America has fallen, can she get back up?

The U.S. has rendered ourselves so reliant on foreign countries that we are in dire danger of becoming a second-class financial and industrial power. Thanks to the Bush Administrations policies and the mishandling of economic conditions, we are about to be passed by China in both rankings.

The U.S. is a bankrupt nation. Medicare and Social Security are under-funded, our state and local governments are under-funded, private-sector pension plans are under-funded. How did we get into this mess? Inept politicians, apathetic voters, and rampant greed and cynicism on all levels.

We are becoming increasingly indebted to China and they are buying Wall Street. The very financial cornerstone of our economy is failing and they are taking advantage of it by buying an ever increasingly larger stake in our financial future. Capitalism is taking a hit and its hurting us all. George Bush’s response is as long as money is changing hands and his cronies are getting their share it is all good. Never mind that the rest of us are loosing our shirts, homes, and jobs.

Our dependence on foreign oil has allowed Saudi Arabia to wield a much larger controlling stake over our economy than any foreign entity should ever have. The very greedy and selfish nature of capitalism has brought us to this point. And Americans refuse to curb our driving habits to ease this dependence.

Our greatest chance to reverse these trends is to replace George W. Bush’s policies with something that will return America’s future as top priority ahead of personal gain. We have fallen victim to greedy political power hounds who have distanced themselves from any accountability and in doing so has left this country to flounder due to a lack of direction. The needs and concerns of the citizens of this once great nation have fallen to the wayside while political hacks like Karl Rove, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have decimated and dismantled the constitution. They have, in less than eight years of political circus-acts, the likes of which this country has never before seen, have turned this once thriving, self-reliant nation from an industrial and financial power into a groveling street beggar for foreign oil and money. They need to be booted out immediately. At this point, anyone is a better choice.

Our Congress, the very people who are charged with keeping this country focused on our future, spends countless millions of dollars and expends countless hours pursuing such secondary and tertiary issues as steroids in sports and pointing the finger at each other over who did or said what to whom instead of tackling one of the greatest threats to our sovereignty: illegal immigration.

We have been coerced into funding an illegal war, we have been spied upon under the thinly-veiled disguise of terrorist threats, our dollar is shrinking at an alarming rate, and Congress spends its time on preserving the purity of baseball! The irresponsibility and incompetence is outrageous!

There was a time when citizens would stand up to our government at all levels and demand to be heard and listened to. There was a time when the future seemed promising. There was a time when citizens actually believed that if they did stand up and speak their minds, if they did protest, they would be heard and the future actually had promise. These political dark ages that have befallen us are the direct result of politicians who are more concerned with their own re-election and therefore place more importance on their financial backers than on what the everyday blue-collar taxpayer has on his mind. Public outcry for the common good has been drowned out by special interests so often that we no longer see the point of voicing our opinion. Apathy has finally won out. The ‘Silent Majority’ has grown larger and as a result wealthy special interests now run this country. And look at where it has gotten us.

Lawyers get rich defending insurance companies who back out on their obligations, ad agencies get rich peddling products they try to convince consumers we can’t live without, corporations get rich selling products that help ruin our environment, and our federal government passes legislation to protect them all. What do taxpayers get? We get to foot the bill and the occasional joke of a handout in the form of a $300 tax refund designed to ‘stimulate’ the economy.

Our political system has become a game where the expectations of the voters are acknowledged and then step by step, debate by debate, through name-calling, character assassination, and generally dirty politics, the candidates are whittled down to the smoothest talkers with the thickest skins. And in the end, what do we have? A changeling who is able to bend, twist and re-invent themselves at a moments notice to whoever can get them re-elected. We have given up on using our moral compass as a guide. Political integrity and courage, along with personal pride have taken a backseat to money. Capitalism, perfected.

That ‘Going to Hell in a Hand basket’ phrase I grew up hearing about seems more relevant today than ever before.

Buyer Beware: HD DVD players are obsolete!

