MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Uh oh, here it comes....

Come on. Gore is a member of the board of directors. I'm sure that he's not speaking as such when he blasts Bush. He is still active in his concerns for our country and has every right to speak. Besides, someone has to tell the truth about the Shrub...

Don't worry, no one pays attention to anything Al says.

I choose to just ignore the fact that "Algore" is unfortunately a member of Apple's board and continue to happily use a Mac anyway. Being a Mac user is probably the only thing I have in common with Al Gore (Thank God!!!).

He is irrelevent, but this is why apple should have elected not to include such a controversial member on the board. For the same reason, they should not hire any big public figure that has no computer experiance - other than "creating the internet" of course

Seriously, I see not benifits in having gore on board, but i do not see any pluses either.

Mac's appeal to anyone that needs to get work done, not manage their computer - whether they are on my side or the wrong side - lol.

What does he contribute to Apple anyway??? Although I don't agree with Gore in any way, shape or form, I wouldn't expect him to be quiet on political matters because he represents a company that does business with the govt'. George Bush is not in charge of gov't procurement. I really don't think it matters at all except to the two parties......

hooty

Forget which side you are on or not: this conduct is not appropriate for a major company's Board of Directors member. Pick one or the other Al - shut up and sit on various boards and die rich or play politics with your jaw out of place because you mistakenly think "you got robbed."

Oh how I love his use of the term "preordained before 9/11" and how truthful it is. Especially considering there were plans to invade Iraq and deal with Hussein going back to the first 4 years Clinton was in office. Gore is just spouting off rhetoric and playing up to the crowd saying what is popular to say these days. Considering the alternatives, I'll stick with Bush for now.

And I agree, it is unfortunate that Gore is a member of the board, but that won't stop me from being a Mac Fan.

For those of you that don't know, board members are not necessarily picked for companies based upon their expertise in the area. They are there to help guide the company in the business arena. I do suspect that Steve picked Al partially because he liked him politically.

Note to Algore:

The U.S. President is elected based upon electoral college votes, not the popular vote.

For those that don't understand about things that the masses deem popular, maybe this will help:
[url=http://www.macdailynews.com/opinion_comments.php?id=P627_0_2_0_C]http://www.macdailynews.com/opinion_comments.php?id=P627_0_2_0_C[/url]

Yeah, right. 'Cause when you think "Al Gore", you think "Apple". All of Al's enemies are gonna lock arms and move against Apple.

I don't know if Al is good for the board or not, but I don't think his political opinions will do any harm to Apple.

And if I ever see Apple sucking up to GW, I'm gonna puke.

To Fred Mertz:

Suppose your company told you that you could no longer politically speak your mind. What would you do? Do you really think that a person should give up their right to say what they feel politically just because of who they work for? I would agree with you completely if he was attempting to speak for Apple Computers, Inc. He's not.

Al Gore certainly has a right, and an obligation to speak. After all, he won the popular vote, and would have won the electoral college vote if 5 supreme court justices hadn't decided they should choose who won. There are things he sees as being egregiously wrong, is he supposed to sit quiet because he's on the board of a computer company?

I think most (but not all) of you complaining are likely hypocritical. Why? Because if you had Rush Limbaugh or someone like him on Apple's Board, and he was trashing a democratic president, you'd be cheering him on. So quit trying to fool other people with your silly outrage, fooling yourself is more than enough.

Wow. Those who are upset about Gore's statements don't seem to be too impressed with the Right of Free Speech. Come on! Gore is a politician. He makes political statements.

I just wonder if those people who have problems with Gore's Apple affiliation also have the same problem with a right winger like Rush Limbaugh's promotion of the Mac.

Are you saying that if you're affiliated with a corporation, you should give up the right to express your views? Remember, corporations spend millions on lobbyists - whose job it is to try to influence politicians!

Finally, if Bush would sink Apple's foray into government because of something like this, Bush is even worse than I thought!

