Sometimes the juxtaposition of events is just too good to pass up. Take Wal-Mart, for instance.

The Sunday NY Times quoted Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. saying that Wal-Mart would never again "try to go over the heads of local politicians in their quest for store growth, as they did in Inglewood, Calif., where they sponsored a referendum last year to try to sidestep city zoning." He lied.

At this moment, Wal-Mart is deeply involved in fighting a local government over a "Big Box" ordinance.

Flagstaff Arizona is a college town of about 60,000 people in the mountains of northern Arizona. The town has a unique and historic character. The city's motto is "They don't make town's like this anymore." The Flagstaff city council wants to keep it that way. So last year, they passed an ordinance limiting the size of new retail establishment to 125,000 square feet. By comparison, the Wal-Mart in Flagstaff is 106,000 sq. ft., and the Target is 98,000.

A few real estate moguls and development Nazis took offense at the ordinance. With the help of Wal-Mart money, they collected enough signatures to challenge the ordinance with a referendum vote. The vote is happening right now. It's a mail-in ballot. The County Recorder will count the votes on May 17.

According to the latest campaign finance report, Wal-Mart has spent more than $280,000 trying to overturn one local ordinance. This makes this little local election the most expensive in Flagstaff's history. The Wal-Mart money is spent on full-page newspaper ads and mailings, both full of vicious Orwellian rhetoric implying that a zoning ordinance that limits store size is somehow the same as burning books. Yeah, go figure.

So, when H. Lee Scott Jr. says that Wal-Mart doesn't do that sort of thing anymore, he's a liar....I'm so surprised.

 

Sisyphus Shrugged

 

now, I grant you that in this best of all possible worlds, the ideal way to handle important matters would be for Our Fearless Leader not to be involved in any way, and I find it kind of reassuring to discover that the White House agrees with me.

This, on the other hand, is somewhat disturbing