IT HAS BEEN a busy week in online politics. Video parodies are getting more adventurous, the serious political bloggers are in full swing and satirical blog Blogorrah is spending its time trying to find the worst mullet of the general election.

Making substantial waves online this weekend is new website Rate My TD, (www. ratemytd. ie) a comprehensive and exceptionally well-designed site that offers the public an opportunity to register their satisfaction or, indeed, dissatisfaction with their TDs. Once you register, you can rate TDs in a wide variety of categories, including responsiveness, cronyism and intelligence. The site also records TDs' expenses and Dail speaking records, and crunches rating statistics that transfer to a digital map of Ireland, illustrating where the 'best' TDs and political parties are in action.

On a less serious note, Blogorrah (http: //blogorrah. com) continues its 'Derision '07' coverage by searching for the worst hair of the election. Mayo's Green Party candidate Peter Enright, John Foley a councillor for Laois/Offaly and Tipperary South PD hopeful Peadar O'Donnell all get targeted because of their rather voluptuous hairstyles. The New York-based blog, now attracting around 180,000 views a day, also brought us back to election '77, when Fianna Fail released its very own pop song. Thirty years later, you can still listen to it by following this link to RTE's archive (http: //www. rte. ie/laweb//ll/ll_t08e. html) The spate of humorous photoshopping that made up much of the early stages of the online election campaign has died down somewhat, apart from a rather amusing photoshopping of Minister for the Environment Dick Roche into Mr Tayto's election poster. The Tayto election posters have generated a lot of online chatter, but according to Damien Mulley (http: //www. mulley. net/) the crisp company is not the only offender, with Newstalk erecting campaign posters around lampposts near Cork train station.

Following the video mash-up of Bertie Ahern on 'Dragon's Den', an even bigger gem emerged from cyberspace. This time, Fine Gael was the target, with Enda Kenny skillfully superimposed into an 'American Idol' audition setting. Using footage of Kenny's speech at Fine Gael's ardfheis, and banter from Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, YouTube user 'ragaman7' has created one of the most-viewed and funniest election videos of this campaign, with nearly 7,000 views at last count.

The politicians must be paying attention to YouTube because last week a Fianna Fail councillor saw fit to send a press release detailing her online triumph over Enda Kenny. Siobhan Ambrose, a candidate in Tipperary South declared she had recorded almost twice as many hits on her YouTube video from Fianna Fail's ardfheis in comparison to Enda Kenny's video from his party conference. "A tally of views on both shows that Fianna Fail Dail candidate Cllr Siobhan Ambrose has recorded 543 views on her YouTube video from the ardfheis in March, " the press release read, "Enda Kenny's speech at his party conference has been viewed just 289 times."

Ambrose added, 'I'm delighted that so many people have watched my contribution on pensions at the Fianna Fail ardfheis."

But the real election YouTube hit is the political parody 'The Sorted Party', a series of videos by Paul Tylak about a fictional drug-ravaged party who spend their time canvassing on confused doorsteps, stealing mobile phones from RTE reporters and berating each other for their stoned shortcomings. It's the stuff YouTube was invented for.

THIS WEEK YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT
'The Sorted Party' on YouTube Bertie Ahern V Spiderman 3 on YouTube The UnLaoised blog Predict 2007 on Politics. ie