🚀 go-pugleaf

http://www.flashreport.org/featured-columns-
library0b.php?faID=2013031311065518

Nestled among the lofty rhetoric of �hope and change,� Barack Obama made a 
core promise during the 2008 campaign that he would put an end to the 
corporate cronyism that has long pervaded the political system. �The days 
of sweetheart deals for Halliburton will be over when I�m in the White 
House," he proclaimed.

What President Obama left out however, was that the days of sweetheart 
deals for his cronies had only just begun�with his chief corporate 
advocate, Google, quickly emerging as the Halliburton of his 
administration. Fortunately, Attorney General Greg Abbott has taken a firm 
stand on behalf of the citizens of Texas to hold the Internet giant 
accountable.

Though Google recently faced serious federal antitrust charges that might 
have broken up other companies, it emerged virtually unscathed just two 
months after President Obama won re-election with significant financial 
and creative assistance from the company and its executives.

Under Abbott�s leadership, Texas was the first state to step up when the 
Federal Trade Commission failed to do its job at the national level. The 
failure to hold Google accountable to federal laws and regulations 
enforced on competitors has made the Texas-led probe all the more 
critical. After investigating Google�s practices for nearly 3 years, 
Abbott spearheaded a five state probe into the company�s practices, with 
California, Ohio, New York, and Oklahoma following Texas� lead.

An investigation by the FTC found that Google illegally manipulated search 
results to favor its own products, scraping content from other websites 
without any provision allowing those with objections to opt-out, and 
imposing restrictions that prevent portability of search advertising 
campaigns across AdWords and other platforms.

While the company was under investigation, however, they contributed 
$25,000 to honor the FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. Unfortunately this is not 
the first time Google donated money to recognize top regulators while in 
the midst of a government investigation. According to a recent Bloomberg 
report, in October 2011, Google spent $80,000 to honor Federal 
Communication Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner 
Michael Copps, despite an ongoing investigation into Google�s Street View 
product.

The result of Google�s questionable lobbying efforts: the Internet giant 
walked away from the federal case with a non-binding "handshake" agreement 
in which it says it will make minor changes to some of its search 
functions.   Moreover, there is no way for the FTC or any other agency to 
enforce the terms of the agreement should Google decide not to comply. 
When the federal government refuses to step in and stop cronyism, it�s up 
to the states to blow the whistle.

Abbot argues that Google is withholding thousands of documents in two 
civil investigation demands. Though the company promised to comply during 
the general investigation, they later refused to provide the requested 
documents. Google argues they are justified in keeping the requested 
14,500 internal documents under wraps, citing attorney-client privilege.

Google, and particularly its Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, has a 
strong, time-tested relationship with President Obama that is too close 
for comfort. Google�s greatest contribution to Obama, however, was 
specially-designed technology, not yet available to the public, which 
allowed Obama to connect with voters in ways his opponents could not.

But Google�s cronyism isn�t just a red state or blue state issue. Although 
Texas has twice voted against Obama, two of the other states launching 
probes�California and New York�both have Democratic Attorney Generals and 
voted to re-elect the President by overwhelming margins last November.

Regardless of how people feel about antitrust laws, the hallmark of 
corruption is to selectively enforce laws in a way that harms your 
opponents and accommodates your allies. In this case, an administration 
that has been aggressive onantitrust enforcement when, for instance, 
spiking the AT&T and T-Mobile merger, took no enforceable action against 
Google even after finding wrongdoing. It�s no surprise that that the 
European Union continues to investigate Google as well.

Some people like Google, hate regulators, and therefore look favorably on 
the company�s string of free passes. But Google opposes big government 
only when it restricts Google, and the Obama administration has no 
commitment to regulatory restraint.  Google should play by the same rules 
as everyone else.


-- 
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest and most fearful people in the 
history of the United States of America.

Eric Holder, racist black murdering United States Attorney General, still 
has his job.

Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to 
improper vetting of Barry Soetoro aka Barack Hussein Obama, a confirmed 
felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.

Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then 
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder 
in order to cover up his own ineptness.

Obama continues his goal of disarming America after known mentally 
disturbed liberal Adam Peter Lanza killed 20 school children and 6 adults 
in Sandy Hook Connecticut on December 14, 2012.  Every single liberal 
inspired and authored gun control law in existence failed to prevent this 
tragedy.

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