Ralph Reed & Microsoft: It can't get no worse.

Microsoft paying Ralph Reed $20,000/mth retainer.

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

AMERICAblog.com has learned that Microsoft is currently paying a $20,000 a month retainer to former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed's consulting firm Century Strategies. Which now begs the question of whether Reed was in any way involved with Microsoft's recent decision to abandon its decades long support for gay civil rights in order to curry favor with anti-gay bigots of the radical right.

Interestingly, Microsoft had Reed on retainer during the presidential election of 2000 to apparently help lobby then-candidate Bush on their anti-trust suit (he was actually first hired in the fall of 1998-). The contract was terminated after Reed was criticized for a conflict of interest - Reed was working on Bush's campaign. The question arises when Microsoft and Reed revived their work relationship (most observers I've spoken to thought the contract ended five years ago), and what exactly Reed is working on now that the anti-trust issue is over.

Now, just think a minute. Microsoft finds itself under criticism from the local evangelical leader, religious right shareholders, bigoted employees and who knows who else. They don't know what to do. Who do they turn to? Well, if I'm in a religious right pickle, I'd turn to my $20,000 a month retainered religious right consultant, the former leader of the religious right, Ralph Reed.

And which side do we think the former head of the religious right would favor were he advising Microsoft what do when trapped between the Scylla and Charybdis of the gays vs. the religious right?

A. Stick to your guns and defend the gays? or
B. Find a way to stiff the gays and move more in line with the religious right?

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I build my own PCs and use Linux. Only way for me to go.

and they make really good stuff that is easy to use and not so prone
to viruses.

If you've got an old PC, or Macs are too expensive,
you can go for Linux, which I discuss some here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1423249&mesg

If you don't mind a used one. Also the Mac mini has gotten very good reviews. I don't mind paying apremium for good stuff, especially when the company's blue. My only complaint about Apple is that all of their manufacturing appears to be done in China; it'd be nice if some of those jobs could return to the US.

not that they are fair to us, $20,000 is a drop in the bucket to them -- less than a drop in the bucket. To paraphrase an old math joke, if Bill Gates saw $20,000 lying on the sidewalk as he passed by, it wouldn't be worth his time in man-hours, I mean man-seconds, to bend down and pick it up.

A corporation that big basically pays every lobbyist and influence peddler in town as a sort of running bribe. I wouldn't be surpised if he doesn't have Democratic lobbyists on retainer as well.

He is trying to get the feds off his back so he donates to any political campaign he can.

To quote Chris Rock, if Bill Gates woke up with Oprah's money tomorrow he would jump out a window. $20,000 is absolutely nothing.

I use PCs and I actually do respect Bill Gates somewhat depsite all the hate of him around here. He started something out of nothing here in Albuquerque and you do have to respect that.