Re: Microsoft Increased Lobbying in '98

[Simon Cooke <simonc@jumper.org.uk>]

>My apologies if this has already been posted:
>
>Microsoft Increased Lobbying in '98
>
>By JOHN HUGHES Associated Press Writer
>
>WASHINGTON (AP) - A contribution by Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news)
to
>South Carolina's Republican Party during the 1998 campaign preceded a
>decision by the state's GOP attorney general to withdraw from an
antitrust
>suit against the computer software giant.

Hey, if you think that's good, wait till you get a load of this:

http://www.crp.org/indivs/name.htm

Check out Barksdale's contributions! Woweeee!
And Mr. McNealy's!
Mr. Larry Ellison's contributions are similar in stature...
Similar large amounts from Robert F. Caufield, of Kleiner Perkins Caufield
&
Byers (a large Silicon Valley venture cap. fund with board members on the
board of directors of Sun, AOL, Netscape and many more).
L. John Doerr is a little more careful with the way he spends his money;
he
himself contributes plentifully to a number of parties - but his wife (Ann
Howland Doerr) does quite a bit of contributing too...

(L. John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins member along with Mr. Caufield, is on the
board of directors of Sun and Netscape, amongst others. Funnily enough,
his
friend at KPCB, Mr. Caufield, is on the board of directors of AOL. Can you
say Collusion, boys & girls?)

Kevin Compton - KPCB, involved in (amongst others) Citrix, Corsair and
more,
also donates heavily.

William R Hearst III of KPCB (who is on the board of directors of @Home),
and his entire family (including George R. Hearst of the Hearst Corp.)
seem
to be increadibly heavy hitters in the campaign game.

So it just goes to show - money *can* buy you democracy, justice, and the
American way. It just took Microsoft a damn sight longer to catch onto
this
fact than everyone else in the business.

Simon (my views, not necessarily shared by Microsoft)