John McCain's Shockingly Dishonest Ads

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Sunday September 21, 2008 · 8:57 PM PDT

2008/09/21 · 20:57

I've been working with a great new advocacy group called America's Voice.

In my first diary talking about them, I explained some of the nuances of the group's name. In my second diary about them, I wrote about the heinous opposition.

These folks are churning out incredible ads at a mighty clip. This barnstormer's less than a minute long, but it manages to eviscerate the doddering captain of the Straight Talk Express for his, well, fake talk:

Poll

18 votes Show Results

What are you going to do about McCain's duplicitous ad campaign?

18 votes Vote Now!

What are you going to do about McCain's duplicitous ad campaign?

Change the channel whenever his ads appear

14 votes

Write a letter to the editor of my local newspaper

1 vote

Go to the America's Voice website to sign the petition

2 votes

Something else that I'll write in the comment section

1 vote

America Has a New Voice (Part 2)

satyr9us

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Thursday September 18, 2008 · 7:33 AM PDT

2008/09/18 · 07:33

(Cross-posted at MyDD)

Last week I was here talking about America's Voice, with whom I'm working to foster a dialogue about a sensible and humane immigration policy that works for everyone.

We got a pretty good discussion going in the comment thread, but it would have been great to get more perspectives involved.

Here's the thing: there are people who make the topic uncomfortable for civilized discourse because they speak with a snarl when they discuss immigration. They are bullies: they love nothing more than to shout louder than the next person to convince themselves they've won an argument. They speak as though there were something wrong with the people who come here to improve their lives and contribute to the wonderful tapestry of cultures that is modern American society. They've got their opinions, and they've got their anecdotes, and most importantly they've got their fear.

Poll

23 votes Show Results

What will a sensible immigration policy look like?

23 votes Vote Now!

What will a sensible immigration policy look like?

Document all who've come here and tell them "Bienvenudos".

4 votes

Seal the border tight-- but offer a path to citizenship to those who want it.

6 votes

What's immigration, anyway? International borders are so 20th Century, man.

1 vote

Let's build a giant wall... we'll get the migrant laborers to do the work.

1 vote

Anyone who doesn't pass the racial purity test should feel lucky to get out alive.

2 votes

There will never be a sensible immigration policy.

8 votes

America Has a New Voice (Part 1)

satyr9us

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Thursday September 11, 2008 · 4:23 PM PDT

2008/09/11 · 16:23

(Cross-posted on MyDD)

Remember the 1990's? Those long-gone days when everybody had an opinion about both Clintons; when a coterie of right-wing media outlets splatter-blasted their centrally-determined talking points all over television and radio to rail against a fictive, ubiquitous "liberal media"; and when everybody had a next-door neighbor who would descend into hysterics at the mere mention of immigration?

Oh, that's right. Today is September 11-- the very day on which Gee-Dubya Bush believes the universe we live in fundamentally changed, 7 years ago-- and yet today also feels like Bill Murray's Groundhog Day in the sense that nothing ever changes. Our daily lives are still awash in a white noise sea of opinion-mongering vis-a-vis that fictive librull media and that inexorable topic of immigration.

But in the 1990's, the ascendant right-wing television outlet was called National Empowerment Television, and its slogan was "America's Voice". NET folded in '97, and it’s beside the point to mention what rose out of its ashes...

Poll

33 votes Show Results

What do you say to your next-door neighbors who rage against immigration?

33 votes Vote Now!

What do you say to your next-door neighbors who rage against immigration?

What have you got against the Statue of Liberty?

4 votes

Does your religion teach you to scorn those with less than you?

6 votes

Watch your mouth-- my grandparents were immigrants.

5 votes

Si, se puede!

18 votes

Walmart: Still Killing America one Infant at a Time

satyr9us

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Thursday August 28, 2008 · 10:52 PM PDT

2008/08/28 · 22:52

Alright-- this could descend into hyperbole way too easily.

But the fact is that Walmart is selling a bassinet that strangled 4 infants before it was recalled by the company that makes it-- and which has now killed two more, because it would be silly to take something off the shelves before you've exhausted the stock, after all.

The most recent death occurred last week on Thursday when six-and-a-half-month-old Kennedy Brotherton slipped between the mattress and the side railing after the mattress came loose from the frame, her aunt, Melissa Brotherton, told ConsumerAffairs.com in a phone interview.

Kennedy's body slipped through a space between the mattress and the railing until she dangled by her head on the lower bar of the railing and choked, according to Capt. Ron Copeland of the Shawnee Police Department in Kansas.

Poll

28 votes Show Results

What do you think of when you think of Walmart?

28 votes Vote Now!

What do you think of when you think of Walmart?

Mistreated workers

8 votes

Smiley faces

0 votes

Strong-arming manufacturers

3 votes

Low prices

4 votes

Selling out the American economy

12 votes

The blue baby scene from Trainpotting

1 vote

Wal-Mart: Still Shameless After All These Years

satyr9us

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Thursday July 03, 2008 · 12:08 PM PDT

2008/07/03 · 12:08

(Cross-posted at Minnesota Campaign Report)

This week the Star-Tribune reports on a Minnesota legal ruling with absolutely stunning implications:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. broke Minnesota labor law more than 2 million times over six years, routinely forcing some employees to work off the clock through lunch and rest breaks, a Dakota County judge has ruled.

No need to adjust your set-- Judge Robert King actually found that Wal-Mart committed over two million violations of state labor law.

Poll

49 votes Show Results

What's the most heinous thing Wal-Mart has ever done?

49 votes Vote Now!

