XYDO.COM: Politics

5 Tips For Politicians on Pinterest

From presidential contenders to school board hopefuls, political candidates are experimenting with a wide variety of social platforms to get their message heard. Some are turning to Pinterest, the explosively popular image-based pinboard site — even President Obama and Ann Romney, wife of Mitt Romney, have accounts on the image-based social network. What’s the key to political perfection on Pinterest? Scott Peters and Garrett Law of social media agency Attention Span Media, which has worked with several political campaigns, have shared with Mashable five of their can’t-miss tips for Pinteresting pols: It’s All About Images “Pinterest is very visual,” said Peters. “It’s less about words and more about images, and it’s meant to be quick, easy and digestable” Translation: Don’t put overly-long captions on your photos or send out too many infographics. Instead, send out plenty of photos of the politician hard at work or interacting with the public. Pinterest users are there for eye candy, not tomes of text. “If people wanted to read position papers and debates,” added Law, “there are other platforms for that. Pinterest is best thought of as a visual resume.” Make it Shareable “Put stuff there that’s shareable,” said Peters. “Voters and potential voters will appreciate engaging content that relates to them and their community. Ideally, share something they’d be interested in repinning on their own page.” What might sharable content look like for a politician? “Mitt Romney on the Republican side is very much about family values, so he might pin a photo of himself and his family,” said Law. “He’d want to piece together a nice image that he’s using to communicate to voters and supporters. You should know what ideals your audience upholds and use visuals to communicate those ideals. Law also gave an example from a campaign his firm has been working with. “One strategy we’re using in the Scott Peters for Congress campaign in San Diego is building a pinboard of people that have endorsed Peters,” said Law. “It’s about putting a face to a name. People react better to interactions with other people visually than just via text. It’s a great way to create that more personal connection.” Interact, Don’t Just Broadcast “Pinterest intended to be a social platform,” suggested Peters. “It’s not all about politicians being ‘me, me me,’ it’s about the people — which is what all politics should be about, really.” How should a politician engage on Pinterest? “Give people material they can repin and encourage them to comment on photos from the campaign,” said Peters. “Also, develop a preemptive or proactive plan to understand which posts you want people to engage with freely and which you might want to moderate, instead of flaring up a conversation you’d rather not have active on your Pinterest page.” It’s Not Just for Women Pinterest has gained a reputation for having an audience made mostly of women, so should politicians post content that appeals mostly to females? No way, said Peters and Law. “There’s this misconception that there’s only women [on Pinterest],” said Peters. “But there’s a wide range of age demographics on the site.” Law agreed. “Even outside sphere of politics, interest has collected a reputation of being female-centric,” he said. “But we really have seen a wider range of people from male to female, young to old that are participating.” The lesson for politicians, then, is to post content aimed at different demographics and see what gets the attention of the audience. Experimentation is key. Don’t Pin and Ditch This is a rule across social media: If you’re going to start using a particular platform, you’ve got to commit. Otherwise, your followers are going to be left feeling abandoned, wondering what happened: not a good sensation to be felt by potential voters. “Be active. It’s about being visible,” said Peters. “If you’re not active, your visibility on the home page drops dramatically, your fans will be less engaged, and you’ll see fewer interactions. People can access conversations at any given time — people do check often and see what’s new, and I think especially this year there’s a huge timeliness to things in online politics. You only get so many chances to get in front of voters, so you want to make sure you have every chance you can to control the last thing they see before voting and to have a share of that voice.” How’ve you seen your local politicians using Pinterest or other forms of social media in unique ways? Tell us in the comments below. Thumbnail image courtesy ep_jhu, Flickr. More About: pinterest, Politics, Social Media, US

Syria angry at Olympic ban threat

Syrian officials say the UK government "has no right" to deny their athletes access to the London 2012 Olympic games.

UN 'to meet' on Syria massacre

Britain is calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after a massacre in the embattled country of Syria left at least 90 people dead.

EXCLUSIVE: Florida Telling Hundreds Of Eligible Citizens That They Are Ineligible To Vote

Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) has ordered the state to purge all “non-citizens” from the voting rolls prior to November’s election. But that list compiled by the Scott administration is so riddled with errors that, in Miami-Dade County alone, hundreds of U.S. citizens are being told they are ineligible to vote, ThinkProgress has learned exlusively. According to data from the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections obtained by ThinkProgress: — 1638 people in Miami-Dade County were flagged by the state as “non-citizens” and sent letters informing them that they were ineligible to vote. — Of that group, 359 people have subsquently provided the county with proof of citizenship. — Another 26 people were identified as U.S. citizens directly by the county. — The bulk of the remaining 1200 people have simply not responded yet to a letter sent to them by the Supervisor of Elections. You can see a similar letter sent to alleged “non-citizens” by the Broward County Supervisor of Elections HERE. (“The Supervisor of Elections… has received information that you are not a citizen of the United States.”) If recipients of the letter do not respond within 30 days — a deadline that is mere days away — they will be summarily removed from the voting rolls. The voters purged from the list, election officials tell ThinkProgress, will inevitably include fully eligible Florida voters. In short, in excess of 20 percent of the voters flagged as “non-citizens” in Miami-Dade are, in fact, citizens. And the actual number may be much higher. An analysis of the state-wide list by the Miami Herald found that “Hispanic, Democratic and independent-minded voters are the most likely to be targeted” as ineligible by the list. Conversely “whites and Republicans are disproportionately the least-likely to face the threat of removal.” Late last year, Scott ordered his Secretary of State, Kurt Browning to “to identify and remove non-U.S. citizens from the voter rolls.” Browning could not access to reliable citizenship data. So election officials attempted to identify non-U.S. citizens by comparing data from the state motor vehicle administration with the voting file. That process produced a massive list of 182,000 names, which Browning considered unreliable and refused to release. Browning resigned in February and Scott pressed forward with the purge. The Fair Elections Legal Network, which is challenging the purge, noted that database matching is “notoriously unreliable” and “data entry errors, similar-sounding names, and changing information can all produce false matches.” Further, some voters may have naturalized since their license information was collected. For example Juan Artabe, a resident of Miami-Dade was flagged as a “non-citizen” based on motor vehicle records from 2006. He became a citizen in 2008 but no one notified the state. He was able to retain his ability to vote only by sending his citizenship papers to the Supervisor of Elections. The situation in Miami-Dade is also apparent in elsewhere in Florida. According to a local reports in smaller Polk County of the 21 voters flagged by the state “nine appear to be citizens, leaving 12 as questionable.” The purge of fully eligible voters from the voting rolls by Scott could be enough to tip the balance in Florida and, perhaps, the presidential election. In 2000, the final (disputed) margin was just 537 votes.

