Reflections on Loss and Acceptance From Those Swept Out of Congress

But as giddy freshmen lawmakers arrived at the Capitol this week ? some of them walking along the elaborately tiled floors for the first time ? some senior lawmakers talked openly of feeling swept away by a tidal wave of voter sentiment.

?I?ve been doing this a long time, and then all of the sudden you?ve been cast aside,? said Representative Michael N. Castle, 71, the Delaware Republican who was defeated in his Senate primary bid by Christine O?Donnell this fall.

He ponders daily, he said, which is preferable: to falter in a tight race with a Democratic opponent, or to have lost in the primary, as he did, to the inexperienced Tea Party candidate who never had a shot in the general election.

?My wife argues it?s almost better to lose the way we did because it all seems so irrational,? he said. ?But you lose, you lose. I wish I could say one way was fun. They?re both pretty bad.?

Over the next weeks, about 70 members ? most Democrats ? will cast their last votes, pack up their offices and head for the door. Some of the biggest names ? Senators Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, and Arlen Specter, Democrat of Pennsylvania ? will join old timers, one-termers and others in their last walks up the stairs of the Capitol, now bathed in the silver light of fall, as elected officials.

The sweep of senior lawmakers from office in one of the largest electoral upheavals of Congress in decades, returning the House to Republican control, is among the most striking of changes in postmidterm Washington. Along with some retirements, ?the cumulative seniority lost is pretty great,? said Burdett Loomis, a political science professor at the University of Kansas.

Denial and bargaining are behind them, and some members who lost seem to have arrived at a shaky acceptance, shaped by their sense that the election was not about them.

?I don?t think the election had very much to do with me, and I don?t think it had much to do with my opponent,? said Representative Rick Boucher, a Democrat who had served Virginia?s Ninth Congressional District since 1983. ?That frustration and anger and desire to send a message transcended the knowledge my constituents had of my work in the district.?

Representative Earl Pomeroy, a Democrat who lost his Congressional seat in North Dakota, concurred: ?I don?t have a feeling of searing personal repudiation.?

Mr. Boucher, 64, says he is even feeling a sense of adventure. ?I?m pretty philosophical about it,? said Mr. Boucher, a part of the Blue Dog routing. ?There is almost a liberating quality looking for a new path in life.?

Perhaps not everyone has reached their postelection state of Zen. Mr. Specter and Mr. Feingold have kept relatively low profiles since their respective losses in the primary and the general elections.

When a reporter asked Mr. Specter in September about the Democrat who defeated him in his primary, he declined to be interviewed, citing a squash engagement. Likewise, Ike Skelton, the powerful chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, chose not to be interviewed about the end of his 34-year career, his spokesman said.

A career in Congress can be long, but the exit from glory is swift. Defeated and retiring members must vacate their offices at the end of the month, so that all freshmen and their staffs can have offices by opening day.

?There?s not much time for a losing candidate to mope,? said Mr. Pomeroy, who will soon head to the Capitol?s basement, where a cubicle with a single phone and computer await him to finish out the lame-duck session.

Over at the office of Representative James L. Oberstar, an 18-term Democrat who lost to a political novice in Minnesota, the maps, certificates and photographs with presidents are still hanging, but some are festooned with yellow Post-it notes indicating where they will end up. His children want copies of bills, and the Minnesota Historical Society will take other items.

Mr. Oberstar, who was tossed out with several state legislators from his area, said he was no match for the ?upfeed? from the powerful Republican ground game that moved against him. ?I expected to leave at some point, that I?d make that decision in due course,? he said. ?I?m not angry; I?m disappointed.?

Perspective has come in many forms. ?It?s fascinating,? said Representative Chet Edwards, Democrat of Texas. ?I received more votes in 2010 than I received in the last nonpresidential year, when I won by 58 percent. More people in my district voted this year than in 2008. It?s just a reflection of what an exception to the rule this election was.?

