In 1981 during his second term as Governor of California Jerry Brown committed one of the worst errors in political history with his mishandling of the Mediterranean Fruit Fly infestation. He had established himself as a New Age fiscal conservative, a social liberal and above all an environmentalist. When the Mediterranean Fruit Fly was discovered in the Bay area he was advised to allow fruit growers to spay an insecticide, malathion, from airplanes as well as the established practice of ground level spaying. He procrastinated until other citrus growing states, notably Texas, began to embargo fruit from California. When the crop was all but lost he finally relented and allowed aerial spraying adding the environmental movement to his list of critics. This ineptitude earned him the nickname "governor med fly".
Recently Go Daddy, a hosting and domain registrar company has tried to straddle the fence on SOPA. First its name appeared on a list of companies supporting SOPA. As pressure mounted Go Daddy flipped. The result of this wishy washy positioning was the loss of 37,000 domain names in just two days. If you factor in the $6.99 to $10.99 fees associated with each of those domain registrations, Go Daddy is losing a significant amount of money. Unlike Jerry Brown, Go Daddy didn't have to have this fight. They could have remained neutral or at least stayed on one side of the issue but now in an effort to please everyone they have pleased no one.
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