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Karl Rove Resigning Aug 31
tetrahedrassface writes "According to CNN current Bush Administration political advisor Karl Rove will be resigning his post as senior political advisor at the end of August to spend more time with his family. Few if any prior senior political advisors to presidents have been the lightning rods for controversy that Mr. Rove has. Accused of running smear campaigns and celebrated for pioneering district level up campaigns that rely heavily on databases and fake grassroots origins, Mr Rove is one of the chief architects of the Republican Revolution."
Ever notice the smart rats jump first from the burning ship?
I just wanted to take a moment to thank the slashdot community, in advance, for what I am certain will be yet another discussion that will be the picture of decorum and civility. If there is anything I have learned about slashdot over the years, it is its ability to conduct a mature discussion about any topic, devoid of paranoia, rage, or ignorance.
In fact, I believe it would be fair to say that it was slashdot that single-handedly relegated the old connotation of "tinfoil hat" to the dustbin, leaving instead something that could only be termed fashionable, if unique, headwear in its wake. I know of no other web site that could have accomplished this return to such a balance and due consideration of all sides of an issue in its discourse.
Only on slashdot can such a discussion be guaranteed to be free of cynicism that dominates other venues of debate. Here, opposing viewpoints will be examined and considered, and not snuffed out. Nor will the community elevate viewpoints which only serve to reinforce their preconceived notions; indeed, slashdot, especially its comments, is the place to come for an evenly weighted consideration of any issue, especially issues of a political nature.
Neither will commenters fall to the common fallacy of "recentism", believing that a recent event must necessarily be the worst such case of an event in the history of mankind; instead recognizing that the internet can simply deluge us with an increasingly unprecedented level of information about any person or group which may pique our interest, allowing a wide range of ever more specific issues and minutia to be amplified to levels never witnessed in the past.
Moreover, I can tell by the (current) article title - "Politics: Carl Rove Resigning Aug 31" - that this discussion will have the highest regard for accuracy not only in content, but in spelling and grammar, as regular slashdot visitors will no doubt recognize to be the status quo. This level of accuracy can only be achieved by the tireless work of slashdot's editors, who carefully review each submission to the site.
So, bravo, slashdot - not only for what you have accomplished for political discussion in the past, but for the discussion you are about to have. It is exactly this kind of level-headed discussion that keeps people coming back for evenly balanced news and careful interpretation on nearly any topic.
Bravo, indeed!
Apart from the blatent click-whoring of the pointless "Politics" section, why is this on /. at all?
Is that false advertisement now? /., a.k.a. neo-digg with articles like this.
yes, the man is a slimeball
and this thread will get about 10,000 cheers for his departure and exclamations of his slimeball status
regardless, neither the comments nor this story has anything remotely to do with slashdot
"news for nerds", right?
yes, this is news, but not slashdot news
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
According to CNN current Bush Administration political advisor Karl Rove will be resigning his post as senior political advisor at the end of August [CC] to spend more time with his family.
"When asked for comment Mr. Rove stated, 'I believe we will be settling down in this place called The Shire. I understand great opportunity exists there to squash more insurgency....'"
Naturally, you'd have to have read the actual LoTR to get that and not just seen the movies....
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
"Absolute power corrupts absolutly."
Captain Kirk quoting Santayana.
Stardate 2305.4
satan HAS a family?
seriously, that's the most transparent excuse in modern politics. when you are disgraced, you leave and tell the world 'its time to spend more time with my family.'
bollocks.
but at any rate, the damage has already been done. who knows how long we'll be 'paying' for the effect this bastard left on the world. yes, the world - he affect way more than just the US, of course.
what an evil evil man. one of the worst of the last 50 years, if I may be so bold.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
+5, Sarcasm
I am Rowan, and I approve of this and the parent message.
AccountKiller
I'm not sure if I should rejoice or freak out. I'm glad to see him out of there, as I'd like to see the whole administration gone. But at the same time, while I'm not a mega-tinfoil-hat kind of guy, I do wonder if he's leaving because he's now completed whatever he wanted to do there, and how afraid should I be of whatever that might be.
Yes, he's leaving the White House, but that in no way means he's done working *with* the White House and the Republican Party. All it really means is that he'll be free of the restrictions on doing political work out of a government office.
Then again, if or when it hits the fan, any work he may have done after that date would not have the protection of his White house job or "Executive Privilege".
In any event, expect the dirty tricks to continue as usual.
Bush awards him a "Presidential medal of Freedom" or some other insanely high accolade that he is undeserving of as a final parting shot before he leaves in 2009? I mean come on, if Brownie is doing a "heck of job", just imagine what Bush must think of Turd Blossom.
Monstar L
This man says he's leaving "for his family".
Thant's because they have the evidence of his cruising activities with D.C.'s gay hustlers. http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:pRvic62nhFoJ:
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Like so many people who've seen "discussions" such as the one's on the popular humph, Digg, I think the author was just wanting an intellectual debate and discussion without it degrading into what at best could be "group think" at it's worst. I can't blame him, the slashdot community has always been more mature in it's discussions, even if an article was made lite of.
The election is coming, just like 2006 when he 'resigned' to go help the GOP dirty tricks campaigns, he's 'resigning' to help one of the candidates smear the others during the primaries.
I mean, this simple sentence has practically become equivalent with "I need to resign in a hurry, to organize my legal defense", for Pete's sake!
So, let's start the rumor mill: why is Karl Rove really resigning?
Any ideas?
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
to spend more time with his family translated:
he fucked up completely but we're not mad enough (at him and/or otherwise it would cost our own ass) to let the shit hit the public fan. so wave goodbye in a friendly matter and hopefully everybody forgets about it real soon.
He's most definately a nerd. He's so much of a nerd, even the geeks beat up on him in high school.
One of the best political campaign advisers in the history of politics, has been released into the wild to prepare for next year's elections. In other words, this story has implications for both sides of the political aisle and it's not simply a 'ding dong witch is dead' deal.
