(EMAILWIRE.COM, November 16, 2008 ) Barack Obama truly is our internet President. His evolution into a groundbreaking political superstar was the product of many sweeping changes in American culture in the past fifty years.

One of these changes is how quickly the internet is becoming a dominant vehicle in the pursuit of attaining huge amounts of campaign fundraising cash so critical to political campaigns here in the United States.

Howard Dean: Early Adopter of Internet Political Fundraising Tactics

In the race for the presidency in 2004 Howard Dean made Americans and the world aware that the web could be a place for effectuating enormous political change via the spread of new communications and fundraising tools. Our President-Elect just ran with them all to great success and with blazing speed to capture the White House.

In fact, Dean was the first Democrat to forego the use of matching funds from the federal government in his campaign. Kerry later did so as well. The reason Dean could abandon government cash? Millions of small donors on the internet helped him build a multi-million dollar warchest.

Barack Obama rode this theme to great success and combined the donations of millions of smaller donors to aggregate staggering amounts of money in the recently finished 2008 race. The total amount of money he raised is said to be in excess of $639 million, with most of that raised via the web.

Weekly Presidential Addresses via YouTube

President-Elect Obama has announced that he will create weekly video clips to share with the American people via YouTube.com (see http://www.Change.gov for a link). He will also make the audio available via radio, both traditional and internet radio, as well.

In Chicago on Friday, November 14, 2008 Obama recorded his first video address at his transition office in Chicago. His transition team is also planning to broadcast many different videos on YouTube to keep the public abreast of developments and policy intentions in more detail than usually available in a shortened media soundbite or story fragment.

Who Helped Pave the Way? – Al Gore’s Legacy

Before Dean’s use of the Internet in political races, the Democrat most in the forefront of people’s minds in terms of the internet, technology, and now global climate change, was Former Vice-President Al Gore. Some people joke that the former VP purportedly claimed he invented the internet. But more so now people respect him for his winning of a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global climate issues and an Academy Award for “An Inconvenient Truth,” his climate change documentary.

Further rebutting those who would joke at Gore’s responsibilities in creating the net is no lesser luminary than Dr. Vinton Cerf, Senior Vice President and Chief Evangelist for Google, a widely acknowledged true ‘father’ of the internet. He has mentioned himself that Al Gore did deserve a lot of credit for his advocacy in the development of net while he was a Senator and Vice-President.

Amazing foundation

What a foundation Gore, Dean, and others laid. Barack Obama certainly seems to be a gracious person, and he seems uniquely aware of the myriad of foundations that stand beneath his towering accomplishment of attaining the United States presidency. By virtue of his new announcement to provide weekly video briefings available via YouTube.com he seems well on his way to being one of the most technically astute presidents in US history.

All five of Detroit’s starters scored in double figures as the Pistons downed the Lakers 106-95.

Wallace made 8-of-15 shots from the field, including four 3-pointers. He grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds, earning his fifth double-double of the season.

Iverson made 11-of-12 free throws and added four steals while Tayshaun Prince scored 18 points with six assists and four rebounds.

Richard Hamilton scored 12 points and Kwame Brown added 10 with 10 rebounds for the Pistons.

The Pistons shot 56 percent in the first half and led by 11 points at the break. A burst late in the third quarter saw them lead 77-62 heading into the final period, a deficit the Lakers couldn’t overcome.

Reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Kobe Bryant had 29 points, six assists and five rebounds for the Lakers, who had outscored opponents by an average of 18 points in winning their first seven games of the season.

The Lakers’ 7-0 start was the third-best in franchise history, and they were the last unbeaten team in the league.

Iverson said ending the Lakers’ season-opening run of success was less important for the Pistons than building their own momentum.

“Eventually they were going to lose anyway,” Iverson said. “But a win is a win.”

Iverson was acquired by Detroit from the Denver Nuggets on November 3 and took a couple of games to settle in before helping the Pistons to back-to-back victories over Sacramento and Golden State heading into Friday’s contest.

The Pistons complete their Western road trip at Phoenix on Sunday.

Source: Google News

(CNN) – The global economy may be undergoing a significant downturn, but the White House’s dinner budget still appears flush with cash.

After all, world leaders who are in town to discuss the economic crisis are set to dine in style Friday night while sipping wine listed at nearly $500 a bottle.

