Question: What do Walmart and Wall Street have in common?

Answer: The execs get fat contracts while the workers get shafted.

A week after Wall Street bankers collected taxpayer-funded golden parachutes, Walmart announced that it was shutting down its first shop in North America that had successfully unionized.

Brian White at Blogging Stocks reports on the shuttered store in Gatineau, Quebec:

“The retailer would rather see the operation shut down entirely instead of having employees with any kind of power. … Was the global retailer trying to get a message out to any other Wal-Mart location in North America — “unionize and we will shut your doors?” If so, that’s no way to run a business, right? Is Wal-Mart so afraid of unions in its stores that it would rather shut them down (or pieces of them) instead of continuing to operate?”

Walmart would rather see the operation shut down “entirely instead of having employees with any kind of power.”  

That kind of power?

As White notes:

“Many Wal-Mart employees are apparently so underpaid that their only recourse is to try and unionize their stores in order to negotiate a better wage.”

Meanwhile, four of the Waltons, who control Walmart, were named to the Forbes’ top 10 richest Americans list.  Jim Walton ranked No. 6 at a net worth of $15.7 billion, right behind Warren Buffett and Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

Do the Waltons really feel threatened?  Are they really worried about some workers organizing to make an honest buck to take care of their families?

This is disgraceful.  Boycott Walmart.  

Wince: 

Senate Democrats on Tuesday subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey for testimony and documents about the Justice Department's legal advice to the White House on detention and interrogation policies since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., complained to Mukasey that after five years of efforts to glean the information, the committee still has seen only a fraction of the documents it is seeking. “There is no legitimate argument for withholding the requested materials from this committee,” Leahy wrote in a letter to Mukasey that accompanied the subpoena.

The document compels Mukasey to appear before Leahy's panel on Nov. 18 and bring with him documents from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concerning the legality of White House policies toward military detainees.

You probably didn't hear about this, did you? Wasn't that long ago when a congressional subpoena of a major administration figure would've been front page news and pundit fodder for days – even weeks. Now? Nothing. Because it means precisely nothing, so where's the news? This congress will not play the kind of hardball needed to make these things worth the paper they're printed on. They're committed to the honor system in dealing with a dishonorable President who couldn't care less – as has been shown now over and over and over again.

The Democratic leadership in Washington has opted instead for a political Waiting for Godot strategy of just sitting tight until an Obama administration arrives, restores honor in the executive branch, and by extension restores their relevance for them. In the meantime, what should be a major event is a complete non-event.

Please, Senator – as a longtime and sincere supporter, I'm begging you – don't bother with any more of these “subpoenas.” They're… well, a little embarassing.

So you know the story the R's have been trying to sell: Sarah Palin is a new kind of Republican; not as corrupt, more mavericky.

The news of the last few days, which may not seem too important taken separately,  really seem to reveal that she is every bit as venal and self-dealing as the old Alaska hands like Ted Stevens. I think these stories about the expense accounts and so forth are not a side show at all, but reveal the candidate's character.

Big money first. The story that broke overnight tells us that the Republican National Committee dropped $150,000 on her, spending money at Nieman-Marcus, Saks, and Barney's. Obviously she needs to look good, but $150K? That's what Josephine the Plumber spends on clothes? Sure, they eventually cooked up the story that they're giving the clothes to charity after the campaign, but I'd like to see that in writing from before the shitstorm started, wouldn't you?

Then, we also get the story that in her job as governor of Alaska, Palin charged the people of Alaska over $20,000 to fly her kids around the country on various jaunts, put them up in hotels, and otherwise show them the high life. Then, when she gets caught on it, she goes back and doctors her expense reports to they look like official state business, but those claims are particularly transparent.Possibly the worst of it was when she flew her kids to the National Governors' Association convention.Expense forms describe the girls' official purpose as “NGA Governor's Youth Programs and family activities.” But those programs were activities designed to keep children busy, a service provided by the NGA

to accommodate governors and their families, NGA spokeswoman Jodi Omear said.

 In other words, she takes her kids to a convention, puts them up in the babysitting service they set up for governors' kids, and then claims that they were on official state business because they got in on the babysitting program. Nice, huh?

And, following the rule that three data points make a trend, we can go back to earlier in her career as governor.   Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has billed taxpayers for 312 nights spent in her own home during her first 19 months in office, charging a “per diem” allowance intended to cover meals and incidental expenses while traveling on state business.

So what do these incidents have in common? In each case, what we see is Sarah Palin using her official position as an elected official (or candidate) to enrich herself. You could argue that the thing with the kids is just because she's a devoted mother who wants to spend time with her family, and I have no problem with that, but I do have a problem with charging the state for what is a purely personal expenditure.

How is this any different from Ted Stevens letting someone build a house for him?

I guess it's a good thing that the McCain-Palin slogan of the week is “Country First”, and not “State First”.

This HAS to stop!

---

From the Burlington Free Press:

---

October 22, 2008

Vermont Yankee evacuates workers

The Associated Press

VERNON – Federal regulators are investigating the cause of radiation exposure that forced the evacuation of 25 workers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.

Officials say the unsafe levels of radiation were released on Monday after the top of the reactor vessel was placed too close to a fan as workers prepared to refuel the plant.

ntergy Nuclear spokesman Robert Williams said the workers were evacuated from the top floor of the reactor building for four hours, inspected for contamination and later went back to work.

“There was never any issue of public health,” said William Irwin, of the Department of Health.

The incident happened during the nuclear plant’s regular refueling and maintenance outage, which is scheduled to last three weeks.

The workers, both Entergy employees and contractors, were exposed to a “very minor” amount of radiation, which was below their yearly exposure limits, Irwin said.

Such contamination incidents occur when a reactor is taken apart for refueling, he said.

“It was a minor contamination event. You don’t really want them to happen, but Entergy handled it well,” he said.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said the incident is being investigated.