Obama takes Twitter Queries (and a tweet b*mb from Boehner)

Just thought I'd highlight the story recently that Obama conducted a Town Hall type meeting in which he responded to questions asked via Twitter. The chosen questions were selected by algorithms that pooled the most popular topics.

One of the questions was from House Speaker and leader of the opposition, John Boehner, who said,
"After embarking on a record spending binge that's left us deeper in debt, where are the jobs?"

I find the subtle but serious political jockeying to be funny, and the "coolness quotient" of Obama using Twitter like this to also be interesting.

Thoughts?

Is the tablet really more imporatnt the the State of the Union

Apple is supposedly announcing a new device tomorrow, the fabled tablet. The blogosphere and the internet as a whole are going nuts about this. So much so that it is now the #1 trending search topic online. More people are interested in this than in what Obama has to say about health care, the wars, Haiti and all the rest.

http://gawker.com/5456613/steve-jobs-is-walloping-the-president-with-his-magic-tablet

I think it actually makes sense. After all, we all know exactly what Obama is going to say: "Ladies and Gentlemen, the State of the Union is Strong." However, very few people know what exactly is this tablet - is it just a giant iPod touch or is it the device that'll kill all traditional media outlets. Perhaps more importantly, we pretty much know how much the healthcare reform bill is going to cost us. The price of the tablet is still unknown.

Jonathan Shulman

Economic Recession Could Potentially Lead to Reverse in Online Gambling Ban

Today, it seems that the only thing the government likes doing more than saving the economy is finding new sources of tax revenue. In recent weeks, President Obama has discussed more stringent penalties towards companies using offshore tax havens.

More recently though, the United States government has decided to take a second look at the potential revenue from online gambling. According to the Wall Street Journal, a senior White House Democrat introduced a bill in early May that would “suspend rules banning Internet-based gambling and seek to regulate it instead.” The article continued by quoting a recent study published by PricewaterhouseCoopers, that claims the U.S. Treasury could gain $48.6 billion annually by taxing online gambling sites.

This is not the first time the bill was put forward. It was originally introduced in 2006. It may, however, work this time, since the government is desperately trying to bring in money almost as quickly as it is spending it. If passed, the bill would go into effect in December.

this just in: obama revives talk of net neutrality

Picking up on Justin's Net Neutrality posting - Back in October during the presidential elections, Obama gave Net Neutrality advocates a surge of hope when he was asked during an MTV event if he supported Net Neutrality: An enthusiastic "Yes!"

I am a strong supporter of net neutrality," said Obama. "What you've been seeing is some lobbying that says [Internet providers] should be able to be gatekeepers and able to charge different rates to different websites...so you could get much better quality from the Fox News site and you'd be getting rotten service from the mom and pop sites. And that I think destroys one of the best things about the Internet -- which is that there is this incredible equality there...as president I'm going to make sure that is the principle that my FCC commissioners are applying as we move forward."

Nearly six months into office, the president clearly has a lot of enormous national problems on his plate - and his promises of Net neutrality seems to have been all but forgotten. Until last Friday... amidst a lot of discussion and news about increasing national cybersecurity, Obama let this fly:

"Let me also be clear about what we will not do. Our pursuit of cyber-security will not -- I repeat, will not include -- monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic. We will preserve and protect the personal privacy and civil liberties that we cherish as Americans. Indeed, I remain firmly committed to net neutrality so we can keep the Internet as it should be -- open and free."

Reassuring news for those of us who believe in Net neutrality - while some of its staunchest legislator advocates like Rep. Ed Markey (D-Massachussetts) have turned their attention to other hot button issues like the carbon cap-and-trade legislation, it's clear the president doesn't think the issue of keeping "series of tubes" (as one sad Alaskan senator once described the internet) equally accessible to all who log on is an isolated lobbying point - it's part and parcel of the way a country conducts its national security and its citizens communicate with each other.

Created in His Image

An artist has sued the Associated Press in order to preempt being sued. Shephard Fairey allegedly found this photograph by freelance photographer Mannie Garcia on the Internet and used it as the basis for his now famous "Hope" poster featuring President Barack Obama.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/arts/design/10fair.html

I thought this article was relevant, given the discussion we had in class on Monday regarding whether it is legal to replicate photographs of the Statue of Liberty or the Brooklyn Bridge, etc., by taking new shots from the same angle, distance, and during the same conditions as famous photos. 

The A.P. had wanted Fairey to settle out of court and donate some of the earnings he received from his "Hope" poster to the A.P. Emergency Relief Fund, which supports A.P. journalists around the world who suffer personal losses due to natural disasters or conflicts. Shephard Fairey's lawyer contends that the photo was used merely as inspiration and that it falls under the "fair use" exceptions to copyright law.

If Anthony T. Falzone, Fairey's lawyer, were worth his salt, he would continue to scour the Internet for photographs of Obama, a political and public figure, that mirror Garcia's in terms of the angle, facial expression, and position of the head. The truth is, people who had earlier combed the Internet trying to find the photograph that inspired Fairey's piece of art came up with many such photos in the process. They had debated which one it was for a long time. That in and of itself could prove that Fairey used not just one, but many images as "inspiration." Alternatively, it could show in a court of law that the A.P. cannot prove with any real certainty which photo was the basis for the image on the poster. If they cannot do that, they cannot win their case.

Having worked in a medium in which artists used photographs as references daily and transformed the pictures into something more magical and inspiring than the original, I clearly (at the moment) fall on their the side in the debate. In addition, the fees that photographers expect other artists to pay simply to base new works on their images almost amounts to extortion. (I get that photographers need to protect their craft and make a living, but they need to be more reasonable in their expectations for compensation.) In the future, artists out there, always base your new piece of art on at least two different photographs. You will get in far less trouble with photo agencies.