According to the White House, tonight’s dinner to kick off the G-20 summit includes such dishes as “Fruitwood-smoked Quail,” “Thyme-roasted Rack of Lamb,” and “Tomato, Fennel and Eggplant Fondue Chanterelle Jus.”

To wash it all down, world leaders will be served Shafer Cabernet “Hillside Select” 2003, a wine that sells at $499 on Wine.com.

The exceedingly pricey wine may seem a bit peculiar given leaders are in Washington to discuss a possible world financial meltdown, but Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for Laura Bush, said it “was the most appropriate wine that we had in the White House wine cellar for such a gathering.

McDonough also said the White House purchased the wine at a “significantly lower price” than what it is listed at.

“Of course the White House gets its wine at wholesale prices,” she said. “Given the intimate size of the group, it was an appropriate time for The White House to use this stock.”

The leaders of the U.K., France, Russia, China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey and 11 developing economies have all come to Washington at the behest of President Bush in an effort to express confidence in the fundamental underpinnings of the world’s economy.

– CNN’s Becky Brittain contributed to this report

Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) — Asian stocks fell this week, ending a two-week rally, as companies lowered earnings forecasts amid mounting evidence economies are slowing.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia fell 20 percent after saying bad loans may double and Australian business confidence fell to a record low. Citizen Holdings Co. dropped 9.7 percent after cutting its profit forecast. Hana Financial Group Inc. tumbled 36 percent after Fitch Ratings cut its outlook on South Korea banks. China’s CSI 300 Index posted the biggest weekly gain since April, led by steelmakers, after the government announced a $586 billion stimulus plan.

“Investors had expected corporate earnings and economic data to be bad, but the figures keep getting worse,” said Seo Jung Ho, who helps oversee $2.2 billion at UBS Hana Asset Management Co. in Seoul.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 4.7 percent to 82.10 this week, snapping a two-week rally. Financial and technology stocks had the biggest falls among the 10 industry groups.

Japan’s Nikkei 224 Stock Average lost 1.4 percent this week and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index dropped 7.5 percent. Most other markets in the region fell.

Asia Pacific equities retreated on mounting evidence economies are slowing. China’s industrial output missed estimates, while South Korea’s exports increased at the slowest pace in 13 months in October. In the U.S., the Treasury scrapped plans to buy mortgage assets to focus on supporting consumer credit.

Government Responses

Leaders from the Group of 20 nations began a summit in Washington yesterday to coordinate government responses to the worst financial crisis in 80 years.

The MSCI index for Asia Pacific has lost more than half its value since the peak in November 2007 in the rout triggered by a widening global credit crisis that originated in the U.S. subprime mortgage market. That left shares on the gauge valued at 10 times trailing earnings after last month falling to as low as 8.2 times. Prior to the current turmoil, it never dropped below 10, according to Bloomberg data dating back to 1995.

Commonwealth Bank declined 20 percent to A$32.10 this week. Australia’s biggest mortgage lender said bad debts may double this year due to lending to companies including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Hana Financial fell 37 percent to 14,550 won. Woori Finance Holdings Co., which controls South Korea’s second- biggest bank, dropped 24 percent to 3,500 won.

Increased Costs

Fitch Ratings revised down its long-term foreign-currency issuer default ratings outlooks for South Korean financial institutions to “negative” from “stable,” citing the risk of higher credit costs.

Babcock & Brown Ltd. slumped 52 percent to a record low in Sydney on concern it may fail to repay loans.

Citizen, the world’s largest watchmaker, fell 9.7 percent to 457 yen, after lowering its annual forecast by a third. Alumina Ltd., which is partnering with Alcoa Inc., tumbled 39 percent to A$1.36, after the companies said they have suspended expansion work on the Wagerup refinery due to the global financial crisis.

Computer makers fell after Intel Corp., whose chips run more than three-quarters of the world’s computers, slashed its sales prediction by about $1 billion, citing “significantly weaker” demand. Lenovo Group Ltd., China’s biggest computer maker, sank 18 percent to HK$1.83.

In China, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. jumped 22 percent to 5.57 yuan after the government announced a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) package to revive growth in the world’s fourth-largest economy. Changsha Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Development Co., a construction machinery maker, jumped 48 percent to 13.57 yuan.

Complete Spending

China plans to complete the spending by 2010 to support growth in its domestic economy as the rest of the world slows, the Beijing-based State Council said on its Web site Nov. 9. The funds are equivalent to almost a fifth of the nation’s gross domestic product.

