We're a bit frightened by the fact that high-ranking political officials are told to leave their BlackBerrys outside in an unguarded basket during high-level meetings (really, it's "common practice"), but nevertheless, one chap who tried to take advantage of the situation didn't quite make it out undiscovered. During a recent political meetup in New Orleans, a Mexican press attaché managed to slip a half dozen or so BlackBerrys into his pocket before darting to the airport with visions of black market markups in his head. Before he could exit the country, however, Secret Service had tracked him down after catching him via surveillance footage. As it stands, the responsible individual has been fired from his post, but there's been no word on whether the US will take any further actions. Reevaluating the whole "leaving them out in the open" practice may be a good start -- just sayin'.

[Via The Boy Genius Report]

Although we doubt the practice would go over well here in the pay-by-the-message US, Indian politicians have apparently embraced texting in a big way, using SMS as a new way to reach voters in response to a crackdown on campaigning methods. The Hindu is reporting that recent restrictions on traditional campaign signage such as wall posters and graffiti have prompted candidates for the May 8 Assembly elections to find new avenues of reaching the electorate, with many taking advantage of free SMS and MMS services to send brief slogans, issue positions, and even pictures of themselves and their party's symbol. This new tactic by politicos follows a more general Indian trend of information distribution via text message, with political parties already notifying journalists of their officials' schedules and impending press conferences by SMS.

[Via textually]