What's the most heinous thing Wal-Mart has ever done?

Systematically abused Nancy Braun

0 votes

Went after the bank account of brain-damaged Debbie Shank

26 votes

Set up shop in my town

19 votes

Other: submit in comments!

4 votes

Wal-Mart Keeps it Classy

satyr9us

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Monday April 21, 2008 · 6:54 AM PDT

2008/04/21 · 06:54

I'm working with Wake-Up Wal-Mart, and I want to share this story with you (which I also shared at MyDD):

It isn't enough that they chased a brain-damaged former employee through the courts for the contents of the family's bank account.

It isn't enough that they're pretending to go green even as their CEO Lee Scott has been caught on tape admitting they're doing nothing of the kind.

It isn't enough that they acquire fully 3/4 of their goods from Chinese sweat shops as the American economy recedes below the horizon.

No: the Bentonville Behemoth has to verbally abuse its most vulnerable customers too. Full story after the jump.

Poll

67 votes Show Results

Have you ever used a Wal-Mart pharmacy?

67 votes Vote Now!

Have you ever used a Wal-Mart pharmacy?

Not if it were the last pharmacy on earth.

65 votes

All the time. As a masochist, I crave the abuse.

2 votes

Still Deep in the Heart of Debbie Shank's Wal-Mart Ordeal

satyr9us

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Thursday April 03, 2008 · 1:20 PM PDT

2008/04/03 · 13:20

JDalton has posted an essential history of the recently-concluded Debbie Shank ordeal, here.

I say recently concluded, because Wal-Mart has finally relented from its campaign to raid its former employee’s bank account— but the sad fact is that the ordeal is far from over.

It isn’t the Bentonville Behemoth’s fault that Mrs. Shank was injured by a truck, or that the accident has left her irreparably brain damaged, or that her son has perished in Iraq— but it is most certainly the company’s fault that it pursued her family year after year and caused them untold additional trauma, all over a sum that amounts to a drop in Wal-Mart’s $11 billion bucket but which is everything— everything— to the tragically beleaguered family Shank.

It’s that very tragic aspect that has made this story so iconic, that has rallied so many others behind it, that has ultimately led Wal-Mart to yield rather than face a boycott that might affect its bottom line.

Poll

28 votes Show Results

How is Wal-Mart helping you live better?

28 votes Vote Now!

How is Wal-Mart helping you live better?

All those lead-coated toys seem to keep the kids eerily quiet

11 votes

I love driving to the edge of town to do my grocery shopping, then bragging that I shop at a "green" store

2 votes

It makes me feel better about myself to see Wal-Mart impoversihing my neighbors with frivolous lawsuits

3 votes

Ask not what Wal-Mart can do for you; ask what you can do for Wal-Mart

12 votes

Guessing for President

satyr9us

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Friday February 22, 2008 · 4:01 PM PST

2008/02/22 · 16:01

(Cross-Posted to MyDD)

We all like a certain routine to our mornings. There's the shower, the coffee perhaps, and usually a little background noise as we dress and find the newspaper, all in a particular order to which we usually give little thought. A lot of folks like NPR; I listen to CSPAN over the television. My odd-couple Republican roommate and I then get to argue about what we've just heard as we walk to the Metro. Last Wednesday morning I heard a CSPAN caller give voice to some things that have still not worked themselves out from under my skin, sixteen train rides and ninety-six cigarettes later.

The first was that she'd heard that Barack Obama was raised as a radical Muslim. The second was that Obama does not seem to have any specific policy agendas, but that to the extent he does they all belie a precocious naïveté. And the third was that since she really didn't know who Obama was, she had no choice but to vote for the candidate she knew: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

That's what really knocked me over: the realization that someone calling in to a national television program to advertise her ignorance in convenient Fox Noise talking bullets would be doing so on the Democratic line.

Poll

21 votes Show Results

What is the best way to influence a future President's policies

21 votes Vote Now!

What is the best way to influence a future President's policies

Vote for the candidate who seems to agree with you

0 votes

Vote for the candidate your friends like

0 votes

Vote for the candidate whose stated policy positions reflect your views

16 votes

Tell the incoming President what you expect

5 votes

The True Wal-Mart Stimulus Package

satyr9us

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 15, 2008 · 1:55 PM PST

2008/02/15 · 13:55

It turns out, and I guess we shouldn't be surprised, that one fan of Bush and Co.'s "economic stimulus package" is Wal-Mart, which cashed in with its own predatory "consumer's stimulus package." Basically: Wal-Mart encourages customers to charge their gasoline and Family Size Doritos to their Wal-Mart cards with no money down, to pay 20% interest later when the magical stimulus package fails to improve their bank accounts. Further, it turns out that a big fan of all the fandom is Canada's Economic Times:

"We applaud the President and Congress for recognizing the economic struggles of everyday Americans and moving quickly to provide much needed tax relief," Wal-Mart said in a statement Wednesday.

So lemme get this straight: Bush spends billions financing an endless unfeasible war as our currency is increasingly bought out from under us by China and Saudi Arabia; education, infrastructure maintenance, social programs, and veteran benefits are gutted as pork-barrel boondoggles to Republican districts increase exponentially...

Poll

39 votes Show Results

What do you most love to hate about Wal-Mart?

39 votes Vote Now!

What do you most love to hate about Wal-Mart?

No healthcare for employess

14 votes

Obtains its goods from China

6 votes

Massive pollution

0 votes

Abets the Bush Agenda

7 votes

Taxes it never pays

6 votes

Consumer Stimulus Package that entails predatory lending to the poor

6 votes

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