It is news for nerds, when the top advisor of an administration who has supported topics like changing the fight on global warming, letting the FCC let lobbyists write its daily agendas, encouraging telcos to say that the internet is "theirs" and that they can charge a premium to different internet sites around the globe if they want 'increased' bandwith.
It is news for nerds, when an administration is guilty of supporting failing industries like airlines, stopping the path for new airlines to make headway into the arena. It is news for nerds when we remove the advisor who played the "Wizard of Oz" with what should be the most powerful man in the world.
In reality though, it won't change a thing. Rove's departure is too little, too late. My hope is that charges are brought upon him for the firing of the US Attorneys and making it politically motivated, for helping cherry pick intelligence to make a case for a war of choice, for re-writing documents written by climatologists to show that global warming is a hoax, and on and on. The intelligent folks would start the indictment towards the end of Bush's term, and have it run through after he is out of office. No sentence should be passed while George Bush is in office. This way, when faced with SOLID jail time, Karl Rove will show how his underhanded life will play against George Bush and Co when he starts blathering about every bad thing he and his buddies in the White House did during his tenure. And you can bet that it would happen if he did face jail time.
For an administration so bent on war, almost all of them deferred multiple times to stay out of Vietnam, or flew aircraft that were obsolete and had no chance of being used in battle. When they are faced with the violent fact of jail -- you can bet they will try to "defer" yet again.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
Ever notice the smart rats jump first from the burning ship?
Uh, no, once Bush won reelection the ship "Bush II" was home free. Perhaps you heard about an upcoming election season? Rove is a political consultant specializing in getting Republicans elected and advancing conservative initiatives. It is simply time from Karl to get involved in the elections and he can't do that from the White House anymore.
I said "happyhappyjoyjoy" ;-)
I would rather have seen him dragged out of the White House in chains and prison stripes. But I'll accept this...
BTW, when is someone going to come up with a more original exit excuse than the standard "to spend more time with my family?"
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
To start - I'm a libertarian, I'm very opposed to the current administrations handiling of a number of items, not the least of which is the impinging of my right to privacy, the handling of the "War on Terror", and getting us into a war in Iraq that I still fail to see how it benefits the US citizen. I have taken a bit of criticism from my friends by asking that question, but my response is and has been "When you spend US solders lives and Billions of US dollars, it seems to me that there should be an answer to the 'What did we purchase?' question."
That said, Karl Rove's handling of the 2000 presidential election was excellent, but the 2004 presidential election was masterful. Granted, the democrats helped some (and appear to be helping again now, for that matter), but there is no way Bush would have been re-elected without his help. In any normal situation the incompetency of any of those three items would have cost Bush the 2004 elections. I'm kind of sorry to see him go, regardless of my opinion of the administrations polices, Karl Rove is a master of politics and for good or for badad, I think he should have stuck around to see it though, there is only another 18 months in the administration, after all, and I'm sure he's on the short list of blanket pardons that Bush is going to write as he exits his term in office.
Besides that, who is left for the media to target? Dick? He is already a target, and doesn't care. He has so much "clout" in Washington that he can, and does, ignore everyone and do his own thing.
A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
you vote for someone based on their eyes and expressions?
Here in the UK, we had a blind home secretary for a while. his eyes went crazy all the time. I guess he would have lost your vote?
I'd be happy never to see a politician, or hear them, so I'm not influenced by such trivialities. What matters is what they propose, what they have done, and what they will do. Looks, Age, voice, style, I couldn't give a damn. the main job of a president or PM is to make the right decisions. You can be a 400 pound ugly son of a bitch who dribbles constantly and sounds like fozzy bear, but if you make the right decisions, I'll vote for you, and I won't care about your race, your gender or your looks.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
I thought this was a slow week, too, so I popped over to the fire hose yesterday to see what was going on, and it was exactly jack and shit. It's kind of scary the kinds of worthless junk that people submit: lots of "hey check this outs" with just a link or a copy and-pasted press release from Dell. Say what you will about the editors, they do a pretty good job of putting the best submissions on the front page. The problem is, if we don't go find things quality articles to submit and take the time to write a summary, they won't have anything else to post but the Dell adverts.
Besides, August is always slow.
weirdest thing I ever saw: scientology advertising on slashdot.
The movie version serves perfectly fine for your analogy :)
:)
I've only read "the Hobbit" and was terribly bored by the end of it -- the movies are a lot better and explain what the Shire is perfectly well
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
Whichever candidate takes him on is a candidate i'll not vote for in the primary. My guess would be Romney or whichever wins the social conservatives between Huckabee and Brownbeck. Of course, if it's one of those three it's convenient because I would have voted for them in the first place. Now if Giulianni takes him on... the only choice left is Paul.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
Mission Accomplished.
---- You are fully entitled to my opinion.
"Rove said the first thing he plans to do after leaving the White House is "go dove hunting in West Texas with family and friends..."
Oooh cool! If he brings along Cheney, they could shoot his friends AND family in the face!!!
Seriously though... Who the hell shoots doves??? Isn't that like drowning babies?
-ubuntu others as you would have others ubuntu you.
It is really stretching to say that this is news for nerds. Plenty of political news happens every day from both sides, yet the only ones that seem to matter to slashdot is when it only concerns Republicans?
This politics section is a joke. This is not news for nerds. This is raw meat for the digg/kos crowd. Remember when CmdrTaco said they would be fair? It's not even close. Trolls like kdawon and Zonk use this section as their personal soapbox. It's ridiculous when anyone says it's anything but.
He'll be back, as the campaign manager for whoever is annointed as the Bush/Cheney successor. Resigning now just lets him rest up and put some theoretical distance between him and the administration.
1.) K, it's not exactly tech news, but I still think it's very relevant to us news-reading nerds. Love or hate, discussions about this administration fueled a great deal of the web 2.0/blog explosion. Granted, that would've happened regardless of who was in the white house, but U.S. politics has had its nose in lots of issues directly related to technology. It's also correctly filed under "politics" so I don't have a problem with it.
