Poll: Americans connecting with government online

The Obama administration has really emphasized the online aspect to government and it looks like it's paying off.

The Associated Press WASHINGTON —More and more Americans are interacting with local, state and federal government offices online. They are turning to the Web to renew driver's licenses and car registrations, to apply for hunting and fishing permits, to pay parking tickets and other fines and even to track campaign contributions and stimulus spending, according to a study being released Tuesday.

In a survey of more than 2,000 American adults conducted in late 2009, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 82 percent of Internet users - or 61 percent of American adults - had looked up information or completed a transaction on a government Web site over the previous year.

"Recently, we've seen government agencies at all levels emphasize the use of online tools in engaging citizens in interesting ways and making data available to ordinary citizens," said Aaron Smith, research specialist with the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "Those efforts appear to be resonating."

Court Rules Against F.C.C. in 'Net Neutrality' Case

By GottaLaff

There are 10 judges on the court appointed by Republican presidents, 4 by Dems, per Thom Hartmann (if I heard him right just now). He labeled this a "shot across the bow" and a major setback for the FCC.

Via a New York Times e-mail alert:

A federal appeals court has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission lacks the authority to require broadband providers to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their networks.

Tuesday's ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia is a big victory for the Comcast Corporation, the nation's largest cable company. It had
challenged the F.C.C.'s authority to impose so called "net neutrality" obligations.

Worrisome, to say the least.

Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks

About damn time. I've been saying since 9/11 that the government should have gone straight to Microsoft after the attack and told them to design a program that would integrate all the various agencies in a cohesive way yet gave them that "stand alone" vibe that they covet. And told Bill Gates that it was a freebie for his country. Not using these resources is the crime.

The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity.

Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack.

Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users' searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.

Video- VP Biden unveils broadband expansion projects to boost jobs

Mid Day Distraction

Going shopping in London is set to become a whole new experience, with a "virtual West End" being created online.

'Near London' will allow online consumers to wander between stores and make purchases from shop windows.

Represented by small beams of light, customers can interact with their friends via a Facebook application and 'jump' to different parts of London.

They will soon be able to walk inside stores and select and buy goods.

Call me when they get around to making fish and chips takeaways available online...

Internet marks 40th birthday

Couldn't imagine my life without it now.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- A computer expert said Thursday marks the 40th birthday of the Internet heralded by two computers at California schools connecting for the first time.

Leonard Kleinrock told CNN he was a professor of computer science at the University of California-Los Angeles on Oct. 29, 1969, when the school's host computer was connected to a counterpart at Stanford University's Stanford Research Institute.

"I basically supervised the creation of the Internet at the first node, both in the first connection and the very first message," Kleinrock, 75, said.

"When the host computers talked to each other, I like to say the Internet uttered its first words on that day," he added.

Oklahoma abortion law ‘like undressing women in public’

By GottaLaff

OK is not OK:

As of November 1, doctors in Oklahoma will be compelled -- under penalty of criminal prosecution -- to post the details of each abortion they perform online. Among the details to be posted for every abortion is the patient's age, marital status and race; her financial condition; her education; and the total number of her previous pregnancies.

Race? Not that any of those details are relevant, but ... race?

"A friend said it best: It's like undressing women in public, exposing their most personal issues on the Internet," Lora Joyce Davis, one of the plaintiffs suing to prevent the law from coming into effect, told ABC News.

Undressing women? More like rape, if you ask me, I mean, since we're talkin' "invasive".

So this law is supposed to make women so uncomfortable and squirmy that they'll throw up their hands and change their minds? Really? Did that work in the pre-Roe dark ages? Would they prefer the coat hanger attempts of yesteryear?

The answer to that is yes, by the way.

And if someone feels strongly enough to get an abortion-- which is a highly personal decision, and a constitutional right-- do these so-called lawmakers actually believe that public humiliation will deter them from a life-changing, heart-wrenching, carefully considered decision?

Davis, along with former state Rep. Wanda Jo Stapleton, filed the lawsuit with the help of the Center for Reproductive Rights. The lawsuit seeks to have the law declared unconstitutional under the Oklahoma Constitution because it covers more than one subject.

