Arkansas Blog

Yep, I ran across that item today and was surprised at how stupid he is if this is true. A CEO of an international company admits he's a bigot??????

WBW and I used to spend at least a grand in there combined every 2 weeks. Hello Target! Say, can we get a Costco here?

I really like open government Internet style. Before one could spend several thousand dollars searching thousands of county and state records to establish who did what. And usually that would be inaccurate because the powers that be didn't want records made public, usually because it caused embarassment to the powers that be.
So more power to the Knowthyneighbor organization, everyone like them and to you Max, I sure want to know who's packing when I am in a crowd. And Brummet should head up to DC, he can be Maureen Dowds waterboy. I be glad to buy him a Greyhound bus ticket to get him there!

Several comments, when this list became available a couple of days ago, noted that the petition for Act 1 obviously had been passed around at church. For what it is worth, the Wall Street Journal noted in passing that Lee Scott and Mike Duke both belong to Fellowship Bible Church:

"So exactly who is this guy moving into Sam Walton's old office? Duke received a bachelor's degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1971. Not long after, he went to work in the logistics department of the May Department Store Co. in 1972, where he met Coleman Peterson, who would soon become HR director for Wal-Mart. When Scott told Peterson in late 1994 that he needed to hire someone who could one day replace him as head of logistics, Peterson told him he had just the guy. Scott took an instant liking to Duke, who soon became a confidant. The two belong to the same church, the Fellowship Bible Church, as do many other senior Wal-Mart executives. "

Whole article at blue name.

Oops! Not the Wall Street Journal. It was Fortune!

ive always referred to walmart as Satan's Emporium, and I avoid it unless absolutely inevitable.

I wonder if anyone on the list has discovered someone signing more than once. I did yesterday.

The double signature is not evident in the KnowThyNeighbor index of names. I found it by clicking on the name of a relative of mine, and then on the name of his wife, in the KnowThyNeighbor index.

The two clicks bring me to two separate sheets of signatures signed on two different days, 9 days apart. Both sheets have the signature of my relative, with his address and date of birth the same on both sheets. On one of the two occasions, my relative signed next to his wife. On the other occasion, he signed separately.

I've notified the Secretary of State's office of this irregularity, but haven't yet had an acknowledgment of my email about this. I also sent the information to KnowThyNeighbor.

The relative in question is a Baptist minister, by the way.

No big surprise here. If you have every witnessed one of their cheer leading sessions of years
past then you know there's one foot into Fundie Land.

Helluva thunderstorm up here in the Ozarks. 2 and 3 inch hail in some places.
See what outing a big name like that does!

.

Bigotry aside, what about the utter stupidity of him (allegedly) signing this? (Actually, I think they have him cornered because his wife signed as well and they have an accurate address and date of birth).

Back to the stupidity...Wouldn't it be PR 101 that you don't put your name on any controversial issue if you're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company?

Even if you're a closeted KKK-loving, misogynistic, gay-hating SOB, shouldn't you keep that under wraps because you're the face of the company? I'm not saying he's a KKK-loving guy, I just used that as an example. The jury is still out on the misogynistic charge because he is a member of Fellow Bible Church. But we know he's gay-hating because he (allegedly) signed that petition.

My point is that he's a total dumbass to have signed in the first place. WTF are you thinking, man? This is NOT an Arkansas company, it's GLOBAL! Do you think the rest of the world is as gay-hating as NW Arkansas?

Wal-Mart needs to fire him yesterday because he's an idiot.

Amen Sista!

"Wal-Mart needs to fire him yesterday because he's an idiot."

I disagree. I think it's wrong to persecute people (getting someone fired) based on their opinions and participation in the political process. We don't want to discourage political participation, we'd rather Mr. Duke really have an understanding his fellow man. If you don't like what he's done, organize a boycott, let people know, send links to this story to major gay publications. Turn on the heat. Don't attack him personally.

