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Commenters To Dropbox CEO: Houston, We Have a Problem
theodp (442580) writes "On Friday, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston sought to quell the uproar over the appointment of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the company's board of directors, promising in a blog post that Rice's appointment won't change its stance on privacy. More interesting than Houston's brief blog post on the method-behind-its-Condi-madness (which Dave Winer perhaps better explained a day earlier) is the firestorm in the ever-growing hundreds of comments that follow. So will Dropbox be swayed by the anti-Condi crowd ("If you do not eliminate Rice from your board you lose my business") or stand its ground, heartened by pro-Condi comments ("Good on ya, DB. You have my continued business and even greater admiration")? One imagines that Bush White House experience has left Condi pretty thick-skinned, and IPO riches are presumably on the horizon, but is falling on her "resignation sword" — a la Brendan Eich — out of the question for Condi?"
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Oh well.
Brave Sir Robin ran away. ("No!") Bravely ran away away. ("I didn't!")
Now George is a painter, Condi is on the board, Dick -- well, Dick is still a dick. So, are we supposed to forget or what? And forgive? Hard to do when we're still payin' the bills.
Everything in the Universe sucks: It's the law!
If you can't spell "you're", you're an idiot. An illiterate idiot....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Same intolerant crap.
There are some things that shouldn't be tolerated. War mongering is one of them. Thousands of American families lost a son, brother, or husband in a pointless counter-productive war because of this woman's lies and incompetence. The number of Iraqi families affected is a hundred times higher.
Dropbox has the right to have her on their board. I have the right to speak my mind, and take my business elsewhere.
The real question is, "what does she bring to the table" as a member of the Board? Does her tenure as a faculty member in the Stanford School of Business matter? What about her time as the director of the Stanford Global Center for Business and the Economy?
Try SpiderOak. Free 2 GB, zero-knowledge, secure. Works on a load of OSs and devices.
I'm a completely satisfied customer.
Trolling is a art,
You're really stretching to say this isn't news for nerds or stuff that matters, because it's clearly both.
Sounds like the same thing they did to the mozilla CEO. When will these loser knock this shit off? I dont like the woman either but there are other reasons to fault dropbox without bringing her into it
Yes; it's the same thing. The primary job of a member of the board is to be responsible to and represent the company to people outside the company. People are saying "either this is a bad person for the job or I don't like how Dropbox wants to be represented". Now Dropbox has to make a choice. Is Condi the person they want to represent them? Is Condi's image how they want to be. If yes, then she is the right person and if so then those other people should take their business where they want to.
Or perhaps we should take a page out of their playbook? why are they woman hating??? and shes black??? RACISTS!!!! You know thats what would be happening if the politics were the other way around
I find it interesting that you are explicitly proposing lying. You know that these things aren't true yet it's more important to you to win than to think about what's right.
How about discussing some actual issues. How about something worthwhile like "condi may have been batshit crazy about invading Iraq, but at least if we had her we wouldn't have this Obama idiot handing over Ukraine to the Russians without even as much as a trade blockade".
I don't see how being Secretary of State even relates to running an IT business.
Her connections can help them influence government regulation, and win contracts.
Well if you don't want her in this world and I doubt that she is going to leave; maybe you and your cronies can leave? I mean you are soooooo.... strict in your stance and all Yeah I thought so...
Well, no. Me and my cronies aren't going to leave, and we will continue to oppose the involvement of those with blood on their hands. Condi doesn't bring anything but the stink of torture to the table. You're sooooo welcome to her.
There's nothing wrong with intolerance at all, as long as it's directed at an actual problem.
[End Of Line]
*gets tablet*
Install Firefox... already there.
Remove Dropbox... oh, wait, can't do that without rooting the thing.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
What i dont like is late comers to companies that get IPO, and then these get millions, ahead of the hardworking coders who started there from day 0.
I dont mind her there, but if the company IPOs for billions, she should not get a cent, as I cannot see anything she can contribute that would add to the book value or earnings values. /*
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I say that as a Democrat. I also say its legitimate to question her appointment for policy based reasons.
Brandon Eich was ousted for social policy reasons not directly tied into the day to day functioning of the board.
That was a board decision to force him to resign.
Dropbox and privacy are core to its mission. Condi Rice has served on several boards of directors including Hewlett Packard, Chevron and the Rand corporation
shes professional and experienced. Shes not going to sell dropbox out to the NSA and she brings experience with these issues to the board. She understands who shes working for and is loyal to her employer. She may be an attack dog but shes a loyal well trained attack dog and thats what dropbox sees in her.
If you dont want her appointed for past policy based reasons then thats acceptable but someone needs to take a deep breath and calm the hysteria.
Eh, since everybody on the left did it to me for not voting for Obama, I'm going to do it to you.
YOU'RE A RACIST!!!!!!!
You're against a black person, so no matter what you're other qualms are, and whether or not they're valid, you're racists!
*that's sarcastic in case you can't tell, but hopefully it'll help point out that the left needs to lay off the racist card so hard*
Yes, it was Condi's unpopular views that caused her to miss so many things, like the forged documents saying Iraq was trying to get weapons grade uranium from Africa. If she was more popular, rather than more competent, perhaps this would have shed light on the lies that led to the Iraq war.
It was just the most colossal screw up in modern history, sure, give Condi a pass, bro! Let her rehab her torture and war stained reputation on corporate boards!
so you oppose obama as well right? He has just as much blood on his hands at this point, or do drones not count?
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
This goes beyond that.
Rice directly contributed to the waste of O($1 trillion) of taxpayer money, the loss of thousands of lives, and the torture of prisoners. That should make her persona non grata to any organization that gives a damn about not wasting public money for political gain, not murdering people, and not engaging in state violation of human rights. This isn't "gave some money to a dishonest and illiberal election campaign" (Eich). This is "shit on American values and wiped with the Constitution for good measure".
That's on top of the security/espionage concerns.
If Condi Rice were the checkout clerk at Safeway I'd refuse to do business with them.
Being intolerant of bigot homophobes is crap? Being intolerant of war mongering assholes is crap?
Here's a big FUCK YOU. Some things just should not be tolerated at all. Eich and Rice deserve to be called out for their bigotry and war mongering
.... /s???
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
She should be tried in the Hague tribunal for war crimes instead.
Hiring a war criminal and domestic-spying person may not change Dropbox's stance on privacy, but it shows another darker side of DB, it's business-at-the-expense-of-morality side.
Did they really think, "She approved the mass snooping of private data saved online, which certainly included targeting our infrastructure to breach our customers' privacy. Oh, we won't worry about that, we need her expertise, we'll hire her!".
Then again, writing the above paragraph, what the fuck was their stance on privacy then, if hiring her didn't make them ask themselves whether they're doing the right thing?
And how exactly will Dropbox succeed in the international scene, when all the foreign companies fucking realize that they're basically in-bed with the Washington "Elite", the same people that created and supported PRISM?!?
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
In other news, Dropbox has announced that their appointment of Joseph Goebbels to their board of directors will not change their stance on Jews.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Would we be seeing this same faux "privacy" outrage if it were Hillary Clinton or some other person from Obama's national security team? Has not the surveillance state expanded exponentially under the current administration? Doubtful. And what exactly was Rice's "central role in creating the surveillance state"? That she, at the President's direction, authorized NSA to spy on foreign diplomats? WTF do you think intel agencies are there for? Considering her not very good relations with Darth Vader..er Dick Cheney, the man behind a lot of the worst stuff of the Bush admin. I think it grossly unfair to paint her as having a central role.
It really will be hilarious to juxtapose the silence as Obama admin security and foreign policy officials end up in similar positions over the next few years. Afterall, Kos and others have said 'not a big deal' to all the nsa stuff - but only if you have a D after your name.
Well ganjadude. May I call you ganjadude? I imagine that is what your friends on 'your side' call you, right? 'ganjadude' sounds like that kind of a name.
You're assuming that the people who are angry about the appointment of Rice to this role are the same people who were angry about the Eich being given the CEO position at Mozilla.
You're also roughly stating that because there are other reasons to dislike Dropbox, it is inappropriate to complain about their choice of someone who has historically be pro-surveillance and supportive of state-sanctioned torture (in certain contexts, like the state doing the torturing for the US). I isn't really 'inappropriate' to complain about both the color and performance of a car, and likewise I don't think that disliking some other attribute of Dropbox reasonably precludes me complaining about their choice of board members.
