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There's no word on whether John McCain will suspend his campaign to address the crisis, but his campaign sent off a letter to YouTube this week to endorse the doctrine of fair use on the Internet. The New York Times reports that YouTube removed some of his campaign commercials because they contained portions of television news segments, which are copyrighted materials. The irony in the piece is that McCain voted for the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which he now argues disproportionately favors the rights of copyright holders (ie large telecommunications companies, whose lobbyists one can only guess he has never met). With three weeks left in the campaign, he now favors fair use, which is necessary for public discourse and is grounded in free speech.

 Bloggers and Internet denizens should welcome McCain into the fold, and hope he plans to stay after Nov. 4. Even if he doesn't google and Cindy handles email for him, the issue of net neutrality has yet to be fully resolved. He hasn't previously supported the Internet free speech movement. In a nutshell, protection of net neutrality is about equal access and would prevent broadband carriers from interfering with your usage. It would keep those companies from determining what you see and how fast you see it. The state of net neutrality was how the Internet was set up - essentially democratized so that individuals have control over what they see and how they use the internet. This is part of an interesting debate about how technology changes our concepts of free speech, copyrights and intellectual property rights. It's one that should be held in public. Now's a great time to ask your candidates where they stand on the issue of net neutrality. — Will Coviello

A few weeks ago I received an email from Chaim Lazaros from New York. He was promoting an event to take place October 13. I laughed at it, then my little nerd brain exploded. Chaim Lazaros, by the way, is a superhero.

I’m surprised I had to dig around to find any confirmation about this event. The announcement would’ve wound up on the blog yesterday, but I guess most people don’t take superheroes seriously anymore.

No, not the Saints. Real superheroes. Like, spandex and capes superheroes. WGNO-TV could barely squeeze out a 49-second clip about them — almost condescending, like a point-and-laugh-with-us filler between commercial breaks. Am I the only one who thinks superheroes are as awesome in real life as they are when they’re played by Christian Bale or Robert Downey Jr.?

That event, boys and girls, was the Day of the Superheroes. Mayor Ray Nagin, a tip of the hat to you, for once.

  American Film once called him “the father of Cajun film.” Film critic Roger Ebert called him “a legendary American regional director.” Writer/director Glen Pitre built his reputation on his English-language debut, 1986’s Belizaire the Cajun (starring Armand Assante), along with follow-up efforts that include The Scoundrel’s Wife.

His latest work, The Man Who Came Back, will be featured at the New Orleans Film Festival at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, at Canal Place. The film is loosely based on the little known Thibodaux Massacre in 1887 during a strike in southeast Louisiana, but is told as a Western revenge thriller. It stars Eric Braeden of “The Young and the Restless” fame, but also features Oscar winner George Kennedy, Billy Zane and Sean Young. I reviewed the movie in this week’s issue, but also found time catch up with Glen via email. — David Lee Simmons 

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The film An Unlikely Weapon examines the career of photographer Eddie Adams, who will always be best known for this photo. It’s one of two images (the other – not his — of a naked Vietnamese girl running from a napalmed village) that were pivotal in changing American public opinion against the Vietnam war. Taken in Saigon during the Tet offensive in 1968, the man being executed was a member of the Viet Cong who reportedly killed three Americans. The man with the pistol is South Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan. But that’s just some of the truth. The photo brought shame to Nguyen and his family, ruining his career and affecting them for decades. Adams publicly apologized to him for the photo, but there was nothing remarkable about the way Adams took the shot. He followed action in the streets and raised his camera instinctively to shoot at the right moment. It’s what he did throughout a long career, in which he reported on 13 wars. Even though he is known for countless shots of celebrities (mostly taken in the latter part of his career in New York City) and photographed nudes for Penthouse for several years, he was an uncannily good war correspondent. He won a Pulitzer Prize and was even recommended for a commendation during Vietnam by an Army general after he carried a wounded soldier to a helicopter to get medical help. And he was never satisfied with his work. An Unlikely Weapon is an unfortunate title for this film, but it does suggest the power of photographic images. The film looks back on Adams’ astounding career (he died in 2004), and much of it focuses on being a photographer in a war zone — as a job, not as a pro- or anti-war proposition. The film screens at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the CAC as part of the New Orleans Film Festival. The Web site for the film is here.