With the recent news that Toshiba has abandoned the High Definition DVD format technology for Blu-ray, several retailers are taking the despicable move to rename the HD DVD player in hopes of fooling the consumer into thinking they are getting something else.

Play.com has renamed Toshiba’s "HD-EP30 HD DVD Player" (as it was known on February 15th) is now listed as the "HD-EP30 HDMI Upscaling Player with HD DVD High Definition Playback."

Circuit City renamed Toshiba’s HD-A3 as an “Upconversion DVD/HD-DVD Player."

How many others have followed suit, I don't know, but beware.

In all fairness, the players do ‘upscale’ the HD DVD, but it depends on your TV as to whether or not an upscaling DVD player is worth the price. Your set may already be able to perform ths function. If you have an older CRT-based set you will most likely not see any improvement. Your DVD will probably not display any improvement over current HD television broadcasts.

Toshiba’s explanation for dropping the format: "We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

This decision will not impact Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/top-ten-things-to-do-with-your-now-defunct-hd-dvd-player/ offers a humorous list of suggestions on how to get the now defunct HD DVD players out of your life.

Just make sure you research what you are getting before plunking down your money, even if it is at a sale price it could be outdated.

Another beef recall?

The largest beef recall in U.S. history! 143 million pounds of beef recalled!

Aren’t we getting tired of suspecting our food supply? Aren’t we getting tired of the irresponsible manner in which some employee or employees abuse the rules or completely ignore rules resulting in unsafe food for the rest of us?

Once again an employee (whether on his/her own or under the direction of a supervisor) bypassed regulations, and once again there is a severe penalty. This time to the company who employed the individual(s) responsible.

Work ethic, or lack thereof, is once again the root cause.

When are we going to learn? There is a reason for rules and regulations. It doesn’t matter if you understand them or if you think they are a waste of time.

People who put these rules in place are not doing so as a means of making your job more difficult. These rules are put into place to protect everyone, including you.

At the outset, this particular recall looks to be for punitive reasons. The USDA spokesman admitted there have been no cases of illness related to the recalled meat. So why the recall if not because the company simply did not follow regulations? Because not following regulations leaves the door open to the possibility that people could get sick or die from possibly tainted meat. This is why inspectors have to witness your job performance. Very simple, yes?

The undersecretary of agriculture said there was a ‘remote probability’ that the meat could cause illness in humans. Why did he make this determination? Because, since a decision was made by an employee or employees of the Westland/Hallmark Meat Packing Company in Chino, California to bypass safety regulations then quality control was lost. This loss of quality control means people could get sick. He has a responsibility to the general public and cannot afford to just over-look this blatant disregard for safety policy. He is doing his job.

This is all very basic stuff people. Rules and regulations were bypassed because someone did not want to take the time or trouble to do their job properly.

The employee or employees who participated in this clear violation of safety policy could possibly bring down this meat packing business (the very people who signed their paychecks) and put a lot of people out of jobs! This is serious!

Was it worth it to Westland/Hallmark to have people on their payroll who have so little regard for the safety of the general public and themselves and were more concerned with saving a little time and trouble for themselves? I think not.

Poor job performance, lack of responsibility, and a general lack of work ethics costs this nations employers millions and possibility billions of dollars every year. And these loses are passed on to the buying public. Which includes the very people responsible for poor job performance and lack of work ethics. We are costing ourselves money for bad job performance and ignoring the very rules we are paying someone to enforce. It just doesn’t make sense to me to continue this madness.

Why is it that some people think they don’t have to follow these rules? It seems as soon as they are left on their own and are trusted to continue to do the quality work they performed while being closely monitored, they go for the shortcut and think it is okay as long as they don’t get caught? This attitude is killing our economy. OUR economy. It is everyone’s responsibility to make it work!

Doesn’t anyone see the big picture? Doesn’t anyone care that in this particular case hundreds of people could have been sicken due to these individuals carelessness and lack of work ethic? Apparently not, because it just keeps happening. Do companies need to spend more money for inspectors to make sure their employees do their job properly?

Does our government need to spend more of our tax dollars for inspectors to make sure that companies follow safety rules?

