Famously Tweeted: White House Puts Ashton Kutcher To the “Test”

What happens when Robert Gibbs is too busy ?  You call on Hollywood… [this one's on the house]

The Obama admin. has confirmed that it "did, in fact, seek" Ashton Kutcher’s "help" in getting "the word out" about Nat’l HIV Testing Day (Politico ).

Next up: Shaq will help the White House promote weight loss.

h/t Wake Up Call

Ask President Obama a Question on YouTube

YouTube: Submit Your Question for President Obama

President Obama is taking your questions this Wednesday in a special online health care townhall event. With healthcare at the top of the President’s agenda, he is opening up the White House to questions via YouTube. Create a 20- or 30-second video question and submit it as a reply video to the video below (go here to get started). He’ll answer some of the most popular questions during the event, which we’ll stream live from the White House YouTube channel.

This is your chance to speak directly to the President, so don’t miss this opportunity to upload your video now. Make sure the sound and video quality are as clear as they can be, and if you’d like, leave your name and your hometown in the video description.

Yours,
Steve Grove
YouTube News & Politics

Famously Facebooked

Facebook Status Abuse: [posted by a lawyer]

Today a few jurors asked me, "What do you do?" I responded, "I run this court." After working a 12-hour day, the judge told me, "Thank you."

There are some people in the world who mind their own business and work hard, all for the sake of bettering mankind - then there’s this douchebag of the day, who thinks he’s entirely more important than he actually is.

Do you know someone who abuses their updates?  Report it below …

Looking For An Internship That Doesn’t Put Fire To Sleep?

Interns — you can go work for a member of Congress - who might or might not disappoint you, or you can bench press your brain and do something fun.

A tipster tells us New Media Strategies is hiring interns.

More info here .  Do it.

Jon - Kate + Alimony

They have us right where they want us - "trending" on Twitter.  [divorce]

Marco Rubio Supporter Gets High

Either this dude has a lot of love for Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio , or he’s a very gullible intern that isn’t paid nearly as much as he should be.  Regardless, showing support by risking your life is way cooler than doing so via Twitter.  [sky high]

New JibJab Video: He’s Barack Obama

Pete Hoekstra Is A Twitter Machine

And when you’re a Twitter machine people take notice — which doesn’t always yield awesome results.  [don't tweet your career away]

Twitter = A Gigantic Ego Stroke

We’ve long said Twitter is a bullhorn for all things narcissistic . But rarely does anyone agree with us – until now.

Howie Kurtz recently penned [another] a column about Twitter.  The article was in reference to how Twitter is used to disseminate news quickly - although not everyone is a fan of the popular narcissistic network:

"For celebrities, Twitter is a gigantic ego stroke," writes CBS Sports columnist Gregg Doyel. "It’s a game of narcissist strip poker, and you’re the thong."  [WaPo]

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Famously Facebooked

We haven’t reported much Facebook status abuse lately, but that will soon change.  In the meantime, we’ll give it up for this status update that was sent to us late last night.

Thanks for a great season, Orlando Magic. Let’s do this again in 14 years.

See, it is possible to be clever without telling us what you ate for dinner.

Report the abuse or awesomeness below.

Famously Headlined: CNN Poops the Nest

Headline of the Day via Gawker:  [brilliant]

CNN Debates Twitter’s Relevance While Ignoring Important World Events Being Reported On Twitter

Over the weekend CNN was blasted for their lack of coverage regarding the Iranian election.  And perhaps rightfully so.

Over the weekend CNN’s Howard Kurtz asked America the burning question, "are we going overboard with this Twitter business?" Meanwhile, CNN virtually ignored an event overseas with the potential to alter world history, an event reported extensively by Twitter users.

And just how bad was CNN worked?

CNN’s lack of coverage of the burgeoning revolution in Iran and the highly questionable re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, arguably America’s leading bogeyman at this moment in time, didn’t go unnoticed on Twitter, where the hashtag "#CNNFAIL" spread like wildfire and was one of the site’s trending topics for a large portion of the day.

CNN has had no comment, but promises to respond very soon via some sort of hologram.

h/t The William Beutler

Congressional Motors Launches Pelosi Car

It’s what we’ve all been waiting for.

Congressional Motors just released their seven-way hybrid: ethanol, bio-diesel, electric, clean coal, wind, solar and pedal-powered 2012 Pelosi GTxi SS/RT Sport Edition. It only took $100 billion and an entire Congress to design it.

