Lucianne Goldberg and Michelle Malkin link to this discussion board which reveals what Borders employees really think of the lowly peons who buy books from them. One employee, who calls himself/herself/itself Takahashi, proudly admits to sabotage:

We’re “finding” that most of the few copies we’re getting are damaged and need to be sent back, so sad. Too bad, Bushies! Regnery needs to be more careful. I’m hearing from people at 2 other stores that this seems to be common.

Why should we help destroy what’s left of our country?

Who was it that called patriotism the last refuge of a scoundrel? Apparently, though, M. Takahashi was worried that the above quotation might be misinterpreted by some casual, naive readers. After all, taken at face value, the statement does not read as a clear admission of criminal activity; maybe it was just an innocent observation that Regnery really was shipping them damaged, mishandled books. To clear up any such misunderstandings, Takashi follows up with another message encouraging fellow employees to resort to the same stunts:

You guys don’t actually HAVE to sell the thing!

Just “carelessly” hide the boxes, “accidentally” drop them off pallets, “forget” to stock the ones you have, and then suggest a nice Al Franken or Micheal Moore book as a substitute. Borders wants those recommends, remember?

I don’t care if these Neandertals [sic] in fancy suits get mad at me, they aren’t regular customers anyway. Other than “Left Behind” books, they don’t read. Anything you can do to make them feel unwelcome is only fair. They are the people pushing retailers to cut costs, don’t forget. And they would censor your speech, your books, your music in a heartbeat, so give them a taste of it!

Don’t get mad, get even!

Meanwhile, another moonbat who calls himself Heron adjusts his tinfoil hat to conclude that Regnery, the publisher, is intentionally limiting the supply of copies just so people will believe that Borders is censoring them. Gotta love those goofy conspiracy-within-a-conspiracy theories. Then he drones on about “those nasty old men” who want to read the book, and how important it is that every more-enlightented-than-thou Borders employee votes to cancel them out. At least this guy is only urging his co-workers to vote irresponsibly, and not to break any laws or violate any company policies. So I guess that puts him in the “good guy” column, more or less. Ditto for Withrow, who begins his reply to Takahashi on a strong note:

I really, really disagree with this point of view. Booksellers have an ethical obligation IMO to present different points of view and not get in the way of freedom of speech. What you’re suggesting is a form of censorship, only worse, because you’re not being up front about it.

Withrow started out getting the issue exactly right. He should have stopped right there. Unfortunately, he went on to bash the “poor saps” who aren’t enlightened enough to gladly vote for John Kerry without first reading or even considering the allegations against him. Of the constant shortage of books, he writes:

They’ve never distributed so much tripe at one time before and they probably never will again, so I’d chalk this up to underestimating the gullibility of large sections of the American people. If these publishers had actually worked in retail, they’d know how far the gene pool stretches.

Hate to break the news to ya, pal, but not all people exactly aspire to a career in retail sales. Some do, and that’s fine. Others don’t, and have to settle for more menial professions like teaching, law, practicing medicine, etc. Just because someone had to settle for a middle management position at a Fortune 500 company, doesn’t mean he’s any less enlightened or educated than you. It does mean he’s a bit less likely to be an obnoxious, knee-jerk liberal, a perspective that is held by some people in any profession, but which appears from this thread to be a unanimous POV among Borders employees.

OK, enough bashing. One Borders employee named Guenevere rambles incoherently about a couple of customers who got upset over the non-availability of the book (courtesy of her co-worker Takahashi?), a moonbat college professor who wants to indoctrinate her students about this “false book,” but does end her message with a valid point:

And isn’t $27.95 a bit costly for such a skinny book?

Hear, hear. Why put yourself on a long waiting list at Borders so you can pay $27.95 for a book less than 200 pages long (not counting end notes, appendices, etc.), just so you can pay the inflated salaries of a bunch of ungrateful, overgrown college students who sneer at you behind your back? Better you should pay $16.77 for the same book at Amazon. Throw in a cheap CD to push the total order over $25, and shipping is free. I did, while also foolishly putting my name on Borders’s waiting list. Amazon had a nice, fresh, unsabotaged copy of the book on my doorstep in less time than Borders was able to get it into their store.

UPDATE: The discussion thread is down due to increased blog traffic. A Google cache is here. The Borders Union maintains that Takashi[t] was a troll who had signed on with at least one other account, in which he took on the persona of a classical liberal who was shocked at the lack of respect for political diversity displayed by other posters (presumably including himself). My greater point stands, with respect to the other posters, who did not advocate illegal activity but did exhibit a snooty, more-enlightened-thou attitude towards customers whose political views differ from theirs. It doesn’t make me particularly eager to help pay the salary of any union-controlled Borders. I understand some may be non-union, but I’m not sure how to know which is which. As long as their prices remain uncompetitive with Amazon, I’m not sure if I should care, either.