Commenters To Dropbox CEO: Houston, We Have a Problem 448
theodp (442580) writes "On Friday, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston sought to quell the uproar over the appointment of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the company's board of directors, promising in a blog post that Rice's appointment won't change its stance on privacy. More interesting than Houston's brief blog post on the method-behind-its-Condi-madness (which Dave Winer perhaps better explained a day earlier) is the firestorm in the ever-growing hundreds of comments that follow. So will Dropbox be swayed by the anti-Condi crowd ("If you do not eliminate Rice from your board you lose my business") or stand its ground, heartened by pro-Condi comments ("Good on ya, DB. You have my continued business and even greater admiration")? One imagines that Bush White House experience has left Condi pretty thick-skinned, and IPO riches are presumably on the horizon, but is falling on her "resignation sword" — a la Brendan Eich — out of the question for Condi?"
Recycling Personalities (Score:4, Interesting)
Now George is a painter, Condi is on the board, Dick -- well, Dick is still a dick. So, are we supposed to forget or what? And forgive? Hard to do when we're still payin' the bills.
The real question (Score:5, Interesting)
The real question is, "what does she bring to the table" as a member of the Board? Does her tenure as a faculty member in the Stanford School of Business matter? What about her time as the director of the Stanford Global Center for Business and the Economy?
Re:Justice (Score:5, Interesting)
This goes beyond that.
Rice directly contributed to the waste of O($1 trillion) of taxpayer money, the loss of thousands of lives, and the torture of prisoners. That should make her persona non grata to any organization that gives a damn about not wasting public money for political gain, not murdering people, and not engaging in state violation of human rights. This isn't "gave some money to a dishonest and illiberal election campaign" (Eich). This is "shit on American values and wiped with the Constitution for good measure".
That's on top of the security/espionage concerns.
If Condi Rice were the checkout clerk at Safeway I'd refuse to do business with them.
Board of directors (Score:3, Interesting)
The text book reason to put someone on the Board of Directors of a company is for their expertise in the business. She has NONE.
Condie Rice is a bureaucrat - a shitty one at that.
She is there for one reason - connections.
If you or I had a job history like her's, we would be unemployable. But for the ruling and CEO class, being a fuck up means nothing as long as you know the right people.
Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu (Score:0, Interesting)
What a bunch of BS.
Not punishing war mongers who are financially rewarded by their actions that affects the life of millions is so immoral that I cannot fathom how you dare requiring any additional action.
You have absolutely no morals.
Re:Condi Rice is legitimate choice (Score:5, Interesting)
Just because the last three companies she was on the board of did not need to be sold out, it doesn't follow that she won't sell this one out. Remember, warrantless wiretapping began on her watch. As a former National Security Advisor, her ties to the intelligence community are strong.
Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu (Score:2, Interesting)
"Dropbox has the right to have her on their board. I have the right to speak my mind, and take my business elsewhere."
The problem is, though, you do business with hundreds of other companies. Have you vetted their board of directors and leadership to see if they follow your political views as well? Or are you only picking on Rice and Dropbox because she was in the news for a few years and they popped up on Slashdot? You do realize there are many other Bush administration officials currently in leadership roles in other major corporations?
Re:And the attempt to duplicate their efforts resu (Score:3, Interesting)