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CounterPunch's
Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
April
20, 2004
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
April
19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
April 10 /
12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greatest Radical Journalist of His Age
Patrick Cockburn
Ambush, Kidnap, Murder: Another Day in "Post War" Iraq
Ellen Cantarow
Health Under Siege on the West Bank
Tariq Ali
Iraqi
Resistance: a New Phase
Werther
Pseudoconservatism Revisited: When God is Pro War & Other
Delicacies
Robert Fisk
Bush's War Lords to Their Critics: "Just Shut Up"
Gary Leupp
Indian Wars, Vietnam and Orientalist Fantasy
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Cont.
Jorge Mariscal
Perils of the Bootstrap
Phil Gasper
Defying Stereotypes About Death Row
Dave Zirin
Bringing the Black Freedom Struggle Into Sports: an Interview
with Lee Evans
Brandy Baker
The Revolution is Playing at a Theater Near You
Mickey Z.
Underground Music is Free Media: an Interview with Twiin
Ali Tonak
Get Ready for the Million Worker March
Harry Browne
Asking the Wrong Question About Richard Clarke & 9/11
Gideon Samet
The Sharonizing of America
Conn Hallinan
Remote Control Warriors
Website of
the Weekend
Taboo
Tunes
April 9, 2004
Robert Fisk
This
War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us
John L. Hess
The
Non-Confessions of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Condoleezza's Condescensions
Christopher Brauchli
Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan
Don Santina
Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
William S. Lind
The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont.
Bill Christison
9/11
Commission is Bush's New Lapdog
Website of the Day
What We've Done to Fallujah
April 8,
2004
Wayne Madsen
Rice
(and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act
Kurt Nimmo
Will
Bush Flatten Fallajuh?
Patrick Cockburn
Guided
Missile; Misguided War
Laura Flanders
Steamed
Rice
Larry Everest
What Condi Rice is Hiding
Adam Federman
Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia
M. Junaid Alam
The Iraqi Intifada Begins
Norman Solomon
The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence
Douglas Valentine
Echoes
of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq
Website of the Day
Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Deeper
into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Tet
in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster?
Patrick Cockburn
Battles
Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts
Kathy Kelly
Pacification: Worth the Price?
Sonali Kolhatkar
What Are You Doing About Afghanistan?
Rahul Mahajan
Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell
Robert Fisk
US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar
Mike Whitney
America Out of Iraq, Now!
Sam Hamod
Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger
April 6,
2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The
Anti-Empire Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez
del Solar
A
Year Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The
Illegal Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated
US and International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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April
20, 2004
Turning People into
Profits
Wal-Mart's
Magic Numbers
By STAN COX
The king of discount retailing
is looking like a blue chip bargain.
James Hale, The Online Investor,
March 4, 2004
Wal-Mart probably doesn't set out with
the purpose of destroying lives and wrecking the American economy.
The company is trying, in a bigger way than has ever been tried
before, to achieve three contradictory goals: pay its workers
enough, make its mechandise affordable to almost everyone, and
increase value for stockholders. In doing so, it has been both
a wild success and an utter failure. In its ultimate inability
to satisfy all three goals simultaneously, Wal-Mart mirrors the
economy at large.
A list of numbers serves to
illustrate how Wal-Mart deals with tradeoffs among the interests
of workers, customers, and shareholders:
Pay scales, high to low
$2,200,000,000: Total dividends Wal-Mart plans to pay its shareholders
this fiscal year, after a 44% dividend increase announced March
2, 2004
$23,000,000: Average annual compensation for Wal-Mart CEO
Lee Scott, 2000-2003
$4,500,000: Average annual compensation for previous Wal-Mart
CEO David Glass, 1995-2000
$70,000 to $150,000: Bonuses (coming on top of typical
base salaries exceeding $50,000) commonly earned by Wal-Mart
store managers in 2002 as incentives to increase their own store's
annual profit, with profit increases coming largely through holding
down labor costs
$9.68:
Average hourly living wage as defined by 22 of the U.S. cities
and towns that passed living wage ordinances between 2000 and
2004
$9.60:
Average hourly wage Wal-Mart could pay if one-third of its current
profits were diverted to pay its U.S. employees instead
$9.54:
Average hourly wage Wal-Mart could afford to pay if it raised
its prices an average of 1%
$9.32:
Average hourly wage Wal-Mart could pay if the current annual
dividend going to its stockholders were diverted to pay its U.S.