Scots to lower drink-drive limit

The drink-drive limit in Scotland will be lowered "as a priority", the Scottish government has said

Syria in New Attack Claims

Government troops shelled residential areas in central Syria on Sunday, two days after the bombardment killed at least 32 children.

Why Is The State Department Partnering With ... - United Liberty

If you follow the blogosphere, you’ll know that bloggers who criticize left-wing activist and convicted bomber Brett Kimberlin have been harassed. While doing some research on Mr. Kimberlin, I discovered he runs a group called Justice Through Music, which has received money from Soros and other rich progressives. Looking on JTMP’s front page, I discovered this interesting little bit of information. MAY 24, 2012 - JTMP has been a participant in the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Programfor 3 years now, where citizens from around the world involved in the arts get to come to America and visit to learn about the role of arts in the US. This year we had visitors that came from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia to see how Justice Through Music Project uses art to raise awareness on issues, and to bring about social change. This year’s contingent had musicians, playwrights, and people involved in art production. We gave them a presentation and showed them many of our musical art videos that deal with politics and issues, while we spoke about how we operate and produce our art videos. We then showed them how we use this art on our website and YouTube channel to raise awareness on an issue to help bring about positive social change. Here’s a bit more info about the International Visitor Leadership Program: The International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) is the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program. Launched in 1940, the IVLP is a professional exchange program that seeks to build mutual understanding between the U.S. and other nations through carefully designed short-term visits to the U.S. for current and emerging foreign leaders. These visits reflect the International Visitors’ professional interests and support the foreign policy goals of the United States. Who are International Visitors? International Visitors are current or emerging leaders in government, politics, the media, education, the arts, business and other key fields. Over 5,000 International Visitors come to the United States from all over the world each year. Since its inception in 1940, thousands of distinguished individuals have participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program, including 330 current and former Chiefs of State and Heads of Government, thousands of cabinet-level ministers, and many other distinguished leaders from the public and private sectors. So why is the State Department partnering with a convicted bomber and having him meet important people from around the world we’re trying to influence to like America? Who vets these organizations in the State Department? Is Brett Kimberlin the man we want to try and “win the hearts and minds” of the rest of the world?

Branson calls for businesses plan

Business tycoon Richard Branson urged the government to promote economic growth by making it easier to start small businesses in the UK.

Is Youtube Stifling Conservative Speech?

Says Youtube, according to Ms. McAulay: Thank you for submitting your video appeal to YouTube. After further review of the content, we've determined that your video does violate our Community Guidelines and have upheld our original decision. We appreciate your understanding. They hope McAulay understands that her respectful presentation of diverse opinion must be banned, but videos made in response to hers in which she's called a "whore" and a "pig" (among other gems) is allowed. Youtube has a history of such decisions. Unlike the left, conservatives fully support a private company's decision to operate how it sees fit. If Youtube wants to teach kids about free speech by banning the respectful videos of teenage girls while allowing men to savage them in misogynistic attacks in still-standing videos, that's their choice.

Cable: 'Don't lecture eurozone'

The UK should learn from Germany's successful economy, rather than lecturing the eurozone, Business Secretary Vince Cable says.

Warning signs for Obama on path to electoral votes...