I didn't much like the way that Eich was attacked for his support of Prop 8, even though I didn't agree with Prop 8. Eich's views on same-sex marriage really don't relate Mozilla (I don't think), and they don't really make him a bad or nasty person either - at least, not themselves without knowing the reasoning behind them.
That Rice previously demonstrated support of intensive surveillance by government does directly relate to Dropbox. I think that's a perfectly reasonable thing to criticise. I think that her support of torture and extraordinary rendition makes her an unpleasant person, but I'm not sure that so much relates to her role at Dropbox.
Your obsession with what 'they' do, those dirty liberals, is slightly bizarre and makes you sound like a crazy person. Also, you're presenting a weak caricature of liberals and then pretending it is reality. That doesn't make you sound clever, or steadfast in your role as an opponent of liberals. It makes you sound like someone who is to polarized to be able to think straight.
Right! To be fair, it's really hard someone to find someone for your board of directors who isn't a war criminal.
The choice was between Condoleeza Rice and Slobodan Milosevic and he backed out due to health reasons. I understand they sent feelers out to Joseph Kony, but he thought they were children's arms, so he cut them off.
Welcome Condi! Maybe a little more money will help you sleep at night, because you're looking a little tired, girl.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Trolling grammar nazis just makes you a different kind of idiot
The text book reason to put someone on the Board of Directors of a company is for their expertise in the business. She has NONE.
Condie Rice is a bureaucrat - a shitty one at that.
She is there for one reason - connections.
If you or I had a job history like her's, we would be unemployable. But for the ruling and CEO class, being a fuck up means nothing as long as you know the right people.
The issue has nothing to do with Iraq. Nor the fact that she's a woman, or that she is Black. The real issue here is that in the wake of Snowdon's revelations about widespread surveillance of the general public by three letter government agencies, a former National Security Advisor is being appointed to the board of a widely used online storage site that has thus far managed to convince some people that it is on the side of privacy.
I find it very amusing how the tune has changed with regards to how vote with their wallet and corporate moral character.
For the longest time the argument was "Well if you don't like company x don't buy their products!". With the implication being that if you don't actually stop, then you are just a whiner or a hypocrite. But now people really are taking their business elsewhere. The actions of a company or the people that represent a company is effecting the bottom line. Yet somehow old "vote with your wallet" is no longer acceptable. Somehow judging a company based on it's moral character is an assault on free speech, maybe even down right persecution!
For a long time people (on Slashdot especially) have been warning of the dangers of putting your data in the cloud. Of the amount of personal information that can be gleaned from your web browsing habits. That that big business is cooperating with the government (willingly or not) in a massive breach of privacy. So how and can anyone be surprised that customers demand moral character from leadership of companies to whom we are handing over so much personal information?
If you had to make a choice between companies to store YOUR personal information and your choices are: Company A with Bruce Schneier on it's board of directors, and Company B with Dick Cheney on it's board of directors. Does anyone seriously think that difference shouldn't effect the decision?
I for one have no sympathy. Yes a company has every right to alienate their customers, but customers also have every right to vote with their wallets.
Other than the fact that it feeds the cycle of intolerance and as long as you continue to be intolerant of people you don't like, you feed the same in them making it worse and worse? Surely you meant that was still a problem with intolerance, right? The whole "turn the other cheek" thing in the bible. If you retaliate in kind, you feed the problem.
Or did you never stop and think about that?
Actually, it was Clinton's CIA man (that remained on for Bush) that said the intelligence was a "slam dunk" on WMD. The day before Bush took office, the entire world's intelligence (including Clinton's) believed Iraq had WMD. The exception of substance was Russia.
Absolutely right. And I have the right to call you on it, you racist mysogynist dictator lover.
my side tends to be better than that
No need to read past this point. I have no idea what 'your side' is, but I can guarantee that you are suffering from confirmation bias.
The issue has nothing to do with gitmo. Nor the fact that he's a man, or that he is Black. The real issue here is the massive deficit that we now have, that was called unamerican when it was half as big, also the issues we have with drone warefare on americans without trial, and also obamacare
Yet We get called racists for that statement I just made all the time....
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
the Streisand Effect had a negative effect and in this case I think rice is toxic to dropbox and will also have a negative effect to their business
Condi Rice is as black as Barack Obama's corporate lawyer wife. Condi Rice is utterly detested by her fellow black folks for going on a NYC Ferragamo shoe shopping spree and catching a Broadway Musical Comedy, Spamalot, quite literally as Hurricane Katrina came ashore in New Orleans and her brothers and sisters were fighting for their lives. Quite literally fiddling while Rome burned. You forgot, huh? Here's snopes.com to reminds you...
http://www.snopes.com/katrina/...
"...That evening, upon arriving at the Palace Hotel, I flipped on the television. Indeed, the hurricane had hit New Orleans. I called Henrietta, who said that the main issue was making sure our people were safe. She'd also convened a departmental task force because offers of foreign assistance were pouring in. I called Secretary of Homeland Security Mike Chertoff, inquiring if there was anything I could do. "It’s pretty bad," he said. We discussed the question of foreign help briefly, but Mike was clearly in a hurry. He said he'd call if he needed me. I hung up, got dressed, and went to see Spamalot.
The next morning, I went shopping at the Ferragamo shoe store down the block from my hotel, returned to the Palace, and again turned on the television. The airwaves were filled with devastating pictures from New Orleans. And the faces of most of the people in distress were black. I knew right away that I should never have left Washington."
there are other reasons to fault dropbox without bringing her into it
I would put hiring a war criminal towards the top of the list of things companies should not do.
When will these loser knock this shit off?
When she is locked in an Iraqi jail cell for the rest of her life.
All of these criminals from the Bush administration need to be blacklisted from employment with any public company and any government agency. If we can't get the government to prosecute them we should at least make clear they are unwelcome in civil society.
the mozilla CEO
The Mozilla CEO is an idiot who has demonstrated he lacks the judgment to run a public organization with a diverse staff and customer base.
Condaleezza Rice is a war criminal who should be in jail.
You might actually try reading something other than the subject line. In any event you dont get appointed
to major boards because rich people like you...okay well not most board members. Most board members
of major corporations usually are recruited for some expertise they bring to the board in Condi Rices case
im guessing government and education.
board members dont make day to day decisions thats the job of the Chief Executive Officer.
If your asking what shes done competently, she was the provost of stanford and served competently on several corporate boards before this.
I don't agree with her politics but your politics are not relevant when you join a board of directors you assume a legal duty to the company.
including a duty of confidentiality and a fidiuciary duty.
Like I said I dont agree with her political decisions, I voted for Bill Clinton twice, Al Gore once and Obama twice, but the idea that Condi Rice is some sort of trojan horse in dropbox is laughable.
dropbox
... what?
Do you even know what the word means? Christ.
the non-paying subscribers are the product. no one is going to invest (for long) in a company without a product.
For Eich, there were plenty of great reasons for him to be CEO of Mozilla, clue wise. But what does Rice have to do with anything here? Does she have some 'putar expertise she did not let on during her time of accompliceship with war profiteering?
Not to pick on just her, I wonder generally: What's with these random politicians on the boards of random corporations? Do they just get paid for having connections? Are they actually doing anything?
Drop Condoleezza Rice from the DropBox Board of Directors Now - Sign the Petition!
http://chn.ge/1iExYQW
How to move your files to Google Drive:
http://tucknoloji.com/2012/04/...
Perhaps if you are a company which should have privacy concerns right up at the top of your list of to dos you should not appoint a board member who by all accounts gives not a shit for privacy concerns?
By the by, wouldn't life be the tits if I had no background in tech other than abusing it but had political connections as 99% of my resume and could land sweetheart preIPO deals like this?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
just wait 'til you see her commits in the openssl.org changelog...
ACTUALLY, it was the Republicans in Congress who successfully blocked the nomination of Anthony Lake leaving Clinton with the option of having the CIA with only an acting director (Tenet) while getting jerked around by Congress or just advancing Tenet to the position (who was unanimously approved by Congress).
So whose choice was he really?
Ankle biting
More like "ankle grabbing" for the lovers of the NSA and water boarding. Going back as far as Napoleon, torture was already dismissed as ineffective, so its sad to me that some people are glad to regress a few centuries. And the "everybody does it" theme neglects that few others countries, ie none, have 30,000 employees and a $10 billion a year budget.
