On Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:35:51 +0000, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> Politics and tech companies: follow the money
Duh.
> ,----[ 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.
Is this really any surprise? Microsoft is one of the largest tech
companies. Many claim that Microsoft's legal troubles with the DOJ were
largely because it failed to contribute to campaign finance, in a form of
government sponsored extortion. Prior to 1998, Microsoft contributed
almost nothing to politics, and paid the price for it.
Meanwhile, the companies that lobbied against Microsoft had contributed a
great deal to politicians, which of course allowed them the ability to have
their agenda defined by corporate intersts.
By the way, Microsoft contributed significantly more to democratic
campaigns than republican ones in 2006 and 2004, leaning the other way in
the three cycles before that:
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.asp?ID=D000000115
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