This act has had a direct impact on my life but I still don't blame Mr. Duke. I'll just avoid spending any of my dollars in Wal Mart, which I've done a decent job of in the past anyway. They engage in deceptive practices and treat hourly employees with contempt, so there's many-a-reason to skip the trip to Wally World.

It's so easy to think super successful people are smarter and better than you are, but actually 99.9% of them are just folks. There might be a Stephen Hawking or Mother T among them now and then but for the most part we & they all fart and then try to discreetly smell it. This Mike Duke is just another fart smeller too. Wal-Mart may be a smarter bunch when it comes to sucking the last penny out of everyone...but they've never been known to be a high class, intellectual bunch.

Why...old Sam Walton took his father in law's last 400,000 dollars back when 895 would get you a new Chevy and turned it into a gold mine. I don't take a thing away from him, but a William F. Buckley intellectual...he wasn't. Wal-Mart....not Jewish in any way, took the best part of Jewish business sense and went Pow to the Moon, Alice....but I bet a whole bunch of em couldn't do squat at Final Jeopardy.

So the head dude loves him a whole bunch O'Jesus and thinks gay people are icky. I'm not surprised....it fits "Wal-Mart think" to a T. This Duke guy praised Jesus, had him a fine luncheon and then signed a petition while he was really thinking bout a nap. That's probably all the more evil that he is. But of course I don't like it. I like to think I'm intelligent even when my brain is full of Jesus and my belly is full of shrimp.

If I was gay I wouldn't shop at Wal-Mart. I try not to shop at Wal-Mart anyway because I'm going to bury my fine upstanding uncle in the morning who lost his 40 year career in the grocery business cause Wal-Mart came to town. Uncle Bob managed to pick himself up out of the gutter and go on....but I'm glad he's dead so he won't have to think about what Wal-Mart did to him....and though he never talked about it.....I know he thought about it all the time as he drove off in his 11 year old Jeep Cherokee.

Wal-Mart won't change because it will never be an intellectual business. They buy cheap and sell high.....don't have to be Einstein to do that...though it is a neat trick I've never managed to do for very long in my life. So hurray....Wal-Mart can brow beat their suppliers down to nearly nothing and mostly have to speak Chinese to do it. And we flock to their blue & white doors to save 18 cents on a can of shaving cream, an who doesn't like those 134 year old people forced to say Welcome to Wal-Mart until their dying day. Look into your future people.....we all should be practicing saying Welcome to Wal-Mart because if we live long enough.....that's how we'll say goodbye to life. It's better than being waterboarded.

But in the not too distant future gays will be just like the rest of us and we'll stand in isle 7 with Bob & Bruce and laugh about these bad old days. Cause it's going to happen....gay people will marry...they will be foster parents, they will adopt, they will use the turkey baster..they will just be another couple on your street. And Wal-Mart will do their damnest to sell them a Chinese made toaster and some of their greeters will be ancient old gay people. They don't have a choice. Their thinking will be brought into the 21st century soon. So don't sweat their Neanderthalism.....it will pass. Mr. Duke will take his hundred million and just be another old duffer playing golf in Bella Vista and life will go on.

And bigoted Americans will find a new target....because they can't be happy without a target. Probably fat people are up next and then ugly people and you can bet atheists will get their nipples ground somewhere in there....and it will just be America being America. And just wait....one of these days a horrible Chinese plague will ride in hidden in some Wal-Mart shipment and instead of lowering prices, they'll be lowering bodies into the ground. We're not going to ever have a fun world to live in......so enjoy saving that 18 cents while you can. RIP Uncle Bob.....you were a great great guy.

My condolences on your Uncle, dbi. He is not alone.

WalMart in most smaller city and town locations has gone into the monopoly mode of less products and higher prices since they've eradicated the competing small businesses.

WalMart will go down in history as a bigger destroyer of small town and city urban fabric than the strip or enclosed mall.

I love love love 4 dollar prescriptions! But how many small pharmacies am I putting out of business? I worked 12 hours per day, 6 days per week until I went bankrupt. It's a whole more fun to go bankrupt skiing in Switzerland while maxing out your credit cards.

