John McCain, inventor of the BlackBerry
By Nilay Patel 
posted September 16th 2008 2:09PM
posted September 16th 2008 2:09PM
[Via Wonkette, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted September 16th 2008 2:09PM
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Painfully uninformed? Perhaps you should turn off the talk radio and actually do as you suggest and "Google" Palin.
Look, there are many reasons to dislike Obama. I'm not saying that you have to like him, but to even compare Palin to him is absolutely insane.
I cannot believe you folks are still parroting the line that she has more "executive" experience. Her "executive" experience was primarily as the mayor of an extraordinarily small town in Alaska. I mean, the city hall was in a strip mall! That is supposed to prepare her for possibly being President? She was voted in as Governor with around 170,000 votes. This just shows how small Alaska is as a state. Even as Governor of a state awash in funds amassed from taxing energy companies, Alaska still receives (per capita) the most federal dollars. Oh, and guess what? Palin even supported the "windfall profits" tax on oil companies and "redistributed" those funds in the form of a bonus check to every Alaskan. How is that for the dreaded "socialism" which conservatives lover to throw around as a pejorative term?
So, she was the mayor of a town of something like 7,000 people. Then she became Governor and has been there for about two years, or about the same time that Obama has been running for President. Alaska, as a quasi-Socialist state, still requested enormous amounts of money for everything from infrastructure projects to studying wildlife. She was not against the "Bridge to Nowhere" at the begninning and diodn't turn until it became politically expedient to do so. As a reformer, she even billed the state for nights when she stayed at home to the amount of nearly $16,000. (I guess she felt entitled to some of that $12,000 fine.) The list goes on and on and on. This is all under Palin.
Simply, Palin was chosen because she is relaitvely unknown and as such, could be molded into whatever McCain's campaign wanted her to be see as by the public. That was why she was chose. She has a "pretty" face and can deliver a speech. Everything else is manufactured to get your consent.
I'm definitely not enamored with Obama, but to say, with a straight face, that Palin is at all qualified for Vice President, let alone President, is completely silly. Do you honestly think that if she had any real experience, that both she and McCain would constantly bring up that you can "see" Russia from Alaska? Seriously?
I don't think the fact that Obama never served in the military should count against him in and of itself. But how stupid is it for the Obama campaign to claim that McCain is unqualified to be president because he can't grasp cyber-security issues based on the fact he has never sent an email when the McCain campaign can just as easily say Obama can't understand first order national security issues because he's never fired a rife, flown a plane, commanded men in battle, or faced an enemy? I mean which prepares someone to be commander in chief better, hitting "send" on AOL or fighting in a war?
How dare you people say that John McCain, a former Prisoner of War, didn't invent the BlackBerry.
Blackberry's suck eggs. The fact that they're so wildly popular in corporate circles is indicative of the stupidity and mindset of the sheeple herds. Palm sucks too. PPC is the way to go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH0xzsogzAk
Oh Christ! Can't we keep all the hate where it belongs, on the DailyKos?
John McCain is a POW. You are not allowed to question anything he says. Everything he says is a fact.
/endsarcasm
Ehh, who cares what some random from his campaign said about a frikkin cellphone. At least McCain didnt say hes visited all 57 states. Anyways, all you haters on McCain, go ahead and vote Obama, just be sure you know of his veeps record siding with the RIAA and stances against gaming and laws censoring gaming and the such. Versus McCains stance that all government should stay out of it. McCains record is better for gamers, internet users and such as he wants to keep govt involvement limited as opposed to Obama-Biden.
Vote on actions NOT words!
which line is shorter for the political kool-aid? the hater line or the sucka line?
It is interesting how when Engadget says "Politic aside" - all the political nobs show up!
Reality check - and it isn't in the mail! - ALL POLITICIANS ARE LIARS. How do you know when a politician is lying? Their lips move!
There have been a few truly citizen oriented politicians - but when they speak the truth, they are considered nut cases or fringe or some other derisive label.
Did McCain invent anything beyond how to stay squeaky clean during the Savings & Loan debacle? Don't think so.
Did Al Gore work at DARPA or CERN and help develop the Internet and Intranet? Don't think so.
Does it matter in the long run?
It only matters when someone who has little intellect and even less experience becomes a country's leader and then threatens a global conflagration if you don't do as they say. But that would never happen.
:P
didn't you know, john mccain is canadian, and that's why can't vote for him, just like the gubernator
didn't you know, john mccain is canadian, and that's why can't vote for him, just like the gubernator
The Blackberry may be Canadian, but Sarah Palin can SEE Canada from Alaska, so it is possible the McCain made the Blackberry possible.
I've been an Engadget fan for a few years. Word to Nilay Patel, stick to tech stuff and stay out of the political arena. I don't appreciate it and neither do a lot of other people. The low blows say more about the person delivering them far more than they speak about the person their dissing.
You know, on the face of it, I totally agree with your sentiment.
But seeing as this has to do with a major character in the Engadget Play, I don't think it's out of bounds, as long as it's reported fairly with equal time given to both sides of the story (Engadget should definitely post the response from the McCampaign). Then we can let the court of public opinion parse the merits and decide for themselves.
I see this more as a tech story with politics shadings than a political story crossing over into tech (and I fully get that others don't see it that way). Had Engadget existed back in 2000, I'd expect them to run both sides of the Gore brouhaha as well.
besides that i'm not a mccain supporter, he has said in the past that he's completly ignorant with computers, so why the heck would you think he helped create the blackberry?
Ready for the punch line?
McCain actually voted against the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA ‘93) that authorized the spectrum auctions that created the competitive wireless market that gave rise to companies like Research in Motion (the creator of BlackBerry).
