With that history in mind, it isn’t surprising that former President Bill Clinton is beginning to field questions about Hillary’s plans for 2016. It’s also not surprising that the former president is already sick of those questions.

According to a Washington Post report, Bill rebuffed questions about Hillary’s future at a fiscal summit this week. He stated that Hillary is writing books, working with the Clinton foundation, and “having a little fun being a private citizen for the first time in 20 years.” Bill also stated that speculation about a Hillary 2016 campaign is “the worst expenditure of our time.”

In many ways, Hillary Clinton is the shoe-in for the 2016 Democratic nomination for president. Her candidacy in 2008 was supported by nearly half of Democrats, and it’s easy to imagine the entire party falling in line behind the Clinton name once again. In addition to her experience as a Senator, Hillary now has years of diplomatic experience as U.S. Secretary of State to run on. Also, while Republicans have begun frantically searching for a party spokesperson who can connect with mainstream U.S. voters, no Democratic stars seem to have appeared to challenge current party orthodoxy, and certainly none that could beat Hillary in a Democratic primary. A PPP poll just weeks ago showed that Hillary might enjoy over two-thirds of primary votes in New Hampshire, with Vice President Joe Biden coming a distant second.

As Governor, Bowen served for two terms, from 1973 to 1981. He also served as Secretary of Health and Human Services from 1985 to 1989 under Reagan. He also served as Speaker of the House after being elected to the Indiana House of Representatives.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence released a statement saying, “Governor Otis R. Bowen’s contributions to the life of this state and nation are incalculable, and I mark his passing with a sense of personal loss. His story is as inspiring as it is uniquely Hoosier.”

Here’s a report from IndianaNewsCenter.com:

Bowen was born in Rochester, Indiana, and began is career as an intern at Memorial Hospital in South Bend in 1942. He went on to serve in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army in World War II. He set up his own practice in Bremen, which lasted until ’72.

Bowen is survived by a wife, children and grandchildren.

According to a Think Progress report, Ryan spoke with citizens at a Town Hall-style meeting in Janesville, Wisconsin on Monday and fielded a question about gay marriage. Though Ryan stated he is still opposed to gay marriage, he told his audience that he supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban employers from discriminating in hiring based on sexual orientation. Ryan also stated that he now supports gay adoption, though he voted against it early in his political career.

“I do believe that if there are children who are orphans, who do not have a loving person or couple, you know, I think if a person wants to love and raise a child they ought to be able to do that,” said Ryan. “Period.”

Although CISPA as a whole saw bipartisan support, one last-minute amendement that looked to curtail a worrisome practice by employers was shot down on party lines.

Colorado Democrat Ed Perlmutter attempted to tack on a provision to CISPA that would make it illegal for employers to require prospective employees to hand over their social media passwords as a condition of acquiring or keeping a job.

Has an employer even demanded one of your social media passwords as a condition of being hired or keeping your job? What was your reaction? Let us know in the comments.

The proposal was voted down 224-189, with Republicans in the majority.

“People have an expectation of privacy when using social media like Facebook and Twitter. They have an expectation that their right to free speech and religion will be respected when they use social media outlets. No American should have to provide their confidential personal passwords as a condition of employment. Both users of social media and those who correspond share the expectation of privacy in their personal communications. Employers essentially can act as imposters and assume the identity of an employee and continually access, monitor and even manipulate an employee’s personal social activities and opinions. That’s simply a step too far,” said Perlmutter.

This isn’t the first time that Perlmutter has introduced this sort of legislation. Last year, the same employee password protection language was rejected in the House.

Last year, the practice of employers demanding the Facebook passwords of prospective employees became a hot topic. Both state legislatures and the U.S. Congress introduced measures to counteract the rising trend. One particular bill, the Password Protection Act of 2012, was introduced in both the House and the Senate, but went nowhere.

That bill was introduced by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal. Before the bill was presented, back in May of 2012, he, along with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to both the Department of Justice and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asking them to “launch a federal investigation into a disturbing new trend.”

Soon after that letter was sent, a motion called “Mind Your Own Business on Passwords” failed in Congress. It would have made the employee password issue one monitored by the Federal Communication Commission. They would have had the right to declare the practice illegal.

So, the Password Protection Act of 2012 moved forward. The language made it a crime that any employer “for the purposes of employing, promoting, or terminating employment, compels or coerces any person to authorize access, such as by providing a password or similar information through which a computer may be accessed.”

But it died, and has been referred back to committee.

