Let your $ speak

Note: I wrote the first section of this post a couple weeks ago but couldn't figure out how to upload the image of the Excel s/s to Typepad*. So the knitting part predates my last post. But those words are mine own deathless prose and I am wont to delete them.

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Thanks to Elizabeth for the link to BuyBlue.org, I can now substantiate my claim that Amazon donates to predominantly Republican causes while Barnes & Noble donates to predominantly Democratic ones. Thanks, Elizabeth!

It turns out that yes, Barnes & Noble (and Powell's) donate(s) to blue causes and Amazon donates predominantly to red ones, but the disparity is not as great as I had thought.

And because I am a number cruncher I delved into the site, sorted the data, copied and pasted into an Excel spreadsheet, and sliced and diced it (sorry, obsidiankitten, I had to say it), and came up with the following. Each list contains only those businesses that donated 51% or more of their total donations to the party in question, meaning that I ignored those pansy-asses with have no principles who donate the same amount to both parties. The lists are sorted by the total $$$ donated to that party. The blue list has everybody; I cut off the red list at  $100,000 because the list was so frickin' long. No surprise that the Red Guys are rolling in it.

Of special interest to me were the few corporations that donated money to "Other." Imho, "other" holds great promise for the future.

(For those of you who are not totally nutso do not delight in poring over spreadsheets, scroll down to the summary.)

Blue Guys

Red Guys

To summarize, the conservatives among us should buy our:

• craft supplies at Michael's and WalMart,
• gas from Exxon Mobil,
• drilling supplies from Halliburton (gee, that was a surprise),
• bloomin' onions at Outback Steakhouse,
• tires from Goodyear,
• burgers at Wendy's, and
• fertilizer our lawns with Scott's Miracle-Gro.

The liberals among us should buy our:

• craft supplies at JoAnn,
• insurance from Progressive,
• investments through Working Assets,
• wine from Ernest & Julio Gallo,
• clothes at J. Crew and Men's Wearhouse and Dress Barn (okay, maybe not that last one), and
• books from Barnes & Noble and Powell's.

Well, actually, we should buy all our stuff locally from locally-owned businesses, but on those occasions when we don't... you get my point.

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I promise on a stack of butterfly ballots that this will not morph into a political blog. Politics bore me, although their effects do not.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled knitting.

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There has been a woeful lack of knitting in my hands for the past couple weeks. Like, zero, none, zip, nada. Until last night, when I finished a swatch for my next Dulaan sweater and tonight when I finished a ballband dishcloth. I washed the swatch, and it is drying now. When I locate my camera I'll have some actual pictures of stuff. The sherbet-colored toddler sweater is still in pieces waiting to be sewn toge--

WOW!! I just heard the loons on the lake for the first time this year. They are being creatively vocal, too -- breeding season and all :-)

ther. Sewing sweaters is not my favorite part but I'm hoping to learn some things on this sweater. One cannot knit ONLY one-piece raglans.

I am sooooo ready to knit again.

* What I ended up doing was downloading a freeware screenshot program for Mac, SnapClip, which did exactly what I wanted it to. At work we use SnagIt, which may very well be the gold standard for screen capture, but which, alas, is only available in a Windoze version.

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Edited to add: (Help, I've started going political and I can't stop!) Shortly after i posted the above I got this link in an e-mail from No. 1 son. Apparently great minds think alike, er, I trained him well. Actually, he trained me. Anyway. One celebrity's political donations.

Comments

[Chris]

That was interesting. I'm with you - politics are dreary, but their effects...

[lisa]

Hey, thanks for those tables! I think they are pretty interesting.

[Teyani]

Funny how so many of the companies I like naturally are blue ones :-) and gotta love Bonnie Raitt, eh? !

[Susan]

Thanks for those tables! That was awesome. (I was relieved to find I shop blue. Yea me!)

[mouse]

stumbled over here via a link at "Worsted Witch"- thanks for those tables, it was very interesting! I'm glad to see that I shop 'blue' as well-and your lists will make sure I'm more careful in the future of where I shop to keep it that way!

[Cathy]

Just confirmed where my (blue) money goes. Thanks for putting so much effort into it. you rock.

[Gillian]

Very interesting work you've done. I wonder how Cda would compare for our political parties. And oddly enough the party names don't always mean what they apparently say. Do conservative state parties seem the same as federal ones and do the names match?
It's nice to see other people using Mac. Do you use Version Tracker to follow programs and look for updates?

[Jeanne]

Too. Many. Numbers. *thud* (But happy to see that I can spend money at B&N at will)

[elizabeth]

Hey, Frederick's of Hollywood - 100% democrat, woo hoo!!! ;o)

[JulieFrick]

That was fascinating. Thanks!

[cindyg]

Welcome back to the knitting world!
The lists are great, thanks for doing the analysis.

[Carrie K]

Politics are fascinating. It's all just people and their machinations after all.

Awesome spreadsheet, Kat! My brother had told me that about Amazon and B&N but it's nice to see the numbers.