back to article Republican e-chief exits, denounces 'blog-flogging simpletons'

The former Microsoft and Yahoo! exec who helped take the US Republican party online has quit saying the party must out-program its rivals. Cyrus Krohn did not give reasons for his exit, but blamed "more than a software glitch" for the party's defeat during the US presidential elections to the Democrats and Barrack Obama. …

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  1. g e

    Oh really?

    I think it was a bit more than their web presence issues that led to the Dem's getting into the Whitehouse. The only programming the Rep's need is DE-programming, I'd think...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Well duh.

    ""Regrettably, we're in terribly short supply of professionals"

    You reap what you sow. In this case, the results of pathetic science education and force feeding of religious bullshit into the minds of US children.

  3. Pierre

    Strange turn in politics

    "Maybe we should start providing computer science scholarships in exchange for a commitment to serve our party?"

    You mean, clientelism? Well, it sure worked OK for Mussolini, go ahead...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    *raises hand*

    Okay I read over it once or twice to see if I could see it, but I couldn't, what the hell is GOP?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Their problem is obvious

    Anybody stupid enough to not realize Rush Limbaugh and Ann Colter are full of crap is obviously far to stupid to code a web app. Just look at the political map of the US -- the states with the best educated populations are all blue states, the states with the worst educated populations are all red states!

    Paris Hilton 'cause she can't code a web app either -- wait, is she a republican?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Republican = social conservative = neophobe = <blink>00:00:00</blink>

    That's what you get for being proud of your ignorance. Give it up granddad, you're just never going to understand these new-fangled computer thingys.

  7. Robert Grant

    "...the results of pathetic science education and force feeding of religious bullshit..."

    I can't even count the number of times I've wanted my code to evolve, and I just don't have the know-how to make it happen! Evolution is so relevant to Comp Sci; it makes me sick that I never learned that much about it.

    P.s. I'm not a Creationist, I'm just also not an idiot. If I wanted to read comments that blame what their author hates rather than the culprit, I'd read the Mail.

  8. AWeirdoNamedPhil
    Boffin

    The short supply of professionals is easy to explain.

    Most information technology professionals I know here in the U.S. are either greens, libertarians, democrats, or independent. Republicans are almost nonexistent among the rank and file. Usually it's just the managers who vote GOP, and everyone thinks they're nuts for doing so.

    Also, there's a real stigma among educated people (including in particular technologists) against siding with any aspect of the Republican party or their worldview. Siding with them is like wearing a skin-head shirt to a diversity celebration. So, they're not going to be able to find many Americans willing to "help" them. Many would rather be unemployed.

    The GOP can't even count on foreign consultants; after all, they're the party who:

    * spent eight years torturing, imprisoning, and bombing the crap out of various foreign governments and people;

    * Changed all the rules for travel so they could steal foreigner's laptops at border crossings, and detain (and ship to Syria for torture) any non-U.S. citizen they want;

    * Stripped U.S. citizens of as many civil liberties as possible while pretending that no one else had any civil liberties at ALL;

    * Took a slash and burn approach to science education, pushing Christianity as the One True Faith (that'll go over REAL big with Hindus, Buddhists, and Islamics, i.e. nearly the entire consultant population in Asia!).

    They're basically hosed, and deservedly so. They're like the guy who got drunk at New Year's, picked a fight with every other male guest and vomited on the host, then caused the cops to raid the party and got hauled off in cuffs. You know -- the guy you don't invite anywhere, ever again.

    For the AC, there are plenty of programmers here in the U.S. and more graduate every year. You're just mindlessly parroting GOP and corporate propaganda, which was meant to excuse offshoring and outsourcing. Here are your tickets to the Failboat; enjoy your cruise.

  9. Duncan Hothersall

    GOP

    = Grand Old Party, a widely used name for the Republican Party. Think of Tory = Conservative and how often you see the word Tory explained over here.

  10. cybersaur
    Flame

    re: what the hell is GOP?

    The GOP used to be an American political party comprised mainly of really old, uninformed white people. The central tenet of the party was that government was the problem in most of society's ills and when GOP members got elected, they diligently set out to prove it!

    Flame icon in the hope that nothing will ever rise from the ashes of the failed GOP.

  11. kain preacher

    @raises hand

    GOP Grand Old Party

    Google is your friend .