I'm switching to Google Drive since their theme of "do no evil" is still intact enough to avoid high publicity idiocy like politicising their business. Why the fuck do these companies think their political agenda is a part of their business plan? Part of this idiocy alone is a good reason to switch.
Yeah Iknowright!??! It's just "intolerance" to be concerned that a major file-sharing service has on their board someone who openly advocates government surveillance and with strong connections to groups in charge of government surveillance. Damn those "intolerant" people.
My other UID is three digits.
So you hate her because she's black?
You don't put a former fox in charge of a henhouse if you want to retain the confidence of the hens. Also your false outrage and "let's see how they like their own medicine" bullshit to cheer for your team is annoying, especially since your team don't think much of this player anyway.
I'm sorry you have not seen it but you don't get appointed to such high posts when you are too young to prove yourself by ability, you get there via connections. So a long list of exalted posts doesn't really mean much if there are no signs of any significant achievements in those posts.
The events that happened on her watch show either that either she was not in control or should not be trusted in a position of responsibility again.
should her life be ruined over the fact that she made some mistakes while in government?
yes. when you 'make mistakes' at that kind of level and it affects the WHOLE WORLD in a hugely negative way, YES. 1000 times yes.
next question?
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
>*that's sarcastic in case you can't tell, but hopefully it'll help point out that the left needs to lay off the racist card so hard*
No, it's actually the right that needs to lay off the "race card" card. Seriously, every time they bring up some pointless complaint about Obama, they whine defensively that they're only restrained from criticism because they'll be called racists.
No shit, when your complaint is that Obama's a Kenyan Marxo-Islamic Fascist Communist, that's going to happen.
Doesn't mean you can't find some legitimate complaint to make about Obama, but the conservative right can't even manage that most days of the week.
Hiring a war criminal and domestic-spying person may not change Dropbox's stance on privacy, but it shows another darker side of DB, it's business-at-the-expense-of-morality side.
More importantly: What the actual fuck is she bringing to the table that we actually want there?
White guy who attended a Historically Black College on a Minority Scholarship. To make real long story brief, Federal lawsuits against Old Dominion Univ. and Norfork State Univ. for state schools so close geographical, opposites racially. There were some extra scholarship money to help balance the schools in 80-90's. My first year of college was Norfork State. Lived in the dorms. I made a ton of great friends. People at NSU bent over backward to try to make me feel at home. Terrific experience.
Nerd != left wing.
Ex secretary of state != Matters.
Now if you're a leftist with unrealised dreams of punishing GWB, you might persuade yourself otherwise.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
Eich's views on same-sex marriage don't make him a bad person, any more than having the view that starving children should be fed makes you a good person. However, the second those views manifest into actions, whether it's giving money to a charity to feed those children or to an organization attempting to legalize against gays, they do push your alignment towards good or evil, respectively.
No one can see into your heart, so no one can judge it, but the second you bear fruit it can, will and should be judged. And Eich's fruit was - correctly, in my view - judged to be no different than that of those who opposed "miscegenation": rotten. And so he was cast aside, out of the way of someone better.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Dropbox starts scanning your files and prevents you from sharing what *it thinks* are copyrighted materials, and instead, you guys bitch and moan over some Hollywood-celeb-type bullshit?
Well thank you for making this special trip to /. to tell us all about how you don't visit /. anymore.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
You should probably prepare yourself for disappointment on multiple fronts. Both Bush's reputation and popularity have been improving. His presidency is likely to end up being judged rather favorably in the future.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
"Dropbox has the right to have her on their board. I have the right to speak my mind, and take my business elsewhere."
The problem is, though, you do business with hundreds of other companies. Have you vetted their board of directors and leadership to see if they follow your political views as well? Or are you only picking on Rice and Dropbox because she was in the news for a few years and they popped up on Slashdot? You do realize there are many other Bush administration officials currently in leadership roles in other major corporations?
Your accusation of war mongering is as specious as all of the rest, going back to Kissinger. The wars were going to happen, with or without Condi Rice and with or without your approval. They were a geopolitical fait accompli. Hell, people back in 1990 could see where the next world problems were going to come from. Your blindness is inexcusable in that context.
A failure to recognize reality - realpolitik - doesn't make you morally superior. It makes you an idiot.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
There are some things that shouldn't be tolerated. War mongering is one of them. Thousands of American families lost a son, brother, or husband in a pointless counter-productive war because of this woman's lies and incompetence. The number of Iraqi families affected is a hundred times higher.
But you do tolerate warmongers. You seem completely predisposed to tolerate Saddam's warmongering, crimes against humanity, support for terrorism, and many other crimes.
The Iraq war wasn't pointless or counter-productive. Saddam is gone. His psychopathic sons that would have been even worse, and who stood to inherit power from him, are gone. Iraq is now a democracy, albeit a troubled one, and they are rebuilding the country from the ruin of Saddam's mismanagement. Iraqi oil money is no longer being spent to build huge palaces for Saddam and build illegal weapons but is instead helping to build Iraq's future. Iraq is no longer a threat to peace and stability of the entire region.
The price for that was by historical standards very low for the US, and below Saddam's long term average of death and destruction for Iraq.
If you oppose warmongering you are on the wrong side of this. You should oppose Saddam, not the US, and not blame Rice.
Dropbox has the right to have her on their board. I have the right to speak my mind, and take my business elsewhere.
You certainly do have the right to be wrong on the facts and wrong on the politics.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
USA had absolutely no grounds to remove Saddam Hussein from the power.
The only reason they received U.N mandate is because they fabricated the WMD evidence and outright lied at the hearing.
On top of it they captured people - detained unlawfully without a charge or trial and tortured during their captivity.
Condi Rice and the rest of the Bush Jr. administration should be tried for their crimes.
+1 Insightful
Yes, there are very legitimate reasons to dislike some of Obama's policies but the rightwingnuts have wasted years with birther stupidity, obstinate obstruction of things they previously supported to the point where the GOP Senate Leader filibustered his OWN bill!!
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Or show up on someone else's doorstep. Close enough, right?
The "only following orders" defence was invalid 70 years ago. Why do you think it is valid now?
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
The Streisand Effect has barely started yet. Many people that have never heard of DropBox to begin with will be hearing about it for the first time. We'll see how it turns out.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
As long as you're only targeting republicans for this kind of scrutiny your righteous indignation rings hollow to me. Most democrats supported the war at the time, and our current democrat president continues those same policies, still has troops in those same countries and has, in fact, escalated hostilities in numerous other countries as well. You don't give a shit about the poor souls slain in war unless it furthers your political agenda. It's sad.
Allow me to commend you on your decision to switch to another American company that does large amounts of business with the US government and which is growing more involved with robotics and autonomous navigation of interest to the US Defense Department. Did you know that there are rumors that Google has ties in with the CIA and NSA?
Have a great day!
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
The guy who does all that is called "The President of the United States".
I'm not sure why you seem to think his policies change then the dude playing him does.
The above comment is mine. I didn't realize that I wasn't logged in when I posted it.
More like "ankle grabbing" for the lovers of the NSA and water boarding. Going back as far as Napoleon, torture was already dismissed as ineffective, so its sad to me that some people are glad to regress a few centuries. And the "everybody does it" theme neglects that few others countries, ie none, have 30,000 employees and a $10 billion a year budget.
To the contrary, torture is highly effective... at spreading fear and exerting dominance, and/or to produce false confessions. That's why it is used by a number of other countries.
The world is far better off with Saddam's regime being replaced by a democratic government.
Next?
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
The PC crowd have their collective shorts in a knot over this one, as they did with the Mozilla CEO situation. Seems you can't hold a political view which disagrees with the official PC/libtard position without them having a temper tantrum. And it's so easy to set these people off on a tantrum that it's tempting to do it on a regular basis just to watch them scream. But I digress. There are only 2 reasons I can think of to put Rice on the Dropbox board: her business acumen and her political connections.
Heh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
If killing people and attacking countries is enough for you to call for invasion and hanging, I assume you would be fine with the US being invaded and roughly a gazillion people being finally tried for their crimes?
