Venture capitalists have a friend in the freshman congressman from upstate New York,  Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls.

A former VC himself, Murphy is getting an earful from investors who complain about onerous federal laws that hamper business.  Like immigrant-run U.S. startups stymied because of  the cost of getting H1 visas. Or an unwillingness by NYSE Euronext to hold an annual issuers’ meeting in the United States because so many foreign CEOs do not hold U.S. visas.

Murphy, 39,  won Kirsten Gillibrand’s Congressional district after she was appointed to fill the Senate seat being vacated by incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  A newcomer to politics, Murphy spoke to New York VCs during a breakfast session at Alan Patricof’s new firm, Greycroft Partners.

While there were some lighter moments, such as one attendee misnaming the employee-sponsored H1B visa the “H1N1 visa,” most of the concerns voiced by VCs surrounding legislation that could thrust regulation on venture firms.

“It’s a ridiculously broken system,” Murphy said of the likelihood of enacting any meaningful immigration reform anytime soon.

Murphy acknowledged lobby efforts by the National Venture Capital Association to keep VCs from being caught in the same net as high-interest payday banks, hedge funds and the mortgage broker industry.

Other issues clearly giving VCs agita were proposed taxation of carried interest and the refusal of regional banks to make loans to small businesses — even to those with positive cash flow.

On a bright note, Murphy characterized Washington as having “strong brain power,” rather than a bureaucratic malaise.

He also said there is strong support for elimination of capital gains taxes for startups, along with other programs friendly to the “innovation economy.”

“It’s in our genes,” he said of the entrepreneurism of Americans, pointing out the adventurous spirit of  ancestors who opted to travel by boat to the new world.

Most corporate communicators would steer clear of a news event involving charged racial tensions and the police.

But President Obama’s use of a “beer summit” to calm the war of words between Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley opened the door slightly for gutsy PR pros who might want to latch onto the wave of media coverage surrounding the issue.

The new owners of my hometown beer, Genesee, in Rochester, NY, timed their pitch to perfectly, landing a nice item in Jennifer Rossa’s Private Equity Beat Wall Street Journal blog and a bunch of other TV, radio, newspaper and social media coverage.  Genesee brewed up a controversy over Obama’s choice of Bud Light as the beer he will be drinking tonight.  Bud’s parent, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, is based in Belgium.

“We think it’s great that the President is getting together over beers to have an important discussion. A lot of good solutions have surfaced when people can relax and talk over a couple cold ones,” said Rich Lozyniak, CEO of The Genesee Brewing Company. “We just hope the next time the President has a beer, he chooses an American beer, made by American workers, at an American-owned brewery like Genesee.”

The lesson here is that every big news story — in social media as well as mainstream print and broadcast — creates demand for sidebar material.  Cheers to the Genesee beer team for understanding the news cycle and pouncing.

The rabbit-ears television antenna is the only way our family stays tuned into the world during summer vacation.

In a tiny cottage in a working class neighborhood of Rhode Island’s South County this past August, no cable TV meant watching Michael Phelps and other Olympians through a veritable blizzard of static on NBC affiliate WJAR, Channel 10, in Providence, located 35 miles to the north.

Things will be different this coming summer. I will be able to re-aim that antenna until I’m blue in the face, and still the screen will be blank. Unless, that is, I take the time to buy and install a digital-to-analog converter for the cottage’s TV.

It’s estimated that hundreds of thousands of television watchers will be faced with dead air on February 17 — less than four weeks from today — unless Congress acts to force the Federal Communications Commission to delay the powering down of every analog transmitter at U.S. television station.

Never mind the Israeli-Hamas war and the broadening scandals with Bernard Madoff’ and Rod Blagojevich, President Obama’s first real test in office will be whether he allows the electorate to lose Vanna White’s nightly letter turning. Unless the voters/viewers subscribe to cable, Verizon FIOS, DirecTV or Dish Network, they need to have purchased an HDTV or analog-to-digital converter box or it will be dead air time.

In recent days, Consumers Union threw its support behind a bill co-sponsored by lawmakers whose committees oversee the FCC — Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. — to delay until June 12 the switch to digital.

The three big broadcast television networks certainly want to see the HDTV switchover day delayed so they can postpone further slippage of their influence. Cable stations and Internet news sites surged in popularity during the last elections-fueled ratings sweep.

Even though the overall number of people watching the network evening newscasts fell by 280,000 viewers in Nielsen Media Research’s fall ratings period, ABC, CBS and NBC together still accounted for some 23 million watchers.

The fact that a sizable number of those viewers — those whose TVs receive their signal from the airwaves — have not plunked down $50 to $75 to buy a converter is major reason to delay pulling the plug. Those close to the TV business argue that consumers are stupid procrastinators who either missed the millions of public service announcements or made a conscious decision to ignore the Feb. 17 hard stop.

Consumers Union contends that a federal government bungled a program to dole out coupons that defray the cost of the digital upgrade.  There’s also an argument that poor people and elderly people who do not have technical skills to rejigger their TV sets’ antenna systems, have not received enough hand holding.  One very funny PSA on this topic features an octogenarian who would benefit handsomely from a visit by Best Buy’s Geek Squad.

One additional wrinkle that has developed in the years since the FCC set the Feb. 17 deadline is that a whole bunch of people are now unemployed, unable to pay for cable TV, and sitting around the house watching TV.

It’s on that very same TV they learned from the U.S. Department of Labor that new jobless claims had reached their highest in 26 years with 589,000 individuals filing unemployment claims.

Let those people keep their TVs receiving the networks and, if they are lucky, PBS, and a Paxton station that features all-Waltons weekends.

Even if Obama and Congress let FCC have their way on February 17, some smart marketers (or politician) is going to buy up thousands of analog-to-digital boxes, affix their logo and become the heroes of those who did not manage to upgrade on their own. That’s how friends are made.