Good story, memery, but who's Steve Bartko? Ballmer? I sorta miss him, he seemed to have a sense of humor at least. I got to pull a few more quotes. . .
Other states targeted are Arizona, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Duck and cover, Cheeseheads everywhere!
When told of the planned campaign, state officials said such an effort would succeed only in aggravating investigators.
"I've been battling this type of PR gimmickry for a long time, and I can smell it 40 yards away," said Michigan Atty. Gen. Frank J. Kelley. "It represents arrogance, and it's personally demeaning to me. [Microsoft Chairman] Bill Gates would have been better off if he or one of his representatives had picked up the phone and called me."
With Orrin Hatch providing cover in D.C., I think the DOJ antitrust division's budget is safe for the moment. Here in Cheeseland, though, it doesn't work like that. Rather than take the PR route, I'd advise Bill to send a check directly to Gov. Tommy Thompson, State Capitol, Madison. The AG is an elected office and is held by a Democrat, but Tommy's got this super line item veto that allows him to arbitrarily rewrite the budget. Couple years back, Tommy called a special session to put through a telecom deregulation bill written by Ameritech. There was some quid pro quo about fiber optic lines to schools. Funny thing was, when the schools called Ameritech about getting the fiber lit up to go on the internet, the price was quoted at $5k a month or something. What would it have cost if the fiber wasn't there in the first place? The same $5k a month, of course.
"Companies like Microsoft are run by engineering types who don't understand the public," said Ian Mitroff, director of the USC Center for Crisis Management, who added that base attempts to manipulate the media and shape public opinion often fail.
"It's cynical," Mitroff said. "It assumes we're dumb."
I know Bill and co. think we're dumb, but I got to protest this "run by engineering types" slur. Bill the politically naive software engineer again. Please.
"When it comes to knowledge of computer technology, I take my hat off to Mr. Gates," said one attorney general. "But if he wants to enter the field of political intrigue, I say welcome to my world, Mr. Gates, I'm ready to do battle."
As a computer technology type, I got some problem with this one too. Bill's a smart guy, but it's all business. I think all the foreign potentates fawning over him has gone to his head. China and Singapore don't hold much with democratic traditions, I hope Bill's not getting advise from those guys.
Funny thing is, some plan like this was leaked earlier, maybe in October, maybe January, I forget. I do notice that in most of the ZD stories with reader feedback, the letters are dominated by the standard "let Microsoft innovate" company lines. I think too many people are watching too closely for this to work.
Cheers, Dan. |