Next time I go bankrupt....I'm doing it for fun, not trying to save my damn business. Fortunately I hit the skids before Pryor & Lincoln helped FK up the bankruptcy laws.

DBI misunderestimates someone yet again:

"Why...old Sam Walton took his father in law's last 400,000 dollars back when 895 would get you a new Chevy and turned it into a gold mine. I don't take a thing away from him, but a William F. Buckley intellectual...he wasn't."

Right. Sam Walton ripped the guts out of America by being stupid. Yeah, sure.

"Wal-Mart won't change because it will never be an intellectual business. They buy cheap and sell high.....don't have to be Einstein to do that"

I have a friend who was hired there for his Ph.D. in physics, or more accurately, the mathematical skills he learned in the process.

They aren't dumb, DBI. They're evil, and smart enough to get you to think they're dumb. A winning combination.

The dumb ones are us, DBI. Yeah, I'm right up there at the head of that crowd trying my best to rush through those doors to get all those bargains -- or I was.
(Woke up, but maybe a bit late to plan for a truly comfortable retirement. Although if it weren't for being too fearful to forego piss-poor health insurance . . . And now my doctor's office says they consider me a new patient -- haven't been in nearly three years -- and I should go to the emergency room if I fall, bang my head and knock myself cold because they don't work new patients in. And I was one of his original patients when he opened his practice here. But that's another gripe.)
Anyway, I can remember my parents getting everything they needed during a weekly trip to the grocery store not much bigger than one of those new dollar stores popping up in all those none-too-toney neighborhoods. (Well, yeah, there were side trips to the feed store and sometimes to the hardware store.)
Heck, I can remember -- barely -- when we just went to the neighborhood/community store for the little bit of stuff we didn't grow on the place.
Fact is, the big city side of my family did the same back then. Their neighborhood store was three blocks away and the cousins fought to help carry the grocery bag home -- usually one daily, for a five kiddie family. And at seven or eight or nine, those cousins knew they were grown up when their mom entrusted them with a buck or two and told them to run and get a few things.
But.
Times, they have changed, haven't they?
Oh, yeah, I pined for a Wal-Mart back in the early days. Something other than K-Mart, Magic-Mart and TG&Y . . . Well, I got it, didn't I?
(So did the Pine Bluff Commercial and other papers, I'd say, with their dropping ad revenue. All the other stores, big and little, are gone and with them, the backbone of ad revenue, right? And when you're the only game in town, well, why spend much on advertising?)
So who do YOU blame?

It is a rainy Sunday morning, and because I stayed up too late last night carousing like the sinner that I am, I have decided not to go to church this morning. Instead, I started looking at names of the petitioners for Amendment 1 (The Gay Adoption Ban). After checking various names, I decided maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to see if there were any DINO's that signed it. Whaddya know! It looks like a total of 9 Democratic County Chairs felt so compelled to lay down some ink on these horrilble little peitions. Yes, I have too much time on my hands, but I have compiled the list. Since the County Chairs don't have addresses listed, one has to go solely by names and counties. Because the majority (if not all) of those listed came from rural counties, and the names are typically unique enough that there aren't 5 differen people with the same moniker running around these tiny burgs, I would imagine it is spot on, but you'll have to make that assumption yourself.

Melba Murphy, Ashley County
Allen Watson, Calhoun County
Paul Morton, Cleburne County
Robert Stobaugh, Conway County
Bob Bond, Franklin County
Patti Hardin, Fulton County
Mary Ann Wilkinson, Lee County
Robert Serio, Monroe County
Debbie Wise, Randolph County

I have always heard of a handful of the Dem chairs that actually place Republican signs in their yard and contribute to those candidates while doing nothing for their own. If you take a look at some of these counties, you will find that a Democratic organization is either faltering or just entirely non-existent. Wonder why? Well, it may be that you have wolves among the sheep...as we're seeing here. In some cases, I don't believe it's malicious intent, rather just a certain amount of apathy. Regardless, it's about time we take these supposed "leaders" to task and start asking them the hard questions.

Clicky to check yourself...