REPORT: A123 showered Democrats with donations before bankruptcy

Even as advanced battery maker A123 Systems struggled for financial viability, it played the Washington insider game, where political money and access go hand in hand.

The Massachusetts firm dished out nearly $1 million to hire a powerhouse lobbying firm with close ties to President Barack Obama between 2007 and 2009, and two of its top executives made personal donations to several high-profile Democrats in Congress as it won federal funding for its [...]

Why Congress’ frightening SOPA bill is not dead yet

From The Reformed Broker:

Chris Selland is a Boston-based technology industry analyst & startup executive. Currently, he is an Expert Advisor for Focus Research and blogs at terametric.com.

I had a great time on yesterday’s Focus.com SOPA Roundtable and was honored to be asked to participate. While we took a bit of time to celebrate the fact that the effective death of the current SOPA & PIPA bills is a clear victory [...]

Santorum plays down long history as Washington insider cashing in

From washingtonpost:

Rick Santorum has vaulted to the front ranks of the Republican presidential nomination race in part by depicting himself as a religious family man of lowly beginnings who would bring needed change to Washington.

But that characterization leaves out two decades in which Santorum was a central and often high-ranking player in Washington politics, with connections to K Street lobbyists and a lucrative consulting career that made him a millionaire.

In the Senate, [...]

NO MORE MR. NICE NEWT!

(Reuters) – Slipping in polls under an onslaught of attacks, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich promises to wage a sharper and more aggressive campaign in the final two weeks before Iowa kicks off the party’s nominating race.

Gingrich says he will be quicker to respond to attacks and more agile in getting his message across to voters who may have lost faith in him after rivals launched a withering barrage of [...]

HEATWAVE: IOWA

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Inviting contrasts with thrice-married religious convert Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney cast himself as a man of consistency in religion and matrimony Wednesday as he and other GOP candidates went after the latest front-runner in a strikingly aggressive new phase of the Republican campaign.

“I’m a man of steadiness and constancy. I don’t think you’re going to find somebody who has more of those attributes than I [...]

Of course RIM is downsizing. The BlackBerry is over.

By Alexandra Petri

Sorry, Torch. Next time try naming your phone for a technology not from the Stone Age! (Andrew Harrer) BlackBerry missed the memo.

Can’t play Angry Birds on it? Kiss that smartphone goodbye.

Besides, BlackBerrys are hardly smartphones. They’re phones that were told they were smart until they got to college and discovered they were incapable of doing basic math. They’re small fish that once dominated the [...]