The "Story"
Lots going on today so let's get right to it.

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry has been getting a lot of heat lately from the Bush administration and right wingers in general for his supposed "soft" stance on terrorism and his presumed inability to protect the lives of Americans at home and abroad. Rubbish.

Certainly Kerry will and would do everything in his power to curb terrorist activities and safeguard American lives. Who wouldn't? What we need to be asking is what the Bush administration has done to protect Americans and squelch terrorism. Remember, the biggest failure in U.S. security and intelligence, the tragedy of 9/11, happened on Bush's watch. And the current quagmire that is Iraq has everything to do with him, his lies regarding WMDs and his lack of any sort of exit strategy in that country. Let's see what Bush can do about our current situation before we go putting Kerry in any bad light. As the saying goes, before you cast the first stone . . .

Also today is a great piece from The Smoking Gun which details Donald Trump's plans to copyright the phrase "you're fired." Does this man's ego have no bounds? Does his stupidity? Look to the article for a brief story and photos of the actual patent application filed by The Donald himself.

The News
By far the best story out there today comes from Newsday which reports that the Bush campaign is selling branded fleece pullovers, to the tune of $49.95, made in Burma and imported to the U.S.

Now we all know that Bush is an idiot, but to have official campaign merchandise manufactured overseas, by an impoverished, Third-World country and at a time when Americans are hurting for jobs and the manufacturing sector has been all but eliminated--well, it's beyond stupid. It's unfathomable. And it gets worse.

Bush himself last July signed into law the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act which makes it a crime to import goods from that country (now called Myanmar), citing its government's atrocious human-rights record and abysmal pay for its workers--about 7 cents an hour in the textile mills. So what gives?

The merchandise comes from a Kentucky-based outfit called the Spalding Group which has supplied campaign merchandise for some 20 years. Spalding President Ted Jackson has called the pullover an anomaly, saying that of the 60 pullovers in stock he could find only one other that was of Burmese origin. All others, Jackson claims, are proudly made in the U.S. Jackson failed to explain the t-shirt also for sale, manufactured and imported from Mexico.

Bush officials have thus far, and predictably, declined to comment.

3N could go on its soapbox preaching about jobs lost and going abroad, the current sad state of the economy and unemployment figures, etc. But we all know this already. Today, we'll let the story stand on its own, sans preaching, and let you all get a big laugh out of it. Here at 3N, we don't whether to laugh or cry.