So, GOP candidates target advertisement to conservative blogs, and the OP thinks they are overpaying. That seems like a conspiracy built on a nice fluffy cloud. Who is to say that the value of highly targeted advertising is not worth 10x more than general web advertising? Perhaps each conservative blog impression generates 10x the donations and votes as does a general web ad impression. That is not at all uncommon in marketing to pay extra for a proven desirable demographic.

Perhaps GOP candidates have to do this because the major media outlets are closed to them. GE actively campaigned for Pres. Obama in 2008 through its NBC and MSNBC outlets and later received billions of dollars in bailouts and stimulus. I can assure /. that my small company got nothing. I can fabricate the exact same conspiracy theory as the OP with Obama and GE, except in reverse. The only difference is my conspiracy theory involves flushing public money down the toilet.

I find it odd that, after the FCC has spent tens of billions of dollars promoting and installing broadband as a social service, they are now doing a study of who has broadband and where. It is almost as if they have been putting policy before the facts, a common Washington fault.

I know that it is impolitic to do anything but bash MS on this site, but come on, this was funny.

MS addressed a problem by combining clever sleuthing with some humor.

This tells me that MS is getting a pulse.

I think the money will go to this deposed Nigerian prince who needs seed money to collect his inheritance.

The Martian atmosphere is so thin that any typical fan could not move the dust, i suspect. However, you could design the solar panels to tilt and shake the dust off. Still, they were designed for a few months service, making dust a non-factor.

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.