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Cable network HBO apologized Wednesday night for the use of a prosthetic head modeled after former President George W. Bush in a scene that depicts several heads on spikes by the hit show “Game of Thrones.” The network also promised the shot of Bush’s decapitated head will be removed from the episode on future DVDs.

“We were deeply dismayed to see this and find it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste,” the network said in a statement. “We made this clear to the executive producers of the series who apologized immediately for this inadvertent, careless mistake. We are sorry this happened and will have it removed from any future DVD production.”

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Though some liberal bloggers recently admitted that conservatives have used Twitter more effectively than them as an organizing tool, a new website has popped up that may help liberal activists online to take a greater foothold on the microblogging site.

The site, called TweetProgress, bills itself as "the directory of progressives" on Twitter. It intends to allow liberal activists to share projects and thoughts on the social networking site. So far, 1,280 people have added their account to the directory, and that number increases by the minute.

"We want to help progressives find each other on Twitter and coalesce around progressive issues and actions," TweetProgress co-founder Tracy Viselli told The Hill. "There is a huge pool of progressives out there doing very cool stuff already on Twitter, but not everyone knows about what they are doing. We hope to use TweetProgress to do that."

The site went live just in the last couple days--against the intentions of Viselli and the site's co-founders.

"Overnight we got 1,100 new people joining the directory--before the site was even live," she said. "There are worse things than having the site go viral before we were ready."

"There is as much interest out there or building the progressive infrastructure as we hoped when conceptualizing the site," she added.

The creation of the site from planning to launch happened over the course of just three weeks.

Viselli said that the concept for the TweetProgress was originally to promote a hashtag, an abbreviation that marks a topic on Twitter, for liberal tweeters.

TweetProgress co-founder Jon Pincus and Viselli created the hashtag #p2 (progressives 2.0), but Viselli said that it did not catch on widely enough on Twitter, especially compared to the conservative hashtag #TCOT (top conservatives on Twitter).

She said another progressive online activist Jim Gilliam contacted the duo to suggest constructing a directory site that would allow liberal activists to organize.

The creation of TweetProgress underscores the increasingly integral role Twitter plays in political activism and the differing approaches liberals and conservatives take in using the medium.

High-profile Democratic entities such as the White House and the DNC(@BarackObama) reach over one million Twitter followers, but many more conservatives use #TCOT than liberals use #p2.

"It's funny that the tables have turned," Republican new media consultant David All told The Hill, noting that liberals had dominated conservatives in their use of political blogs long before conservatives took to Twitter.

All recognized that TweetProgrss would help "progressives brand their hashtag" and serve as means to unite liberals around #p2.

"They see how well we are using [Twitter]," he added.

But liberals want to stand apart from conservatives on Twitter. Whereas #TCOT has a website that ranks tweeting conservatives under the categories "most followers," "most interesting," and "most follows," TweetProgess aims to help liberals share issues and actions.

"I think we've always seen ourselves as different from conservatives on Twitter," Viselli said. "First, TweetProgress is not built around there being an elite like [#]TCOT is. We want everyone to join the progressive fold and help us get our message across."

All said that the competitiveness of the #TCOT concept is "what drives conservatives to participate."

In that spirit, All said that the two sides are engaging in "sort of an arms race" on Twitter, trying to outfox one another in effective ways to reach the most people.

TweetProgress' launch will "help inspire our team to get involved even more," All said.

"We are tired of getting beat. This isn't a game to conservatives," he added.

Cross-posted to the Twitter Room

The Longworth House Office Building was evacuated on Wednesday afternoon because the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Hazardous Devices unit was inspecting a suspicious package, according to Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a spokeswoman for Capitol Police.

Capitol Police evacuated the building and relocated Members, staff and visitors to the Cannon House Office Building after initial tests on the package by the Hazardous Devices unit were "inconclusive."

"Virginia State Police will assist USCP in safely transporting device to Quantico to render safe."

-Jordy Yager

The White House blocks Twitter, and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs doesn't seem to know why.

When asked if he Twittered personally, Gibbs told C-SPAN's Washington Journal this morning that he does not because he cannot access the microblogging site at work.

"For some reason Twitter is blocked on White House computers," Gibbs said.

"I have to say I'm on camera enough that I think people have a decent sense of what I'm doing minus Twittering," he added.

Gibbs' comments makes one wonder who is in charge of the White House's official Twitter (@whitehouse) and Barack Obama's verified account (@BarackObama).

Video of Gibbs' comments is here:



Cross-posted to the Twitter Room

Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) called the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "an example of...the racism that continues to exist" in America.

Gates, an influential African-American intellectual, was arrested on Monday after a neighbor mistakenly called in a break-in attempt at Gates' home. The professor was trying to force entry into his own home.

"What we have witnessed is an example of the unfinished business of America and the inequalities and the racism thatcontinues to exist," Lee said when asked about the arrest at a press conference on Thursday.

