WASHINGTON - Moments after Barack Obama took the oath of office as the 44th U.S. president, the Web site for the White House, www.whitehouse.gov, underwent a dramatic metamorphosis, offering a new blog for online readers.

It will serve as a place for the most technology-savvy president in U.S. history and his new administration “to connect with the rest of the nation and the world,” Macon Phillips, director of new media for the White House, said on the site.

The site features a web-log or blog, an online “briefing room” and allows visitors to sign up for e-mail updates on major announcements and decisions, and to send in their own ideas.

As his first official act, Obama proclaimed Jan. 20, 2009 as a “National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation,” calling on Americans to serve one another and come together to carry forward American democracy.

Phillips said Obama also remained committed to his campaign pledge to make “his administration the most open and transparent in history.”

All executive orders and proclamations would be published on the website, as well as all non-emergency legislation, giving the public five days to comment before they are signed by the new president, Phillips said.

Citing Obama’s early work as a community organizer in Chicago, Phillips said, “Citizen participation will be a priority for the Administration, and the Internet will play an important role in that.”

- Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Obama takes the oath of office)

WASHINGTON - Where were you when Barack Obama made history being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States? 

That’s what the Presidential Inaugural Committee wants to know.  It is asking people to take a photo of what they are doing at noon on January 20, 2009, when Obama takes the oath of office and becomes the first African American to serve in the nation’s highest office.

“People all across the country will be gathered together to watch history. We want to see how you will be joining in the celebration of change,” the inaugural committee said in an e-mail.  “Share your picture of history.”

The committee is asking that the photos be sent  to: http://www.pic2009.org/celebrate.

The committee said it will be posting pictures on its website and may even use some in the official Inaugural book. 

Obama has successfully used the Internet as a major campaign tool to raise money, reach out to voters and mobilize supporters.

Photo credit: Reuters/Stephen Hird (Visitors to Madame Tussauds pose next to the wax figure of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, in London January 20, 2009)

If Thanksgiving is over, it must be time for “Black Friday”. The big question this year is — will the traditional start to the holiday shopping season be a good one given the bleak economic picture? 
 
Retailers sure hope so, and they have slashed prices and offered incentives to lure shoppers to their store.
 
Terry Lundgren, chief executive of Macy’s said about 5,000 people had lined up outside the flagship Herald Square store which he called “encouraging” though he admitted in an interview on “Good Morning America” it’s been a “challenging period” for retailers like Macy’s.
 
“For retailers, this is the playoffs,” he said. “Starting now through the week after Christmas … We have much more aggressive pricing than we have in previous years.”
 
The state of the U.S. economy is on the minds of many — even al Qaeda.
 
Al Qaeda’s second-in-command published an Internet video saying the U.S. financial crisis was caused by Washington’s military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
 
In India, commandos took control of Mumbai’s Trident-Oberoi hotel but battles raged on with militants who were still holed up in another luxury hote, the Taj Mahal, and a Jewish center with about half a dozen foreign hostages.
 

After two days, the siege at two hotels and a Jewish center neared its end amid gunfire and more deaths. Police said so far at least 121 people have been killed.

WASHINGTON - Ah the Internet world, a place where things move very quickly — maybe too quickly in the political world.

Before Republican presidential hopeful John McCain announced he would attend the presidential debate on Friday night in Mississippi, apparently an Internet advertisement slipped out onto the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page with it declaring he won the contest.

Here’s a screenshot of the Web advertisement as posted by the Washington Post in which it claims “McCain Wins Debate,” with him in the foreground and an American flag in the background.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said the ad posting was a mistake by the Wall Street Journal.  Oops.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (McCain boards his campaign plane in Arlington, Virginia, on Sept. 26)

In the annals of inventor-lawmakers, Republican presidential candidate John McCain may rank even higher than Al Gore.
 
Gore famously said in 1999 as he was preparing to launch his presidential bid that he helped create the Internet while he was a member of the Senate.
 
He was roundly ridiculed for the comment, which rumor and repetition quickly converted into an urban myth that Gore claimed to be the inventor of the Internet.

McCain evidently has been busy in the Senate too. Even though he doesn’t use computers or e-mail, the Arizona senator helped create the BlackBerry. So says one of his economic advisers, Douglas Holt-Eakin.
 
“You’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create,” Holtz-Eakin told reporters while brandishing a BlackBerry wireless e-mail device during a briefing in Miami.
 
Holtz-Eakin’s remarks came as he was defending McCain’s knowledge of the economy while stock markets reeled from the financial crisis.
 
Early in the campaign, McCain said his economic understanding wasn’t all that great. He’s been trying to claw back that statement ever since.
 
Holtz-Eakin cited McCain’s work on the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees telecommunications and the senator chaired for a time, as evidence of his economic experience. Then followed the BlackBerry proclamation.
 
The Obama campaign, aware of the ridicule Gore suffered over the Internet, was quick to try to tar McCain with the BlackBerry.
 
“If John McCain hadn’t said that ‘the fundamentals of our economy are strong’ on the day of one of our nation’s worst financial crises, the claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing said all week,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. 
 
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Robert LeSieur (McCain in New Hampshire Sept. 14)