Do we have to teach ethics and morals in our schools to educate our children to the importance of looking out for one another?

Have we become so unethical that we have to be policed every minute we are on the job just to make sure we do what we signed up for, what we agreed to do in exchange for a paycheck?

Our responsibility goes beyond just bringing home our pay. Each one of us is responsible for the whole nation. If you don’t believe me then take a second look at what happened with this meat packing company and the many before them that went out of business, putting people out of work, and the people who were sickened because someone did not follow guidelines put in place by people who we pay to regulate the quality of our work.

Every working person knows the rules and expectations of their employer and yet we continue to hear about the results of some employee who takes it upon themselves to take short-cuts. Sometimes at a devastating cost to others.

The notion of ethics is being lost on us. We need to reverse this trend quickly.

Why can’t we police ourselves to ensure a good, safe product or service is produced? Why can’t we take it upon ourselves to perform to our best ability on the job without being watched over every minute? It would save us all so much money by not having to pay for the inspectors, the supervisors, the police.

This whole problem with lack of work ethic can be applied to the general lack of morals our society displays. We have ever increasing police forces in every large city and small town across America because of scum-bags and low-lifes who prey on others. If we all had higher moral standards we wouldn’t have such a large police force, we wouldn’t have a backlog in the court system, we wouldn’t have overcrowded jails, we wouldn’t have so many lawyers, we wouldn’t be paying such high tax rates to cover all of this.

This world would be a much more pleasant place to live if we all had higher morals and a greater work ethic. It is not out of our reach.

Censorships new arena

Banning books is nothing new, banning ideas from reaching the masses is nothing new. The American education system has been the focal point of freedom of expression and new ideas since the time we began passing on ideas to our younger generations.

Censorship is a permeable fine line between what passes for well written or displayed good taste and gratuitous crudeness. It is a matter of style. Vulgarity can be accepted if it is written well, vulgarity will be banned if it is not.

Who decides what is well written? Every individual, but they need access in order to determine for themselves what they don’t want or do want in their lives.

Lets get a few terms out in the open:
Censorship is the suppression of ideas and information that certain persons—individuals, groups or government officials—find objectionable or dangerous. It is no more complicated than someone saying, “Don’t let anyone read this book, or buy that magazine, or view that film, because I object to it! ” Censors try to use the power of the state to impose their view of what is truthful and appropriate, or offensive and objectionable, on everyone else. Censors pressure public institutions, like libraries, internet service providers, and schools to suppress and remove from public access information they judge inappropriate or dangerous, so that no one else has the chance to read or view the material and make up their own minds about it. The censor wants to prejudge materials for everyone.

Censorship occurs when expressive materials, like books, magazines, films and videos, websites, or works of art, are removed or kept from public access. Individuals and pressure groups identify materials to which they object. Sometimes they succeed in pressuring schools not to use them, libraries not to shelve them, book and video stores not to carry them, publishers not to publish them, art galleries not to display them, or internet service providers not to allow them. Censorship also occurs when materials are restricted to particular audiences, based on their age or other characteristics.

Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.

Intellectual freedom is the basis for our democratic system. We expect our people to be self-governors. But to do so responsibly, our citizenry must be well-informed.

Libraries provide the ideas and information, in a variety of formats, to allow people to inform themselves.

Intellectual freedom encompasses the freedom to hold, receive and disseminate ideas.

When someone takes it upon themselves to determine when censorship is to be enforced they immediately step on the intellectual freedom that is basic to every persons right to choose.

Book banning is a familiar foe of American education and peaks during cycles of political and cultural conservatism. "Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself," United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart remarked. "It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime."

Free people everywhere intuitively hold a deeply felt disdain for authoritarianism in all of its various forms. Censorship has crept into our ability to freely receive opposing views via the internet. The supposed ‘superhighway’ of information.

Newspaper editors practice censorship daily by restricting what news stories reach the public. They all have dead files where stories considered outside the scope of their newspapers charter are filed.

Internet service providers, by the very nature of their identity as ‘service providers’, have no business censoring anything that passes through their servers.