At Wednesday night's primetime news conference, President Barack Obama said that Cambridge police officers acted "stupidly" when taking Gates into custody.

Lee said the president was "right on target" with his remarks.

Jim Pasco, a top ranking official with the Fraternal Order of Police, criticized Obama's comments saying "he wasn't there, and he doesn't know what happened."

The Democratic National Committee turned to an unorthodox website (for politicians at least) to take a jab at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R).

A release noted that "Pullin' a Palin" is now a term on the website Urban Dictionary. The term is defined as:

1. Quitting when the going gets tough; abandoning the responsibility entrusted to you by your neighbors for book advances and to make money on the lecture circuit.

2. Bizarre move that will damn ambitions for higher office

The site allows users to coin and define their own slang terms.

The release, sent by DNC Deputy Press Secretary Brandi Hoffine, quoted a Huffington Post piece that surmised:

This type of small-bore snark is good fodder for the partisans. For sober-minded Palin supporters, the worry has to be that the soon-to-be-former governor will be permanently defined as the butt of the political joke.

Speaking about the recent coup in Honduras, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said President Manuel Zelaya clearly "was in violation of his country's constitution." McCain made his comments on Twitter this afternoon:

Violence and unrest in Honduras & China - we need to continue to stand up for human rights and democracy around the world!

I regret the military takeover in Honduras, but it's clear President Zelaya was in violation of his country's constitution.

McCain's statement runs in direct conflict with the Obama administration's position on the coup. Last week, the president said that the coup was "not legal" and that Zelaya is still the president of the Latin American nation.

Members of Congress have generally been mum on the situation, but some tensions are beginning to show, especially amongst Republicans. Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) said that Zelaya "trampled on the Honduran constitution" and called the Honduran president's effort to extend his term a "blatant power grab."

Zelaya proposed a constitutional referendum that would allow him to seek reelection, superceding term limits layed out in the country's constitution. Members of the Honduran military arrested him and forced him into exile on June 29.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the ousted president today.

Cross posted to the Twitter Room

The State Department announced today that Ambassador Patrick Duddy will return to Venezuela after President Hugo Chavez expelled U.S. diplomatic staff last fall. DipNote, the State Department's official Twitter, tweeted:

Briefing Notes: Amb Patrick Duddy returned to Caracas to advance more open, direct, productive communications between the U.S., Venezuela.

Last Thursday, the State Department announced that it would send Duddy to Caracas.

Duddy's return may be a hot-button issues amongst liberals and conservatives. Last September Chavez threw out U.S. diplomatic staff accusing the U.S. of disrespecting Latin America. In return then-President Bush expelled the Venezuelan ambassador from Washington.

But when President Obama attended the Summit of the Americas in April, Chavez made overtures to him that raised some eyebrows. Chavez handed Obama a copy of his book, which criticizes American intervention in Latin America, and shook his hand.

Republicans highlighted the exchange as an example of Obama's weakness in foreign policy, while Democrats downplayed it. Will this action garner as much press coverage as 'the handshake' did? Or will its coincidence with the Fourth of July weekend put it out of focus?

Cross posted to Twitter Room

Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) thought about resigning but decided to remain in office to restore the public's trust in him, the South Carolina governor told the Associated Press today.

"Resigning would be the easiest thing to do," Sanford said.

Sanford gave the interview from his home on Sullivans Island, where he is staying with his wife and children as he attempts to repair his marriage.

More from the AP:

When it comes to his critics--most notably state Sen. Jake Knotts, R-West Columbia--and their calls for him to step down, Sanford said he understands where they are coming from.

"I don't begrudge the Jakie Knottses of the world," Sanford said. "He's going to do what he's going to do. I gotta do my part."

As far as his wife, Sanford said they are working on their relationship.

"If there wasn't healing going on, I wouldn't be here," he said, pointing to his beach house, where he had dinner with his family Saturday night and where he took a run at sunrise on the sand with one of his sons.

Jenny Sanford discovered her husband's affair after stumbling across a letter he had written to his mistress, the first lady said in an AP interview on Friday.

She was "shocked and obviously deeply hurt. I didn't think he had it in him," Mrs. Sanford said. "It's hard to find out your husband is not who you thought he was."

Jenny Sanford also said her husband asked permission to visit his mistress in the months after the affair came to light.

"I said absolutely not. It's one thing to forgive adultery; it's another thing to condone it," Sanford said.

And regarding the Governor's strange disappearance:

"He was told in no uncertain terms not to see her," Jenny Sanford said in a strong, steady voice as she sat in her oceanfront living room Friday. "I was hoping he was on the Appalachian Trail. But I was not worried about his safety. I was hoping he was doing some real soul searching somewhere and devastated to find out it was Argentina. It's tragic."

Read the whole thing here.