2.) Love him or hate him, Rove is a brilliant and cunning political strategist. His president cannot be re-elected and is effectively a lame duck. Bush will wane in the public mind, take lots of vacations, and shoo away congressional investigations like irritating flies for his remaining term--he really doesn't need Rove anymore and would prefer he go off and do what he's proven himself so good at--campaigning for the Republican party in what will doubtlessly be a very difficult upcoming election. I doubt Rove will jump in head first as an official political advisor to anyone anytime soon, but I also doubt he'll be able to resist helping out in an unofficial capacity--it's what he does best.
3.) The "Miss Piggy / Gay bar" bit is just silly. Even if he was gay (which I doubt) he's far too clever to fall into a trap remotely like that. Let me know when there's a vaguely credible source for that goofy rumor and maybe I'll bother to give it more thought.
It doesn't happen. I've tried. Even when it's technical/geek related in nature.
I haven't heard much on the voter caging scandal. If anything is an abuse of data mining its the 3 million or so registered voters denied their rights. The Attorney Generals, the resignation of his assistant and now his resignation are probably all smokescreens for the continued practice of challenging minority votes.
More enlightening.
Pining for the fjords
Except that he has been married since 1986 and has a son.
/. people seem very lonely...and paranoid.
Why do we continue to allow individual persons to have such extreme power over millions (or arguably billions) of people?
Why do we insist on thinking that we need to have a handful of people making all the decisions for everyone?
That's the way all animals have always done it, but... we have computers now. And the internet. We are now free to govern ourselves:
http://www.metagovernment.org/
Please stop bowing down to people like Karl Rove and start acting like a responsible human being!
Maybe he's going to oversee his pet project pilot program in Shenzhen. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/12/21 57215
He'll want to get the bugs worked out if he's going to get a job in the H. Clinton cabinet.
--
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Carlrovism /ca:lrouizm/
-noun
1. the practiced theory of "I Don't Recall" statements. 2. a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.
Full Tilt
So an employee of the US Intelligence Service, and also the Dept. of Homeland Security was kind enough to post his thoughts on this matter. (really, check his homepage) Oh wait, you didnt post your thoughts at all, you just posted a few rambling paragraphs about nothing relevant at all within seconds of the article being posted.
And since you typed all that within 1 minute of the article posted, it is just dripping with authenticity.
This is the best part: instead recognizing that the internet can simply deluge us with an increasingly unprecedented level of information about any person or group which may pique our interest, allowing a wide range of ever more specific issues and minutia to be amplified to levels never witnessed in the past.
Is this 'unprecedented' level of information in contrast to being spoon-fed information by corporate news? Does is scare you when the unwashed masses have such unprecedented access to information?
If Slashdot can't do anything but rehash what I've already read on those sites, then it is redundant.
News for nerds, please.
Cheers, Karl, you're a lucky man. In earlier, more civilsed times, you would have had to have fallen on your sword for failing the 2006 elections as badly as you did.
If you're lucky, you won't get beaten up by one of the many people you've managed to directly harm, or the untold thousands you've managed to indeirectly harm.
I agree that Rove's management of the campaigns was brilliant; he did whatever was necessary to meet (and in some cases exceed) his objectives. This was true not only in 2000 and 2004, but with the mid-term elections in 2002 as well. Of course, during that election cycle he got a little bit of help from Osama bin Laden.
But in 2006, he blew it. The "Republican Revolution" stalled with the disgust over the war's conduct, congressional corruption, and the overall perception that Congress and the White House were ignoring the electorate. (Remember when Rove claimed to have the "real poll numbers"? He didn't.) You could argue that Karl Rove's worst enemy was Tom DeLay.
The big lesson to take away from Rove's tenure is that strategy, spin and yes, hubris will only go so far. In the end, an elected leader has to produce positive results.
An interesting item to note is that politics is not immune from game theory, especially the Prisoner's Dilemma. We all loathe partisan sniping, ideological pissing contests, preoccupation with the small (e.g. the abortion debate, which polarizes many yet really affects very few) for the sake of issues that matter (e.g. health care in this country, which affects nearly everyone). Yet Rove turned these tactics into an art form, complete with data mining to figure out whose buttons when pushed would get the loudest responses. Unfortunately, this causes every other "player" in the "game" to react accordingly. And since every side is perfectly capable of figuring out each of the others' motive, it only takes one idiot (in this case, the Republican establishment with Mr. Rove) to pick the option that, in the end, ruins the competitive landscape for all stakeholders.
--- The American Way of Life is not a birthright. Hell, it's not even sustainable.
WTF has this got to to with /.?
The thing that stunned me about the whole "swiftboating" of John Kerry was that allegations were made, did their damage, and there was never any apparent followup. Well, the key word in that sentence was "apparent." Google was my friend on this matter, though it was some 6 months ago, so my memories may not be precise, at least I can't remember which news agency. Reporters went to to Viet Nam, to the vicinity of the battle cited for Kerry's Silver Star, to interview the locals. The locals did not remember Kerry, because "all of those American GIs look alike." But they remembered their people who participated in the battle, their side of the story. All relevant facts which could be verified with the locals resident at the time of the interview were consistent with the "official" version, under which Kerry was given the Silver Star. For instance, the fighters on the Viet Namese side were able soldiers, not children or infirmed seniors.
The swiftboating was a stunning success, considering that it smeared mud all over a candidate, and there was never followthrough to assess its validity.
Our press is really doing its job.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
"Mr Rove is one of the chief architects of the Republican Revolution"
Don't you mean he's one of the people responsible for ending it? As far as I can see, the Republicans have been winning less and less over the last 8 years, to the point where most pundits believe the Dems will win the presidency and both houses of Congress in '08. The only people happy about Rove's departure should be Republicans.