Chipping away at choice, whether it be through backwards-thinking, privacy-invading laws or Pro-Life Cupcakes, means chipping away at our existing legal rights, and some of these methods threaten our democracy.

According to CCR, nearly one-quarter of women in the United States have to travel more than 50 miles for an abortion.

Now that's a crime.

Senator Al Franken questions Sotomayor: Liveblog

By GottaLaff

Senator Al Franken is questioning Judge Sotomayor as we speak. Liveblogging:

He is referring back to her reference to Perry Mason. He mentions that Hamilton Berger lost every week. Gets a laugh on that.

You watched in the Bronx, I watched in Minneaopolis, and here we are today. I'm asking you questions because you're nominated to be a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court... pretty cool. [...]

Net neutrality:

The Internet reaches millions... this is free speech, essential to our democracy... We saw this in Iran...

Brings up Brand X decision: Deregulated Internet access services... Talking about blocking access to the Web... undermines free speech... This is frightening, to me, to millions.

Internets use public resources, airwaves, rights of way. Doesn't U.S. have public interest in making sure Internet stays the Internet (accessible)?

Sotomayor: TV, phones regulated. Reviewed by course, policy choices of Congress. The Internet has revolutionized communications. Access to that is a question that our citizens are concerned about. But role of court is not to make policy, but wait till Congress acts... Brand X... was question of which gov't. agency would regulate those providers.. the Court... determined it thought it fit in one agency, not another... We're talking about statutory interpretation and Congress's understanding to amend if it chooses. I don't minimize your concerns..

Access... its importance implicates freedom of speech, property rights, regulation.. so many issues implicated... that what the court can do is interpret each statute.

Franken: First Amendment? No matter what Congress does? Overriding right of Americans to have access?

Sotomayor: Rights don't override... The court looks at how Congress balances those rights, and judges if balance is Constitutional...

Franken: Judicial activism... As I see it, there's impoverishment of our political discourse re: judiciary. Candidates/officeholders reduce judicial picks to activist v. not. 30 second soundbites... Code word for judges you don't agree with. What's your definition?

Sotomayor: Not a term I use, because I don't describe judges' work in that way. Each attempts to interpret law according to legal principles... You're right, people think activism is wrong conclusion in light of policy. I don't approach judging this way at all... not policy choices, or world views or shoulds... that would be activism. Improper. That's different than what I consider the process of judging, come to each situation and apply the law.

Franken: BUT, in political discourse, that's the ONLY phrase that's ever used.

[I'll stop here... good for Al, great subject matter]

No I won't. He's into age discrimination. Another good topic. Franken's talking about the erosion of workers' rights. "This is a big deal."

Now, abortion rights:

Franken: The word "abortion" is not in the Constitution. What about "birth control"? No. "Privacy"? No.

Is there a fundamental right to privacy?

Sotomayor: Certain rights under due process clause, extends to rights of privacy under certain situations. Parents have right to direct education to their kids... There have also been other decisions.

Franken: So if a word doesn't appear, it's not relevant is it?

Sotomayor: Some words are, but the Constit. is written in broad terms. Courts look at how those words apply to a factual setting.

Franken: Roe v. Wade, court talked about right to have an abortion. Does right to privacy include right to have abortion?

Sotomayor: Court has said that there is a right to privacy that women have w/ respect to termination of pregancies in certain situations.

Franken: What was the one case in Perry Mason that Burger won?

Sotomayor: Can't remember!

Franken: You don't remember? Didn't the White House prepare you for that? [laughter]

He's here all week... bada bing!

Obama team members to fan out on summer rural tour

Also a great move to woo* rural voters.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is dispatching top administration officials and Cabinet members on a "rural tour" this summer to explore ways to strengthen rural America.

The tour starts Wednesday in Wattsburg, Pa., where Vice President Joe Biden, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will discuss rural broadband service.

The White House says other events will be held in Alaska, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. In addition, Vilsack will hold "listening sessions" in other states with local and state elected officials.