  12. amanfromMars Silver badge

    The Digital Divide ...... AI Grand Canyon Rapids Ride for Jumpers/Quantum Leapers

    "Maybe we should start providing computer science scholarships in exchange for a commitment to serve our party?"

    Err, maybe probably definitely they should look for a leader/phisher of men. ...... although it is always very wise to have ace programmers too.

    And nowadays, what with things being the way things are, such wisdom may be Vital to any Guaranteed Success in every Field for all Endeavours.

  13. USA IT, where it all started

    GOP=Republicans

    GOP stands for the "Grand Old Party", it's a US nickname for the Republican party - you know, the party that brought you 2 Bushes, 2 Wars and Global economic melt down.

    Personally, I think he got scapegoated - the GOP act like their only problem was that they failed to get their message out on the web. I think the opposite is true. After years of Republican control of the house, the senate and the Presidency, the real message of the GOP was All to clear to the US.

  14. TomatoQueen
    Boffin

    GOP = Grand Old Party

    That's the informal acronym for the Republican Party.

    The Democrats are just the Democratic Party.

  15. Tony

    @AC 16:09

    If you google it, you should be able to find out that GOP stands for "Grand Old Party" - although if you check this article http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/03/politics/main531460.shtml

    it tells you that it might be "Gallant Old Party"

    They also say that it should be "Get Out and Push" indicating a drive to attract voters.

  16. davenewman
    Pirate

    explaining Tory

    It is a pity people don't explain the term Tory party in the UK. Tory island, off Co. Donegal, was famous for its cattle rustlers who raided the mainland. So when the Whigs wanted an insult for the Conservatives, they called them Tories.

  17. Steve

    @ USA IT

    "After years of Republican control of the house, the senate and the Presidency, the real message of the GOP was All to clear to the US."

    "Poor people suck and you deserve everything we do to you" - at least that's the message I got.

  18. Nik Simpson

    Match them programmer for programmer...

    Makes me thing of Dr. Strangelove, I kpet thinking he was going to mention the mineshaft gap next ;-)

  19. Martin Lyne

    Hmm

    Free degrees? That sounds more Socailist that Republican..

    Maybe they bombed becuase they ruined the world?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Delusions of Grandeur

    I very much doubt a "shortage of programmers" is what lost the GOP the election. Many people such as myself voted against the incumbent in order to protect the Constitution.

  21. Stevie

    Bah!

    Yep, that's the reason the Democrats won - more effective IT.

    An endless war on two fronts, supplied and run under no-bid contracts for the benefit of companies oddly close to the VP (who claims to be both Executive and Legislative and therefore answerable to neither branch of Government), at an estimated cost of five times that of a purely military campaign (but private companies still mean big savings somehow).

    Secret bureaux which are spectacularly good at foiling terrorists but whose exploits we cannot hear about due to 'security".

    Ditto the evidence against the Guantanamo prisoners.

    Secret Fed funding of "select" banks for years.

    Economy failing despite that due to everyone from the bank CEO down putting in a nickle and demanding a dollar song (and preferred stock options and a private jet and a bonus unrelated to performance and a severance package in the event these are seen as unreasonable).

    Eight years of no overall economic growth (has that man ever made any money?) in which the performance of the average much-bandied about 401k performed about half as well as the lesser-vaunted shoebox o' used oncers under the bed, transforming a record surplus into a record defecit with absolutely no idea how to get us off the bus and start fixing things.

    All these were as nothing compared to the shocking and intollerable "IT Gap".

    All things being equal, one should always vote for the bloke with the better blog and an access database full of voter addresses.

  22. Inachu
    Flame

    Ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    When you base your ideologies on lies then that group tends to fail.

    AIPAC

    REPUBLICAN PARTY

    Moose Shooters

    CBC members all need to be put in a Iraqi acid bath house and left to rot.

    Yes Palin was a CBC member and she supports each and every CBC member as if they all reflect the face of god but she never knew that CBC stands for CORRUPT BASTARDS CLUB

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    lot of nice jingoism

    FWIW, there are many very well read people in the much-despised "red states". Naturally, in the rush to promote their own agenda, that has escaped many commenters, especially when abuse is so much more fun. When all else fails, abandon reason and logic, be abusive & shrill, eh? Perhaps a purchase of brown shirts and boots is in order in order to defend the new administration.