And why stop with Saddam? There are so many way more brutal dictators around the world, so what gives? Are you unaware that the US govt actively supported worse than him, or are you just chosing to ignore it? Don't even pretend: his crime wasn't that he "invaded his neighboring country", but that he did so on his own accord, disobeying the US. That's what made him an enemy, not the gassing or being a dictator. And then there is the fact that the US was always keen on controlling the oil in that region... so either you play along or you get replaced, that is all; how brutal you are doesn't play into it other than that you get lauded for it while you follow orders, and demonized otherwise. Saddam was an asshole, but that doesn't make the US govt less of a war profiteering, hypocritical BS expedition, or you less of an useful idiot, who essentially gets to pay big money to have blood on your hands. Sorry, I know nobody wants to hear something like that, but step one to fix things is to stop pretending you're not being played like a piano.
The world is far better off with Saddam's regime being replaced by a democratic government.
Tell that that to the thousands of Iraqi's WE KILLED to make that happen.
We probably killed or led to the death via our war of more Iraqi's than Saddam did -- and I'm not forgetting that Saddam attempted genocide of Kurd's in the 80s either.
Indeed -- but that doesn't matter.
When Bush pushed Colin Powell to do something unethical, he pushed back. He lost his job and kept his integrity.
Condi made the opposite choice.
Saddam supported terrorism in addition to his many other crimes. It just wasn't necessarily al Qaida that he supported.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
There were certainly grounds to remove him from power. Iraqi genocide of the Kurds, for example. The largest reason was to gain control of Iraqi oil. Iraq had also already tried once to invade a peaceful neighbor, Kuwait, to gain control of their large oil reserves, and had been defeated in that invasion with US help
What there _was not_ was a reasonable hope of an invasion working to replace Sadam Hussein with something stable and US friendly. The country is a nightmare of inter-tribal fighting and has been ever since the British created it out of three smaller Arab nations.
> The Iraq war wasn't pointless or counter-productive.
It's just too bad we lost it. What's stepping in as the US leaves is a puppet government, doomed to fall to the even more genocidal religious leaders, the very "terrorist" factions that Sadam would never have allowed to threaten his power.
Not on the ipad at present, so happy to oblige. Now, because you appear to like it so much, why don't you tell us all how great /. beta is?
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
But there is a big difference between that, and activly trying to force someone out of a job as they did with mozilla,
Original AC here. First; I want to specifically agree with your sentiment about jobs generally. For jobs, people should only be blocked from them for reasons which directly influence their ability to do the job and their views outside the place of work should not come into it. Condi Rice had very specific views about US security; in particular she supported the patriot act which a) increased surveillance of DropBox customers and b) by forcing oversharing of information caused the security failures in the NSA which lead to Snowden being able to get access to and leak the information he leaked.
In order to be appropriate for DropBox Condi Rice would have to stand up and say clearly that the Patriot act was a mistake which weakened the western alliance both morally and militarily. She would have to stand up and say that the right to privacy is as fundamental as the other rights and that the failure of western military organisations like GCHQ and the NSA to defend it is wrong. Without that rejection of the mistakes in her record which have attacked DropBox, she is fatally flawed in this role in a way which will influence her performance. How will she be able to stand up and say that the Patriot act is damaging to DropBox's business?
The US and its allies actually killed a relatively small number of Iraqis. The overwhelming majority of them were killed by either terrorists or Iraqis militias as part of the internecine conflict.
Saddam killed far more people than were killed during the US presence in Iraq even if you take the wild figures from the discredited study paid for by George Soros.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
The real issue here is that in the wake of Snowdon's revelations about widespread surveillance of the general public by three letter government agencies, a former National Security Advisor is being appointed to the board of a widely used online storage site that has thus far managed to convince some people that it is on the side of privacy.
No, that's not the real issue. Rice is long out of office and has no say over government policy. DropBox as a corporation has nothing to do with that in either case. The real question to examine is, "Does Condoleezza Rice have the background to make a positive contribution to the board responsible for corporate governance?" The answer is clearly yes. Your objection is pretty much entirely hand waving.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Agree! These people are pariahs and should be shunned just like lepors were in the middle ages!
Sometimes, real fast is almost as good as real-time.
I will agree with everything you just said, as long as you dont have a double standard and want to see the current admin locked up for being bush 2.0. If you cant agree to that, you are simply being a political pawn
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
gitmo is still open, so we dont know if he is or is not torturing people....
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
I think to use a old analogy would be appropriate here. You do not put a fox in the henhouse. Ever. I don't care if it's be a family pet for 10 years. It is never a good idea. Never.
I'm old, not dead. Well that's my 2 cents worth, your mileage may vary. I say what I think, not what you want to hear.
We don't want anything to do with a corporation that has Condi on the board. We determine what we want our worlds to be like... and we don't want Condi Rice in our world. At all.
I take it then what you want is a world of Saddams, Slobodan Miloevis, and Kim Il Sungs?
I want everything she touches to be radioactive.
Probably won't happen. Saddam didn't actually get the bomb, try though he did. On the other hand, Iran is still trying.
She earned it.
You should probably hope you don't get the world your policies would lead to.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
The ONLY job of a member of the board is to represent shareholders interest, by overseeing the company management, and give direction as needed. It is not even a full time job. Boards don't meet very often. Board members can also bring industry experience, or specific skills, such as finance and governance to the table, and they bring their connections. But they are certainly not part of a company's PR. A good board is put together of people from different backgrounds and perspectives, and is not hand picked by CEO.
-- Another senseless waste of fine bytes.
I don't know. I don't use it, and when it appears I go to classic view.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
It's Obama's NSA that you are angry about. It's been Obama's NSA for over five years.
When's he going to resign?
Your post presents me with a conundrum. Is it simply wrong headed, or a troll? The US didn't lose the war, the democratically elected Iraqi government clearly is independent and very much not a puppet government, and the rest of your statement is likewise questionable at best.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Allow me to commend you on your decision to switch to another American company that does large amounts of business with the US government and which is growing more involved with robotics and autonomous navigation of interest to the US Defense Department. Did you know that there are rumors that Google has ties in with the CIA and NSA?
Have a great day!
There is a difference, at least in appearance, from have your poster girl as some one who thinks water boarding is a nifty idea.
And Google is suing the NSA, rather than announcing that a former National Security Advisor who was part of the problem, is now controlling your data. So instead of fighting the governments worst practices, the actions of Dropbox suggest that the NSA raiding your data is just fine by them.
I am well aware that Google will hand over to the NSA whatever they have to per USA law. And the USA government is one of their biggest check writers. But I doubt they think handing over data in violation of the 4th amendment is a good business practice. And if you are not a USA citizen or an expat, you have no standing at all - not nice for the rest of the world.
Rather, the NSA is likely causing them to lose business overall. Google's lawsuits may be just for show, but like I said, appearances matter. Would you trust RSA at this point?
Have great day likewise!
who is this "we"? You and the other leftists in your remedial reading class? Leftist dumb ass... oh, but I repeat myself.. don't worry it's for your benefit. You know... so that an idiot like you might have a chance at understanding.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Katrina was a Cat 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. You think the US Sec State might have to pay some serious attention to some US Embassies in foreign countries getting torn up all along the way into the Gulf. Bahamas. Jamaica. Heard of them? They have US embassies and missions, too.
Are you now or have you ever been a conservative?
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Killing and torture are not the same, by any measure.
They might not be the same, but they're both evil, or at least by my standards. Do yours differ?
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I very much doubt that Rice thought waterboarding was a nifty idea, and it wasn't her call in any event. Even if she did, the US has waterboarded probably tens of thousands of people, all of whom were US soldiers except for three (3) terrorists, the most recent of which was 11 years ago. If that is the basis for your decision I think you are on very shaky ground.
Google has been going after increasing amounts of government business, including intelligence agencies. Google has been sanctioned by several governments for privacy violations. If appearances matter then I think you should look twice.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Has it ever occurred to you that just because you hate someone on one "side," that doesn't mean you're part of the Other Side? If I insult democrats, that doesn't mean I like republicans, and vice versa. I just dislike warmongers and authoritarian assholes who don't care about people's fundamental liberties, period. That's why I don't like Bush, Obama, Romney, Clinton, etc. (too damn many to list, but it ends up being almost every politician).
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The world is far better off with Saddam's regime being replaced by a democratic government.
Next?
Actually no it's not. See Saddam kept the terrorists out of Iraq. What happened when we got rid of him? Suddenly Iraq was terrorist training central.
Explain to me how that was better for the world?
Be seeing you...
Beat, beat, beat. Crush, kill, destroy. Yeah yeah, whatever.