The owners of these services have the mistaken notion that if they allow objectionable material to pass through their servers then they are somehow associated with the person or persons creating the ‘objectionable’ material.

There are many cases in which censorship is the core reason for a riff between students and teachers, teachers and school boards, school boards and the public, the public and governments.

Charleston, West Virginia high school students recently mounted a protest against parents and the Kanawha County Board of Education for restricting their reading of two Pat Conroy books depicting graphic violence, suicide and sexual assault.

Webb City, Missouri students learned first hand the relationship between banning books and how it increases the popularity of those books. The books in question are from a series referred to as the Alice books. They deal with issues of an adolescent girl's development.

Arlington, Texas school board members have banned cleavage for this upcoming school year because they “think their daughters are growing up a little bit too fast these days” and “our young males are looking at more than their English book, their speech book, their science book.” The new dress code reads, in part, “The display of cleavage is unacceptable. Low cut blouses, tops, sweaters, etc. with plunging necklines are not allowed."

Texas school officials rejected a widely used environmental textbook, claiming it was filled with errors. The author says they're censoring him because they didn't like his green views.

Miami-Dade Florida school board sued by ACLU for removing a childrens book on life in Cuba from its library.

And who can forget the famous 1925 Scopes Trial, in which two of America's most famous attorneys debated whether evolution should be taught in the public schools.

These examples involve what we try to and try not to pass on to our children. They are all in the form of books. But the internet is another story.

Total censorship of the internet is impossible, for now. Given the nature of the internet’s ability to ignore national borders, those seeking knowledge from within, say North Korea and China, can access information hosted by computers outside of their control very easily.

Since governments cannot own the internet, government attempts at censoring content will fail. The human mind’s need to expand will not be cloistered by those who wish to maintain control over them. The current design of the internet dictates that you cannot keep this genie in its bottle.

While there is no universally agreed upon definition of what constitutes "pervasive censorship", organization Reporters without Borders (RSF) maintains an internet enemy list while the OpenNet Initiative categorizes some nations as practicing extreme levels of Internet censorship. Such nations often censor political content and may retaliate against citizens who violate the censorship with measures such as imprisonment.

You can imagine who is on Reporters Without Borders enemy list, but let’s identify them anyway: Cuba, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, North Korea, People’s Republic of China, Syria, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.

These nations are identified by OpenNet Initiative as having filtered the internet for various reasons, ranging from sex videos to criticism of a military’s regime: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, European Union, Fiji, Finland, France, India, Israel, Italy, Morocco, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Can censorship be surgically applied? Not yet. And until it can be this basic tenant of our free society should not be allowed to be exercised by a handful of overly zealous prudes.


Submitted to you for further exploration of censorship and to educate yourself to its ugly pervasiveness, checkout these websites and books:

American Library Association celebrates banned book week every year at the end of September.

Forbidden Library posts a list of books that some people consider “dangerous”.

Banned Books and Censorship identifies some sites that deal with who bans books and why.

Censorship or Education? Feminist views on pornography

Censoring controvery undermines education

Pornography, Obscenity and the Case for Censorship

Book Censorship bibliography

As always, you are encouraged to submit comments.

Calling on conscience

Florida’s former prison secretary, James McDonough, says he inherited a world of criminal behavior taking place in that state’s penal system.

• Top prison officials admitting to kickbacks;
• Guards importing and selling steroids in an effort to give them an edge on the softball field;
• Taxpayer funds to pay for booze and women;
• Guards who punished other guards who threatened to report them.

"Corruption had gone to an extreme," McDonough said, saying it all began at the top. "They seemed to be drunk half the time and had orgies the other half, when they weren't taking money and beating each other up."

Why did he wait until after leaving office to share these criminal activities with the world?

McDonough is a former Army colonel who commanded troops in Vietnam and Africa. He served as Florida's drug czar before taking on the job as the head of Florida's prison system, which oversees 90,000 inmates. I am willing to bet that he was given the job because he could clean it up. Which means people in charge knew it was going on before he was appointed, so why weren’t the individuals involved brought up on charges by those in charge?

