I think it needs to be a fairly recent deletion...
I tried the site with a recently deleted vid and it played it.
Correct, it has to be recent, before it gets taken out of youtube cache. The other problem is that youtube uses more than one server to put these videos on. Therefore the servers have different names. I tried real hard to find that Kwame Kilpatrick video but couldn’t get it or any of the other ones. I just lucky in getting the Farrakhan one. From now if I find a video I think might get taken down I go to.....
And save it to my hard disk.
When Youtube deletes a video from public view, no later than 24 hours the file on the YouTube servers will be permanently deleted.
Also, if Freepers find a good clip they fear will be deleted, I suggest that they use the firefox browser, greasemonkey add-on, and a ‘youtube download video’ greasemonkey script.