“The plan is what the market would like to see most: Something concrete that will be good for the economy,” said Zheng Tuo, who manages $790 million at Bank of Communications Schroders Fund Management Co. in Shanghai.

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks tumbled, capping a second straight weekly loss, as a record decrease in retail sales and weaker demand for mobile phones raised concern about the depth of the recession.

Sears Holdings Corp., Home Depot Inc. and Office Depot Inc. sank more than 7.6 percent on government data showing sales at retailers declined 2.8 percent last month. Qualcomm Inc., the biggest maker of mobile-phone chips, slid 5.4 percent and Motorola Inc. dropped 11 percent after Nokia Oyj predicted global shipments will shrink next year. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index erased about two-thirds of yesterday’s 6.9 percent rally and extended its weekly tumble to 6.2 percent.

“The retailers are just confirming what everybody already knows; the economy is in bad shape, people are not spending,” said Malcolm Polley, president of Stewart Capital Advisors in Indiana, Pennsylvania, which manages $1 billion. “We have too many retailers and some of them will go away.”

The S&P 500 lost 4.2 percent to 873.29 as all 10 main industry groups retreated at least 2.8 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average decreased 337.94 points, or 3.8 percent, to 8,497.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 5 percent to 1,516.85. Twelve stocks fell for each that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.

’08 Slump

The S&P 500 has slumped almost 41 percent in 2008, poised for its worst year since 1931, as credit-related losses and writedowns at banks, brokerages and insurers worldwide topped $950 billion in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, speaking at a panel discussion hosted by the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, said policymakers “stand ready” to take additional actions to help the economy. The Fed and ECB last month led central banks in the broadest coordinated interest-rate cut in history.

About 1.5 billion shares changed hands on the floor of the NYSE, in line with the three-month daily average.

Home Depot, the biggest home-improvement retailer, lost 7.6 percent to $20.54. Sears, the largest U.S. department-store chain, tumbled $6.28 to $38.27. Office Depot, the second-biggest office-supplies retailer, slid 17 percent to $2.03.

`Halt in October’

The 2.8 percent decrease in retail sales was the fourth consecutive drop and the biggest since records began in 1992, the Commerce Department said. Purchases excluding automobiles also posted their worst performance.

“It reminds everyone how difficult the current environment is,” Mark Freeman, a money manager at Westwood Management Corp. in Dallas, which oversees $7 billion, said of the data and lowered forecasts from some chain stores. “Everyone should expect volatility to continue.”

Liz Claiborne Inc., the maker of apparel and Kate Spade handbags, fell 26 percent to $3.69 for the biggest drop in the S&P 500. Abercrombie & Fitch Co., the teen-apparel retailer, lost 21 percent to $17.79 after lowering its annual earnings forecast by a third. J.C. Penney Co., the third-largest U.S. department-store company, slid 10 percent to $17.27 after posting its fifth straight quarterly profit decline.

Qualcomm tumbled $1.88 to $32.94, while Motorola lost 50 cents to $4.08. Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, said industrywide handset sales will be lower this year than previously anticipated, forcing the company to deepen cost cuts. Global shipments will be about 1.24 billion this year, down from a previous prediction of 1.26 billion phones, and will shrink next year, Finland-based Nokia said in a statement today. Its American depositary receipts lost 11 percent to $12.59.

Semis Slump

Semiconductor companies in the S&P 500 tumbled 7.4 percent collectively. Intel Corp., the largest chipmaker, fell 7.7 percent to $13.32, a six-year low, for the biggest drop in the Dow average.

Earnings dropped 17 percent on average at companies in the S&P 500 that have reported third-quarter results, according to Bloomberg data. Companies from Best Buy Co. to Intel have cut forecasts this week. Analysts expect an 8.5 percent decline in full-year profits, estimates compiled by Bloomberg show.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. helped lead declines in financial companies, falling 7.3 percent to $34.47. Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage-finance company seized by the U.S. two months ago, said in a regulatory filing it may prevent JPMorgan from retaining the servicing contracts of Washington Mutual Inc., whose assets and branches it acquired in September.

Freddie’s Request

Freddie Mac, which along with larger competitor Fannie Mae was removed from the S&P 500 in September after the companies lost more than 97 percent of their market value, today asked the Treasury Department for $13.8 billion after a record quarterly loss caused its net worth to fall below zero. Freddie Mac fell 8.2 percent to 67 cents.

Prologis sank 26 percent to $5.08, leading real-estate companies in the S&P 500 to a 10 percent drop. RBC Capital Markets lowered its price forecast for the world’s largest warehouse developer to $10 from $16.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. jumped 21 percent to $12.65. The insurer that lost 79 percent of its market value in the past two months said it’s buying a Florida bank for $10 million to become eligible for federal rescue funds. Hartford expects to qualify for $1.1 billion to $3.4 billion under Treasury Department guidelines.

`Level of Nervousness’

The S&P 500 turned positive for about 15 minutes in the final hour of trading today after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told CNBC the government’s $700 billion rescue package is enough to stem the financial crisis.

The S&P 500 jumped the most in two weeks yesterday, including a 6 percent rally in the final hour of trading, as investors snapped up the cheapest energy shares on record and real-estate companies gained after CB Richard Ellis Inc. raised cash in a share sale.

“You cannot read anything significant into that,” said London-based Justin Urquhart Stewart, director of 7 Investment Management. “It just shows the level of nervousness and that is going to continue for some time. The background noise is going to be very poor indeed,” he told Bloomberg Television.

Source: www.Bloomberg.com

The shuttle thundered off the launching pad at 7:55 p.m., hurtling through a high, thin bank of clouds that rippled and dispersed with its passing.

Its 15-day mission is devoted to construction on the $100 billion orbiting outpost. But while previous missions have often focused on adding modules or solar panels to the station, much of the equipment for this trip will transform the inside so that crew size can be doubled to six.

Michael T. Suffredini, the NASA station program manager, told reporters in a recent briefing that “when the crew leaves, the station won’t look any different on the outside, but it’ll be dramatically different on the inside.”

Shuttle missions are often delayed by technical problems or weather, but the preparations for this launching were smooth and relatively free of glitches.

Equipment headed to the station includes new sleeping quarters, a second toilet, a new exercise machine and equipment for generating oxygen. The 32,000-pound payload also includes a system to recycle water on the station, including urine, to produce purified water for drinking. The $250 million system is designed to recycle 93 percent of the water used on the station.

Sandra H. Magnus, who will begin a stay of several months on the station, said that while many people expressed revulsion at the recycling system, she laughed about the “yuck factor” because the purification would exceed that of most municipal water systems. “I don’t anticipate any problems with the purity of the water once we get this up and running correctly,” she said.

Donald R. Pettit, another of the Endeavour’s astronauts, lived on the station for five and a half months in 2002 and 2003. Dr. Pettit said equipment like the water recycling system was critical to long-term space exploration, since getting new water to an outpost on the Moon or Mars would be expensive and arduous. “I really think this is a key steppingstone for human beings to leave planet Earth,” he said.

The commander of this mission is Capt. Christopher J. Ferguson of the Navy, who is on his second shuttle mission. The pilot, Col. Eric A. Boe of the Air Force, will be on his first mission.

While some of the astronauts work to transfer cargo from shuttle to station, three members of the crew will engage in four spacewalks. Much of the work will be devoted to lubricating a balky rotary joint that helps keep the station’s solar arrays pointed at the sun. Two of the 10-foot-diameter joints turn the arrays.

Last year, mission managers noticed that the joint on the right side was vibrating and required greater-than-expected power to turn it. During this mission, the spacewalkers — Capt. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper of the Navy, Capt. Steve Bowen of the Navy and Lt. Col. Shane Kimbrough of the Army — will clean metal shavings from the joint and lubricate it thoroughly. They will lubricate the left-hand joint as well as a protective measure.

These are among the final missions of the space shuttles, whose program is scheduled to be wound down by 2010 to make way for a next-generation space program known as Constellation. The spaceships being developed for Constellation are designed to reach the station, but also to return astronauts to the Moon, explore near-Earth asteroids and even go to Mars.

Those craft, however, are not expected to begin flying before 2015. In the meantime, the United States will depend on Russia for passage to and from the station on Soyuz craft.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/science/space/15shuttle.html?ref=space

Obama met with Richardson late Friday afternoon, a day after conferring one-on-one with Clinton at his Chicago office, said several Democratic officials. He plans to meet there Monday with his Republican opponent, John McCain, but advisers to both of the general election rivals say they don’t expect Obama to consider McCain for an administration job.