H/t jalopnik via RH

Facebook Accountability Venture: How Many Friends Does It Take?

Gov. Huckabee, who’s spends a lot of time on Facebook [or his staff does], is urging people to “friend” VA gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell on Facebook.

Bob McDonnell sits at 6,483 fans now on Facebook. He added over 1500 yesterday. Please find 3 friends who are Republicans and have not yet become a fan of Bob McDonnell and ask them to do so today. My goal is to get him over 7,500 today if possible.

Which begs the question: Is there an arbitrary friend total that politicians shoot for in order to guarantee a win on election day?  If so, it’s clearly more than 4500 because that’s how many Terry McAuliffe had and that wasn’t even close to enough.

Not to mention, if a politician does hit that magic "friend" number [let's call it 20,000], but 90% of them are ineligible to vote for the said candidate due to geographical circumstance, what’s the point of padding the numbers?

Move Over Remote Controlled Bird - You’ve Got Company

If you read our post last week about the $10 million remote controlled bird the government just purchased [via your tax dollars] and that thought that idea was a little much - we can do you one better.

According to Mary Katherine Ham, the remote controlled bird is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ridiculous robotic creatures:

According to a Channel 2 report the spying robot , about two meters long and covered in army camouflage, mimics the movements and appearance of a real snake, slithering around through caves, tunnels, cracks and buildings, sending images and sound back to a soldier controlling the device through a laptop. The snake has a single camera on front end.

Forget the fact that the damn thing looks like a slinky with a camo sock wrapped around it - do people honestly expect to this thing to work?

Note: The report also mentioned other robot animals, including, a cat that can climb walls by using its claws, and a ‘dog-droid’ that responds to human movement.  Amazing.

Cillizza Says Pols Shouldn’t Twitter. Update: Should Twitter.

9:00 am: the Fix says politicians should not to Twitter.

4:30pm: the Fix says he hopes politicians continue to Twitter.

What will tonight bring?

Why Politicians Shouldn’t Tweet

How many Capitol Hill press flacks that despise Twitter, will forward Chris Cillizza’s latest column to their boss?

SUBJECT: Twitter is not your friend. No doubt any number of your colleagues have urged you to begin Twittering — sending your thoughts on life, the universe and everything out to the world in bite-sized, 140-character chunks.  [don't tweet your career away]

We couldn’t agree more.

Don’t get us wrong, we love the fact that Claire McCaskill tweets in her pajamas, but inevitably, she’s going fire off what might be a career-ending tweet. It’s what happens when you react too quickly via a social network.

UPDATE: Recent proof that politicians shouldn’t tweet.  [anger]

Social Media = Narcissism + ADHD + Stalking

This pretty much sums it up perfectly.  h/t Despair Inc.

Facebook Accountability Venture: Mafia Wars

We don’t know what the Facebook “Mafia Wars” are, but we do know they’re annoying. If you really think purchasing a “Swat Van” is more exciting than going out on a Saturday night, it might be time to reanalyze your social calendar.

Also annoying, posting status updates that involve telling everyone where you’re eating. Believe it or not – nobody cares that you’re at Ben’s Chili Bowl eating a half smoke.

For more on Facebook abuse, please read this.

Norm Coleman Thumbs a Ride On the Information Superhighway

Former Sen. Norm Coleman, who lost his senate seat to this guy , recently hinted as to why he might have lost.

"In the end, we need to compete, as I’ve said before, we need to compete in each and every kind of forum," said Coleman. "And whether it’s on the ground traditionally, or today it’s in — it’s in the ethernet."

…But our favorite Norm quote still has to be:

“What’ll it be, Normie?”
Norm: “Just the usual Coach. I’ll have a froth of beer and a snorkel.”

Famous Friday [Round-Up]

Chris Bowlin is setting up shop in the Senate, Playboy stepped in it with their hate f*** list (big time), Jennifer Crider is now part-time political director and part time hedge-clipper, Jordan Stoick is now a daddy, La Loma had a huge tree fall in front of the restaurant — and the margaritas kept flowing, JoMa took over the reins of Playbook from Mike Allen this week, Andrew Noyes posted one of Andrew Feinberg’s K Street pictures, Costa Rica crushed the US soccer team, Robert Schlesinger and his wife had a boy, Emmet, Vaughn Ververs and Danielle Jones reunited, the Dugger family, of TLC fame, visited the Hill, an intern for a NJ DEMOCRAT failed at discretion, Harry Reid ruined everyone’s July, Texan Matt Mackowiak was quoted in Politico, but forgot Senator Cornyn is a fellow Texan, Reagan’s son opted to appear with Palin instead of his dad’s statue, we wonder if David Axlerod is still enjoying his government sponsored door-to-door car service and the College Republicans stepped up security for Pawlenty’s speech.

