Hillary Clinton and Wal-Mart: What About Debbie Shank?
There is no story in recent memory that better illustrates the tattered social contract between workers and corporations in this country than the story of Debbie Shank and Wal-Mart. Ms. Shank recently became a "Gold Star" mother when her 18-year-old son, Jeremy, was killed in Iraq.
Years ago while she was working for miserable wages as a shelf stocker at Wal-Mart, Ms. Shank was the innocent victim of a terrible automobile accident when a big rig slammed into her on a Missouri freeway. She suffered severe neurological damage that has permanently impaired her memory and motor skills and has made it impossible for her to function outside of the constant care of a nursing home.
Shank and her husband, Jim (who is recovering from prostate cancer and works two jobs), were awarded about $750,000 in a lawsuit against the trucking company. After the Shanks paid their legal fees, $417,000 was placed in a trust to pay for Debbie's long-term care. Wal-Mart sued the Shanks for $470,000 in medical expenses.
The behemoth corporation that made $11 billion in profits last year claimed the Shanks owed it the money because of a fine-print clause in her employee health benefits package that stipulates that Wal-Mart would recoup all medical costs if any court settlement had been reached. A Republican judge ruled in favor of Wal-Mart and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case. The ruling will completely clean out (and then some) the trust that was set aside for Debbie Shank's long-term care. Wal-Mart issued a terse statement worthy of an Adolf Eichmann defending their actions saying the corporation was only following "very specific rules." In other words, the Shanks could fuck themselves.
Hillary Clinton was on the Board of Directors of Wal-Mart for 6 years. Wal-Mart paid her $18,000 each year she was on the board and $1,500 for every meeting she attended. She accumulated at least $100,000 in Wal-Mart stock. This might be the reason she refuses to release her tax records even though Barack Obama has done so. Maybe it's time we demand that she give back this blood money? Moreover, when Hillary Clinton was with the Rose Law firm in Little Rock she defended Wal-Mart against workers who tried to organize unions making the firm, in the words of labor leader Jonathan Tasini, "one of the most active anti-union law firms in the country."
Clinton's shameless posturing about the Michigan and Florida Democratic delegations is just more of the same from this Wal-Mart-loving corporate shill. She pretends to be standing for "democratic" principles while she attempts a legal trick to strip the nomination from Obama. I saw Hillary Clinton tonight on Fox News talking up her Michigan-Florida demands with Greta Van Susteran. Howard Dean and the DNC Rules Committee should simply divide the delegates proportionately between the candidates based on the over-all delegate count nationally each candidate has won after all of the primaries are over. Michigan and Florida will have a seat at the table in Denver and Hillary Clinton will not be allowed to screw the base of the Democratic Party, which seems to be her specialty nowadays. Maybe she can talk to her lawyer friends over at Wal-Mart for help in this dispute.
Maybe Hillary Clinton should visit Debbie and Jim Shank in Missouri and tell them how sorry she is for what her lovely Arkansas corporate campaign donor has done to them. Maybe she can bring along a Fox News camera crew.
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Michelle Obama earned $50,000 working for a Walmart supplier, so what?
So you equate working for one vendor out of the hundreds that Wal-Mart deals with, to actually being ON THE BOARD of Wal-Mart?!!
Aren't you getting tired of having the bullies steal your lunch money while you don't even put up a fight? Heck, you apologize for them!
There's always got to be one of you Republican Hillary supporters out there. My oh my.
When a corporation treats a mother of a fallen soldier in America's ongoing war this way we have left the realm of decency -- they claim to be patriotic, well, let Wal-Mart prove it.
What is the purpose of having a Health Care Plan, that you have to pay back? This does not sound like medical insurance to me... you pay for the service and then you pay for the bills. (What service are you then paying for?)
And yet the blue collar whites still voted for her in Ohio and will vote for her in Pennsylvania. This reminds me of the book What's the Matter with Kansas? where the working poor and middle class is persuaded to vote for the candidate who will hurt their economic interests.
When people are scared and lack vision, they will continue to vote against their own best interest.
We know all about Senator Clinton, she has been forthright in getting information out to the public.
But the same cannot be said of Obama according to JUDICIAL WATCH. He has made sure he left "no paper trail". Check it out, Obama has not even been vetted yet.
Judicial Watch: Obama ‘intended to leave no paper trail’ By Klaus Marre | Posted: 03/26/08 01:01 PM [ET]
The president of a prominent watchdog group , Judicial Watch, said Wednesday that he believes Democratic residential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) “intended to leave no paper trail” during his time in the Illinois Senate.
http://the
Forthright? TwoCentsWorth, just because you say something, doesn't it make it true.
Obama has released his tax records. Hillary withholds hers.
Furthermore, those comments, which the Clintons do make are often immediately rebuked by those who actually know the story. She lies about stupid things (Sniper-gate / Bosnia-gate) even when she didn't have to. Where does it end?
Thank you for posting about this. I had posted about these horrible actions of Wal-Mart on my blog: http://www
So thank you, someone had to say it!
