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Intel CEO Paul Otellini Retiring

An anonymous reader writes with a quick bit from a press release about Intel's CEO retiring: "Intel Corporation today announced that the company's president and CEO, Paul Otellini, has decided to retire as an officer and director at the company's annual stockholders' meeting in May, starting an orderly leadership transition over the next six months. Otellini's decision to retire will bring to a close a remarkable career of nearly 40 years of continuous service to the company and its stockholders."

108 comments

  1. The arc of architecture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will see the future trend ...?

    1. Re:The arc of architecture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, you're right, Wintel is dying.

      First Sinofsky, now Otellini. The big rats who know how rotten the ship is have started to flee, soon they'll be followed by the rest of the swarm.

  2. Otellini Post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or OP! I got the last post. Nah nah nah nah boo boo!!!

  3. Obligatory by Elgonn · · Score: 4, Funny

    He stepped down just before 40 years so we could make 39.9876 year pentium jokes.

  4. Congrats by cultiv8 · · Score: 1

    good luck to the future.

    --
    sysadmins and parents of newborns get the same amount of sleep.
    1. Re:Congrats by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 1

      The smart money says he was pushed, rather than that he jumped.

    2. Re:Congrats by Amouth · · Score: 1

      Given his track record i highly doubt that.

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  5. There aren't many CEOs with his track record by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This man raised the personal computing industry from birth to adolescence. The entire world would be a different place (for better or worse) without Otellini's Intel. Now that's an accomplishment worth carrying into retirement.

    1. Re:There aren't many CEOs with his track record by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He raised raised the personal computing industry from birth to adolescence in the same way that Al Gore invented the Internet.

    2. Re:There aren't many CEOs with his track record by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      Don't be ignorant.

      He managed the group that gave us the Pentium 1.

    3. Re:There aren't many CEOs with his track record by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had never seen a glossier section in PC Magazine than that for the Pentium.

    4. Re:There aren't many CEOs with his track record by helix2301 · · Score: 1

      Otellini's move comes at a time when Intel faces a shaky economy and a mobile gadget craze that is eating away at demand for its PC chips and it gives the company just six months to find a new leader.

  6. Reason for departing by Grayhand · · Score: 4, Funny

    "For myself and my stock options I'd like to thank you all and wish you all the best of luck. Forward all mail to the Cayman Islands."

  7. what do the bunnypeople have to say? by jollyreaper · · Score: 1

    Notice how we haven't seen them in ads for years.

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    1. Re:what do the bunnypeople have to say? by MarioMax · · Score: 1

      Notice how we haven't seen them in ads for years.

      As a bunny-suit wearing Intel fab worker, I find this interesting, but not completely unexpected. It was never a matter of if, but when. Otellini wasn't Intel's first CEO, and unless something crazy happens between now and May, he won't be the last.

    2. Re:what do the bunnypeople have to say? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a process engineer? *drools* How do you get that job? What are your credentials? PhD?

  8. Silly season is over. by symbolset · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Can we give it a rest for 3 years or so?

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
    1. Re:Silly season is over. by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

      Youre on the wrong site if you want to avoid stupid partisan arguments.

    2. Re:Silly season is over. by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Hitler was never slandered so badly!

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    3. Re:Silly season is over. by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Sadly, yes. However, that is a very recent phenomenon.

    4. Re:Silly season is over. by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 1

      really? we hae tons of partisan arguing.
      vi vs emacs
      rpm vs deb
      apple vs ms vs linux
      android vs ios
      C vs any other language
      risc vs cisc
      amd vs intel
      kde vs gnome
      gnu vs bsd
      linux vs gnu/linux
      sql vs nosql
      steve woz vs steve jobs

      its all partisan arguing just our arguing is usually more interesting than which power hungry liar is worse

      --
      ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
    5. Re:Silly season is over. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Timothy as an editor will never forget!!!!1

    6. Re:Silly season is over. by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      He was referring to partisan politics, not vi vs emacs or Gnome vs KDE.

  9. Re:Romney endorsement by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe I'm just feeding trolls on this (and honestly with the hyperbole in your post, I can't help but think that) but I don't see it that way. I generally lean more towards the right, at least fiscally, and Romney wasn't our last chance, and Obama is not some kind of super red socialist. By most objectives, he's still fairly right of center and a lot of his policies aren't something that hasn't been proposed by Republicans at some point with in the last half-century.