You Just Paid $10M for a Remote Controlled Bird

There are some government-funded projects that make sense, then there’s this.

US shells out $10M for unmanned aircraft that can perch like a bird

Believe it or not, this funding is not a joke.

Experts say the ability to actually fly in and perch like a bird will be one the more technically challenging aspects of the system.

One "challenging" aspect that was not noted:  Making sure the bird is built in such a manner that it has the ability to randomly poop on taxpayers as it flies by.  Some argue that has already happened.

Too Many “Naymz” Equals Social Media Overkill

Conan O’Brien might have said it best…

"In the year 3000, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook will merge into one super time wasting website called YouTwitFace."

…but web strategist [and local rap legend] Michael Turk proved he’s sick of time wasting social media as well.

On his recent experience with a "new" social network called Naymz, Turk penned this clever headline:

Why I Told Naymz To Go F**k Themselves

I would avoid Naymz like it’s the plague. It combines all the annoying characteristics of Plaxo with the disregard for informed consent typically reserved for malware.

Read the whole rant here.

Confessions of a Beer Blogger

Every now and then you come across something that makes you thankful that 90% of Washington, D.C. constantly updates their every move on Twitter and the blogosphere.

This, our friends, is one of those examples.

DC Damsel: Confessions of a Beer Blogger: Random Acts of Selfishness

Human Folly to NYC

From New Media Strategies to Air America

After six years in Washington, D.C., Jen Nedeau is heading to New York City to become Director of Digital Strategy at Air America Media, where she will be reporting to the former DC-ite, Michael Bassik, who is the current Chief Digital Officer.

Nedeau began her career in political journalism and has been published by the likes of NewYorkTimes.com, Washingtonpost.com and Stateline.org; she has been a fellow at the Israel Embassy, worked on independent studies for Stephen Hess at The Brookings Institute and spent the past 18 months sharpening her online marketing skills at New Media Strategies. While in New York, Nedeau will continue her part-time gig as Editor of the Women’s Rights blog at Change.org as well as her volunteer position as the National Technology Chair with the New Leaders Council, a non-profit that offers exclusive training for young progressive leaders. You can keep up with her jet-setting in stilettos by following her on Twitter @Humanfolly.

2009 is shaping up to be a pretty good year for Jen: she knocked off Katie Harbarth in the FamousDC Twitter Bracket Challenge and now all of this Air America business.

FamousDC wishes Jen the best of luck in the Big Apple .

Republicans Still Think Twitter Matters. Also Believe in Santa Claus.

Apparently shaking hands and kissing babies is so 2008. Now it’s about making sure your blackberry has enough battery power left so you can live-tweet your local political meeting.

The latest virtual tutorial comes from Saul Anuzis via his twitter feed:

Showing RNC members how easy it is to post. #tcot #RNC

What we would’ve paid to be a fly on the wall for the hashtag portion of that lesson.

FDC guarantee: The road to the White House in 2012 will not go through Twitterville, USA.

Do You Abuse Facebook?

Not only are the abuses getting worse, they’re getting dumber.

Insert: I just dropped my laptop and part of the reason I am typing this is to see if it still works.

And: It’s Monday morning- getting haircut and reading the Constitution. Some around here in Washington seem to have forgotten what it says.

Oh, and not to be outdone: Jennifer just found a fruit snack stuck in her cleavage. It must have been there a while, because it melted. One more reason why I dislike my large chest!

Although you might be not be convinced, nobody cares you’re "grilling burgers and playing cornhole ."  We also don’t care that your cat has allergies or the that you can’t sleep because you spent 45 minutes on the elliptical before you went to bed. Matter of fact, while we’re at it, we don’t need minute-by-by-minute updates on your daily diet, nor does anybody really care that you’re working for the weekend.  Many of us work on the weekend, so even alluding that you’re better than us because you’re hiking in Great Falls is annoying.

Not to mention, you’re spoiling good high school reunion fodder if we already know that you’ve recently left your overweight husband and suffer from a peanut allergy.