    The whole world + dog should be very, very afraid of the rise of the national socialist democrat party in the US. There is a lot of very uncomfortable parallels between current events and events past. This is more than a move to european-style government, and it does not bode well. You can tell a lot about people not by what they say, but what they do, and who their friends are. Although the GOP in all its fecklessness isn't much, at least it isn't comprised of genocidal hypocrites basking in their self-love calling others what they themselves are guilty of, content in the belief that if they loudly say they're wonderful people, it must be so...

    I can only imagine the amount of bile and hatred I will receive for this post -- oh well.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Failed to get the message out ??

    Our failed to convince young voters that they are not selling them down the river

    Gop. Vote for us and keep big business going.

    Young Guy . Um but what about Jobs

    Gop . With out big business there are no jobs

    Young Guy . Um but those are jobs that are being out sourced.

    Gop . With out big business there are no jobs. We needs those people over seas to buy our products.

    Young guy. But what about Americans.

    Gop They cost to much for big business.

    Y

  25. Gannon (J.) Dick
    Unhappy

    In Shock

    "The former Microsoft and Yahoo! exec ... must out-program its rivals."

    Please speak up. My irony detector just let out a dreadful wail.

  26. Mr Lodestone

    You could almost feel sorry for them

    If they encourage young Republicans to learn how to work the Babbage machines, they might learn of Mr. Darwin's newfangled and outrageous theories.

    On second thought, no. I can't feel sorry for them. I want to reach into the GOP's chest and wrench out its cold, dead heart just to see if it really is hard enough to cut diamond.

  27. Jerome

    Thinking outside the train

    "harness emerging technologies"... "building platforms and applications"... "we got dot bombed"

    You really can't tell he's an ex Microsoft exec, can you?

  28. AWeirdoNamedPhil
    Boffin

    Note of explanation for the AC I disagreed with

    The reason I say your explanation fails is this:

    Computer science, although technically science, is really more of a branch of applied mathematics so the crazy religious nuts in the GOP haven't noticed it (and wouldn't know what to do with it if they did). Their attack on science hasn't affected comp.sci.

    They're after the biologists and geologists, mostly. It's fun to watch a bunch of biologists and geologists, who are usually pacifists, kicking the tar out of annoying religious 'tards in court. They should make it a sporting event, I think.

    Anyway... Yeah, it had no effect on the programmer supply. Their problem is that programmers HATE them, it's got nothing to do with their silly religious crusade.

  29. Tom

    Why don't they do like all their corporate buddies

    And outsource it to India or who ever is cheaper this week?

  30. Steve McPolin
    Black Helicopters

    One bad programmer

    can create work for 50 others.... Give anyone any ideas :)

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    blogging, hell

    1. The Republican Party looked all but dead and buried between 1974 and 1976. Anybody remember 1980?

    2. The notion that the Republican Party lost the election owing to on-line failures is just bizarre. Given the economy, Teddy Roosevelt brought back from the dead couldn't have beaten Joe Biden, let alone Barak Obama.

    @Aweirdo. Yep, you and Pauline Kael.

  32. rc
    Dead Vulture

    They read a lot of books in the blue states...

    Too bad they can't grow their own food. The red states do most of that. Don't count on the US for anything after this President and Congress get done spending us into oblivion, were outta here...

    On a side note. Apologies to the UK. We're really sorry about the Churchill thing. If it were up to me or anybody I have talked to around here, he would have been prominently displayed in one of our own "halls of heroes".

    We'll try and get you some region 2's dvds next time... Or maybe elect a President with some class. <sigh>

    tombstone, cause it ain't looking good on this side of the pond.

    rc

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    The message they failed to get out...

    Every time government sticks their hand in something, they break it. They use that as justification that MORE intervention is needed.

    Just like the despair.com poster says, "Government -- if you don't like the problems we create, wait until you see our solutions."

  34. Pete "oranges" B.
    Thumb Up

    Humbug.

    The GOP is just pissed that the Shadow Party decided that it was time to give the Demos a turn.

    Come on, we all know that a two party system wherein the candidates are chosen by two secretive private organizations is a farce, right?

    Remember, you can elect whomever you like, so long as it's one of the two ApprovedChoices(tm)! *does cheesy wink and thumbs up*

  35. ROG
    Paris Hilton

    Worked On Me

    I am *still* getting spam from those email address harvesting scumbags. Jesus or Death spam, evangelical spam, Republican party spam, etc. Underhanded Republican techies. I'm a Republican, but the way Bush and the Republican party has conducted itself the last two terms I won't be voting for them again until someone somewhere pulls their head out of their ass and returns the party to their core values. If any of them remember what they were.

