DC Field Trip: Google’s Lobbying, Iraq Docs Unleashed, More
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Written By Reprise Media | March 28, 2006 | Share This
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Washington’s had a hand in a lot of our feed news today. Get involved in the process with these stories:
Greasing the squeaky wheels of power It’s a meeting of the Big G’s: a New York Times story (registration req’d) explores Google’s efforts to ramp up its presence on K Street, ground zero for federal government lobbying firms. Sick of being pushed around by lawmakers, Google is hiring well-connected lobbyists and consultants to protect its interests on Capitol Hill and to make sure its money is spread evenly “on both sides of the political aisle.” While Google lags well behind Microsoft and Yahoo! in political lobbying spending, their baby steps into that arena are provoking “Sunrise, Sunset” feelings in some folks. Says Release 1.0 editor Esther Dyson, “The kids are growing up. They’ve lost youth and innocence. Now they have to start being grown-ups and playing at least to some extent by grown-up rules.”
“Intelligence, shmintelligence, let the internet take a crack at it” Steve Rubel notes an AP news story today that says the government is taking tons of documents removed from Iraq during the invasion and releasing them to a public web page. Said House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra, “Let’s unleash the power of the Internet on these documents.” Sounds a bit melodramatic, but as the article reports, intelligence workers want to concentrate their resources on current goings on in the country, and some citizens are enthusiastically poring over the files. “I don’t know if there’s a smoking gun on WMD or not,” said Hoekstra, “but it will give us a better understanding of what was going on in Iraq before the war.” Or at least a better understanding of foreign languages…anybody speak Arabic?
Hands off our internets A Wired story says that the Federal Election Commission voted unanimously to exclude most internet activity from a new campaign finance law, regulating only “paid political ads placed on another person’s website.” Many feared that the law would be interpreted to restrict individuals’ abilities to communicate political messages online, but the FEC ruling makes it clear that bloggers, message boarders, and emailers can go hog wild with political speech.
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