At the end of his campaign, he said, he was visiting a hospital in his district and ran into a couple who said they were supporters. Inquiring about their visit, he said, they told him: ?We lost our daughter earlier this year as the result of a drunk driver. And now our son has been in the I.C.U. for 30 days because a text-messaging driver ran into his car and amputated his leg.?

Mr. Edwards said: ?I tell you, it took my breath away. After a few tears and hugs, I called my wife and said if our biggest concern is that we have to look for a new job, we?re doing all right.?

For those Democrats who served ony one term, their entire tenure was a mad rush of seemingly politically toxic votes, ending in nearly instant repudiation. Still, who would trade it?

?I wouldn?t take anything for it,? said Representative Dina Titus, Democrat of Nevada, her eyes rimmed red, as she left the House floor the other night. Clutching a pair of high heels, Ms. Titus walked in her stocking feet into the members-only elevator, and the door slid quietly behind her.

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Reid to Push to Allow End of ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell?

Senator John McCain of Arizona, the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, led his colleagues in blocking consideration of the bill in September in part because it allowed the repeal of the ?don?t ask, don?t tell? policy. Mr. McCain has not changed his position, and Democrats had been considering stripping the provision to advance the legislation.

But the White House on Wednesday repeated President Obama?s commitment to repealing the ban. In a statement later in the day, Mr. Reid said he would bring the bill to the floor, with the repeal language in place. ?We need to repeal this discriminatory policy so that any American who wants to defend our country can do so,? Mr. Reid said.

Senate Democratic aides said Mr. Reid would try to take up the bill sometime in December, meaning after the Pentagon is due to release a report on how it would carry out a repeal. The report includes a survey of active-duty forces and their families, which shows that a majority do not care if gay men and women serve openly.

That report is due on Dec. 1.

Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, applauded Mr. Reid?s decision and said he would fight for approval of the bill.

In a statement, Mr. Levin said that he would hold hearings on the Pentagon report as soon as it was released and that he had asked Mr. Reid to wait until they were completed before trying to begin debate.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said he would like to see the ?don?t ask, don?t tell? policy repealed before the end of the year, but some senior military commanders and some lawmakers in Congress have expressed opposition to ending the policy.

Senator McCain?s wife, Cindy, called last week for ending the policy, appearing in a video for an advertising campaign aimed at preventing the bullying of gay teenagers. But then she abruptly reversed herself and said she agreed with her husband.

The House has already approved legislation authorizing repeal, and Mr. Reid?s decision indicated that Democrats, despite heavy losses in the midterm elections, were not backing down from some top legislative priorities, important to the party?s base.

On Wednesday Mr. Reid announced that he would also push to bring up a bill that would create a path to citizenship for certain illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as small children.

Mr. Reid tried to attach the legislation as an amendment to the military policy bill before the midterm elections, but Republicans blocked the bill, in part because they said that he was using it as a political prop to appeal to Hispanic and gay voters in his re-election campaign in Nevada.

In his race, Mr. Reid promised he would try again to pass the immigration measure, known as the Dream Act. And in a statement on Wednesday he said he would try to do so as a stand-alone bill.

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, has been discussing the immigration measure with Democratic colleagues but has not scheduled a vote on it, a spokesman said.

The legislation would give legal residency to immigrants who arrived in the United States before age 16 and lived here for at least five years, graduated from high school and completed two years of college or military service. They would be subject to background checks, could not have criminal records, and even if successful would still not be eligible for financial aid like Pell grants.

In a statement, Mr. Reid said: ?If there is a bipartisan bill that makes sense for our country economically, from a national security perspective and one that reflects American values, it is the Dream Act. This bill will give children brought illegally to this country at no fault of their own the chance to earn legal status.?

