Just 'running ads from online pharmacies that were breaking US laws' doesn't make illegal elsewhere
Google, and other international companies, cross borders and different countries have different laws, therefore what is legal in one is maybe illegal in another.
V-P Biden is obviously in the pocket of the Hollywood media types - he is the one pushing the anti-piracy and copy hacking agenda - and now, obviously, Obama and company, facing a 2012 election, is cozying up to the U.S. pharmaceutical industry which has lots of dollars to throw around.
Maybe Obama should pay regard to hundreds, if not thousands, of American citizens who cross the northern border to purchase prescribed drugs - ignoring the fact Canadians have great marijuana, too - and with these savings can still afford the 'drug run' buses together with plenty of cash left over.
Canadian brand name drugs often are manufactured IN the USA, so many of these drug purchases are essentially buying exported drugs and then importing them back in to the U.S.A. The only difference is the price. The Province of Ontario has a drug pricing regime that is way, way cheaper than many other places - not generics but the same name brands.
Much of the on-line purchasing - ignoring certain blue heart-shaped pills - is a modified form of this, no buses. There is the small matter of U.S. prescriptions being accepted without a Canadian doctor actually issuing the prescription for Canadian drug sales.
At the bottom of this whole thing is American drug companies wanting to max out their profits. They work against the legal generic drug industry yet licence generic knock-offs in India and Brazil - two countries which find it difficult to deliver drugs into the U.S.A.
Not many Register readers have to ask themselves: Do I pay the rent, or buy food , or buy drugs. Europe looks after it's citizens, as does Canada, but in the 'greatest country in the world' there are many families who have to make this call monthly.
Obama claims he is out to look after 'the small people' yet his policies say otherwise.
Maybe Obama and company think they stand a better chance of getting political kickbacks from Google than they would if they chased the also illegally advertising Yahoo and Bing/Microsoft?