It Is Your Obligation to Drop Everything When We Call and Kowtow to US

Via Instapundit:

When Apple didn't participate in an April hearing on children's online privacy, [John Rockefeller] the West Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, gave voice to his suspicions.

"When people don't show up when we ask them to ... all it does is increases our interest in what they're doing and why they didn't show up," Rockefeller said of Apple and Google, which both declined to testify. "It was a stupid mistake for them not to show up, and I say shame on them."

4 Comments

  1. gene hayward:

    I found this at wikipedia:
    "When the records of the closed executive sessions of the subcommittee under McCarthy's chairmanship were made public in 2003–4,[61] Senators Susan Collins and Carl Levin wrote the following in their preface to the documents:

    Senator McCarthy’s zeal to uncover subversion and espionage led to disturbing excesses. His browbeating tactics destroyed careers of people who were not involved in the infiltration of our government. His freewheeling style caused both the Senate and the Subcommittee to revise the rules governing future investigations, and prompted the courts to act to protect the Constitutional rights of witnesses at Congressional hearings... These hearings are a part of our national past that we can neither afford to forget nor permit to reoccur""
    Sounds like Collins and Levin are advocating innocent until proven guilt and NOT calling out executives at Apple for public attention...Call me crazy, but I dont see much difference in the tone between now and then...Respectfully submitted.

  2. anon:

    Which yet again raises the old question - if your chosen country turns ugly-ass mad fascist and it owns a nuclear arsenal, would you rather attempt to weather the storm at home or live outside freely but risk being annihilated?

  3. Doug:

    This is nothing more than the Mafia dons demanding their protection money. If Apple won't play their damned game, then by God ... they may find their front windows broken. This will go on unless and until Apple starts playing the game and spreading some of its wealth around to the goons in DC.

    Yes, Mr. Rockerfeller, I called you a goon.

  4. Rick C:

    Doug, that's insulting to goons everywhere.