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=ffbed56dd1f74721273b19e1c2e78e65

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Blog - Twist 'n' Bend

5 Tablets To Look Out For In 2011 [TNW Gadgets]

So you?re waging a battle in your head. Do you buy a tablet this year? Or do you wait to see what 2011 holds? Well, we already gave you a guide on what tablets to consider if you?re going to buy this year, but how about next year?

While some of these are merely whispers in the wind, there is no doubt that 2011is going to spawn some pretty beautiful tablet devices. So, without further ado, here are 5 to keep in mind before you pull the trigger on a first generation iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab.

5. LG (Optimus) Pad

LG hasn?t announced their tablet device yet but if the specs hold up, this is going to be a very, very solid device. Right now, the device is known as the LG Pad or the LG Optimus Pad and according to a senior official from LG Electronics, who probably lost his job, it will be coming in Q1 with Android Honeycomb.

You know, Google?s Android OS that actually works well on a tablet device.

In its defense, the Galaxy Tab will be getting Honeycomb at some point but don?t count on it being any time soon after its launch. Why? Just have a look at the whole Galaxy S/Froyo debacle.

It?s also supposed to have a 8.9 inch display with a Tegra 2 chip from Nvidia inside.

Sound good?

We thought so.

4. HTC?s Tablet

The tablet that doesn?t even have a name.

According to a report by Digitimes, HTC is at work on a tablet device that is, surprise, scheduled to be headed to market in Q1 of next year.  And it looks like it?s going to be an absolute beast.

It apparently has a 1280 x 720 resolution screen which is mind blowing to say the least.  The Samsung Galaxy Tab, whose screen blew me away, has a 1024 x 600 resolution display.

Supposedly, other specs include an Nvidia Tegra 2 chip, 2GB of internal memory, W-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, and a 32GB memory card.

No word on the screen size, although with a resolution like that, expect it to be big.

3. Motorola MOTOPAD/Motorola Stingray

According to Elder Murtazin, the Motorola MOTOPAD, which may or may not be the same device as the Motorola Stingray, has apparently been selected to bring in the era of Android 3.0 aka Honeycomb.

The MOTOPAD will apparently rock a 7 inch screen which is different than what a leaked Verizon roadmap had for the Stingray. That device supposedly had a 10 inch screen, 16GB of on-board storage, and an Nvidia Tegra 2, and had LTE capabilities. Might these be the same thing or does Motorola have two tablets on the way?

We?ll know in due time since the Stingray was rumored to be out in Q1.

2. BlackBerry PlayBook

This is the only official, living and breathing, tablet on this list and it might turn out to be one of the best.

You might have heard. RIM is bringing their own tablet to the market, sometime in the early part of 2011 and it?s called the BlackBerry PlayBook. In case you missed it, take a look at this quick little video demo of the device that popped up a few days ago.

Watch it and tell us it doesn?t look sweet.

As far as specs are concerned, the PlayBook rocks a 7 inch display with 1024 x 600 resolution, Cortex A9-based, dual-core 1GHz CPU which RIM says is faster than the iPad?s processor, 1GB of RAM, two cameras (one front facing that is 3MP and a rear facing at 5MP), 1080p HD video, HDMI port, 16GB/32GB/64GB versions as well as the ability to run Flash and Adobe Air apps.

RIM is hoping to sell a lot of these and we wouldn?t be surprised if they do.

1. Apple iPad 2/Second Generation iPad

Last and certainly not least, Apple?s rumored update to the original iPad. Will it be called the iPad 2? Will it simply be the iPad once again? Little is known about Apple?s plans but there is a lot of speculation out there.

We recently reported that the iPad 2 could possibly be ready for production in Q1 of next year meaning it has a chance to be out sometime in Q1.

How about features?

Well, it?s said to have two cameras (yes!), retina display, USB ports, and an upgraded ?smart? bezel.

