Someone left me a $100 tip today. Kinda.

A store regular with a seriously thick Irish accent -- a fisherman (we get a lot of those, we are in Gloucester) -- brought in his home theatre system for repair. Said he wanted another one for his boat so I showed him the options and he pretty much let me pick which one I thought was the best.

We finally track down the box and it's f'ing huge. Says he doesn't want it.

So I'm ringing up the sale and out pops a rebate receipt. He doesn't know there is a rebate. The box, which has the vital UPC barcode (required for obtaining a rebate) is in my backroom. Of course it enters my head that I could just shut up and make out with $100. But my conscience kicks in and I tell him about the rebate and head out back to cut out the UPC for the guy.

"Ah, I'm not going to mail it in any way. You want it?"

So that's my $100 tip story. I already mailed the !@#$%er out because if I didn't, that little scrap of paper would disappear into the black hole that is my desk area.

I should point out that Jamie has far more interesting blog posts than I do.

I hooked up the A/V system for a '79-'83-era post-punk then-famous band named Gang of Four. I'd never heard anything by them but some of my i-should-have-guessed-they'd-know-this-band friends do. Really nice guy, too. And they're all about the anti-consumerism which is a hoot because that's my core schtick.

I'm learning German. Slowly. Very slowly. Kim will be amused.

Over the next few weeks you'll be hearing a lot about the recent Medicare overhaul. Supposed to be Bush's crowing achievement. It's turning into a substantial health emergency with many elderly unable to get the drugs they're supposed to due to a host of glitches with the program.

But like all the other Bush fuckups, and as more observant bloggers have pointed out, this scandal will follow a now-familiar path; cronies with jobs-for-political-favors will be outed (see Great Job Brownie/FEMA), people will die because they can't afford the $200/mo retail pricetag for each of the 15 drugs they're taking (which is the average, believe it or not).

Bush will tell us it will be fixed, just like Katrina. It won't. Just like Katrina.

And then everyone will forget.

Just like Katrina.

Afghanistan and all it's assocaited promises has been abandoned.

Iraq is a disaster and the Republicans, who accused the Dems of being cut-and-runners, are now laying out 2006 withdraw timetables. They don't CALL it that, but you know what they say about "looking and walking like a duck."

Warrantless phone taps. He's spying on Quakers. What makes you so sure he's not spying on you?

White phosphorus, judiciously and pragmatically re-dubbed "freedom dust."

A Commander-in-Thief who can't be bothered to plan a war much less protect the troops going into it.

Alito, a shoo-in for the Supreme Court is a demonstrable liar. Think about that. The man says Roe v. Wade is a question mark for fuck sake.

Meyers. Enough said. So much for demanding an up-or-down vote.

Rove. Libby/Plamegate. DeLay. Abramoff. Scanlon. Cunningham. Ney. The GOP is in full-on meltdown.

And I've just picked out the colossal Bush fuck-ups. And yet he can push his agenda.

How?

Because Democrats are a gaggle of inept pussies.

Watching the Dems practically carry Scalito through the hearings while giving him a nice friendly reach-around was nauseating. I almost hope they lose seats in the next race. Because they sure deserve it.

Sometimes I think this republic needs to go the way of the phoenix, and quickly.