News as of July 7, 2004: For all those who have shown an interest in the site over the past several months, thank you. However, I am disappointed to say that there has still been no official reply from the White House for the gift that was sent nearly two years ago now. Apparently, the President was never taught it is appropriate to send thank-you letters for expensive gifts. From his detractors. Oh, well.
Nevertheless, if you are interested in making a very personal difference to a soldier embroiled in President Bush's War on Terror, I would like to direct your attention to the following (courtesy Diana.):

Anti-War Protestors For the Troops

It's time for the anti-war movement to show the pro-war chickenhawks they don't have a monopoly on patriotism.

Set an example by sending gift packages and letters to our troops overseas, and let them know it's the White House's policies you oppose, not the soldiers themselves.

It's not the soldiers' fault we've pre-emptively invaded a country and made enemies of most of our allies Ñ yet it's the soldiers who are the ones suffering for it. They're the ones facing danger. Unlike Bush or Rumsfeld or Cheney, who ran and hid when their numbers were called.

Show the troops there's at least one way this won't be another Vietnam: Anti-war protestors respect our law-abiding soldiers, airmen, Marines and sailors and want them home safe, and soon.

Links:
Books for Soldiers.com
Find a unit through AnySoldier.us
Adopt a Platoon.org

News as of Oct. 31, 2003: It's hard to believe that it was a year ago that the PlayStation 2 was sent to the White House. And has it really been six months since I've updated this site? Time flies when you're busy, I guess.
Not long after my last post, the war on Iraq began, was declared complete and continues unofficially even as I write this.
So was this protest campaign a waste of time and money? Did our message ever reach the president? Did it even get past security?
Ladies and gentlemen, my esteemed donors, supporters, detractors and skeptics, I am pleased to report that this project has been at least a partial success.
I have just gotten off the phone with the nice people at the White House gift office, and they were able to confirm that the gift was in fact received and processed. The woman that I spoke to told me it might still be "being worked on," thanks to the anthrax scare that has delayed all White House mail considerably since 2002.
She did, however, tell me that I should be receiving a written response from the White House shortly, and that "due to the nature of the correspondence," I would be receiving a different response than usual.
This is big news. I am at once elated and terrified. I can only hope that by "different," she did not mean "involving black helicopters."
More news as events develop.

4/24/2003, 2:35 p.m. PST: Anyone who's interested in hearing me grilled mercilessly on live radio can tune in to WBAI (99.5 FM in New York City) tomorrow between the hours of 2 and 3 p.m. ET. For those who, like myself, live outside of New York, you can listen to the live streaming audio by clicking here.

4/2/2003, 12:00 a.m. PST: Hope everyone had a happy April Fools' Day, and that you all got to enjoy the (approximately 10 minutes of) very hard work that went into the "hax0red" version of the page. For those who missed it, the page can still be viewed here.
Also, the campaign is featured on page 42 of this month's Electronic Gaming Monthly, something that has apparently already started generating hate mail for them. This site seems to excel at pissing off people who have nothing better to do with their time than write angry letters about political humor sites.

News as of 2/24/2003, 6:20 a.m. PST: I have just gotten off the phone with the White House Gift Office in an attempt to find out what happened to the PS2 that, as many of you know, was sent in late November. Apparently, they've got a serious backlog problem over there, as all the mail is received off-site and run through security screening. "We are still receiving things from 2001," the woman on the other end of the phone told me, adding that I should check back in 6-8 weeks. She went on to promise that the second it was received by her office, I would be sent some sort of notification.
So apparently it's a good thing that I sent it in November; much like dinner reservations in Hollywood, it seems sending a gift to the president should ideally be done months in advance.
If nothing else, he's been consistent in only threatening war (knock on faux-wood-paneled plastic), so maybe we've still got a chance.
Finally, and I know it's not much to offer for those of you who have been so patient, but I have quietly updated the Letters section. I am also hard at work on a new photo essay, and also a FAQ. More on those later.

3/1/2003, 5:15 a.m. PST: It seems the UPS tracking number still works after all. In case it goes down again, though, I've posted scans of the shipping receipts as well. I was originally going to tack them onto the end of the second photo essay, but that'll still be a little while in coming. They can be viewed here (kinda large, sorry) and here.

2/27/2003, 1:34 a.m. PST: The FAQ is up. All you curious types are encouraged to check it before sending me questions. Cheers!

