Fact-esque

Linkety, Link, Link, Link

Have you watched the trailer for the movie Dubya, starring Don Knotts?   Watch it again for the first time.

Will Bunch follows up on Wenyi Wang, the woman who yelled at China's President Hu to stop killing people.   It  looks like that to make up for all the WH snafus surrounding Hu's special visit, we're going make him feel right at home by trampling all over the First Amendment.  That'll warm his cockles.  (pro-war WaPo link via Atrios)

The IMF is making noise about reorganizing.  I'm trying to figure out whom to trust on that.   According to the head of the fund,  "the US needs to save more, Asian countries need to increase demand and allow their currencies to rise, and Europe needs structural reform."   I'm sure that won't meet with any resistance at all.   Shouldn't we wait until China can more comfortably take over our role as shopping basket to the world before we cut back on consumer spending.  I know WalMart et al would really appreciate it if we would.

Haiti is looking at developing an alternative fuel economy a la Brazil.  Again, I don't know whom to trust.  Right now, it sounds good to me.  Here's the NYT story on Brazil's success with ethanol.  Preval is also talking to Cuba to expand their already friendly relationship.

Chicago Dyke is working against WalMart in her community:

Once again, I’m forced to post the following admonition: don’t believe the bobbleheads on the TV or radio or papers. They may tell you that “middle America” or “most people” are happy with theocracy, the war, modern wage slavery, endless corporate expansion, and the American version of “health” care, but that’s a lie. If you need the bolstering feeling that comes from seeing this with your own eyes, go to a similar community meeting. My only regret is that I didn’t get a chance to tell my story about the nursing home and what a Wal-Mart where I used to live did to that community. But it seems I didn’t have to, Grandma and Joe Sixpack the grocery store employee did it for me.

Jenny Greenleaf, of the DNC, is helping out in NOLA.   Read her post, Moving Sand Dunes with a Teaspoon, at the American Street.

Planned Parenthood sent an email blast out about legislation in the House (H.R. 5052) designed to stop fake pregnancy centers from setting up shop.  From the petition you can sign in support of the bill:

Called "crisis pregnancy centers," they pose as women's health clinics and sources of unbiased pregnancy counseling, using neutral-sounding names and advertisements.  They lure unsuspecting women with the offer of free pregnancy testing or HIV tests.  Once inside, the "clinic" staff -- usually volunteers with no training -- try to dissuade women from exercising their right to choose by subjecting them to inaccurate, anti-choice propaganda and intimidation.

Scott Ritter is interviewed in San Diego City Beat.  (h/t Glenn Greenwald)  Be sure to read Ritter talks about Iran and what, based on his years of experience in the region, he believes to be true, but this is part caught my eye:

The other aspect of citizenship is to empower oneself with knowledge and information so that in the conduct of supervision of those whom we elect, we do so based on knowledge and information, on facts, as opposed to rhetoric, fiction and bald-faced misrepresentation of fact. It's the citizen's responsibility for this empowerment, no one else's.

And, yeah, it's hard. God, I'm busy; you're busy; we're all busy - life's a busy thing. But, you know what?  I don't want to hear that people can't go out and gain access to the data necessary, because, you know what?  I go to a bar on Monday night, and I watch baseball fans; I watch football fans - hell, I'm one of them.  And they can give me the slugging percentage of every player coming up there. How do they know that?  They spend hours reading the sports pages. If an American citizen has enough time to know all these sports statistics, they have enough time to learn about the world we live in and the role America plays and how their representatives are guiding us in this world.

So, no, I don't accept the notion that life is too complicated for American citizens to be involved. I reject that 100 percent. Democracy isn't meant to be easy.

For God's Sake, Why Aren't We More Angry? Which Is to Say Angry at All.

Read this Guardian story (via David) about the reality of war and then plan your trip to NYC - or whatever is the closest city having a peace mobilization on April 29th. 

Then treat yourself to the funniest thing I've read all month. 

Fiscal responsibility is the centerpiece of Republican administration. But national security doesn't come cheap — at least, not as cheap as we need. That's why Congress passed the Sam Walton Federal Savings Act, better known as WalmartDotGov.          

Combining the rich resources of the United States government with the massive efficiencies and everday low prices expertly masterminded by Sam, accessing Federal resources is now a better value than ever!         

Don't miss our great savings in Defense, Health Care, Customs, and now, Congressional Seats. At WalmartDotGov you'll find everything the United States government has to offer at unbeatable prices. If you can't find it here, it's probably illegal.

