John Edwards tells Google employees: Internet should be more affordable

[JohnLocke]

John Edwards tells Google employees: Internet should be more affordable
Admits mistakes on war; gets ribbed about hair
By Jeff Thomas--(San Jose, CA) Mercury News
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
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Presidential candidate John Edwards chose the technological nexus of Google headquarters Wednesday to propose a way to make the Internet more affordable and more accessible to poor Americans.

Edwards said he sent a letter to the FCC proposing that it set aside a part of the broadband spectrum that is to be sold at an upcoming auction for wholesalers to lease to smaller start-ups in an effort to improve service to rural and underserved areas.

"What we don't want to happen is what happened in the past," he said, "which is the big telecom companies" submit the highest bids and buy up all the available spectrum.

He said the United States has a huge stake in bringing technology to more people. " For this democracy to work it needs to be from the ground up, not the top down," he said.

Edwards answered questions from employees for an hour and a half at a cafeteria at Google, which has become a high-tech crucible for presidential candidates traveling through California. Democrats Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, and Republican John McCain have all accepted Google's open invitation to all presidential candidates.

The Democratic hopeful touched on a wide range of topics, including poverty, global health care, energy conservation and immigration. But his most extensive comments came in answering questions about the war in Iraq.

"I voted for the war," Edwards said, turning away from the moderator and facing the audience. "It was a huge mistake, and it was wrong. I take responsibility for that, and I have to live with that," he said. "I felt a huge internal conflict about giving (Bush) the authority. I didn't trust him. But in the end, I decided to defer to the president of the United States. That was a mistake." Today, I would be highly skeptical about all the intelligence coming in, and make certain that it's verified.

He said if he were still in the Senate, he would not vote for a spending bill that did not include a timetable for ending the war. He said Congress should continue sending the same bill to President Bush, even though has already vetoed it.

"He is bull-headed," Edwards said. "He won't do it by himself, someone needs to do it for him." Edwards, dressed in a red tie and a white dress shirt with rolled-up sleeves, almost made it through the event without someone mentioning haircuts.
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