So...John McCain is a Canadian?
I would be willing to bet McCain can use a browser. perhaps he isn't effiecient at utilizing the internet, but I have no doubt that he is capable. quite frankly, consider that this is a tech blog. it isn't all that ridiculous that there are people young and old who don't know how to use minor details like multiple receivers in outlook, RSS, etc. As someone already said, it doesn't make sense for him to do something that he could have someone else do better in his stead. many of our millionaire investors do this. politicians aren't likely very different.
technically, the only skills a president has to excel in are commanding armed forces, and picking really good advisors for everything else. just look at kenedy, had he listened to his generals instead of his advisors, the Cuban Missile Crisis would have escalated likely to nuclear exchange.
Hey, if Stephen Hawking can use a computer, so can John McCain. Not being able to use a computer because of war injuries??? Gimme a friggin' break! What a lame excuse. If ya wanna play president, ya gotta come up with better than that, old man. And as far as McCain inventing the BlackBerry --- the blackberry McCain invented might very well have been the one he worked on way back when --- with The Big G, in the Garden of Eden. You know - the kind with fruit.
so much for tech blog, haha.
guess the next article will be about obama unplugged, without a narrtion device in his ear.
keep being technical guys, that is the way to go.
iPhone
What is the difference between a Canadian and a Hockey-pitbull..... a lipstick-pig ... uhhh wait?
O Canada......
DAVE9:51AMSep 17th 2008
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JOHN McCAIN NEEDS OUR HELP. HE IS OBVIOUSLY SUFFERING FROM PTSD, OR POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AS A RESULT OF HIS CAPTIVITY IN NORTH VIETNAM DURING THE VIETNAM WAR. HE HAS BECOME EXTREMELY DILUSIONAL, DISORIENTED AND WHINES INCREASINGLY MORE AND MORE. HIS RANTING AND RAVING HAS REACHED SERIOUS LEVELS AND WE NEED TO OFFER HIM THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP HE SO DESPARATELY NEEDS. YOUR DONATIONS WILL GO A LONG WAY TO HELP THIS DECORATED WAR HERO PATRIOT TO GET THIS HELP. ALL DONATIONS MUST BE IN DENOMINATIONS OF $100 OR LESS, AND ALL DONATIONS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
PLEASE SEND YOUR DONATIONS TO THE "HELP JOHN McCAIN'S BRAIN FOUNDATION" C/O SEN. BARACK OBAMA, OBAMA FOR AMERICA, P.O. BOX 802798 CHICAGO, IL 60680
When you have as much money as John and Cindy McCain. who cares about a computer?
DAVE9:51AMSep 17th 2008
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE JOHN McCAIN NEEDS OUR HELP. HE IS OBVIOUSLY SUFFERING FROM PTSD, OR POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AS A RESULT OF HIS CAPTIVITY IN NORTH VIETNAM DURING THE VIETNAM WAR. HE HAS BECOME EXTREMELY DILUSIONAL, DISORIENTED AND WHINES INCREASINGLY MORE AND MORE. HIS RANTING AND RAVING HAS REACHED SERIOUS LEVELS AND WE NEED TO OFFER HIM THE PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP HE SO DESPARATELY NEEDS. YOUR DONATIONS WILL GO A LONG WAY TO HELP THIS DECORATED WAR HERO PATRIOT TO GET THIS HELP. ALL DONATIONS MUST BE IN DENOMINATIONS OF $100 OR LESS, AND ALL DONATIONS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
PLEASE SEND YOUR DONATIONS TO THE "HELP JOHN McCAIN'S BRAIN FOUNDATION" C/O SEN. BARACK OBAMA, OBAMA FOR AMERICA, P.O. BOX 802798 CHICAGO, IL 60680
Obama has a brain tumor.
I read somewhere that if McCain wins, 1400 kittens will die. In contrast, if Obama wins, only 10 pigs will die (barbecue will follow).
Username 'fred'
I know who you are. You are a fat ugly c-u-n-t. Kill yourself.
The difference between this and Gore is that Gore made the statement.
Actually, if you stopped following sheep and actually looked it up yourself, along with what it actually meant to the real pioneers like Cerf and Kahn and Andreessen, Gore didn't make the statement that you think he made. The fact is, what Gore said was essentially true.
That's the thing about lemmings like you - you'll follow each other spouting this oft- dubunked nonsense until there isn't an ounce of rational or critical thought left between you.
McSenileCain thinks he's running against Al Gore who invented the Internet. Duh, its 2008!!! But he should be excused since he's a patriotic ex-POW, and having arthritis. Just like the last chick I met in club: a horny bitch and having PMS. HUAHUAHAHAHA
McCain does use computers. He uses them everyday. He use his wife and or staff to help sometimes.
His injuries sustained during Vietnam were both from the aircraft crash and daily torture. With all due respect weather we are for Obama or McCain we should refrain from using petty attacks on our candidates. All this does is prove what kind of uninformed idiots we are. Weather our candidate is hitting below the belt or not we should refrain form doing the same.
It is sad that all candidates have and are going to change what they say is there view "no mater how insignificant". It is OK to talk about your view. just don't assume you view is fact no mater how much you believe it to be true.
Until we are 100% completely informed of the absolute truth, Shut up and don't say anything unless it is a question to improve on your own personal knowledge of the truth, Then I hope that the person/persons replying to you are not full of crap or half crap answers.
Listen folks, It is easy to find real information here online. All you have to do is research it! Research it form many different sources. "even ones you don't agree with". Use common scene not biased scene.
I am a Veteran of the United States of America, and I have approved this message!