VP Cheney To Google: Who's Your Daddy?

Google may think it rules the roost, but the Darth Vader of politics, VP Dick Cheney, has made clear that even Google has to bow down to him. According to the New York Times, Cheney has forced Google to obscure the view of the VP's residence in Google Earth, even though the White House and adjacent buildings remain visible. Columnist Maureen Dowd reports that Google Earth users told the newspaper that "For a brief period photos of the White House and adjacent buildings that the United States Geological Survey provided to Google Earth showed up with certain details obscured." Google then replaced those images with unaltered photographs taken by another source.

But even though the White House is now visible in Google Earth, "The view of the vice president's residence in Washington remains obscured," the Times reports.

What does Cheney have on Google that forces the company to obscure the view of his residence? We'll never know --- after all, this is a guy who was the secret architect of the Iraq war, illegal domestic wiretapping, and much else that's wrong in D.C. He pretty much does what he wants.

Still, Google is wrong to have kowtowed to him. Free information is free information, regardless of whether it annoys the most powerful politician in the country.