President Barack Obama faces new warning signs in a once-promising Southern state and typically Democratic-voting Midwestern states roughly five months before the election even as he benefits nationally from encouraging economic news. Obama's new worries about North Carolina and Wisconsin offer opportunities for Republican Mitt Romney, who must peel off states Obama won in 2008 if he's to cobble together the 270 electoral votes needed to oust the incumbent in November. Iowa, which kicked off the campaign in January, is now expected to be tight to the finish, while New Mexico, thought early to be pivotal, seems to be drifting into Democratic territory. If the election were today, Obama would likely win 247 electoral votes to Romney's 206, according to an Associated Press analysis of polls, ad spending and key developments in states, along with interviews with more than a dozen Republican and Democratic strategists both inside and outside of the two campaigns. Seven states, offering a combined 85 electoral votes, are viewed as too close to give either candidate a meaningful advantage: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and Virginia. "As of today, the advantage still lies with the president, but there is a long and hard road ahead in this election," said Tad Devine, who was a top strategist to Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore and John Kerry but isn't directly involved in this year's race. If Romney wins all the states Republican John McCain carried in 2008 plus North Carolina, as trends today suggest he would, he would still need 64 electoral votes to hit the magic number. That would require him to win a majority of the states that are up for grabs. Obama, on the other hand, faces the costly and labor-intensive challenge of defending those states in a much different environment than the one he enjoyed four years ago. Big-spending, pro-Romney political committees are certain to be a factor, and already are running heavy levels of television ads in states where Obama is vulnerable, such as Florida. But Obama's early spending — more than $30 million on advertising before Memorial Day — and new glimmers of economic hope across the battleground states demonstrate the size of Romney's challenge. The race is expected to be close, and the past six weeks have been volatile. Obama announced his support for gay marriage on May 9, one day after 60 percent of North Carolina voters approved a constitutional ban. "That issue definitely hurts him down there," said veteran Republican presidential campaign strategist Charlie Black, a top aide to 2008 nominee McCain. Black's not directly involved in this year's race but is an informal adviser to Romney. North Carolina's high African American and young voter population, keys to Obama's 2008 wins there, give him the edge, aides say. And the president so far has spent heavily there, $2.7 million on television, according to reports provided to the AP. But Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue gave Republicans an opening by not seeking re-election this year. And union leaders, a key Democratic constituency, are upset that this summer's Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., is being held in a state where union rights are weak. In Wisconsin, embattled Republican Gov. Scott Walker's improving fortunes as a contentious June 5 recall election approaches could alter that state's landscape. Walker, who sparked mass protests by signing anti-union legislation last year, has pulled narrowly ahead of Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in recent polls. If Walker survives, Romney aides say they have a real chance to carry Wisconsin, which no Republican has done since Ronald Reagan in 1984. "I don't think there's been any better dress rehearsal for a presidential election than what's going on in Wisconsin right now," said Rich Beeson, political director for the former Massachusetts governor. Indeed, the Wisconsin recall could signal a GOP shift in an arc of states from Iowa to Pennsylvania that have reliably voted Democratic in presidential elections for a generation. "Whether Walker wins or doesn't is going to be a big indicator of how Wisconsin goes, and how the whole upper Midwest goes," said Iowa's Republican Gov. Terry Branstad. Romney has signaled plans to contest Iowa, where Obama's 2008 caucus win propelled him to the Democratic nomination. Romney also sees opportunity in his native Michigan, where Democratic presidential candidates have won since 1988. Bright spots are developing for Obama, too. Public polls this month showed the president narrowly ahead in Virginia, a Southern state Republicans had carried nine times before Obama won it in 2008. Obama's advantage among Latino voters is moving New Mexico his way. Neither campaign nor the super PACs have advertised there, despite close finishes in 2000 and 2004. Obama also has seized on new economic data that could give him a lift across the contested map. April unemployment ticked downward in all of the up-for-grabs states except Colorado as Obama and Romney have fought over who is best equipped to lead an economic recovery. In Des Moines, Iowa, this month, Romney blamed Obama's spending for the recovery's slow pace. A week later, on the other side of town, Obama said Romney's career as a private equity executive was more suited for the boardroom than the Oval Office. Obama's attack dovetails with scathing ads on Romney's career at the head of Bain Capital, which ran briefly in Colorado, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Virginia. They remained on the air last week in Ohio, where Obama aides say Romney's opposition to the auto industry bailout in 2009 hurts him with workers in the region's auto manufacturing sector. Obama has had an edge in getting out his message. For nearly two months, his campaign has aired spots across 11 states, heaviest in Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Virginia, according to the ad-tracking reports. Romney has only been airing ads for two weeks in four states. But super PACs that support him have helped shave Obama's advertising edge, airing $10 million in ads across 10 states. Obama aides point to an edge in state-by-state organizing that could be the deciding factor in a close election. While Romney is quickly arranging with the Republican National Committee to deploy staff to various battlegrounds, Obama's campaign has been up and running for years. Said Democratic strategist Devine: "The president and his campaign have a real and potentially decisive advantage on the ground." Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Watch: Trump Twists Truth About Obama, Romney, Twitter, Polls, Policy

Birther King Donald Trump had a big reality-bending Friday, falsifying facts and tweaking truths about President Obama, Mitt Romney’s China policy, the Donald’s poll numbers, and even how many followers he has on Twitter. Is Donald Trump’s self esteem so low he has to lie? Or can he just not help himself? Via The Daily Beast: “Look, it’s very simple,” said Trump, who has spent the past 13 months questioning Obama’s constitutional eligibility to occupy the White House (and only doubled down with his stubborn skepticism after Obama produced a long-form birth certificate, certifying he was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Hawaii, and then hilariously roasted him at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner. “A book publisher came out three days ago and said that in his written synopsis of his book,” Trump went on, “he said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia. His mother never spent a day in the hospital.” Actually, Obama’s literary agency at the time, two decades ago, published a recently discovered catalogue of clients and their projects that included erroneous information about Obama and a prospective book about race that he ended up not writing. An agency assistant back then, Miriam Goderich, said last week that she was mistaken when she wrote that Obama was born in Kenya. But Trump isn’t buying it. “That’s what he told the literary agent,” Trump insisted. “That’s the way life works… He didn’t know he was running for president, so he told the truth. The literary agent wrote down what he said… He said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia… Now they’re saying it was a mistake. Just like his Kenyan grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and she pointed down the road to the hospital, and after people started screaming at her she said, ‘Oh, I mean Hawaii.’ Give me a break.” The Democratic National Committee was quick to pounce on Romney’s apparent willingness to be associated with Trump’s birtherism after The Apprentice star’s role was disclosed in an emailed Romney campaign fundraising solicitation earlier Thursday. “Once again Mitt Romney is failing the moral leadership test,” DNC press secretary Melanie Roussell said in a statement. “Instead of rejecting Donald Trump’s ‘birther’ conspiracy theories and divisive attacks, he’s endorsing them by campaigning and fundraising with him… This type of false and extremely divisive rhetoric has no place in the political discourse of our country and Mitt Romney should stand up against it instead of standing with Donald Trump to raise money for his campaign.” But if that wasn’t enough, Trump later Friday morning appeared on “The View,” claimed he was doing very well in the polls (hardly — his brief surge “collapsed” just as quickly, and his unfavorables outweighed his favorables), but quit because he liked Mitt Romney’s foreign policy on China (also bunk.) He also claimed he has “millions” of followers on Twitter (1.2 million is not “millions,”) and says he would accept an offer to run as vice president.

Dozens of children killed in new Syria attack

Gruesome video Saturday showed rows of dead Syrian children lying in a mosque in bloody shorts and T-shirts

'Appalling Syria crime' condemned

International leaders condemn the reported killing of at least 90 people, including children, in the Syrian town of Houla, by government forces.

HALF U.S. HOMES ON GOV'T DOLE

HALF U.S. HOMES ON GOV'T DOLE(Main headline, 1st story, link)

Anti-cuts protest at Clegg's home

Up to 100 anti-cuts protesters gather outside Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's home in south-west London.

