Three pieces from the mail:
The Rude Pundit is having Monday issues. Enjoy.
More Tales of Bush's Economic Superhighway of Gloom and Doom:
From Jeff, a former employee of, well, one assumes it ain't the Postal Service or FedEx:
"Ah yes, the world's "most admired company" has gone on its usual round of quarterly layoffs. Monday, I was given my your position has been eliminated" notice -- just after returning from a week long vacation in Florida. Never mind that I got to work two days of my vacation because my department has been cut so thin as to not allow vacation coverage. Never mind that my job has, by indirect definition, been moved to Canada. Never mind that this "most admired company" has been shipping jobs to India by the truckload until they discovered that most Americans opposed this sort of outsourcing.
"And not so strangely, the world's "most admired company" has stepped up its efforts to rid itself of its most high paying, non-managerial jobs. This company is known for its pragmatism; it didn't get to where it is today by following trends. No, they learned several years ago that most Americans don't particularly like talking to Indian call center personnel who claim to be in "New Jersey". They also learned that this outsourcing (i.e. cost-cutting) measure doesn't work so well when the foreign country's infrastructure is not prepared for the influx of companies that are starting operations there. They also learned that with this upcoming election, the outsourcing of jobs will be serious issue. Which is why they are trying their best to dump as many high-paying (non-managerial) jobs to other countries before our government finally passes laws to curb this kind of corporate behavior. Call me a cynic, but you'll see a lot more of this happen between now and November 2004.
"Look for a marked increase in layoffs in the coming months. I believe most large corporations know their boy Dubya is living on borrowed time. As such, they are hurriedly trying to dump as many white-collar, technical IT jobs as they can before they are prevented from doing so. I wouldn't expect any different from a corporate culture that lives and dies by the quarterly numbers. Dow Jones uber-alles, after all."
Goddamn, That's One Hot Christian:
From astute observers Pete and Karen:
"We were in a shopping center parking lot the other day and saw a window decal on another car that left us speechless. It was an image of a fantasy prayer meeting of GW Bush, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington. Bush is in the center, leading the other two in prayer, heads bowed. The artwork is kitsch dreck.
"The decal was issued by a (surprise) wiggy right wing Christian outfit.
Here's the image which will lead you to the group, the "Presidential Prayer Team."
"We found the artist's own website. And, surprise, he seems to like painting hunky guys with their shirts off."
The Rude Pundit knows that the artist would say that lots of religious imagery, from Michelangelo to Carravaggio, featured such ripped figures, but Michelangelo and Carravaggio were, well, gay.
From Rude Two - You Know You're the Worst President in U.S. History When . . .:
Terrorists support President Bush and want him to be re-elected.
As Ted Striker, hero of the film "Airplane!" put it, "The foot's on the other hand now" (or something like that -- the Rude Pundit isn't a fucking quote machine). But here it is: Terrorists are now rooting for President Bush to win, citing his inept handling of the "War" on terror. "[It is] not possible to find a leader "'more foolish than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom.'"
Addressing President Bush, the group said: "Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilization."
"Because of this we desire you (Bush) to be elected."
Yes, the war on terror has done a 180, and now those who once used phrases like "If you oppose war, you oppose America," are now being supported by terrorists. How comforting.