In the end it doesn't really matter. The OMB has the most say in what computer platforms the US Government purchases. These are negotiated through contracts with vendors such as GTSI and CDW-G. What Mr Gore thinks of President Bush and vice versa really has little impact on Apple's making in-roads in the government sector.

What Apple really needs is to get the OS C2 certified according to the Orange Book.

Luckily for Steve Jobs, I'm open minded enough to base my computer buying decisions on what product I think is best, and not on what political affiliations he and his board members have.

It would greatly benefit Steve to disassociate himself from such polarizing personalities like Al Gore and not have them sitting on his board. It doesn't exactly make most Americans want to buy from your company when one of your own board members is basically out calling the sitting President of our country a traitor. All it will do is drive away business from those who aren't quite as open minded with these kinds of associations.

If the shoe was on the other foot I'd still feel the same. However, something tells me that if it were a Republican sitting on Apple's board blasting a Democratic President, the media would be all over this calling for their removable from the board. Such is the hypocracy that goes on these days unfortunately. I'm glad to see that at least someone (MDN) is calling them out on it anyway.

... ironically, Bush uses a mac.

"After all, he won the popular vote, and would have won the electoral college vote if 5 supreme court justices hadn't decided they should choose who won."

No, he wouldn't have. The popular vote, and thus the electoral votes, in Florida would have gone to Bush in a recount. Why is it that Gore's manipulation of FLOTUS is always overlooked by you silly Goretistas? There's far less wrong with SCOTUS preventing illegal state court interference with elections (which is what they did) than with state courts illegally interfering with elections in the first place.

It's rather silly to connect Algore's criticism of Bush to his being on the Apple board. Unless Algore himself is making statements about his association with Apple during these outbursts then I don't think anyone will reasonably decide these are positions he's taking or expression in connection with that association.

"I just wonder if those people who have problems with Gore's Apple affiliation also have the same problem with a right winger like Rush Limbaugh's promotion of the Mac."

Well, there is one BIG difference here...Al Gore is on Apple's board of directors, Rush Limbaugh is not. Nor is Rush Limbaugh paid or otherwise compensated by Apple in any way. So to compare the two in the context of what is being discussed here is quite laughable.

go gore...call it like you see it. you shoulda shown more of this gumption in 2000 and maybe we wouldn't be in the mess we're in right now.

he's on apple's board? who cares. not everything is about apple for crissakes.

Of course Bush uses a mac, anything else would be way too difficult for someone of his limited capacity. I imagine he was disappointed when he set up his imac and it didn't swivel around in response to his movements and chimpanzee expressions like the imac in the commercial.

:D

I thought Al was your president? Didn't he win that there election thingy you guys had a few years back? If your *real* president has issue with an a**hole as big as Bush then shouldn't he be allowed to speak. Am I wrong? Oh, nevermind...

Well, we see what impact Gore's endorsement for Howard Dean had for his campaign huh? Hurry up and get him off the board now while you still can Steve, he's going to scare all of the customers away!

Maybe mad man Dean can fill Gore's vacated board seat since he's not going to have anything to do here in a couple of weeks anyway.

I'm not a major supporter of Mr. Gore, but to be honest, I'd rather have a monkey from the zoo than a monkey from the Bush gene pool act as a representative of my country and to entrust my rights as an American. Lying about sexual misconduct did not result in the loss of 534 American soldiers and the loss of 99 lives from assisting countries that lying about why we needed to go to war caused. And tax cuts? I can't speak about the rest of you, but suddenly I'm paying an increase of $2,000 a year in Federal taxes which is not because of an increase in salary (as there hasn't been one!!).

The Republican party needs to wake up and realize that over the past decade, and especially under Baby Bush, it has strayed far from its true platform.

I have read several places that Bush does not use a Mac; he was photographed with one, but when asked he said he uses a Dell.