    Paris, because stupid is as stupid does, sir.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    obviously a sore loser

    > "The perception that the GOP is woefully behind online and can't catch-up is the blog-flogging of political simpletons," Krohn blogged.

    Nice reporting there, el Reg. I think it neatly encapsulates the reason why the Republicans are such dead ducks. Granted, I've got limited experience with "official" Republogs, but the unofficial ones I've encountered have been pure Rove: if you have no point to make in your defence, go on the attack. With a minimal quote-speaker-verb pattern you've captured the delicious irony of the situation... EVERYONE knows what the strategy is (and hence, they're not fooling anyone) but equally, everyone knows that words in blogs and online forums are not exactly commensurate with real-world weight. I suppose that the bully at least has to believe in his own prowess. Which is what makes it so deliciously ironic.

  37. Steve Roper

    Re: lot of nice jingoism

    "at least it isn't comprised of genocidal hypocrites basking in their self-love calling others what they themselves are guilty of"

    OK, no hatred or bile from me, just a simple question: When you say "genocidal hypocrites", discounting that this appellation applies with reasonable accuracy to the likes of George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who in the Obama administration would you be referring to with this statement?

    As to the rise of socialism in the west, I concur that going all the way left would indeed be disastrous - we've seen the results of that in Soviet Russia and today in China. But at the same time, going all the way right with capitalism has also created a ruthless and unjust society - one in which profit is prioritised over people, and institutionalised selfishness has become a way of life. What is needed is a balance between the two. China needs more capitalism, definitely. But so too the US (and most of its allies) needs more socialism. Only when we've learned the lessons of extreme left-right politics and can forge a balance between the two can we create an optimal system that balances the rights of the individual with the responsibilities of living in a society where all must support each other, can civilisation put the wheels back on and start moving forward again.

  38. Stuart Van Onselen
    Thumb Down

    @AC at 20:04

    You Godwinned yourself. Also, I see a lot of assertions. Could I actually see some arguments, please?

    Too many people on the innertubes seem to be unable to distinguish the two. They think that simply *saying* that the Liberals/Conservatives/Christianists eat babies is enough. Challenge them to present evidence and argue a conclusion from that evidence, and all they do is assert the same bullshit all over again, as if that settles it.

    I'd weep for the death of reason and logic, if I believed the the unwashed masses had ever had any. The intertoobs just highlighted this lack, it didn't create it. (This paragraph is unsupported assertion, not argument. But at least I admit it!)

  39. Gianni Straniero
    Flame

    @lot of nice jingoism

    It's an oft-repeated maxim that those who trigger the invocation of Godwin's Law automatically lose the argument, especially when they make absurd, unsupportable claims about "genocide". But let's address the substance instead.

    In May 2008, George W Bush signed a $152bn economic stimulus package that gave most taxpayers in the US a rebate of between $600 and $1,200.

    On 3 October 2008, George W Bush signed an economic bail out plan costing the US taxpayer $700bn, buying toxic mortgage-backed securities from failing banks and effectively nationalising a large part of the US banking sector.

    During the Republican Party's eight year administration, two countries were invaded with the loss of hundreds of thousands of civilian and military personnel. The administration legalised the surveillance of millions of US citizens with the PATRIOT act, and was complicit in the torture and detention without trial of hundreds of people.

    So tell me, who seems the more National Socialist? The GOP or the Democrats?

  40. Alexander

    few small points

    1. iraq war

    2. afghanistan war

    3. hurricane katrina( lack of federal response)

    4. banking sector collapse in sub prime sector( due to lack of proper regulation)

    5. record budget deficit

    7. weak enviromental policies

    8. goverment promotion of religous clap trap like "creationism"

    9. lastly and not leastly "GEORGE W BUSH" the man with the brain the size of a pea.

    GOP

    "Group of Prats"

    "Grumpy old pricks"

    "Gready overpaid politicians"

    "Grandads On Prozac"

    "Gods of Pish"

  41. Tom

    Oh, I think the Republican apparahicks got their message out this last season

    but "We're just like the Democrats only less so!" wasn't really a good message.

