Do you think it's possible Bill Gates and Microsoft run some of America? Since Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, I'm sure he would be able to pull some strings if he wanted to. Also, Microsoft Windows is so huge and widely used, that he or the government can use it to their advantage if used correctly. Possibly putting a patch online saying it's for fighting a new virus, when it actually has some spy software in it too, and unsuspecting citizens do not know about it.

A possibility or no?

anything is a possiblity. i doubt that microsoft and the government is working too closely together, since the government (or rather some states,) sued microsoft because it had a molopoly.

Well Microsoft is now working with Homeland Security... what does that tell you?

I guess MS does - and will do till some one breaks them - I happened to IBM so might happen again. I would supposse reading these types of messages in the 1960s we woud have read does "IBM" run government - things change - and our supposed beliefs evolve - wuld things really have been different if Apple had not decided to be so controlling of its O/S ? - or Linux emerged earlier ?

I have said this before and I will say it again, money and trouble are almost always linked together. I think that Bill Gates has a lot of power simply because of his socio-economic standing. If you are asking, I don't really think it is a conspiracy, to me, I think it is obvious. I think that Gates has a lot of control over certain parts of the government.

...The part that scares me is when you combine Bush's Bully Boy Gang with Bill Gates' heavy use of spyware...

I wish our resident Microsoft nutcase "Turk" was here... I'm sure he'd attack this issue with his usual eloquence.

Here's my take... Microsoft is the new "SoftBank". If you were paying attention to conspiracy and power theories 10 years ago, Masayoshi Son (the chairman, ceo, president, etc.) had his underlings define a 500 year plan for the corporation. The actual goal was to be the only global corporation within 100 years.

Microsoft learned from Softbank's mistakes and is being much more subtle, especially Mr. William Gates. We are about to see a convergence of digital rights management and history. The single largest archive of one-of-a-kind historical photographs, negatives, and documents is owned and managed by Corbis. And Corbis is a private company whose majority owner (by a wide margin) is no other than Mr. William Gates. Corbis and Microsoft have made no secret that their near future plans are to finish the complete digitization of this "valuable historical resource" and integrate digital rights management to "protect the integrity of the original images". Anyone see something developing here? He who controls history...

"History is bunk" - Henry Ford.

Who is right?

Not to mention Microsoft has more cash on hand than ANY other company in the world, roughly $50 BILLION dollars.