September 29, 2006
— Ace And this time, it's personal.
It appears that Wal-Mart has had about enough of being demonized by the left in this country for the grave sin of providing quality goods to American consumers at low prices.
So Wal-Mart has decided to take some action to show those hippy, agrarian, land reformers who's boss after all:
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. yesterday launched a voter registration drive aimed at its 1.3 million U.S. employees in what it describes as the largest such effort by a private company.The kickoff was held in Iowa, a key battleground in the upcoming midterm elections. Workers at Wal-Mart's roughly 3,800 other facilities across the country also received registration forms yesterday. Although the world's largest retailer said it does not want to influence how its workers vote, David Tovar, director of media relations, said the drive was prompted by recent criticism of the company by politicians.
Heh. And Grand Moff Tarkin didn't want to influence the course of the rebellion by blowing up Alderaan.
Wal-Mart is working with Democratic strategist Charles Baker of the law firm DLA Piper and Republican strategist Terry Nelson, founder of Crosslink Strategy, on what it has dubbed the Voter Education Program. The company has prepaid postage for voter registration forms in Iowa and several other states. It is also allowing workers whose shifts do not give them three hours to visit the polls to take paid time off to vote. Before the elections in 2004, they received two hours of unpaid time off.Wal-Mart sent letters to 18,000 Iowa employees in August criticizing Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Govs. Tom Vilsack of Iowa and Bill Richardson of New Mexico -- all Democrats -- for participating in a bus tour arranged by Wake Up Wal-Mart, which is funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Similar letters were sent to workers in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
Well, my only criticism of this effort is why they bothered to send 18,000 letters about 4 candidates who will be lucky to get 18,000 votes between them on Iowa's caucus night.
Then again, maybe they hope that these letters will create a strange disturbance in the Democrat's party platform discussions as a couple of these jokers are running for the VP slot.
In any event, regardless of which side of the political divide you are on voter registration is a good thing, right?
Some activist groups questioned the retailer's motives, citing Wal-Mart's policy of banning voter registration drives conducted by outside parties from its stores."If Wal-Mart is truly interested in promoting a just democracy, then customers and employees should be included in registration activities," said Edward A. Hailes Jr., senior attorney with Advancement Project, a national civil rights group organization that works on voting issues.
Ahh, yes. Voter registration drives are as evil as Darth Vader and the Dark Side of the Force unless they are placed in the hands of committed liberal activists to run.
For the life of me, I can't imagine why Wal-Mart would want to keep their customers from being harrassed by a bunch of clipboard wielding moonbats.
Can you?
I'm just sorry that the guy is characterized as "questioning the motives". Had he only "questioned the timing" I could have done a whole Joshua Micah Leia Skywalker Cougar Mellancamp Boutros-Boutros C3P0 Akbar Marshall riff.
Anyway...may the force be with you Wal-Mart!
Posted by: Ace at
09:39 PM
| Comments (46)
Post contains 582 words, total size 4 kb.
If I could vote for Sam Walton for president, I would!
As it is, I have to be sustained by the fact that at least Sam Walton still votes for president. Granted, he seems to prefer the dem ticket, but at least he's still engaged.
Posted by: krakatoa at September 29, 2006 11:28 PM (t9k4v)
Posted by: Shivv at September 29, 2006 11:44 PM (ybQb9)
I get the feeling Wal-Mart's just setting its opponents up for their real counter-attack.
Those stores of theirs are huge, you know. Be real easy for people to just get lost, wouldn't it? Wouldn't be surprising in the least if their bleached bones turned up a month later in the sports department as a set of golf clubs. Happens all the time.
Posted by: Nuclear Siafu at September 30, 2006 01:04 AM (j21mM)
Posted by: profligatewaste at September 30, 2006 01:18 AM (MeXoJ)
Posted by: Tushar D Yoda at September 30, 2006 02:14 AM (9ULFg)
Posted by: Tushar D at September 30, 2006 02:17 AM (9ULFg)
Tushar's right... a harnessed group of Wal-Mart clientele are a powerful voting group indeed.
tmi3rd
Posted by: tmi3rd at September 30, 2006 02:22 AM (1oOYY)
No. I'm with Neal Boortz and Jonah Goldberg on this one. If the voters are informed, then more voters is a good thing. Simply registering voters potentially dilutes the voter pool. Give me a small, energized, educated voter pool over a large pool of people who don't know the candidates or the location of their polling location.
Posted by: DSkinner at September 30, 2006 02:38 AM (Z887G)
When I lived in AZ I took the kids and we would spend forever in Wal-Mart just to enjoy the AC, course I never walked out without spending $400.
Posted by: pajama momma at September 30, 2006 03:41 AM (+Aq+d)
Posted by: mrp at September 30, 2006 03:46 AM (9LRo7)
"If they think we will cut and run on the war on Wall Mart, they've got another thing coming", said Barney Frank, now the lone congressional advocate of homosexual relations with interns.