On the other hand, since so many Democrats think he's some sort of genius... what does that say?
I mean... this is techie blog, right?
Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. Say "hi" to the trash can of history too.
all he's doing is going off to hide in cowboy land. Rove will still be telling Bush when to breathe.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Agreed. G.W. Bush is just a figurehead. Rove and Cheney apparently run the government, and that won't stop.
Anti-Rove Rap videos:
Mark Fiore's MC Rove animation.
Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle: Feel Good, Inc..
He brought it to that same old level. As long as people are voting innuendo, lies, and manipulation are the way it works. Nobody feels it is a manipulation when their candidate benefits. The political scene in the US has always been fucked up, since Washington and Jefferson.
People vote. People respond to negatives, innuendo, lies, and manipulation. People respond to fear and slander (LBJ's daisy ad?). People respond to ads and sound bites. Just getting your name on a ballot helps as if voting is a multiple guess test.
The truly sad part is Rove is nothing new or worse than what has come before.
Is he leaving a sinking ship, or jumping ships to help the new round of candidates?
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
Well... at least he's not CmdrTaco, reliable left-wing robot extraordinaire.
welcome the exit of our bald-headed overlord.
What's Dubya gonna do now? He's TOTALLY without a brain!!!
I find it quite bemusing that Fox News says there hasn't been a Chief of Staff like Karl Rove since Harry Haldeman, Nixon's Chief of Staff.
I am sure I am revealing my opinion of the Bush administration/Presidency somewhat, but its one heck of a coincidence that arguably the two most corrupted Presidency's of the United States 20th/21st centuries have the two most similar Chiefs of Staff.
Bush was asked how he felt about Rove leaving.
Bush replied that he "felt a strong desire to wipe".
A second, wait you! A good president of the US Yoda would make! No shit does Yoda take from any man! Size matters not! Osama bin-Laden's ass, he will kick!
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
The movies were utter crap. A proper adaptation would need at least six 2-hour movies, but it would have been perfectly possible to make a good trilogy (or even a single movie) out of it if only the author of the screenplay had understood the story, and made the right decisions about what to keep and what to throw away. Direction and acting were also pretty bad, but all Steve Jackson movies are like that, unless he's lucky enough to get an actor with ideas of his own (like Sean Bean - which made the first LotR film almost bearable - or Jack Black).
Seriously, read the books. They're better than the Hobbit and infinitely better than Jackson's movies. But don't assume the characters look or act like the ones in the movies; Frodo is smarter, Aragorn is older and more cynical, Gimli is not comical relief, Gandalf is butcher and Legolas, Merry and Pippin are gayer (yes, I know that sounds impossible).
That's what everyone was saying near the end of Clinton's term. It appears we might be starting a trend of picking the opposite of who's currently in office because they're fed up with him (hopefully not soon to be "her"). Those older than me might be able to trace this trend back further.
Come on, can we avoid turning slashdot into another whiny political site.
*sighs*
Rove is probably gearing up for the 2008 campaign, and doesn't need the distraction of living in the Whitehouse. Needless to say he will probably be pulling the strings from behind RNC curtains, where the Democrats and the public can't identify him, even if they can still smell him.
Lastly, he has been messing with the machinery of government for seven years (rememeber governments runs on rules, regulations and people, not laws). Interesting to see what trap doors, loop holes and minefields he has left behind for future governments. Of course he and his friends will know them all, and use them to their advantage, while leading their enemies into ambushes for decades to come. In the end the Republicans will be running the country for decades.
In December, the Onion ran a funny story about Democrat party suspicions that Karl Rove intentionally threw the midterm elections. The story fictitiously quotes Howard Dean:
Funny, but perhaps it's true. In the run-up to the midterm elections, it seemed as though GW kept checking with Karl to see if the party was going to hold onto Congress. Karl kept telling him they were doing fine. To me, it looks like he was setting the party up for a fall to ensure his own job security. Karl only gets paid when there's a real fight to win for the Republicans.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
"Mr Rove is one of the chief architects of the Republican Revolution."
The Republican revolution happened in 1994. At that time Karl Rove was busy making George Bush the governor of Texas. Rove was in no way an architect of the Republican revolution, and at best rode on its coattails in 2000.
With Newt Gingrich coming back into politics, the Democrats will have another, familiar person-to-hate, so it all balances out.
It's important to have a 'satan' they can point to- it's easier to be programmed for blind hatred when there's a face on it. This is what they've done as a party for dozens of years.
I just chose to pick a party that isn't based on racism, hatred, or personalities- instead is proven by history. But then, I go searching for news, not scanning headlines on the way out the door...
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
That really explains quite a bit about dear Mr. Schroeder. I have always thought he must be some kind of propagandist, now I have hard evidence. I think we should take pains to point out his pedigree every time the man posts one of his sycophantic apologies for power and authoritarianism. People need to know why he's saying the things he does, it puts it in perspective.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
His claim to fame is in putting together political campaigns. The Bush administration is pretty much running on autopilot anyway. Watch Rove carefully over the next few months to see which side he picks.
Have gnu, will travel.
Certainly covered better elsewhere.... LIKE ON EVERY NEWS CHANNEL.
Thank you all for coming.
If the Dems want to win in '08, they are barking up the wrong tree against Karl Rove. Few people care about Rove or what he did in his role at the White House. It almost doesn't matter because most situations are so clouded that it looks far too complicated to work out or too petty for anyone to realize that a situation goes beyond playing politics....and the Dems in Congress care too much about finding bad guys on the right wing rather than moving forward and trying to fix real problems that have solutions in the here and now.
With nothing positive coming out of the current Democratically-controlled Congress, they are sliding downhill hard and fast. Compounding these investigations after investigations with broken promises on legislation and further wasting taxpayer dollars (not to mention "ending the war" that the hard leftists were striving for, and even some further right), they are cutting their own tombstone for the next decade.
