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RUSH: Two fascinating stories here that illustrate how the left, how liberals look at corporate America, as though we don't know, but these are both fascinating stories. First, from San Francisco, a column by Caille Millner. "It is too easy to make fun of the people who packed Room 400 in San Francisco's City Hall to stop American Apparel from opening a store on Valencia Street in the Mission District last week." What you have here, there's a company called American Apparel and they wanted to open a store in the Mission District, and a bunch of people that lived there showed up at City Hall to oppose it. Ms. Millner says, "They are not serious people. They live in a world where facts like 27 vacant storefronts on Valencia Street and 9.3 percent unemployment statewide and nearly 600,000 jobs lost nationally last month do not matter. The few who read books know no authors beyond Naomi Klein." I never heard of -- who's Naomi Klein? You ever heard of Naomi Klein? Who's Naomi Klein? You've heard of her? Well, who is she? No, that's Naomi Wolf. See, you've never heard of Naomi Klein, either.
"They do not believe that the world has changed since the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. ... What they want is magic. The word 'magic' kept recurring during the hours of public comment at the Planning Commission meeting where the American Apparel store's permit was up for a vote. 'Valencia Street is a magical place,' one speaker said. Another claimed that 'Our neighborhood is a dream, a delicate flower.' Others spoke of American Apparel as a 'parasite' on their 'ecosystem.' Several local business owners testified that it was their 'dream' to operate in such a 'magical' place, and noted, with horror, that they might have to make alterations to their business plans if a new store opened in the area. As it happens, American Apparel is somewhat of a magical company. The company makes its clothing in downtown Los Angeles, employing mostly Latino and Asian immigrants. It offers its workers health care. It pays more than twice the federal minimum wage. These used to be called progressive values, and I noticed that some of the people who did not want American Apparel bringing these values to the Mission understood that they should make an attempt to hide this fact. 'This is not about American Apparel,' Stephen Elliott told me. Stephen Elliott is the founder of the 'Stop American Apparel' Web site and the starting point of this 'movement.' Yet he insisted to me that 'if you allow American Apparel to come in, you're going to have a much harder time saying no to the Gap.'"
The Mission District has 27 vacate storefronts. The people that live there do not want those storefronts filled other than by people who are going to fail, you know, cheap little arts-and-crafts businesses and this kind of thing. "Though some claim that this was always about "formula retail," as I sat watching the Planning Commission meeting I noticed something else. Most of these people were happy to sacrifice other people's lives, other people's dreams, for their idea of magic. When a young man stood before the board and said that he only had health care because of his job at American Apparel, a voice in the overflow room called, 'Get a job somewhere else!' Another employee told a story about a young Latino man who was able to send money to his family in Central America, and this news was met with sneers. An American Apparel representative told the board that he had gotten messages from people threatening to throw a brick through the store window, and the crowd laughed. The commission voted against issuing the permit, and American Apparel is lucky. What a burden it would be to have a store in a magical place with such nasty elves." Caille Millner is a Chronicle editorial writer ripping up her own population. This is the liberal view of corporate America. They want blight. There's magic in blight. Do you remember after Hurricane Katrina, the left saying, "We've gotta restore the Ninth Ward to what it was." It was decrepit
RUSH: Next story, Wal-Mart wants to once again try to open a store in Chicago proper. "Big news in bad times: A major retailer wants to bring thousands of jobs to Chicago. But Wal-Mart's offer is running into the same roadblocks it hit several years ago." CBS 2 Eyeball News in Chicago is pointing out that, "You'd think the city would be begging people like Wal-Mart to bring jobs to Chicago. Not putting up barriers. Well, think again. There's quite a crowd on a rainy night at Chicago's only Wal-Mart; it's on the west side, built in one of the areas known as food deserts, where there are few other options for people. 'Now that it's here in our own community, we're hoping to keep the money inside the community,' said Kendall Joseph. More than 400 people work at Chicago's Wal-Mart, and are paid an average of $11.25 an hour. Success on the west side prompted Wal-Mart to propose another store, on the south side, in Alderman Howard Brookins' ward. 'The attorneys wrote the letter saying we would like to go to 83rd and Stewart last year in 2008,' Ald. Brookins said. The city said no. The city's former Planning commissioner says Wal-Mart wasn't exactly turned down, just told to go back to City Council, where it lost a bruising battle years before. Wal-Mart went elsewhere. Now, it has sent feelers to the city about five new stores, which will cost $120 million to build, with union labor, and eventually creating 2,500 new retail jobs. City labor leaders still say, 'No, thanks.'"
