OT: None of these companies make tools, do they?

[Robatoy]

Staples, General Motors, Sprint Nextel, GlaxoSmithKline, Procter & Gamble, PetMed Express, American Express and Bigelow Tea.

r

[Markem]

General Motors has made tools in the past, think GM has a better idea such as specialty tools that they can sell to the automotive techs.

Mark

[B A R R Y]

Define "tool".

[Leon]

GM used to own Hughes tool. Hughes tool made tools. GM did not manufacture tools itself that I was ever aware of other than lug wrenches for the jack. GM SOLD tools to dealers each year for new model repairs. IIRC the manufacturer of the specialty tools in the 80's was Kent tools.

[Leon]

Y heck yeah. GM puts a lug wrench in every vehicle it sells.

[Lee Gordon]

Steamed about Imus getting the heave-ho, eh?

Lee

[Max]

I'll bet they don't *make* them.

Max

[John E.]

Interesting, are you saying that you're gonna boycott them only if they don't make something you were actually going to buy?

Another interesting thing that keeps getting lost in this whole Imus debacle, what he said was offensive and bigoted, it doesn't matter what Jesse Jackson has said or done in his life, it doesn't matter what Al Sharpton has said or done in his life, it doesn't matter what any rapper has ever said or done in their lives either, what matters is that Mr. Imus was offensive, he was offensive to women, to blacks, to women athletes and the people who are related to, married to, support and or otherwise care about any of those groups.

He said something offensive, his bosses didn't like it, he got fired. That's the way it's supposed to work.

He isn't in prison, he hasn't been charged with a crime or been arrested, he just doesn't get to continue to be offensive on CBS's dime and on the public airwaves any longer. He's free to start his own broadcasting company and be offensive all day long, on his own dime.

He's lucky the Bush administration didn't call him a enemy combatant and put him down in Guantanamo, then all the people who are beating their chests about how "unfair" it is for him to get fired for being offensive would actually have a legitimate argument.

John E.

[Robatoy]

Nope. Never said anything about boycotting. I'm just glad I won't be supporting a company which was incapable of making a judgement based on a moral issue without first being goaded into it my the Sharpton/ Jackson team. those companies only acted when it started to look like it was going to cost them money.

I agree totally, 100%.

That is not what happened. The bosses didn't want to lose the golden goose Imus, and gave him a token two-week suspension. Then Sharpton and Jackson got noisy and breathed life into a situation which was, as far as CBS was concerned, settled to their satisfaction.

Come on. CBS has made tons of money off Imus. They have known he was an offensive shock-jock for years. They paid him to be that way. It was all part of his schtick. This time, somebody got pissed off and caught Sharpton and Jackson at a time when they hadn't been under the TV lights for a while. Let's face it, they wanted to see Imus grovel. Sharpton gave the illusion this could be solved by inviting Imus on his show where he back-stabbed him. That was Imus's second screw-up. Sharpton had a chance to stick it to whitey, and took it because he can't help himself... it makes for good publicity.

The problem is, that Imus should have had his ass fired for what he said, not because it was about money. Had Imus been a real mensch, he would have resigned right then and there. But he isn't and didn't, because he's pond-scum.

[Charlie Self]

Sums the entire sitcheration up quite well. There is nothing to admire in ANY of the participants. Imus isn't the only ponod scum in the group: Sharpton bodes well to become the moralist resurrection of the total con man, while Jesse Jackson is a minister who has, AFAIK, never had a church, but always had a mouth.

[Patriarch]

"Robatoy" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

The folks I work for put out a message yesterday indicating that the news coverage portraying them as a sponsor of this show was 5 years out of date, and _any_ of their ads around the show were in contravention of the policy. And that they were pulling _all_ of their ads on the network to make certain that they weren't gonna get tarnished any more by the blowup. They spend an unbelieveable amount of ad money, and will spend it elsewhere, I guess.

Now only if they could clean up their internal problems as quickly...

Patriarch

[CW]

They weren't "outraged" because there was nothing to get excited about.

[Bill in Detroit]

Minister of WHAT? Not the God -I- know. And probably not the god he claims.

[Buddy Matlosz]

One of Jay Leno's comments on the affair tonight: Sharpton was seen recently with a large gash on his head. Turns out he and Jesse Jackson spotted an open microphone at the same time and made a dive for it.

B.

[Bill in Detroit]

Wanna have some fun with those guys? Give the guy with the spotlight a $20 to keep the spotlight moving.

Like playing with kittens.

Bill