I think a lot of people have used this topic as a forum to espouse politics rather than the answer MDN's question, namely: "Does a board member always represent their company?" (At least, that's how I interpreted it). In my opinion, any citizen of the United States is free to espouse their beliefs. It's part of the first amendment. He is not speaking as a member of the board, but rather as a citizen. I do not think that it is wrong for him to speak his mind and I don't think that anyone should hold Apple responsible for it. If the government does take actions against purchasing Apple products, then I hold that as a fault of the government or those running it. A board member does not define a company and no company should be held responsible for the independent thoughts of their employees.

I think James nailed it on the head. Gore endorses Dean and now Howard has about the same percentage of the vote in the primaries as Apple does in market share. Coincedence? I think not. Are you paying attention Steve?

natis you need to wake up. I am very curious what actions you would have taken if you were in charge the last 4 years. Why don't you tell us what you would have done differently.

Poor Al Gore, is that he has to offer the human race? Just think if he was our president. Maybe he could call Osma names.

It's amazing reading here people repeating the 'created the internet' lie.

You are ON the internet, look up what he ACTUALLY said.
It's easy to find. Now look at the genesis of the press misquoting, and the push by the RNC to get that meme out there.

Now read what Cerf ( who know who he is, right?)said about Gore's real quote.

<http://www.politechbot.com/p-01394.html>

Why is this site so seemingly so right-wing?

Not Everything is About Apple!!

re Gore and internet:

Quote from Vinton Cerf, "The fact of the matter is that Gore was talking about and promoting the Internet long before most people were listening."

Hey G,
I agree with you 100%. Where Al's statements about Bush and its affect on Apple sales are concerned its much ado about nothing; Apple sales will not be affected. I think more US citizens should stand up and speak their minds about Bush Co before it's too late. A good percentage of you, and the rest of the world, loathes the idea of Bush and another 4 years --please help out and speak up!!!

Don't worry about it Trevor. These clowns don't have any ideas of their own, all they know how to do is bash Bush. Same goes for the jokers running in the Democratic primaries. They have no ideology of their own, they simply wait to see which position Bush takes on an issue and then they automatically take up the opposite side. It'll be entertaining to watch when they get theirs by getting bashed when it counts...at the polls in November.

It is ironic how many people don't know how a President is elected. These same people will ignore the fact that many attorneys, politicians and liberal advocates merged on Florida to count ballots that were basically illegal. Any idiot knows how to punch a chad, and whether you're ready to admit it or not, it is almost impossible to create a dimpled chad.

With that said, when a high profile individual of any political persuasion takes on a role of a Corporate Board member, they also need to behave themselves in public. This doesn't mean giving up the right to Free Speech, but is does mean putting the Corporation ahead of politics and other such nonsense. If Al Gore wants to be in the Political Spotlight, then he should excuse himself from Apple's Board, or any other Corporation that might be damaged by what he says. That means damage in the eyes of ALL consumers, not just those who agree with him.

And one final note: just what are Al Gore's qualifications to be on the Board of Directors of any corporation? Who elected Al Gore to the Apple Board? Certainly not the shareholders.......

For Ron,

Gore did come very close to illegally stealing the election, fortunatly the supreme court stopped him. He can do little harm on the board - but we would be in bad shape if he had reached his first career goal.

For Rob,

I do not like what Gore has to say, and I do not think it will have any affect on apple - but i have no problem for him saying it. But I have no problem with apple removing him from the board for it either. They won't because the comapany managemnt tends to be liberal. But as long as they keep making the best computers - it does not bother me what they belive. I would feel the same if it was a conservative.

Wow, if I want to read this sort of blatantly off-topic politcal crap, I can read the Republican National Committee web site. Stop frothing at the mouth and delete this article and I might come back and read this web site again someday.

I know you "conservatisms" (as Dubya would so grammatically call you) are still upset that Bush lost the popular vote to Gore in 2000, but you're allowing this fact to cloud your judgement. Get over it already.

After all, nobody died when Clinton lied.

Lil crypto fascists posting here about how no one should criticize our dear leader?

parroting the talking points, you right wingers posting here a bit scary in your lack of perspective.

