Politico's idea of news: John McCain, Twitter genius. Because it's pure genius to tweet stuff like this:

But they don't stop there.

But it’s not just McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, who’s the GOP standard-bearer for social media. In a social media game mastered by the campaign of Barack Obama, the study found Republicans have “struck back,” with GOP senators averaging more than 5.5 IQ points higher than their Democratic counterparts.

Of the seven senators who scored “genius” social media rankings, four were Republicans: McCain — the top tweeter, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and John Cornyn of Texas.

DeMint is a tea party force, and Brown rode significant grass-roots tea party support to upset Martha Coakley for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat last winter. Cornyn is the head of the Senate GOP campaign organization.

Wow. A Tea Party force. And a Twitter genius. Evidently the authors of the official academic study of Senators' Twitter use didn't take the gaming aspect into account when they came up with this study. Nor did they particularly care what the content was.

But hey -- props to the staffer behind the McCain account, who at least knows enough about trolling to get Politico's attention, eh? They don't really think John McCain tweets from his iPhone do they? He barely understands his Blackberry.

Without much fanfare, the US Copyright Office has made some modifications to its 2008 rules enumerating instances where defeating DRM will not be considered to be a violation of the DMCA. Those most likely to have an impact on most users:

• Copying and creating clips from a legally-purchased DVD for the purpose of use in: a) documentary filmmaking; b) non-commercial videos; and c) educational use by college and university professors and students.

  This is good news for a number of reasons. It enables groups like Brave New Films and others to use short clips for the purpose of creating new videos without any fear of receiving a DMCA violation notice, and allows for a higher-quality clip than could be obtained via capture.

• Defeating locks on wireless smartphones (jailbreaking) in order to run software made by third-parties. The iPhone is routinely jailbroken by many in order to run apps which are not approved by Apple or available in Apple's approved app store. Jailbreakers have, in the past, faced the threat that the DMCA would be used to keep users from jailbreaking the phone because a copy of the phone's firmware is used as the foundation for the enhanced version used to jailbreak the phone.

  The actual text of the rule takes a whack at Apple's iPhone silo in the process:

  Apple's objections to the installation and use of "unapproved" applications appears to have nothing to do with its interests as the owner of copyrights in the computer programs embodied in the iPhone, and running the unapproved applications has no adverse effect on those interests. Rather, Apple's objections relate to its interests as a manufacturer and distributor of a device, the iPhone.

• Unlocking locked phones - Another iPhone/ATT volley, it appears. I found this language particularly pointed:
  

  Moreover, because it appears that the opposition to designating the proposed class is based primarily on the desires of wireless carriers to preserve an existing business model that has little if anything to do with protecting works of authorship...

  ...It seems clear that the primary purpose of the locks is to keep consumers bound to their existing networks, rather than to protect the rights of copyright owners in their capacity as copyright owners. This observation is not a criticism of the mobile phone industry's business plans and practices, which may well be justified for reasons having nothing to do with copyright law and policy, but simply a recognition of existing circumstances.

  This echoes my biggest frustration about the mobile phone industry. I love my iPhone, but I'm not in love with AT&T. I should be able to pull out my AT&T sim card and connect to another wireless network with the same phone number and the same phone. Locking the phone locks me to a network not of my choice. That's not how a free market should work.

These are some pretty substantial rules, made by regulators as authorized under the law.

All of which proves that good government isn't only about what happens in the House and Senate, but what happens in the regulatory agencies after the House and Senate have done their job. For all of the complaints about how the legislative calendar has not fulfilled expectations, it's worth noting that a major shift in how government operates is underway. Regulations actually mean something, and benefit consumers.

How novel.

(via Techcrunch)

After a marathon session in the Senate where amendment after amendment was offered by the Republicans and vote after vote shot them down, it appears that the reconciliation package will head back to the House after a small tweak to the student loan provisions.

In inimitable fashion, the New York Times is playing this as a big win for the GOP, MSNBC has sent two news alerts to my iPhone about it, and Twitter has lit up with the concern of many who are anxiously watching the final chapter of the health care reform saga.

Then there are those hopefuls who figure striking 16 lines of language relating to Pell grants will be a swinging open door for re-introduction of the public option.