*brain fart corrected

President Obama's New (Media) World Order

By GottaLaff

Chris Cillizza, on which reporters President Obama called on at his first presser:

Obama largely stuck to the script when it came to choosing the reporters who got to ask questions. He led off with the wires (Associated Press, Reuters), moved into the networks (CBS, NBC, ABC) and hit the big national newspapers (New York Times and Post). But, then, on the twelfth question of the night, Obama broke with tradition by giving Huffington Post's Sam Stein a chance to play on the big stage. It's a symbolic acknowledgment by the president (and his advisers) of the power of HuffPo and of the Internet-based media more generally.

Good-bye (and good riddance) Bush's Internets. Hello Prez O's cyber savvy. The White House has finally joined the 21st century.

Female pioneer of cyberspace honoured

Just thought it would be nice to note a woman is recieving this honor. Honestly, when you think of the beginnings of computers et al, you think of the men, but it looks like one of us was pretty instrumental also. Take that Larry Summers.

A professor who invented a forerunner of the world wide web has been made a dame in the New Year Honours.

Wendy Hall created the "open hypermedia system" Microcosm with colleagues after joining the University of Southampton computer science group in 1984.

And in 1994 she became the university's first female professor of engineering.

Professor Hall, 56, was made a CBE in 2000 for services to science and technology and is considered one of the best computer scientists in the world.

Poll- Women would rather give up sex than internet

I seriously wish you could see the look on my face.

(CNET) -- Just how reliant are you on the Internet?

Nearly half of the women questioned by Harris Interactive said they'd be willing to forgo sex for two weeks, rather than give up their Internet access, according to a study released Monday by Intel, which commissioned the survey.

While 46 percent of the women surveyed were willing to engage in abstinence versus losing their Internet, only 30 percent of the men surveyed were willing to do likewise.

The U.S. survey, which queried 2,119 adults last month, found that the gap grew even wider for both men and woman who were 18 to 34 years old. For woman, the percentage of those willing to skip the sheets in favor of the Web rose to 49 percent, while it climbed to 39 percent for men.

And for women 35 to 44 years old, the figure jumped to 52 percent.

PC premiered 40 years ago to awed crowd

Think of all the things that this demonstration brought to the world.

(12-07) 19:24 PST -- Little did the world realize 40 years ago that a San Francisco stage was featuring the first public glimpse of an invention that would revolutionize not only our daily lives but also our ability to solve the world's problems.

An audience of about 1,000 people had witnessed the premiere of the personal computer.

The Dec. 9, 1968, unveiling of the primitive device with a mouse and interactive screen - in a now-legendary demonstration by its inventor, Douglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute - drew a rousing, standing ovation from the computing cognoscenti who recognized the significance of what they had just seen.

Obama Transition Team Staffs Up Internet Outreach Crew

By GottaLaff

Via TPM:

Now this is a good sign: The Obama transition team has just signed up two leading Web types for the transition's Internet outreach team, a welcome indication that the Obama team is moving to transfer its astonishing online successes during the campaign over to the world of governing.

A transition source tells us that that Macon Phillips, a key Obama campaign Web official, has been tapped to head new media for the transition, and Jesse Lee, a leading Web operative who handled Rahm Emanuel's DCCC internet outreach operation during the 2006 take-back of Congress, has been hired to do online communications. Obama's transition team confirms the hires.

Phillips helped run Obama's general election new media shop, which raised huge sums of money and used social networking tools to organize in all sorts of innovative ways.

Lee, meanwhile, is highly regarded by liberal bloggers. He wrote the first-ever blog for the House Speaker, and in the closing days of the campaign he did online rapid response for the DNC, helping the Obama camp frame its message outreach to the blogosphere.

Here's what John Aravosis at AMERICABlog says about him (hint: he likey):

Jesse is wonderful. Joe and I know him from when he was working for the DCCC (the group in charge of electing Democrats to the House), and more recently we worked with him while he served at the DNC and then the Obama campaign. Can't say enough good things about Jesse. He knows the Netroots, knows politics, knows how to fight back.

I feel all kinds of secure about this.

Obama Looks To Be First "Wired" President

It's a whole new world.

Armed with millions of e-mail addresses and a political operation that harnessed the Internet like no campaign before it, Barack Obama will enter the White House with the opportunity to create the first truly "wired" presidency.

Obama aides and allies are preparing a major expansion of the White House communications operation, enabling them to reach out directly to the supporters they have collected over 21 months without having to go through the mainstream media.