So there they are guys. Unfortunately, this might have spoiled some plans to pick up a Galaxy Tab or an iPad but hey, with something as expensive as a tablet, it?s always smart to weigh your options before you make a decision.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2010/11/21/5-tablets-to-look-out-for-in-2011/

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Thinking Outside the In-box

Search the Internet, and you'll find hundreds of applications designed to help you collaborate with other people more effectively. But examine your own habits, and you'll most likely find that you use just one piece of software for that purpose: an e-mail client.

You're not alone. A recent Forrester Research study found that 83 percent of business users typically send e-mail attachments to colleagues rather than using collaboration software. According to a recent survey by technology consulting company People-OnTheGo, the average information worker spends 3.3 hours a day dealing with e-mail, and 65 percent of such workers have their e-mail client open all the time.

Even Facebook, which once seemed like a likely replacement for e-mail, at least for the young and plugged-in, has acknowledged that e-mail isn't going anywhere. On Monday, the company announced a new messaging service that integrates external e-mail with its own internal messaging system?an admission of the staying power of e-mail, and an attempt to enhance its functionality.

Other software makers seem to have accepted that they'll never pull people's attention away from their e-mail in-boxes. Instead, they're looking to add new collaborative and social capabilities to e-mail.

"It's clear that e-mail is being used and even abused," says Yaacov Cohen, CEO of Mainsoft, a company based in Tel Aviv, Israel, that sells a plug-in called Harmon.ie. The plug-in links an e-mail application to a collaboration platform such as Google Docs, and to a person's social networking profiles, calendar applications, voice over Internet protocol software, and so on. To share a document using Harmon.ie, a user drags it from a sidebar to the body of a message, where it becomes a link. When the recipient clicks on the link, she is taken to the document stored in the chosen collaboration software. Using e-mail alone for collaboration creates confusion and overloads in-boxes, Cohen says.

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=258ea4e879c187708c823ae714dc879d

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Rumor: Nvidia delays dual-GPU GTX 590 to beat Antilles

With AMD's flagship single-GPU Radeon HD 6950 and 6970 cards due arrive sometime this quarter, one has to expect that Nvidia is preparing a new premium offering -- and one would be right, says Fudzilla. The GeForce-maker is readying a graphics card (possibly branded the GTX 590) with two GF110 GPUs strapped onboard, and it could appear "very soon."

According to unnamed sources, Nvidia partners are practically ready to roll, and the company could launch its dual-GPU product before the end of 2010. Unfortunately, that's unlikely to happen. Word has it that Nvidia is waiting for AMD to ship its dual-chip solution, the Radeon HD 6990 (codenamed Antilles), which is on track for the first quarter of next year.


Nvidia currently holds the crown for single-GPU performance with its GeForce GTX 580, and it seems the company wants to ensure a dominate position in the dual-GPU market as well. By delaying the GTX 590 until after the Radeon HD 6990 arrives, it's suggested that Nvidia will have an opportunity tweak its contender before shoving it into the ring.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41218-rumor-nvidia-delays-dualgpu-gtx-590-to-beat-antilles.html

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HP: webOS 2.0 coming to all existing devices

Speaking at HP's webOS Developer Day in New York City, developer advocate Josh Marinacci announced that webOS 2.0 would be coming to all previously released webOS devices "in the coming months." That timeline may not be particularly specific, but we're sure Palm fans will be happy to know that they are not being left out in the cold by HP.

Current and future owners of the Pre, Pixi, and Pre Plus will soon be able to upgrade to webOS 2.0, as far as HP concerned. As always, carriers will probably have other plans. The announcement also means that developers targeting webOS will only have to worry about one version, unlike on platforms as fragmented as Android. You can watch the announcement in the video below, as first posted by PreCentral.

Last month, HP officially introduced webOS 2.0, the most significant update to the platform since its launch in 2009, along with the Palm Pre 2, the first device to sport it. Four more webOS 2.0 devices are slated to arrive in early 2011, meaning once the older devices are supported, developers will be able to target eight webOS 2.0 devices in total.

