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What do geeks and George W. Bush have in common? Both stand to gain from the new, Republican-controlled Congress.

Republican power benefits the tech industry, agreed reporters, who drew on a common body of evidence to make their case. Exhibit A: a report card issued last month from the Information Technology Industry Council, which found that Senate Republicans voted with tech interests nearly 85% of the time -- Senate Democrats, just 65%.

Exhibit B: the backside of Democratic Sen. Fritz Hollings, vacating the chair of the Senate Commerce committee to make room for Republican John McCain. Hollings had been pushing a bill -- highly praised by the entertainment industry -- to force computer and electronics makers to embed copy protections in their products. McCain scoffs at the idea. Sorry, Hollywood. You'll have to content yourself with rumors that Arnold Schwarzenegger will run for California governor in 2006. (Incidentally, USA Today reports that scientists working on rats have discovered a way to stimulate the brain so as to prevent panic.)

Meanwhile, the Valley will be drooling over Exhibit C: the Homeland Security Bill, which would trigger a big boost in spending on defense technologies. Though the bill looks to remain stalled throughout the lame-duck Congress, talking heads find its prospects excellent in the new year.

There may be other goodies, too. A Republican Congress would be less likely to require that companies count stock options as expenses, notes the San Francisco Chronicle. And it would be more likely to make permanent a temporary tax credit for research and development, points out the San Jose Mercury News.

Of course, not every item on the president's agenda relates to the world of tech. For instance, BayArea.com reports that "White House officials also are considering cutting the capital gains tax on investments." When's the last time you met a tech investor worried about protecting profits? - Lori Patel

Dropping names for 2006 race for governor Schwarzenegger, Lockyer, Angelides (SFGate)
http://tinyurl.com/2jau

Bush lays out agenda for new Congress
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/4468937.htm

GOP likely to put tax cuts high on agenda
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/4464100.htm

Silicon Valley sees gains in Republican victory (SFGate)
http://tinyurl.com/2jav

GOP Senate Promises Tech Policy Shift
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23863-2002Nov7.html

GOP Control Declared Good for Tech
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,106767,00.asp

What the election means for tech
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-964725.html

Senate shift could mean new tack on tech issues (Computerworld)
http://tinyurl.com/2jax

Stimulating brain calms panic in rats, possibly humans
http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2002-11-07-calm-rats_x.htm

If it takes coverage in the New York Times to bestow legitimacy on a news story, then when it comes to coverage of the latest British brouhaha over art, we wonder: What took the Times so long?

Frankly, we think American readers would liked to be in sooner on the British media's roasting of the Turner Prize, the annual $31,000 prize awarded to a U.K. contemporary visual artist. Finalist Fiona Banner, it seems, is drawing the lion's share of attention for her X-rated musings. As far as we can discern from media descriptions and photos, Banner's installation consists of plastering the pink-lettered script of a porn film called "Arsewoman in Wonderland" along a wall. Positioned nearby, giant bowling-ball-type sculptures provide punctuation, we're told.

A few news sites such as the Scotsman and Ananova went with cool-headed headlines and accounts of the unveiling of the four finalists' work, on display at London's Tate Britain gallery. But other outlets gleefully fanned the flames of the exhibit's controversy. The BBC, for example, predicted the tempest, writing that Banner's exhibit "will no doubt win in the headline-hitting stakes" -- then proceeded to fulfill its own prediction by headlining its coverage with the porn aspect of the show (though it offers the best online viewing of the four finalists' exhibits). Reuters shoehorned the naughty "Arsewoman" title into its headline and led with a description of the Turner Prize as "derided by critics as a farce."

A farce, maybe, but a popular one. Reuters noted that the exhibit typically attracts 70,000 visitors a year. With Turner Prize admission at about $5.55, according to reports, that still won't make it much of a business story. But as always there's a money angle: According to several outlets, bookmakers favor Keith Tyson to land the prize on Dec. 8 with 11-8 odds. (The Independent noted that finalist Catherine Yass was the bookies' favorite until the exhibit opened.)

As the fevered pitch among Britian's media grew louder, enter politics. Britain's culture minister Kim Howells visited the Turner Prize show and then wrote on his comment card: "If this is the best British artists can produce, then British art is lost. It is cold, mechanical, conceptual bullshit." (The London Standard's coverage even has an image of Howells' hand-written comments.) Howells' comments triggered yet more media coverage, all of which no doubt delighted the Tate, as the Guardian commented, because the Turner Prize feeds on controversy.

Intrigued by such interpretations of Banner's art as the Independent's description of "lurid pink words crammed steamily together," Unspun wanted to get in on some of the alleged offensiveness. But we couldn't get our britches in a tangle, even after viewing photos like this one (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/1796250 ) and this close-up (http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_698959.html) . Perhaps you just have to be there. Or maybe you just have to be British. - Deborah Asbrand

Exhibit Web Site
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/turnerprize/

Art Show Asks for It, and the Vox Populi Hollers
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/08/international/europe/08LOND.html

Turner Prize Shortlist Unveiled
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_698959.html

It's Art If You're Up For the Turner
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/index.cfm?id=1206692002

Porn star for Turner
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/1796250

'Arsewoman in Wonderland' in Top Art Prize Battle
http://reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=humannews&StoryID=1650138

Porn art for Turner shortlist
http://europe.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/29/turner.porn/

Porn and Perspex at the Turner Prize
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2372035.stm

Turner Prize Shows Off the Art of Controversy (Again)
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=347169

The Good, the Bad and the Indifferent
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=347168

Turner Show is Given a Health Warning
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/30-10-19102-0-2-32.html

Air Sickness Overtakes Porn in Turner Stakes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,822148,00.html

Bottom Marks For Turner Prize As Culture Minister Vents His Spleen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,823019,00.html

Minister: Turner entries are "bullshit"
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/1842902

Howells of Protest
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,823609,00.html

Shockwave surfs into online gaming
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-965006.html

The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week
http://www.thestreet.com/_tscs/markets/dumbestgm/10053129.html

Cisco Strains as Growth Remains Elusive
http://www.thestreet.com/_tscs/tech/scottmoritz/10053172.html

Qualcomm profits from Asian demand
http://news.com.com/2100-1033-965020.html?tag=fd_top

AMD to cut up to 2,600 jobs
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4470277.htm

Productivity gains continue (CBS MarketWatch)
http://tinyurl.com/2jaz

BDO Says Records Prove It Warned Webster
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25450-2002Nov7.html

Wall Street Sees Chance To Stall Reforms
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25443-2002Nov7.html

Books by insiders chronicle the stories of 3 S.F. magazines (SFGate)
http://tinyurl.com/2jb0

Reuters Plans Job Cuts (Associated Press)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Reuters-Cuts.html

BDO Says Records Prove It Warned Webster
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25450-2002Nov7.html

Labor Opens a Drive to Organize Wal-Mart
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/08/national/08WALM.html

Securities Forum No Refuge
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0211080274nov08,0,5206959.story

Playing by the Rules?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lizzie8nov08,0,2130506.story

Copyedited by Jim Duffy (jimduffy86@yahoo.com).

Editor and publisher: Jimmy Guterman (guterman@vineyard.com).

Media Unspun is produced by The Vineyard Group Inc.
Copyright 2002 Media Unspun, Inc., and The Vineyard Group, Inc.
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