We've always been quick to criticize TWLR (the world's largest retailer) for anti-working-class policies, so tonight we have to congratulate Sam's empire for getting onboard with healthcare reform, joining union SEIU to support an employer mandate.

Here you can read more: BREAKING: Wal-Mart (!) Backs Key Reform Principle - The Treatment - still, it would be nice if they would go a step beyond and allow unionization. Hell, they do it in China! Not good enough for the US?

Anyway, Wal-Mart, job well done!

Sorry to post news on entertainment, but this is big. The Los Angeles Times, CBS News, ABC News, and NBC News are all confirming that pop icon Michael Jackson has died at the age of 50. Wire reports say that he was taken from his Los Angeles home by ambulance after suffering from cardiac arrest. Word from UCLA Medical Center is that most of the Jackson family is at the hospital as are many, many fans.

Labels: ABC News, CBS News, LA Times, Michael Jackson, NBC News, UCLA Medical Center

Well, I guess I should have given Mark Sanford the benefit of the doubt. He was, in fact, in Argentina, visiting the woman he's been having an affair with for the last year. It's a shame that it had to come down to this, for him and for his family. And as I heard someone say on ABC News Radio this morning, it's over, his entire political career is over. He has proven himself to be erratic and not able to properly balance his personal and professional life. He just completely left the state and the country for a woman without telling anyone where he was going. At least when Bill Clinton was getting serviced he could multi-task.

The bigger issue that comes up here isn't Sanford or his ability to do his job. Instead it all comes back to Republican hypocrisy. You see, the party claims to be the moral authority on everything and yet they can't even live up to their own standards. That was the great thing about Bill Clinton: everyone knew about him banging that Flowers woman and yet the country voted him into office anyway. The nation was fully aware of his actions, but I think what made it easier for them was the fact that he wasn't running a family values campaign. He never claimed to be God's moral authority on Earth. Republicans on the other hand claim to be God's political party, and yet we have John Ensign admitting just last week that he cheated on his wife, then Sanford this week, and we've also had Larry Craig trying to get gay sex in the restroom at the Minneapolis airport and Mark Foley sending explicit e-mails and IMs to underage boys. How about from now on the Republican Party stop acting like a bunch of pampas jackasses and instead start acting real. Admit that you're not perfect. Don't pull some B.S. about how much you love your family and then skip out of the country on father's day. If you're going to run on family values, how about you don't cheat on your wife? It's a novel idea, isn't it? If you run on family values and then you get caught in your tangled web of lies, it will cost you big time, just ask Tim Hutchinson. He lost his seat in the senate over it and Mark Pryor never even had to mention it.

Labels: ABC News, Bill Clinton, Family Values, GOP, Hypocrisy, Infidelity, John Ensign, Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Mark Pryor, Mark Sanford, Tim Hutchinson

His staff told the world that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, but the truth is that Gov. Mark Sanford (R - South Carolina) was actually in Argentina driving the coast of that nation, all alone, no security detail and no contact with his wife or state leaders (at least he's telling us he was in Argentina). It's the responsible thing to do, isn't it? I can't wait until this man runs for President and tries to explain that he just needed to clear his head. I'm sure there was some of that going on. What I'm waiting on is for someone, anyone is Argentina to come forward with a story about what Gov. Sanford was really doing there, if in fact he was there.

Now what I want to know is this: can't Sec. of State Hillary Clinton do some research of his passport file to see if he really was in Argentina or if he went to some other country? I just figure since he can't seem to tell us where he's going and since his staff can't seem to truthfully tell us where he's going, we should just pull the State Department into this mess, don't you think?

Also, at what point will the state house vote to begin impeachment proceedings against him? And since he's butted heads with almost everybody in the state legislature, how large of a margin will the state senate have when they vote to kick him out of office? If we've learned anything over the last several months, state legislatures are not afraid to kick their governor out of office. Just ask Rod Blagojevich.

Labels: Appalachian Trail, Argentina, Election 2012, Hillary Clinton, Impeachment, Mark Sanford, Rod Blagojevich, South Carolina Politics, State Department

A quick thank you to Brad Merrick in central Arkansas for sending this story my way.

This from The Washington Post:

The slowly shrinking Southern Baptist Convention voted on Tuesday to sever 125-year-old ties with a Texas church that allowed homosexual members to have their photos in the church directory.

Messengers (delegates) to the SBC's annual meeting voted overwhelmingly to disassociate from Forth Worth's Broadway Baptist Church, following an executive committee ruling Monday that the congregation "failed to establish its compliance" with the SBC rules that ban churches that "act to affirm, approve or endorse homosexual behavior."

According to the Associated Baptist Press, "it was the first time the SBC has ejected a church simply because denominational officials perceive that the congregation is in violation of a policy prohibiting affiliation with pro-gay churches."

