The retailing giant Walmart has been famous - or infamous, however you want to see it - for it's hatred of unions.  The founder, Sam Walton, couldn't stand them, and Walmart has resisted the calls from the unions to allow their workers to organize.

However, in Jonquiere, Quebec in Canada the workers tried to call Walmart's bluff and organized themselves into a union.

So what did Walmart's executives decide to do?  They're shutting down the store.

The retailing behemoth, whose $10 billion annual profits are based on low prices, low expenses and its relentless pace of store openings, announced it will shut the doors here May 6 after workers voted to make this the first unionized Wal-Mart in North America.

The closure will leave 190 bitter employees out of work, the town uneasy over the future of unions, and the mayor angry at the company. Supporters of organized labor also say it serves as a warning for workers at other Wal-Mart stores who might contemplate defying founder Sam Walton's sharp distaste for unions.

"It's like we are digging our own grave," said store employee Nathalie Dubois, 38, a single mother with no other job to go to, as she helped pack up the store.

It's a shame that so many people are losing their jobs, but they placed it on themselves.  The biggest losers are the consumers of the town, who now have no one to keep prices low in order to get good deals on retail items.  Walmart's attitude towards unionization has morphed from a sound business practice to a corporate conviction. 

If you try to confront them on this issue, you'll lose.  After all; they have thousands of stores across North America.  Any losses from this store will be considered a drop in the bucket for this behemoth.  According to the company, they were losing money anyway, so the unions only gave them even more motive.

One group of workers already took the hint.  Workers in Broussard, a surburb south of Montreal, voted against unionizing after hearing about Jonquiere's fate.  Company execs dispute that, but the writing is on the wall.

Here's the stunt they tried to pull to "vote" the union in:

Those who did not want a union say organizers harassed them to join. "People signed the cards just to get some peace" from the union organizers, said Noella Langlois, 53, who works in the clothing department. "They thought they would vote against it in a secret vote."

In fact, there was a vote last April that rejected the union. But under Quebec labor laws, the organizers could try again. When they collected signed union cards from 51 percent of the employees, the law declared the Jonquiere Wal-Mart a union shop.

Pelletier, the Wal-Mart spokesman, says the Quebec laws are unfair, and only a secret ballot would show the true feelings of the workers.

"Signing a union card, when there's someone on your doorstep at night saying, 'Sign this card,' should not be the last word," he said. "A democratic, secret vote is the only way to avoid intimidation by either the union or an employer."

So it wasn't even a "vote".  All they had to do was pass out union cards and "encourage" people to sign them, which sound's like a stunt akin to Saddam's "elections" held in Iraq. 

I've been calling for the busting of unions for the longest, but this is the first time I've seen a company take such an active stance like this against unionization.  Unfortunately, this situation is simply unique for Walmart, since it's the largest retailer in the world and worth billions.  Other companies can't afford to close shop when being forced into unionization.

I'm sure the Canadians don't like this at all, especially with their far-left leanings.  However, I hope Walmart continues to stand up to these union goons who think they can muscle their way into a store and unionize it.

In my home state, North Carolina, a bill has been introduced in the N.C. House that would allow illegal immigrants to receive in-state status for lower college tuition.  The bill was introduced today by state representatives Rick Glacier of Fayetteville and John Sauls of Lee County and was supported by the former governor of the state, Jim Hunt.

I'm very disappointed in this bill in more ways than one.  I know of Glacier and Sauls both (in fact, I stay in the county right between theirs).  Of course, I would have never expected them to pander to the pro-immigration lobby and make the false statements that this would help education and improve the economy.

Taking a look at higher education today will tell you that isn't true.  Tuition has gone up at several 4-year and community colleges across the state since 2001, and a lot of schools are right at capacity.  North Carolina taxpayers spend more and more on education every year; in fact, the John Locke Foundation reports per-student spending rising 13 percent over the past 10 years.  This will be an added strain, particularly at the community college level, where the instructors are underpaid in comparison to the national average and most are having a hard time finding instructors as it is.

This isn't the first time North Carolina has had controversy over the illegal immigration issue.  North Carolina allowed illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses since 1997.  That might explain why North Carolina has the second fastest rising illegal immigrant population in the country.  Jim Hunt was on hand to see that go through, and now he wants to add another stain to his legacy with this nonsense.

At the time, people like then-state senator and former gubernatorial candidate Fern Shubert and others stood up against him, but wasn't able to stop the bills from going through.  But after 9/11 along with a number of people, black and white, seeing the effects the illegal immigrants have placed on the state, there's a lot more voices this time around.  The Americans for Legal Immigration has already announced they will do six townhalls in order to spur opposition for this bill.  Some legislators have already said they will do everything it takes to kill this bill, and rightfully so.

The illegal immigration topic isn't going to die anytime soon.  Last month, Republican legislators introduced a bill that would restrict government services for illegal immigrants and would seek reimbursement for health costs from their employers.  Human smuggling has been a problem, as 12 illegal immigrants were detained at Raleigh-Durham Airport.   Out-of-state immigrants are traveling to NC from everywhere to get driver's licenses through black market operations.  So this isn't going anywhere anytime soon.  Hopefully I will be able to keep up with it all.

I told you that Mae Magourik, whom was being dehydrated and starved in a hospice under the instructions of her granddaughter, was sent to a Birmingham hospital receiving treatment.

