Congress Won't Pass Comprehensive Energy LegislationThe premise of this column is that individuals must take personal responsibility for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction, mitigating carbon footprint, and returning un-used power to the grid.

Like so many things in this Congress, a comprehensive energy bill or national renewable energy standards...

Southeast habitat for turtles, birds, to be reforested
The National Fish & Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), a non-profit located in Washington, has been awarded a public/private grant to help restore native long-leaf pine trees through re-planting and conservation. The timber industry, foresters harvesting for years, and the lack of fire...

"You are not doing favors for people -- you are giving them gifts." Thus said Super Marketing Man Seth Godin, one of my heroes, at the EDUCAUSE education technology conference in Philadelphia this week. Godin seemed to turn the notion of quid pro quo completely on its head.

EDUCAUSE is...

I am incredulous that Centreville, Westfield and Chantilly High Schools are all in the Top 5. It is inscrutable and amazing to me that the high schools in the far western suburbs of the one-million-population Fairfax County are in the Washington Post's Top Five in Metro football...

Conversation and Conversions (when did creative turn into math equations)

Advertising Week in New York and the Interactive Advertising Bureau's MIXX conference this week were separated by seven blocks. But the convergence of the creative, content, data and profile of the customer were never more evident than this year. Lots...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is a winner. She was the first write-in candidate in more than 50 years to win her party's nomination last year. The last politician to win on a write-in ballot initiative was Rep. Strom Thurmond (R-SC). To political junkies, her "Lisa" grassroots organization and inspired primary...

Kara used to come to Mass at St. Luke's Church in McLean. Eleanor was a regular in Georgetown when the drinking age was 18 for beer and wine (she was 17 when her dad was elected VP). Kara was the loving daughter of Teddy and Joan -- likely...

Chad Harbach's Breakthrough Debut Novel is a Big Hit

The Art of Fielding uses the game of baseball as a metaphor for life. It's about how we handle failure and either learn and recover from it, or never really do. The debut novel from the novelist who toiled in obscurity,...

NASA administrator and astronaut Charles F. Bolden was teary-eyed when he spoke of the final Atlantis space shuttle launch this week. But his tears were not for the end of a 30-year era, when the shuttle blasted off in 1981. He cried for those members of NASA's space...

Who Gets Candy from the FCC?
At the NAB conference in Las Vegas in April, it was all about the mobile small-screen device, creating branded entertainment for mobile users, and how broadcasters and telecom companies are vying to get more spectrum to harness the audience. The National Association of...

Where we go informs where we go!

"The Eyes Have It" when it comes to garnering insights about Internet content and advertising interplay.

Or, maybe better: "It's all in their eyes." Pupil dilation and eye tracking are supposed to tell consumer packaged goods companies and other larger advertisement spending...

Washington Caucus Event Capped by Congressional Award

CCIA President & CEO Ed Black is a Washington insider who glided across a ballroom at Union Station this week greeting his membership and event sponsors from Google, Intuit, AMD and Data Foundry. Among the faithful were also Verizon and other tech and...

Run, Timmy, Run!

At the Jefferson - Jackson annual convocation of state democratic party membership in Richmond on Februrary 19, the call for a new Senate nominee was definitive. The 1,400 assembled faithful wanted DNC Chairman Tim Kaine to make a claim. To state his position. To accept a de...

"They say you want a revolution... well, ya know. We all want to change the world," sang John Lennon. But then again he also sang "Give Peace a Chance." In view of the demonstrations for change in the Mideast, please read my blog and decide if you think these Western...

Civics Education Leads to Political Civility

Actor Richard Dreyfuss, 63, is applying his passion and his Oxford St. Andrew's college political education to a new act. This week, he is barnstorming Washington media outlets, including three episodes on Fox News I attended this week, an editorial board with Huffington Post...

Last week on the new talk show with Piers Morgan, which I thought would be a disaster (game show host?) but turns out to be credible journalism, The Winklevoss Twins talked about their ongoing lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg. While the two Harvard boys, Cameron and Tyler, earned a settlement of...

Jim VandeHei, editor of Politico, took a big gamble leaving the Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) to start a new print publication. In fact, to go up against the venerable Roll Call and the upstart The Hill seemed a fool's game three years ago.

This week in Washington, at the Public Relations...

Vote iQ political social networking platform listens to voters

By Mike Smith
Huffington Post Blogger
Mike Smith Public Affairs, Washington, DC

The Personal Democracy Forum is all grown-up. And the suppliers and technology platforms serving politics have become ever-more sophisticated.

With the PDF asking social media and...

CEA's Shapiro Tells Press Club PR audience to provide just the facts

by Mike Smith

Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA www.ce.org), told an audience of PR professionals and Public Affairs Officers that "Facts Matter." In a keynote address this week, Shapiro "outted" mistruths, propaganda and just...

In the 1994 election, Edward M. Kennedy knew the state of Massachusetts was looking for change. In fact, he almost lost his Senate Seat to Gov. Mitt Romney! In his biography True Compass, in a chapter called "Campaigning for Political Survival," he writes:

...Troubling fires of discontent burned in Massachusetts...