So let's get this straight...simply for publishing an innocent photo of a church attendee who is gay a church with a long history within the Southern Baptist Convention is kicked out? Please tell me I'm not the only one who finds this ludicrous.

How long will it take before the hate stops? Am I the only one seeing how stupid this is? I mean, if you want these people to come to follow Christ, wouldn't you want to welcome them to your place of worship and then leading by example instead of shunning them? No wonder conservative Christians are so hated by liberals. It is stories like this that makes people not be able to stand First Baptist Church of Springdale or other radically conservative churches throughout Arkansas and the nation.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Southern Baptists Reject Church

Labels: Broadway Baptist Church, First Baptist Church of Springdale, Fort Worth, Gay Rights, Radical Conservatism, Southern Baptist Convention, The Washington Post

So it appears that Gov. Mark Sanford (R - South Carolina) has been found after getting national attention for his disappearing act over the weekend. The Associated Press is reporting that he is shocked and taken aback by all of the attention. Really? You didn't think it was a good idea to check in and maybe let your lieutenant governor know that you would be out of touch for the next several days? How is it that you are even thinking about running for president? At least George W. Bush let us know he would be in Crawford for months on end.

Labels: AP, Crawford TX, Election 2012, George W. Bush, Mark Sanford, Presidential Politics, South Carolina Politics

Rep. Barney Frank (D - Massachusetts) has filed a bill to legalize marijuana. What do you think? How long until this dies? Will it die in committee or make it all the way to a floor vote? For more on the bill, click HERE and then come on back and tell me what you think.

Labels: Barney Frank, Drugs, Marijuana

Yeah, that's right, apparently he is missing. So who's running the state? No one knows. Check out this LINK to an ABC News report on the topic.

Labels: ABC News, Mark Sanford, South Carolina Politics, YouTube

And, of course, on the other big company in the region - an interesting piece on how Sam's Empire treats employees interested in unionizing, with a case study from 8 years ago.

Why Wal-Mart Workers Need EFCA -- In These Times

Interesting piece from SEIU, which claims our own Tyson Foods and the US Chamber of Commerce worked to block workplace safety regs, resulting in the death of a Tyson employee in Texarkana in 2003.

SEIU also says a similar accident happened the year before, and Tyson didn't put into place safety regs to make sure it didn't happen again.

Hey, we know it's heresy to strike at the hand that feeds everyone, but we're interested here in getting some sort of response from Tyson Foods on this allegation. What happened, and have you been fighting safety regs? We'll print what you send us, no editing needed.

If you're interested in the full piece, here you go: SEIU - Service Employees International Union - US Chamber and Tyson Foods Fought Workplace Safety Measures

We've got to say something about this - we've been following Iran for the past 4 days now - the tweets coming out of there are amazing, almost as amazing as the solidarity of some 1-million people today protesting the fraudulent election of a dictator, backed by yet another Ayatollah. Also amazing? The violence perpetrated on the people who tried to cast votes - violence from the police, the militias, Hezbollah imported from Lebanon.

What also has us scratching our heads is the amazing lack of coverage you'll see about this in the mainstream media. Props to the NYTimes for keeping it on the front page, but a Pulitzer should go to Nico Pitney at the Huffington Post for liveblogging the uprising since it started, and he's still going strong.

There's just too much video to show here, too many amazing and terrible pictures as well.

We've changed our Twitter pic to the "stand with free iran" green symbol. Do the same, or go to the Huffington Post, read Nico's work, and find out how to turn your computer into a proxy server for the Green revolution in Iran, so those who want to oust Ahmadi and the Ayatollah will have a way around the secret police and Hezbollah, so they can keep getting out the information about what's happening in Iraq. If you feel you can use your computer to help them - here's the link and instructions on how you can strike a personal blow for freedom around the world - Austin Heap's site.

Some more from Pitney's live-blog - a list of 7 points protestors in Iran passed around Monday during the million-person protest:

1. Dismissal of Khamenei for not being a fair leader

2. Dismissal of Ahmadinejad for his illegal acts

3. Temporary appointment of Ayatollah Montazeri as the Supreme Leader

4. Recognition of Mousavi as the President

5. Forming the Cabinet by Mousavi to prepare for revising the Constitution

6. unconditional and immediate release of all political prisoners

7. Dissolution of all organs of repression, public or secret

Don't know about you, but that sounds like a) democracy, and b) revolution. Hell, they kicked out the Shah, then screwed up by letting the Ayatollah run things. Better late than never, we say.

All we can say is that we hope they burn the place down, and that the so-called President of Iran gets what he deserves, shortly.

Arkansas' two U.S. senators, Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, the latter of whom is up for re-election, voted for the new tobacco regulation bill last week. While it was probably the right thing to do I wonder if the GOP will try to somehow turn this on Lincoln when next year's election rolls around. They're desperate, so there's no telling what they might try in order to gain some ground in next year's race.

Labels: Blanche Lincoln, Election 2010, Mark Pryor