Danny Sullivan from Search Engine Land takes an in-depth look at how Apple has been handling its first search-related scandal related to the iPhone's Siri not being able to find an abortion clinic. He notes that the problem isn't "because Apple is pro-life. It’s because Planned Parenthood doesn’t call itself an abortion clinic." Stephen Colbert also had his own take on the issue.

Dan Gillmor points out that teen tweeter Emma Sullivan is lucky she lives in Kansas and not in Thailand.

There's a new Facebook clone — the only catch is that it is only accessible from Cuba.

The Sunlight Foundation notes that the Senate is now publishing its spending online, but there is still room for improvement.

The director of the U.S. Copyright Office gives an update on how the agency is going about growing a searchable index of its 70 million imaged records.

Voting is open for the best of 42 New York Metropolitan Transportation Agency apps created by developers. Among the options is TurnstileData, which showcases how many people have passed through a given turnstile in the past four hours.

This Saturday is Open Data Day throughout the world. In New York City, for example, participants will be coming up with tech-savvy ways to explain the farm bill, while in Shanghai, users will be mapping and visualizing environment related data.

The House of Representatives yesterday voted to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission, which was created after the 2000 election to improve proper election administration. The Republican-controlled House aims to save $16.3 million annually. The Democratic-controlled Senate is unlikely to take up the bill.

Russia censors television broadcasts from one time zone to the next. But at the same time the AP notes "the uncut programs are quickly posted on the Internet, where they are discussed and spread through Russia's thriving blogosphere by a growing number of Russians unhappy with Putin's rule."

It also states:

Russia now has the highest number of Internet users among 18 countries in Europe, with market research company comScore Inc. recording 50.8 million unique visitors to the Internet in September. In the same month, Russia had the fifth most engaged social networking audience in the world, with the average user spending 9.7 hours a day on popular social networking sites.

The percentage of Russians using the Internet is still low by European standards but it has been growing steadily.

Jon Huntsman has now come out with four web videos accusing Mitt Romney of flip-flopping, ABC reports. What Huntsman calls "Backflip" is the same line of attack the Democratic National Committee is using with MittvsMitt.com.

Netflix has named Christopher Libertelli head of its Washington policy office. He was previously the head of North and South American government regulations for Skype.

The New York Times is asking users to submit campaign materials in Iowa.

A House Committee has approved a new cyber-security bill, while at the same time Germany ran a cyber-attack crisis management exercise.

Yesterday at GeekNetNYC, Lee Rainie, the Director of the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, gave a presentation on the "The new landscape for civics and politics (especially in mobile)." He noted, for example, that "26 percent of adults used cell phones for political purposes in 2010." This will likely "double" in '12."

And then there is a new study out from Pew today: "On any given day, 53 percent of all the young adults ages 18-29 go online for no particular reason except to have fun or to pass the time."