AT&T: Google Is The Enemy Of Nuns

Google really needs to start playing the horrible game known as lobbying in order not to suffer significant long-term pr damage due to these attacks. I mean, look at how Microsoft was hurt by not throwing money at lawmakers at the appropriate times.

The libertarian blog Cato@Liberty has argued that Google should have done just this years ago, or else it would find itself precisely where it is today: being investigated for no reason by Washington thanks to their competition.

Actually, Google is the enemy of AT&T, VZ, Yahoo, Microsoft, AMD, Intel, Chinese Gov't and/or anyone they take markets from. The AP also claims Google is "stealing" its stories by indexing them in search results. DUH, that's Google's job, idiots!

A Chinese guy named Hu Sing Ju hates Google because it did away with his search engine, Ju.cn. Kidding!

2014 --- The Vatican Bans Google

The Vatican banned Google since the search engine promoted false religions and Catholic-bashing websites. No comment from the Pope since he doesn't use a computer, has no idea what Google is and doesn't even allow a phone in his office.

Yahoo does the same thing but the Vatican said, "Who uses Yahoo?" The Vatican created its own search engine.

And then we can all sit back and bitch how politicians are bought and sold. No thanks.

they are already bought and sold.

True, but for us to encourage anyone to do it removes our right to bitch about it and do anything to change it. Yeah, I know there's about zero chance of anything change it, but it doesn't make it right.

"Google should not block calls to rural areas. Today's rural residents tend to be older, and such blocking makes it harder for their children, many of whom moved off the farm long ago, to maintain communications with their parents. Such communication keeps up the spirits of elderly rural residents and is an important tool their children use to monitor their parents health.

Google and other Internet and telephone companies should be allowed the flexibility to use reasonable network and other management tools to improve the efficiency of networks and services, but blocking phone calls to our parents and grandparents who still live on the farm is over the line and should be prohibited by the FCC.

Bruce Hahn
President
American Homeowners Grassroots Alliance "

»online.wsj.com/article/S ··· Darticle

Hook, line and sinker!

I wonder if they had to pay him, or if he's just that inept.

I would imagine that Mr. Hahn and his homeowner's alliance is just one of hundreds of groups who parrot whatever they're told to in exchange for new AT&T-funded events centers or donations. The co-opting of pseudo-legitimate organizations to parrot policy positions is a booming business.

Turning these groups into quasi-Astroturfers paid with soft-dollars?

Absolutely. It's what companies like Amplify Public Affairs do for a living. You (a corporation) pays them, they in turn coordinate pseudo-grass roots campaign using everything from completely bogus consumer groups to co-opted pseudo-legitimate groups looking for money.

The result is this broad wash of artificial "consumer" support for a company policy that just wouldn't naturally exist.

AT&T and Verizon are masters of this stuff. So are Microsoft and Comcast, who use groups like the National Corn Grower's Association to also attack Google. For all their faults, I don't believe Google's gotten into co-opting legitimate groups for smear purposes yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

I don't think Google will need to co-opt interests, however they probably have enough legitimate (non-bribed/non-co-opted) support.

Not being a Google follower I don't really keep up with its activities (only what I read here) but I'm wondering how long it will take for Google to really lay the smack down and crush an entity to make a point.

Can Google even do smearing?

Their company motto is "Do no evil."

Yes. The sad thing is that the way the game is played that if you don't get all crazy and hire a ton of lobbyist, your competitors will and next thing you know, your legislated into going out of business. Says more about our congresss than anything else.

its sad that taking the higher road is what gets you killed.

Exactly the crooks will get you in the end.

But if you just rolled over and crushed someone nobody liked anyways, just to show you meant business... it might be a different story.

Well, if we simply removed money from the political system and forced politicians to use regulated governmental funds to campaign, a lot of this would go away and politicians would once more feel the yoke of the voters' will rather than corporations'.

