Roll Call: Google 'eager' to work with Republicans

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Roll_Call_Google_eager_to_work_0914.html

Google is "eager" to work with the Republican Party and has boosted its presence in Washington, D.C., according to Roll Call.

"Google, one of the fastest-growing companies in Silicon Valley, is ramping up its political clout in Washington, D.C., while taking a series of steps to court Republicans," report Tory Newmyer and Paul Kane for Roll Call. "The company is filing paperwork today to open its first-ever political action committee, and later this month, it will make an endangered GOP incumbent the beneficiary of its first-ever Washington fundraiser."

<snip>

On Wednesday, the company, with TechNet, will co-host its first-ever Washington fundraiser, on behalf of Rep. Heather Wilson (N.M.), one of the most endangered GOP incumbents and a supporter of Google’s position on “net neutrality,” the key Internet regulatory issue that got Google entangled with the phone and cable companies. EBay, the online auction company, is also a co-host.

The company’s PAC, officially known as Google NetPAC, is filing its paperwork with the Federal Election Commission today. In another sign of an effort at corporate political balance, Google NetPAC has retained Ben Ginsberg, the top political lawyer at Patton Boggs and one-time counsel to both Bush-Cheney 2000 and Bush-Cheney ’04. Ginsberg is serving as an outside adviser to the PAC, ensuring that it adheres to campaign finance laws.

Advisers to the company say the PAC likely will become the key to funneling money to GOP lawmakers, given the Democratic leanings of its donor-employees.

[savemefromdumbya]

1. just posted

I've scrubbed them

[Kierkegaard]

3. Ditto.

Teoma/Ask here I come...

[plasticsundance]

2. Use clusty.com instead.

I think it's better than google.

[UpInArms]

20. Vivisimo!

http://vivisimo.com/

[MADem]

4. Bastards were eager to work with the Chinese, too, the fuckers

Google bombs--they're good things.

Maybe we need to find a way to make a search for "flaming assholes" pop up GOOGLE....

[City Lights]

21. LOL!

:rofl:

flaming assholes

[MADem]

27. Now that's well done!!! NT

[madmusic]

5. So what do we use now?

Google is my home page. What do I replace it with?

[NJmaverick]

8. Use Yahoo- it's better anyway

Less people using Google's search engine, the less money they will make.

[goclark]

11. DU

[JerseygirlCT]

18. How about Goodsearch?

They use Yahoo, I think, but they donate a tiny amount to the charity of your choice for each and every search you do.

[madmusic]

22. Thanks all.

Trying clusty.com for now, but will try them all. Since I do a lot of legal research, that's a big factor.

[MADem]

28. Replace your home page with www.buzzflash.com

It will give you your morning headlines with the CORRECT attitude!!!!

I swear by them!

[xultar]

6. I never liked Google. NEVER! The FUCKERS.

[NJmaverick]

7. Yahoo has a much better search engine

I hardly ever use google, before this. Now I will use them even less.

[AndyTiedye]

9. What Do You Expect? We Have a 1-Party Government

google wants to work with the Republicans because the Republicans have 100% of the power in Washington.

[MrPrax]

13. What's Madrid's position?

I was curious and went to your issues page -- nothing...no mention of it in her 'sound off' page either.

Couldn't find whether she signed Edwards petiition either -- Google has corporate interests like anyone else and supports net neutrality ... fellow democrat NM Tom Udall(D) supported the COPE bill.

Anyone have a link..." curious

:shrug:

[Mojorabbit]

10. I don't understand the last sentence

If the members have democratic leanings, why the GOP donations?

[me b zola]

12. Do no evil

Wasn't that their motto? Google can go cheney themselves.

[muryan]

14. the heads of google seem pretty leftist to me

this is just a smart business move. Ill still continue using google regardless of who they support, i just like the engine.

[bamacrat]

15. Damnit, isnt there any company out there that isnt a piece of shit?

[Anakin Skywalker]

16. All Who Look at Porn, Better Watch Out!

CONservatives want your names so they can send you to Gulags.

[liquiduniverse]

17. Google doesn't have much choice on this

If net neutrality loses, their business model will really take a hit. There aren't enough Democrats to push it through, so they need some Repugs to help out. Politics is an ugly business, and sometimes you have to play the game.

[pscot]

19. Since they are largely responsible

for the increasing rigidity and commercialization of the internet maybe their business model ought to take a hit. It's hard for me to see how loss of net neutrality hurts them.

[liquiduniverse]

24. You say they're responsible for increasing rigidity on the internet?

How so? If anything Google has made information on the internet more free and open. They've helped keep HTML-based content king (an open technology), preventing more closed technologies like Flash from taking over. They also release a lot of their technology to the public so that programmers can make use of it on a wide range of sites.

As far as causing commercialization of the internet, do you think there would be any less commercialization if Google wasn't around?

[Armstead]

30. Rather than put Puglies in power who bloclk net net neutrality....

...Maybe Google ought to be supporting democrats, who are more likely to support net neutrality if they get into power.

[Jazzgirl]

23. Thanks for letting me know.

Up until I read this thread, Google was my homepage...but not anymore!

JG

[madmusic]

26. So far...

Yahoo! and alltheweb.com are tied, though I like alltheweb better because it is cleaner. Clusty is nice but not enough hits. http://www.metacrawler.com is also excellent.

[featherman]

25. Calm down, folks. Google is still the search engine of choice.

My business depends on search engine traffic for its success. This is strictly business for me and I have no special axe one way or the other to grind except what my business experiences re: the merits of the three major search engine data bases.

Things change but currently Google is so superior to Yahoo in data base size, access, speed, and relevance that it is almost a joke. MSN's data base IS a joke at this point. Anybody using Yahoo or MSN over Google as an effective, relevance producing search engine might as well go back to thumbing through the yellow pages, encyclopedia, atlas, or whatever.


All this aside, it has been my understanding that Google has been a progressive company with good policy and a social conscience. I expect this is not a significant shift but that they are covering bases by liasoning with the GOP who, after all, control ALL policy decisions affecting their company at this point in time. That's business.

Sorry... I play nice with my GOP county commissioners to keep my business out of hot water too.

[Armstead]

29. Sorry but fuck 'em

Dominoes makes pretty good pizza, but I'm nopt going to support them with my $$$$ because of their atrocious politics.

I'm going to try to avoid using Google, and I think more people should. It's dangerous to allow a company too much power anyway. And if they are getting into bed with the Repubs, that makes it even worse.