politics

There are times when one is justifiably grateful to Google.

Only last week I wrote these desperate, pleading words: "It has long been my personal dream to see Google's Larry Page wearing brightly patterned trousers and dancing uncontrollably."

Clearly Google had mercy. For, though Page is obviously too busy penning Google+ updates to perform, the company instead proffered Marissa Mayer. Which, for many, might even be an improvement. Moreover, she's not merely dancing. She's getting it on down to MC Hammer's "Too Legit To Quit."

The work of art in which Mayer … Read more

President Barack Obama's campaign yesterday opened up its first Tumblr account to help get the word out about their candidate.

"We'd like this Tumblr to be a huge collaborative storytelling effort--a place for people across the country to share what's going on in our respective corners of it and how we're getting involved in this campaign to keep making it better," the campaign wrote its first post on the page.

Currently, the Tumblr page has three posts, including an image of the campaign's Ohio offices and an excerpt from the President's address … Read more

PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif.--Everyone wants to know what groups of people--large and small--are thinking in real time. But there has never really been a good way to figure it out.

That's the proposition behind the new startup from former Sun CEO Scott McNealy, called Wayin, which thinks it has the answer.

Wayin, which launched last night, is a system that aims to give people a way to share their thoughts about things--be it a question related to a live baseball game, a political debate, or the passing of a tech titan--in real time. Essentially, said McNealy at a … Read more

Twitter is getting ready to capitalize on the highly anticipated 2012 presidential election with advertisements designed for politicians, the company told Politico in an interview published today, and later confirmed to CNET.

Speaking to Politico, Twitter president of global revenue, Adam Bain, said that starting today, the company will, for the first time, allow politicians and political groups to place ads "in the timeline and in search" to help get their messages out to the social network's users. Bain said that five campaigns have already signed up for the ads, but stopped short of naming them. However, … Read more

As if the White House doesn't have enough things to deal with at the moment, a collective of 15 House Democrats are now putting pressure on the president to deal with the AT&T and T-Mobile merger.

Led by U.S. Representative Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), the group is asking President Obama to direct the Justice Department to settle the government's lawsuit that would block the proposed acquisition, which is supposed to be decided upon quite soon.

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit last month against the $39 billion deal citing potential violations of U.S. … Read more

Facebook has appointed Erskine Bowles to its board of directors, the social network announced today.

With him, Bowles is bringing serious political power to Facebook's board. In 1993, Bowles served President Bill Clinton as administrator of the Small Business Administration. In 1994, Clinton promoted him to deputy White House chief of staff before giving him White House chief of staff duties from 1996 through 1998. Most recently, Bowles served as the co-chair for President Barack Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

All that political experience could come in handy for Facebook. As the company continues to … Read more

You may have read last week about Microsoft losing a patent-infringement case to Canadian software vendor i4i. The patent in question covers a technique for implementing XML in word-processing software.

If you use a recent version of Word or nearly any other word-processing program, you probably benefit from the software's use of XML, which makes your files smaller and more efficient, among other advantages. It's only right that whoever invents a technique that improves software should be rewarded.

The question the courts wrestled with in the i4i-Microsoft case is whether the innovation i4i patented is actually patentable. In … Read more

I suppose, if you were of charitable mind, you could think of it as an in-depth analysis of the currently unemployed.

But isn't there something in itself entertaining about the relentless, breathless, technologically boundless pursuit for nuggets of joy from the collected digital works of Sarah Palin?

Should you have unaccountably lost several of your faculties and had to advertise for their recovery on Craigslist, you might not have noticed that Alaska has released 24,199 pages of e-mails sent by and to the state's former governor.

These seem to signify that she spent 38 digital pages a … Read more

Sometimes, one's congeniality can get one into trouble. So much so, that those with wicked intentions attach a Twitter hashtag to your persona--one that turns you into, well, a target of sorts.

In case you have been recently incarcerated for actions against the state (or otherwise out of touch with current events), you might not know that Sarah Palin visited Boston yesterday and shone something of a fading bulb on American history.

She seemed to be believe Paul Revere's midnight ride involved bell-ringing and gun-shooting, rather than lantern-displaying, and that the Revolutionary War hero's intent was to … Read more