Here's my prediction. They'll amend the bill to remove the 16 lines of Byrd rule violations. They'll vote the rest of the GOP amendments down. They'll have a vote sometime today on the reconciliation package and send it back to the House. The House will then vote on Monday for the revised package, which contains non-controversial provisions.

Why wouldn't the Senate add a public option provision since they have to send it to the House anyway? Because it's doubtful they'd get the requisite number of House votes, given an escalation in rhetoric to threat level red. Let's face it: would YOU invite more controversy in the toxic wasteland that is Washington, DC today?

Republicans will still play the Sunday shows like they won something huge, and the threat level will rise because the wingers are too stupid to actually figure out the reconciliation package has nothing in it relating to abortion, death panels, or socialism. It will be noisy, and get noisier, but in the end...it's a blip. Health care reform is the law of the land. This is just a tweaker package, not a big deal at all. A one-day delay in sending to the President, but still, a blip.

It was entertaining to watch the parade of stupid on CSPAN, though. As the night wore on, the Republicans got a little more shrill and a lot more stupid. Gotta love marathon voting sessions, especially ones where the Democrats actually show some backbone for a change.

Updating your Facebook page at the altar is turning out to be a rather popular wedding gag.

Retrevo reports that "36% of people under the age of 35 often use Facebook or Twitter after sex. Moreover men are twice as likely to exhibit this behavior than women and if you’re an iPhone owner you’re three times more likely to go social media after you know what than Blackberry owners."

Gag. But because I love our Canadian readers, big props to their "can this onion ring get more fans than Stephen Harper?" Facebook fan page.

Open thread below...

Sadly, No!: According to the Virgin Queen of the Right Wing Baloney-sphere, the title of "Teabagger" was worn with pride by our colonial forebearers. No, really.

Dependable Renegade: Seriously Meghan, put the iPhone DOWN. But first, tweet Carrie Prejean a message from the General.

Earth Bound Misfit: "Republicans for Rape" isn't just a vote, it's thirty votes. And now it's a blog. Susie Bright (NSFW) points to a simple statement on "how to prevent rape." Highly recommended.

Distributorcap NY: Discovered at Schwabs.

Mike Finnigan returns tomorrow; send tips to finnsagain AT aol DOT com.

Over the course of the 2008 election, Barack Obama's campaign has leap-frogged John McCain online. As CBS, ABC and Politico (among others) have documented, Team Obama has far out-paced McCain in deploying web technology to fundraise, establish social networks, advertise to targeted audiences, build email lists and otherwise facilitate grassroots organizing. Now, with the release this week of its new application for the iPhone, the Obama campaign has added a powerful new tool to help its supporters get out the vote, literally wherever they are.

The Obama '08 iPhone application (available for free) brings much of the content and functionality of the Obama web site to the Apple mobile device now used by millions of Americans. Users can access positions on the issues, receive breaking campaign updates, get national and local campaign news, find nearby Obama events and browse video and photos. And as the Los Angeles Times noted, "with the device's global positioning system technology, it will give you directions to the nearest campaign office."

But the real breakthrough for political organizing at the grassroots level is the "Call Friends" feature. In a nutshell, Call Friends turns the iPhone into your own mobile, personal phone bank, letting you call and track the support of the people you know in the states that matter most.

As Stephen Shankland of CNET reported:

The most notable feature "organizes and prioritizes your contacts by key battleground states, making it easy to reach out and make an impact quickly," according to the software.

On my phone, the application ranked contacts in Colorado, Michigan, and New Mexico at the top; at the bottom was a friend whose cell phone has a Texas number, though she actually lives in California.

Continue reading »

The Heretik is shocked, shocked to discover . . . Bush never wanted to be a war president? He does, however, have an extensive collection of jackets with Commander in Chief embroidered on them. (Bush also hasn't figured out he is in fact a politician in Washington). The reluctant warrior has returned to stay the course terminology in asking for more time for his surge strategy, which replaced his stay the course strategy. About that September report on progress: It isn't the end, it's just the beginning. ""What Congress will get this week is a snapshot of the beginning of the retooling of the mission in Iraq," Snow said. "Everyone says, 'We want to do it a different way.' We agree. It's just now started." The surge of BS will continue forever, possibly longer.

The Numbers Game: Bush may think people are still behind him, but his latest polling numbers are a boot in the ass. Plus so many Friedmans. And you might want to take a closer look at that mortgage rate. One, two, three . . . . some base assumptions.

Continue reading »