Knowing Your Enemies

Had you dialed into this weblog a few years ago, you would have seen something called Google AdSense in the sidebar. It's one of those innocuous and rarely noticed blurbs that pushes, on a rotating basis, (as best I can remember) various products of its admin's choosing. I thought it was kinda cool so I put it up.

And soon after, I took it back down. Out of disgust.

You see, I found out what the people behind it - behind Google* - really think of guys like me. For example, see this jaw-dropping weblog post describing an exchange between a blogger and "The Google AdSense Team." The blogger was notified that he was being dropped by Google because his weblog was deemed to be in violation of the company's policy. His crime? He devoted space to the discussion of firearms.

Then there is this instance where Greg of BVBL fame ran afoul - apparently - of Google for having tried to edit the ad content flow on his own blog (though it's permissible to filter the type of ads that appear, he did the impermissible - he filtered out Barack Obama ads). This, admittedly, happened long after I parted company with Google AdSense but the internet is rife with such examples.

So, just how politically motivated are these people who make the decisions at Google?

This should give you pause:

New questions raised on Google, MoveOn.org relationship
By Robert Cox, The Examiner

Washington - Internal documents obtained by The Examiner shine new light on MoveOn.org’s “General Betray Us” ad and raise fresh questions about the far-left advocacy group’s misleading statements on the issue and its relationship with Google, a major donor to its political action committee.

The documents show how MoveOn.org used dubious claims of trademark infringement and threats of litigation to silence critics of its recent controversial full-page ad in The New York Times attacking Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. general in Iraq, which appeared the day he was testifying before Congress on the war effort. Among those critics was Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who is seeking a third term.

After The Examiner exclusively reported Oct. 11 that Google had banned four anti-MoveOn.org ads placed by the Collins campaign, Google and MoveOn.org each sought to portray the ban as unrelated to the Petraeus ad controversy. The documents obtained by The Examiner, however, show a direct link between the two events. (link)

Read the whole thing.

What caught my eye was that "... Google, a major donor to [MoveOn.org's] political action committee." Google appears to be in cahoots with one of the most radically leftist smear campaigns operating within our borders today.

What can we do about it? Well, nothing really. Just file it in the memory banks. Know and understand who we're up against here. We have powerful enemies. The leadership at Google has decided to be one of them.

* A disclaimer: This website is powered by Blogger, which was purchased by Google back in 2003.