Ninja Pajamas, and other good things.

I swear, I think Jeff Bezos is either secretly Asian or has a secret stash of Asians hidden in his office. (Yes, that's a stereotype, but it's okay, because I'm Asian!)

In an effort to "take the friction out of grass-roots contributions to presidential candidates" you can visit this page and make a contribution of $5 - $200 to your favorite presidential candidate.

So, is this Amazon's way of contributing to democracy? Wholesome patriotic generousity? No, not really. According to the FAQ:

U.S. federal law prohibits us from donating services to any or all presidential campaigns, so we are charging the campaigns our usual and normal Amazon.com Payments fee ($0.25 per contribution and 2.5% of the contribution amount)

That means that, as of this writing, the $133k worth of contributions to John Kerry have profited Amazon $4,020.73. That's a really great deal, considering that Amazon enjoyed the float of having that money, and they didn't have to offer any goods, services, shipping, or really, any effort to make that money. Bush only scored $848.85 for Bezos. I wonder if that will affect his vote?

Kerry is listed as formerly being a "cookie-muffin shop owner" which I think is pretty interesting considering he's still basically peddling empty calories. Perhaps it's good experience, you know, selling something that's tasty in the short term, but unhealthy in excess.

I'm just disappointed that Independant candidate Al Hamburg isn't taking contributions. Something about a self-educated divorcee with 9 children and a damn spanky fishing hat and a glass-shattering scowl really appeals to me. Seriously.