Category Archives: government, law, and politics

Is Wal-Mart Really to Blame?

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I’d like to respond to some of Howard’s and Steve’s comments to my previous article, so I’ll take them in turn. Unfortunately, I’m so darn long-winded that it’s too big for a simple comment post, so its taken the form of an article:

Costco’s competition with Walmart

Howard speaks of how Costco effectively competes with Walmart effectively with unionized labor and higher wages. This may indeed be true. However, the fact is Costco does not directly compete with Walmart Stores. Rather, Costco is a more direct competitor of Sams Club, another Walmart brand. Walmart Stores are really the bread and butter of Walmart, and having said this, there is no other organization that competes effectively with Walmart on a worldwide scale, hence Walmart’s iconic status. This being the case, it might even be plausible to say that Sam’s Club could pay higher wages and unionize and still be competitive. One possible reason for avoiding this scenario is the collateral effect it would have on Walmart Stores.

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Walmart, Unions, and Un-Fair Labor Practices

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[The other day I was mildly annoyed by an email I got from Care2 asking me to sign a petition against Wal-Mart. Coincidentally, I recently had a conversation with a good buddy of mine about Wal-Mart, unions, and related topics. WhenI got the Care2 email, I forwarded it it to him and asked if he’d write an entry for my blog. He agreed. This fellow, who we’ll call Lightwave, earned an MBA in 2001 and an MS in MIS in 2002. – Funky]

I’ve heard a lot of talk lately of how awful labor practices at Walmart are unfair to works. I recently read about Walmart’s "ruthless" tactics where Walmart closed a store rather than negotiate with unionized workers. Indeed, there seems to be a lot of talk about how Walmart and other publicly traded organizations are treating non-unionized labor. I’d like to discuss this, but first, let’s get on the same page about some basics of publicly traded organizations.

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Taking “In But Not Of” Too Far?

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After the reelection of Dubya, the blogosphere was abuzz with talk of "Jesusland". Well, it seems there is a group of Christians who are looking to make it a reality.

"Christians have actively tried to return the United States to their moral foundations for more than 30 years. We now have a professing Christian president, a Republican Congress and a Republican Supreme Court."

[Insert list of Republichristian grumblings here.]

"Attempts at reform have proven futile. Future elections will not stop the above atrocities, but rather will lead us down an even more deadly path because both national parties routinely disobey the U.S. Constitution."

"So what can be done? ChristianExodus.org offers the opportunity to try a strategy not yet employed by Bible-believing Christians. Rather than spend resources in continued efforts to redirect the entire nation, we will redeem States one at a time. Millions of Christian conservatives are geographically spread out and diluted at the national level. Therefore, we must concentrate our numbers in a geographical region with a sovereign government we can influence through the electoral process."

"ChristianExodus.org is orchestrating the move of thousands of Christians to reacquire our Constitutional rights by electing State and local officials who will interpose on behalf of the people and refuse to enforce illegal federal acts."

Who needs straw men when you have weirdos like this?

Seriously, though, what’s so inherently Christian about a constitutionally limited federal government? Has anybody else noticed that these kinds of fundamentalists treat the Constitution as inerrant Scripture and liberal justices as heretics?

Innocent Man Executed?

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Shoot first and ask questions later is bad police policy. Just ask the Brits. Obviously, Jean de Menezes handled the situation poorly and brought unnecessary trouble upon himself. However, that hardly justifies two cops holding him down while a third puts five bullets in his head. This isn’t a case of an innocent suspect being accidentally killed while being subdued during criminal acts. This isn’t like the cases of children with water guns or paintball guns being killed by frightened cops. This was an execution. A man whose guilt in anything had not been established – they merely knew he was "suspicious", belligerent, and fleeing – was caught, immobilized, and executed. There is a fine line between protecting citizens and acting as judge, jury and executioner.

I pray this never happens again.

I’m not holding my breath.

Keeping an Eye on Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania Government

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Readers in my state and/or city might find these interesting:

Open Pittsburgh

The current crisis in Pittsburgh didn’t happen overnight. It’s from more than a decade of bad policy and mismanagement by both the Mayor and City Council. As a result, City residents must now suffer and pay for something which was largely perpetrated behind their backs.

But how could this happen? It’s because there is currently no effective mechanism for city residents to learn for themselves what is really going on inside their government and they have been unable to give their informed consent or hold their public officials accountable.

What can we do about it? The best answer is to pass the proposed Open Government Amendment to the Pittsburgh City Charter, but to do that we must first place it on the November 8, 2005 ballot and that requires collecting over 15,000 signatures from Pittsburghers between June 21st and August 7, 2005.

Learn more about the Pittsburgh City Charter Open Government Amendment.

Operation Clean Sweep

Operation Clean Sweep is aimed at one simple goal: cleaning house in the Pennsylvania General Assembly by defeating every single incumbent officeholder up for re-election in 2006.

The current members of the General Assembly have slapped taxpayers in the face by awarding themselves a huge pay increase. While some members did vote "no" on the increase, it is common knowledge that all votes were pre-arranged to protect vulnerable seats.

Operation Clean Sweep is not a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Constitution or Green Party issue. It’s us vs. them. The governed vs. the government. The taxpayers vs. the tax spenders.

Are you outraged at the recent legislative pay raise? Are you fed up? Are you genuinely ready to make a real change in Pennsylvania? If so, this is your chance to set things straight.

In 2006, all 203 members of the House of Representatives and 25 of our 50 Senators must face re-election. With your help, we can give them all a run for their money by seeking out qualified candidates – in non-partisan fashion – to challenge the incumbents in both the Primary and General elections.

These incumbents are betting you will forget this pay raise before the next election. We’re betting you won’t. Together, we can do more than just get mad – we can get even!

Please, join us now…

 

…because taxpayers are not sheep!!!

 

Related news story: Pay raise anger starts boiling over