I'd recommend a link but they're all too good to pick just one.

Found at the Writing on the Wal.

WalMart Wages War On Easter, the Holiest of Holy Days.

Regular readers know how eagerly I, a dedicated WalMart watcher, anticipate the same-store sales reports.  I don't kid myself into thinking that one month or even a few months of bad numbers really hurts WalMart.   I know that they're planning to ride out their difficulties in the United States until they can start sucking life out of the mind-bogglingly large Chinese market that is getting ready to open to them.  I know that American consumers are coming to the end of any influence we have on WalMart.   I know that WalMart couldn't hold the American consumer and worker in greater contempt and is laughing us army of guppies.  But all that said, I still get a giddy thrill reading the numbers when they're bad because WalMart acts like they are such a big deal. 

We've heard the cold weather blamed for bad numbers.  We've heard the weather and Fathers' Day blamed for the bad numbers.  We've heard the Fourth of July blamed for the bad numbers.  We've heard the price of gasoline blamed for the bad numbers.  It's always something - as long as that something has nothing to do with WalMart's well-deserved reputation as the leading exploiter of the American worker, danger to the American economy and all-around bad actor.   This month is no exception.

Sales are down, down, down.  What's to blame?  If you guessed a late Easter, rising fuel prices AND the weather, you win the WalMart Trifecta!  From Bloomberg:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, said March same-store sales in the U.S. rose about 1.3 percent as customers curtailed spending because of higher fuel costs and a later Easter.

The company had projected a March sales gain of 1 percent to 3 percent at U.S. stores open at least 13 months.  The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer updated its sales through yesterday in a recorded call today.         

Rising fuel expenses are hurting Wal-Mart's lower-income customers, and Easter's shift to April and unseasonably cold weather caused shoppers to delay purchases. Wal-Mart posted a 4.3 percent increase in March 2005.         

``The inflationary environment we're seeing is still having a disproportionate effect on their consumers for now,'' said Rick Rubin, an analyst with Mercantile Bankshares Corp. in Baltimore, with $22 billion in assets including Wal-Mart shares.

You can bet Mr. Rubin, with his job riding on those Wal-Mart shares, is ready to blame anyone and anything for the drop, even inflation we are told doesn't exist.   Later on in the story another analyst makes the prefunctory mention of the fact that the typical WalMart shopper is most vulnerable to rising gas prices, as if that state of affairs came to exist in a vaccuum beyond WalMart's control.  Until we're all in the boat, floating on the same falling tide, nobody is going to care about those people.   So I'm most interested in this Easter bashing. 

Weak WalMart sales are now Jesus' fault?   Well in defense of Catholicism, let me point out that in 2004, Easter fell on April 11, only five days earlier than it does this year and WalMart's monthly same-store sales figures for that March were 6%:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer said its sales for the five-week period ended April 2 rose 6 percent, at the high end of its earlier guidance, as shoppers picked up holiday-related merchandise and seasonal apparel.

I can deal with the weather excuse and the Fathers' Day excuse and the rising gas prices excuse and the our-customers-are-too-poor-to-buy-stuff excuse - even though I have a feeling quite a few of them are finding their way over to Target and CostCo.    But shame on you, Walmart, for waging War on Easter.  That's unseemly even for you.

Related: what's happening with the grocery numbers?   Usually that's what keeps WalMart afloat.    No mention of those this month.

cross-posted at The Writing on the Wal

She Should Be Shot and Fed to Pigsl

Oh, I hope the Koufaxes survive another year because I know who I'm nominating for Best Blog Ever or something. Behind the Counter is written by a WalMart customer service desk worker.  I can't take too much of it at once since it's pretty angry (the title of the post comes from the blog) but it's also very funny. 

Our store recently started a system to get the prices at the register to match what it says on the shelf. I know stuff ringing up wrong upsets customers, but when you consider that a SuperCenter has thousands and thousands of items, and the Home Office in Bentonville is the one who orders price changes, NOT the people at the store, and can order up to a thousand price changes PER DAY, it can be a job just to keep up with it.

Anyway. I know you're pissed off because the paper towels rang up at $1.66 and not at $1.50. I've got no problem fixing it for you. If you'd told the girl at the register, she COULD HAVE and WOULD HAVE done it. But you were yakking on your cell phone, not paying attention, just like you were when you walked up here to Customer Service, blabbing to your friend about how Wal-Mart "ripped you off." Honey, that sixteen cents is less than a minute of airtime, OK? Now shut up.

