The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Bargain Suppliers, an Wisconsin based company. They get the award for the following email exchange with Sgt. Hess, a US soldier in Iraq.

On Tue Jan 16 3:25, contact@discount-mats.com sent:

To Whom it may concern:

Do you ship to APO addresses?
I'm in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for who ships to APO first.

SGT Hess

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From: contact@discount-mats.com [mailto:mailto:contact@discount-mats.com]
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 9:44 PM

Subject: Re: Feedback: from discount-mats.com

SGT Hess,

We do not ship to APO addresses, and even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq.

Bargain Suppliers
Discount-Mats.com

Another fine example of supporting the troops. Do companies like this ever learn how much bad publicity they earn from incidents like the above?

Now Bargain Suppliers is concerned for the safety of its employees.

What began as a brief e-mail exchange between a U.S. soldier in Iraq and a Wisconsin-based online retailer has erupted into an international incident that has pitted military supporters against free speech advocates and threatens to shut down the local company.

Bargain Suppliers of West Allis said its discount-mats.com Web site had to be taken down Monday to address the thousands of e-mails it's received since news of the exchange - in which an employee voiced opposition to the war in Iraq - began circulating on the Internet last week.

Vice president Sajid Nasir said the employee is being "held accountable." But he said the incendiary and threatening nature of some of the e-mails - and voicemails left at the West Allis home that co-owner Faisal Khetani shares with his parents - have shaken the family.

"It's really getting out of control," said Nasir, who described the messages as "angry and vulgar."

"Our main concern is for the safety of the family. That's more important than the business," he said.

Mr. Nasir people are free in this country to express(without violence) their anger and outrage at what your company did. Bargain Suppliers brought this upon themselves, you replied with contempt to a US GI and you are getting payback now. Welcome to America Bargain Suppliers, and here is today's Knucklehead of the Day Award.

Hat tip- Black Five and Kim at Wizbang
Linked to- Adam's Blog, Basil's Blog, Bright & Early, Cao's Blog, Jo's Cafe, Third World County, Outside the Beltway,