employees
$9.15:
Hourly wage that Dana Mailloux was earning at a Ft. Myers, Florida
Wal-Mart when she and more than a dozen similarly paid employees
were laid off because of "lack of work", after which,
as they were leaving the store, they noticed "six new hires
-- red vests in hand -- filling out paperwork," and then
that next weekend saw Help Wanted ads on the store's bulletin
board
$8.00:
Approximate nationwide average hourly wage for Wal-Mart employees
$6.25:
Starting wage for a cashier at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Salina,
Kansas, 2003
$12,192: Income earned by a newly hired cashier working
40-hour weeks (more than the 32-hour company-wide average) for
a year, with no weekdays off, at the Salina Supercenter
$13,994:
Minimum annual expenses for bare existence faced by a single
cashier with children 4 and 12 who lives in Salina, Kansas and
provides as many necessities as possible by shopping at the Supercenter
where she works (Expenses do not include child care costs, which,
if the cashier finds a qualified provider, are covered by a state
subsidy.)
$6.00:
Typical hourly rate being paid by Wal-Mart to custodial contractors
for the services of more than 300 undocumented workers in late
2003 (with the contractor, not Wal-Mart, having to pick up the
employer's share of the workers' Social Security tax)
$0.31:
The legal hourly minimum wage in China
$0.23:
Average hourly wage at 15 Chinese factories making clothing,
shoes, and handbags to be sold at U.S. Wal-Mart stores, 2001
73:
Average number of hours worked per week by employees at those
15 factories
Some other numbers
127:
The number of Wal-Mart stores, out of 128 audited in 2000, that
were found not to be allowing sufficiently for 15-minute breaks
as provided for in company policy
$150,000,000: The total back pay Wal-Mart is estimated to
owe employees in Texas for having compelled them to work through
their 15-minute breaks over a four-year period
40 hours, 36 seconds: Amount of time worked in one week
by Wal-Mart employee Georgie Hartwig of Washington State, for
which she was upbraided by her manager for clocking more than
40 hours, which costs the store in overtime wages
45%:
Proportion of her entire annual wage that a single Wal-Mart employee
might have to pay out-of-pocket before collecting any benefits
from the company-sponsored health plan
42,000:
Number of Wal-Mart employees in the state of Georgia in 2002
10,261:
Number of children of Wal-Mart employees in Georgia who are enrolled
in the state's PeachCare for Kids health insurance program, which
provides medical coverage to children whose parents cannot afford
it
$420,750: Annual cost to U.S. taxpayers of a single 200-employee
Wal-Mart store, because of support required for underpaid workers
-- including subsidized school lunches, food stamps, housing
credits, tax credits, energy assistance, and health care
5: Wal-Mart's rank, if it were
a separate nation, among China's biggest export markets -- ahead
of Germany and Britain
45%:
Decrease in annual sales of Levi-Strauss clothing from 1996 through
the first half of 2003, largely because of competition from less
expensive jeans sold at Wal-Mart
6%:
Sales increase in the third quarter of 2003, just after Levi-Strauss
began supplying jeans to Wal-Mart
60:
Number of U.S. clothing factories operated by Levi-Strauss in
1981
2004:
The year in which Levi-Strauss will close its last two U.S. plants
and stop manufacturing jeans, importing them from overseas instead
Stan Cox lives in Salina, Kansas, where he
is a plant breeder and writer. He can be reached at: t.stan@cox.net
Weekend
Edition Features for April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
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