Politics and Law- Page 170

More evidence cell phone users affect polls

The latest political polling numbers suggest that poll results sway in favor of one candidate or another depending on whether a pollster calls likely voters on cell phones, Nate Silver pointed out on FiveThirtyEight.com on Sunday.

Silver's analysis shows that out of 14 polling organizations, the five that call likely voters' cell phones (shown in gold in the accompanying chart) put Democrat Barack Obama ahead of Republican John McCain by an average of 9.4 points. By contrast, the eight pollsters that do not call cell phones have Obama ahead by 5.1 points.

The data mirrors studies … Read more

Q&A: The formula behind FiveThirtyEight

Political commentary on the Internet is nothing new these days. So how did Nate Silver go from blogging under the guise of a chili pepper to hosting Election Night coverage with Dan Rather in a matter of months? By focusing on one number: 538.

While a number of sites and other media outlets offer aggregated polling information that can give a snapshot of the state of the presidential race, Silver's site takes things up a notch.

FiveThirtyEight.com--named after the number of votes in the electoral college--uses a predictive algorithm to determine the most likely electoral outcome based … Read more

Obama campaign releases tech policy video

Technology policy has been eclipsed by the economy and other matters in this year's presidential election, but Democrat Barack Obama's campaign released a video Sunday that addresses the issue.

The video, called "A Blueprint for Change: Technology," features Obama laying out broad proposals such as doubling federal funding for basic research, enforcing tough antitrust laws, and putting put government data like grants and federal lobbying contracts online in universally accessible formats.

The video, about three minutes long, is pieced together from parts of a speech he gave at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Republican … Read more

E-voting worries linger as Election Day nears

After a presidential election eight years ago that seemed like it would never end, politicians pledged to prevent a second round of hanging chads, manual recounts, and U.S. Supreme Court arguments. The idea was to spend up to $3.9 billion to replace punch card voting machines of the sort that Florida accidentally made famous.

By including strict requirements that newly purchased machines "be accessible" to blind and disabled voters, Congress all but mandated electronic voting machines with touch screens. But Washington politicians--not known for their tech-savvy in the best of times--neglected to include even rudimentary security … Read more

Technology Voter Guide 2008: Barack Obama

In the last few days before November 4, taxes and the economy have become the most pressing topics of the 2008 presidential campaign.

But knowing where the candidates stand on high-tech topics like digital copyright, surveillance, and Internet regulation can be revealing, which is why we've put together this 2008 Technology Voters' Guide.

Included are answers to questions we asked presidential candidates. We received replies from Republican Sen. John McCain, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, and independent candidate Ralph Nader.

Read on for responses from Barack Obama, or check out the rest of CNET News' election coverage. … Read more

Technology Voter Guide 2008: John McCain

In the last few days before November 4, taxes and the economy have become the most pressing topics of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Read on for responses from John McCain, or check out the rest of CNET News' election coverage. … Read more

Technology Voter Guide 2008: Ralph Nader

In the last few days before November 4, taxes and the economy have become the most pressing topics of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Read on for responses from independent candidate Ralph Nader, or check out the rest of CNET News' election coverage. … Read more

Technology Voter Guide 2008: Bob Barr

In the last few days before November 4, taxes and the economy have become the most pressing topics of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Read on for responses from Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, or check out the rest of CNET News' election coverage. … Read more

Dick Armey: Treasury Dept. should not overreact to Net gambling

Occasionally we at CNET News will publish outside opinion articles, such as one on spam co-authored by Sen. Ron Wyden, and another on Net neutrality written by Diana DeGette. The background for this article is that the Treasury Department, in response to a 2006 law, is preparing a slew of anti-Internet gambling regulations that could be released at any time. Read below for a critique by Dick Armey, the economist and onetime House Majority Leader who's now heading the FreedomWorks advocacy group. --Declan McCullagh

The Midnight Regulation Rush is On! By Dick Armey

While most of us are distracted … Read more

Patent ruling good or bad for tech?

Now that the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that abstract processes, or business methods, cannot be patented, it's important to look at how this could affect the tech industry.

The case in question was rejected because the patent at issue was a process not tied to a "machine," which is one standard for patentability.

Overall, it seems like a ruling that should favor companies that make hardware and software because while it narrows the types of patents that can be filed, in return should protect them from the frivolous patent suits that have flooded the … Read more