I know it is common practice to not comment on ongoing investigations, but there were 90 wardens, supervisors, colonels and majors fired for corruption or, at the very least, not to be trusted. 280 others were demoted. This is a major shakeup that went unnoticed.

Criminal charges were filed against more than 40 penal system employees, and most were convicted. Among those arrested were seven officers accused of beating inmates, including five accused of forcing a prisoner to drink toilet water. All have pleaded not guilty, of course. No matter how low a person sinks in his or her personal life, there is no good reason for another person to sink even lower in an attempt at punishment.

Tina Hayes, the director of the prison's department initiatives who has worked in the prison system for 28 years, said the atmosphere before McDonough arrived was "a little tense" with workers "always on edge." She said employees who didn't attend softball games or play on the teams were "isolated" and "pushed aside."

Again, why did we not learn of this massive corruption and resulting cleanup until after it all happened? It did not all happen last week.

There is probably more of this kind of tyranny going on right now behind closed doors and allowed to continue because of closed mouths. This is another form of terrorism. But this is the kind that we will only learn of after someone steps down from office or leaves the job and tells someone. Why not tell someone now? Why should it be allowed to continue? This cannot become acceptable human behavior. We are not immoral beings despite the animal like behavior of those involved in this criminal enterprise. They do not represent the rest of us.

Do we really live like this? I am not naïve enough to think this cannot happen, but I am always surprised when I learn of how long this has been going on. Are we so depraved of morals and integrity that we allow others to get away with this type of abuse of power and theft of public funds? Are we so far removed from caring that stealing taxpayers dollars is stealing from ourselves as well? Are we so devoid of compassion for others who are being subjugated for someone else’s pleasure that we allow it to continue? How can we turn the other cheek and continue to live with ourselves?

There are anonymous ways to contact the police, why isn’t this avenue taken more often? Not all policemen or people in a position of authority are corrupt.

What is happening to the moral character of our citizenry? Have we slipped so far that no one places any importance in doing what they know is right? This is a very sad commentary on the moral state of the American people and it is unjust. Let’s not prove it is true.

Please, if you know of illegal and or immoral activity taking place that results in theft of public funds, abuse of power, threat of bodily harm or death, find the conscience to say something. Notify somebody. Leave a comment here, anonymously, if that is all you feel you can do. Doing so just might give you the courage to report it to some authority who can act on behalf of the victims.

An open letter to AlmerSoft

I used your product, AlmerBackup, for two and a half years without any problem. It saved me when I needed it most. Unfortunately, I can never use it again.

So, for the price of $29 I suppose I could philosophically accept that the money was well spent. But backup programs are supposed to be able to be used any and every time they are needed, aren’t they?

Your product is good for regularly scheduled backups. I set up the software to copy my files every day and then enjoyed the fact of knowing my files were safe and up to date for when I needed them.

In November of last year I experienced one of the most horrible experiences a computer could go through, my motherboard had a breakdown. While researching a replacement for the motherboard I discovered that my single core CPU was pretty much outdated so I had to buy a dual core compatible motherboard which meant I had to purchase a new CPU as well.

After being without my computer for three weeks I finally got everything together and the computer was up and running, new motherboard, new CPU, new hard drives, and a new operating system.

I used the backed up files that were updated faithfully by your software to reload everything to the position I was in when the motherboard experienced its meltdown.

When I reinstalled the AlmerBackup software that I purchased in 2005 and inserted the registration key that worked at that time I learned it no longer worked. The software ran as a trial version for thirty days, telling me everyday that it would expire in x number of days.

During this time I sent you several requests for assistance, politely explaining my situation. I did not hear from you until the day the trial period ended and I had to remove the software from my system. I was asked to send a reason why I decided to not purchase your software. The response I sent to you was that your customer support was non-responsive to my several pleas for help.

One of your managers, Max Fadeev, contacted me through his email address saying that several responses were sent to me that went ignored.

