Wal-Mart is setting for culture war battles (hangs large pic of Smirk)

[donsu]

http://www.mcall.com/news/opinion/oped/all-column-boct25,0,1966314.column?coll=all-newsopinionoped-col

Bentonville, Ark., is home to Wal-Mart Corp. Wal-Mart, referred to by some as the ''Beast of Bentonville,'' is ubiquitous. We all shop there, even liberal employment lawyers who cannot say anything of a salutary nature about the place. Wal-Mart pays substandard wages, aggressively opposes union organizing efforts, prevents most of its employees from working full time and enforces tough labor policies in its stores. It dominates and saturates markets, and unflinchingly squeezes out competitors. And, as a series of nationwide raids by federal agents on Thursday suggests, it may have something of an illegal immigrant problem, as about 250 who worked cleaning Wal-Mart stores were seized.

Despite all of this, Wal-Mart is your headquarters for good old-fashioned Americana, served up in oversized plastic containers. It is the last retail stop on a long train ride to the end of what used to be known as the American dream. Its bright corridors are crammed with merchandise churned out in the sweatshops of Central America or Southeast Asia. While in a Wal-Mart, one encounters little yellow ''happy-face'' signs, busily engaged in ''price rollbacks.'' It is a multibillion dollar enterprise that, manifesting no sense of irony, fancies itself to be a champion of ''Christian values.''

At the same time, it censors artistic material, refuses to sell certain music CDs and bans ''risque'' magazines like Maxim, FHM and Stuff, apparently believing that pictures of pretty girls pose a grave danger to the purity of our souls.

Having said this, I still find myself shopping there on occasion. A few months ago, I was walking through a Wal-Mart store on Route 309, on my way back to Bethlehem after a day in court in Philadelphia. What I saw there could conceivably, depending upon the eyes of the beholder, be viewed as an affront to one's sensibilities. It was an enlarged color photograph of President George W. Bush standing on that aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego. It was taken on May 1, and it depicted Mr. Bush dressed in a flight suit, holding a jet pilot's flight helmet. On that day, he announced an end to major hostilities in Iraq. It has become an officially famous picture. At the time, I was reminded of Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's concurring opinion on the definition of obscenity in Jacobellis v. Ohio: ''I know it when I see it.''
-snip-
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guess it has started - we will be seeing large pics of Smirk everywhere we go.

[w13rd0]

1. When do they start erecting massive statues...

...with oversized phalluses and renaming universities for him? Now that Saddams deposed, someone has to fill his shoes...

[patdem]

2. Sounds sort of Sadaam-esque???? He had pics everywhere too???

creepy to say the least...the VERY least!!! :grr: :scared: :puke:

[DBoon]

3. Do the eyes appear to follow you as you walk by??

n/t

[spaniard]

4. I suggest that everyone buy a few copies of the Playboy issue..

..smuggle them into the Walmarts in your area, and blend one in with the other mags at Walmart.

[E_Zapata]

9. That is a fantastic idea!!!

n/t

done.

[newyawker99]

11. Hi spaniard!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Octafish]

5. Dean must like Vermont's four Wal-Marts...

... that's how many opened up there during his administration. Four Walmarts in a state with less than a million people. How many mom and pop stores are gove, thanks to the Beast of Bentonville?

GOOGLE Jackston Stephens, the guy who helped fund Wal-Mart, and BCCI, George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Smirko, and money going to make ours an "international" economy.

[killbotfactory]

7. Can VT governers just shut down businesses that don't break any laws?

I know they can't in the states I lived.

[Octafish]

18. An interesting thought.

No, from what I know, a governor can not shut down a legal business. What they CAN do, is oppose the establishment of a business famous for destroying the competition by undercutting pricing through intimidation of suppliers, employing non-union labor, and stocking their shelves with products made in red China by slave and child labor.

How would Dean do that? Like he tackles the rest of the problems of the day. He could talk and talk and talk. Eventually, local residents, zoning commissions, and other official bodies could get the idea to oppose Walmart and vote against letting the store in and driving the local mom-and-pop operations out of business. That's how governors in states I've lived in would do it.

[dobak]

15. so?

Do you think Dean could have stopped Wal-Mart from coming in?

[Octafish]

17. Yes, I do think Dean could have stopped Walmart.

That company SATURATED Vermont. Now, I can't find much of a public paper trail on the negotiations from GOOGLE, but I'd bet he could have put up some kind of resistance that would show up. He may not have stopped them all, but Dean could at least stopped some of the four stores. But, he didn't.

BTW: Do you know who Jackson Stephens is? In case you don't, he's the Arkansas money man who financed Sam Walton way back when. Stephens also puts his money into politicians, backing George Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. In the late 1970s, Stephens introduced the Middle East money men who fronted for BCCI to Bert Lance and Jimmy Carter. More recently, Stephens even hired Gen. Wesley Clark for a while to run one of his high-tech computer data mining outfits. Small world, huh?

[killbotfactory]

6. Kinda reminds me of something

Break out the victory gin!

[Johnyawl]

8. Bulls**t!

We all shop there

There's a Wal-Mart 10 minutes from my house, I've been inside it twice in the 5 years it's been there, and left angry both times without buying anything.

[Skittles]

12. I don't shop at that piece of shit store either

I'll do what it takes - WHATEVER IT TAKES - to NOT SHOP THERE.

[cosmicdot]

10. maybe Clear Channel will donate its outdoor advertising space

in some European markets, the idol can be added via computer (very sassy concept)

Corporate Feudal Fascism is here!

[bluestateguy]

13. That's why I don't shop there

I do have to pay a little more to shop elsewhere--even Target's prices are a bit higher--but a little sacrifice is required to make a point.

[Silverhair]

19. That means you have enough money to afford your choice.

People who are actually poor and on food stamps need every price break they can get. Take a look at the merchandise. You won't see much high-brow stuff there. Look at the furniture - its the particle board stuff that comes in boxes and has to be assembled. Cheap & utilitarian. For a lot of poor people Wal-Mart is all they can afford.

[loudnclear]

14. Can we get any liberals to finance a counter chain to Wal-mart?

I guess the powers that be would freeze them out of the discount markets abroad. Wal-Mart probably has contracts with China and Korea that forbid them to sell to anyone else.

[hippywife]

16. We stopped shopping there

and don't even shop any of the chains for grocery. Just go to our little hometown grocerman. Made a few changes that caused not much sacrifice at all and the prices are about the same.

We did have occassion to be in the local WalMart over the July 4th weekend and saw a magazine in a big display rack at the front door with the same picture of the Shrub with a big title "How America Changed the World" I just about lost my dinner. :puke:

I did pick it up and look at the banner just to see who would put out such drivel. It was of course that purveyor of fiction that brings you The National Enquirer and Weekly World News. :eyes: