I was pretty shocked today. I ran across an editorial in my local paper that actually was pro-business. They just ragged all over the Maryland General Assembly passing the Wal-Mart law. It was great, certainly a surprise from a paper that endorsed Kerry.
So obviously I had to put in my kudos there. They have a section called "Grapevine" where you can put in short (under 100 word) comments. So I did, made it by 4 words.
Excellent editorial on the Wal-Mart situation. Government is out of bounds when it writes legislation to hinder a business simply because it happens to be a successful non-union company.
I found it interesting that one of the entities pushing hardest for the bill was Giant Foods, which is a union company and supported it knowing they would have the backing of the United Food and Commercial Workers national union.
Rather than work within the free market, Giant and the UFCW try to hinder the competition through government fiat. A poor law courtesy of the Maryland Assembly.
Not bad for a guy like me.
Also got my little blurb on Wal-Mart in Friday's Federalist Patriot. He added a little to it, but it was pretty much what I wrote.
From the "Regulatory Commissars" File...
What do you get when you're an extremely successful corporation that rings up billions upon billions a year in sales and donates 90 percent of its political contributions to Republicans? You get legislation written to inhibit your business and fatten state coffers, courtesy of the Democrats in Maryland. Wal-Mart is the sole target of a bill that has passed both houses in Maryland with a veto-proof majority. This legislation mandates that companies employing 10,000 or more workers in the state who do not spend 8 percent of their total payroll for health benefits contribute the difference in compensatory payments to the state. Currently two private employers meet the 10,000 employee threshold; Wal-Mart and competitor Giant Foods, owned by the Dutch company Ahold. Giant Foods claims to spend 20 percent of its payroll for its unionized workforce, whereas non-union Wal-Mart falls under the 8 percent number.
It's another salvo in a recent effort by union management to target Wal-Mart as a bad corporate citizen. In another recent news item, 21 House Democrats and union officials sent a letter to ABC regarding Wal-Mart's sponsorship of ABC's "Good Morning America," asking the network to pull the plug on the retailer sponsoring a segment called "Only in America." The writers claimed that Wal-Mart's non-union stance and heavy importation of overseas products were at odds with the segment's slogan.
Actually I found out after I did the article there's two other entities that qualify but the point remains.
Sometimes I wonder if I should "blow my cover" with the Federalist stuff...really we're supposed to be anonymous contributors. But I figure if someone reads my blog, they're going to see it anyway in some form or another. People who are reading this are likely smart enough to put two and two together.
But they are MY words, and a lot of the time they ask for my take on things. I'd say that 1/3 to 1/2 of the time they ask me for an article and the rest is stuff I write on or quotes I find on websites.
It is cool to be in print though. And we get a lot of good comments from people on the website, so I feel like I contribute to the conservative cause in some small way.
I don't know about another contribution though. The "Meetup" phenomonon doesn't seem to work in Salisbury. And I'm certainly not interested in paying to be organizer, so I guess we'll just muddle along some other way. Haven't seen any sort of party organization here, but it could be a function of being the off-year between partisan elections. Not like the Maryland Republican Party is that large anyway...we only get a GOP governor every 30 years or so.
But that's enough for tonight, a shorter than average entry. Tomorrow starts another week, we'll see what lunacy goes on in government for me to comment on. I'm sure something will occur!