Don Tapscott: Living Out Loud -- Should We All Be More "Open?": Big Brother 2.0 (Part 6 of 7)

The ubiquity of digital gadgets and sensors, the pervasiveness of networks and the benefits of sharing very personal information through social media have led some to argue that privacy as a social norm is changing and becoming an outmoded concept. In a seven-part series Don Tapscott questions this view arguing that we each need a personal privacy strategy. This post is Part Six of that series. For previous articles go here. George Orwell's iconic text Nineteen Eighty Four described the dystopian society where a totalitarian state rules in its own interests and everyone is under constant surveillance by authorities. "Big Brother is watching you" became the rallying call for privacy advocates around the world. Today Orwell's "telescreens" have been replaced by ubiquitous, ambient networked computing where billions and soon trillions of devices connected to networks collect real-time data. True, in the developed world governments are not totalitarian, but many advocates of personal "openness" are naïve -- assuming that governments are benevolent and will act in the interests of their citizens. Fascism, Stalinism, McCarthyism, and the myriad repressive and totalitarian states of the last decades and today should remind us that our personal data can be used against us. Listen to Pete Seeger's "Knock on the Door" ("here they come to take one more") for a reminder. And today in the name of national security, governments are collecting real time information from us, sampling phone calls, emails, social networks, and taking our biometrics at airports and a growing list of other places. I was reminded of the dangers recently when meeting Ron Deibert, Director of the Citizen Lab that monitors and fights against government attempts to use the Internet against its citizens. The meeting was cut short because he had a situation to deal with. The Syrian Government had created a "phantom Facebook" and was using that to harvest names and personal data of dissidents, presumably so that they could hunt them down and kill them. "But this could never happen here" you say? We actually have very little idea exactly what governments are doing with the flood of personal information about us. And the aftermath of 9/11 should remind us just how quickly our civil liberties can be undermined in the name of national security. Everywhere in democratic societies governments are campaigning to intrude into our private lives to collect more information. In the UK the "Intercept Modernisation Plan" would permit authorities to intercept every form of online communication, all in aid of vague goals of fighting crime. Recently the New York Times reported that "Law enforcement tracking of cellphones, once the province mainly of federal agents, has become a powerful and widely used surveillance tool for local police officials, with hundreds of departments, large and small, often using it aggressively with little or no court oversight." The Times reports that this practice has become big business for cellphone companies, too, as carriers market a catalog of "surveillance fees" to police departments to determine a suspect's location, trace phone calls and texts or provide other services. Sure, you could argue that it's becoming difficult to restrict the information that governments can collect and yes of course we need to be vigilant about how that information should be used. But we still need to resist attempts of governments to collect unnecessary information. We still need to fight for the basic privacy principle of "data minimization" -- of limiting the information collected to clearly definable and socially helpful purposes. There should be no tapping of phones or anything else without due process. If a government agency proposes to set up video camera in your neighborhood, you need to decide if the benefits of possible crime reduction outweigh the possible dangers of unknown governments being able to watch you constantly. Or increasingly, governments want to collect biometrics information about you -- like fingerprints, retinal scans and even DNA. We each need to make choices. Sometimes this benefits you with better government services or faster movement through airports. But what are the long term implications should a government agency or individual become malevolent? The average person must be cautious and vigilant and even resist the collection of unnecessary personal information. To me, it's not so likely the future will not look like Orwell's 1984 or Jeremy Bentham's panopticon prison, or an east bloc police state during the Cold War. Those are metaphors from another era that depended upon a single, all-knowing malevolent power seeking control. The more appropriate metaphor for the growing loss of privacy today is found in Frank Kafka's The Trial where the central character awaits trial and judgment from an inscrutable bureaucracy for a crime that he is not told about, using evidence that is never revealed to him, in a process that is equally random and inscrutable. In likewise manner, we, too will be judged and sentenced in our absentia by unknown public and private bureaucracies having access to our personal data. We will be the targets of social engineering, decisions and discrimination and we will never really know what or why. If history is any guide, advances in privacy have tended to arise in the wake of widespread privacy abuses, for example, the negative effects of mass printing presses, the emergence of the fascist state, the abuses of credit reporting companies in the 1960s. Something similar may be happening today with data breaches and identity theft "in the cloud," as more and more people come to understand the pain and consequences of personal data misuse. Next up: "Corporate Secrecy and Personal Privacy are Opposites" Don Tapscott is the author of 14 books about technology in business and society, most recently with Anthony D. Williams "Macrowikinomics." He discusses these ideas on twitter @dtapscott

Sinn Fein unionist talks 'frank'

A senior Protestant clergyman says talks with Sinn Fein about reconciliation have been "open and frank".

Obama, Romney Try to Play It Safe in 2012 Gamble

In the risky business of running for president, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are largely playing it safe.

Australian IT Price Hike Inquiry Kicks Off: Submissions Wanted

New submitter wirelessduck writes "After some recent complaints from a Labor MP about price markups on software and technology devices in Australia, Federal Government agencies decided to look in to the matter and an official parliamentary inquiry into the issue was started. 'The Federal Parliament's inquiry into local price markups on technology goods and services has gotten under way, with the committee overseeing the initiative issuing its terms of reference and calling for submissions from the general public on the issue.'" Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Wisconsin Recall Debate: Tom Barrett Aggressively Goes After Scott Walker In First Face-Off

WASHINGTON -- Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) aggressively went after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) in the first of two gubernatorial debates, taking him to task for an ongoing corruption probe, repeal of an equal pay enforcement law and out-of-state fundraising. Walker largely stuck to his talking points, spending more time going after unions than directly attacking Barrett, and telling viewers that the way to heal the polarized state was to reelect him on June 5 and move beyond the recalls. Barrett made clear that he views the election as a referendum on Walker."This is not a rematch or a do-over," said Barrett, referring to his unsuccessful race against Walker in the 2010 gubernatorial election. "We cannot do-over the decision of Scott Walker to start a political civil war, which resulted in this state losing more jobs than any other state in the entire country in 2011. A decision that tore apart the state and made it impossible in some instances for neighbors to talk to neighbors, for relatives to talk to relatives, for workers to talk to co-workers, because it was too bitter a fight."Read More...More on Video

Kansas Governor, Sam Brownback, Signs Anti-Sharia Bill, Effectively Banning Islamic Law

KANSAS CITY, Kansas (Reuters) - Republican Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed a bill aimed at keeping state courts and agencies from using Islamic or other non-U.S. laws when making decisions, his office said on Friday, drawing criticism from a national Muslim group.

