<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, karl rove]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, karl rove]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/karlrove http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/karlrove <![CDATA[Karl Rove Does Not Appreciate Your Stonewalling]]> Karl Rove couldn't get on Twitter's watch list; Julia Allison was unable to broadcast a portion of her life and a comedian was unimpressed with comically large food. The Twitterati felt out of character.


Amazingly, a San Francisco technology startup failed to give George W. Bush's henchman the recognition he felt he deserved.


Twitter's Evan Williams took his son to work, if only virtually.


Daniel Victor of the Harrisburg, Pa.'s Patriot News conducted some journalistic anthropology.


The Daily Show's Rob Corddry reported quality-control issues at the Cheesecake Factory.


Lifecaster Julia Allison needed some help to overshare, for once.


Did you witness the media elite tweet something indiscreet? Please email us your favorite tweets - or send us more Twitter usernames.

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<![CDATA[Twitterati on Parade]]> Did you hear Twitter is now bigger than Digg? That's because you can't vote on Obamanaugural headlines by text message. More OMG Barack!!!!!!1!1!! tweets from the media elite:

Spy cofounder Kurt Andersen couldn't believe it had all happened..

Software entrepreneur and technopontificator Mitch Kapor, once a candidate to be Obama's CTO, apologized for suggesting the all-new president looked old.

Boing Boing blogger Xeni Jardin hated capitalism.

Air America radio hostess Ana Marie Cox looked for politically amiable shelter.

And evil genius turned Beltway pundit Karl Rove fled town altogether .

Anyone else's tweets we should keep an eye on? Send us their username.

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<![CDATA[Karl Rove Is on Twitter, and We're Not Surprised]]> The left's Great Satan, former Dubya advisor Karl Rove, uses Twitter, the microblogging service. Smell the outrage, 140 characters at a time!

Really, should we be shocked that George W. Bush's former deputy chief of staff is there, or that he's so late to the game? Having exited the administration, Rove is following a familiar script in reinventing himself as a pundit, and the punditocracy, like the rest of the media, loves Twitter. The brevity the service forces on its users makes for a soundbite-friendly environment. And Rove is a technophile — remember how he was spotted using an iPhone, long before they were sold at Wal-Mart?

And look, Rove is already chatting up Joe Trippi, Howard Dean's former campaign manager. We've added KarlRoveChannel to our list of the Twitterati. This should be delicious.

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<![CDATA[Karl Rove's Jedi mind tricks don't fool Dave Winer]]> "I totally don't trust Rove when he says that McCain has gone too far," writes Berkeley blogger Dave Winer, of Dubya's former campaign mastermind. "I wouldn't take the bait and pass this on as the Obama folk are doing. There's got to be a virus in there somewhere. Some devious trap that springs later in this process." Aw shoot, now if that doesn't happen, I'll be disappointed.

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<![CDATA[Apple Fetishists: Grow Up]]> Karl Rove loves his iPhone. He uses it all the time! (The entire Bush administration has good reason to love the little gizmo.) The roly-poly Machiavelli also recently admitted to owning a damn MacBook Air, the laptop whose sole selling point is its ability to fit in an envelope. Drug-addled radio tyrant Rush Limbaugh had to ask Apple to help fix his own new Mac. Your favorite propagandists love the sleek design and friendly usability of Apple products. Crypto-fascists—they're just like us! Which brings us to this plea: can we please, please end the tiresome trope of Apple having any sort of hip sensibility?

Apple itself is a gigantic technology manufacturing company. Which means they're killing the planet! Computers, computer chips, computer batteries, cell phones—all are made of poison. And all end up in landfills. Apple will recycle your old computer, btw, if you promise to buy a new one, from them. (Our boss doesn't care for this line of criticism against the technology industry, pointing out that they've reduced paper usage, but paper is made from wood pulp, not mercury.) But Al Gore's on the board! And they had some sort of corporate initiative with the word "green" in its name. Just like G.E.!

(Not to mention the DRM-laden iTunes store, the company's habit of suing bloggers to reveal their sources, and all the other Boing Boing-bait shit they engage in.)

Apple products have always been "hip" in the bourgiest sense of that word, but now they're simply straight-up lifestyle accessories —you paid an extra two grand for a laptop without a DVD drive because it said Apple on it. Your mouse has one button, because Apple thinks its users are morons who will become confused by a second mouse button. You're paying extra for the brand, and nothing more. While that's always been true of certain varieties of 'hipness', sometimes there's a corresponding raise in quality. (The $200 Levi's jeans are sturdier and better constructed than the $60 equivalents. We're told!) With Apple products, that extra money goes into making your USB port-less laptop look like a clean bathroom tile.

Look, we'll be fair: the primary benefit of most Apple software, the Mac OS especially, is a pleasant intuitiveness and out-of-the-box usability. They look pretty and usually they work. This is why Apple products are perfect for your grandmother! She'll have a much easier time figuring out a Mac than trying to install Firefox on XP. This is also why old white dudes like Karl Rove or Rush Limbaugh or Charlie Rose enjoy their fine Apple computers. Not that you'd know this from Apple marketing, which plays exclusively to the cosmopolitan grup demographic. Designers! People who like the indie rock! Kids who wear sneakers! These products were designed for you, because Apple thinks you're imbeciles!

No, they clearly, seriously do. The damn "I'm a Mac" ads have been proving that for two years now. You're a Mac! You're an unpleasant and unlikable little pseudo-hipster creep! The PC is a lovable wit and a fantastic writer! But he wears a tie, you see, so he's a nerd. And they've been insulting your intelligence since day one! The 1984 Super Bowl ad? How childish do you have to be to think that buying one overpriced personal computer over a competing one is in any way a blow against any sort of authority?

At least they finally dropped "Think Different." Because that slogan made us want to find a way to somehow pry the entire West Coast off the continent and send it to drift into the ocean.

We don't hate Macs, we think iPhones are probably a better trend for assholes than BlackBerrys, we own an iPod, and we'll freely admit that buying a computer pre-loaded with Vista was one of the stupidest things we've ever done. (Works fine after the downgrade to XP tho!) Ok? We're just sick of people thinking that because some marketing firm lackey introduced his boss to Feist, or because Apple hired a designer who's heard of Bauhaus, that that makes them a more creative, liberal, or hip company than, say, Dell. At least Dell doesn't condescend to us.

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<![CDATA[Republicans's lives too active to be addicted to the Internet, says noted iPhone user]]>
Why is the Internet a hotbed of left wing "obscenity-clogged rants of anger and hatred," as Karl Rove describes it? Because conservatives are too busy leading active lives off the Internet — taking dance classes, for example — to contribute more on it, the nonstop iPhone carrier told NewsBusters.
I hate to sound sort of diffident about it but it strikes me that a lot of people on the right have got active lives and are doing other things and the idea of spending a lot of time on the Internet and taking their talents and displaying them there is not something they really do. But I'd like to see more of it, very creative conservatives using the Internet for those purposes.
Like Soren Dayton?

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<![CDATA[Karl Rove uses an iPhone]]>
Ah, gadget love transcends party lines. Presidential advisor Karl Rove, shown here consulting with White House colleague Josh Bolton in Minneapolis, is, it seems, an iPhone user — despite the fact that Al Gore sits on Apple's board. (Photo by Chris Usher for Time)

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