*yawn*
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Wow - Dick Cheney is now commenting on /.
That should read. " many CCTV cameras"
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
What i dont like is late comers to companies that get IPO, and then these get millions, ahead of the hardworking coders who started there from day 0.
I dont mind her there, but if the company IPOs for billions, she should not get a cent, as I cannot see anything she can contribute that would add to the book value or earnings values. /*
Actually, when IPO time rolls around people with "names" can add a great deal to the IPO. I can certainly believe that a former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor might have contributions to make on the "privacy and security" front, which is the focal point of the criticism. That aside, the IPO's that I have been involved in always included bringing in people with the right resume in high level posts at the last minute. That way the big institutional investors who are looking in to the company can say "Aha, I see they have big name official on the board, and look, they have the former CIO from Transamerica. They have all the right people in place to move the company forward!" And yes, it pissed me off that someone who had nothing to do with building the company made more than I did (by a couple of orders of magnitude) on the IPO. But Mr. Analyst working for the big investment group doesn't want to hear "we have this great guy who is super-bright and has been working 100 hours a week since the beginning as CIO".
But that is irrelevant to the major shareholders - they are simply asking themselves "can we make 30% more if we bring in this handful of people for the IPO?" If they can make an extra $200 million by spending 20 million, they'll do it every time. Once the VC guys get involved, loyalty kinda flies out the window.
So I guess the moral of the story is, make sure you get paid on the initial investments, because that might be the last bite of the apple you get.
Actually Saddam didn't keep terrorists out of Iraq, he provided them refuge, financing, and training. He just didn't have much to do with al Qaida. When al Qaida started conducting terrorist attacks in Iraq it resulted in massive loss of life for Iraqis which resulted in a large drop in support for al Qaida in the Arab and Muslim world. Their financing was significantly reduced, and many of their agents were captured or killed. Part of the reason that Afghanistan settled down for several years was the shift in effort from Afghanistan to Iraq by al Qaida. Eventually al Qaida was forced to flee Iraq and Afghanistan started heating up again. Al Qaida would have been stronger if it had not gone to Iraq.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
That should make her persona non grata to any organization that gives a damn about not wasting public money for political gain
There's a good chance here that Dropbox hired her specifically because they want to wast public money on their own gain. That's generally the reason for hiring someone with a lot of political connections.
Which means if you are opposed to that kind of thing, you should boycott Dropbox because that is what they are trying to do. Even if they get rid of Rice, they will still be trying to do the same thing.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I would be outraged if the soldiers were drafted (conscripted) and forced to go to war. This is not what happened.
They applied for a job, they were trained in their job, they get paid (poorly) for their work. If they didn't want to get killed in war then they should not have applied for a job with the military.
There is plenty of other things be outraged about with regards to the Iraq War.
I really shouldn't have used someone else's email address for this account.
this is irrelevant.
lies
Are these people all terminally stupid and really did not know that Dropbox scans all files and delivers everything interesting to the feds?
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
When in office Condi supported warrentless wiretaps and so opposed the interests of the service that Dropbox provides to it's customers - secure storage.
They have a right to question whether her intentions have change or just the position from which she plans to execute them. Maybe it's easier to do this fro the boadroom before going back into politics.
This is more Elop than Eich.
The Eich case is merely: I don't want my political opponents to work again in this town.
The Elop case is: Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin I will not let the big bad wolf in.
Condi is clearly the Elop case, as she opposes the interests of the service, which is more than just an "unfortunate" political affiliation (i.e. not on my side) and "dubious" moral history (i.e. not what I would have done).
blog.sam.liddicott.com
I very much doubt that Rice thought waterboarding was a nifty idea, and it wasn't her call in any event. Even if she did, the US has waterboarded probably tens of thousands of people, all of whom were US soldiers except for three (3) terrorists, the most recent of which was 11 years ago. If that is the basis for your decision I think you are on very shaky ground.
Google has been going after increasing amounts of government business, including intelligence agencies. Google has been sanctioned by several governments for privacy violations. If appearances matter then I think you should look twice.
Your knowledge, respectfully, on these matters are on shaky ground.
Google for "Rice approved CIA waterboarding" . In her memoir she states " ''I do not regret the decisions we made. I would never have engaged in - or encouraged the President to undertake - activities that I thought to be illegal.''
Alright then, I guess she was never bothered by mere moral questions, so I hesitate to give her my data.
Also, Human Rights Watch has higher numbers than 3. How many were tortured by Jordan, Egypt etc under extraordinary rendition may never be known.
Google is not perfect and the lesser of two evils is still evil. However, it is possible to opt out of most of the privacy invading data collection. There are legal challenges to them on privacy and that is a good thing. There are other options besides Google too if you are so inclined.
Germany also declared war on the US, and tried to convince mexico to invade.
I appreciate self-negation.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
The CIA does not fall under the control of either the Department of State or Secretary Rice, and the National Security Advisor is an advisor, not a policy maker.
If you think that the corporate board members of DropBox are personally manipulating your data you may misunderstand their business model and the role of corporate boards.
It isn't that she isn't bothered by "mere moral questions" so much as she made what she thinks were the best decisions she could and is comfortable with that. Your disagreement with her decisions doesn't mean that she is indifferent to the issues.
The Justice Department cleared waterboarding as it was performed as not constituting torture as it is legally defined even if it was coercive. If it is torture then you have to explain why the US still continues to waterboard thousands of its own troops. Even Attorney General Holder says that the waterboarded of American soldiers is not torture. Some people want it both ways.
Jordan, Egypt, and etc., are not the United States. They are responsible for their own actions.
DropBox has done nothing but add Rice to its board. Google is actively engaged in questionable activities.
I think what this boils down to is you want to punish DropBox for some things that Rice did 10 years ago that you disagree with. It has nothing to do with how DropBox does business, or what she will actually do on the board.
Would you think it unfair for DropBox to fire all employees that donate to progressive causes?
Will you be making it a practice in the future to scour the corporate boards and executives for people you disagree with as part of the buying decision for minor conveniences like DropBox?
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Oops. You shouldn't have spilled your coffee today. You're fired. And if you read your contract, it is our option whether to award you the shares you think you earned already. So, no, you don't get any shares.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Just as United States had "no grounds" to remove Hitler from power. Nazi Germany did not attack the United States in Pearl Harbor. Did United States illegally fight the war against Nazi Germany, too? Everyone knew that it was Imperial Japan which attacked Pearl Harbor.
Ridiculous comparison. Germany had invaded nearly all of continental Europe and North Africa, and the US barely lifted a finger. Know your history... prior to Pearl Harbor, a large portion of this country wanted little to do with Nazi Germany and what was going on in Europe, beyond what money they could make from trade. Few in the US were concerned about how Germany was treating its people, or the people it invaded. The economy was finally showing signs of pickup after the depression, and nobody wanted war. Germany was Europe's problem, not ours.
The US first declared war only on Japan after Perl Harbor. Then Germany then declared war on the US, according to its treaty with Japan. It was only then the US declared war on Germany. Then we kick everyone's butt, without asking permission or crying about BS WMDs. Then we rebuilt our former enemies with the Marshall Plan and hired what Nazi scientists we could get our hands on to run NASA.
I don't recall a wartime ally of Iraq attacking our naval base in Hawaii. I don't recall the US declaring war on that allay as a result of the attack. And I don't recall Iraq declaring the war on the US in response. Iraq couldn't even succeed in invading a neighbor less than 1/10th its size with no military.... They had no scientists useful for a space program. Aside from the ethical implications, nobody worried about invading Iraq. It was clear we would win that one. To compare the lead-up to the Iraq invasion with WWII is a fantasy - a fantasy that some fans of Lil' Bush's administration apparently hold to this day.
And the US did nothing to adequately rebuild Iraq - not that there was much we could do beyond inserting another iron-fisted dictator.
About the only thing that was really the same between WWII and the Iraq war was that we kicked ass. But kicking Iraq's ass kind of looses its luster without the threat of enslavement by Nazis.... Perhaps that is why some still hold onto this comparison of Iraq to Nazi Germany - its lipstick on a pig.
Your kidding, right.
Particularly the part about the oil money being used to rebuild the country.
Perhaps some small fraction of it is, but you can bet the exact same thing that happened with Saddam is happening now [well, actually worse]. Saddam would use that money to build elaborate palaces and have lots of staff, so it was kind of a trickle-down thing. Now, that money is just going out of the country, because they know they can't show extreme amounts of wealth and that if fortunes change, they and/or their families will still have the money waiting for them when they flee.
