Wal-Mart prods Bush for the Congressional Black Caucus

[Rose Siding]

Continuing its courtship of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), Wal-Mart is urging President Bush to extend the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In recent months, Wal-Mart has moved toward a lasting alliance with the CBC, deepening the ties by stressing its legislative influence as the nation’s largest private employer of African-Americans. Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott’s letter, delivered to the White House on Tuesday, is his first follow-up on a productive winter meeting with the CBC.

“I hope that you will stand with me, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, other political and civil rights leaders and countless Americans in supporting an extension of the expiring provisions of the Voting Rights Act,” Scott wrote to Bush, whose reelection campaign received the maximum contribution from Wal-Mart’s political action committee.

The act is universally beloved by the civil-rights community and a point of pride for black lawmakers. It ensures that no disenfranchisement method can be used to prohibit blacks from exercising their right to vote, and its renewal before the 2007 expiration is a crucial priority for the CBC.

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/061605/walmart.html

[aden_nak]

1. Last time we checked in, Bush didn't even know what the VRA was.

[MessiahRp]

2. As important as the actual cause is...

Let's not forget that Wal-Mart is wooing the CBC and local African-American leaders in hopes that they can gain entry to many of their neighborhoods without much opposition from elected officials.

Great article from The Nation about this:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050328&s=featherstone

[mandomom]

3. Bogus chest beating.

[mandomom]

4. Oh, yeah and there's this about GOP/Walmart politics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/19/AR2005051900853.html

At this same event, several people were threatened by police with arrest if they dared to boo, jeer or even hold up homemade posters opposing Ehrlich's action.

I will try to find a link to the police censorship story by Michael Olesky in the Baltimore Sun.