A gift basket is a gift delivered to family, friends, or coworkers that you don’t care enough about to actually see them in person. The best part is about giving a gift basket is that you don’t have to look long and hard for the perfect gift. There is generally enough variety in the basket that they will like it, and all you had to do was call or go online and pick one to send. A bunch different types of gift baskets exist,. They can have fruit, dry foods, canned foods, tea, crackers, jam, cheese and of course my favorite is wine.

After looking back on my previous gift baskets, There are five reasons why I was sent or received them and here they are.

1. You want a promotion and need to kiss your bosses backside a little more.

Next holiday or event or whatever, send you boss a gift basket. Most of the other employees are not and you know how much the boss types like to get an ego stroke. Trust me it works.

2. You have a really annoying uncle or cousin that you don’t want to visit for the holidays.

Send that loud cross relative a gift basic and he’/she won’t complain to your dear old Mum about how you never visit. Unless they are like me and have caught on. Yeah I’m talking about you my cuz.

3. You forgot to buy a birthday present for someone you actually do care about.

Oops. They are never going to let you live this down. Pick up the phone and call for a gift basket and they will never be the wiser.

4. You want to steal another person’s business clients.

Lets face it, people like free stuff and there is a good chance that your competitor is not giving them anything but a hard time. Send a basket.

5. You want to keep your business clients.

Just see number 4. You don’t want somebody reading this blog to steal your clients do you? Send them a basket before the other guy finishes reading number 4.

Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored post.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to write it. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored post.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to write it. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Sent on Sat, June 5, 2010 5:56:09 PM to my Email was a message entitled “The Gulf Coast”  sent by President Barack Obama. The Email is paid for by Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee and I love how it says at the bottom of the Email, “Thank You, President Barack Obama” and then has a disclaimer in small print that says, “This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”  I get these Emails because I volunteered for Obama’s presidential campaign and donated money.  Every time something good of bad happens involving the president, all of us donors get these Emails. I’ve often thought about blogging about them, because some of these Emails have been inspiring, but the one that I’m responding to here is not inspiring in the slightest. My moral compass requires me to respond to what I consider to be bullshit, even if it comes from someone I have campaigned for.

The following is the email I received;

“Yesterday, I visited Caminada Bay in Grand Isle, Louisiana — one of the first places to feel the devastation wrought by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While I was here, at Camerdelle’s Live Bait shop, I met with a group of local residents and small business owners.

Folks like Floyd Lasseigne, a fourth-generation oyster fisherman. This is the time of year when he ordinarily earns a lot of his income. But his oyster bed has likely been destroyed by the spill.

Terry Vegas had a similar story. He quit the 8th grade to become a shrimper with his grandfather. Ever since, he’s earned his living during shrimping season — working long, grueling days so that he could earn enough money to support himself year-round. But today, the waters where he has worked are closed. And every day, as the spill worsens, he loses hope that he will be able to return to the life he built.

Here, this spill has not just damaged livelihoods. It has upended whole communities. And the fury people feel is not just about the money they have lost. It is about the wrenching recognition that this time their lives may never be the same.

These people work hard. They meet their responsibilities. But now because of a manmade catastrophe — one that is not their fault and beyond their control — their lives have been thrown into turmoil. It is brutally unfair. And what I told these men and women is that I will stand with the people of the Gulf Coast until they are again made whole.

That is why, from the beginning, we have worked to deploy every tool at our disposal to respond to this crisis. Today, there are more than 20,000 people working around the clock to contain and clean up this spill. I have authorized 17,500 National Guard troops to participate in the response. More than 1,900 vessels are aiding in the containment and cleanup effort. We have convened hundreds of top scientists and engineers from around the world. This is the largest response to an environmental disaster of this kind in the history of our country.

We have also ordered BP to pay economic injury claims, and this week, the federal government sent BP a preliminary bill for $69 million to pay back American taxpayers for some of the costs of the response so far. In addition, after an emergency safety review, we are putting in place aggressive new operating standards for offshore drilling. And I have appointed a bipartisan commission to look into the causes of this spill. If laws are inadequate, they will be changed. If oversight was lacking, it will be strengthened. And if laws were broken, those responsible will be brought to justice.

These are hard times in Louisiana and across the Gulf Coast, an area that has already seen more than its fair share of troubles. The people of this region have met this terrible catastrophe with seemingly boundless strength and character in defense of their way of life. What we owe them is a commitment by our nation to match the resilience they have shown. That is our mission. And it is one we will fulfill.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama”

Something inside me says that I should let the bullshit contained in this email slide, but then I watch footage of birds immobilized by oil, my heart breaks, and then I get angry.  Here is the kind of video I’m talking about:

The reason I get angry is because unlike what this email says they have not, “…worked to deploy every tool at our disposal to respond to this crisis.” By now, we could have dumped enough gravel over that pipe to have built a small Island.

Please, no one tell me that we couldn’t have, or that is not possible, or that I’m not understanding the scope of the problem. If we can send millions of tons of metal all over the world in World War II, we can throw some gravel, rocks, sand over a broken pipe.

The only thing that the government and British Petroleum have tried to do, is spend millions of dollars on saving the pipe, not the wildlife or the life ways. Everything they try is an attempt to bring the oil to the surface rather than just abandon or destroy that pipe.

Mr. President,

The Super Dome is filled with people. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to pursue fines, criminal charges, or investigate, or are you going to stop the oil from spilling into the Gulf?

Fining an Oil Company is like giving a parking ticket to Bill Gates.

What do you think? Is the White House doing everything it can?