Bush, Kerry speeches court coveted tech vote

SAN JOSE, Calif. - President Bush and Democratic rival John Kerry offered ideas Thursday to push the United States to the cutting edge on technology, with the hope of securing political support in Silicon Valley and other high-tech regions.

Kerry, noting at his Silicon Valley speech that the Internet was started with help from research in his home state of Massachusetts, said the United States needs a president who understands the needs of the high-tech industry.

Bush stressed the importance of technology in improving the economy and lives in a speech at the Commerce Department, where he repeated his goal of broadband access everywhere in the United States by 2007.

FELONS: A political group that paid felons to conduct door-to-door voter registration drives with the aim of ousting President Bush in the 2004 election pledged Thursday to weed out any employees convicted of violent or serious offenses. America Coming Together announced a new policy for background checks after the Associated Press reported Wednesday that ACT had used people convicted of burglary, assault and sex offenses to canvass neighborhoods in at least three election swing states - Missouri, Florida and Ohio.

FAHRENHEIT 9/11: A conservative group asked federal election officials on Thursday to investigate whether television ads for director Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 violate campaign finance law regulating when commercials may feature a presidential candidate.

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