Of course, that would require politicians to be honest and do what's best for the country and their constiutents. I'd expect that to happen about a month after cold fusion, peace in the Middle East and the discovery of the Fountain of Youth.

you forgot the answer to life, the universe and everything.

The Borg does PLENTY of evil. Been there. Lived it. Seen it.

Two can play at the game that Mr. Hahn has started, though. How about this as a response?

AT&T should not make long distance and local telephone so expensive to rural areas. Today's rural residents tend to be older, and such expensive monopolistic pricing make it harder on their health, which in many cases requires more medication and more frequent doctor visits than years ago. In addition, most of these people are on a fixed income, and rely heavily upon minimal Social Security payments to get by. Having to choose between eating something other than dog food for dinner and affording a telephone line is not something that AT&T should force these elderly people to do.

AT&T needs to be concerned about the needs of these seniors, and their children. In many cases, the children have moved off the farm and out of town long ago. They need to maintain communications with their parents. Not being able to do this with an affordable telephone plan prevents them from being able to keep up the spirits of elderly rural residents, and denies these senior citizens access to an important tool their children use for monitoring their health.

AT&T and other baby bell companies should be allowed the flexibility to use reasonable pricing and quality management tools to provide access to those who desperately need it. Preventing phone access through high prices to our parents and grandparents who still live on the farm is over the line and should be prohibited by the FCC.

A concerned citizen
Resident, the United States

Except that it's small, regional/local phone operations that are making it expensive. Were it AT&T, they'd have no reason to hate pumping as they'd be the ones with the revenue center. But, since they have to pay out to the pumpers, they'd cut them off if they had the legal leeway to do so.

Google is neither an ISP nor a phone company, so what does network management and Net Neutrality have to do with anything Google does with it's software or services? You can't use Google Voice without some other telephone service, so if you don't like what Google does, then here's a thought....why don't you just make a normal phone call to your grandparents on the farm? Google has no problem with you doing that, and isn't at all blocking you from using your phone without Google Voice.

On a side note, if you don't like ANY of Google's software or services, just go use another. There's tons of them out there and you have plenty of choices, unlike the choices you have with ISPs and phone companies.

"Hook, line and sinker!".

Yeah, but you should say it like the German Guy in "Die Hard 3"

Houek, Leinn und Zinker!

ATT/Verizon should just stop sending calls to these ripoff telcos for a few days and claim it was a switch issue. see how the ripoff pumpers do with a few days of no free money.

let me see if i can put this into terms that Brucey boy can understand...

hey you freakin' moron! you have to actually have a wireless phone to put the google voice app on or get to the google voice web page! if you can't get to the phone number in the rural area using GV, just use your phone's default dialer. AMAZING CONCEPT!!!

ATT is no saint, but they are regulated and have to play by the rules. To the google fanboys, when are you lemon heads going to wake up and realize google knows more about you than even your worst tin hat big brother nightmares? Who's evil now?

who cares, google hasn't screwed me like the death star has

Honest question, but how exactly has AT&T "screwed" you?

AT&T kicked me once in the shin, it hurt.

by illegally handing over all my phone, internet, and cell records to the NSA and receiving favorable government treatment in return, of course. do we really have to go over this all the time?

We can over it until we have a legitimate "screwing". If we're discussing the wiretapping issue, then perhaps woody7 should have stated the Government is doing the "screwing".

AT&T, with one of the most powerful lobbying operations across any industry, literally wrote many of the very rules they play by. Google, in contrast, literally just started lobbying a few years ago, opening their first DC office I think in like 2005 or something. There are differences.

That said, there are plenty of Google privacy issues at play, and I imagine as Google shifts from innovative, youthful attacker to having to defend against innovation they'll increasingly employ many of the same, disgusting tactics companies like AT&T and Verizon use to protect their positions of power.

People aren't naive about GOOGLE, they just see thru the BS that ATT is trying to push.