U.S. sailor is 3,000th Afghan war death

A U.S. sailor who died last week of medical complications was the 3,000th death among coalition forces in the Afghanistan war, according to CNN's count based on information provided by the U.S. Defense Department and the International Security Assistance Force.

Hunt texted 'mon ami' to lobbyist

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt addressed News Corp lobbyist Fred Michel as "daddy" and "mon ami" in text messages released by the Leveson Inquiry.

POLITICO Influence: Frank-a-palooza

It's safe to say Democrats are hoping to cash in on President Obama's support for gay marriage.

Should Entrepreneurs Collect Unemployment?

A plan backed by the U.S. Department of Labor would allow entrepreneurs to collect unemployment benefits while they build a business, an acknowledgement of startups’ growing importance to the American economy. The plan, called Self-Employment Assistance Programs (SEA), allows people collecting unemployment who “have proven to be good candidates for self-employment” to continue receiving checks while they build new businesses, according to the Department of Labor. In many states, people who are out of work can collect unemployment benefits only if they’re actively searching for a new job at an existing company. SEA waives that requirement, so long as a recipient of benefits can prove he or she is working on what the department calls a “credible” business. Entrepreneurs receiving benefits under SEA would be allowed to continue doing so for up to 26 weeks — the same time frame given to all other unemployment recipients. Unemployment insurance rules are largely determined at the state level — the federal government only gives certain rules and says that states must provide some form of it. Thus, the Department of Labor can’t dicate that every state adopts the proposed rule change. Instead, the department has made $35 million available for states who want to adopt SEA to do so, and it’s published guidelines showing state governments how they can institute the new rule. The plan is based on a model pioneered in Oregon and four other states, including Delaware, Maine, New York and New Jersey. It’s being championed by Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who called the plan a “success that has far outdistanced the cost to [Oregon].” He welcomes other states to model similar changes on his home state’s example. “We already know that unemployment insurance is an economic multiplier, but with self-employment assistance it can be a jobs multiplier too,” said Wyden in a statement. “Today’s guidance from the Department of Labor will show states exactly how to give the smart entrepreneurs looking for work in their state the spark they need to become small business job creators.” Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis credited the Oregon plan with sparking economic revival there, adding that any state which follows suit will also see job growth. “Self-Employment Assistance has proven to be a valuable tool in helping many unemployed Americans realize the dream of business ownership in Oregon and around the country,” said Solis. “These grants will help improve and expand these state programs while strengthening the economy and creating new jobs as more start-ups launch and grow.” Scott Gerber, entrepreneur and founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, called for more states to adopt SEA immediately. “SEA creates a guaranteed source of capital for startups without any of the traditional credit or collateral requirements as barriers — or the need to give away equity to investors — and empowers the unemployed to one day become the employers,” said Gerber. “The program’s track record speaks for itself, and now state legislatures must do their part and enact these programs.” What can the government do to better recognize entrepreneurship as a viable career? Tell us your opinion in the comments below. Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, lisegagne More About: Business, entrepreneurs, Politics, Startups, US

A User's Guide To Smoking Pot With Barack Obama

Barry was quite the accomplished marijuana enthusiast back in high school and college. Excerpts from David Maraniss' Barack Obama: The Story deal with the elaborate drug culture surrounding the president when he attended Punahou School in Honolulu and Occidental College in Los Angeles. He inhaled. A lot. 1. The Choom Gang A self-selected group of boys at Punahou School who loved basketball and good times called themselves the Choom Gang. Choom is a verb, meaning "to smoke marijuana." 2. Total Absorption As a member of the Choom Gang, Barry Obama was known for starting a few pot-smoking trends. The first was called "TA," short for "total absorption." To place this in the physical and political context of another young man who would grow up to be president, TA was the antithesis of Bill Clinton's claim that as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford he smoked dope but never inhaled. View Entire List ›

Obama and Romney Go Head-to-Head on Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]

One of the battles in the war for the White House is being fought on Twitter. It’s common knowledge that Obama’s beating Romney hand-over-fist in followers: the president has more than 15 million followers, compared to Romney’s half-million. However, the number of social followers alone doesn’t mean much — instead, the key to waging a successful political campaign on Twitter is engagement. Along those lines, how does President Obama’s Twitter presence stack up with that of Republican rival Mitt Romney? PeekAnalytics, a social audience measurement service, did some digging to find out. President Obama has more than 5,000 times the “pull,” or influence, than the average Twitter account, compared to Mitt Romney at 466 times the average. That means Obama has 12 times the influence of Romney. That seems like a clear win in the Obama column — until you consider that Obama has 30 times the followers that Romney does, meaning Romney is doing a better job of influencing his smaller audience. SEE ALSO: Obama vs. Romney: The Social Showdown Breaking down both presidential contenders’ followers into demographic categories, PeekAnalytics says Obama’s followers are more international (48% of Obama’s followers live abroad compared to 10% for Romney), they’re younger (58% are between the ages of 18-25, whereas 43% of Romney’s followers are in that bracket), and female (47% for Obama, 29% for Romney) than Romney’s social audience. Meanwhile, Romney’s followers tend to have higher incomes (30% of Romney’s followers make more than $100,000 a year, that category makes up 22% for Obama). Can the candidates’ Twitter following tell us anything about their chances come Election Day? According to PeekAnalytics, a higher percentage of Romney’s followers come from crucial battleground states, save Ohio. For more, check out PeekAnalytics’ infographic below. Do you think presidential campaigns are using Twitter effectively? Sound off in the comments below. Disclaimer: Mashable and PeekAnalytics have a commercial relationship, but Mashable did not pay for this report. More About: 2012 presidential campaign, barack obama, Mitt Romney, Politics, Social Media, Twitter, US

The facts about the growth of spending under Obama

“I simply make the point, as an editor might say, to check it out; do not buy into the BS that you hear about spending and fiscal constraint with regard to this administration. I think doing so is a sign of sloth and laziness.” Read full article >>

New press chief for Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson names a senior BBC journalist as his new director of communications.

New press chief for Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson names a senior BBC journalist as his new director of communications.