2/24/2003, 6:20 a.m. PST: I have just gotten off the phone with the White House Gift Office in an attempt to find out what happened to the PS2 that, as many of you know, was sent in late November. Apparently, they've got a serious backlog problem over there, as all the mail is received off-site and run through security screening. "We are still receiving things from 2001," the woman on the other end of the phone told me, adding that I should check back in 6-8 weeks. She went on to promise that the second it was received by her office, I would be sent some sort of notification.
So apparently it's a good thing that I sent it in November; much like dinner reservations in Hollywood, it seems sending a gift to the president should ideally be done months in advance.
If nothing else, he's been consistent in only threatening war (knock on faux-wood-paneled plastic), so maybe we've still got a chance.
Finally, and I know it's not much to offer for those of you who have been so patient, but I have quietly updated the Letters section. I am also hard at work on a new photo essay, and also a FAQ. More on those later.

News as of 12/22/2002, 2:02 a.m. PST: "So what happened?"
First, I owe everyone an apology. I'm very sorry about the lack of updates in the past month; in my defense, let me say that work, preparing for the holidays and trying to cram an actual life in between the cracks has taken up precious time that should have been spent working on photo essays, answering e-mails and hacking together letters pages and other new stuff for your perusal and enjoyment. I am woefully behind, and probably will be until after the New Year.
As long as I've got your attention, however, I would like to answer the most frequent question I've been getting these days: "Any word from the White House?" The answer is no, at least not yet. Either the president has decided to take the "high road" and ignore the $370 "gift" we have sent him, or these things simply take awhile to process, and we will get our form letter, signed by the president's signature machine, in due time. We shall see what we shall see.

News as of 11/28/2002, 1:42 p.m. PST: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. UPS has put the tracking number for the package online, and you can view the PlayStation's progress here.

11/27/2002, 8:40 p.m. PST: Earlier today, I finally packed up the PS2, games and accessories, enclosed a letter with the donor list and the first 200-odd petition signatures, and shipped it to the White House via UPS. To reiterate: The Buy Bush a PlayStation 2 Campaign has officially sent Bush a PlayStation 2. Photos, receipt scans and further details will follow soon. Thank you all for your patience and for your continued interest in and support of the campaign.

11/12/2002, 3:54 a.m. PST: The photo and receipt scan for SOCOM are up at the bottom of this page.

11/11/2002, 5:15 p.m. PST: I have finally stopped being such a bonehead and have put up a petition (which will be kept separate from the donors list) for those who weren't able to contribute money, but still want to support the campaign. Unfortunately, since I'm sending the PS2 in the next couple of days, the petition closes very soon. Sign it now if you want to support the campaign.

11/11/2002, 2:36 p.m. PST: For those of you living in San Francisco's East Bay (Berkeley, Oakland, etc.), KALX 90.7 FM has seen fit to interview me for a segment on the humor of war, which should air tomorrow sometime between 9 and 9:30 a.m.

11/11/2002, 2:04 p.m. PST: Sorry about the lack of updates in recent days, everyone, but our wait is over: SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs has arrived today! I'll post a notice here when the picture and receipt scan are up, which should be later tonight. Tomorrow I'll hit the Packaging Store and see if I can find a box to send this stuff in, and then I'll pay a little visit to the post office. The project is nearly complete.

11/5/2002, 8:48 a.m. PST: Today is Election Day, ladies and gentlemen. U.S. citizens, make sure to vote, or else I don't want to hear you complain.
So, anyway, the first chapter of the photo essay is ready for your perusal, complete with receipts. Thought you'd like to know. I've also decided to start posting updates on the front page as well as the "What's New" page, but I'm sure you already figured that one out on your own.

11/03/2002, 2:25 a.m. PST: After poking my nose into just about every shop that sells video games in San Francisco and meeting with disappointment after disappointment, I have decided to do some bullet-biting and order a copy of SOCOM from ebgames.com. The upside of this is that it buys me some time to make contact with the White House and find out how to ship this gift so that it doesn't get shredded by the Secret Service and/or land us all in an interrogation room. The downside is, of course, that chapter 2 of the photo essay has been put off at least a week or two (whereas chapter 1 will be up no later than Tuesday). Thanks for your patience, everyone.

11/01/2002, 4:05 a.m. PST: Success! The PS2, memory card, controller and copy of Conflict: Desert Storm have all been bought. The only thing left is a copy of SOCOM, which is proving hard to come by. Must have something to do with the backlog on West Coast docks. Anywho, the first batch of photos will be up in the next couple of days.

10/30/2002, 6:00 a.m. PST: Added updates page, donor list, photo essay and letters section.