My employer’s headquartered overseas, and we stayed far, far away from the subprime sheeeeeit. In fact, we’re told that the company looks at the current meltdown as an opportunity to buy failing competitors, in whole or in part.

I’m kinda hopin’ we can buy the GOP, lock, stock and barrel.

Tell that to the megagigantic plastic vortex of garbage growing in the Pacific ocean.

I don’t know anyone under 25 who thinks that only three thousand odd people died when the Twin Towers collapsed, and I spent the weekend listening to a Coast Guard officer cry into his beer about the thousands of rotting corpses awaiting identification in the wake of Hurricane Ike, knowing full well that FEMA has billions for incineration but not one penny for refrigeration. You don’t have to convince people the government is lying; just get out of their way.

Once you know how the military disposes of nuclear and toxic waste, it’s kind of hard to feel shame about throwing aluminum cans in the bin along with fish heads and really old yogurt. And lower-middle class consumers need a lecture on which credit card to use the way Batman needs an extra butthole under one armpit.

Did I sleep through the poll showing Obama beating McCain by ten points? I didn’t, did I? So can we, pretty please, stow the Little Red Whole Earth Catalog Book for just one Presidential election? The Hopeful Trigonometer is a hard enough sale as it is.

Oh yeah — if you want to limit voter turnout to nutcases and dimbulbs, youse guys onna left, please keep pumping out the “shit sandwich v. tainted ham and stale bread sandwich” comparisons. That crap has the Standing Wave of Truth looming large behind it, and unfortunately it happens to be self-evident and a fair summation of the choices. So either knock it off or shut up about people not bothering to vote because they’re fucked either way.

I’m starting a company that sells leather goods …

Two words- “Shoe repair”.
Need more understanding, find an old person who lived thru the GD.

Generally speaking, small, independent retailers get hosed. They’re squeezed from both ends. Their wholesale costs are much higher than chain stores (in many cases, 5%-10% below what chain stores sell the same item for) because they can’t buy in anywhere near the same volume – and yet they have to be at least somewhat comparable in price and work to make sure that the customer service they provide is good enough for folks to accept a slightly higher sticker cost. And then the CC charge cuts even that margin by another 2%-4%. But most of them can’t really afford NOT to accept at least SOME cards.

By all means, us the plastic at the Big Box (if you MUST shop there). But give your local independent retailer a break and pay by check or cash, eh?

I’ve had stores ask that I use my debit card instead of a credit card if I had one, because with a debit card the fee to them is less or zero, I’m not sure which.”

Dude, with all due respect, I could care less about cutting back on the costs of the places I buy shit at. At our supermarket, veggie burgers cost 5 bucks now; fuji apples are 3 bucks a pound. If my CC cuts into their profit, f–k ‘em. Pay your CC bill everymnth and use them for every purchase, and better than your debit card, you’ll reap gift cards.

One of the best bits:
Forget the pablum concocted to pacify the masses; the POTUS could actually be ‘anyone who hails from a family with direct ties to the power elite of our bourgeois democracy or who shares their sociopathic tendencies and is willing to sell their souls to do their bidding.’

Sums it up quite well.

(hopefully, the link works!)