The Inquisitr » john mccain

John McCain Settles Copyright Infringement Suit

AHN — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:00:22 +0000

Washington, DC (CNS) – Senator John McCain has settled with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jackson Browne over the lawsuit the singer filed against him for copyright infringement.

Browne sued the former presidential candidate in August when his 1977signature song “Running on Empty” was used in his online campaign ad.

The Republican Party did not obtain a license to use the song, which prompted the musician to sue McCain, the Republican National Committee, and the Ohio Republican Party for copyright infringement. He was seeking $75,000 in damages.

McCain and his team have issued a statement, offering their apology for using a portion of the song on their ad without permission.

The campaign reiterated that the Arizona Senator was not involved in the creation of the Web campaign video.

Terms of the financial settlement were not disclosed.

Akon Will “Move Back to Africa” If McCain Wins

Meieli Sawyer — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:10:13 +0000

Akon’s threatening to move back to Africa, kind of like how Seal and Heidi Klum are saying they’ll leave, but with less panache because (let’s face it) he’s not as popular as he thinks. He spends way too much time attacking his own fans to get much sympathy from us, but the threat is there nonetheless:

“If he [Obama] doesn’t get into office, I’m gonna change my citizenship,” he said. “I’m moving back to Africa. You can hold me to that. I’m afraid to live there if he [McCain] is President. The decisions he makes scare me: he’s making selfish decisions, he’s doing whatever it takes to get into office.”

Akon had a few choice words on Sarah Palin in the same interview with The Guardian, commenting that “she’s definitely going to be president” because McCain won’t make it “eight years.”

Unfortunately, Akon is unable to vote due to a previous felony conviction. Perhaps that’s why he’s making up for it by being extra vocal this time, because, as The Guardian noted, he “does not have a track record of speaking out on politics.”

If Gaians can only vote

Dominic Rivera — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:31:53 +0000

Gaia Online has launched its monthly According to Teens Report, a monthly survey of Gaia members that will provide a regular update on the Generation Y perspective and here’s their take on the coming elections.

The virtual world’s election poll, a survey of more than 37,000 respondents, revealed that 72 percent of teens and young adults would like to see Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.

This year’s election was a natural fit for the launch of the According to Teens Report,” said Scott Kinzie, VP of creative and user experience at Gaia Online. “At Gaia Online we have the unique ability to tap millions of Gen Yers and we believe it’s imperative to understand what’s guiding the youth vote. With this new survey program we’re hoping to serve as a trusted source on all things teen, helping relevant parties better understand this often misunderstood generation.”

If only these teens and young adults leave Gaia Online for a few precious minutes and help in educating the real world of the importance of this election…

Obama wins in hi5.com and MySpace

Dominic Rivera — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:37:38 +0000

A global survey conducted by hi5.com among its members revealed that 83% favors Senator Barack Obama as the next president of the United States of America.

Although Obama had a substantial lead in all parts of the world, the margin was less pronounced in some regions. Europe, North America, and Africa were most strongly pro-Obama (at 87%, 87%, and 88%, respectively), followed by Asia (83%), Latin America (81%), and South Asia (85%). The region that was most sympathetic to Senator John McCain was the Middle East– where only 58% supported Obama compared to 25% support for McCain.

The survey was representative of approximately 25,000 respondents from 192 countries. The survey was conducted in eight languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Thai, and Chinese. Out of all survey participants, 59% were male and 41% were female.

Meanwhile, MySpace revealed that its own survey showed that 60 percent of its eligible voters prefer Senator Barack Obama while 34 percent goes for Senator John McCain.

But again, as lessons of election history have taught us, anything can happen as the race tightens.

Comedy Central Launches ColbertNation.com, the Home of the True Maverick

Dominic Rivera — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:31:04 +0000

If you think John McCain is the true maverick, think again as Comedy Central joins forces with The Colbert Report in launching ColbertNation.com.

The new ColbertNation.com is the hub for all things Stephen Colbert featuring links to every Colbert related gossip online. It is the best place to stay up-to-date on all the latest news and buzz about the show. On the home page, users can find information about upcoming guests, special events and on-air stunts like the “Green Screen Challenges.” The homepage also includes an area called “State of the Nation” which not only reflects site activity like the most recently posted videos, but gives users updates on everything happening in Colbert’s world on and off the show.

“I’m thrilled with our new web site. I only wish John McCain knew how to get there,” Colbert said.

Colbert must be out of touch with technology news. He was obviously not informed that John McCain helped in creating the miracle called Blackberry.

CBS sneaks three eyed smiley into Palin report?