    If anything, Otellini was smart enough to play both sides of the isle, ensuring that no matter who came out on top, IBM had friends with benefits or markers to call in. And honestly, who cares who he supported or endorsed. If you're basing your entire assessment of a person on who they endorse for President, it makes you look narrow-minded.

  10. I nominate... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I nominate Bill (aka William) Stokes to take over for this position.

    He certainly cares about the company and doing what's right more than others seem to!

  11. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please. I'm an Obama supporter/contributor and even I recognize that the "business advisory board on jobs" was just photo-ops for the WH, and a chance to gain connections/audition for a cabinet level job for the CEOs. It's not like anybody's mind will be opened or changed as a result of these fascinating discussions.

  12. Sanjay Jha for a replacement? by Erich · · Score: 1

    Sanjay Jha is out of MOT. He'd be my pick for a replacement. You heard it here first!

    --

    -- Erich

    Slashdot reader since 1997

  13. Re:Romney endorsement by CajunArson · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If your ancestors hadn't been kidnapped from Africa, then you might be considered property in 2012 considering slavery is alive and well in many regions of Africa right now...

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
  14. Re:Romney endorsement by MarioMax · · Score: 2

    IBM? Otellini is Intel's CEO, not IBM.

  15. Bad Ass by cstec · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Intel is pretty corporate, and that's like a crime here on /. But for anyone old enough to remember or fool enough to listen, when it's all said and done this guy's track record has been damn close to paved in gold.

    No, I don't mean Intel's track record with the Peruvian Jackalope, Global Coating or whatever axe you have to grind. I mean his job of being part of, contributing to and guiding a very large and important ship. Much of it before the average /.r could read.

    Having been Z80 guy, a 6502 guy and a 68k guy, and also a guy writing endless apps in the Intel space and building endless machines, when it's all said and done, if your last words are anything other than "thank you", you're a punk.

    Safe travels Paul.

    1. Re:Bad Ass by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      f your last words are anything other than "thank you", you're a punk

      Did the illegal trust-making activity happen on Otellini's watch?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:Bad Ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Intel is pretty corporate, and that's like a crime here on /. But for anyone old enough to remember or fool enough to listen, when it's all said and done this guy's track record has been damn close to paved in gold.

      No, I don't mean Intel's track record with the Peruvian Jackalope, Global Coating or whatever axe you have to grind. I mean his job of being part of, contributing to and guiding a very large and important ship. Much of it before the average /.r could read.

      Having been Z80 guy, a 6502 guy and a 68k guy, and also a guy writing endless apps in the Intel space and building endless machines, when it's all said and done, if your last words are anything other than "thank you", you're a punk.

      Safe travels Paul.

      Otellini's Intel also engaged in antitrust practices against AMD (and found guilty by court), fuck Otellini and yourself.

    3. Re:Bad Ass by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Go fuck yourself.

      Your comment fits your sig quite well.

    4. Re:Bad Ass by T.E.D. · · Score: 1

      Having been Z80 guy, a 6502 guy and a 68k guy

      ... none of which were Intel CPU's (Zilog, and two Motorollas).

  16. Re:Romney endorsement by tyrione · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Lean towards the right fiscally? In short, you lean towards massive deficits, high defense spending and play ignorant to both when a Democrat is in office, right? The GOP is responsible for the lion's share of deficit and produced far fewer jobs in this nation's history. It's a vile, ignorant, POS party, full of self-entitled white trash who raped the nation of its wealth because ``leaning towards the right, fiscally'' folks continue voting in this slime.

  17. Re:Romney endorsement by Foxhoundz · · Score: 1

    Get educated, dude. Many of the founding fathers had already successfully abolished slavery in their states, and were working to do so in all the colonies as soon as they peacefully could.

    I'm sorry, but what? Depending on who's on your "founding fathers" list, many of them not only supported slavery but owned several, sometimes ranging in the hundreds, of slaves. I'm not going to question your upbringing or education, but whitewashing a somewhat embarrassing side of history is ridiculous. Call for what it is.

  18. Otellini: The guy no one payed attention to by tyrione · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    This guy will go down as a footnote. Andy Grove is the guy who made Intel a giant. And I'm rooting for AMD.

    1. Re:Otellini: The guy no one payed attention to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good thinking arm chair business genius!