What does this have to do with Walmart you might ask? Everything. This change of lifestyle will improve your health therefore decreasing the need for Dr.'s visits and prescription drugs. By managing your money and changing the "keeping up with the Jone's" mentality you can avoid getting into a home that is too big for you and your wallet: thereby keeping your credit intact and avoiding foreclosure, using public transportation more so than automobiles to say fuck you to the oil companies, using ways to make our homes more energy efficient all of these things are ways of boycotting the system. We live in a capitalism society where even though the majority of the people do not make more than 30-50,000 dollars a year we spend the most. This system depends on us that is why Bush could not help bailout homeowners but he is willing to use "our" tax dollars to bail out Bearstern! We the consumer together is a very powerful force to be reckoned with!
How many of you know that a lot of OBGYN offices are closing because they cannot afford to pay their insurance tabs and in effect are pushing their patients into unnecessary C-sections to increase profits but use the gise that it is simply because it is safer for mother and baby. I say this to say that every action has a cause and effect. While their are reasons for lawsuits, the Insurance companies and Law Firms are bankrupting our society. We are paying the price for the companies greed. Other examples of this is the Oil and Energy companies. The bottom line is that all of these companies have shareholders who are expecting a profit at the expense of the consumer. So I ask all of you. What can we do to change this? Boycotting? That would help but it has to start by changing our mindset. Changing how we approach our lives. Applying fiscal responsibility in our everyday lives. Changing our diet to reflect a higher protein/higher fiber diet, drinking plenty of water, getting rid of soft drinks, taking care of our credit, making sure that we use what we need and leave the unnecessary material items behind.
I will not step foot into any Walmart. I will never support their greedy practices, and their exploitation of people. Why do people go to Walmart? To save money, I have heard. Maybe now, people will give some thought to supporting this dismal company.
Thanks for the great article, Mr. Palermo. I saw the Shanks on tv last night -- an awful injustice. Hopefully the exposure will gain them the return of their money from Walmart.
I also thank you for pointing out so succinctly what Hillary has really been doing with Florida and Michigan: "Clinton's shameless posturing about the Michigan and Florida Democratic delegations is just more of the same from this Wal-Mart-loving corporate shill. She pretends to be standing for "democratic" principles while she attempts a legal trick to strip the nomination from Obama."
Hillary Clinton has a long history as being a republican in democratic clothing. She is in fact part of the "vast right wing conspiracy" as her secret church affiliation testifies. She is in line with McCain on foreign policy and is trying to transform the democratic party into a wing of the republican party. She has no compunction about using smear tactics but contrary to her supporters this is not something that should be condoned by people of conscience.
Come on AFSCME, AFT and the Machinists. Time to reject and denounce your endorsed candidate!
KO also covered this.
CNN has been carrying the story for the last few days; I don't know about other media outlets. Tonight AC 360 ran another piece on the Shanks and talked about the massive amount of e-mail CNN has received. Apparently many viewers plan to boycott Wal-Mart.
One of Wal-Mart's excuses is that they must be even-handed, which means that all their employees get to be treated like trash. It was interesting to hear Erica Hill tell Anderson Cooper that many corporate medical plans work the same way, including CNN's.
MICHELLE OBAMA and WAL-MART - May, 2007
Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times published an article about this highly controversial connection in May. http://blo
According to Sweet, Michelle Obama is no longer connected to the company. But this was not a decision Michelle Obama made on her own volition; following the lead of her husband's vague campaign, Michelle Obama quit the company that ties her deeply to WAL-MART. According to Lynn Sweet,
Michelle Obama resigned Tuesday from the board of TreeHouse Foods Inc., a Wal-Mart vendor, eight days after husband and White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he would not shop at the anti-union store.
I guess Obama's attempt to pander to AFL-CIO union voers in Trenton, NJ, created a conflict with one of the Obama family's sources of income
Do you understand the term "vendor?" So she worked for a company that Wal-Mart purchased products to sell from. If you use that definition as criteria for being tied to Wal-Mart, then I guess you would consider millions and millions of regular hard-working Americans "corporate shills." Meanwhile, Shillary worked for Wal-Mart itself, as well as their union-busting law firm. See the difference?
belicheat, thanks for pointing that out to KDH. Perhaps he/she doesn't seem to understand the difference.
And her chief strategist, Mark Penn, is a Union Buster and also represents Countrywide.
It's apples and oranges. Michelle was working for a company contracted by Wal-Mart. Clinton was on their Board.
Hillary's record includes pushing for (and succeeding in) getting NAFTA legislation through. There's really no comparison, when it comes to looking out for the American worker. The Obama's may or may not get it right, but the Clintons have experience in getting it wrong.
[ Ohio didn't seem to understand this... ] :-(
She worked as a lawyer and only made 50K? Yeah, that's really raking it in! Must have been something illegal going on.
You guys better check if she ever did any work for Jiffy peanut butter, or Folgers, or ooh....wha
What a scandal!
Debbie Shanks' lawyer should have gotten a much, much larger settlement for her, there's no way that a mere three-quarters of a million is enough to cover the costs of all of her present and future care no matter how skillfully invested.
Further, her lawyer should have checked every word of her medical insurance contract to see if there were any "gotchas", to see what it did and did not cover, and to see if it could be kept in force with continued premium payments even though it would be a money losing proposition for the insurance provider.
Good point... malpractice suit against the lawyers would be in order?
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