Duncan Riley — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:53:58 +0000

Some one doing the graphics for CBS News may have decided to have a some fun September 15, sneaking in a three eyed smiley face at the end of a quote from the New York Times lashing Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s hiring practices.

The smiley appears directly after the line “including the head of the division of Agriculture who cited her childhood love of cows…” per the pick above.

The full video below. The smiley appears at 1:04 and is visible until 1:13 in the clip.

Update: someone has pointed out that this could simply be a juxtaposition of the CBS watermark and the dots at the end of the quote. Could well be, although part of the logo disappears in the shot to make the smiley face when we can see the full logo before and after, demonstrating that either magically, or by human intervention, we get a three eyed smiley face. Either way though, it certainly looks funny, and three eyed smiley fans will be happy with the end result

Dilbert creator commissions survey on who would best run America

Duncan Riley — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:42:06 +0000

Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert cartoon series had a problem, he couldn’t find independent advice on which Presidential candidate has the best economic policies for America. As Adams notes “for once I asked not what my country could do for me” and instead commissioned a survey of over 500 economists to give him the answer.

Democrats will be pleased to learn that 59% of the economists surveyed say Obama would be best for the economy long term, with 31% picking McCain, and 8% saying there would be no difference.

Adams though takes the figures further. 48% of economists surveyed were declared Democrats vs 17% republicans, so naturally there is a bias in the results. 88% of Democratic economists think Obama would be best, while 80% of Republican economists pick McCain. Independent economists lean toward Obama by 46% compared to 39% for McCain.

On 13 key issues, the economists favor Obama on 11 of the top 13 issues, but among independents 54% believe that in the long run there would either be no difference between the candidates or McCain would do better.

Adams conclusion: “Many of you will wonder how reliable economists are. In my view, if an economist uses a complicated model to predict just about anything, you can ignore it.”

The full details on the Dilbert site here.

VP Hopefuls Call Senator Obama

Duncan Riley — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:14:18 +0000

Barley Political takes on VP season with the same zeal as it did with Obama Girl. Stick with the video, it improves as it goes along.

Google launches another content play: political news aggregator

Duncan Riley — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:21:31 +0000

Google has announced the launch of Power Readers in Politics, a political news aggregation site where journalists and political campaigns share stores via Google Reader.

Included in the aggregation mix along with both the McCain and Obama campaigns are leading political journalists including Mark Halperin and Adrianna Huffington.

Google is pitching the site as:

We’re reading a lot about the candidates and the media this election season. But what are they reading? At google.com/powerreaders now you can track the news sites and blogs Barack Obama and John McCain read (from Drudge to The Daily Show) and follow articles catching the eyes of leading political journalists….share articles that interest them. You can follow shared articles and blog posts, or you can add participants’ reading lists or shared news feeds to your own Reader account.

Shared Google Reader blogs aren’t new, but this is the first time I can recall Google creating a special site for shared feeds based around a topic. More notably though, it’s a content play by Google. This is a news aggregation site, and a decent one at that, but it automatically competes with any existing players in this space. Whether that’s good or bad I’ll leave others to call, but it does seem to be part of the pattern where Google is moving away from empowering creators to being a competitor in its own right.

Beware the Wrath of Roseanne Barr

Meieli Sawyer — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:40:49 +0000

Wow– Roseanne Barr is totally going to give Rosie a run for her money in terms of lashing out at other celebrity figures. After Angelina Jolie’s noncommittal response on her voting preference, Roseanne took the opportunity to tell her and Brad off (and let them know why they should be voting for Barack Obama):

“jon voight your evil spawn angelina jolie and her vacuous hubby brad pitt make about forty million dollars a year in violent psychopathic movies and give away three of it to starving children trying to look as if they give a crap about humanity as they spit out more dunces that will consume more than their fair share and wreck the earth even more. (just sayin’).

Also miss jolie says she likes mccain too and hasn’t decided who to endorse….huh? Aren’t you supposed to be somewhat enlightened [...] ??????!!!!”

Isn’t Roseanne afraid of whom she might run into at the next celebrity bash? Even if the bed you make is ruby-strewn, you’ve still got to lie in it– and with a power couple like Brad and Angelina, you can bet I’d think twice about laying into them for what looks like No Apparent Reason.

I really doubt that they run in the same circles, anyway.

Image: WireImage

Paris Hilton John McCain Ad: Britney Spears Response

Duncan Riley — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:01:48 +0000

Britney Spears responds to Paris Hilton’s Response to John McCain’s anti Barrack Obama campaign ad. A little lame, but it has its moments.