Version 2.0 features Stacks, JustType, as well as Skype and Facebook support. HP also touts "true multitasking," which means you never have to close an app to do something else, and Flash 10.1 beta support in the browser. HP acquired Palm for $1.2 billion and while many thought the company would kill the project, so far it has done the exact opposite.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41224-hp-webos-20-coming-to-all-existing-devices.html

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Google Invests $1 Million Dollars in Shweeb?s Human Powered Monorail [TNW Google]

As part of Google?s Project 10 to 100, they?ve donated $1 million dollars to Shweeb, a company that wants to make an eco-friendly, human-powered monorail. The project sorted 150,000 ideas from over 170 countries, narrowing it down to 16 final ideas, which were then voted on by the public. In the end, Google donated a total of $10 million to five winning projects, working on global issues. Shweeb won for driving innovation in public transport.

The human-powered pods on the monorail are intended for short to medium distances in urban settings. Google?s $1 million will fund research and development to test the ?recumbent cycling technology.? Basically, Shweeb puts humans in clear pods which are then powered by people kicking their legs as if they were on a bicycle. The original adventure ride concept system is situated at Agroventures Park in Rotorua, New Zealand.

See a video of it here:

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/google/2010/11/20/google-invests-1-million-dollars-in-shweebs-human-powered-monorail/

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Why Google Acquiring Groupon Is NOT The Way To Go [TNW Social Media]

Who knows if the rumors about Google lining up to buy Groupon are true or not but there is usually no smoke without fire in these cases. The rumored figure for ?the fastest growing business ever? is around the $3 billion mark but I?m not sure this is the perfect fit and I can see problems for both sides if this deal was to go through.

Google?s Integration Would Be Too Slow

When it comes to acquiring start ups Google have not always been the best at getting them integrated with their own services or backing them to the full. Just look at how long it took to get grand central turned in to Google Voice or ask the Foursquare guys what Google did to their first hot start up Dodgeball. The key to the ongoing success for Groupon is speed and how quick they can roll the service in to other cities and countries. Competitors are springing up all over the place and Groupon need to keep growing as fast as possible and having the distraction of a complicated deal might not be the best thing in terms of their growth.

Margins Will Get Squeezed

The problem for this sector is that margins will get squeezed due to the fact that the business model could not be easier to copy. Competitors are already popping up all over the place with a mixture of carbon copies and more niche plays popping up in every country in the world. The margins have been great at the start but margins will get squeezed more and more as the competition tries to undercut each other. This is very much about a race to the bottom. I believe Google could be buying the company at the highest possible valuation.

Fitting In With Google?s New Social Strategy

Google are about to launch their new social strategy including Google me and a social gaming platform and probably think Groupon would be the perfect compliment to these other social tools. Although Groupon involves lots of people and social elements though it really relies on email as the primary point of contact with their customer. Who knows what the new social efforts from Google will look like but I?d be far more excited about the self serve deals platform that Facebook unveiled a couple of weeks ago. Google does like making money though and they could just be buying this as a standalone money making machine that has nothing to do with their other social efforts.

Google?s Analytical Nature

Google is great at numbers and technical problems but Groupon is not something that you can easily automate. It takes huge amount of sales staff to get the deals in place and it?s not an automated process like most of Google?s other products. There have been some noises about introducing self service platforms around Groupon which would make a lot of sense and allow the business revenues to scale at an even bigger pace but we know that Google?s strength is numbers and data and not people businesses.

Why Sell Fasted Growing Business Ever?

The big question that people have to ask is why would you sell the fastest growing business? To start a bidding war? Because you knew it didn?t have the legs long term? I know people enter business for different reasons but If I owned the fastest growing business ever that had the sort of revenue and traction that Groupon has I wouldn?t want to sell it to anybody. Having said all of that $3 billion is not a small amount of cash and is more than enough for the Groupon team to enjoy the rest if their lives with.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/11/20/why-google-acquiring-groupon-is-a-bad-move-for-all-parties/

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