Anita and I just installed solar panels on our home, and we couldn’t be happier. We used a firm called Akeena Solar which has been in business for several years and has offices around the state. If you’ve ever thought of putting solar on your home—there has never been a better time.

Shilling for your own company without disclosure is certainly one way to pass the baton to presumptive Governator challenger Gavin Newsom, who will undoubtedly point to this program to give wealthy San Francisco property owners taxpayer money for a handful of solar panels as an example of his stellar environmental record. Mixing business and politics and implementing costly new tax incentive programs while slashing the budget for social services? God bless America. (Photos by AP/Branimir Kvartuc and AP/Eric Risberg)

More likely: IBM was the only likely buyer for Platform Solutions, which may have been running into financial trouble. One former contractor for the startup tells Valleywag that his work for Platform Solutions went unpaid for months before his contact there dropped out of sight altogether in January.

A group of supporters are lobbying the Democratic senator to change his position on the bill on his campaign social network, MyBO. The question is, will Obama actually take serious policy suggestions from supporters using the same website he's already using to mobilize volunteers and, more importantly, raise more cash than any presidential candidate in history? The Magic 8-Ball says "very doubtful." (Photo by AP/Jae C. Hong)

Many of the sites we surveyed have reported 20-30% growth in membership rates since mid-May when the checks were first sent out, and typically the summer is a slow period for this market.

Obama. He's joined the Democratic senator's "India Policy Team." But there's more to it than just ties to India. Khosla is also a big investor in ethanol production, and is pictured here with General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, and Bill Roe, president of ethanol manufacturer Coskata. Obama has taken large donations from ethanol lobbyists and pandered to corn growers as a strategy to boost support in conservative southern Illinois during his run for the senate. Obama can certainly turn to Khosla to argue the merits of turning food into fuel by proxy. Personally, I'm just surprised Khosla has offered no support for presumptive American prime minister Amitabh Bachchan. (Photo by AP/Gary Malerba)

A photo op in front of "world's sexiest and best high-performance electric car" was a rare chance to earn some bona fides from both sides of the aisle and demonstrate his sentiment that postpartisanship is the new black. It's another example of how desperate Californians are to have their cake and eat it too: We'll still have erotically-charged automobiles, but they'll be zero-emission! Never mind that luring businesses with expensive corporate welfare means more potholes to ruin the suspension on Schwarzenegger's own Tesla Roadster.

That's going to be a tough one for Yang, because, well, the whole point of doing the Google deal is that Google is better at charging advertisers more — we've heard about 25 percent more — than Yahoo used to for the same search ads. And then there's the fact that Yang knows next to nothing about online advertising, or economics, or running a multinational corporation, or antitrust law, or politics. Or anything, really, besides "bleeding purple."

But when the arbiters of what's too naughty for even the Constitution to cover are themselves secretly hording an outré fetish porn stash, how can "obscenity" apply to the rest of us? In order to make an obscenity ruling, after all, judges have to be able to review the material in question. Meanwhile, Isaacs's trial is currently suspended while the judge's photo collection is being evaluated at his own request — presumably by other judges. All in a day's work, eh, Your Honors?

Anti-trust officials need to step in to protect the nascent but prospering online market from the ravages of a Robber Baron like monopoly.

The American Corn Growers Association has also been actively lobbying against network neutrality. Coincidence? The NBCC, founded by CEO Harry Alford (pictured here wearing a festive $100 bill tie), took the position that the Justice Department didn't go far enough in punishing Microsoft for antitrust violations. However, it has sided with AT&T and Comcast against network neutrality, a cause favored by Google, in the past. Why would a major corporation ask ACGA, NBCC or latino IT workers to lobby on its behalf? Because then you can accuse opponents of hating farmers, black business owners and hispanic techies, respectively. Full release after the jump.

National Black Chamber of Commerce questions Google-Yahoo partnership

Washington, DC – In response to reports that Google will merge operations with Yahoo!, Harry Alford, President and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, issued the following press statement:

"There is no denying that the proposed partnership between Google and Yahoo! would create a de facto online gatekeeper, raising prices for small businesses seeking to grab a piece of the growing online marketplace. The companies have argued that they don't "set" ad prices, but when all would-be advertisers are forced to participate in the same auction prices will skyrocket and smaller players can be more easily shut out. As minority businesses make quantum leaps within the uniquely egalitarian online market, this alliance represents a painful step backwards, towards monopoly and away from diversity. Anti-trust officials need to step in to protect the nascent but prospering online market from the ravages of a Robber Baron like monopoly."

NBCC is dedicated to economically empowering and sustaining African American communities through entrepreneurship and capitalistic activity within the United States and via interaction with the Black Diaspora. NBCC represents 95,000 Black owned businesses and provides an advocacy that reaches all 1 million Black owned businesses.

“You can’t help but look at this material and not be disturbed,” Cuomo told the New York Times. Double negatives aside, we wouldn't argue with Cuomo — except that most of Usenet, no matter how offensive or value-lacking, does not contain child pornography. As journalist Debbie Nathan reported from The Academy of Forensic Sciences conference on child porn, even the feds are having a hard time deciding what's real and not out there. In this case, Cuomo's office is armed with software that compares this "established" child porn with possible child porn, an application that sounds a lot like the one YouTube offered up to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children earlier this year. They say their database of searchable child porn contains 11,000 images. If anyone wants to know where to find some "disturbing material", at least they know where to start.

1. Given the growing reliance on online activism by civic organizations, how will Google ensure that it does not abuse the near 90% share of the search market it will most certainly control if it aligns with Yahoo!, which could allow the company to control how Americans access information on key issues?