Egos And Immorality

If Wall Streeters are spoiled brats, they are spoiled brats with immense power and wealth at their disposal. And what they're trying to do with that power and wealth right now is buy themselves not just policies that serve their interests, but immunity from criticism.Read More...More on Financial Crisis

Nuclear waste expert tapped as top nuclear regulator

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he will nominate Allison Macfarlane, an expert in nuclear waste, as the nation's top nuclear safety cop, seeking to turn the page on a period of bitter acrimony at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Campaign Takes On Big Tobacco — By Supporting It [VIDEO]

A political campaign in California aims to increase the price of cigarettes by one dollar and use the proceeds to fund cancer research. They’ve released this hilarious video on Tuesday to get the word out, and it’s already approaching 100,000 views. In the satirical video, a group of Californians explain why they’re in favor of Big Tobacco. “I support Big Tobacco because I love their ads,” says one woman in the video. “And so do my kids.” Chris Lehman, campaign manager for the effort, considers the YouTube video an effective way to fight the financial behemoth that is the tobacco lobby. “Let’s be clear: we can’t match Big Tobacco, which has contributed more than $40 million to the opposition,” said Lehman. “But what we can do is rely on thousands of smart Californians who see through Big Tobacco’s smokescreen and will help spread our messages online.” SEE ALSO: Tech Luminaries Sing SF Mayor Ed Lee’s Praises [VIDEO] Fun fact: The ad was created by Portal A, the team behind the much-loved “Ed Lee is 2 Legit 2 Quit” video, a Mashable favorite. Do you think this video will help or hurt the campaign? Sound off in the comments below. More About: Politics, US, Video, viral, YouTube

Obama Takes Twitter Questions

President Barack Obama is no stranger to Twitter; he held his first Town Hall on the microblogging network, at the White House complete with Master of Ceremonies Jack Dorsey, just under a year ago. Thursday, with his reelection campaign getting into gear, Obama decided to take a few questions on Twitter. The Q&A session just ended, so check out what the President had to say in our Storify: [View the story "Barack Obama Hosts Twitter Chat" on Storify] More About: barack obama, Politics, Storify, Twitter

Blind activist Chen gives TV interview

Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng gives his first in-depth interview to CNN.

REPORT: Senate Democrats pay female staffers less than male staffers...

The Washington Free Beacon today reported that "Senate Democrats pay female staffers less than male staffers" and are running afoul of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which provides women more legal room to file pay discrimination claims against employers. However, the Free Beacon story refutes its own attack. From the Free Beacon article: A group of Democratic female senators on Wednesday declared war on the so-called "gender pay gap," urging their colleagues to pass the aptly named Paycheck Fairness Act when Congress returns from recess next month. However, a substantial gender pay gap exists in their own offices, a Washington Free Beacon analysis of Senate salary data reveals. Of the five senators who participated in Wednesday's press conference--Barbara Mikulski (D., Md.), Patty Murray (D., Wash.), Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) and Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.)--three pay their female staff members significantly less than male staffers. After highlighting the gender pay gaps of several other Democratic Senators, the Free Beacon threw cold water on its own claims: Women working for Senate Democrats in 2011 pulled in an average salary of $60,877. Men made about $6,500 more. While the gap is significant, it is slightly smaller than that of the White House, which pays men about $10,000, or 13 percent, more on average, according to a previous Free Beacon analysis. That previous analysis showed that the gender pay gap for the White House is smaller than in the overall economy. The Free Beacon is telling its readers that the gender pay gap among Senate Democratic staffers is even smaller than that. The Free Beacon then went even further in undermining their own story:

WATCH: The Bain Bust Out: How Tony Soprano Explains Private Equity

The national debate over private equity so far has hinged on the question of whether experience in the field qualifies Mitt Romney, the former Bain Capital executive, for the presidency. But a more vexing, and largely unanswered, question lies just beneath the surface: How is it, exactly, that an investment company can make millions even as the company it's ostensibly trying to turn around goes bust? For that answer, we turned to what may seem like a less-than-reliable source: Tony Soprano. The investors profit, it turns out, not despite the failure of the company, but in fact because of it. In the organized crime world, the business practice is known as a bust out. A group of investors -- in Soprano's case, an entire family -- looks for companies that have a strong underlying business but are in distress thanks to heavy debt burdens. The investors then takeover the company. In the mob's case, the family presents the business with a very high-interest loan -- an offer which, under the financial circumstances, is difficult to refuse -- and effectively takes control of the company with the threat of physical violence. Private equity investors, by contrast, buy control of the company's board by purchasing the firm's stock. But for both private equity firms and the mafia, investors use their control of the firm to take on more debt, while at the same time cutting costs by laying off workers. Cash from the loans and cost savings are funneled back to the investors. This looting continues until the company can't pay its debts. When it finally collapses, the company files for bankruptcy to extinguish the debt -- but private equity investors, as well as mobsters, get to keep the gains they've already reaped. Mark Galeotti, one of the leading experts in transnational organized crime, said it's a familiar tactic above ground and below it. "It's one of the classic tactics of organized crime," Galeotti, a New York University professor, told HuffPost. "You exploit it as far as you can and when you have essentially squeezed every possible bit of value out of it, you burn it. In organized crime's case, I mean that literally, whereas with private equity, it's planned bankruptcy. But essentially you dispose of it in as convenient a way as possible, and then you walk away." Private equity isn't always this rapacious. Investors often oversee healthy restructurings that re-set struggling firms on stronger footing. But mafia-esque looting of productive enterprises has always been a part of the private equity business that has a terrible reputation, a stain that the industry has repeatedly attempted to remove with creative marketing efforts. Today, the industry is trying to replace common pejorative terms for its business, such as "corporate raider" and "vulture funds," with new phrases, such as "growth capital." The difference between a "Sopranos"-style buyout and one executed by Bain Capital, Galeotti said, has to do with the mob's willingness to use illicit capital and unregulated violence to accomplish its goal. "Private equity firms, in the main, while there are exceptions, basically operate within the letter of the law, if not the spirit. What they do is legal. It can't be challenged in the courts even if it runs against, sort of, the notion of the social contract," Galeotti said. "Whereas organized crime, if they have to kill someone, or if they have to use dirty money to do it, they'll do it. So it's the methodology that is different. But if you actually think about, Well, what are they doing? How are they doing it? And what's the end result? There, it's strikingly similar." Romney has been reluctant recently to delve too deeply into his private equity background, as the Obama administration has hammered the GOP candidate for profiting even while workers were left jobless -- in some cases, obligations for such workers' pensions were then met by the government, and the cost foisted on the taxpayer. On Wednesday, Romney declined twice to say whether he welcomed a full discussion of the nature of private equity. Instead, he accused President Obama of not understanding how private enterprise works. "Having been in the private sector for twenty-five years gives me a perspective on how jobs are created – that someone who's never spent a day in the private sector, like President Obama, simply doesn’t understand," Romney told Time magazine. But if voters do come to understand private equity, the discussion might not end well for Romney. Capitalism unbounded by regulation can be an ugly thing. Galeotti pointed to Russia, where a barely existent regulatory regime has allowed an extreme version of the free market to flourish. "There you actually have a much, much closer connection between finance and criminality, in that a lot of the organized crime groupings are very strongly operating within the sort-of-legitimate financial sector. Particularly there you have the phenomenon of what's called raiding, which is basically -- you don't even bother giving the loan, you find ways of forcing the company into your ownership, usually by bribing a judge to authenticate some document that says you've been given this by the original owner," Galeotti said. "In some cases, when they take over working businesses, they keep them as working businesses and skim the profits. But more often, precisely, it's these kind of short-term, squeeze-and-burn type ventures. You take over a company, use it, and then you discard it however you can." The Obama campaign has recently raised the profile of private equity by highlighting the bankruptcy of Ampad, an office supply company that was busted out by Bain Capital. The company went bankrupt, while Bain investors made roughly $100 million. The squeeze and burn has been dramatized both by "The Sopranos" and the film "Goodfellas," where mobsters take control of companies and run up their credit. When one hapless victim, a man with a healthy sporting goods store and a corrosive gambling addiction, asks Soprano how the process will end, the fictional mob boss is ready with a precise answer. "Planned bankruptcy," Soprano tells him.