And how many decades [if ever] will it take before the actual death toll for this 'help' will have been exceeded by the people Saddam & friends would have killed. And there is certainly no guarantee of Iraq not falling into a civil war or long-term insurrection, or into some kind of religious state which winds up doing exactly what Saddam was, for the same reasons [to stay in power].
And don't forget, if you go WAY back, GWB & friends were all saying how the Iraq war would be fast, cheap AND we would be repaid afterwards with oil money...
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Since this "warmonger" seems to have garnered much criticism throughout her political career, I don't see why Dropbox would hire her in the first place.
I agree. If the rule of law still applied, and there was Justice in this land, she would be in prison right now.
I really wish that the U.S. would live up to its ideals instead of going around toppling dictators only if they provide enough of an incentive to do so. For example, in Iran, one of the reasons why the British and U.S. CIA collaborated in the first place to overthrow the Iranian PM was because he was threatening the business of British oil companies who so happened to have a nice little grip on the oil there.
But the prez is not, and the GOP is. Strange that you would bring this up.
Saddam's removal however, did have justifiable reasons, besides simply political incentive; he did commit crimes against humanity, and his treatment of his country was quite oppressive. In terms of crimes against humanity, the nations of the world had every right to remove him from power.
No shit, when your complaint is that Obama's a Kenyan Marxo-Islamic Fascist Communist, that's going to happen.
That is a fringe opinion, akin to me calling all democrats Nazis.
Slashdot: Where an AC building strawmen is considered insightful.
It's not her views that people object to, but her status as an un-prosecuted war criminal. And yes, we avoid evil criminals wherever possible, including G. Gordon Liddy.
Learn to love Alaska
Yes we are better off without Hitler, Saddam, or any of those category of cruel and oppressive regimes, but their actions do not warrant our usage of torture and secret trials to get the message of "liberty and democracy" across. By the way, Hitler and Mussolini also promised prosperity to their peoples, but the way they tried to obtain that (killing government dissenters, prejudice toward a certain group, attempted genocide) is considered a "crime against humanity". Unfortunately, the U.S and co., in Vietnam, also went around burning down people's villages, even those that weren't affiliated with the Vietcong, and drafting their citizens into wars; the FBI worked against Martin Luther King Jr., and Guantanamo's many abuses and the secret courts apparently don't get as much attention (well now they do).
I have to actually say, sometimes it's better that the U.S. no longer has as much of a grip on the U.N. anymore, or any one country in particular, at least currently.
The world is far better off with Saddam's regime being replaced by a democratic government.
Next?
What democratic government? Iraq was left as essentially anarchy. Perhaps replacing Saddam with anarchy is better - I don't know.
I do know that Saddam didn't bother me or anyone I know here in the US any more than the anarchy that is there now. I also know that my tax dollars and some people I know went to go blow things up and kill people in Iraq, and some other tax dollars and some other people I know went to try and rebuild schools and sewers only to see those things blown up and the Iraqis that helped them hunted and killed.
I don't know enough about Iraqi culture to judge Saddam or Iraq... But it does appear that we have wasted a lot of time and effort and lives on something that really wouldn't have mattered in the grand scheme of things.
I oppose murder, but that doesn't mean I want lynch mobs to kill bad people based on false charges.
Learn to love Alaska
Saddam Hussein had declared war on the United States. He even tried to assassinate a US President. Oh, and if "declared war" is a justification for invasion, does that mean that Hitler was justified in invading France? France did issue a formal declaration of war a year before Hitler's invasion. The truth is that our war on Iraq was just as if not more justified than our war on Germany. He was allied with our enemies, he took steps to harm us and our allies. He wasn't successful as much as we thought he was, but he was on a war path against us. And had he not been removed, no one knows where we would be today.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
study paid for by George Soros
You can tell the people who have no support for their irrational opinions. They mention some personality they don't like. Nancy Pelosi thinks so, so it must be wrong.
Learn to love Alaska
I don't recall a wartime ally of Iraq attacking our naval base in Hawaii.
Not in Hawaii. no. But he was allied with Al Queda. He may have had nothing to do with attack on 9/11, but his allies did. Just like the allies of Germany attacked us. And Saddam Hussein was in a legal state of war with the United States, so the "Germany had declared war" comparison still holds.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
I'm pretty sure there was some substance to the charges against Saddam.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Actually Saddam didn't keep terrorists out of Iraq, he provided them refuge, financing, and training. He just didn't have much to do with al Qaida. When al Qaida started conducting terrorist attacks in Iraq it resulted in massive loss of life for Iraqis which resulted in a large drop in support for al Qaida in the Arab and Muslim world. Their financing was significantly reduced, and many of their agents were captured or killed. Part of the reason that Afghanistan settled down for several years was the shift in effort from Afghanistan to Iraq by al Qaida. Eventually al Qaida was forced to flee Iraq and Afghanistan started heating up again. Al Qaida would have been stronger if it had not gone to Iraq.
The rate of worldwide Terrorist attacks have gone up since we've invaded Iraq. If the goal of the Iraq invasion was reducing worldwide terrorism, we did not achieve that goal. One may justify the Iraq invasion as a fight against terrorism, but if that is the case then invading Iraq was a failure. Rice was one of the key leaders in that failure.
I'm sure Rice's failures with the Iraq war will help Dropbox the way Bush's failures with the Rangers helped America.
more importantly, alienating current Customers that will abandon the service.
What he was tried for was unrelated to what Iraq was invaded for. By your (implied) logic, cops should plant drugs on murder suspects to help get a conviction of something else, after all there must be some real substance somewhere, even if the initial arrest was 100% fraudulent and illegal. The ends justify the means, right?
Learn to love Alaska
You're confused (or irrational?) on multiple levels. The question isn't if I "like" or "dislike" George Soros, but rather:
1. Did he pay for the study in question? Yes.
2. Has the study been discredited on questions of methodology? Yes.
3. Was the goal political in the above? Obviously. That is the purpose of his many foundations and donations.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
you mean like everyone who keeps bringing up the koch brothers all the time? yeah exactly!
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Has it ever occurred to you that just because you hate someone on one "side," that doesn't mean you're part of the Other Side?
Hate? I don't hate anyone. I hate what some people do. But hating strangers? Not my thing. And people who are leftist do often turn around and become decent human beings. I was a leftist myself when I was far less experience, less educated and more reactionary. Now that my faculties are more developed, I can discern rationally who's who. But that doesn't mean that certain postures that people take don't deserve denigration and derision. When the insane have taken the asylum, it's not a very good time to try to analyze them. First, they need to be stripped of power.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
I think what this boils down to is you want to punish DropBox for some things that Rice did 10 years ago that you disagree with.
People are judged on their credit reports and criminal history, why should using her past history in government to predict future behavior be any different? In this case that means questionable behavior on private data, as she has shown in the past. if its legal then anything goes and the ends justifies the means. And yes, I don't want to associate with people like that.
She is a very high profile lightning rod - unlike most board of directors - and hiring her shows very poor judgement, rightly or wrongly, on Dropbox's part. I expect they will go the way of MySpace. Therefore I'd be making a poor choice imho on betting on their future.
Have a nice evening!
Hate? I don't hate anyone.
I was not talking about you, specifically. And "hate" could also refer to criticizing people and generally disagreeing with them.
Now that my faculties are more developed, I can discern rationally who's who.
No, you can't, because that would involve reading their minds. Unless you mean situations where the person explicitly states their political positions, but in that case, everyone who can read can discern who's who, too. There is no one way that individuals in any group behave.
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I think what this boils down to is you want to punish DropBox for some things that Rice did 10 years ago that you disagree with.
Rice was part of criminal administration. We aren't talking about philosophical differences, they were crimes. Rice may not have been robbing the bank but she was still part of the gang.
Any company putting Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld or Rice on their board is going to lose my business.
Maybe you missed it but she was also the National Security Advisor at the helm when the US was attacked on 9/11. If that represents the clarity and competence she brings to her job on the board, this is not a positive development for Dropbox.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
No, you can't, because that would involve reading their minds. Unless you mean situations where the person explicitly states their political positions, but in that case, everyone who can read can discern who's who, too. There is no one way that individuals in any group behave.
