On Sep 9, 8:17 pm, "Subway steel" <f...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> "Rex Ballard" <rex.ball...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> >> Fucking yanks. For two decades they let microsoft monopolise the pc
> >> desktop market now they're targetting google. Is bill gates shagging
> >> sucessive presidents or something?
> >Gotta hand it to George Bush. When he gets bought, he stays bought.
> I see. So now Microsoft is sooo powerful that they have total control over a
> president in his last term in office.
Bush is a Republican party puppet. He isn't the leader his father
was, he's not even that bright. But he does know how to toe the party
line.
Haven't you noticed that a whole bunch of prominant Democrats have had
their private lives made public lately? Elliot Spitzer, John Edwards,
the Mayor of Detroit, and about 30 others that didn't make the front
page news of national media.
In each case, confidential, even CLASSIFIED information was
"anonymously leaked" to the press, often via a BBS (like this one or
MSNBC), and then was elevated to "headline news", most often by MSNBC
- and then by the other networks.
> >Nobody but maybe Carl Rove knows how much money
> >Microsoft donated to the Bush campaign back in 2000,
> So if nobody knows then why do *you* pretend that you know or even have a
> remote idea of what was donated. Besides... this is all public record with
> the federal election commision.
Remember, Jack Abramhov showed how easily one could get around all of
those laws,
and the laws weren't as strict in 2000. Have donors give to 501c non-
profit organizations, then have that money filtered to key campaigns
and 527 organizations.
IIRC Microsoft donated several $million to the republican Speaker's
pet charity (which turned out to be a front for political campaign
funding).
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/21/politics/21delay.html
<quote>
The 19-year-old charity, the DeLay Foundation for Kids, has
consistently declined to identify its donors, citing their desire for
privacy. But a review of corporate and charitable records shows that
recent donors have included AT&T, the Corrections Corporation of
America, Exxon Mobil, Limited Brands and the Southern Company, as well
as Bill and Melinda Gates, the Microsoft founder and his wife, and
Michael Dell of Dell computers.
The Gates and Dell family foundations have donated at least $350,000
to Mr. DeLay's charity since 2001.
</quote>
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10723902/
http://edition.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/06/07/microsoft.politics/index.html
<quote>
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Some Democratic lawmakers situated in Washington
-- most specifically current Vice President and presidential aspirant
Al Gore -- shouldn't expect too much in the way of campaign
contributions from Microsoft, following Wednesday's federal court
ruling that the company be split into two separate entities.
[...]
In April, Gates told a closed-door meeting of the House Republican
Conference that the company believed a different administration would
likely have treated Microsoft more favorably than did the Clinton-Gore
Administration.
[...]
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Microsoft has
contributed $1.1 million dollars in soft money to both major political
parties this cycle -- $529,000 to the Democrats, and $607,000 to
Republicans.
The software giant gave another $700,000 to individual candidates --
and it is those numbers that tell the story behind the company's
newfound political activism.
[...]
In May, Microsoft participated in a high-profile Washington fund-
raiser for Bush. Lobbyists for the firm sat on the 90-member host
committee for the event, which, at $1,000 a head, aimed to raise some
$350,000 to $400,000.
</quote>
Here's a nice example of how Gates uses shell organizations to get
around donation limits.
http://www.newsmeat.com/billionaire_political_donations/Bill_Gates.php
<quote>
Bill Gates , 52 (bio)
Microsoft co-founder, chairman
NEWSMEAT Power Rank: 73
Election Picks: 38 wins, 19 losses
$87,192 Republican
$78,266 Democrat
$137,500 special interest
total: $302,958
</quote>
http://www.newsmeat.com/billionaire_political_donations/Steve_Ballmer.php
<quote>
Steve Ballmer , 52 (bio)
Microsoft - CEO 2000-present
NEWSMEAT Power Rank: 55
Election Picks: 33 wins, 11 losses
$88,242 Republican
$63,450 Democrat
$108,750 special interest
total: $260,442
</quote>
> >but it was a substantial part of that
> >$30 million war chest he used to beat McCain in 2000.
http://boycottnovell.com/2008/08/26/paid-witness-to-shut-up/
http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Nonprofit_think_tank_wrote_articles_favorable_0309.html
<quote>
In June 2000, NCPPR published another article that referred to the
rate increase, this time written by David Ridenour, Amy’s husband and
vice president of the thinktank. David Ridenour’s article didn’t
mention the Magazine Publishers Association specifically, but was
entitled “Split up the Postal Service, not Microsoft.” (Abramoff also
lobbied for Microsoft; William H. Gates of Preston Gates is the father
of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.)
</quote>
> But you just said that "nobody knows" how much was donated. Now you're
> claiming that to know. Sounds to me like you're fabricating facts.
