"Gates for President" group gives up
,----[ Quote ]
| Alas, the "Bill Gates for President" bandwagon, which launched
| back in November with such promise and fanfare - thanks primarily
| to Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams - has pitched over a cliff and
| called it quits.
`----
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/12248
He can manipulate the governments around the world with or without the title.
He already does this anyway.
Related:
Gates calls for 'infinite' H-1Bs, better schools
,----[ Quote ]
| Politicians indicated they're also willing to take cues from Gates
| as they craft new laws in the immigration area. In his testimony,
| Gates said there's only one way to solve what he deemed a
| "crisis"-level shortage of qualified scientific talent: "Open our
| doors to highly talented scientists and engineers who want to live,
| work and pay taxes here."
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-11153_22-6165166.html
,----[ Richard Rasker said: ]
| Well well, the exponent of Capitalism just paid a little visit to the
| remnants of communism - on a subject they're both all to familiar with:
| repression:
|
| http://www.kommersant.com/p719683/r_528/
|
| "A source that deals with the company said unofficially that Gates
| proposed Microsoft's Digital Rights Management technology as a national
| standard to fight piracy at the governmental level."
|
| Yeah, in their dreams ...
|
| "That system allows for complete control over the use of the digital
| content of Microsoft products."
|
| Now you guess who has this "complete control" ...
|
| "If the state makes Microsoft's DRM mandatory, life will be much harder
| for users and sellers of illegal software."
|
| ... and if this means that Linux users lose access all sorts of internet
| media it's just an "unfortunate side effect"? Or should Linux perhaps be
| outlawed altogether, as it can't legally support MS-DRM?
|
| Ah well, we all know it: listening to Microsoft amounts to digging your
| own grave.
`----
Politics and tech companies: follow the money
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft took first place with $651,100 given out, while
| Hewlett-Packard gave only $185,550, and Gateway gave a paltry
| $2,000. Microsoft's donations certainly illustrate well the true
| size of the company and the extent of its political concerns.
|
| [...]
|
| For instance, Microsoft's PAC spent $1.7 million in the 2006 election
| cycle, but only a third of this went to federal candidates. What
| happened to the rest? It went to local campaigns, paid out a few
| thousand dollars at a time to groups like "Boal for Iowa House" in
| Ankeny, IA. It also funded other PACs like the "Associated Republicans
| of Texas" and the "Blue Dog Political Action Committee." No race is
| apparently too small to be funded; even Indiana State Representative
| Terri Austin of Anderson, IN got $500.
| Lobbyists
|
| But the real money isn't even given to the candidates directly. It
| goes to lobbyists, which can be safer investments since they stand no
| chance of losing at the polls. The complete-year figures from 2005
| show that Microsoft spent $8.7 million on lobbyist expenses. Almost
| a million dollars of that money went to Covington & Burling, a
| lobbying firm that also represents the National Football League and
| the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America. Microsoft's
| total spending on lobbying has risen substantially from the $4
| million it spent in 1998.
|
| [...]
|
| Where does it come from?
|
| Although some of this money comes from large employee donations,
| most of it does not. Take Microsoft, for instance; the Center for
| Responsive Politics says that the company received only $302,599
| from individual donors who gave more than $200 in this election
| cycle, only a small fraction of the $1.7 million actually spent.
| As is typical, much of this money came from the company's top
| brass, while the rest was made up of small contributions.
|
| The maximum individual contribution to a PAC is $5,000 a year.
| Melinda, whose occupation is listed in Federal Election Commission
| records as "homemaker," regularly contributes this amount, as does
| Bill. Steve Ballmer coughed up, too. Microsoft can use general
| company funds to support the PAC and its operations, but cannot
| give directly to candidates.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061110-8194.html
|
|