If they REALLY wanted to win, REALLY wanted change, they would put legislation after legislation, pared-down and direct, on the President's desk and force him to make the hard decisions on whether to sign. Instead, they are making the job easier for the right, who just has to sit back and watch them squirm.
I'm not sure if the hard left realizes that their path to correcting whatever problems they percieve is to win the Presidency - NOT waste precious taxpayer money and their own time playing politics over investigations.
Attack politics only works well as a defense or when expertly applied (which is VERY hard to accomplish), something the Dems aren't very good at. If they attempted a positive change and showed real leadership, backbone, and integrity, they could have owned the House, Senate, and Presidency for the next 2-3 terms. As it stands, they may have thrown it all away in less than a year.
Little remembered will be the fact that, as opposed to the treasonous liar Scooter Libby who lied about how he actively outed an active CIA operative and her overseas intelligence network, Karl Rove admitted he told the media, and thus only committed treason.
He will not be missed by America.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Working as political advisor to President Hilary Clinton .... the king is dead, long live the king
Clinton was just doing what any decent man should in position. And I'm sorry, but Lewinsky had easily exploitable chick written all over her. In permanent marker. Clinton's only real crime was friggin nasty ass Paula Jones. But, that was how Clinton got down. That's between him, his penis, maybe his God and perhaps the robot who is his wife.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
Don't you mean he's one of the people responsible for ending it?
True. As a result of the GWB WH and the actions of the GOP in the House and Senate, it is highly likely they will be cast into the wilderness for another 40 years, as happened after WW II.
Can't say I'll miss those lying apostate traitors.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Powell sat in front of the UN and lied about Iraqi WMD to get us to invade.
Powell kicked off his career whitewashing the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.
He has no integrity, but he's so slick that millions of people still believe he has credibility. So he has credibility, though he's dishonest. He's a Republican yesman.
--
make install -not war
Oh, and as for Powell wanting his family to have a "quiet life", that doesn't come with the territory they've staked out for themselves in politics.
His son, Michael Powell spent Bush's first term hooking up media cartels with as much ownership as they wanted, among many other corporate handouts at the expense of the American people, while running the FCC. He scored that gig because he was such a helpful part of Bush's transition team for his 2000 inauguration.
--
make install -not war
As a retired Captain (USAF), I took great offense at Al Gore's election-2000 team explicitly trying to get them to throw out the absentee votes of GIs stationed overseas. What was the usual reason? No postal cancellation. Much mail sent by those on ships doesn't get cancelled. There was one especially grevious case--a guy serving on one of the ships helping rescue the USS Cole after it was boat-bombed managed to track it down. His vote had been thrown out.
During the news this morning, there was Hillary talking about the need to count every vote and make every vote count.
You hate Rove & Republicans? Fine. But please recognize that yours is not a side made up of angels, pure and bright. Thou hast thy blemishes, too.
READ the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the other amendments! http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/const.html
Now, it's no secret how Rob leans politically, but tags like "...turdblossom, asshole, evilbastards" are just classless, and in my opinion would be so for any political figure, even ones I don't support. I would be just as disgusted if these tags were applied to, say, Nancy Pelosi, Dennis Kucinich, etc.
Rob, please, pretty please, with sugar on top, show better leadership in the discourse dept.
-- Brad Felmey
That's free speech and democracy.
You gotta problem with that?
Well said.
When Karl says he's going to spend time with his family, it's mainly his half-brother Cthulhu and his cousin Hastur. Just be careful not to say his name three times or he'll be back....
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
The Liberals made him into what he is today. If you're going to blame anybody, you gotta blame the Liberals.
Oh yeah, and the Islamofascist killer terror robots.
This move doesn't make any sense. Just when the Bushites need him the most, he "quits"? Here's a list of reasons why this is bizarre:
Like so many before, "spending time with his family" is a polite lie. Just because he's leaving his official post doesn't mean he won't still be pulling the puppet strings from backstage.
Something else, really big, is going on.
This belongs on this web site??? Can't we just stick to bits and bytes?
He knows there is little he can do to polish the Bush administration, and given the difficulties the republican party has had during recent years, he needs to focus on advising other 2008 republican candidates and help them start their smear campaigns early.
/. bias showing once again. This story has nothing to do with technology, and the editors are posting it to further their political agenda.
(be it a CEO, CFO, politico) says he wants to "spend more time with his family", you know he's in deep shit, and is wriggling to get out before it hits the fan. It's not a pretty sight.
Flourescent (adj): smelling like ground wheat.
There is no August 31st.
Hang 'em high!
Do you really think Mr. Rove and his band of ill-doers are going to let you get away with this?
Die, proletarian, die!
My favorite 'real reason' for Rove's departure? He has to stop his son from endorsing a Democratic candidate, hopefully Edwards or Obama.
/. for months. Only stopped by to see the laughs at SCO when this topic caught my eye. SCOX was at 38 cents/share the last time I checked. Darl is looking for the real killer, too. However, the pool on SCO's bankruptcy looks to be a short one...)
We should start a pool on the real killer... No wait, I meant the real reason that Rove resigned.
Unfortunately, given Rove's penchant for secrecy and his cursed track record of success in hiding his lies, few of us are likely to live long enough to win the pool. I think historians will be unraveling this rats' nest for decades to come--though the real reason could be that someone deep in the muck is about to blow the whistle on the entire gang of thieves. In that case, we might live to see it unravel.
Two reasons for optimism are possible. A true patriot might have had enough, and I think that some such people still exist within the GOP, if not within Rove's carefully purged neo-GOP wing of the GOP.
Alternately, a true rat within the gang might have decided to sell the story while the value is very high. He's not stabbing all his buddies, in the back, he's just bowing to the inevitability of the truth coming out--but making sure he gets the most money possible for getting it out. The first few kiss and tell books are going to have a lot of sensationalist value, but the later ones are going to get boring and won't sell ones--and the last ones will be written from prison (as a result of the earlier ones).