    2. Re:Otellini: The guy no one payed attention to by Alex+Belits · · Score: 1

      I never ever helped Microsoft in its world conquest, that's infinitely better than what he did.

      --
      Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
    3. Re:Otellini: The guy no one payed attention to by Redmancometh · · Score: 0

      Oh yeah let's root for the guys who have to have a foundry fab their processors. Intel has market dominance forba reason.. They're an IDM and control (most of) their factors of production. Lawl piledriver/jackhammer.

    4. Re:Otellini: The guy no one payed attention to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The number of people who will remember Otellini will vastly outweigh the number of people who remember you. I don't like the guy personally but let's not falsely elevate ourselves above him because of some artificially limiting ideology like "Microsoft is bad." Use the best tool for the job that gets your job done fastest and easiest. At times the answer is Microsoft. Besides you'd spend what? Maybe 10k in your lifetime on Microsoft products at best? Let's be generous and say you know and can influence 100 other individuals. That's what? 1 million? You're hardly the deciding factor for whether they succeed or fail. Don't kid yourself. Delusional is a defense mechanism for a life of mediocrity.

    5. Re:Otellini: The guy no one payed attention to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read again, he said AMD, not ARM. Dumbass.

    6. Re:Otellini: The guy no one payed attention to by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The number of people who will remember Otellini will vastly outweigh the number of people who remember you

      The number of people who will remember Hitler will vastly outweigh the number of people who will remember Otellini. Logical fallacies are fun, right?

      let's not falsely elevate ourselves above him because of some artificially limiting ideology like "Microsoft is bad."

      Artificially limiting ideology? Now I know you're just a troll. The ideology "Microsoft is bad" is a totally rational defense mechanism, based on the lessons of history.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:Otellini: The guy no one payed attention to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't want to use fame (as opposed to notoriety), then you could use any other measure of success: money, power, number of children who are themselves successful, etc. I'm sure you could find a counterexample to all of those, but that the point is GGP is definitely a nobody with quixotic delusions of grandeur.

      It is an artificially limiting ideology. If you were given two products one that worked though it potentially violated your personal set of ethics and the other took a lot of effort to get working, wasn't really supported by anyone and didn't violate your personal set of ethics, and you chose the former, your ideology is by definition artificially limiting.

      I used to think Microsoft is bad because I listened to enough people on Slashdot and freenode and the collective groupthink was easy for an impressionable teenager to parrot. Sure I realize Microsoft has been indicted by the DoJ for abusing their monopoly and that is a bad thing to do. I'm currently writing this from an Arch Linux box, but I'm not deluded enough to believe that Microsoft is not an appropriate solution in some situations and I won't avoid it "just because." Maybe you work in software or as a sysadmin and have the luxury of being the equivalent of a vegan when it comes to operating systems. Not every does or even cares to have that luxury and when you say "Microsoft is bad" as a blanket statement, you look really foolish.

      I won't call you a troll, but just the stereotypical out-of-touch neckbeard.

    8. Re:Otellini: The guy no one payed attention to by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It is an artificially limiting ideology. If you were given two products one that worked though it potentially violated your personal set of ethics and the other took a lot of effort to get working, wasn't really supported by anyone and didn't violate your personal set of ethics, and you chose the former, your ideology is by definition artificially limiting.

      It's not just about ethics, although that is and always should be a factor. Working against your own ethics is unprofitable in the long term, because you're helping create the world you don't want to live in, and it costs more to fix a problem than to not create it in the first place. The simple truth is that going with Microsoft will save you money today but when the technology you are using is abandoned with no path forward and you have to rewrite anyway, you will find yourself losing money in the long term with the Microsoft option.

      Maybe you work in software or as a sysadmin and have the luxury of being the equivalent of a vegan when it comes to operating systems. Not every does or even cares to have that luxury and when you say "Microsoft is bad" as a blanket statement, you look really foolish.

      You only look foolish to fools, and I couldn't care less. Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to look like morons. Microsoft has fucked over its paying customers in the name of profit time and again, and becoming a Microsoft customer is therefore tantamount to signing up for a dry fucking.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    9. Re:Otellini: The guy no one payed attention to by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is an artificially limiting ideology. If you were given two products one that worked though it potentially violated your personal set of ethics and the other took a lot of effort to get working, wasn't really supported by anyone and didn't violate your personal set of ethics, and you chose the former, your ideology is by definition artificially limiting.

