It’s Tea-Bagging-Tea-Party-Glenn-Beck’s-Birthday-Day! Everyone’s going wild about getting tea-bagged today, with parties taking place in major cities all across the country to protest Obama raising taxes and bailing out Wall Street. But what’s interesting to us is how all this is being organized. Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have turned into a huge organizing tool for this group, with #teaparty trending to the top of Twitter’s search. So here’s the big question: how should new technologies, like Twitter and Facebook, be used in campaigns, and how should they be used in government?

Adriel Hampton, a news commentator, new media pundit, and investigator with the San Francisco DA Office, is running for Congress in California’s 10th Congressional District and he joins our hosts Ted Johnson and Maegan Carberry to talk twitter and populism, how the mainstream media has mostly ignored the tea parties, and how government shouldn’t waste this activist energy, no matter which party it belongs to. What’s with Obama stopping his twitter feed just because he’s not in office? Doesn’t that show how the administration isn’t being engaged technologically? Can the Republicans really take this populist “revolt” and somehow organize it for the next election? We also get a friendly call from Steve, a fellow BlogTalkRadio, wondering why the media isn’t taking the tea-bag parties seriously?

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player to the right.

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.

With the AIG bonuses dominating the news, there’s talk of some good old fashioned populist uprising. Hosts Ted Johnson, Teresa Valdez-Klein, and Maegan Carberry tackle the big question: Is it real outrage? Are Americans actually going to get up off their couch, grab their pitchforks, and storm Wall Street? We’ve all been hearing the bad news for a couple of years now, and the really awful news for a couple of months – so are we desensitized to it all? Should we really be that surprised with the latest revelations of “shenanigans,” as Jim Cramer calls them so innocuously? (And all those politicians, who act so surprised about these Wall Street firms pulling a fast one? They definitely shouldn’t be surprised.)

On a more uplifting note, Adriana Dunn of the socially-conscious Participant Productions (of “Syriana,” and “North Country” fame) joins the Wilshire & Washington crew for a little talk about the South by Southwest interactive conference held in Austin this past week. As a blogger for Participant’s TakePart.com, Adriana covers how people use technology to drive social change, and the SXSWi festival offers plenty of opportunity for that. She discusses the Ron Paul Effect, how Obama’s iPhone app led the charge into the mobile field, and TakePart’s new blog, which will be launching the first week of May.

Ted, Teresa, and Maegan also tackle Obama on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Is the world’s biggest chin really a presidential platform, or should Mr. President be above a late night talk circuit? You didn’t see FDR just coming out, talking to the people with no go-between, did you? Well, other than those fireside chats nobody ever listened to… And finally, there’s the Meghan McCain vs Laura Ingraham Controversy, if we can call it that. Who’s calling who a fat ass, and is little Meghan becoming a fierce new voice on the Right or just another running media topic, fueled by our obsession with celebrities’ personal lives?

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player to the right:

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.