president

WASHINGTON--A Senate panel approved major portions of the Democrats' "stimulus" bill on Tuesday over objections from Republicans that debate had been squelched and not even one hearing had been held on the topic.

"The goal of this package is to find ways to stimulate the private sector through public-sector spending," said Committee Chair Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii). "We have no interest in enlarging the federal bureaucracy."

Yet a failure to act, Inouye said, could result in economic problems for years to come.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 21 to 9 to pass the spending package … Read more

Sun leen fai lok! For all you non-Chinese speakers out there, that's "Happy New Year" in Chinese--go hug something yellow. We kick off the Year of the Ox with a ban on Jeff's Engrish impressions and cruise through a few No Duh stories from the Internet. Turns out alcohol has a hand in unwanted sex and gamers are antisocial!? Whodathunk?

To celebrate the Chinese lunar Year of the Ox, Wilson and I pull Jeff through another show. Ohhhhh. Just kidding, we give Jeff a hall pass and explain a few things about the new year customs. … Read more

It is said (by biographer Michael Wolff, for one) that whenever Rupert Murdoch meets Sergey Brin and Larry Page, he quizzes them as to why they don't read newspapers.

The President of France has decided to roll up his copy of L'Equipe and strike a blow for paper reading.

Every French 18-year-old will be given a newspaper subscription free for his or her birthday. Yes, a paper version, one that can be clutched on the subway and used as a receptacle for one's pommes frites.

The publishers themselves will cover the cost of the papers, while the … Read more

Fans of President Barack Obama, or perhaps just those who dislike former President George W. Bush, seem to think there's something notable about the way the new White House Web site is configured to deal with search engines.

That configuration file is called robots.txt. It's designed to let Webmasters ask search engine robots not to include certain areas of a Web site in their index. Well-behaved robots will comply.

The Obama revamp of Whitehouse.gov included a shorter robots.txt file, which Thenextweb.com called "a sign of greater transparency and change." A BoingBoing poster … Read more

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As President-elect Barack Obama began his inaugural address at noon on Tuesday, his aides were busy switching over Whitehouse.gov.

Until 11:59 am EST, the Web site featured a photograph of former president George W. Bush leaving the White House for the last time. The relaunched site's most prominent feature is an oversize photo of the new president next to the slogan: "Change has come to America."

Because the presidential Web site launched under Bill Clinton's tenure, this is only the second time that Whitehouse.gov has changed hands. The Clinton-Bush handover was not without … Read more

By Declan McCullagh and Stephanie Condon

news analysis Months after being sworn in as president, George W. Bush sat down with reporters and his wife, Laura, for a technology-themed event: a relaunch of the Whitehouse.gov Web site, which previously had been rather dilapidated.

Bush and his aides proudly demonstrated the new features, including photo essays, better access for the disabled, and a kids' area with details about the First Pets. The president said the Web site would let Washington become "more accessible" and let Americans "participate in the process."

Less than two weeks later, the … Read more

With Jeff on vacation and Justin dying of stomach herpes, Wilson is left alone to hold down The 404 fort. Mark Licea and Joey Kaminski join him today to talk about Quantum of Solace, Obama's BlackBerry, and ordering pizza from your TiVo.

Unfortunately, Wilson doesn't have the writing prowess of a one Justin Yu, but he'll do his best today to sum up what was a relatively disaster free show. First of all, he actually did pay attention to the chat room. So all you haters out there, Wilson can read. We also wish our second favorite Asian, J-Yu, a speedy recovery. We know we shouldn't have let him go home with that woman. Mark Licea joins the show to talk a bit about the latest Bond-movie and how kick ass it was. Mr. Kaminski chimes in on President-elect Barack Obama's BlackBerry addiction and its threat to national security. People keep on getting lazier, with cell phone airport check-in and ordering pizza from their TiVos. This, in turn, brings up memories of My Half-ton Dad on TLC. (Seriously people when you hit 400 lbs. put down the cheeseburger and see a doctor!)

Finally, the latest trailer for the new J.J. Abrams-directed Star Trek comes out today. So for all your Trekkies out there, check your pants. It's already an order of magnitude more exciting than the craptastic Star Trek: Nemesis we got a few years ago. And we pay our respects to ValleyWag and Total Request Live. Only the former deserves our respect.

Updated at 11 a.m. to clarify that the change.gov site with the YouTube video of the Obama's radio address has text links to the same video on AOL, MSN, and Yahoo. YouTube still has premier position as the secretary of video...

It's great that President-elect Barack Obama is delivering his regularly scheduled Saturday address in both audio and video form. After using the Internet to help him get elected and connect with younger voters, it's clear that his team will continue to exploit the media to deliver its messages and stimulate dialog.

Obama has chosen … Read more