Boycott Overstock.com

I'll admit up front that I have never shopped online at Overstock.com. So it won't be a huge imposition on me to boycott them, but now that the Xmas shopping season is upon us, I want to urge anyone and everyone who has even thought of purchasing something at Overstock.com to reconsider.

And here's why: In Utah this year there was a ballot measure concerning funnelling state school money into private schools. Every time this has been on a ballot anywhere in the US it has been roundly defeated, usually by landslide margins, and Utah was no exception: The measure lost in every single county in the state.

Americans have always seen this as the proverbial nose in the tent by the Religious Right, whose main goal is to siphon off financial support from the public schools, put their special little children into those private, mostly-Fundo-Xian schools, and ultimately destroy the very fabric of our public school system.

Oh, and incidentally, those precious little white babies won't have to rub shoulders with all those dirty and smelly minority-type kids, who seem to just litter the public schools.

So what's Overstock got to do with all this, you say?

Well, I'm glad you asked. The HMFIC* of Overstock, one Patrick Byrne (who has more legal problems than Carter has pills -- and see the Crooks and Liars piece on him as well), has been pouring tons of his own money into these ridiculous campaigns for years now, including the one in Utah. And when I say "his own money", what I really mean is the money he gets as a profit from operating Overstock.com. Which, if you happen to spend money there, is cash going out of your pocket and into the already-overstuffed wallet of capitalist-pig fat-cat Patrick Byrne.

Update: Be sure to check out Whitecollar Fraud and O-Smear for more info on Byrne and his problems, legal and otherwise.

[* Head Mother Fucker In Charge -- it's an old Army term that I still use, nearly 40 years later.]