We're keeping edits to an absolute minimum because we want our guests to be able to complete their thoughts for you.

Here's episode 2.1 with U.S. Sen. John Kerry. Topics for this first part include the intersection of tech + politics, the effect of the Swift-Boat Vets in 2004, and an update on Kerry's Harley-Davidson motorcycles:

In episode 2.2 (released today), we talk with Kerry about his book, "This Moment on Earth."

You'll note that each episode is self-contained with a similar beginning and conclusion. We do this because we can never ensure that someone will see both episodes so we can't just leave out old content.

Next week we'll be talking with a certain Republican Congressman who has been a leader in the modern world for the past few years. Stay tuned to our channel (subscribe!).

Let me know what you think.