politics

When you're running for governor and suggesting that perhaps your expertise in having run eBay will be much needed to sort out California, it is good to ensure that you have your tweets all in a row.

Some were frightfully amused that, Sarah Pompei, a spokeswoman for Meg Whitman, sent out a tweet that purported to link to an endorsement from the Deputy Sheriffs' Association of San Diego County but instead linked to the clip I have embedded.

Her tweet had read: "SD Cnty Sheriff Assoc says @Whitman2010 4 gov! RT: @Murphy4MegNews: CA Cops get it: Jerry Brown … Read more

For a few days this month, with midterm election season heating up, the Internet's army of bored office drones cast aside their usual YouTube fodder of strangely-behaving cats and all things lip-synced and Auto-Tuned. They turned instead to what may or may not have been a completely serious political campaign ad: fresh-faced Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell took to the airwaves, and to the Web, with a spot that began with the proclamation, "I'm not a witch."

There's a backstory, of course. As an evangelical Christian activist appearing on the 1990s talk show "… Read more

The Tech CEO Council, a group made up of top industry CEOs, including Dell's Michael Dell, Intel's Paul Otellini, and Motorola's Greg Brown, has laid out an extensive plan that could help the U.S. government save $1 trillion over the next decade.

Dubbed "One Trillion Reasons," the initiative outlines seven areas where the U.S. government could cut costs or revamp its operational processes to save taxpayers money over the long term. The organization shared its findings with the Obama administration's economic team and the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

"… Read more

TRUCKEE, Calif.--Bill Gates is a glass three-quarters-full kind of guy, but watching the U.S. political system fail to tackle big problems like health care is enough to get even him down.

"You can actually get depressed," he said, wrapping up a talk at the Techonomy conference here. Earlier, Gates talked about a variety of issues including how online courses will reshape higher education and the need for better software modeling for diseases and other complex systems.

Gates said that the political process hasn't shown itself to be very good at handling issues that "are … Read more

Vote iQ bills itself as "the nation's first major nonpartisan social-networking site built expressly for politics." The site allows voters to find candidates whose views mostly align with their own and to engage in a dialog with other political activists. Working with a variety of data sources, the site provides information on how politicians have voted and also offers a dating service-like matching feature to help voters find candidates they might consider supporting or voting for.

When asked how it's different from all the other sources of political information, Vote IQ Vice President Rick Shenkman said, &… Read more

I have heard it muttered that the Web was responsible for the election of Barack Obama. So I have sudden cause to wonder whether the Web can also be used to prevent a candidate from getting elected.

I am brought to this wonderment by an election for a judgeship in McClain County in Oklahoma, one that is being characterized by some splendid online activity.

John Mantooth would like to become a judge. His daughter and son-in-law, on the other hand, appear to think he is the type to give people chocolates filled with worms. Now I am not entirely sure … Read more

Senate Democrats said on Thursday they would wait until the fall to take up climate-change legislation, setting the stage for a pitched battle in the weeks before congressional elections.

The delay would give Democrats a small window to advance the complex legislation amid intense political pressure in the weeks before the November elections.

"We will fight that out in September," said a Democratic senator who did not wish to be quoted by name. "It will be tough to win."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he plans to bring up a narrower energy bill next week … Read more

WASHINGTON--In his first major speech on the issue, President Barack Obama on Thursday said the current immigration system in the U.S. needs to be changed, and he called on Republicans to join Democrats in supporting immigration reform legislation.

"The system is broken," he said in a speech given at American University in Washington, D.C. "And everybody knows it. Unfortunately, reform has been held hostage to political posturing and special-interest wrangling...But the fact is, without bipartisan support, as we had just a few years ago, we cannot solve this problem. Reform that brings accountability to … Read more

The New York state legislature is set to vote this week on a bill that would ban apartment sublets that last less than a month, which if passed would have a significant impact on online vacation rental services like AirBnB, Roomorama, HomeAway, and even classifieds behemoth Craigslist.

In recent years, there's been a surge in popularity for short-term apartment rentals and housing exchange services that let users offer anything from luxury lofts to pull-out couches--especially in states like New York, whose eponymous island metropolis is known for housing prices so exorbitant that many tourists seek alternatives to hotels and … Read more