2. Google has in the past been accused of using its search algorithms to favor certain search results over others. Such accusations are of particular concern to Hispanic-owned small businesses that rely on Internet search for a competitive equalizer in a marketplace dominated by large corporations. How will a company with 90% control of the search market allay fears that small businesses will lose this valuable economic resource?

3. Privacy advocates such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center and consumer groups like US PIRG have raised serious concerns about Google's privacy policies and practices - concerns that are doubled by the proposed deal that would give Google near-total control of the online search market. For Latinos considering subscribing to broadband services, worries about privacy - along with child safety and content filtering - are determining factors. How quickly will Google move to address these concerns?

4. During review of its acquisition of DoubleClick, Google pledged to alter several of its information-gathering techniques to address privacy concerns, including its use of "cookies" to track users' surfing habits. And yet the company has opposed an array of privacy regulations ranging from state laws in New York and elsewhere to adoption of FTC self-regulatory principles. Is Google now backing away from the pledges it made to usher along the approval of the DoubleClick deal, and will it take a similar tack when attempting to gain antitrust approval for the Yahoo! pact?

5. Cyberlaw scholars have noted that Google's disclosure of its privacy policy, which is not easily accessible from the company's home page, may be in violation of California state law. For Hispanic Internet users - the fastest-growing online population in the country - it is critical that privacy policies and other terms of use are readily disclosed, particularly to users who are new to the Internet. How will Google ensure that its disclosures comply with basic common-sense consumer protection principles?

Pablo goes on to argue that if it was left up to U.S.-born talent, great software like Orkut might never have been developed. There you go!

In a follow-up, Computerworld reports Google PR is tap-dancing around the question of whether the 90 workers denied H-1B visas were actually denied any job at Google or just U.S.-based jobs. "As a company with a global presence, we're fortunate enough to be able to have employees work for us in other countries if they're not permitted to stay in the U.S.," a Google spokesperson emailed. "That said, many of our core products are created and improved upon here. We also believe that worker satisfaction is higher when employees can work in the location they prefer." So there you have it: According to Google, it's not applying for H-1B visas because it needs to have its workers in the U.S. It's just doing it for fun.

Especially sad when there's legal places to get under a pretty girl's feet without getting arrested. Footnight organizes fetish parties where fetishists can, lapdance-style, offer tips to to women in exchange for massaging, licking, or sucking their toes and feet. Members'-only areas give foot guys a chance to review girls' photos before they show up, too. This would be an appropriate use of a social network to get kinky, but probably not one lawmakers will cite when attempting to regulate online sex negotiations — especially not if they rely on cops of Curtin's ilk to do the policing for them.

(Photo via Footnight.com San Francisco)

An outside estimate of how much a Second Life brothel owner may make is slightly less than $50K per year — in actual currency. One strip-club owner netted a quarter of a million dollars from her initial $4,000 investment. She's probably the anti-trafficking type's worst enemy, too: a single mom. Good thing she's conducting business Stateside.

Compared to online escort directories, that's chump change. Eros-Guide, for example, has been in business since 1997, and currently collects between $50 and $400 per month from approximately 5,000 escorts advertising, for an annual take of $500,000 even by the most conservative of estimates (not to mention the porn and sex toy ads they run). Review boards like TER and Redbook have a different business model, soliciting membership fees ranging from $100 to $180 per year from hundreds if not thousands of escort-seeking clients. With so many businesses profiting from just the lead-up to prostitution — from domain registrars to hosting providers — lawmakers may be left asking, who isn't a pimp here? The only crime Second Life is committing is not making more money off the business.

(Screenshot via YesButNoButYes)

(Photo via LA Times)

It cites a case pending in New York that would close the loophole, and garner the state $50 million in possible revenue. Instead, Pennsylvania is giving the book-business behemoth — or its customers, rather — a $1,750,000 tax break. And here I wondered how Carnegie Mellon was able to convince Bezos to fly to Pittsburgh for a commencement address.

"If the typical Gore event was 20 people in a living room writing six-figure checks, and the Kerry event was 2,000 people in a hotel ballroom writing four-figure checks, this year for Obama we have stadium rallies of 20,000 people who pay absolutely nothing, and then go home and contribute a few dollars online." Obama himself shrewdly capitalizes on both the turnout and the connectivity of his stadium crowds by routinely asking them to hold up their cell phones and punch in a five-digit number to text their contact information to the campaign.

Google's wireless dreams have been thwarted at every turn, from the botched Wi-Fi effort with Earthlink to Verizon reneging on open-access provisions after the spectrum auction. I doubt Page's blatant desire to line his own pockets will win the FCC over. Perhaps he should refine his pitch and mention the possibility of 10 percent more campaign donations. (Photo by Danny Sullivan)

Woolsey is clearly playing an active and public role as the face of the movement, tooling around Virgina last month in a biofuel-powered Ford, touting the algae-derived blend that's just perfect for the military's vast fleet of diesel vehicles. And he's the perfect bipartisan foil, a longtime Democrat who's worked with Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton:

He still thinks the United States should continue its global military role even as it untangles itself from the Middle East, standing by the decision to depose Saddam Hussein. "I'd support his ouster again if there weren't a drop of oil in Iraq," he explains.

The greenocon promise is a Fortress America of tanks and solar panels, plug-in hybrids and nuclear reactors. I can hear the strains of "America, Fuck Yeah!" now, and it brings a single, deeply profound tear to my eye. (Photo by AP/Charles Krupa)