I have received email from AlmerSoft in the past without any problem, why these recent response did not get to me, I have no idea. But, I asked him through his email address for help to solve my problem.

He responded, not by offering help, but by reiterating that he did respond to my requests. I again assured him I did not receive the responses and to please help.

On his third contact with me he asked for the original registration key which I sent to him that very same day.

This last exchange took place on January 17, 2008 and I have not heard from this company again.

I have sent three requests for status updates since then without any response.

I can think of three possible reasons for not helping me:

1. you are stumped and embarrassed to admit it
2. you just flat are not responsible enough to try to solve this problem
3. you think I am lying and simply trying to get another copy for another computer without paying for it.

Since you won’t talk to me I can only speculate as to your lack of response.


Another outstanding issue I had asked about before purchasing but has never been addressed is:

You can copy to a CD but only if your backup size does not exceed one disk. It simply will not work if you need multiple disks. You said you was working on improving this feature but I suspect that was just to get me to buy it because you never did get it to work.

By the way, other software that reverted to trial software after the computer rebuild , their customer service helped me get their software working after providing proof of purchase. How does this make you look? I’ll leave that up to who ever reads this.

So, my question to the reader is: What do you get when you decide to sell your software online and then refuse to assist a customer with problems getting it to work? AlmerSoft.



I just want to warn everyone out there that if the time comes to rebuild your computer with a new motherboard and CPU, as we all have to do occasionally, and you have AlmerSoft as your backup of choice then you will get only one chance to use it because they will not honor your software purchase after that one use.

Do yourself a favor and look at all the newer free backup software and stay away from AlmerSoft.

Here is a couple sources of free backup software to use instead of AlmerSoft:
thefreecountry.com

freebyte.com has some free disk utilities.

Please feel free to send in your suggestions for some good free backup utilities.

Thank-you

Another reason to boycott Fox News

Karl Rove, the strategist behind President George W. Bush's ascendancy to the White House, will join Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel as a contributor. This is reaching new lows even for Fox News.

Rove was chief strategist for Bush's 2000 presidential campaign and joined him in the White House in several capacities. He resigned his White House position as Deputy Chief of Staff in August 2007 under allegations of breaking several federal laws.

Rove has been contributing opinion pieces to The Wall Street Journal, which also belongs to Murdoch's NewsCorp, and will debut on the television network with live coverage on Super Tuesday, the biggest day of the presidential primary election season. This in itself is reason to shun Wall Street Journal.

We can expect Karl Rove to spew extreme bias against anything that is not republican or extreme right wing conservative politics. Another proof that ‘fair and balanced’ reporting does not exist on the Fox Network.

Some history of this low-life character.
In 1969, the Selective Service System held its first lottery drawing. Those born on December 25, like Rove, received number 84. That number placed him in the middle of those (with numbers 1 [first priority] through 195) who would eventually be drafted. On February 17, 1970, Rove was reclassified as 2-S, a deferment from the draft because of his enrollment at the University of Utah in the fall of 1969. He maintained this deferment until December 14, 1971, despite being only a part-time student in the autumn and spring quarters of 1971 (registered for between six and 12 credit hours) and dropping out of the university in June 1971 after he no longer needed the cover of student to dodge the draft. Rove was a student at the University of Maryland, College Park in the fall of 1971; as such, he would have been eligible for 2-S status, but registrar's records show that he withdrew from classes during the first half of the semester. In December 1971 he was reclassified as 1-A. On April 27, 1972, he was reclassified as 1-H, or "not currently subject to processing for induction". The draft ended on June 30, 1973.

This illustrates the trickery he would soon put to good use to advance his career in politics.

In the fall of 1970, Rove used a false identity to enter the campaign office of Democrat Alan J. Dixon, who was running for Treasurer of Illinois. He stole 1,000 sheets of paper with campaign letterhead, printed fake campaign rally fliers promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing", and distributed them at rock concerts and homeless shelters, with the effect of disrupting Dixon's rally. (Dixon eventually won the election). Rove's role would not become publicly known until August 1973. Rove told the Dallas Morning News in 1999, "It was a youthful prank at the age of 19 and I regret it”.