(No, I haven't wasted time with
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
I'd wager that the lost emails of his are coming to a head. Time for him to move out of the WH and into areas where he will advise but not have anyone, look at anything of his.
What political agenda? It links to a CNN article.
Eternity is a time bomb.
he's a level 42 politician with a +3 against democrats
----------
Trying to fix or change something only guarantees and perpetuates it's existence
He found out he has cancer.
It wasn't so WE could get the oil.
It was to keep Sadam from selling it to Russia and China (and not for dollars by the way).
So what else is there to do? Bring back the Whigs or the Torries? Get behind the Progressives or the Greens?
It's seriously fucked up, but a paradigime shift of political parties is nothing new; even for a country as young as the USA.
Why is a bunch of naked hate-spewing rated +5, insightful? Please read the moderation guidelines. The purpose of of moderation is to encourage intelligent discussion, and to discourage such things as spitting obscenities at each other.
It does not matter if you like the man or not. The fact is he is good at what he does. My guess is he waits to see who wins the Republican nomination and then does what he does best - win elections.
I'd be willing to bet that his real motivation for leaving is to lead another GOP campaign. That's the real problem here IMHO. From the Whitehouse there was only so much damage he could do without it being tied back to the Administration. Now, however, he's out there on his own and able to cause a lot more damage without the same kind of political fallout. That worries me even more than when he's in one place where we can keep tabs on him.
Stuff that ..... oh never mind ...
---- "Logoff! That cookie shit makes me nervous!" - A. Soprano
Slashdot is first an foremost a liberal site, which occasionally reviews things that are somewhat related to tech. But first and foremost, its a site for Bush haters and 9/11 conspiracy theorists.
Unfortunately, the writers for the series made that less useful by having Petrelli do something decent at the end of the story arc instead of continuing to be the nasty scum that he was most of the first season
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
To mis-quote (but retain the essence of) one of my favorite films (Waking Life), in response to the countless anti-Republican and the, if my moderation filter was set low enough, also countless anti-Democrat posts above me:
~"Republican...Democrat...They are two sides of the same coins...bidding for control of slavery incorporated. But that's ok, because you know what I believe in? The unfaltering will of the human spirit. We have gotten through many horrible things and will continue to so long as we recognize the truth."
Final point is that in the end the #1 true issue for both Republicans and Democrats this and every year for as long as I've been alive and politically active has always been ensuring that at *least* one of these two parties stays in power. Its a glorious game, and don't get me wrong. I know that each party would kill to see the other side completely wiped out. But they wouldn't risk their very foundation for it. Just as the Eagle may want to exist without Washington always on its ass, if it tries to escape it will find itself a mere imprint on its base that cannot exist without the very coin that it has come to be (half) recognized as.
And frankly no American should be concerned with the primaries or party choices or any such thing. Find a person who wants to do the job. Study that person's political views and past successes and failures in politics and, most importantly, life. Ensure they aren't scum, and on that fateful day...vote.
Don't even look at the checker-box candidates on that
It is your right to vote. Not the right of the parties. And to think that being able to select from the ~%.0000006 of potential candidates is a real vote is absurd.
Ginga no Rekshiya Mata Each page.
Ugh....imagine my distress upon discovering that I am, indeed, calendar illiterate.
of republican quitters and incompetents!!!! crappiest administration ever! someone should come up with a list of all the incompetents and quitters.
Spend time with his family, write a book. Is it illegal to be a Republican?
It Rove's "departure" is news for nerds...
It's just decades late. Karl Rove has always been a dangerous master of the tactics that make U.S. politics a slimy whoresrace instead of an open public debate. IMHO the valuable forks, from this event forward, are; exposing this piece of slime's future employment to public scrutiny from now on, and reversing the effects of this administration's crimes, abuses of power and subversions of the Constitution. Roves offense is fronting for a kleptocracy which has plagued the U.S. for the duration of Shrub's tenure as Commander of Thieves and supreme promoter of the New World Ownership Society.
However, elevating Rove to a position of singular responsibility for the likes of; the K Street Project, the FCC's anti-public-interest policies, the evisceration of FEMA, the privatization of military operations or the evisceration of our national science institutions is any more informative or useful than the belief that Cheney is a ventriloquist with his hand up Bush's ass or that blind adherence to WTO policies has been in any way good for the middle-class. Assigning such broad authority to one man only feeds the cult of simplicity that plagues this nation's political process.
The fact that so much of what has been modded up in this conversation is actually redirection from the topic of Rove's resignation shows that even geeks have a hard time discerning politics from PR, and this is the very thing that made Rove a useful asset to the Bush administration and their constituents. You do remember Bush's "base," don't you?"
If we are not careful, Rove & Company's legacy will include: negation of U.S. treaty obligations including the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the Geneva Conventions of War, a unitary theory of presidential power rivaled only by the authority of kings, and a return to the lawless, unsupervised surveillance and abuse of the U.S. citizenry by the very (secret) agencies which are supposed to protect OUR freedoms, OUR Constitution and OUR Nation of States from all enemies both foreign and domestic.
Rove is an evil bastard, and his departure will not be complete until the anti-American effects this administration have been reversed.
see: American Freedom Agenda
When the very same market predicted a Kerry victory after the close of the Ohio and Florida polls?
t ion_Paper_11_9_04%20(2).doc (WARNING! DOC FILE!)
http://www.intrade.com/news/images/Dartmouth_Elec
They go on to discuss why, but they were apparently wrong in 2004.
I only go to buffets for the unlimited soft serve.
You'll be missed
You just got troll'd!
Now that he's retiring maybe he can spend even more time on troll accounts on slashdot.
...it's Greg Palast. Ever heard about caging lists?
I'm not an American and therefore can't vote, but my personal opinion (and it's not the evil, liberal foreigner crap) is that, of all of the current crowd of goons running for president, Hillary Clinton would be, by far, the best, and very possibly one of the best presidents you've ever had.