We do however care that your "roommate just found a dimebag in her rental car! "

What’s worse than the people that spam our “friend feeds,” are the creepy folks who spend hours commenting on others’ status updates.

You know who you are.

You’re the guy that trolls profiles [insert creepy single dude] and comments when a young lady finishes a three mile run by saying, “Ugh, I wish I had half the motivation you do.☺”

You’re the guy that thinks it’s clever to comment when someone is having a bad day - and somehow you single-handedly make it worse.

If you appear in someone’s feed via the comments more than 70% of the time, and comment on everything someone writes, you need a date.

If you spend more time on Facebook than most people do sleeping, it’s about time you thought about putting that favorite therapist of yours back on speed dial.

If your idea of flirting involves “liking” or “disliking” someone else’s status, you might consider some sort of inflatable substitute.

If you spend more than one second thinking about what to write in the comment section in hopes that you don’t come off as creepy or stalkerish, too late.

If you comment on a cute girl’s feed and then refresh your Facebook page 45 times an hour to see if she commented back, you might want to take the Alec Baldwin approach and consider a mail order option.

If you ask a co-worker to edit your comment before you post it as not to come off as a douche, you’re hopeless.

If we don’t work together to fix this Facebook dilemma our society may never recover.  Do us a favor and pass this along to as many people as you can.  If you can’t send the link because you feel it might offend that person, think like Joe Biden, and do it anyway.

Famously Twittered

@brooksbayne : just drop the gitmo detainees on I-65 south of nashville about 30 miles and tell us what time #tcot

Famously Twittered

@spencerpratt explaining to @ryanseacrest that he [Seacrest] is entirely too important to worry about spelling.

@RyanSeacrest your Ryan Seacrest you don’t have to spell correct! Your to busy to worrying about spelling! We understand!

We guess that goes for Pratt as well.  Would it kill him to get a copy editor?

Get Your Mind Out Of the Urinal

Apparently not even what Pelosi knew or when she knew it (old news), or how badly POTUS was heckled by the ghost of Touchdown Jesus, himself, could keep WaPost readers from just NEEDING TO KNOW: how do astronauts pee in space? (Hint: it’s a series of tubes)

Seriously, that’s the Post’s "most read" story today, according to their handy home page. Apart from our astonishment that America still has a space program (and the NHL, it turns out… who knew?), we were more than a little bewildered that the Post and its readers gobbled up a question that we thought was firmly settled in third grade science class.

We also find it ironic that, as the Post was providing "full length" coverage of whatever it is that the real Bruce Willis’ and Steve Buscemi’s do in outer space, the best angle CNN could find on America’s space program was that one of our astronauts actually once flew — wait for it — regular airplanes !!!

Pratt Sets His Sites On NRA

Fresh off his new rap hit , the self proclaimed "White Jay Z " and Hills star, Spencer Pratt, Twitters to the McCains about his desire to be President of the NRA.

Famously Facebooked

Facebook Status Abuse:

Tim: It’s Monday morning- getting haircut and reading the Constitution. Some around here in Washington seem to have forgotten what it says.

First of all Captain America, the fact that you’re reading Constitution instead of the free copy of US Weekly, makes you one strange fellow.  Secondly, besides getting a haircut and reading the Constitution, you’re also updating your Facebook status while your hairdresser struggles with your highlights.  Do us all a favor and save it for when you get in front of SCOTUS to argue annoying v. we’re over it.

Virtual Tea Party: Beam Us Up

Politico reports that Republican Governors Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Rick Perry of Texas are planning virtual Tea Parties via teleconference in hopes of capitalizing on the energy generated by the real tea parties that have been held across the country. [virtual tea = no calories]

The Republican Governors Association said it is expecting 30,000 people to participate in the town hall, which will take place roughly one month after the much-publicized anti-tax tea party rallies held in hundreds of locations across the country on April 15, the tax filing deadline.

We plan on virtually attending. We will not be wearing pants.

PS: Following the online party, who wants to Tweet-up and go bar hopping on Second Life ?

Mr. Obama, A Humble Request: Kimberly Ann Guilfoyle For Supreme Court

This is not a mere commentary on the looks of your current short list, as that would be shallow, and really isn’t worth getting into … yikes .

But here are our top 10 reasons why you should select Kimberly for the high court:

10) She’s a Fox News host…thereby guaranteeing all Republican Senators will vote for her.

9) She has a compelling story of paying her way through law school by modeling lingerie for Macy’s and Victoria’s Secret. That’s a way better story than Joe Biden’s "my dad worked in a coal mine blah blah blah".