But, he learned from it and ‘improved’ his ability to stay under the radar while reaching new lows. This shows this man’s moral character.

Rove traveled extensively, participating as an instructor at weekend seminars for campus conservatives across the country. He was an active participant in Richard Nixon's 1972 Presidential campaign. As a protégé of Donald Segretti (later convicted as a Watergate conspirator), Rove painted the Nixon opponent George McGovern as a "left-wing peacenik", in spite of McGovern's World War II stint piloting a B-24.

This shows the low depth’s to which Rove will stoop to discredit an opponent.

Under George W. Bush
Rove has played a significant role in shaping policy at the White House. One oft-cited example is that terror warnings were regularly made at times when John Kerry's ratings rose during the 2004 presidential election. Another is the 2006 announcement that planned terrorist attacks had been thwarted, which was made soon after the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program was discovered.

Rove held stock interests in companies that he was directly involved in setting policy for.

At a fund-raiser in New York City for the Conservative Party of New York State in June 2005, Rove said, "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." Democrats demanded Rove's resignation or an apology, and pointed out that every Democrat in the Senate voted for military force against Al-Qaeda in retaliation for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States; however they got neither.

Families Of September 11, an organization founded in October 2001 by families of some of those who died in the terrorist attack, requested Rove "stop trying to reap political gain in the tragic misfortune of others". In contrast, the Bush administration characterized Rove's comments as "very accurate" and stated that the calls for an apology were "somewhat puzzling", since he was "simply pointing out the different philosophies when it comes to winning the War on Terrorism.

During the campaign, critics alleged that Rove had professional ties to the producers of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth television ads that criticized Kerry's Vietnam-era military service and public testimony against American soldiers, although no evidence of Rove's direct involvement was ever produced.

A few months after the election, Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) publicly alleged that Rove engineered the Killian documents controversy during the 2004 campaign, by planting fake anti-Bush documents with CBS News to deflect attention from Bush's service record during the Vietnam War. Other than Rove's supposed motive, however, no evidence supporting this speculation has ever been publicized. Rove himself has denied any involvement.

This illustrates why Bush and Rove got along so well, they both are slippery snakes who callously lie about the character of anyone who opposes their points of view. And Fox News hired this man, with this kind of history as a news commentator? Incredible!

On August 29, 2003, retired ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV claimed that Rove leaked the identity of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, in retaliation for Wilson's op-ed in The New York Times in which he criticized the Bush administration's citation of the yellowcake documents among the justifications for the War in Iraq enumerated in Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address.

The leak of Valerie Plame’s identity, led to Lewis Scooter Libby to be tried and convicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. Charges should have been brought against Karl Rove for the leak instead of Scooter Libby.

There has been enough substantial allegations brought against Karl Rove to indicate that he is as underhanded and sneaky as the allegations say he is. The fact that he has not been prosecuted for any of these charges is proof of his protection by highly placed people.

The list of his underhanded and dirty politics is a long lone because he has been associated with shady deals for all of his political career.

During the past 30+ years you can look at any campaign this man was involved with and find every lying, cheating, smearing, and general dirty politics at play, all under Karl Rove’s direction or direct involvement. He IS the smear campaign tactics that voters despise about political campaigning.

This says a lot about the character of every politician that has ever hired him and it says a lot about the news media that gives him voice him today.

Giving a forum in the media to a law breaker and hired character assassin such as Karl Rove is loathsome and bespeaks of Murdoch’s disdain for the media and his readership. Fox News and Rupert Murdoch should be ashamed to even associate with this low-life. But then again, this is business as usual for Fox News who allows such racially ignorant, arrogantly objectionable people as Bill O’Reilly to spout his opinionated drivel.

Hiring Karl Rove only shows that Rupert Murdoch will resort to any unconscionable and sensational means necessary to sell news. He doesn’t give a rats ass about the principle of truth, decency, morals or ethics of journalism. His association with Karl Rove proves this beyond all doubt.