Of all of the current candidates, left and right, she is the only one who has consistently, from what I can tell, maintained her positions, even if they weren't always popular. For instance when she was discussing lobbyists with bloggers at the DailyKos, she didn't pander to the popular opinion then. She has, I think, a fairly clear idea of what she wants and what her platform is. She isn't naive (Obama's bullshit about Pakistan was enough to disqualify him), and she has, by virtue of her years with Bill and a state senator, a decent amount of experience. She doesn't have wacky shit like Romney or Giulliani, and she isn't scared of dissenting opinion, which, given the facsist crap that is happening in yuor country, should be a breath of fresh air for everyone.
In fact the only thing that really is not in her favour is that there are one fuck of a lot of Americans that are somehow terrified of women, who spend a whole bunch of energy making hysterical, wildly paranoid prophecies about how bad she would be. I find it difficult to believe that anything could be worse than the incompetent evil clowns in power right now, but there you have it.
If Karl Rove resigns on August 31st, will we have a Special Election to choose an Interim President until the next election in Feb?
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Did Karl Rove start using Linux? Did he stop using it? Did he say something about Linux? This we can read about anywhere.
automatically disqualify a candidate in my mind. If the candidate has committed a felony, I don't really care what he thinks of other issues.
Racism is one of those issues that needs to be completely stamped out. There are so many candidates, both liberal and conservative, who have shown that they are willing to do what it takes to end racism that there is simply no point in even bothering to learn what someone thinks of any other issue once they have made it clear that they are a clueless racist.
FreeSpeech.org
I really had to ask myself why I was just so giddy about hearing about this. After all, this is the James Carvel of the Republican party right? The only difference for me is that with Carvel, he came off as a good ol' boy that had some entertainment value to hear him speak and Rove, from what I've heard, puts himself across as the Palpatine to Bush's Vader.
Where do I submit the bill for f*cking up the last 50 years of painfully slow world progress?
Rove has earned his place in history along with the past political douche bags. And my generation gets to write that history.
He's so toast...
As funny as it sounds, you hit one of the nails square on the head. I don't think half the previous US Presidents would've been elected if there was TV back then.
Isn't he gay? Republicans dont' consider domestic partners "family" do they?
Hillary Rodham Clinton was allowed to order 10 cattle futures contracts, normally a $12,000 investment, in her first commodity trade in 1978 although she had only $1,000 in her account at the time, according to trade records the White House released yesterday.
The latest Slashdot meme.
You are almost entirely correct.
One the one side this makes me incredibly happy because among other things I think every one of their candidates are grossly unfit for the job. Just like in '04 and in '00.
But on the other side I despair at the US having effectively become a one-party state for almost a decade and counting (Bill Clinton counts as halfway Republican, too bad Hillary counts as a halfway Communist (but it explains a lot...)).
I couldn't agree more. Where I come from gentlemen don't answer questions about the ladies they've had.
And what kind of constipated moron (CM) would hold an afternoon BJ against any hardworking president? Somehow that makes him unfit to lead the country? Bullshit. I want my president to be relaxed and clear headed and if he feels the need for a little head before dinner he should get it. Why do the people who hate Bubba's lying about sex have no problem with Bush lying about WMDs and his real reasons for invading Iraq? Maybe because they're CMs.
Family mentioned on /. == sweet!
.... that the rapture is just around the corner? ;)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Time for Dubya to start quacking. Time for Rove to move to the RNC headquarters and solidify the logistics for the next stolen election. Dubya will have to sacrifice his brain for the greater good of ongoing Republicanism.
long time reader, no more!
Err.. maybe the Rudy McRomney campaign..
Bringing liberty to the masses. - http://freetalklive.com/
Because nobody and no "institutional investor" has ever lost their shirt in futures or commodities markets before...
So it is true! You CAN actually steal enough money to buy happiness.
Karl Rove is my hero.
Karl Rove may or may not be gay (even while married), but the fact is his step father was gay -- and left Karl and his mother at a very impressionable age. He states it really changed him. Personally, I wouldn't give a damn if Karl was gay or not, but his well publicized issues with his father(s) explain a lot about his irrationality in all manner of governmental affairs. Whatever his words, his actions speak hatred. The man needs psychological help, not to be running the country as a puppet master.
Oh well, looks like he was able to stay at the trough until his belly was full, without even any charges filed.
"Remember, kiddies, honest only holds you back, and it's only wrong if you get caught. Let's all try to be more like Uncle Karl, mmkay?"
"There are many supposedly intelligent and well-educated individuals who literally and fervently believe that the Bush administration is the single greatest threat to the American people that has existed in the history of the nation, and any other current or historical external threat is either manufactured or pales in comparison to the present "internal" threat."
Yes, that would be something I literally believe. Or at least part of that construct.
a) I am not sure that the Bush 43 administration is the single greatest threat to the American people in the American Republic's history, there's been a long sordid trail of bad policy - Lincoln presided over a bloody civil war, McKinley did the Spanish-American War setting the US on the path to empire, FDR centralised massive power in the Executive branch, Johnson and Nixon architected Vietnam, Carter initiated funding to jihadis, Reagan massively accelerated it, Clinton ramped up domestic prison incarcerations and security privatisation - and that's not even looking at some of the scarier earlier Presidents - but I do think that the Bush 43 gang will be seen by history as the guys who pushed the bus the last inch over the edge of the cliff.
Certainly as a non-USian, it is Bush 43 who finally made me lose faith in American foreign policy as the centerpiece of a safe, free world. I didn't wise up to how bad things were getting under Reagan or Bush I. Clinton's handling of Yugoslavia made me start to worry, but even as late as early 2001 I still didn't really see the USA as the outright threat I do now. Seeing Colin Powell outright lie to the UN was what really did it.
b) It's always the internal rather than external threats that are the bigger worry to any organisation. Particularly when the external threats are (or were before the disastrous policies of the last six years) a tiny group with no weapons to speak of. Sorry, a couple thousand people dead in a skyscraper is nothing compared to, say, the road death toll or the shadow of the Cold War. The USA is a big place and it's got huge natural defenses. There are no credible existential threats from terrorism. The only human entities capable of really hurting the USA at this point are its own military and 'security' forces (both governmental and private), and the manufacture of radicalism caused from the projection of that force across that globe. But far worse are the dangers posed by natural and economic forces which will leave terrorists and counter-terrorists alike exposed.