Ouch.  People are always watching you when you're in public so you'd better be nice.  (via The Writing on the Wal)

Read Around

Connecticut is standing up to WalMart's have-a-baby policy of stocking Plan B contraceptives but not guaranteeing that there will be anyone on duty to dispense it.  From CT's comptroller:

Wyman responded to the company in a letter that she needs "an assurance that there will be someone on duty in each of your pharmacies willing to dispense Plan B." If there is no one on duty, Wyman wants specific information from Wal-Mart on how the company would ensure the patient's ability to receive the drug.

"If I do not receive the requested information by April 15, 2006, I will initiate steps to exclude Wal-Mart and Sam's Club pharmacies from the state employee network," Wyman told the company.

Tell them you support them here:   Blumenthal   Wyman

nyceve, another dKos diarist, shares a conversation s/he had with a pharmacy cashier about Medicare Part D. 

bondad, also from dKos, makes a good, simple, well-sourced argument for single payer health care in the U.S.   It's good for sharing with friends who don't know anything about the issue.  Get to them with this before the next Harry and Louise commercials start airing.  Then, when they know the issue, send them over to Ezra's place.

The NYT has set up a page for four military bloggers.  I don't know how long it's been there.  I just found it.   Judging from what I read, none of them will like this idea.

I think I blogged about this a while ago but why not hit it again: the IRS is going to sell your tax return to the highest bidder.  I feel like I should get cut in on any action generated by my tax return.  I'm the one who filed it.

A million Frenchman can't be wrong.

I'd like to take this opportunity to announce that I will only link to bloggers who remain anonymous.  Full disclosure is for show-offs.

Just Save Up Those $8.23/hour and You'll Be Buying that Plasma Televison in No Time (just don't go to the doctor or the dentist or, you know, drive your car)

I know that I'm senstive on the subject of class.   But this description of a new "upscale" WalMart store built for "selective shoppers" made my skin crawl.   Read it while keeping in mind WalMart's constant cries of class war! every time someone tries to get the retail giant to do the right thing by its employees and American taxpayers and see if you don't have the same reaction:

The new store, which opened Wednesday, is 217,000 square feet, about 20,000 square feet bigger than the average Supercenter.  It sits across the street from a SuperTarget, and you can see Costco from the parking lot. The blue and gray Wal-Mart exterior gave way to two-tone brick. Inside, wood floors and wide aisles abound. Shelves are lower to reduce clutter. Even employees look different in khaki pants and navy polo shirts instead of blue smocks.

The new store is just as notable for what's missing. The store won't sell guns. It has far less space devoted to lawn and garden, fishing, camping and automotive products.

"This customer is telling us they're not doing it themselves," said Ryan Lincks, the store's project manager. "They don't change their own oil."

But the store has rows of high-definition televisions, several of them more than $2,000, plus pricier bikes and even an expanded yoga section. It features an expanded baby clothes area, a cards and books section with cherry-finish wood racks and arching halogen gallery lights, and baggers at the checkout lines — a first for Wal-Mart.

Hungry shoppers will search in vain for McDonald's. It has been replaced by an espresso bar with a sandwich menu and free wireless Internet service.

Cosmetics and pharmacy aren't relegated to the far corner; they're next to the food and wine because female customers in focus groups said they want it that way for convenience and speed. Apparel areas have their own cash registers and more discrete fitting rooms.

But no layaways.

So I guess we don't have to worry about being charged with hating the poor the next time we work to end Wal-Mart's freeloading business model.   It seems that Sam Walton's Frankenstein has lurched outside the boundaries of its company store to the land of yuppies too lazy to change their own oil now that the rest of us can't afford to satisfy Wall Street.   

cross-posted at The Writing on the Wal

You Caught Our Eye in Bentonville

Bloggers!  Are you spending too much time reading newspapers and other blogs trying to keep up with the news of the day?   Are you wasting valuable blogging time thinking about different angles for popular stories?   Are you sick of all that linking you have to do to your sources? 

Well, no more! 

WalMart has the answer to your late nights, tired eyes and sore back and the only thing it will cost you is your soul.  Let me tell you how it works.

The first step is easy!  The next time you blog, blog about WalMart.  And here's the fun part - instead of being a gloomy gus and writing about the harm WalMart and WalMartization do to our economy, try writing a happy story about the good WalMart and WalMartization do for our economy.  Your blood pressure will thank you!

