Wal-Mart, like all big business, is an equal-opportunity corruptor.
Blanche Lincoln is helping the Walton (Wal-Mart) family by adding language to the Senate's financial-overhaul legislation. The language protects a bank controlled by the Walton family, one of the richest in the U.S.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln, one of the chief architects of the financial-regulation overhaul nearing completion in Congress, is pushing for a change that would benefit a bank in her home state of Arkansas.
The bank, Arvest Bank Group Inc., of Bentonville, Ark., is predominantly owned by the Walton family, of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. fame, perhaps the most influential family in the state and one of the richest in the U.S.
Wal-Mart is Blanche Lincoln's #1 contributor, excluding law firms, at $52,750 since 2005. The left and the right are always happy to enact special rules for big business in exchange for campaign dollars. |
Was the federal Minerals Management Service (MMS) "asleep at the switch?" MMS records show they knew what BP was doing:
... analysis of records provided by the U.S. Minerals Management Service shows that BP used the less costly design-called "long string"-on 35% of its deepwater wells since July 2003, the earliest date the well-design data were available.
Sources
Damian Paletta, Lincoln Intervenes for Arkansas Bank, WSJ.com Business, 6/23/2010, http://on.wsj.com/bIFaBO
Russel Gold and Tom McGinty, BP Relied on Cheaper Wells: WSJ Analysis Shows Oil Giant Used 'Risky' Design More Often Than Most Peers, WSJ.com Business, 6/19/2010, http://on.wsj.com/cTe11o
Tags: Blanche Lincoln, Sam Walton, Wal-Mart, Financial Overhaul Legislation, Arvest Bank Group |
