barack

Obama touts alternative energy despite Solyndra's demise

Despite the spectacular collapse of solar panel maker Solyndra, which declared bankruptcy after receiving more than half a billion dollars from the Obama administration, President Obama said this evening that he doesn't want to give up on government-backed alternative energy projects.

The president used the opportunity of his State of the Union address to say it's time to "double down" on the concept but pointedly avoided mentioning Solyndra by name.

"The payoffs on these public investments don't always come right away," Obama said. "Some technologies don't pan out--some companies fail. But … Read more

Payback: Did SOPA cost Obama Hollywood donors?

Depending on where you stand, President Obama either showed tremendous courage when he distanced himself from SOPA and PIPA--or a complete lack of it.

Last Saturday, the White House announced it would not support important provisions of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, the anti-piracy bills being debated in the House and Senate. The legislation would make it easier for the federal government to block access to overseas sites accused of piracy. Much of the tech sector opposes the bills.

Where Hollywood is concerned, though, the president's stand is nothing short of a betrayal. And … Read more

Michelle Obama joins Twitter as 2012 election nears

First Lady Michelle Obama officially joined Twitter this morning, and after only four tweets, she has 185,000 followers and counting.

"Hi, everyone, and thanks for the warm welcome. Look forward to staying in touch with you here. -mo," she first tweeted.

As the 2012 election season heats up, it's all hands on deck for Team Obama. The president, who joined Twitter during his 2008 election campaign and has almost 12 million followers, welcomed his wife onto the social networking site. "It's not every day we get to welcome the First Lady of the United … Read more

President Obama joins Instagram

Keeping up with his reputation as the first "Internet President," Barack Obama got in on the popular photo-sharing app Instagram this week.

The account is run by Obama 2012 staff members, who encourage users to share photos from the campaign trail using the hashtag #Obama2012.

So far, the account has posted three photos and gained more than 24,000 followers. … Read more

President Obama travels through time in Google Maps

I've seen some bizarre Street View images on Google Maps, but this time the satellite feature has leaked government secrets about Air Force One's flight arrangements: time travel.

Well either that, or Air Force One commercial airplanes can fly faster than the speed of light. This image from the unofficial Google Maps blog shows the official USAF aircraft emerging out of a crack in time. If I had to guess, I'd say around 99 percent of us don't have access to this technology.

Not sure what's going on in East Lake-Orient Park, Fla., that … Read more

Can Apple make more stuff in the USA?

One of the more topical discussions in Steve Jobs' biography addresses Apple's tendency to "employ" a disproportionately large number of workers in China. And that strategy has been fodder for debates on national news networks like CNN because of stubbornly high levels of unemployment in the U.S.

Let's start with some recent statements by luminaries as politically diverse as Jim Hoffa, International Brotherhood of Teamsters President, Donald Trump, and CNN's Piers Morgan.

Here's what Hoffa said in a segment entitled "Fixing the Jobs Crisis" with CNN's Candy Crowley on September … Read more

Was legal site rewrite a liberal plot? Not quite.

A few days ago, a conservative attorney named Leo Donofrio noticed something extremely odd about the U.S. Supreme Court opinions published on the Web site of Justia.com, a legal information startup.

The opinions weren't accurate. Donofrio, of East Brunswick, N.J., discovered that citations to a 1875 case defining a "natural-born citizen"--a phrase that has special resonance in discussions about President Obama's eligibility for the office--had been quietly removed before the 2008 elections.

Donofrio, who in 2009 tried to convince the Supreme Court that President-elect Obama was ineligible for office, quickly published his … Read more

Conservatives mock Obama's AttackWatch.com

Anticipating a nasty fight in 2012, President Obama's reelection campaign on Tuesday launched a site, called AttackWatch.com , which is designed to push back against attacks on the president's record.

"We all remember the birth certificate smear, the GOP's barrage of lies about the Affordable Care Act, and the string of other phony attacks on President Obama that we've seen over the past few years," Jim Messina, Obama for America's campaign manager, wrote in an e-mail to the president's supporters. "There are a lot of folks on the other side who are chomping at the bit to distort the president's record. It's not a question of if the next big lie will come, just when--and what we're prepared to do about it."

Currently, the site prominently features "lies" and "flawed" attacks regarding the president's record on jobs from the two Republicans leading the GOP presidential field--Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. It also counters claims regarding Obama's policies on gun rights, relations with Israel, the bank bailouts, and other flashpoints that are popular talking points among conservatives.… Read more

The 404 898: Where we wish the economy had longer legs (podcast)

The number of the day is 0, brought to you by the United States economy and Jill Schlesinger, editor-at-large for CBS MoneyWatch.com and host of an Emmy-nominated podcast! Jill sits with us today and reveals her plan of attack on Suze Orman at the award ceremony.

She'll also give an update on the state of the economy, the financial implications for Yahoo ex-CEO Carol Bartz, and why the rich and poor have never been further apart.

Check out the video today to see our new Bathroom Break video segment, and afterward Jill will predict the content of President Obama's jobs speech tomorrow. Finally, we'll run through a quick listener-submitted Q&A about how to keep yourself above water on your mortgage, the exact definition of a "robosigner," and why it's never a good idea to draft your prenuptial agreement.

The 404 Digest for Episode 898

Dial Global's Jill Schlesinger nominated for Emmy! Yahoo fires Bartz as CEO, names CFO to fill void. Bank of America sued by U.S. Bancorp over mortgages. August jobs: Obama blew it. Check out Jill's podcast on CBS MoneyWatch.com. Add Jill on Twitter. Today's Bathroom Break: Never Ending Story.

Episode 898 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more