    Getting back to basic Republican philosophy will do the party wonders, and leave most of the posters here scratching their heads wonder what the f*** hit them.

  42. Stevie

    Rise of Socialism?

    Words the GOP thought would cause a knee-jerk reaction in the US community, but were undermined by the fact that GWB did it first (and did it in secret for some time).

    I'm more concerned for how much damage was done by a political party that while it had complete and utter control of the country forgot that Americans are supposed to be able to think for themselves, assess risk and speak freely about the options.

    I ask the gentleman with the ears ringing from the shrill comments a serious question: If the way of life we are supposedly fighting to preserve is so much better than that which the enemy wishes to impose on us, why do we suspend everything that makes them different the minute they are put to the test? Secret jails. Secret costs. Secret torturing. No Habeus Corpus. Criticicising the government not forbidden, but very, very unwise depending on who you are. Isn't that what we say *they* do that is wrong?

    As for GWB, the man is demonstrably unintelligent in that he fired anyone who had the habit of saying "no" or Yes, but". I hope we are all now clear on what happens when everyone only ever says "Yessir!" when asked for an opinion.

    That and the fact that he and his gang bought into the fallacy that if Vietnam was lost as much in the press as on the field of battle, it was possible to win O.I.F. solely in the pages of the Washington newspapers (all the others were in a major left-wing conspiracy of course) so we wouldn't need so many soldiers to actually, you know, fight.

    Oh, and while I'm being shrill, how come we had an executive packed to the gunwales with old, rich oilmen who had no idea whatsoever that a pipeling hundreds of miles long was an inherently unsecurable asset and therefore there was little to no chance of the Fabled Iraqui Oil ever paying for the whole shebang, as promised? I mean, I can understand them not remembering how to run a country, it had been eight years after all, but they do oil for a living. Surely at least *one* of the buggers knows *something* about how oil works?

    We don't even have to go that far to see the venal and unwise misuse of power. Let's just cut to the scene where the newly-appointed head of the EPA tells New Yorkers that the air thay are breathing (redolent with the stench of rotting meat and hazed for two weeks after with the pulverised contents of the still-burning WTC - this from personal experience BTW) is perfectly safe.

    Or not, it turns out, but whose counting? Certainly not the EPA under the Bush administration.

    Still, no doubt I am naive and will be sorry when we're all wearing red stars on our hats and speaking Russian thanks to the unenlightened policies of the intellectual-ridden, morally bankrupt Obama administration.

  43. Jodo Kast

    GOP and DFL

    On the Democrat's side, it's called the DFL. Democratic Farmer Labor.

    GOP, see above.

  44. kain preacher

    @rc

    Too bad they can't grow their own food. The red states do most of that.

    I guess you never been to California then.

  45. AWeirdoNamedPhil
    Paris Hilton

    If Obama is a socialist...

    Then sign me up, comrade! It sure beats the Mussolini/Fascist act the Bush Comedy Troupe has been putting on for eight years.

    I've said it to the AC and I'll say it again. Everyone with an education hates the republicans now. The best thing they can do for the country is issue a press release apologizing for their past activities, remove themselves from the political stage, and cede their funding to charities like the American Negro College Fund and Greenpeace in penance.

    They don't deserve to manage a hot dog cart, much less a political party. And why hasn't Rush Limbaugh keeled over yet? He must weigh four hundred pounds. He was on drugs. He spends all his time screaming and hollering. What did he do, sell his soul to Satan or something?

    Maybe he's animatronic. If so, can we hack him to sing "I'm just a pretty little girl, and I like pop tarts!" in falsetto? Maybe THAT'LL wean the rednecks off his brand of nonsense talk radio...

  46. kain preacher

    @AWeirdoNamedPhil

    And why hasn't Rush Limbaugh keeled over yet?

    Simple the Devil does not want him.

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ lot of nice jingoism

    HAHAHHA, you've got to be joking.

    No, you're not are you. So, we need to be afraid of the Democrats after what the Republicans have done to the world, not just the US.

    I think the Democrats should be allowed some time to prove their worth, or lack there of, before we become frightened of them. If you hadn't noticed, over the last eight years it was the Republicans who stripped the Constitution and crushed the economy. It'll be interesting to see how the actions of the Bush years are judged over time and I suspect it won't be kindly. Possible war profiteer/criminal, perhaps?

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