EU court to rule on $1.1 billion Microsoft fine on June 27

LUXEMBOURG, May 24 (Reuters) - Europe's second-highest court will rule on June 27 whether EU regulators were justified in fining Microsoft 899 million euros ($1.1 billion) four years ago for failing

Suspect 'detained in Patz death'

New York City police say they are holding a suspect in connection with the disappearance of local six-year-old boy Etan Patz in 1979.

Obama Wants Government Agencies to Focus on Mobile Apps

President Barack Obama has ordered all government agencies to offer more of their services in the form of mobile apps. A new memo called “Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People” requires each agency to make at least two services, used by the public, available on mobile devices within 12 months. “For far too long, the American people have been forced to navigate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need,” says the memo. “Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime, anywhere, and on any device,” Obama said in a statement. Agencies are also required to provide online resources for third party developers, and make their data open and machine-readable by default. Finally, agencies are required to create a page on their websites (URL format being www.[agency].gov/digitalstrategy) within 90 days and publicly report on progress in meeting these new requirements. “The initiatives we’re launching today will make government data resources even more accessible to the public and to entrepreneurs who can turn these data into services,” said U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park. The new White House directive is available (in PDF format) here. More About: agencies, apps, Mobile, obamaFor more Mobile coverage:Follow Mashable Mobile on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Mobile channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Robert Scheer: Do the Bain Hustle

Obviously Barack Obama was right in criticizing Mitt Romney's stewardship of Bain Capital. How else to evaluate the business experience that Romney has made a central tenet of his campaign?As Obama put it all too accurately: "My opponent, Governor Romney -- his main calling card for why he thinks he should be president is his business experience. He's not going out there touting his experience in Massachusetts. He's saying: 'I'm a business guy. I know how to fix it.'" And the fixing of the beleaguered companies acquired under Romney's leadership at Bain Capital involved the very practices that have led to the loss of good American jobs to ensure the outrageous rewards that made Romney so wealthy.Read More...More on Republicans

US drone 'kills 8' in Pakistan

A US drone strike has killed eight people in in an area known to be a stronghold of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, Pakistani officials say.

EU 'wants Greece in the eurozone'

EU leaders want Greece to stay in the eurozone but it must continue economic reforms, the European Council president says at a Brussels summit.

Greek euro exit too risky - Clegg

Nick Clegg is to warn of the dangers of a Greek exit from the euro and describe the response to the crisis as "woefully fragmented".

HP to cut 27,000 jobs

Hewlett-Packard announced Wednesday that it is slashing 27,000 jobs in a widely expected maneuver aimed at slimming down the struggling tech giant.

Powell favors same-sex marriage

(CNN) - Gen. Colin Powell said Wednesday on CNN's "The Situation Room" that he supports legal same-sex marriage, either at the state or federal level. "I have no problem with it," he said in the interview, which will air at 5 p.m. ET. "In terms of the legal matter of creating a contract between two people that's called marriage, and allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country. And so I support the president's decision."– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker President Barack Obama announced his support of same-sex marriage, a change in his position, in early May. Powell's statements on Wednesday also represented a turning point in his own public statements on the matter. The former secretary of state was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when the military "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" position was implemented. "It was the Congress that imposed 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' it was certainly my position, my recommendation to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred," Powell told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, recalling former President Bill Clinton's support of overturning a ban on military service for gay individuals. After public opposition, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," was seen as a compromise. Powell said he is aware of religious objections to same-sex marriage, but spoke primarily about it as a matter of public policy. "I respect the fact that many denominations have different points of view with respect to gay marriage and they can hold that in the sanctity in the place of their religion and not bless them or solemnize them," he said. He said he has "a lot of friends who are individually gay but are in partnerships with loved ones, and they are as stable a family as my family is and they raise children. And so I don't see any reason not to say that they should be able to get married under the laws of their state or the laws of the country." In 2010, Powell said he favored a military repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and was in "full support" of Congressional action which resulted in the policy's repeal. Powell, a moderate Republican who served as secretary of state under former President George W. Bush, sent shockwaves when he endorsed President Barack Obama for president in 2008. He said Wednesday that he is undecided who he will support this November - and as a private citizen, feels little pressure to announce his decision. But Powell also voiced his disapproval over Romney's previous assertion, in an earlier CNN interview, that Russia is the United States' "number one geopolitical foe." "I don't think that's the case," Powell said. "Foe means enemy. Now, will we have differences of opinion with the Russians? Yes. Will they get mad at us from time to time, and we get mad at them? That's part of the normal diplomatic relations." Also see: Obama campaign expands Bain attack and general election ad buys Poll: Romney takes lead in Florida Palin endorses Utah's Hatch in Senate race Arkansas, Kentucky primaries pose challenge for Obama