      It's not just about ethics, although that is and always should be a factor. Working against your own ethics is unprofitable in the long term, because you're helping create the world you don't want to live in, and it costs more to fix a problem than to not create it in the first place. The simple truth is that going with Microsoft will save you money today but when the technology you are using is abandoned with no path forward and you have to rewrite anyway, you will find yourself losing money in the long term with the Microsoft option.

      Maybe you work in software or as a sysadmin and have the luxury of being the equivalent of a vegan when it comes to operating systems. Not every does or even cares to have that luxury and when you say "Microsoft is bad" as a blanket statement, you look really foolish.

      You only look foolish to fools, and I couldn't care less. Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to look like morons. Microsoft has fucked over its paying customers in the name of profit time and again, and becoming a Microsoft customer is therefore tantamount to signing up for a dry fucking.

      You make a good point about going against your set of personal ethics contributing to building a society you don't want to live in, but I should clarify that I don't have the same burden as you in terms of a hatred for Microsoft. I don't care. I use Linux because for most tasks I do, my environment is setup just the way I want and it works faster than if I used Windows. Now, if I wanted to play video games, which I very rarely do anyway, then yeah I would switch to Windows likely without even considering using wine and all its imperfections.

      I haven't forgotten Microsoft's past, but I don't feel whatever sting you've felt. I've never felt like I got "fucked over" possibly because pretty much any bit of software I want is a torrent/direct download from a free filesharing site away. As far as your hyperbole goes, that shit works with your neckbeard peers, but not me. They are a company and I expect they will try to make more profit. There are some things I can do with LaTeX that I don't know how to do or would take too long to setup in Microsoft Office even if the tools existed, but for other things, LaTeX's beamer class takes longer to setup and customize than a WYSIWYG presentation maker like PowerPoint. I simply use whatever tool suits my needs best.

  19. Otelliniotelliniotelli-niHO! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yodeling.

    *Goes out and shoots some girl named Heidi in the head*

  20. Re:Romney endorsement by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    Are you one of those Libertarian asshats that cloaks your sociopathic tendencies in ideology?

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  21. Never forgive, never forget by ysth · · Score: 1

    Remember the Alamo

  22. Re:Romney endorsement by LordLucless · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Many of the founding fathers had already successfully abolished slavery in their states, and were working to do so in all the colonies as soon as they peacefully could.

    This is true

    many of them not only supported slavery but owned several, sometimes ranging in the hundreds, of slaves

    So is this.

    It's almost like the founding fathers were a disparate group of people, each with their own opinions and perspectives, and trying to paint the entire group as either ruthless slavers or crusading abolitionists is painting with too wide a brush.

    --
    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
  23. Re:Romney endorsement by ysth · · Score: 0

    Good thing we got the collapse out of the way first, then?

  24. Otellini is a great CEO by dbc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I worked at Intel for 11 years and met Otellini a couple of times. First of all, he was a great guy. But much more on point, he was a clear and level-headed thinker who asked the right questions, and role-modeled the best of Intel culture in every way. He rescued Intel from the aftermath of the train wreck that was Craig Barrett, and rebuilt the company and restored the company culture.

    Also note, Otellini was the first Intel CEO who came up through marketing. That was an important transition for the company in many ways, and the company is much better off for it.

    1. Re:Otellini is a great CEO by Kergan · · Score: 1

      Also note, Otellini was the first Intel CEO who came up through marketing. That was an important transition for the company in many ways, and the company is much better off for it.

      I'm confused... How is leaving the lion's share of the market in mobile computing devices to ARM making Intel better off?

    2. Re:Otellini is a great CEO by dbc · · Score: 2

      Yes you are confused. I was saying that Intel has been better off for the last 7 years for having been run by a marketing guy instead of a "sand head" (physical chemist, in Intel-ese) and would have been better off with a marketing guy running the co for 10+ years.

      Yes, the situation in mobile sucks. There are a host of reasons for that, mostly inherited by Otellini. The situation would suck harder if Barrett were still in charge. Otellini played the cards in his hand well.

    3. Re:Otellini is a great CEO by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      the situation in mobile sucks

      No actually, it doesn't, we're finally ridding ourselves of the suffocating domination of Wintel.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    4. Re:Otellini is a great CEO by lowlymarine · · Score: 2

      By what, exchanging it for suffocating domination by ARM and Google? Much better.