That's part of the faculty of judgement. If you accept that one cannot make a judgement, then you volunteer insanity.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
I did not say that you cannot make a judgement, just that determining one's political views based on single comments (where political overall views are not explicitly mentioned) is absolutely absurd.
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You're right, it doesn't have anything to do with gitmo - we can tell, because your "side" was dead silent when gitmo was established.
Not that he's a man, but for far too many it is because he's black.
That was massive, but hidden, before he was in office. And the fact that there are lots of extremely rich people in this country who endeavor to pay far less, as a percentage, in taxes than they should.
We would love to do something about it but a certain party has decided to play obstructionist.
If your points were salient or rational I'm sure you'd find you have more allies on these issues.
Which sucks because the GOP forced it to suck.
If you're being called racist, it's probably because you're saying stupid, racist shit. Or spouting off in an irrational and incoherent manner that is indistinguishable from "I hate him cause he's black" rather than resembling a valid, well constructed argument.
Saddam's removal however, did have justifiable reasons, besides simply political incentive; he did commit crimes against humanity, and his treatment of his country was quite oppressive. In terms of crimes against humanity, the nations of the world had every right to remove him from power.
I don't feel one bit sorry that he is gone. However, what you say is not the reasons that were given for the US attack on Iraq, and the reasons that were given were rubbish.
At least 1 of the following 3 things is true:
1. You're APK.
2. You're trolling.
3. You've got some shit seriously backwards.
Furthermore, I'm not following APK around trolling every post he makes, it's very obviously the other way round.
And once again, I'll just point out that the only posts appearing in support of APK are ACs repeating his talking points. Like you.
You're welcome to go play in traffic now.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Browbeating, harassment, and intimidation.
Harassment, intimidation, and browbeating.
Intimidation, browbeating, and harassment.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
I'll keep my own judgement and you can keep yours.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Just deleted and uninstalled my Dropbox. There are plenty of other ways to share files without a war criminal onboard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... There she is lying and refusing to answer questions to the 9/11 Commission and dodging questions. The important part starts at 1:55 and ends at 10 mins in. The white house refused for months to allow Ntnl Sec. Adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify before the 9-11 Commission citing "executive privilege." After public outcry she consented to speak on condition no other Bush administration members would be asked to testify. She was asked about her terrorism briefings during August 2001 in the month preceding the 9/11/2001 attacks.
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebelli
I doubt her life will be ruined by getting dropped by dropbox. If you think having Condi on the board of directors makes it less private I think you're really naive. It's not going to be private whether she's there or not.
OK, I'll spell it out.
* the US invaded a country based on false information
* this was misrepresented to the legislature and the public at large
* thousands of americans died fighting this false war
* we SHOULD have been fighting a real war that mattered. Iraq distracted from that.
Even if your earlier statement is "true", it doesn't matter and it's not a reason to go to war.
Kill them all. Make our world pure!!!
Just like the allies of Germany attacked us.
This is nonsense. The CIA has even debunked that Al Queda was allied with Iraq. There is a ton of evidence that suggests Saddam treated Al Queda like he did any other radical religious organization - as a threat. At this point, with what we now know, to say Saddam was allied and working with Al Queda is tinfoil hat territory.
But Al Queda sure did take off after we invaded, huh?
And Saddam Hussein was in a legal state of war with the United States, so the "Germany had declared war" comparison still holds.
I'm not sure what "legal state of war" means. Certainly we never entered a strict "legal state of war" with Iraq according to US laws, only congressional authorization of use of force to the President. Do you mean Iraq law? I have to apologize, I'm at a disadvantage, I wouldn't even pretend to understand Iraq law. If you are knowledgeable on per-invasion Iraqi law, than please explain. Otherwise, you don't have any clue what you are talking about, and are likely just repeating some nonsense you hear - my guess on Fox News.
Well, they are the reasons which we would like to believe and the U.S. government wants us to, but what other reasons do you speak of, besides removing a terrible dictator?
If "Condoleezza Rice" were substituted for "Susan Rice", would you opinion would be the same?
If yes, then I can respect the consistency in your view.
The US government has made it quite clear they'll not hesitate invading this long-time ally (The Netherlands) to 'free' one of their subjects would he/she be put before the court.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
Try using an ipad. You'll find that Beta is being forced upon all ipad users. I've moved to the iPad for most of my web browsing but the /. beta badness means that I don't read /. on it any more. How are you going to react when Beta is forced upon everyone? Will you still be making snide comments about the people that beta has been forced upon? Will you abandon /. like I have on the ipad? Will you explain why you are leaving /. and then abandon it as many are doing?
Or will you appreciate the top notch work that Timothy is doing bringing /. down to a level worthy of digg?
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
There's a massive distinction that should be noted between Eich and Rice: Eich's personal opinions did not affect his work or how he treated his coworkers, whereas Rice's work is precisely what is in question.
The distinction is more clear that you're putting: Eich did not let his opinions affect his work or how he treated his coworkers, but Rice's work is what is problematic.
"should her life be ruined over the fact that she made some mistakes while in government?"
A question that could be asked of any war-criminal.
Most of her colleagues have received promotions and honors for their failures, so I can see how this might seem unfair from her point of view.
But let's quit thinking about fair for her for just a moment and think about fair to her victims. US soldiers and foreign civilians, dead, maimed brutalized, thousands and thousands of them. Think about it from their point of view for a moment instead of hers. Think about it from the point of view of the relatives of her victims.
And then think about DB customers. Paying customers, mind you, not eyeballs at facebook or google but real live paying customers. They deserve a little respect too. Not a huge amount, perhaps, but at bare minimum keeping the likes of Condy Rice outside the walls is called for. Hiring her, and saying they were proud of it?
No one with two working brain cells could possibly trust them after that. DB is dead.
Eich is a rather different situation. Eich's 'crime' was political speech protected by the first amendment - not a crime at all, however wrong-headed, and with no connection to his work. Condy's situation is different on every count.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
even though she has absolutely zero experience in technology companies.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
but lying to the American people to stage an invasion of Iraq, a country without ICBMs (and their inherent ability to deliver nuclear destruction to America), was not just a crime, it was a TREASONOUS act for which the architects of the Iraq War (Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Rumsfeld) should be prosecuted and then executed.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
When did Saddam Hussein attack America? He was a jerk, but he never attacked us even though we threatened the sovereignty of his nation by using no-flight zones which had not been approved by the UN. The US acted unilaterally against Hussein, or perhaps Bilaterally if you include the UK.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Saddam wasn't a "jerk," he was a genocidal maniac and tyrant.
Saddam was under scrutiny and restrictions after invading and annexing Kuwait. The removal of his army from Kuwait and sanctions against him were fully supported by the UN. The only reason his sovereignty was threated was due to his acts of aggression and repeated noncompliance. It is BS to claim the US acted unilaterally against Saddam. Saddam had his forces attack US forces hundreds of times, each one an act of war. I think it is sad that Saddam still finds so many apologists, defenders, and advocates for his position even to this day. Where were all the protesters when Saddam began his aggressions? Biding their time to protest against the US, that's where. The so-called "anti-war" movement has repeatedly discredited itself on his behalf.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
What it really shows is that Dropbox is COMPLETELY BLIND, to the direction of international public opinion. Other US service providers are hemmoraging international accounts, because of distrust, after the Snowden fiasco. And they bring a former National Security Advisor on board, from the Administration which began ramping up abuses? It's complete ignorance. It's a middle-finger to the people they're trying to get to be their customers. These guys are totally out of touch with reality. Not only would I never use their service, if they had stock, and I owned any, I would immediately divest.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
And don't forget this: Liberal Fascism available from Amazon.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
It just goers over your head. The nerd part is it's about dropbox, something used almost exclusively by computer nerds. The stuff that matters part is about privacy of your data, which actually matters to a lot of computer nerds. You're so wrapped up in political BS your perception is skewed and you can't see things clearly.
As I understand it, Dropbox is hashing files and comparing them with reported copyrighted stuff, which is gross and disgusting, as is Dropbox, but it's not as if they're actually listening/reading your files.
Condi Rice bears responsibility for promoting and pushing for an unnecessary war that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. That's hardly "celeb-type buillshit" That's nearing serious war crimes type of bullshit.
The US and its allies actually killed a relatively small number of Iraqis
As for what Saddam did:
Anfal ~ 180,000?
Another 10-20,000 in other atrocities?