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
He can't pardon anyone if the charges are brought AFTER he is out of office.
My money is on that route. Once the Dems get the White House and Congress - watch out.
n/t
is a cheap knock off.
What?
"All things being equal, she gave her husband the benefit of the doubt. "
That brings to mind and old saying, "fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on you, fool me continuously for years, and I'll ignore it because political power is far more important to me than maintaining the illusion of a successful marriage, and my dignity is not important enough to me to defend it if it means I have to make a political sacrifice..."
Or something like that.
I only go to buffets for the unlimited soft serve.
"but when you attempt to generalize some national sentiment based off of things like 'he didn't have Clinton's charm' you lose any credibility."
What are you saying here, that he did have Clinton's charm? BWAAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAHAHHAAH!
No.
The rest of your post reads like what it is, a fanboi's response to someone calling your boy names.
Get off Gore's nuts, you're embarrassing yourself.
And read a fucking book before you post about this again, you're lying about half the shit in there, which is worse because you probably believe it.
I only go to buffets for the unlimited soft serve.
No - you want heroic stature in your leaders, and you think that's what other people want as well. Some of us couldn't give a damn, so long as the leaders are good. Last election my largest information source was a nonpartisan party-vs-issues matrix, and "heroic stature" was not considered an "issue".
Don't project your prejudices onto "people" in general without evidence to back up those assertions.
Ooh, a Faux intellectual has come out to troll...
Yawn...
They just don't troll like they used to... or maybe you're just not capable of doing it right.
Try real hard, I bet you might be able to even write something that might even be entertaining.
Now, you're just boring the hell out of me.
Notes From Under *nix: blas.phemo.us
Spelling/grammar nazis welcome (English is not my first language and I am trying to improve my spelling/grammar)
"Ooh, a Faux intellectual has come out to troll..."
At least you were man enough to admit it in advance.
Thanks for that, it helped me avoid more of your nonsensical nuthugging.
I win, unlike you and Gore.
I only go to buffets for the unlimited soft serve.
"I'm not demanding any apologies."
Really then what is this?
"His statement does not excuse his refusal to apologize, when asked, for the racism printed in his publication."
Go ahead and claim that wasn't a demand for an apology. Then I can demand you apologize for lying.
You're a lying troll and I caught you. Fuck off now.
I only go to buffets for the unlimited soft serve.
Keep going, genius; you've started to become entertaining.
Or are you going to go away now, cry and lick your poor, wounded, tiny ego?
You won't respond--which if you had a brain at all, you'd know is the entire point of this diversion with you. I've gotten rid of you. And if you do reply, I'll be happy because I can laugh at your half-wit attempts to troll me.
Come on, I bet you've got some other really scintillating jewels hidden in that vapid grey crap in your head.
Notes From Under *nix: blas.phemo.us
Hey, did your boy win nuthugger? Nope.
Argue with that loser.
I win again, unlike you and your boy Gore.
I only go to buffets for the unlimited soft serve.
Come on, big 'winner,' keep it up. You were almost entertaining there for a moment. Now you sound like just another sixth-grader. But between you and I, I'd quit now; each post makes you look more and more ridiculous.
And remember, boy genius, when you become too boring, I'll just move on. You'll still be stewing in your anger and utter lack of intellect.
Notes From Under *nix: blas.phemo.us
"But between you and I, I'd quit now; each post makes you look more and more ridiculous."
BWAHAHAHAHA. This from a guy who tried to claim Al Bore was charming.
"And remember, boy genius, when you become too boring, I'll just move on."
I know that's a lie, you're still hugging Al Bore's nuts like they were a life preserver and you were on the Titanic (I beleive that's what they call his campaign these days, interesting coincidence).
I win again. And will continue to. How can an Al Gore fanboi like you really hope to compete?
I only go to buffets for the unlimited soft serve.
Keep on trying, little one. Some day you might learn how to write a decent troll. Or maybe you'll find someone as vapid as you are to 'argue' with.
Don't you get it? Your half-wit insults don't prompt me to write; it's simply the fun of toying with someone as clueless as you. You're a character study of ignorance.
So why don't you fume for a while and write another pointless post saying the same thing again. Then pat yourself on the back, because no one else will; your posts are devoid of content or meaning. They are the half-wit angry ramblings of an insecure child.
You've shown everyone exactly what you are. Too childish to be interesting and too ignorant to troll.
Notes From Under *nix: blas.phemo.us
"Your half-wit insults don't prompt me to write; it's simply the fun of toying with someone as clueless as you. "
Funny that, seeing as how my entire point was to get you to respond.
How does it feel to be my puppet, Mr. Hugger-of-nuts?
How does it feel to know you've done exactly what I want the whole time, and continue to without realizing it?
DANCE PUPPET!
I own you. Go ahead and respond with why you think I don't, exactly like I knew you would.
I only go to buffets for the unlimited soft serve.
Interesting the reaction we always get from those on the far left to the President and Rove. Rove has outsmarted liberals at every turn, and since libs see themselves as the intellectual elite, they hate facing a conservative who has more brains in his little finger than the average liberal will see in a lifetime. So all libs can do is insult Rove and call him names and hide behind four letter words..............Rove is just better than you..........face it.
Rove resigning should set up red flags across the democratic landscape! Now free to do the dirty work , away from the glare of the laser like spotlight. He's in his element now. A darkened room, probably filled with candles and pentagrams. Be afraid, be very afraid! http://www.squidoo.com/double_speak/