The type of accounting treatment used by MS is extremely common and is practiced by almost every major corporation. I highly doubt WA State will prevail, but if it does, that is more than enough money to cause MS to relocate its headquarters elsewhere. MS provides huge numbers of top quality jobs that drive the region's economy, and the entire state would be devastated without them. There are plenty of states that would offer any concession required to get MS's headquarters.
My advice to WA State liberals is to stop taking MS for granted.

I assume that you pay more in taxes than you have to, or else you are a criminal?
Moving operations to the lowest cost location is not illegal. Also, it is inevitable. Even if MS doesn't do it, someone will form a software company offshore that costs less to operate. Over the long term, this new company will take business from MS, making the end result the exact same.
Try as you and Lou Dobbs might, you can't stop the free market. Wealth and employment will eventually move to the most business friendly locations.

The assumption was that the incandescent bulb was made in the US and the CFL was made in China. Therefore the extra fuel is incurred once in the life of the CFL.
Your point is good that, if a CFL lasts 8 times longer, you must make 8 incandescent bulbs, which consumes some amount of energy.

If a 25W CFL replaces a 100W incandescent bulb, and the CFL lasts 8000 hours, it will save 600 KWHrs of energy.
If a shipping vessel can hold 35,000 tons of cargo and the shipping weight of a CFL is 1/2 pound, the vessel can hold 140 million bulbs. Of course there is not enough space for them all, but they can ship with heavier items, and I am assuming costs are allocated by weight.
If a 7,000 mile journey burns 875 tons of fuel, or 15.75 million gallons, then each bulb is allocated .11 gallons of diesel for the journey. That is about 6 KWHrs of energy.
Therefore, the shipping costs don't even come close to negating the energy savings.

Free Spectrum as long as they broadcast in AM. That is a fairly big subsidy.

If the government had bought pneumatic tubes, we'd still be using them.

Once the government latches onto something, it will subsidize it to keep it in place until the end of time (Amtrak, AM radio).
This is yet another good reason why the FCC's 'free' wifi plan is a bad idea.

yup. the same is true for most bio-waste products - there aren't enough raw materials (like waste cooking oil) to make even the slightest dent in the overall supply. also, the OP said 'potentially' 340 million gallons. that would presumably mean the forced recycling of all coffee grounds - hardly likely.

Sorry. In my defense, I was awake late at night with insomnia. It's best to make your point with correct facts and good grammar, even if they are tangential to the argument.

It looks like sometime since Duke settled with the wrongly accused rugby players, it has changed its legal MO to defending and supporting its students.

I have no doubt that turning on future alumni and trashing them without proof is bad for Duke's business.