Tag: OBAMA

President Obama is looking to create an Internet ID system for American Web surfers, and is counting on the Department of Commerce to make it a reality. As CBS News reports, the so-called "trusted identity" project is part of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which the Obama administration is currently drafting. White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt says ...

The Obama administration is pushing for the creation of a new 'Privacy Policy Office,' which would be charged with the task of putting together an online "privacy bill of rights" for all Americans. The proposals were outlined in a report from the Department of Commerce, which called for the development of a new "framework" to protect consumers from data-gathering, third-party companies. The ...

Anyone with an Internet connection and some extra time on their hands can access the secret diplomatic cables recently published by WikiLeaks -- except, of course, anyone who works for the Air Force. Yesterday, the Air Force confirmed that it had blocked all sites that had published the full cables, including the New York Times, the Guardian, and more than 25 other news organizations. ...

Don't adjust your TV sets. Democrats and Republicans really did just find a solution to one of the world's biggest problems: commercial decibel levels. After having already breezed through the Senate in October, the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act received a final stamp of approval yesterday from the House of Representatives. It's now headed to the White House, where it ...

We already knew that the FBI was pushing to expand its online wiretapping capacities. Now, the agency has apparently taken its campaign to Silicon Valley. As the New York Times reports, FBI Director Robert Mueller met Tuesday with several tech companies -- including Facebook and Google -- to discuss a possible expansion to current legislation that would make it easier for federal agencies to ...

A guy named Sylvester Cann recently attended a rally in Seattle, where the POTUS was shaking hands and signing autographs. Somehow, Cann managed to work his way to within arm's length of President Obama, and soon found himself standing face to face with the most powerful person in the world. Instead of quaking in awe or mutely shaking the President's hand, though, Cann calmly whipped out his ...

We, like most good Americans, rely on FOX News to let us know which media outlets to trust (i.e., FOX News), and which agenda-driven sources we should disregard as pawns of the vast left-wing conspiracy (i.e., everything else). Yet, as much as we've enjoyed existing within Rupert Murdoch's vacuum of objectivity, we couldn't help but raise a few eyebrows when our guiding light of journalistic ...

Barack Obama initially promised to support and fund numerous techie projects, and now the President appears ready to publicly lead by example. With mounting pressure from green activists, White House officials are reportedly intending to install solar panels atop the President's residence next spring. According to the Associated Press, the White House solar panels will power unspecified areas, ...

To announce his campaign for Chicago mayor, former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel took a page from his former boss's digital campaign playbook, and went directly to YouTube. In a video posted to his campaign website, Emanuel casually announced his candidacy from behind a desk, and divulged a few more details about his upcoming 'Tell It Like It Is' campaign tour. "As I prepare to run ...

Your TV watching experience may be getting a lot calmer very soon, thanks to a newly Senate-approved bill that would put a limit on how loud advertisers can make their commercials. The appropriately titled Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) calls for the FCC to draft new regulations which would guarantee that televised commercials can't be obscenely loud, or broadcast at a ...

As part of their tireless struggle to prevent terrorist attacks and protect U.S. citizens, federal law enforcement officials are now pushing for new legislation to enhance their online surveillance capabilities. The bill, which the Obama administration plans to submit for Congressional deliberation next year, would require communications services like Facebook, BlackBerry and Skype to be capable ...

President Obama knows exactly how to get American students interested in math and science: video games. As Game Informer reports, Obama has now launched a new program called the National STEM Video Game Challenge, a competition that encourages America's students to use their math, science and engineering skills to design video games. The event, which is being held by the Joan Ganz Cooney ...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials patrolling the Mexican border will soon have an extra set of eyes to keep watch over our frontiers with the launch of a new fleet of Predator drones. As Reuters reports, the first wave of unmanned aircraft will take off from Corpus Christi tomorrow, and will allow border protection agents to remotely conduct surveillance over the entire U.S.-Mexican ...

He may be older than dust, but, make no mistake about it, John McCain is a certified "Twitter Genius." According to a recent study (PDF) conducted by researchers from George Washington University and New York University, the 73-year-old Arizona Senator ranks at the very top of the U.S. Senate's "Twitter Geniuses." The academics came to their conclusion after calculating every Senator's "Digital ...

In Washington, the Federal Register is regular reading for most lawyers and lobbyists eager to catch up on the latest policy proposals, regulations and public meeting notices. For most people outside the Beltway, though, the Register's arcane legal jargon renders the weekday compilation virtually indecipherable. Now, as part of its ongoing campaign to more directly engage voters and enhance ...