We're in a recession. Barack Obama of Chicago says, erroneously, that it's the worst economic times since the Great Depression. Everywhere I turn in this country where there is genuine private sector stimulus or there is private sector stimulus proposed Democrats are standing in the way of it. Where there are new jobs to be created in the private sector, Democrats somewhere are standing in the way of it, all because of an irrational hatred of a retailer called Wal-Mart and all because Wal-Mart is not unionized. So just as in San Francisco, in the Mission District, where a bunch of Looney Toons will fight to keep a business out of their community because it's too big, it's too corporate, Chicago turns down $120 million, 2,500 union jobs to build the five stores, and all the employment that would result.
"They do not believe that the world has changed since the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. ... What they want is magic. The word 'magic' kept recurring during the hours of public comment at the Planning Commission meeting where the American Apparel store's permit was up for a vote. 'Valencia Street is a magical place,' one speaker said. Another claimed that 'Our neighborhood is a dream, a delicate flower.' Others spoke of American Apparel as a 'parasite' on their 'ecosystem.' Several local business owners testified that it was their 'dream' to operate in such a 'magical' place, and noted, with horror, that they might have to make alterations to their business plans if a new store opened in the area. As it happens, American Apparel is somewhat of a magical company. The company makes its clothing in downtown Los Angeles, employing mostly Latino and Asian immigrants. It offers its workers health care. It pays more than twice the federal minimum wage. These used to be called progressive values, and I noticed that some of the people who did not want American Apparel bringing these values to the Mission understood that they should make an attempt to hide this fact. 'This is not about American Apparel,' Stephen Elliott told me. Stephen Elliott is the founder of the 'Stop American Apparel' Web site and the starting point of this 'movement.' Yet he insisted to me that 'if you allow American Apparel to come in, you're going to have a much harder time saying no to the Gap.'"
The Mission District has 27 vacate storefronts. The people that live there do not want those storefronts filled other than by people who are going to fail, you know, cheap little arts-and-crafts businesses and this kind of thing. "Though some claim that this was always about "formula retail," as I sat watching the Planning Commission meeting I noticed something else. Most of these people were happy to sacrifice other people's lives, other people's dreams, for their idea of magic. When a young man stood before the board and said that he only had health care because of his job at American Apparel, a voice in the overflow room called, 'Get a job somewhere else!' Another employee told a story about a young Latino man who was able to send money to his family in Central America, and this news was met with sneers. An American Apparel representative told the board that he had gotten messages from people threatening to throw a brick through the store window, and the crowd laughed. The commission voted against issuing the permit, and American Apparel is lucky. What a burden it would be to have a store in a magical place with such nasty elves." Caille Millner is a Chronicle editorial writer ripping up her own population. This is the liberal view of corporate America. They want blight. There's magic in blight. Do you remember after Hurricane Katrina, the left saying, "We've gotta restore the Ninth Ward to what it was." It was decrepit
RUSH: Next story, Wal-Mart wants to once again try to open a store in Chicago proper. "Big news in bad times: A major retailer wants to bring thousands of jobs to Chicago. But Wal-Mart's offer is running into the same roadblocks it hit several years ago." CBS 2 Eyeball News in Chicago is pointing out that, "You'd think the city would be begging people like Wal-Mart to bring jobs to Chicago. Not putting up barriers. Well, think again. There's quite a crowd on a rainy night at Chicago's only Wal-Mart; it's on the west side, built in one of the areas known as food deserts, where there are few other options for people. 'Now that it's here in our own community, we're hoping to keep the money inside the community,' said Kendall Joseph. More than 400 people work at Chicago's Wal-Mart, and are paid an average of $11.25 an hour. Success on the west side prompted Wal-Mart to propose another store, on the south side, in Alderman Howard Brookins' ward. 'The attorneys wrote the letter saying we would like to go to 83rd and Stewart last year in 2008,' Ald. Brookins said. The city said no. The city's former Planning commissioner says Wal-Mart wasn't exactly turned down, just told to go back to City Council, where it lost a bruising battle years before. Wal-Mart went elsewhere. Now, it has sent feelers to the city about five new stores, which will cost $120 million to build, with union labor, and eventually creating 2,500 new retail jobs. City labor leaders still say, 'No, thanks.'"
We're in a recession. Barack Obama of Chicago says, erroneously, that it's the worst economic times since the Great Depression. Everywhere I turn in this country where there is genuine private sector stimulus or there is private sector stimulus proposed Democrats are standing in the way of it. Where there are new jobs to be created in the private sector, Democrats somewhere are standing in the way of it, all because of an irrational hatred of a retailer called Wal-Mart and all because Wal-Mart is not unionized. So just as in San Francisco, in the Mission District, where a bunch of Looney Toons will fight to keep a business out of their community because it's too big, it's too corporate, Chicago turns down $120 million, 2,500 union jobs to build the five stores, and all the employment that would result.