VIDEO: Colin Powell Has ‘No Problem’ With Marriage Equality

Wolf Blitzer just teased his new interview with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who expressed that he has “no problem” with marriage equality: BLITZER: You were Chairman of the Joint Chiefs when you installed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy in the U.S. military that prevented gays from serving openly. I know you changed your attitude over these years, but what about gay marriage? Are you with the President in supporting gay marriage? POWELL: I have no problem with it, and it was the Congress that imposed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, though it was certainly my position and my recommendation to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred, as you’ll recall. But as I’ve thought about gay marriage, I know a lot of friends who are individually gay but are in partnerships with loved ones, and they are as stable a family as my family is, and they raise children. And so I don’t see any reason not to say that they should be able to get married. Powell went on to say he believes the American people are coming around on this issue too. Watch it: Powell is one of many prominent leaders who have followed President Obama’s lead in supporting the freedom to marry for all families.

Lawmakers Call for an End to Internet Anonymity

Lawmakers in New York State think the root of all Internet evil lies in the anonymous nature by which comments get posted on news websites and social media. Their solution? They’ve introduced Internet anonymity legislation that would make New York-based website owners delete any anonymous posts that other Internet users label as cyberbullying. Should the bills pass, any Internet user could call up a toll-free number that websites would be required to set up to handle such grievances. Anonymous web users would then have but a single recourse to save their posts if such a compliant is lodged against them: unmask completely by revealing their name and going through an identification process. Should they refuse, the post must be deleted within 48 hours. “A web site administrator, upon request, shall remove any comments posted on his or her web site by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post and confirms that his or her IP address, legal name and home address are accurate,” reads the draft legislation, identical versions of which have been introduces in both chambers of New York’s legislature. Sen. O’Mara, who introduced the bill in the New York State Senate, told Mashable that his motivation is entirely to “deal with the issue of cyberbulling.” “Cyberbullying and bullying in general is something that I think is exacerbated by the use of the Internet and the ability to get a claim or an accusation out to a mass of people quickly and anonymously that may be of a bullying sort, or contain untrue accusations,” said O’Mara. “This legislation is an attempt to do something about that.” O’Mara has not spoken to any website hosts about the legislation, nor does he consider the idea a violation of the First Amendment. “I’ll be taking comments from web hosts and on the First Amendment into consideration,” said O’Mara. “By no means is this an attempt to infringe upon the First Amendment. I don’t think hosts of websites want to be in a position of fostering false or unsubstantiated information, and I want to work with all interests on the bill.” Kurt Opsahl, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, disagrees. “The law is clearly unconstitutional,” said Opsahl. “The right to speak anonymously is part of the First Amendment and has been since the founding of this country. In fact, some of the founding documents of the country were originally written as part of the Federalist Papers, which some of our founding fathers wrote anonymously under pseudonyms. Since then, the Supreme Court has routinely held up the legality of speaking anonymously.” Read the full text of the legislation here. Mashable reached out to the office of State Assemblyman Dean Murray, who introduced the bill in his chamber, but did not immediately receive a response. Should anonymous Internet users be forced to unmask themselves if a complaint is lodged against them? Sound off in the comments below. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, selimaksan More About: internet, Politics, privacy, US

Obama Campaign Unleashes Social Campaigning Tool

President Obama’s 2008 campaign is seen by many as the first successful online campaign, and while his Republican rivals are certainly beginning to master the social side of campaigning, Obama’s 2012 team is doubling down on digital with a new platform being released Wednesday. The new platform, called Dashboard, will attempt to bring nearly everything that a brick-and-mortar field office does into the digital space. Obama’s volunteers will be able to use the service to make calls to recruit others to join the team, organize campaign events such as voter registration drives, and communicate with leadership — all from their desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone devices, according to The Wall Street Journal. “Dashboard is our online field office — a hub for campaign volunteers and supporters to communicate with each other and become members of neighborhood teams,” Katie Hogan, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign, told Mashable. Dashboard, which will feature an almost Facebook-style interface, introduces social and data-driven elements, reflective of the Obama campaign’s love affair with metrics. Obama volunteers will be able to use the platform to connect with other supporters and join local volunteer teams with specific missions, such as LGBT for Obama groups, which are tasked with reaching out to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters. On the staff side, campaign leadership will be able to set and track specific goals for individual Obama supporters and volunteer groups. Those supporters and groups will engage in friendly competition with one another to achieve those goals — a hallmark of the 2008 Obama campaign. “Supporters can use the tool to set goals, communicate those goals and see what other supporters are doing,” added Hogan. “Supporters who want to be engaged can go to Dashboard, message other supporters in their area and have a conversation about how to get started, it provides a good volunteer experience online that is directly tied to our field operation goals.” Dashboard, which has been in development for nearly a year, builds upon similar software and MyBarackObama.com, which were used during Obama’s 2008 run to help volunteers perform some tasks, such as phone banking, from the comfort of their own home. SEE ALSO: Republicans Launch Facebook App to Defeat Obama Meanwhile, Mitt Romney’s digital team is using “MyMitt,” a similar in-house social network that lets Romney supporters connect with one another and volunteer for the campaign. Republicans as a whole, meanwhile, are engaging their supporters on Facebook with the Social Victory Center, a Facebook app that allows right-leaning voters to connect with one another directly on the popular social network. Would you use a presidential campaign’s social network to get involved with politics? Sound off in the comments below. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, PeterPhoto More About: 2012 presidential campaign, barack obama, Politics, US