WASHINGTON — Stephanie Cutter still doesn’t understand why Mitt Romney’s campaign did not more forcefully defend its candidate’s business experience. Cutter, who served as President Barack Obama’s deputy campaign manager in the 2012 election, said on Friday that the Romney campaign’s failure to aggressively respond to the attacks on Bain Capital was one of its biggest mistakes.”I never understood why they never pushed back on our attacks on his business experience,” Cutter said at the seventh annual RootsCamp conference for progressive organizers in Washington, D.C. “He ran largely on an argument that, ‘I understand the real economy, I know how to fix this and the president doesn’t — he’s never been in the real economy,’ with his only credential his Bain experience.”Read More…
More on Mitt Romney
Stephanie Cutter: We Never Understood Why Romney Campaign Didn’t Push Back On Bain Attacks
The U.N. Shouldn’t Make Decisions About an Open Internet Behind Closed Doors
Behind closed doors, decisions will be made next week that could threaten the global, open internet. This isn?t a sky-is-falling cry: There could be very real consequences both in how we use the internet and how it?s governed. A relatively unknown United Nations agency called the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is … Read More
New Deal with Zynga Shows That Facebook Wants to Keep Its Frenemies Close When It Comes to Real Money Gaming
Mr. Pincus
Both Facebook and Zynga filed documents with the SEC today today detailing the terms of a new, more lax partnership. The two-year-old contract between the once interdependent companies–just check out their IPO filings–was slated to expire.
Under the loosened agreement, Zynga is free of a number of obligations, including implementing Facebook credits on Zynga game pages and using Facebook as its exclusive social platform. Naturally Zynga is interested in establishing its own network, with the ability to own its own players and establish its own ad relationships. Zynga also no longer has to display Facebook ad units, for example.
But Facebook also got one (big!) thing: the ability to develop its own games. That might explain why Zynga stock is trading almost 13 percent down after hours.
The one area where Facebook wasn’t willing to let Zynga go? Altogether now: Real. Money. Gaming.
If you’ll recall, during its recent third quarter earnings call, Zynga announced a partnership with bwin.party that will allow Zynga to offer “real money games” in the UK, where gambling laws are more permissive. And according to today’s Zynga filing:
“If Facebook allows real money gambling games on the Facebook web site in countries where Zynga has real money gambling games, Zynga will subsequently launch such games on the Facebook web site, if certain conditions are met by Facebook.”
Sounds like Zuck didn’t want to miss out in case Zynga’s real money poker and casino games are everything Mark Pincus so desperately hopes it will be. … Read More
Robotic Autobot Transformer Shows Other 3D-Printed Gear Who’s Boss
Forget scale models of the Aston Martin DB5 or personalized action figures. This is what 3D printers were meant to do: create real, robotic Transformers. Or at least a version of a Transformer that would actually fit in your living room. … Read More
Integrity of Internet Is Crux of Global Conference
With envoys from more than 100 nations convening in Dubai to discuss telecommunications, diverse groups are warning of plans to censor the Internet. But analysts say the real debate is about business. … Read More
Manning trial: ‘Extreme govt secrecy real threat, not leakers’
http://www.youtube.com/v/yfzs5iCdPec?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata More here: Manning trial: ‘Extreme govt secrecy real threat, not leakers’
The surveillance state high school
Liberals and conservatives alike are up in arms about the story of Andrea Hernandez, a Texas high school sophomore who is refusing to wear a student ID card embedded with an RFID (radio frequency identification) chip. And well they should be; there is much cause for outrage. But most people seem to be missing the real story: our pathetic national unwillingness to properly fund our public schools is the real root of this latest manifestation of surveillance state evil.But first, some background. Officials in San Antonio’s Northside school district are claiming that the ability to locate the exact whereabouts of students via RFID chips will boost attendance and enhance safety. A number of different schools have attempted similar schemes in recent years, provoking strong condemnation from groups across the political spectrum who argue that forcing human beings to carry electronic tracking devices constitutes a profound invasion of privacy.Continue Reading… … Read More