Call it 200k?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
Which figure are you arguing isn't valid? We're looking at 100k at least, civilians directly, and violently killed. The the larger numbers, showing indirect deaths... like people dying because they couldn't get to the hospital for X or Y or Z because we blew up all the infrastructure? Easily adds up to another 100k. Multiple estimates are in excess of 500k total. I don't think you can bleat "George Soros" and pretend those people aren't dead because of the war.
Not to mention we sacrificed another 4500+ allied lives to do all this too. Again far more than Saddam ever inflicted on us, even if you give him credit for 9/11 which would be asinine.
I'm VERY skeptical of your claim that we killed fewer Iraqi's than Saddam did, and I KNOW we tossed more allied lives than Saddam ever claimed.
...considering you are a multiple personality disorder stricken person along with depression.
The only one trumpeting such claims is some AC who habitually twists people's words and often identifies himself as APK.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
False Dichotomy 101: Why can't we bitch and moan about both?
Its not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your mind.
US was founded on genocide, slavery and whitewashing said activities with sanctimonious bullshit. It is following its ideals, all the way to Hell by the looks of things.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
What i dont like is late comers to companies that get IPO, and then these get millions, ahead of the hardworking coders who started there from day 0.
I dont mind her there, but if the company IPOs for billions, she should not get a cent, as I cannot see anything she can contribute that would add to the book value or earnings values. /*
The people that were there from the beginning agreed to join based on their offers of whatever stock options they got. It is the job of the technical staff to create the product, but they add nothing to the reputation of the company to investors. One of the reasons board members are chosen is to add credibility to the company's governance which increases investor confidence and willingness to invest. If the company IPOs for billions it is likely that her being there helped that.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
you guys are down the rabbit hole. Who really cares about the illegal war as it relates to dropbox. Sure she bent the truth, but it was pretty will obsfucated and deniable. Sure she had knowledge of and tried to justify illegal torture, but nobody is being prosecuted or even really investigated. Your objection means nothing, unfortunately.
The root problem with Condi and Dropbox, is her coziness with the intelligence community, which we know has been infiltrating and damaging encryption, security, and privacy.
Cheap storage VM.
Slashdot would like to be taken seriously, I assume. But "Condi" isn't our friend; we don't know Rice on a first-name basis, much less on a nickname basis. Serious journalism/reporting/blogging doesn't refer to public figures by their first names.
The same goes for all the Google billionaires and other tech luminaries, whom tech outlets like Slashdot routinely refer to as, e.g., "Sergey" or "Larry".
They are not our friends. We're not all part of some big club together - the concerns of tech CEOs are vastly different from those of most working tech people. Tech blogging doesn't serve the tech community well by employing these kinds of linguistic devices, which help to disarm the critical thinking of readers.
That's ludicrous of course. On the Rachael Maddow show recently, CNN had an hour long exposé on Iraq and the entire war was a fabrication. Hussein was no more a threat to the US. than the Eskimos. Hussein was militarily and economically in a stranglehold from UN and US sanctions. It may be true he was brutal to the Sunnis and the Iraqis in general but that is no rational reason to invade. If... the US was going to use brutality as an excuse to invade any country weld have to pledge ourselves to invading a third of the global nations (compared to American standards). That is not only imprudent and irrational but economically impossible. The hawkish American belief that we can bring freedom to the global community is a myth. We should be minding our own business unless there is indisputable proof that another country is an actual threat as opposed to an imagined one. Which is exactly what the Bush administration created; a false pretense to extract oil. At the cost to the American public of billions and thousands of maimed and murdered men and women. It was treasonous. And I for one would never knowingly do business with a company who employed any of the top Bush administration officials.
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire
Why don't you think it's OK to allow people who join a company after day 0 to get stock options? I just joined a new company and received some stock options. Granted, it probably won't be millions, but why do you think I shouldn't be allowed that form of payment? I plan on working hard and contributing to the value of the company as well or even better as the people who started before me.
Just because the U.S. is a republic does not mean it is not a democracy. Democracy/republic are not mutually exclusive.
I don't knoow what else to add.. Don't like dropbox? Make Kim Dotcom happy instead!
is not about Mrs. Rice potential influence on Dropbox' privacy guidelines and rules. It is about rewarding people like her with a nice-paying, cosy job despite the fact that she stands for almost everything the customers of the company despise. Nominating her for the board is a kick in the balls for the users.
Whenever the US government wants to F*ck with Dropbox users privacy, they will do it, regardless of constitutional rights or who is in the board of directors.
People should be more worried that former Sen. Chris Dodd is in charge over at the MPAA. It's funny how an ex-politician who swore he'd never lobby is now in charge of one of the most powerful lobbying groups. This position has led to him pushing SOPA/PIPA which failed awhile back but he's still there pushing for more and more things to fuck with your lives online.
And folks are worried about Condolezza Rice @ Dropbox ?
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
It only "goers" over my head if you're a patronizing dweeb. Dropbox's user base is completely mainstream & not just concentrated on basement libertarian/anarchist dwellers. Dropbox is not git you self deluding twit.
It is not I that is wrapped up in politics, it is the fringe of "I'm not anonymous but I wish I had the balls to be one" activists such as yourself that views life through these distorting glasses. Do I know what corporate boards Condi Rice or to pull someone off the opposite side of the spectrum, George Stephanopoulos is on? No. It's not news for nerds & it doesn't matter.
Does it matter to you? Visibly, yes. but other than for a fringe like Timothy it does NOT interest the rest of us who are nerds but are not left wing fringe activists.
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
As of September 1941, the US Navy was waging war against Germany in the Atlantic. This followed numerous violations of the Hague Conventions regarding neutrality, in favor of the Allies. One reason Hitler declared war was that he figured Germany and the US were at war for practical purposes already, and he wanted to be seen as starting the war. Most people in the US wanted to stay out of the war against Germany, but they were becoming increasingly convinced that they wouldn't be able to.
While the US kicked Japanese butt really hard (not to slight our Australian and New Zealand allies), US participation in the war against Germany was not really as vital. By the time US intervention was making a real difference, Germany was on its way down (using 20/20 hindsight here). The Soviet Union was the biggest single contributor to the downfall of Nazi Germany, Britain probably the second. The US role was massive and highly successful, but it was generally to late to be actually decisive.
BTW, does anybody else remember apparent pressure being put on the CIA to say what Bush wanted? Or what they finally put out, which was that Iraq wasn't actually an immediate threat?
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Note that the deficit is going down, after some really terrible economic circumstances that made it pretty much impossible to reduce it. Also, "obamacare" by itself is not a reason to dislike anything. If you have quarrels with it, and its apparently successful signing up of millions of people, get specific.
That being said, you sound more like a Republican than a racist to me.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Hussein was no more a threat to the US. than the Eskimos.
"How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing. It seems still more impossible that a quarrel which has already been settled in principle should be the subject of war." -- Neville Chamberlain, 1938.
Not having a capacity to wage effective war is not the same thing as not being on a war path. Capacity can be developed, especially if one has unlimited oil revenue (that Hussein would have had once the sanctions were lifted). As every other illiterate, Rachael Maddow, promotes the argument that the war was bad compared to status quo. But history never stands still. There is never a status quo. There is only a choice of possible futures. And anyone suggesting that they know what would have happened in the alternative is either a fool or a liar.
Because she is on TV, many assume that she must be given the benefit of the doubt and she must be assumed to be a liar. Having heard her speak though, I would disagree with all such assumptions. The shallowness of her analysis is so stark that she must be deemed a fool.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Not really, no. The "We're called racists if we say anything against Obama"/"Obama's a Kenyan Muslin usurper!" nonsense has been going on now for a long time. The AC's criticism is absolutely on the money. And ironically, you're attacking the AC for bringing up what you consider to be a strawman when you the "We're called racists just because we disagree with Obama" thing is a ridiculous characterization of what Democrats and liberals have actually criticized.
If you really want to do something about it, you need to counter-attack your allies when they try to pull either BS. Tell those who insist that Democrats are not highlighting actual racism when they complain about it to knock it off. And tell those who continue to push the Kenyan Muslim Usurper bullshit to leave, and stop self-identifying with Republicans. If you continue to call yourself a Republican, but also continue to allow such views to be associated with Republicans, you don't have a leg to stand on when you claim it's a "fringe".
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Thanks for proving Muphry's Law to be correct. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...