By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  January 17th at 01:00 AM  | 

Google employees overwhelmingly preferred Democrats over Republicans in their political giving in 2012, and it shows. Yet another Google employee is hopping over to the Obama administration. This time it’s “evangelist” Vint Cerf who’s joining the National Science Board, appointed by the President

At some point doesn’t somebody become concerned about the appearance of impropriety? Especially when Democrat initiatives like a data cap ban would favor firms like Google over telecoms?

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  January 10th at 01:00 AM  | 

And this is how that tech coalition begins to die: Ron Wyden working with Al Franken on large expansions of government online, a startling reversal from the anti-PROTECT IP Senator from Oregon.

Google caves to the Chinese Communists even as Google’s Eric Schmidt hands a propaganda victory to North Korean Communists. A pattern?

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  August 7th at 03:30 AM  | 

We had no Tech at Night on Friday becuase I was at the Gathering in Jacksonville. Hope those who went enjoyed it, and that those who weren’t able to attend can make it next year! So, Harry Reid offered to let Republicans fix Lieberman-Collins. Republicans took him up on that, and he was unhappy. So he tried to ram it through after all. Republicans objected, | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  January 7th at 03:00 AM  | 

Internet access is not a human right. It’s not me saying that, either. It’s Vint Cerf, Google’s Internet Evangelist. ESA May be backing SOPA, but we’re seeing developers themselves such as Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios come out against it. But support for the OPEN Act is growing, as it protects American rights without trying to censor the Internet or impose destructive burdens on Americans online. | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  March 2nd at 11:00 PM  | 

Welcome to the remarkably early Tech at Night tonight. When I have my initial preparation done by 6pm, I’m not going to stay up until midnight to do the actual writing. Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent. We start with some mild bad news: the resolution disapproving of Net Neutrality has been delayed. Fred Upton is getting recognition for his active work challenging the | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  February 3rd at 12:45 AM  | 

Net Neutrality is taking a real pounding this week. The Heritage Foundation has come out shooting, calling for a major rollback in the FCC’s authority, including repealing Net Neutrality legislatively. Also, The US Chamber of Commerce is calling upon the FCC to be held to the President’s standards for regulatory review, which would certainly put Net Neutrality at risk. But its supporters press on. Even | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  January 15th at 03:00 AM  | 

Republicans are eager to get to work against the President’s regulatory bypasses of the last two years. Cliff Stearns promises “aggressive and rigorous” oversight of Internet, Energy, and Obamacare, says Hillicon Valley. As the Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, that’s no idle threat. Meanwhile Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton is looking forward as well as | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 30th at 01:00 AM  | 

Earlier this week I mentioned a story at Safe Libraries exposing American Library Association astroturf promoting the radical Free Press agenda on Net Neutrality. Now, the ALA does not come into this debate with clean hands. The ALA has taken stands before, notably to protect terrorists from being caught by the FBI. But now they’re getting aggressive. On the heels of this story about ALA | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  December 18th at 03:00 AM  | 

Next week the FCC meets to make a decision on Net Neutrality. So there’s plenty going on as all sides press the FCC to do one thing or another. Some are lobbying more competently than others, though. Doing well are the Senate Republicans who prepare to fight and the incoming House Committee leadership who are getting loud on Net Neutrality and the runaway FCC. Doing | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 12th at 10:30 PM  | 

On Friday, I was assured in the comments that Google didn’t actually want to gather any data, that it was purely accidental and not “a conspiracy.” Oops: Google is actually seeking even more Wifi data through the FCC. Also, Darrell Issa isn’t letting the Andrew McLaughlin scandal die quietly, and Google’s need for insider Net Neutrality lobbying may become apparent in Tech at Night for | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  July 9th at 10:00 PM  | 

Good evening. We’re now off to a good start with this new Monday-Wednesday-Friday column, because this time I’m getting it published before midnight on both coasts. So let’s get right to it. The two big stories I’m seeing are that Google’s Street View spying troubles are coming home to the US, and the NSA is apparently expanding its mission to protect US communications from foreign | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 18th at 10:39 PM  | 

Welcome to the fourth and final part of the series (See I, II, and III to get up to speed with what’s going on here). Brief summary: Andrew McLaughlin is Deputy White House CTO, and has been reprimanded by the White House for inappropriate relations with his former employer, Google. Due to a Google Buzz security hole, wide-eyed observers at Big Government noticed that McLaughlin | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 17th at 09:08 PM  | 

We continue now from Part I and Part II of the series. InsideGoogle.com has the emails between Andrew McLaughlin and his contacts in Google, all the while serving as Deputy White House CTO, in a 3 PDF set, and I’m now starting on the second file.

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 16th at 09:43 PM  | 

Continuing from Part I, we are reading the emails of White House Deputy CTO Andrew McLaughlin to see if he’s been acting inappropriately as an agent of Google from his job working for the people. Despite close cooperation with Google “evangelist” Vint Cerf, McLaughlin laughably claims on September 4 that “I keep a very strict line between myself and Google (and Googlers).” Clearly he only | Read More »

By: Neil Stevens (Diary)  |  June 15th at 10:21 PM  | 

Via InsideGoogle.com I’ve come across the Andrew McLaughlin emails released via FOIA requests (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3). I’d meant to make a 5 part series of my reading through them for signs that McLaughlin was inappropriately acting as an agent of Google from his job as White House CTO (which is an accusation that Darrell Issa is not letting drop quietly, internal | Read More »