"Away go we will not", echoed Pelosi, preempting the President; "When I become Speaker we will outlaw shopping carts, see what they think about that!"
“Wall Mart is killing children in produce”, reported John Kerry who produced a giant yellow squash as evidence; “I’ve seen it with my own eyes. And, any day now, when I release my military records, you will see that I have received this squash with honor.”
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”, said Biden in another clever turn of a phrase.
Posted by: robert at September 30, 2006 03:55 AM (Rb4Qc)
Posted by: Mr Minority at September 30, 2006 04:29 AM (gwfvN)
If memory serves, this is nothing compared to the deal the UAW signed with GM (and perhaps the other two major auto manufacturers). The agreement gives UAW members a paid holiday on election day.
No impropriety THERE, eh?
Why not jes' hand out Hunnert-Dollah Bills, the way they do in Chicago?
Posted by: franksalterego at September 30, 2006 04:46 AM (uK0Vd)
No one expected Carter to do any good in the primary season either.
I am just glad that Evan Bayh is showing his liberal stripes in a way we can finally use to bludgen him.
Posted by: jones at September 30, 2006 05:18 AM (lJUwT)
Posted by: splashtc at September 30, 2006 05:26 AM (sTQQL)
I find it funny that the Democrats didn't have a problem with Wal-Mart when Arkansas native Bill Clinton was President and his "wife" Hillary once sat on the Wal-Mart board.
splashtc,
You have the right to shop anwhere you want except in Blue states. If you do not like "big box" stores then don't shop at them. Those "big box" or chain stores also include Democratic "darling donors" like Target, Starbucks Barnes and Noble.
tmi3rd,
One of the many things that Wal-Mart does well that has gone woefully underreported is the fact that they, in conjunction with Lowe's and Home Depot, have pumped tons of money into reconstruction efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi... they seemed to be the only three major retailers trying to reopen quickly after the storm.
Of course it was underreported. Just like the damage in Mississippi and Alabama was underreported. The people in Mississippi and Alabama are not from the "Democratic plantaion" of the 9th ward of New Orleans so could not be depended on to spout off the Democratic BDS line and the corporations involved are not ones liked by Democrats. You know-the evil "big box" stores.
So reporting on it would not work well with the Democratic agenda.
Now if it had been Ben & Jerry's showing up with free ice cream there would have been massive press coverage of that.
Posted by: at September 30, 2006 05:46 AM (R4CkX)
I find it funny that the Democrats didn't have a problem with Wal-Mart when Arkansas native Bill Clinton was President and his "wife" Hillary once sat on the Wal-Mart board.
splashtc,
You have the right to shop anwhere you want except in Blue states. If you do not like "big box" stores then don't shop at them. Those "big box" or chain stores also include Democratic "darling donors" like Target, Starbucks Barnes and Noble.
tmi3rd,
One of the many things that Wal-Mart does well that has gone woefully underreported is the fact that they, in conjunction with Lowe's and Home Depot, have pumped tons of money into reconstruction efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi... they seemed to be the only three major retailers trying to reopen quickly after the storm.
Of course it was underreported. Just like the damage in Mississippi and Alabama was underreported. The people in Mississippi and Alabama are not from the "Democratic plantaion" of the 9th ward of New Orleans so could not be depended on to spout off the Democratic BDS line and the corporations involved are not ones liked by Democrats. You know-the evil "big box" stores.
So reporting on it would not work well with the Democratic agenda.
Now if it had been Ben & Jerry's showing up with free ice cream there would have been massive press coverage of that.
Posted by: Nahanni at September 30, 2006 05:47 AM (R4CkX)
Posted by: Nahanni at September 30, 2006 05:48 AM (R4CkX)
Just another stop on the road of unintended consequences.
Years ago, the consumer price index, CPI, was adjusted to account for the fact that most people were shopping now at the big box stores instead of department stores (remember those?) and boutiques. Social Security, government pensions, and food stamps are all keyed to the CPI. What would be the cost in government entitlements to readjust back up? Not that they would, of course. But, Oh! Collective bargaining relies on the CPI, too. Guess the standard of living for union folks would go down if the Dems managed to close down those stores without getting the CPI jacked up again.
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Posted by: Admiral Akbar at September 30, 2006 07:12 AM (jhhLS)
Posted by: Codekeyguy at September 30, 2006 07:42 AM (+WuRB)
Sadly, this can't happen. But if Sam had been a Donk, he could still vote.
Posted by: at September 30, 2006 07:48 AM (hR7ox)
Posted by: Nice Deb at September 30, 2006 08:07 AM (9ftXk)
...not to mention their far-left/nutroots/Kos/DU base.
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