The Podium
Blog posts tagged with 'White House'
Monday, January 14
By Brad
In a move that had many declaring the White House “won the Internet” this weekend, Paul Shacross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch, responded to a popular online petition asking the U.S. government to build a Death Star. From the response:
The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:
• The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
Bonus points for the title of the response: “This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For.”
Friday, December 14
By Brad
Via Michael Rundle of the Huffington Post comes the entertaining story of a Star Wars fan, an online petition, and the coming official response from the White House about citizens demanding the U.S. builds a Death Star.
Thursday, April 07
By Brad
At The Hill, Sara Jerome reports that the Obama administration is pushing hard for its spectrum auction plan:
Administration officials outlined their case for devoting a larger swath of the airwaves to mobile broadband, saying policies to promote communication on tablets and smart phones will also create jobs and reduce the deficit.
“The issues of spectrum and of wireless communications are going to be essential to our growth,” said Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, adding that the revenue from the auctions could help reduce the deficit.
The National Association of Broadcasters, which represents the owners of spectrum pinpointed for auctions, has stated they support the President’s plan as long as the auctions are voluntary. However, questions remain about whether enough broadcasters would participate. Also undetermined is how AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile, which would ease some of the spectrum crunch in the short term, will affect the auction plan moving forward.
Tuesday, April 05
By Brad
With the GOP-controlled House working to repeal the FCC’s net neutrality regulations, the Obama administration has preemptively signaled they will veto any repeal that reaches the President’s desk. Reports Tony Romm and Eliza Krigman at Politico:
A Statement of Administration Policy issued late Monday emphasized that the White House “strongly opposes House passage” of the resolution of disapproval, which would roll back rules the FCC enacted in December that require Internet providers to treat all traffic equally.
The administration described any Republican attempt to undo the FCC’s work as one that would “undermine a fundamental part of the Nation’s Internet and innovation strategy — an enforceable and effective policy for keeping the Internet free and open.”
Meanwhile, via Cecilia Kang at the Washington Post (among others), the lawsuit brought by Verizon against the FCC regarding the new regulations has been dismissed in federal court due to a technicality:
In an order Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dismissed the legal basis the companies used to file. Judges Karen Lecraft Henderson, David S. Tatel and Brett M. Kavanaugh said in the court’s order that a challenge to the FCC rules must come after the so-called net neutrality order is published in the Federal Register, and said the “prematurity” of Verizon’s lawsuit was “incurable.”
But as the National Journal‘s David Hatch reports, Verizon isn’t backing down:
A Verizon spokesman blamed the dismissal on the FCC, which he said was unclear about when an appeal should be filed. He confirmed that the telecom giant plans to resubmit its suit, but this time it will wait until the commission publishes its new Internet rules in the federal register next month.
Friday, March 25
By Brad
The Hill’s Gautham Nagesh reports that House Oversight Chairman Darrel Issa has some lingering questions about how the FCC’s net neutrality rules came about — specifically, how much the White House was involved:
Issa wrote to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski on Thursday asking for more information on the numerous visits made to the White House by top FCC officials while the commission was formulating its net-neutrality rules, which were passed in December.
In the letter, Issa informs Genachowski that his previous response to inquiries on the topic were incomplete, and asks for full records and logs of all meetings.
Tuesday, May 18
By Bruce Mehlman
techPresident reports that Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer Andrew McLaughlin was recently reprimanded over using his private Gmail address to talk to people at Google:
McLaughlin was cited for two kinds of actions: using a personal email account for some professional email exchanges and for violating restrictions on contacts with Google, his former employer. Most notable among the latter were a pair of conversations with the Director of U.S. Public Policy for Google about mobilizing Google’s resources to respond to negative press mentions. Those breaches, according to a memo by OSTP Director John Holdren, “implicated” the Federal Records Act and the President’s Ethics Pledge signed by McLaughlin upon his employment as an Obama administration point person on innovation and Internet policy, within the White House Office of Technology and Science Policy.
The Hill has more:
In one exchange, [Google’s Director of U.S. Public Policy Andrew] Davidson alerts McLaughlin to possible fallout from his remarks on net neutrality. Later, the company offers to go to bat for McLaughlin, promising to “tee up” the Open Internet Coalition—of which Google is a chief member—to defend the Web chief’s remarks.
The conversation ends when Davidson writes: “Update on this—haven’t seen anything run yet. We and a few OIC folks talked with reporters. It’s possible that killed it, which is probably driving [AT&T] crazy.”
Friday, January 29
By Brad
How many people watched President Obama’s State of the Union address online? According to the official White House Blog, close to 1,300,000.
Wednesday, January 20
By Brad
The White House has released an official iPhone app, offering news and even live video streaming of events such as the State of the Union address on January 27th.
Friday, March 06
By Brad
The pro-tech Obama administration is running into roadblocks as they try to bring the White House up to date with Web 2.0. As Read Write Web reports:
Relatively archaic government policies, rules, and customs that impede progress are being covered by the Washington Post and reach the highest levels of government. To this day, Department of Defense workers, even some of whom are in charge of new media output, cannot access YouTube. At one government agency, public affairs employees use government-purchased Macs and wireless cards to circumvent social networks being classified as “dating sites”—by other employees! And in extraordinary cases, contractors hired by agencies to carry out the work of Government 2.0 are banned from doing the very job they were hired to do.
Security is, of course, a major concern. But as President Obama makes a concerted effort to bring every American into the high-speed Internet age, bringing his own address up to date may prove to be the biggest hurdle.
Tuesday, January 20
By Brad
The official White House website has bee refreshed and re-launched—complete with a blog.
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