Sure, it might sound tricky now, but that's why we've put together the Three P's of Walmart Blogging:  Persecution,  Partnership and Press Releases.

Persecution: Always remember who the victim is when you're blogging about WalMart.   It's WalMart, of course!   The MSM (mainstream media) doesn't tell our story.  The courts are filled with activist judges.  Government regulations have everyone over the barrel.  Unions have decided to target WalMart for no other reason than to fill their coffers through constant fund raising drives linked to stories about WalMart on blogs that misrepresent the truth.   Now, with the growing interest in the UnFair Share scheme, it looks like politicians are falling under the sway of special interests who are also targeting  piling on WalMart to advance their own agendas.  Bloggers are the best hope WalMart has to get our story to the people without the liberal filter that exists everywhere in our economy.

Partnership:  We love you.  We are writing to you today because you've done something so remarkable with your blog that it's been noticed in WalMart HQ in Bentonville.  And not noticed in the way that every mention made of WalMart on the internet is noticed.  No, we noticed something special about you.  And if there's one thing that Sam Walton instilled in the conscience of the company he founded, it was the deep desire to work with people who share American values of hard work and team spirit.    We think that's you!

Press Releases: It's great to be partners on a team that shares American values, but what's in it for you?  Well, we can tell you that it's more than just the pride of knowing that you're helping your country every time you get out the truth about WalMart, although that really should be enough.  But there's more. 

Just as we expect our partners in business to provide their goods and services at reasonable prices in a timely manner for us to resell, we will provide you with ready-to-use information for you to post at your blog.  But please, use your own words!  There are quite a few of you special bloggers out there and we'd be just sick if someone targetted ripped you putting for up a post that turned out to be identical to someone else's on the team.   Imagine how your reputation would suffer if you got caught doing that. 

It's been suggested that we at the HQ in Bentonville should let our blogging team know who's on it so you can coordinate better but that would violate the unofficial fourth P of WalMart Blogging: Plausible Deniability.  So, in the best tradition of American pioneers and entrepeneurs, you're on your own!  Use that in your writing!

Thanks for all you do to get the truth about WalMart out to the American consumer.  We're all on the same side!  Just don't let that get around.

 

Third Place

Nothing about watching WalMart makes me happier than when I can click over to a business site for the most recent monthly same-store sales figures and read bad news for the World's Largest Retailer.    Last month was a corker.   Here's the snapshot:

Wal-Mart reported a 3.2 percent increase in same-store sales, in line with the 3.1 percent estimate from analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.  However, the retailer said food sales continued to outpace demand for general merchandise, suggesting that shoppers are buying basics rather than fashions. Target had a 3.6 percent gain in same-store sales, better than analysts' 3.2 percent estimate. Costco had an 8 percent same-store gain, above the 6.5 percent forecast.

Don't forget, Target is getting into the grocery business, which leaves WalMart with what exactly?  And how about CostCo coming in with a  strong February after a surprisingly strong last quarter:

Quarterly sales growth of 11 percent for the largest U.S. warehouse club operator was more than double that of rival BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. and well above Wal-Mart's Sam's Club. Sales at stores open at least a year — a key retail measure known as same-store sales — rose 7 percent, also far ahead of its rivals. Costco's net profit for the fiscal second quarter ended Feb. 12 fell by 3 percent from a year earlier, when it had a large gain from a tax benefit. But excluding items, Costco's profit rose, and topped Wall Street estimates even after the retailer had cautioned analysts that their forecasts might be too optimistic. "That's a good report," said Don Hodges, co-portfolio manager of the Hodges Fund, which owns Costco shares among its $650 million in assets under management. Hodges said the company bought more Costco stock this week. "When you look at store operations, 7 percent same-store sales growth is fantastic when you compare it with Wal-Mart. That's a gigantic increase," Hodges said.

Did someone just directly compare CostCo favorably to WalMart  in the corporate pages of an American business site?   I need to sit down.

Class War is an Unsustainable Business Model

I'm cross posting two posts from the Writing on the Wal today.  This is the first one:

Everyone knows that Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times."   Reading all the news about WalMart lately has to make one believe that executives at the World's Largest Reetailer are wishing that these times were a lot less interesting for them. 