The meeting with Clinton, revealed to The Associated Press Friday, excited a burst of speculation that Obama would transform the former first lady and his fierce campaign foe into one of his top Cabinet officials and the nation’s chief diplomatic voice. But where she stands in contention for the post came into question as other Democrats, also speaking on condition of anonymity about the private discussions, said Richardson was brought in as well.

The two are not the only candidates Obama has talked to about the job, Democrats said. One senior Obama adviser said the president-elect has given no evidence whom he is favoring for the post.

Obama asked Clinton directly whether she would be interested in the job, said one Democrat, who cautioned that it was no indication that he was leaning toward her.

Obama was deciding on his presidential staff as well, naming longtime friend Valerie Jarrett as a White House senior adviser. Jarrett met Obama when she hired his wife for a job in the Chicago mayor’s office years ago and has been a close confidante to the couple ever since.

Obama was silent and out of sight in Chicago. Clinton, a New York senator, addressed a transit conference in her home state and said emphatically, “I’m not going to speculate or address anything about the president-elect’s incoming administration, and I’m going to respect his process.”

Obama’s aides say he would like to have McCain as a partner with him on legislation they both have advocated, such as climate change, government reform, immigration and a ban on torture.

All this fits with an idea that Obama often talked about on the campaign trail, as he praised the presidency of Abraham Lincoln as described by presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in her book “Team of Rivals.”

“Lincoln basically pulled in all the people who had been running against him into his Cabinet because whatever personal feelings there were, the issue was: How can we get this country through this time of crisis?” Obama said at one point.

Lincoln appointed three of his rivals for the Republican nomination to his Cabinet. Obama turned to one rival for vice president, picking Democratic primary candidate Joe Biden even though Biden had questioned whether Obama had the experience to be president.

In his first two weeks as president-elect, Obama has struck a bipartisan tone. He paired a Republican and a Democrat to meet with foreign leaders this weekend on his behalf in Washington, for example.

It’s far from clear how interested Clinton would be in being his secretary of state. She’d face a Senate confirmation hearing that would certainly probe her husband’s financial dealings — something the Clintons refused to disclose in the presidential campaign.

But remaining in the Senate may not be Clinton’s first choice, either, since she is a junior senator without prospects for a leadership position or committee chairmanship anytime soon.

Democratic officials, speaking only anonymously about private negotiations, say Clinton asked Sen. Edward Kennedy to establish a subcommittee that she would lead that would allow her to shepherd health care reform through the Senate. But Kennedy, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, wants to lead the effort as a capstone to his career, and there also are other members with more seniority than Clinton whom he wouldn’t want to bypass.

Being secretary of state could give Clinton a platform for another run at the presidency in eight years. Obama could also get assurances from her that she wouldn’t challenge him in four years.

And, unlike the vice presidency that Obama never seriously considered her for, as secretary of state she would serve at his pleasure.

Clinton didn’t give any clues to her thinking when she addressed the public transit industry conference Friday in Albany, beginning with a joke about news accounts of her trip to Chicago.

“I’d like to start by saying I’m very happy there is so much press attention and interest in transit, especially questions about my own,” she said. She ignored reporters trying to question her about a possible post as she left.

Richardson is the governor of New Mexico and has an extensive foreign policy resume. He was President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the United Nations and has conducted freelance diplomacy for the U.S. in such hot spots as Sudan and North Korea.

Richardson also served in Clinton’s Cabinet as energy secretary and angered his former boss when he endorsed Obama after ending his own primary campaign this year.

Another Democrat emerged as a possible contender for an administration post Friday — Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle was contacted by Obama’s transition team, according to a gubernatorial spokesman who did not disclose details. Doyle, a two-term governor and former state attorney general, was an early backer of Obama.

An alliance between Obama in the White House and McCain in the Senate could help both sides — Obama by having a Republican ally on some issues and McCain by helping rebuild his own power. The two men spoke about getting together when McCain called Obama to concede on the night of the election, advisers on both sides say.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a McCain confidant, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat whom Obama has chosen to be his White House chief of staff, also plan to be at Monday’s meeting in Chicago.

“It’s well known that they share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government, and will discuss ways to work together to make that a reality,” Obama spokesman Stephanie Cutter said in announcing the meeting.

Associated Press writers David Espo, Jim Kuhnhenn and Liz Sidoti in Washington, Richard Richtmyer in Albany, N.Y., and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., contributed to this report.