Posted on 09/02/2004 5:12:38 PM PDT by The Electrician
Would you lick Slobodan Milosevic? Linda Tripp? Now, apparently you could, thanks to a new custom stamp service from Stamps.com.
Launched last month, Stamps.com's service lets customers put wedding photos and pet portraits on their postage, a notion that The Smoking Gun's Web site finds inappropriate.
In an effort to prove its point, The Smoking Gun submitted several photos of some unlikely characters for custom stamps; Milosevic and Tripp were two of many "ridiculous" submissions, one of the site's editors said. Those stamps and others are being showcased in a gallery on the site.
"We thought we'd give this service a little integrity test," said Andrew Goldberg, managing editor of The Smoking Gun. "So we submitted a bunch of ridiculous photos to see which ones would stick."
Stamps.com, which received permission from the U.S. Postal Service to offer the PhotoStamps service on a trial basis, reserves the right to refuse printing stamps it deems inappropriate. And in fact, some of The Smoking Gun's submissions for the stamps were rejected, such as pictures of Lee Harvey Oswald and mob informer Sammy "the Bull" Gravano. On the first attempt, Ted Kaczynski, a.k.a. the Unabomber, was also rejected.
But Kaczynski's high school and college yearbook pictures were accepted, as were photos of Milosevic, who is currently standing trial in front of U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Hague. Stamps.com also printed stamps depicting Linda Tripp, the famed confidante of Monica Lewinsky, and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, the couple executed in 1953 for spying for the Soviets. The Smoking Gun is also displaying stamps showing Lewinsky's blue dress, the one stained by President Clinton's DNA, executed Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa, and New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey with Golan Cipel.
"It has always meant something to put someone's likeness on a stamp," Goldberg said. "And now anyone who wants to pay a premium can get on a stamp. It's lost some of the luster."
When it was launched on Aug. 10, Stamps.com's service was billed as a way for parents, grandparents, pet owners, travelers and hobbyists to share their favorite digital photos. For about twice the price of a regular stamp, people can put just about anything on their custom stamps.
Stamps.com on Thursday issued a statement lauding the success of the service. So far, 40,000 sheets, or 800,000 individual PhotoStamps, have been ordered. The most popular images showing up on stamps are those of babies, children, families, friends, pets and travel destinations, the company said.
A Stamps.com representative was unavailable for comment on this story.
He's likely a Liberal, which means that he's both.
Would someone please explain to me what is it that Linda Tripp did which is anything different than what John Kerry did to the vets in Viet Nam.
No, wait, Linda didn't lie!
I guess that at least it's a nice photo of Linda (here).
BTW, that site is SLOOOOOWWWWWW to load...
Linda Tripp functioned as a de facto aide to President Clinton. She focussed the nation's attention on the most petty of his failings (his consensual sexual relationship with an intern) and diverted attention from his accepting illegal Chinese payments, renting out the Lincoln Bedroom, raping Juanita Brodderick, and on and on and on.
Unfortunately, her decision to act as a self-appointed angel of righteousness enabled President Clinton to reveal his depravity after the majority of Americans had become convinced that he was the victim of a witch hunt by unreasonable fanatics.
I beg to differ. Linda Tripp was a whistleblower about Clinton's illegal attempts at witness tampering. The diversionary focus on "it's only sex" was a combination of Carville/Davis spin, MSM obsession, and Independent Counsel's office errors. It's a mistake to lay the blame for that at Linda's doorstep.
Witness tampering? Refresh my recollection, please.
I remember that there was more in the Starr Report, but at the moment I'm too time challenged to look it up...
Surely someone has a Monica on a postage stamp joke.
Unfortunately, her decision to act as a self-appointed angel of righteousness enabled President Clinton to reveal his depravity after the majority of Americans had become convinced that he was the victim of a witch hunt by unreasonable fanatics.
WTF??!?!?
You need to go to Vast Right Wing Conspiracy School.
Hey, great response!! I never thought of that.
Your comment, delphic as it is, deserves a clearer response from me.
I wouldn't call it a vast right-wing conspiracy. I would say, however, that there was a broad mass of Americans -- perhaps even a majority -- who were disconcerted, offended, disgusted, even outraged by Bill Clinton. They had tried to find something specific and provable to pin on him, but nothing stuck.
Then Linda Tripp decided to play sheriff, and reported on her friend. So many people thought that this was their chance to get Clinton that they jumped on this weakest link in his chain of depravity with a vengeance and used it as an opportunity to humiliate and discredit Clinton (see Starr's report, detailing the President's use of the cigar).
The mass of Americans -- led by the mainstream media -- saw this as a lynching, and sided with Clinton.
Later, when more serious allegations surfaced, there was no energy to pursue them, since everyone was spent on Linda Tripp's red herring. In my opinion, the real victims of Linda Tripp were the flaky Monica Lewinsky, the American people, and Juanita Brodderick in particular, who deserved more attention than she got from an exhausted America that just wanted to move on.
Just as we are outraged that the mainstream media are devoting their time and resources to defending Kerry's medals while ignoring Christmas in Cambodia, I am angry that Kenneth Starr decided to focus all of his time and millions of dollars and thousands of man hours on a consensual sexual relationship when there were so many more depraved and illegal things that Clinton did.
On occasion, when someone is subject to liability, he will encourage the weakest plaintiff to file suit against him. When he wins the case, those with a stronger case will be unwilling or unable to file their own lawsuits. In my opinion Linda Tripp started a similar process regarding Clinton. That's why I say that she acted (unwittingly) as his aide. She diverted attention from more serious charges and set off a chain of events that exhausted the American people.
Oh, bullClinton. See The Electrician's analysis for the true picture of what really happened:
Linda Tripp was a whistleblower about Clinton's illegal attempts at witness tampering. The diversionary focus on "it's only sex" was a combination of Carville/Davis spin, MSM obsession, and Independent Counsel's office errors. It's a mistake to lay the blame for that at Linda's doorstep.
I was here. I KNOW what went on. "She Hillary and the war room diverted attention from more serious charges and set off a chain of events that exhausted the American people."
This was discussed on FR at the time it was happening. The diversion involved a cast of thousands, including the full resources of the White House's media operation, and its hundreds of willing helpers in the Main Stream Media, many of who are now involved in the vilification of the Swiftees.
Fingering Tripp is just wrong. She was a pawn in Hitlery's Vast Machinations. As they say, follow the money, and Tripp didn't have the money or resources to affect ANYTHING.
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