Following Tech's Money Trail In Washington 61
snydeq writes "Having outlayed $111 million to gain political influence in 2009, the tech industry is clearly learning how to play the lobbying game, writes InfoWorld's Bill Snyder. And while longtime lobbying stalwart General Motors nearly outspent the tech industry on its own, the rise of lobbying among tech giants, especially those under antitrust scrutiny, is staggering. Google, which has been drawing interest from the feds over its online advertising business, has increased its efforts twelve-fold in the past four years. And while Google frames its sudden increased interest in Washington as a matter of growth inspiring greater civic responsibility, the company may find itself sucked further into Washington, now that it is party to an international spat involving both the US and Chinese governments. Among those that top the list of tech lobbyists, Oracle, Intel, and Microsoft all have come under scrutiny in the past year, with Intel accused of monopolistic practices and Oracle requiring sign off on its merger with Sun."
Re:Just what we need in DC... (Score:2, Insightful)
...more influence bought by money.
Hey, it's okay when it's 'our guys' doing it. :\
Re:MS Lobbyists (Score:4, Insightful)
The corruption is scary. (Score:0, Insightful)
The U.S. government has killed or caused the death of more than 11 million people since the end of the 2nd world war. All of that killing was apparently for money.
The U.S. government has 6 times the percentage of its citizens in prison of any other country in the history of the world.
The U.S. government consistently spends money it doesn't have, and is has more debt per citizen than any country in the history of the world.
s/lobby/brib/ (Score:4, Insightful)
“lobbying” is nothing else, than a euphemism for bribing. Which would be equal to treason for the politician, if that were not changed trough... you guessed it... bribing.
Which would mean at least a decade of well-deserved prison or death penalty, in most law systems.
Yay. “But it’s just lobbying. It’s normal.”
No, it’s not! Way to twist reality...
Re:Just what we need in DC... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm assuming that you're advocating stricter rules on campaigning, more restrictions on speech and donating, etc.
That's going after the symptom, not the cause. The cause is that government has too much power. As we descend into banana-republicanism, everybody with any interests has to play this defensive game. Because at any moment, they could find themselves a political target.
Restrict government to its constitutional duties, and suddenly these corporations have no reason to care what's going on in DC.
Re:Paging Wesley Mouch... Mr. Mouch... (Score:5, Insightful)
"If you allow the government any control over economic activity, for totally virtuous reasons, you'll end up here"
The same thing happens without government, cartels, monopolies, and corruption. You're just transfering governing power from one institution to the next, this is what is lost on free market extremists. Everything will not be ok if we just let it be. Human beings are the problem.
Re:Just what we need in DC... (Score:3, Insightful)
But we need something to take our government back for the normal people, put OUR interests in general first. I don't know how to word it...but something to limit lobbyists and their interaction with politicos. How about all meetings have to be public, and either broadcast or transcripts of everything said between the parties is open to public scrutiny and record?
How about also amendments saying that federal political campaigns can ONLY be funded publicly. Mandate free air time over the public airwaves for debates and speeches. Maybe ever go so far as to mandate that senators are no longer elected by general public elections and go back to having them appointed by their respective state legislatures?
We gotta do something to take our country's political system back from the highest bidder, and back to being answerable to the people.
Then again...I'd like a pony too...
Re:Just what we need in DC... (Score:2, Insightful)
Google, ebay, amazon, et al, all should . (Score:3, Insightful)
they all should get tangled with washington i mean. the reason we have been thrown at us so much shit trying to damage and subdue internet in the past few years was that the tech crowd didnt do any lobbying or care for it at all. in the end we had the anti net neutrality attack, then came acta. we still havent thwarted acta.
had they got smart and entered washington before the net neutrality attack, we probably would have proper laws by now, or, at least we wouldnt be on the defense against megacorporations and cartels of the established order in the war for the internet.