Top All-Time Donors 1989-2010 Summary

»opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php

Check out who is number 1 baby!

I've got news for you, it's not just Google that has that much information on you.

We recently signed up for a new service at work that pulls together every little bit of public information about you off the internet. It is impressive. Used myself as a Guinea pig.

It knew my address. when I was 5 years old. Even had the moving date correct.

The 6 page dossier this thing produced was astounding. Problem is access costs $100/mo per person.

So one person has access to it, and it isn't me.

Privacy died back in the 70's when the NSA started having computers large enough to do REAL data mining.

Unless you were born in a log cabin, never went to school, never had a bank account, a phone, a computer, a debit card, a drivers license, owned a car, and bartered pigs and chickens for everything you owned, you really don't have any privacy.

To jip a movie line, the only privacy anyone really has left is inside your head.

Not that I agree with the other half of the character's quote, but it's true.

Shit, with a few keystrokes, and access to free public on line databases, enough information exists within the confines of this post for you to get a picture of my house. From the street AND SPACE....

said by N3OGH:

---

To jip a movie line, the only privacy anyone really has left is inside your head.

---

Enemy of the State. great movie.
"Privacy's been dead for years because we can't risk it. The only privacy that's left is the inside of your head. Maybe that's enough."

It is amazing to me how such transparent issues are easily pushed on the government so they can spent our tax money on non-existing issues instead of the real problems.

It's the miracle of lobbying.

The cable television industry was forced to upgrade their networks in the late 90's because their clocks were being cleaned by Direct Broadcast Satellite industry. The Telephone Companies were banking their money and not investing in upgrading their networks. Verizon and AT&T cherry picked upgrading only affluent areas while the CATV industry's upgrades were more comprehensive. When your pipes are to small it is time to install bigger pipes.

major pain for cable atm is the drive from people to make them keep analog cable and never require a box. which i never understood because if they went all digital even the 2-13 what would someone do? threaten to go to direct TV where they would still need a box.

The big difference is... Google is really only screwing other large companies while AT&T is screwing large companies as well as small developers and individual users.

Does that absolve Google of responsibility? No. But Google's transgressions don't leave as bad a taste in your mouth as AT&T's do.

Depends on your taste buds! This short story is from the October 2007 issue of Radar magazine.

Scroogled
by Cory Doctorow

"Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I
will find an excuse in them to hang him." -- Cardinal Richelieu

"We don't know enough about you." -- Google CEO Eric Schmidt


Bob

1. They offer their product for free.
2. Traffic-pumping LECs cost LOTS of money per minute.
3. People can call those destinations directly; Google voice is at best a long distance calling card.

I wonder how many LD calling cards at the low end of the price spectrum also block calls to those destinations? I'll bet a fair number of them do.

The nice thing about phone service these days is that it's quite competitive. If you have an internet conection you have access to dozens of VoIP providers. You can also get landline service from the telco, digital voice (usually) from the cableco, plus cellular service from five or so networks, plus their MVNOs.

I'll go out on a limb here and say that phone service should be completely deregulated wherever there are two or more voice providers serving an area AND broadband internet is available. So if PoDunk Telecom has landline service and internet available to an area, and Bumpkin Cellular (not affiliated with PoDunk Telecom) has voice service in your area, that's competitive.

If you listen to Karl, the Telcos are run by a bunch of psycho-maniacs whose only ambitions are to crush the little guy, pay off the government bureaucrats, inhibit innovation, and line their pockets with grandma's remaining Social Security check. Come on, get a life...it's called big-boy competition. Google isn't the 2nd coming of Christ and AT&T isn't Satan either....

I will say google listens if you complain. To me anyway. I wrote them a letter (postal mail) about one of their services. StreetView is the privacy invading pictures they have of everyones house. . . .well it showed something I didn't really enjoy having out on the internet. They did something about it. To my surprise, google listened and acted. . . thanks google.