8 ) 2005 USO Entertainer of the Year.

7) She’s fashion forward: rockin the Palin glasses in 2001.

6) She dropped that Hillary supporting Gavin Newsom husband of hers like a bad habit.

5) Magna cum laude graduate of the University of California.

4) She’s a first generation American, born in San Francisco to a Puerto Rican mother and an Irish father.

3) She didn’t really mean this.

2) She Twitters! [Sort of ]

And the number one reason why you should pick Kimberly Ann Guilfoyle for the Supreme Court:

1) It will upset Megyn Kelly

FamousDC Battle [Trippi vs. Stephanopoulos]

It’s a Tweet down!

After being asked by Patrick Ruffini, Joe Trippi calls a George Stephanopoulos story about John Edwards:

"complete BS — fantasyland - not true."

The story
George Stephanopoulos: Edwards Staff Had Affair ‘Doomsday’ Strategy

Basically, if it looked like Edwards was going to win the Democratic Party nomination, they were going to sabotage his campaign, several former Edwards’ staffers have told me.

The push back
Joe Trippi : Complete BS — fantasyland - not true.

RT @JoeTrippi: RT @PatrickRuffini I wonder how @JoeTrippi reacts to this: http://twurl.nl/x13cru — Complete BS — fantasyland - not true.

Note: Avatars Never Pay Off

Rich Williamson, an Alexandria City Council candidate who tried to bring creativity to the voters of Virginia, came up a few avatars short this past week. [virtual loss]

Although he received the fewest number of votes, independent candidate Rich Williamson ran one of the most colorful campaigns in recent memory. His yard signs featured a cartoon image of his face, creating a celebrity status with children who recognized him as he campaigned door-to-door this spring.  [ummm]

The problem: “…creating a celebrity status with children.”  Rich, kids can’t vote.

We do appreciate the platform Rich ran on.  The issue most important to him: Sync the Red Lights!

We do not however appreciate the use of an avatar on his campaign signs.  It creeps us out – and you know how we feel about avatars.

h/t Gagnon

STOP! Step Away From the Twitter Machine

Need another reason to keep the campaign aides off the Twitter machine?

Rosalind Helderman: Leaky Tweets Sink…

Twitter Wars: Right vs. Left

The "right" claims the "left" should be "nervous" when it comes to Twitter.

I realize I’m inviting much ridicule from my friends on the left, but I’m going to write this post anyway, and I’m going to leave the title intact - Why Twitter Matters & The Left Should Be Nervous. It’s no doubt going to generate some giggles among the online intelligentsia in the Democratic Party. That’s ok with me.  [Turk takes off the gloves]

The left’s response:  [via Micah Sifry]

It’s positively quaint to listen to Republicans murmur optimistically about their "dominance" on Twitter.

Parting shots …

Turk: The very first time I saw a comment like that, it reminded me immediately of comments I had seen and heard before. They were the openly dismissive comments directed by complacent and cocky Republicans at the Democrats efforts online.

Which leads us to this…

Twit of the Day: Claire McCaskill

Senator Claire McCaskill had some unfortunate timing this morning.

Via Twitter: Stuck in tram from Capitol to Hart. Broken. Not moving. Lieberman and Alexander in next car. And Voiniitch. Wonder how long we’ll be here?

The response of the day goes to Mike Madden:

Obviously you would’ve broken out of tram and freed other passengers if you believd in free markets

Famously Facebooked

Facebook Status Abuse:

I just dropped my laptop and part of the reason I am typing this is to see if it still works.

And guess what?  It still would’ve worked had you not hit submit. PS: Glad to know your emoticon maker still works

May the 4th Be With You

Never have we wanted Cinco de Mayo to come quicker than we do today.

We didn’t know this, but May 4 is often referred to as "Star Wars Day". It is jokingly said: "May the 4th be with you", in reference to the popular phrase in Star Wars: "May the Force be with you." [seriously?]

According to wikipedia: Typical "Star Wars Day" festivities consist of inviting fellow Star Wars-obsessed friends to stay over, and then watching the series in succession. Lots of snacks, bring lightsabers and Star Wars-themed toys. Lightsaber fights in the early morning hours optional.

Please note: Posting the rest of the day will be light [if at all] - not because we’re headed to Star Wars parties, but because we just took a half of bottle of sleeping pills in hopes that we wouldn’t wake up until tomorrow.

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