    5. Re:Otellini is a great CEO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He rescued Intel from the aftermath of the train wreck that was Craig Barrett, and rebuilt the company and restored the company culture.

      Yep, and he closed the acquisition where I worked few months after replacing Barrett. What a guy. After several years of missed opportunities, because of a bad corporate strategy, Otellini cuts the losses by letting us go. Man, we had the best cards on our hands, but weren't allowed to play them. Hooray for corporate acquisitions; the fastest way to reduce a successful startup to a smoking crater.

    6. Re:Otellini is a great CEO by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      by intel making better profits by using their foundries for producing intel chips which give much better $$$ than if said foundries were producing arm chips.

      don't be a fool. intel could be making the best fabbed arm chips in 6 months if they chose that x86 is dead. however the arm fabs can't switch other way.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    7. Re:Otellini is a great CEO by dkf · · Score: 2

      intel could be making the best fabbed arm chips in 6 months if they chose that x86 is dead

      It'd take longer; Intel's fabs are a long way ahead of everyone else's and so ARM aren't yet producing layouts for that scale. Which would mean that Intel would have to rearchitect the Intel designs for their own fabs, which takes time.

      however the arm fabs can't switch other way

      Definitely true at the moment; the ARM licensees (ARM don't make stuff themselves; that's not their business model) are a generation or two behind Intel on the fab side of things. They compensate by having specialist hardware on their chips to do particularly important operations (e.g., handling the signal processing for LTE) so they can get away with less raw CPU power. It's a different approach that is very relevant for mobile and embedded markets.

      Right now, I expect Intel to continue to dominate in desktop and server markets (i.e., anywhere where you can get power easily) and ARM and their licensees to dominate in mobile and embedded (where the power budget is critical and the ability to combine with custom on-chip hardware invaluable).

      --
      "Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
    8. Re:Otellini is a great CEO by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      By what, exchanging it for suffocating domination by ARM and Google? Much better.

      Domination yes, suffocation no. They're not doing anything anticompetitive with Android; indeed, the anticompetitive things are being done to them by their competitors, like abuse of bad patents required for competition. (Apple was offered access to FRAND patents on a very reasonable basis; in exchange for their bullshit patents which they never should have been granted on obvious interface elements.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    9. Re:Otellini is a great CEO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      this clear thinking resulting in the acquisition of Mcafee?

    10. Re:Otellini is a great CEO by dbc · · Score: 2

      Yes. Somebody who gets it. Intel looks at gross margin per wafer. They know pretty much exactly how many wafers they can run through a fab in a year. They can easily calculate the gross margin per wafer for any product. For a while when I was at Intel, Intel was a huge buyer of outside fab capacity -- any project that wanted to run in Intel fab had to show that their gross margin per wafer justified being on it. Otherwise, the project was told to "go fish" -- for fab. And they did, or they shut down.

    11. Re:Otellini is a great CEO by dbc · · Score: 1

      Those are naive assertions. Intel's production logic processes are tuned for speed, not low power consumption. That doesn't mean that the fab chemists don't have a dozen low-power processes in their hip pocket that they have demonstrated in the development fab that could be rolled out to production fabs in a matter of a few months. Processes more suitable to going after ARM market share. As to doing a new layout -- Intel has the tools and the people to simply "make it so".

      Intel fabs run at max capacity on the highest gross margin per wafer designs they have available. The numbers just don't add up today for Intel doing something other than Atom.

  25. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think it's just time to give up any logical argument until it all goes to shit...

  26. Re:Romney endorsement by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 1

    Obama is moving us in the direction of the nanny state -- a government that aggressively redistributes money is unlikely to respect private property or private freedoms.

    Get educated, dude. The Republican party is the nanny state X10. Party of liberty my ass.

  27. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Preventing the collapse of companies that needed to collapse will lead to the collapse of the entire economy.

  28. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Troll maybe, but true.

    The lot of most blacks in their own countries isn't very good.

  29. Intel is too big ... by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 1, Interesting

    ... Intel used to be nimble --- and I'm talking about the time of 8088/8086 up to 80386/80387.

    When Pentium came to market, Intel were so successful that most of its competitors just got out of the game, and allowed Intel to get bigger and bigger until they became the 800lb gorilla.

    What Intel is facing is a market that's totally different from what it had faced for the past 30 years - embedded processor from ARM.

