Category Archives: National

Denny Hastert blogs

Speaker of the House Denny Hastert is now blogging. Hastert is the #3 politician in Washington D.C., second only to Vice President Dick Cheney in the Presidential line of succession. He hopes to provide “some inside access to the Republican playbook.” The internet is changing the way we share information. My office has been talking a lot about some of the conversations going on in blogosphere. So I thought, hey, I should start one and give you unfiltered updates on Capitol Hill. The journal has no comments, not even a list to a congressional e-mail address. The journal does not…

The history of Labor Day

Today is Labor Day. A day for every man and woman in the United States to take some time off, sip some ice tea, and spend time with friends and family. The tradition began with coordinated unpaid day off of work and became a part of the national scene under political pressure and a mid-term election in 1894. The work environment of the late 19th century heavily favored the employer. The Pullman Palace Car Company company was one example of a company where you assumed not just a job, but a lifestyle. Founder and CEO George Pullman created the town…

Hurricane Katrina on Technorati

I spent my morning summarizing the current happenings around Hurricane Katrina for a new Technorati page on the topic. Some interesting observations with limited citations as I am just braindumping. Bloggers opened their houses to each other sight unseen. Blogs with video and photo coverage quickly exceeded their bandwidth limits and were offline this morning. CNN setup a special citizen journalists page for submissions. Technorati received calls from media outlets this morning in their search of the latest news from the blogosphere. Bloggers lost power and Internet access put kept on blogging through laptops connected to dial-up modems and free…

Newsweek and Time Magazine editors discuss sources and blogging

Mark Whitaker, editor of Newsweek, and Jim Kelly, editor of Time Magazine spoke tonight at Stanford about the current state of journalism. Topics included confidential and anonymous sources, the influence of blogging, and the consolidation of news media. On Mark Cooper and Karl Rove Time Magazine and reporter Matt Cooper were recently criticized for turning over the names of sources after a grand-jury subpoena. Jim Kelly explained that while reporter’s notes and research are their own property Matt Cooper included the names of his sources in company e-mails that were later demanded by the grand-jury investigating the leak of…

Presidential brand association

The Presidential ImagePower study from branding company Landor Associates and research firm Penn, Schoen and Berland revealed the perceptions of George W. Bush and John Kerry by undecided voters. 1,262 Internet survey respondents associated brands with the candidates. George W. Bush was the unanimous choice for Ford, IBM, and Bud Light….

Los Alamos National Laboratory shut down

Wired News: ” Los Alamos National Laboratory director Pete Nanos shut down the country’s leading nuclear weapons lab on Friday, after a set of classified computer disks disappeared and a student was hit in the eye with a powerful laser beam — all in the space of a week.”…

W Ketchup

If your choice of ketchup makes you feel like a Democrat buy some patriotic W Ketchup today. Dedicated to Ronald Reagan. Made from the finest California tomatoes using ketchup techniques passed down through American generations. Made in Ohio. “You don’t support Democrats. Why should your ketchup?”…