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  • From: Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Home "Despot" investing? No thanks.
  • Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2004 13:01:18 -0500

I would echo Chuck's comments, especially after reading this just sent to me by Bill Roley about Home "Despot". If you want to reelect Bush, that's the place to shop:

President Bush, after a major fundraiser in Baltimore on December 5,
made a stop at a nearby Home Depot to talk about the economy. But the
site confused some people, so much so that the Baltimore Sun ran an
article entitled "A Presidential Mystery," which concluded that "nobody
seems to know why" he was going to the Home Depot.

Well, a little digging provided the answer to this mystery: Home Depot
is a major contributor to President Bush's campaigns. Home Depot
executives, employees and their families have given more than $1.5
million to the GOP since 1999, most of it in "soft money," before that
practice was outlawed last year. The company's political action
committee has also already contributed $31,000 directly to the
Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign.

And guess what? Buried in two small paragraphs on page 710 of the
massive, stalled energy bill is a measure that would lift a tariff on
Chinese-made ceiling fans - with Home Depot being the largest retailer
of said fans. The measure, inserted during a closed-door conference
committee and undebated in either house of Congress, would save Home
Depot and other smaller companies about $48 million, at taxpayer
expense, of course. Other fun facts uncovered by Public Citizen:

- Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli, who flew up from Atlanta on Dec. 5 to
join Mr. Bush, has made at least three trips to the White House since
2001.
- Home Depot's #2 person, Executive Vice President Francis Blake, left
his job as Bush's deputy energy secretary in 2001 to work for Home
Depot.
- Karen Knutson, wife of Home Depot's top in-house lobbyist Kent
Knutson, was a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, and deputy
director of Cheney's secret energy task force.

As noted by Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress
Watch, "The president has managed to turn policy pronouncements into
free PR for his most generous political supporters."

Perhaps you are unwilling to make your hardware and related purchases
at a chain that is helping to undermine democracy - pumping money into
an Administration that puts contributors' profits ahead of the public
interest and then looking for paybacks at taxpayer expense. If so, and
you would like to let Home Depot CEO Nardelli know about it, you can
contact them by going to the following internet address:
http://www.citizen.org/redirect.cfm?ID=2



Chuck & Linda wrote:

Michael writes:

As permaculturists, I hope we see the value of participating in all the
zones of influence, for money is clearly a tool we can use to hold
corporations accountable....

Yes investing in enlightened companies is one possible strategy such as say
a company that is investing in hydrogen technologies specically geared to
renewable energies. However as I looked at your website and saw an example
of your Omni Index of "Natural Companies" Home Depot, Johnson and Johnson,
Coca Cola, Bank America...I say no thank you. Chuck in Wisconsin
Hopefully someday investing in sustainable food systems and energy. No stock
markets thankyou.

--
Keith Johnson
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 1209
Black Mountain, NC 28711

also Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting
Culture's Edge at Earthaven Ecovillage
http://www.permacultureactivist.net
http://www.earthaven.org
http://www.bioregionalcongress.org







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