    Intel's Atom processors was their reply to ARM and we all know how successful Atom turned out to be.

    As if it's not enough, Intel is again shooting its own feet.

    Intel is gambling with its own mainstream CPU - We have seen what they did to their Ivy Bridge, which is not that impressive as compared to the previous Sandy Bridge platform.

    And their next gen CPU, the Haswell - Intel is actually trying to move Haswell to the direction of ARM - by making them "power saving".

    What Intel really needs is to pursue a course up the curve - by making their processor much more powerful, not by making them weaker (albeit power saving).

    Intel needs to come up with chips that have more cores which runs at much higher speed.

    The real threat to Intel is not from ARM.

    The real threat to Intel is from Nvidia / ATI.

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  30. Re:Romney endorsement by DMiax · · Score: 1

    And that is why they did not address slavery in the constitution in the first place.

  31. Re:Romney endorsement by Dishevel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Libretarians are the party of liberty.
    Tea Party is the fiscally and socially conservative party,
    Democrats and Republicans both are Huge government controlling you.
    Democrats want a bunch of money to spend on green energy, unions and social welfare.
    Republicans want a bunch of money for defense contractors and oil.
    They both are the bane of freedom.
    The biggest threat to freedom though are the lazy entitled voters. Freedom is hard, dangerous and takes work.
    Americans are no longer those types of people.

    --
    Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
  32. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Heh. Bending over for large corporations and the rich is not "fiscally conservative", nor is it "fiscally responsible". Those are myths perpetuated by corporations and the rich.

  33. Re:Romney endorsement by mwvdlee · · Score: 2

    regain the former glory that the founding fathers intended.

    So you like wearing wigs. eh?

    Or were you talking about just a select part of what you consider "former glory" and use "founding fathers" as an argument to give your personal views a false sense of authority?

    On the other hand, if you are talking about returning the entire state of the US back a few centuries, I'm all with you; they didn't have computers back in those former glory times.

    Claiming something is right based on some decissions made by politicians for a society centuries ago (I guess politicians back then were just as infallible as they are now) is at least as useless as claiming something's right based on some holy scripture.

    --
    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
  34. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    They did, by writing language in to provide for the abolition of the slave trade

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_Prohibiting_Importation_of_Slaves

    The goal of the Constitutional Convention was to form a stronger Federal Union, which they archived. Leaving the status quo with Slavery was required to form a stronger union that could one day abolish the abhorrent practice.

  35. Re:Romney endorsement by Alex+Belits · · Score: 1

    No, he is one of those Libertarian asshats who are actually all Social Conservatives in disguise.

    --
    Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
  36. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I got and actively use my freedoms. I am living in Norway. Democratic socialism works fine in the Nordic countries, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, NZ, Canada, and other plases.

  37. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How funny. Prior to 1981, America was the tops. Since 1981, when you neo-cons came to power and controlled, America has fallen from grace during reagan and then under W. And yet, idiots like you want to return to those same failed policies with an idiot like Romney. You provide proof that Education in America is severely degraded. We need to re-start the teaching of logic, otherwise, we will end up with more failures such as yourself.

  38. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Claiming something is right based on some decissions made by politicians for a society centuries ago (I guess politicians back then were just as infallible as they are now) is at least as useless as claiming something's right based on some holy scripture.

    There's a huge difference between men who fought for their country with their own lives and principles and then became politicians and the current crop of career politicians. But go right ahead and setup your strawman.

  39. Re:Romney endorsement by sideslash · · Score: 1

    Get educated, dude. The Republican party is the nanny state X10. Party of liberty my ass.

    I don't know about the X10 part, it sort of depends what issues are most important to you. Both Republicans and Democrats push for a nanny state in different ways. Since you're obviously already aware of the Republican side, I'll just list a few Democrat ways:

    - Restriction of free speech in terms of political donations.
    - Restriction of free speech by categorizing it as "hate speech".
    - Restriction on commerce -- for example, even if you are an experienced hairdresser, you can't just set up a hair salon in New Orleans (or similarly, drive a taxi in NYC, etc.) due to burdensome and asphyxiating regulations.
    - Restriction on commerce -- unions are empowered by law to effectively tax all their non-union coworkers in many states, effectively taking other people's money (and donating a bunch of it to the Democratic party, isn't that convenient?).
    - Restriction on personal accumulation of wealth -- forced redistribution appears to be openly embraced by the Democrats these days.