Sitemeter Takes Down The Internet

In one fell swoop.Thanks to Gimmeabreak for emailing and letting me know about the problem so I wasn't wandering the intertubes ignorant. Info on what happened here. Hope they get it fixed soon since Gotta and I are both sitemeter junkies.

Quote-O'-The-Day: John Sidney McDinosaur edition

By GottaLaff

"I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself. I don't expect to be a great communicator, I don't expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need... I don't e-mail, I've never felt the particular need to e-mail."

-- Sen. John McCain, in an interview with the New York Times, once again raising an important question.

Newsflash! John Sidney McObsolete knows about the Internets!

By GottaLaff

Via Cliff.

This is hilarious. And so are Cliff's comments:

Tracy Russo, an online guru for the Edwards Campaign, and Mark Soohoo, the guy who has to explain to McCain everyday that the Internet is not run by pedaling a bike-like apparatus from the Flintstones, had a back and forth that was simply hysterical.

We can celebrate the fact that McObsolete is becoming more of an embarrassment every day.

McCain v. Obama = "Horse & Buggy v. NASA space ship"

By GottaLaff

Obama’s social network has nearly a million members. McCain’s has a sign-up that reads "Benefits of joining Team McCain include:"—with nothing following.

Photo: Composite image by Politico.com

While struggling to memorize his stump speech, John Sidney McAntiquity came across something behind the washboard next to his kerosene lamp: his wife's quill. He puzzled over the new-fangled writing device. After carefully examining it, a candle light bulb went off over his head: He could communicate to potential voters by dipping it in ink and stroking it across parchment in a series of symbols! Thus, the McAntiquity campaign was born.

When John McCain, 71, wanted Barack Obama, 46, to join him at a series of town hall meetings, he dispatched a messenger to hand-deliver the invitation. "You know, you could have just e-mailed this," Obama press secretary Bill Burton told the messenger.

"It's the difference between a horse and buggy and a NASA space ship," said Phil Noble, a veteran of Democratic campaigns and the founder of the nonpartisan political news site PoliticsOnline, comparing the campaigns’ respective approaches to technology. "Obama has given people the tools to create and run their own campaigns," Noble continued. "McCain is still a command-and-control, top-down candidate. Part of it is the difference in age." [...] McCain's response when Politico's Mike Allen asked him whether he used a Mac or a PC: "Neither. I'm an illiterate that has to rely on my wife for all of the assistance I can get."

With that, he boarded the stagecoach, whipped out his harmonica, and played haunting strains of "Old Folks at Home" all the way to Kansas.

Obama has also built a formidable network of online supporters and activists. As of Tuesday, his my.barackobama.com social networking site had 926,000 members, and he had 946,568 Facebook supporters.

McCain, by contrast, had 141,183 Facebook supporters, and his McCain Space online sign-up contains the dispiriting sentence fragment: "Benefits of joining Team McCain include:" — with nothing following.

McAntiquity: "Change you can gum chew on."

The campaign's different relationships to the Web reflect the difference between Obama's background in community organizing and McCain's many years in Washington.

"When you've run as many campaigns as McCain has, you rely on what's worked in the past," said Caleb Clark, founder and CEO of WeTheCitizens, a conservative-leaning online software development company.

McAntiquity powdered his wig and polished his musket one last time before realizing he'd forgotten to mail off the handwritten parchment notices of his campaign event in the town square. Great. There went the Kansas stump speech. And the next Pony Express wasn't due for another 3 days.

Obama Recruits Team To Fight Web Smears

by Cliff Schecter

They are leaving no stone unturned it would seem. Sadly, this is some of the blowback of our brave new world. But it is smart for the Obama team to not take this stuff sitting down:

Barack Obama is recruiting senior staff to a new unit which will combat virulent rumour campaigns on the internet that threaten to cost him votes in the presidential election against John McCain.

The unit is part of a huge expansion of Obama's campaign team as he shifts from the Democratic nomination race to the campaign for November's election.

These kinds of rumors helped play a role both in the demise of John McCain's Campaign in 2000 and John Kerry's campaign in 2004--so this is a very wise strategic decision, in my ever so humble opinion.