I don't know how much, but there are indicators that it was quite a
bit.
Remember, a $30 million donation from Bill Gates would be 1/1000th of
his net worth.
He makes that much in interest and dividends in a single day.
The big challenge is finding ways to get that money where it will do
the most good, without getting caught violating election commission
laws. Invite 3000 of your closest friends to a few dinners with the
candidate, or the president, at $1000 a plate.
I was invited to a dinner with Dick Chaney for $5,000 a plate. Gates
could invite 200 friends and donate $1 million. At the right stage of
the race, that could be a LOT of money to the candidate.
> >McCain even knew where the money was coming from,
> >and how it got shuffled around
> >to become "invisible" to election commissioners.
> Hmmm. So the money is "invisible" to election commissioners who investigate
> this for a living and nobody knows anything about this money.
The Jack Abramhov investigation showed the "tip of the iceberg" in how
to play funny games to get around election laws.
Even today, the loophole you can drive a truck through, is the right
of free speech for 501c non-profit tax-exempt organizations. No
limits to donations, no limits to what they can spend on ads, they can
even by their own radio networks and radio stations.
> Yet somehow you claim to know all sorts of facts about this.
Not really - just what I've read, and what I've heard from various
sources, including NPR, Focus on the Family, "Family Radio" stations
in NY, NJ, GA, MD, IL, and about a dozen other states (I like the
music, but the "editorial content" is quite interesting). There are
even ex-Watergate players, such as G. Gordon Liddy and Chuck Coleson,
both of whom are convicted felons, so they can't vote themselves, but
can collect $millions in charity donations for their "Ministries"
which are mostly political campaign ads lasting as long as 30 minutes,
explaining why you should vote for Republicans instead of "evil
Democrats".
Remember that when Huckabee was trailing McCain by only a few points,
James Dobson made national news by going on his nationally syndicated
radio show, replayed several times per day, and spent almost an hour
exlpaining why he would NEVER vote for John McCain.
It wasn't enough to turn the tide of the primaries, but it was enough
to show that McCain couldn't ignore that crowd anymore. Fortunately,
they really like Sarah Palin, even though she's not quite as "Right
Wing" as (even I) originally thought.
> My strong suspicion here is
> that you don't actually know anything but have no problem fabricating lies
> to fuel the COLA fire.
Maybe a little :-D
I know more than you might think. Remember, I'm a registered
Republican, a Presbyterian, a regular listener to BOTH NPR and
Christian radio stations around the country. I get the invitations to
some of the interesting "opportunities" to get around donation limits.
> >It looks like McCain might also have been "bought" in similar
> >fashion. But he has a bit of a history of not staying bought.
I would remind you at this point of the "Jacobson 5" scandal in which
Jacobson said "I gave them over $100,000 each, you BET I expected
them to be influenced". McCain got about $150,000. However, McCain
didn't want to stand up for Jacobson, and once he understood the
facts,
that Jacobson had over-invested in speculative shopping centers using
Lincoln Bank S&L funds, way more than the regulations allowed, McCain
became very aggressive about going aftert Jacobson, and testified
against
him in a class action lawsuit as the star witness.
It really is the only "ugly moment" in McCain's career. The one thing
I knew for sure is that McCain will fight for what he believes is
right,
but that seems to include fighting for Microsoft's right to maintain
and
extend it's monopoly -- which is the only reason I'm responding in
this
newsgroup.
If McCain wanted to End the war in Iraq as quickly as possible,
limit the expansion of the Military-Industrial complex, rein in the
petroleum companies, AND Cut taxes, limit both military and domestic
spending AND appoint judges who would stand up for the Bill of Rights,
rather than judges who "won't legislate from the bench". I'd probably
be
campaigning FOR him.
When a judge overturns a law that violates the Bill of Rights, Bush
called that "Legislating from the bench".
I get nervous about Obama wanting to take that money we save by not
fighting in Iraq and putting it into health care, teacher's unions,
and college grants for "party animals". Remember, we're going into
hock up to our eyeballs to pay for Iraq, so getting out just means we
stop bleeding red ink so badly.
Yes, I'd rather see Bill Gates pay minimum tax on all of his dividends
and see Paris Hilton pay taxes on her inheritance and revoke a few of
those "blank check tax cuts for the ultra-rich", or at least put some
limits on those tax cuts.
I'd like to see the tax rates lowered - or at least adjusted for REAL
inflation, which INCLUDES things people spend their money on every
week, like gasoline, meat, and bread. We've been playing to many
games with measures like "cost of living" by throwing in the price of
PCs, which drop due to Moore's law, as if they were something people
buy monthly.
I've had two huge medical bills that the insurance decided not to pay,
even though they had supposedly pre-approved the expense before the
procedure.
I actually like McCain, but I can't afford him.
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