Monday, May 17, 2010

Carly Fiorina - A Bad Choice For Senator

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The choice for California Senate to replace Barbara Boxer seat ought to be a simple choice. Boxer has been an embarrassment in the Senate for a long time now, and in a year trending Republican she looks beatable even in California, with poll ratings in the low forties, normally a death knell for an incumbent.

It's her opponents who are problematical.There are three Republicans vying for the chance to square off against Boxer; Tom Campbell, the front runner,Carly Fiorina, the ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard and Assemblyman Chuck Devore, the most conservative of the three.

I've already detailed Tom Campbell's questionable ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, something that ought to disqualify him utterly either on the basis of ideology or lousy judgment.

It turns out that Carly Fiorina has some interesting details in her past as well.

Rabbi Dov Fisher has an excellent and well sourced piece on his site that goes into a number of them:

Carly Fiorina is quasi-accomplished. For a time, she was CEO of Hewlett-Packard. On the other hand, she was booted out. The Hewlett-Packard Board paid her $42 million to leave immediately: $21 million in immediate payout and another $21 million in stock options. As news of her ouster reached Wall Street on the day she was removed from H-P, the company's stock shares rose more than ten percent in a matter of hours! Is this the best the GOP can offer Californians as an alternative to Boxer?

During her H-P tenure, Hewlett-Packard shares dropped 49% in value. She laid off more than 20,000 H-P employees and outsourced tens of thousands of American jobs overseas, cruelly stating: "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore." See, e.g., Los Angeles Times, Aug. 6, 2008. Rich Heintz, editor of California Job Journal, wrote responsively in the San Francisco Chronicle: "This Marie Antoinette-inspired remark makes me wonder if HP hasn't already offshored its public relations department." When President George W. Bush briefly contemplated naming Fiorina (after her ouster), to head the World Bank, the Times of London pleaded against rewarding failure. {...}

So what does Carly Fiorina believe? Does she understand the challenges in the Middle East? Does she understand Iraq and Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas? Can she see through the "rhetoric of peace" that Nasrallah or Ahmedinejad, Abbas or Assad may articulate in an English-language interview with Reuters -- and understand that the same person's Arabic interview with Al Jazeera is more telling? Does she "get" the dangers we face in the coming decade, as Iran assures us that they are not building a nuclear weapon -- even as they continue building?

I have become increasingly interested in and concerned with that question after seeing how many times her name has been cited with approval on websites and blogs dedicated to causes that oppose Israel and call for Israel's destruction. Just "Google" the search term: "
Fiorina and Islam." On an Al Jazeera website, in an article titled “Islam – The Answer,” the executive director of the Australian Muslim Public Affairs Committee writes:

"In the immediate aftermath of September 11, Carly
Fiorina, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, addressing an IT conference in Minnesota, extolled the importance of innovation and ideas to the technology industry she represents. She spoke of a civilization whose language became the universal language of much of the world; whose multicultural armies enabled peace and prosperity; whose commerce extended from the Americas to China and who, driven by invention, gave humanity the gifts of ‘algebra’ and ‘algorithms’. The society cured disease, carried out complicated surgical operations such as the removal of cataracts, and laid the foundations for modern medicine and physiology. Whilst most of the world was steeped in ignorance, fearful of ideas, this civilization kept knowledge alive and passed it on to others. That civilization, she told her audience, was the Islamic civilization up until the 17th century."

That speech’s full text is set forth on another website. These are
Fiorina's words spoken only two weeks after 9-11:

"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world.

"It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts. Within its dominion lived hundreds of millions of people, of different creeds and ethnic origins.

"One of its languages became the universal language of much of the world, the bridge between the peoples of a hundred lands. Its armies were made up of people of many nationalities, and its military protection allowed a degree of peace and prosperity that had never been known. The reach of this civilization’s commerce extended from Latin America to China, and everywhere in between.

"And this civilization was driven more than anything, by invention. Its architects designed buildings that defied gravity. Its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption. Its doctors examined the human body, and found new cures for disease. Its astronomers looked into the heavens, named the stars, and paved the way for space travel and exploration.

"Its writers created thousands of stories. Stories of courage, romance and magic. Its poets wrote of love, when others before them were too steeped in fear to think of such things.

"When other nations were afraid of ideas, this civilization thrived on them, and kept them alive. When censors threatened to wipe out knowledge from past civilizations, this civilization kept the knowledge alive, and passed it on to others.

"While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, the civilization I’m talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600, which included the Ottoman Empire and the courts of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and enlightened rulers like Suleiman the Magnificent.

"Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage. The technology industry would not exist without the contributions of Arab mathematicians." {...}

Carly Fiorina has made a career of trying to sell American business products to the Arab Islamic world. For that, she seems to have hit the right note, echoing the peaceful sounds of the cicadas at grandma's home. Yet, even there, we have news reportage that deeply pains the conscience. For example, the San Jose Mercury News broke the story that, on Fiorina's watch, Hewlett-Packard furtively sidestepped American government restrictions on trade with Iran and sold hundreds of millions of dollars of high-tech equipment to Iran through a Mideast distributor they quietly lined up.

Read the whole thing.

At this point, both Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum have endorsed Carly Fiorina for the nomination, and I actually understand why. As opposed to a conflicted candidate like Tom Campbell, she looks like a candidate just RINO enough to win in California while she's just conservative enough to be palatable.

I disagree with that kind of logic. It may pay short term benefits - may - but leads to long term disasters, in which case you get Arlen Spector...or worse. Far better to go with priciples and support Chuck DeVore.

The worst part is that either Fiorina or Campbell may actually end up getting the GOP nomination, at which point it's going to be a toss up between one of them or (ugh!) Babs Boxer. At that point, I'm going tohave some serious thinking to do.



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8 comments:

yzernik said...

I have been thinking about this for several weeks now, and there is no easy choice here. I agree that Devore is the best, but I hate to be an idiot who throws my vote away on a spoiler. At least in the Governor's race, Poizner is an easy choice for me.

Larry Sheldon said...

I was an admin at a site that had a pretty large inventory or HP equipment, got to watch first-hand while the quality of HP products plummeted.

There is reason to believe my recommendations for HP in my history contributed to my being fired for being too old.

I still get snide remarks from people who got burned on my recommendations to buy HP.

Carly Fiorina was an unqualified disaster.

She hqas had the helm for Republican disasters since.

I thought maybe I was the only one who noticed.

Larry Sheldon said...

I'm not in California so I don't have to face that question, but when the time comes to face it here, if I am faced with a choice between a DIABLO and an honest Democrat, I'll vote fpr the Democrat--I am fed up with "Well, you Republicans do it too".

If we are to be sold down the river, I want the names to end in (D- .....

louielouie said...

was fiorina on her knees when she gave that address in minnesota?
sounds like a serious arse kisser.
she has got a serious problem with history, to spin ra......, ra......, islamic history in that manner and leave out the fact that is was established and spread via the sword.
i couldn't find it anywhere, but if she gave away that many h/p jobs how can she be considered a viable candidate for senate? sounds like she has 20K votes in the other column right out of the gate.

Anonymous said...

I'd rather have a Democratic who doesn't cow-tow to those that want to destroy us than any Republican because they are Republicans. It isn't about what party they belong to, its about whether they understand issues and won't sell this country out for a Saudi Retirement Account.BTW, what make syou think any of the Republican candidates aren't real asshats too, just like Boxer.

Freedom Fighter said...

Hi Ip,
Read up on Chuck DeVore. He's definitely not an 'asshat' and is outspokenly pro-Israel and anti-jihad.

-Rob-

Anonymous said...

This was excellent and I have shared it on FaceBook

On a very related note please read:
Could Carly Fiorina Be The Next Olympia Snowe? See her Video Statements in Favor of Taxing The Internet


http://smartgirlpolitics.ning.com/profiles/blogs/could-carly-fiorina-be-the

B.Poster said...

Obviously we don't want the United States to be sold out for a Saudi retirement account or any thing else. With this in mind the United States is virtually finished as a major world power.

Its economy is in shambles, its national debt is massive, it lags behind Russia, China, and other leading countries in technological advancements, and its military is worn down to the point that it cannot expect to compete with Russia or China for the foreseeable future. Not only that but the Russians, Chinese, Indians, Iranians, and others have a huge technological advantage over the American military as well.

The United States doesn't have the financial ability with its struggling economy or massive national debt to be capable of addressing the military short comings it faces with regards to Russia or China. All the while the Russians and the Chinese get further ahead. With the close alliance that Islamic terrorists and their supporters enjoy with Russia and China America possesses the same disadvantages relative to them as well.

The question becomes how does America deal with the likes of Russia, China, and other major world powers in a manner that will allow our country to survive and still enjoy a modicum of dignity? The bottom line is some type of deal will probably have to be made with them. How can we be sure it is enforced? I'm not sure how this would be done but an excellent place to start would be by redploying our warriors to defensible positions along our borders and placing a moratorium on immigration.