The biggest current worry for them must the push for Fair Share Health Care going on in thirty states, including my own Pennsylvania.   Not only is that project amazingly coordinated, it also benefits from perfect framing.   Whoever thought of "fair share" should be given a Lakoff Lifetime Acheivement Award.     Emphasizing how unfair WalMart's business model is key to getting Americans to stop buying into what Thomas Nephew calls the retail giant's Freeloading as Business Model philosophy.      

One of WalMart's weapons in its war against workers is the company's mythology.   We all know the story.  It's the classic "make more money than you spend and do it on the back of your workers" theory of getting rich but somehow, thanks in large part to our tendency to worship wealth,  we've come to believe that Walton was some kind of visionary.  That isn't to say that he didn't latch on to some new ideas:

Walton's management style was popular with employees and he founded some of the basic concepts of management that are still in use today. After taking the company public in 1970, Walton introduced his "profit sharing plan".   The profit sharing plan was a plan for Wal-Mart employees to improve their income dependent on the profitability of the store. Sam Walton believed that "individuals don't win, teams do". Employees at Wal-Mart stores were offered stock options and store discounts. These benefits are commonplace today, but Walton was among the first to implement them.  Walton believed that a happy employee meant happy customers and more sales.  Walton believed that by giving employees a part of the company and making their success dependent on the company's success, they would care about the company.

From Walton's own mouth during his Medal of Freedom acceptance speech in 1992:

"We're all working together; that's the secret.  And we'll lower the cost of living for everyone, not just in America, but we'll give the world an opportunity to see what it's like to save and have a better lifestyle, a better life for all. We're proud of what we've accomplished ; we've just begun." (The Wal-Mart Story)

What he meant, of course, was not the cost of living, but the standard of living.   And when he said he wanted "happy employees," he meant employees terrified to lose their job.  From the Black Commentator:

Young Sam built his first stores in what he considered the "magic circle" centered in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, according to University of California at Santa Barbara professor Nelson Lichtenstein. Walton exploited the pools of "surplus labor" that resulted from corporate agricultural consolidation and the ravages of the Thirties dustbowl. Desperate to keep their land, surviving small farmers - and their wives - turned to wage labor. "An early employee remembers Walton could praise employees," Lichtenstein recounted, "but always reminded them that they could be replaced." From the establishment of Walton's first store in 1945, employment insecurity was central to his business philosophy.

That's why this, reportedly from Lee Scott's blog, was no surprise:

In his response to the store manager who asked about retiree health benefits, Mr. Scott wrote: "Quite honestly, this environment isn't for everyone. There are people who would say, 'I'm sorry, but you should take the risk and take billions of dollars out of earnings and put this in retiree health benefits and let's see what happens to the company.' If you feel that way, then you as a manager should look for a company where you can do those kinds of things." Mona Williams, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said Mr. Scott responded so sharply because of the manager's sarcastic tone.  The question, she said, indicated the manager failed to understand how competitive retailing is and would not be able to convey that to his subordinates.

Well now it isn't only the frightened subordinates at WalMart who will need to understand how competitive the business of buying slave-made goods from China for resale to minimum wage employees in the United States is.  It's every American, because every American is paying to subsidize WalMart's efforts.   And to add to WalMart's problems, we really do understand it.  That's why so many of us would rather shop elsewhere, like Target, which attracts the wealthier shopper because in Target it's possible to imagine that we aren't shopping in a discount store - we're just incredibly good at finding bargains.   Or we go to CostCo, where we can imagine that workers are at least paid a living wage for providing all that stuff from China.   That leaves WalMart struggling to upscale their product line and remodel their stores, hoping to attract some of the people who are surviving America's painful and polarizing transition to a service economy.    But they still won't treat their workers fairly.   There's that word again.

If we want to beat WalMart, we can't let up on the idea that they are, at the end of the day, unfair.  They can't afford the money for health care for their employees, but they can afford millions for lobbyists and millions in salary for the top executives.   They get tax breaks to set up business and then send their employees to suck at the public teat.     These are inconsistencies that are easy for even casual observers to notice and which resonate with the American ideal of justice and class.

So call the WalMart philosophy what you want to.   I think of it as the Company Store model.  Thomas calls it freeloading.   Either way, it's about to implode because although Americans will put up with a lot from our Captains of Industry,  or in this case of Retail,  when we know it's happening, we won't put up with footing the bill so that billionaires can get richer.

New Jersey Senate Hears About Fair Share Health Care

I posted about it over at The Writing on the Wal.   WalMart Watch's page devoted to the subject is here.