    In general, the Republicans are supposed to be the party of smaller government. They've fallen down on the job in many ways, but in that respect they're still a lot better than the Democrats. Obama wants the government to grow without limit and encompass many more areas of our life in this country. To the extent that his vision is realized, the nanny state will grow.

    If you get in debt to someone, that person will gain the ability to control your life. If more and more people are beholden to the government, the government will control their lives. Government paying for your healthcare? Oh, then you won't complain if the government tells you not to smoke or eat trans fats anymore, right?

  40. Re:Romney endorsement by sideslash · · Score: 1

    What in the world are you talking about? Do you know what "fiscally conservative" means? Maybe if you get more specific instead of using vague and weird figures of speech this will be clearer.

  41. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Romney would not have been as bad as Obama based on what? The man flip-flopped on basically everything and that's not a problem if it was clearly because new information changed his mindset, but it's clear he just did it for political expediency not some sort of principled, reasoned stance. How can you even trust a guy like that?

    I hate having to do this, but partisan hacks like you will call me out on it if I don't explicitly state that I didn't vote for Obama (or Romney).

  42. Cringely says the board should fire themselves too by ansak · · Score: 1
    Does anyone who Knows have anything to say about Bob Cringely's analysis of this departure?

    just wondering, hangning up and listening...ank

    --
    Still hoping for Gentle Treatment...
  43. Re:Romney endorsement by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 0

    the Republican party was the party in favor of freeing slaves while the democratic party wanted to keep them chained.

    "Founded in the Northern states in 1854 by anti-slavery activists, modernizers, ex-Whigs and ex-Free Soilers, the Republican Party quickly became the principal opposition to the dominant Southern Democratic Party and the briefly popular Know Nothing Party. The main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil. The first public meeting where the name "Republican" was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20, 1854 in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin"
    -the all knowing wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)#History

    Who was worse again?

    --
    ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
  44. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Aw, little butthurt white weenie. I am trying real hard not to laugh. But failing, tee hee.

  45. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That was a tiny little bump in the road compared to the day the US debt is called in.

  46. Re:Romney endorsement by ysth · · Score: 1

    "called in"? On what terms do you think the debt is?

    The interest on the debt is basically funding the buying up of the US by foreign countries, a very bad thing, but not something they want to "call in".

  47. Re:Romney endorsement by mcgrew · · Score: 1

    If your ancestors hadn't been kidnapped from Africa, then you might be considered property in 2012 considering slavery is alive and well in many regions of Africa right now

    And unless he's done some geneology research, his anscestors may have quite possibly been free people. Not all American blacks were slaves.

  48. Re:Romney endorsement by LordLimecat · · Score: 0

    The civil rights movement was also headed up by the republicans. Unless parties have shifted around since I last looked, Richard Nixon was a republican, not a democrat, and it was southern democrats who opposed the civil rights movement.

    If slashdot wants to live in its revisionist fantasy, though, thats fine.

  49. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Now that you mention it, "fiscally conservative" does seem like it could be a euphemism for "greedy bastard"...

  50. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, Richard "The Jigaboos and Jews" Nixon. Seems like you're doing a bit of revising yourself. Southern Democrats are now... guess what? Southern Republicans! You don't hear anyone calling Alabama a blue state. Last I checked, Georgia had to be forced to integrate its schools. Blacks may have marched in Birmingham, Alabama, but don't fool yourself into thinking Republicans are some sort of vanguard of civil rights. Look at how they protest civil unions for homosexuals now.

  51. Re:Romney endorsement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am not sure how I am a partisan hack because I do not dislike Romney as much as I dislike Obama.
    Explain to me please.

  52. Re:Romney endorsement by lister+king+of+smeg · · Score: 1

    that is more to do with the south being racist, while the dems have a black candidate so of course they voted for the white guy

    --
    ---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
  53. Re:Romney endorsement by LordLimecat · · Score: 1

    So i just did a little flash research. If you had to guess, how do you suppose Georgia voted in the 1960 Presidential election? Turns out it was 63% in favor of Kennedy. In fact, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, all voted majority for Kennedy.

    This whole discussion is ridiculous, I certainly will not imply that all democrats are racist, but to try to prove that the republican party has been the enemy of civil rights is frankly absurd.