The Password Protection Act of 2012 isn’t the only federal bill proposed to deal with the issue. Say hello to SNOPA, or the Social Networking Online Protection Act. It aims to do what the PPA tried to do, but with even clearer languge:

To prohibit employers and certain other entities from requiring or requesting that employees and certain other individuals provide a user name, password, or other means for accessing a personal account on any social networking website.

It’s been introduced, and referred to committee. No movement yet.

On the flip side, some states have had success in passing bans on the practice. First, the state of Maryland enacted a law banning password snooping. And this year, laws in both California and Illinois went into effect.

“It’s not déjà vu — this is the same amendment I introduced twice last year, so people have had plenty of time to study and discuss it. It has bipartisan support. It wouldn’t kill the underlying cyber-security bill; it wouldn’t send it back to committee. It merely safeguards an individuals’ personal privacy as they use their own personal social media accounts,” said Perlmutter of his CISPA add-on.

It’s important to note that Perlmutter did in fact vote yes on CISPA.

But despite those claims, the provision was crushed. If the past year is any indication, password protection legislation must be tackled at the state level, as it’s the only place that its been able to see any sort of success.

Do you think that we need a federal law banning the practice of password snooping by employers? Do you think that it’s better left to the states? Or, do you see no reason for any such legislation on any level? Let us know in the comments.

The former vice presidential candidate Tweeted that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was “pathetic” and stated that those attending are “assclowns.” She also referred to the event using the ‘nerd prom’ hashtag. She also expounded upon her tweet on Facebook, saying, “Yuk it up media and pols. While America is buried in taxes and a fight for our rights, the permanent political class in DC dresses up and has a prom to make fun of themselves. No need for that, we get the real joke.”

Follow @SarahPalinUSA

Sarah Palin
@SarahPalinUSA

That #WHCD was pathetic. The rest of America is out there working our asses off while these DC assclowns throw themselves a #nerdprom

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1 day ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Palin is currently “working hard” in the media herself after quitting her job as the governor of Alaska. She provides political commentary on cable TV news channel Fox News.

Presumably, Palin considers the word ‘nerd’ an insult. Though the White House Press Corps is unlikely to take Palin’s insult to heart, real nerds may take offense at having the word ‘nerd’ expanded to include White House journalists.

Earlier this month, Palin had taken a poorly-informed jab at car company Tesla, and got called on it by Tesla’s CEO.

Today, FWD.us announced a couple of new members: Microsoft founder BIll Gates, current Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft EVP Brad Smith and Sean Parker, of Napster and later, Facebook fame.

“We’re thrilled that Bill Gates, Brad Smith, Steve Ballmer, and Sean Parker – longtime advocates for vital policies like comprehensive immigration reform that will grow our economy – are joining FWD.us’ efforts to organize and engage the tech community,” said FWD.us President Joe Green. “We’ve been excited by the momentum we continue to see as more members of the tech community contribute to the national debate to improve our economic future, and support the bipartisan policies that will boost economic growth and continue to grow the knowledge economy.”

FWD.us officially launched on April 11th when group founder Mark Zuckerberg penned an op-ed in the Washington Post, giving a basic outline of what the group hopes to accomplish through immigration reform.

Officially, FWD.us is “a new organization founded by leaders of our nation’s technology community to focus on these issues and advocate a bipartisan policy agenda to build the knowledge economy the United States needs to ensure more jobs, innovation and investment.”

The group already had some major tech clout – Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, former Groupon CEO Andrew Mason, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, and Instagram’s Kevin Systrom. But adding Gates, Ballmer, and Parker is a significant boost for the group.

Zuckerberg has called for comprehensive immigration reform that starts with effective border security and also allows a “path to citizenship.” He also calls for higher standards in schools and “investment in breakthrough discoveries in scientific research and assurance that the benefits of the inventions belong to the public and not just to the few.”

FWD.us currently has two U.S. offices, one in Silicon Valley and one in Washington D.C. The goal, obviously, is to affect legislation. Having the names that it has attached to it – well, it’s a good start.

[via All Things D]

As you may remember, earlier this month Stephen Colbert kind of sort of forced the former president to join Twitter. At a Clinton Global Initiative forum, Colbert created a profile for Clinton and tweeted out his first tweet for him. The account was @PrezBillyJeff, and it was that because Colbert couldn’t find any other username that was open. There sure are a lot of parody Bill Clinton Twitter accounts out there.

