george w. bush

George Bush: No regrets over PRISM spy program

Former President George W. Bush defended the surveillance measures put in place during his tenure as necessary to fight terrorism.

In a CNN interview published Monday, Bush did allow that there needed to be a balance in the tradeoff between greater security and privacy concerns.

"I think there needs to be a balance, and as the president explained, there is a proper balance," Bush said. Referring more specifically to the disclosures about the National Security Agency's surveillance activities in its PRISM spy program, Bush said, "I put that program in place to protect the country. One … Read more

Hackers said to hit Bush family, exposing sensitive information

Private Bush family information, including correspondence from both President Bushes, is said to have been compromised by a hacking attack.

According to The Smoking Gun, hackers broke into several email accounts owned by members of the Bush family.

The Smoking Gun wrote:

In e-mail exchanges with the person who claimed responsibility for the hack, the individual claimed to have swiped "a lot of stuff," including "interesting mails" about George H.W. Bush's recent hospitalization, "Bush 43," and other Bush family members.

Included in the hacked material is a confidential October 2012 list of … Read more

'Game of Thrones' Bush head episode spiked from HBO Go, iTunes

One of the wonderful benefits HBO subscribers get these days is HBO Go, an online -- or mobile -- service that lets them access almost all of the network's archive.

But today, clearly embarrassed by the firestorm caused by an episode of its hit series "Game of Thrones" featuring former President George W. Bush's decapitated head on a spike, HBO has yanked the episode from both HBO Go and iTunes.

The controversy first arose earlier this week when the Web site io9 posted a story about its discovery of the Bush head in episode 10 of … Read more

George Bush to field questions on Facebook Live

If you want to ask President George W. Bush a question, you'll have your chance.

Starting at 2 p.m. PT today, the former U.S. leader will be talking about his new book, "Decision Points," and fielding questions from Facebook users.

The event is shaping up to be a big one. Facebook's announcement yesterday of the event has been "liked" by over 7,000 people. The post also has over 2,600 comments, as of this writing. A similar announcement on the George W. Bush Facebook page has over 288 comments and more … Read more

Piracy domain seizure bill gains support

A proposed law allowing the government to pull the plug on Web sites accused of aiding piracy received a sizable political boost yesterday.

Dozens of the largest content companies, including video game maker Activision, media firms NBC Universal and Viacom, and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) endorsed the bill in a letter to the U.S. Senate. So did Major League Baseball and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, said new laws are needed to curb access … Read more

'News games' put public in charge of hot topics

Here's a conundrum: when the world is deep into hysteria over a potential pandemic like the swine flu, how does someone who wants to poke fun at the problem do so?

For Jude Gomilla and Immad Akhund, the answer was a single sleepless night about 10 days ago during which the two San Francisco entrepreneurs built what has become a massively popular Flash game called Swinefighters.

In Swinefighters, players--dressed as giant-syringe-wielding and mask-wearing doctors--are tasked with killing off rogue viruses in the form of sneering pigs. Each time you hit a pig with the syringe, it is wiped out, … Read more

The 404 137: Where Justin will not be censored

Big Daddy Wilson can't make it on the show today, so we scoured the office and found his lovechild with MTI, CNET Account Coordinator Eddie Nguyen. He joins us for another wild show- this time, we address the not-so-recent trend of DVD piracy, the George Dubya Bush Sewage Plant (GDBSP), and Google's plan to redirect socially inept nerds. Most importantly, we expose a CON ARTIST within The 404 family. Seriously, we're fuming. EPISODE 137 Download today's podcast

Is Twitter responsible for Germany's massive soccer loss?

Germany's Chancellor, Angela Merkel, really wanted her national soccer team to win the 2008 European Football Championships, which concluded today in Vienna.

Expressing her obviously heartfelt enthusiasm for the German team (and not her need to get re-elected next year), she began to text them.

The texts were not merely expressions of positive fortune and celestial speed.

According to her favorite player, the suspiciously and excessively blond Bastian Schweisteiger, she weighed in with tactical suggestions.

Which, if the evidence of the games is anything to go by, must have gone along the lines of "Kick that Portuguese pillock … Read more

Bush sets goal to stop greenhouse gas growth by 2025

President Bush on Wednesday set a goal of halting the growth of greenhouse gases by 2025, calling for elimination of clean-energy international trade barriers but stopping short of specific proposals to mandate carbon emissions caps.

Delivering a speech at the White House Rose Garden, Bush said national greenhouse gas emissions growth should peak within 10 to 15 years, stop in 2025, and then decline.

He said the nationwide strategy would build on existing policies to accelerate development of energy-efficiency technologies, cellulosic ethanol, nuclear power, and renewable energy like wind and solar.

Bush said the U.S.--which has been accused … Read more

Bush commits to renewable energy for climate change, energy security

WASHINGTON--The world is in the early days of an energy revolution for clean technology, a shift the United States is committed to for economic, political, and environmental reasons, President George Bush said in a speech here Wednesday.

The president spoke to delegates from more than 120 countries at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) 2008, where he described what the United States has done to promote biofuels, fuel efficiency, and renewable power sources like wind.

"America has to change its habits. It has to get off oil. Until we change our habits, we are going to be dependent … Read more