01.07.09
Microsoft Lobbyists Raised Money for Obama Campaign
WE HAVE BEEN writing quite extensively about ways in which Microsoft prepares to influence Obama [1, 2]. It’s already paying him. According to the following leaked E-mail, Obama's claim that he does not accept money from lobbyists is false. Here is Microsoft’s head of government affairs raising money for Obama, which essentially has the same effect.
From: Mike Egan (LCA)
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 14:11
To: Mike Egan (LCA)
Subject: Breakfast w/ Michelle Obama
Thanks for your past support of the Obama campaign. We’ve been given a very unique opportunity to host a small breakfast with the next potential First Lady and we’d like you to join.
The Obama team does not anticipate many more Washington State visits, and thus this trip by Michelle, is our best chance to demonstrate the tech community’s support for Obama, here on the Eastside.
“The campaign is pushing most breakfast attendees to contribute the $2,300 amount.”If you are planning to support the Obama campaign further this year, please consider this great opportunity to meet Michelle.
Our breakfast with Mrs. Obama will be held this Thursday morning, July 17th in downtown Bellevue, beginning at 8am. Michelle is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law school. She practiced law at the firm of Sidley and Austin, where she focused on marketing and intellectual property for three years, and has also worked for the Mayor of Chicago and the University of Chicago.
Even if you are out of town and unable to join, your additional support of the Obama campaign, at any amount, would greatly help, and we will add your name to the list of supporters for this event.
Past Obama events have been quite large and we would like to keep the event small, ensuring your chance see Michelle up close, perhaps a handshake. To keep the breakfast intimate, we are hoping to limit the breakfast to the first 100 to RSVP. The campaign is pushing most breakfast attendees to contribute the $2,300 amount. However, given your past support, the campaign is allowing us a few spots at the breakfast, for past supporters who will make an additional 1k contribution now.
You can hold your spot and contribute with a credit card online through this link; https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/northwest
Even if you have already contributed the $4,600 maximum, the campaign can now also accept up to $28,500 per person through the Obama Victory Fund -the National Democratic Party’s Presidential campaign fund. The Obama team is pushing the Victory Fund and has arranged for a post-breakfast session with anyone wanting to serve as one of the event co-hosts, contributing 10k or more. This group of about a dozen people, will have some time to meet with Michelle privately, right after the breakfast. Sign up online to co-host at https://donate.barackobama.com/page/contribute/OVFMOWAJuly17
Please let me know if you can join? Are out of town–but may still help with some further support for Obama? Or can think of others who may be interested? Many thanks.
The more things Change™, the more they stay the same (I did support Obama by the way). █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.