Philip:
Yeah, November is shaping up to be really scary. I mean you guys don't really have any solid alternatives to Bush. From what I've read though, most of the rest of the world would vote (if they were allowed) against the monkey man. I hope it all works out in the end regardless of who holds office...

Trevor7578

Do you think the president was right when he stated that Iraq had a huge WMD a nuclear weapons program and connections to Osama? Do you still believe that they will be found even though last night (on 'meet the press') the president conceded that the intelligence was wrong? The fact that his tax cuts and increased spending have resulted in the largest deficit ever in the history of this awesome country. Do you think this is good for us?

Are you so anti-american that you want to see this country fail and be ridiculed anymore than it is by the rest of the world?

God bless america

Al Gore, Al Gore...sounds familiar...didn't he used to have something to do with that guy that was trying to run for president, Howard Durn or Dean or something? The name is ringing a bell, I just can't put a face with it.

thatz ur brand of humr,Sheeldzee?

It is true Right wingers have no sense of humor.

I love to read the Bush Bashers. I've never seen so many sheep. Do you have a mind of your own? Can you possible imagine life today if Al Gore had been the President on 9/11? Are you really so naive that you believe Al-Qaeda can be reasoned with at a bargaining table? If so, WHY didn't YOUR PRESIDENT CLINTON do the job? You are the same people who weighed in with the 40% that elected that clown TWICE. Mr. "I can do whatever I want no matter how many people it embarrases".... SLick Willie snowed his Democratic supporters for 8 years, and none of you have any idea he was lying through his teeth everytime a noise came out of his mouth. It's a shame there are so many who know so little about life, death and freedom.

I've always found it quite humorous that the people who blast Bush, both here in this forum and the Democrats running against him, always have to resort to some sort of name calling or personal insult to make their argument against him. They never come up with any specific plans or ideas when it comes to how they would like things done differently.

It's easy to scream and rant all day about how awful you think someone is, but it would help tremendously if someone came up with something specific they would do differently that would make things better than they currently are.

When you're always having to resort to personal insults and innuendo to get your point across about how you dislike Bush and his policies, it only shows how ignorant you are. Problem is, they're all too stupid to even realize it.

"I love to read the Bush Bashers. I've never seen so many sheep. Do you have a mind of your own? "

Dang dude, you live in bizarro world , cause thats exactly what I think of you.

"It's easy to scream and rant all day about how awful you think someone is,...It's easy to scream and rant all day about how awful you think someone is, but it would help tremendously if someone came up with something specific they would do differently that would make things better than they currently are.

You know I just read the same posts you referred to, and most are people bashing Gore in the manner you just described.

???WTF?

G5Mac

It is sheepish of you to think all those disgusted with Bush voted for Clinton or Gore. This is now about a needless war, misinformation about WMD, the falling price of the dollar, a poor economy, record deficits and the lack of credibility the US now has with the foreign community. It will be very difficult to present any evidence about other countries to anyone without a snicker.

"It's easy to scream and rant all day about how awful you think someone is, but it would help tremendously if someone came up with something specific they would do differently that would make things better than they currently are. "
LOL!!!!!

I think u b refferring to the GORE bashers on these here posts!

Or u be a little sensitive w/ critisism of GWB?

LOL!

I've loaded the images on WMD and have them in the htdocs folder:
Here is the content of his email. Have fun with it

*sigh* I remember a carefree time not so long ago when the US economy was experiencing unprecedented growth, the president was getting blow-jobs, the vice president was misspelling potatoes, porn stars still cared and music was made by musicians (not producers)... Fast-forward to today... the president is presumably NOT getting head and the vice prez is an evil cyborg from from some other world named Haliburton... I think there's some sort of debt problem too... er and lot's of dead people...
God Bless America

Wow. I can remember a time when Macintosh was associated with creative types who tend to be more left leaning. I guess those switch ads have managed to bring some right leaning Mac buyers in. Oh well, there goes the neighborhood.

"Oh well, there goes the neighborhood."

i hear ya, brother.