What Start-Ups need to know about Washington

So, part of this whole thing is me wanting to write about the eccentricities of Washington and how many of these "Web 2.0" companies aren't doing enough to head off what will be an onslaught of regulation, from either Congress or the FCC. Let's face it. The Congressional Committees are chaired on the Senate side buy a one-armed WWII hero and a guy who invented the phrase Series of Tubes. The guys on the House side have some better brains over there [Rick Boucher, D-VA  and Ed Markey, D-MA come to mind] but you still have a bunch of people beholden to big media (did someone say Diane Feinstein or Orrin Hatch), and let's not forget the Mickey Mouse Protection act rammed through by the late Sonny Bono (R-CA) before he ran into a tree. The point is, Web 2.0 companies are letting the Microsofts and Googles of the world fight their battles for them, when these small startups should be banding together and fighting for their own interests. I plan on covering issues relating to Web 2.0, Privacy, Data Protection, etc in the coming weeks. Watch this space.