Now, it looks like Clinton has wrangled one of those handles away from its previous owner – the most obvious one too. Clinton’s Twitter account now resides at @BillClinton. He’s verified too, with approaching 300,000 followers.

In the past few hours, Clinton has sent out a couple of tweets. Before today, he hadn’t tweeted since April 6th, and that wasn’t really him in the first place.

Both of his new tweets reference Colbert, and one says that he’s excited to join his daughter, Chelsea, on Twitter.

Excited to join @chelseaclinton and my good friend @stephenathome on Twitter!

— Bill Clinton (@billclinton) April 25, 2013

Sorry I couldn’t make it @stephenathome. I’ve been busy with @clintonfdn work on global heath. Thrs is #WorldMalariaDay you know #Raincheck?

— Bill Clinton (@billclinton) April 25, 2013

Does this mean that he’s planning on doing some real tweeting? We can only hope. And let’s also hope that he gets some replies and retweets. As he said when Colbert first signed him up, “there’s nothing worse than a friendless Tweeter.”

I don’t think he’ll have any problems making an impact on the site.

It’s former Congressman Anthony Weiner, whose indiscretions on the social media platform led to embarrassment and his eventual political demise.

It appears that Weiner is migrating his Twitter presence to a new handle, @anthonyweiner. His previous handle, @repweiner, tweeted out the new handle Monday evening. It was the first tweet from that account since early February. That account was silent for 17 months following the lewd photograph scandal, with Weiner breaking his silence last November by tweeting out a video in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Here’s the final tweet from the old account:

Follow @repweiner

Anthony Weiner
@repweiner

@anthonyweiner

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22 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

It makes sense that Weiner would want to start fresh, tweeting from a brand new Twitter account. Of course, there’s quite a bit of bad memories associated with the old account. Plus, Weiner is no longer a U.S. Representative, so @repweiner doesn’t make much sense anymore.

And ‘Representative” is not the political office that Weiner is looking to be associated with. Speculations that Weiner has aspirations to dethrone Michael Bloomberg as Mayor of New York City continue to gain traction. It seems like a return to Twitter is a logical move for someone gearing up for that kind of run. Especially when the only things that you’re tweeting out are links to a 20-page document called “Keys to the City.” That document is described as “64 Ideas to Keep New York the Capital of the Middle Class.”

Follow @anthonyweiner

Anthony Weiner
@anthonyweiner

Speaking of smoking in the city, check out idea 36. http://t.co/QkRCRhn9T2

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1 hour ago via Tweet Button · powered by @socialditto

Follow @anthonyweiner

Anthony Weiner
@anthonyweiner

For earth day: Idea 54. http://t.co/vXAkgAvLMT

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19 hours ago via Tweet Button · powered by @socialditto

The new account is less than a day old, and has already been verified by Twitter. He currently boasts nearly 8,000 followers in less than 24 hours.

The shirt apparently caused an argument between the student, Jared Marcum, and a teacher at Logan Middle School. Yahoo News reports:

Police confirmed that Marcum had been arrested and faced charges of obstruction and disturbing the education process after getting into an argument over the shirt with a teacher at Logan Middle School, which is south of Charleston.

There is no apparent language banning such shirts in the school’s policy.

Here’s an interview from CBS 13 with the student and his father, who are both, obviously, pretty unhappy:

The father, Allen Lardieri, has pledged to do everything in his legal power to “make sure this does not happen again”.

The school has remained quiet.

Although polls show a substantial (90% according to some) support for this measure among Americans, the Senate was unable to pass it through.

President Obama called it a “pretty shameful day for Washington.” You know all of that. Ok.

Well, it appears that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is basking in his victory with Facebook memes.

Here’s what was posted to the official Mitch McConnell Facebook page in the aftermath of the vote. It shows Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) asking for some “gun control,” being denied by McConnell, and in the end hanging his head in defeat.

“We love the memes you send us! Keep them coming!” reads the post. So it looks like a supporter created the 5-panel graphic and Team McConnell decided to share it with their 32,000+ followers.

“Shame on you! You have sold out on the children of Newtown,” says one commenter.

“Shame on every senator who voted against background checks–supported by 90% of Americans. Do you represent us or the NRA?” says another.

The post is generating a lot of buzz with over 3,000 shares and over 5.600 comments. Team McConnell has a history of using the Facebook page to generate support with memes (just take a look at their past activity), but it seems they may have stepped in it here by posting such a flippant gloat over an issue which many Americans would consider of grave importance.