Now its onward to the Political Conventions!

As the Beijing Olympic spectacle wraps up, Americans' thoughts are going to the National Presidential Conventions, the first of which begins today.  They'll be broadcast live with lots of neat commercials that are geared to give you positive feelings about your country, just as the Olympics gave us warm and fuzzies about a peaceful, well choreographed world.

My, do we have some beautiful and fit people in this world!  And for the next couple weeks we in the USA will marvel about how two political parties really know what they're doing to bring this country into a world of light.

And would you believe, the Olympics and the Conventions are in a large part possibilities because of our United Corporations of the World.  Now, those are some classy folks out there!  Their public relations, marketing, advertising, sales and government relations departments have outdone themselves this year to make us all feel good and safe, pure, happy and ready to buy.

Like where else can we see some of the top athletes in the world go through the McDonald's line chomping down french fries?  How ironic that Olympic eight Gold Medal Winner Michael Phelps said that he was looking forward after the Olympics to be able to eat junk food again, meaning that foods like those McDonald's push were out of the question for at least this athlete in training. 

And now we will have Walmart commercials during both political conventions. On August 22nd,  Reuters Blogs Shop Talk quoted the Walmart folks saying the following:

And while we are questioning Walmart about their concern about all of us who are really suffering from an economy in red, why is Walmart reportedly giving orders to their supervisors and managers to persuade their low-paid "associates" that they had better think twice when they vote in November.  They sure wouldn't want to elect someone of some particular party that supports stronger labor laws that could bring nasty labor unions into their stores!  God forbid!

Our Walmart saviors of  those undecided voters (who are being forced to shop in their stores) will promote their $4 prescription drug program and their cheaper gas, which are both great for one stop shopping, Walmart says.

Hold on just one minute!  If you get your gas at Walmart and go in and get your prescription drugs, you will not have a one stop shopping trip, unless you run your engine while you fill up, or park your car at the pump while you rush in to pick up your drugs.  And believe me, I'll take my local druggist any day over the Walmart associate!  My prescription drug at my local druggist is free under my VISTA insurance plan.  Maybe if Walmart would push for a better health care system in the country that made life great for Daddy Walton and his kids, their customers could also see doctors, have medical tests and cheap drugs as a rule anywhere in town.

And speaking of the Walton family, five family members are billionaires.  Yes, that's billionaires, with a b, who happen to like to make lots of political contributions, which are individually up there just under those of Donald Trump and above those of Oprah Winfrey. The Republicans get most of their money, according to newsmeat.com.  For example, Jim Walton in recent years has funded Republicans 89 percent of the time compared to 1percent for Democrats.

As I did my research on Walmart, Exxon-Mobil began to look good in comparison.  And many of my readers know that my respect for oil companies ranks down there with poison ivy and ticks usually.  Both companies have shined with their 2008 second quarter profits:  up 17 percent for Walmart; more than 14 percent for Exxon-Mobil.

But at least Exxon-Mobil pays their employees half-way decently, and provides better benefits than does Walmart.  Exxon-Mobil imports much of its petroleum from outside the country because we just don't have enough here to satisfy our appetites.  Walmart, on the other hand, imports from countries with lax labor and environmental laws by choice.

Nevertheless, these two corporations are simply just drops in the bucket when we look at how the hundreds of corporations are having their say at the Olympics, and now at the conventions.  The corporations' involvement in the conventions is particularly disturbing.

Beginning on Monday, we'll see the Democrats meeting in Denver at the Pepsi Center, the Wells Fargo Theatre and the Invesco Field.  In addition, the Democrats list more than a hundred other corporations as "sponsors."  So far, the Republicans haven't published who their corporate sponsors are, although we do know that in Minneapolis they will be meeting at the Xcel Energy Center.  Excel markets nuclear power, among other products.  But the Democrats also list money from Xcel on their sponsorship list.

And folks, none of the millions going from the corporations to the conventions will be listed as political contributions.  No, these sponsorships are contributions to the "Host Committees" for the conventions.

AT & T is a big contributor to both conventions, along with a number of other telecoms companies.  Kind of makes one wonder if this heavy sponsorship has anything to do with many of our senators and congressmen backing the latest FISA bill that exonerated them all for acting in collusion with our government as it monitored without warrants many of our calls.

So, folks, don't expect any surprises at the conventions this year.  The United Corporations of the World are in charge, and they make things happen right.  Don't know if they can stop the protests in the free speech zones down the road, though.  Go to Indymedia.org to see what happens out there.

Rachael Bliss, after working for 10 years in creative services and community affairs at a local broadcasting station, moved into the nonprofit world with her first job with the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, AL. From there she advocated for the hungry, children and the environment as an organizer and director. Articles by Rachael Bliss at MWC News http://mwcnews.net/RachaelBliss

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