Well, yesterday the family was barred from seeing Magourik at the hospital by the instructions of the granddaughter, Beth Gaddy.  According to the judge, Gaddy was made the temporary guardian of Magourik, and had made the order while the family was visiting her, which meant hospital officials made the family leave.  The family plans to petition the judge to allow visitation rights.

Wizbang notes the media is finally starting to pay attention to this story outside of LaGrange.  The AJC has an article, along with the Birmingham News.   Ken Mullinax, Magourik's nephew, was scheduled for Hannity and Colmes tonight, although I didn't see it because I don't have FNC.

Hopefully the judge will make the right decision, and that's to allow her to live and take guardian rights away from Gaddy.
UPDATE:  Here's some more information on Mullinax.  His appearance on Hannity and Colmes was postponed due to some arrest in Georgia that FNC was covering.  The motion to gain visitation rights will be given to the judge tomorrow.  I'm sure we will receive a response the same day.  Check it out on Blogs for Terri.

After seeing an in-depth discussion develop on Okayplayer and on Booker Rising about Fantasia's song "Baby Mama" and waking up to the end of it the other morning (I keep the radio on during the weekends overnight), I finally decided to check the song out.

Here's the lyrics of "Baby Mama":

B-A-B-Y M-A-M-A
This goes out to all my baby mamas
This goes out to all my baby mamas
B-A-B-Y M-A-M-A
This goes out to all my baby mamas
I got love for all my baby mamas

It's about time we had our own song
Don't know what took so long
Cause nowadays it's like a badge of honor
To be a baby mama
I see ya payin' ya bills
I see ya workin' ya job
I see ya goin' to school
And girl I know it's hard
And even though ya fed up
With makin' beds up
Girl, keep ya head up
All my

[chorus]
B-A-B-Y M-A-M-A
This goes out to all my baby mamas
This goes out to all my baby mamas
B-A-B-Y M-A-M-A
This goes out to all my baby mamas
I got love for all my baby mamas

I see you get that support check in the mail
You open it and you'er like, What the Hell
You say, This ain't even half of daycare
Sayin' to yourself, This shit ain't fair
And all my girls who don't get no help
Who gotta do everything by yourself
Remember, what don't kill you can only make you stronger
My baby mama

[chorus]
B-A-B-Y M-A-M-A
This goes out to all my baby mamas
This goes out to all my baby mamas
B-A-B-Y M-A-M-A
This goes out to all my baby mamas
I got love for all my baby mamas

Cause we the backbone (of the hood)
I always knew that (that we could)
We can go anywhere, we can do anything
I know we can make it if we dream
And I think it should be a holiday
For single mothers, tryin' to make a way
But until then, here is your song
Show love to my....

[chorus]
B-A-B-Y M-A-M-A
This goes out to all my baby mamas
This goes out to all my baby mamas
B-A-B-Y M-A-M-A
This goes out to all my baby mamas
I got love for all my baby mamas

(Photo:  Yahoo's The Contender Page)

Coming off of last week's knockout victory, plenty of heat was placed on Anthony.  Anthony was riding high off of the win, but his teammates felt he ducked Jimmy Lang for what they considered a weaker fighter.  Nevertheless, Anthony is safe for a couple of weeks.

Some of the guys were a little calmer after coming back to the house.  Ishe and Joey, however, weren't.  Joey packed his things and switched rooms, as he was Anthony's teammate and was "supposed" to be the one to fight Brent Cooper.  Ishe went on a rampage, throwing things and ranting about how he wants to get even for the doublecross.  TKO'ing Brent only made it worse.

Just when it looked as if there would be a confrontation, Anthony made it back to the training house and everything cooled off.  Tarrick ongratulated him for the victory and defended his choice.

We got an inside look at Tarrick's background.  Tarrick was actually a pretty good boxer when he was younger, even making it into the top ten by a couple of boxing organizations and was in line for a title shot.  However, the champ pulled out of the fight, and a disillusioned Tarrick never got his opportunity.  Tarrick quit boxing for a while, but then came back once he heard about The Contender.  This made him one of the most seasoned fighters of the bunch.

At the gym, Stallone gave Anthony the boxing glove necklace, as every fighter gets for their victory.  Anthony told the group that he wanted to give his gloves to Brent.  Stallone didn't like it, and hoped that Anthony would keep it for himself, but it was his choice.  In the end, Anthony said he would keep them. 

Due to the Anthony's potential gesture, Alfonso was a little cooler towards him, but Ishe was still angry.  In fact, he was so angry, he didn't go out with the guys for their reward.  Their reward this time was a night out...with Ja Rule.  Ja Rule?  I don't get it since Ja hasn't been hot for like, two years or so, nor is he a boxer, but they enjoyed it as they hit some clubs and enjoyed the nightlife.  Ja also presented them with some expensive watches.  Since Ishe didn't go, he didn't get one.

This week's mission was very important, as there were only four boxers left that hadn't had a bout yet.  Sugar Ray told them this mission would decide this week's and next week's fights, which makes since because the remaining two would have to fight each other. 

This week's mission was a little simpler than past episodes.  There were two walls made of cinder blocks.  One boxer had to use a sledgehammer to break up the wall.  The others had to grab the broken pieces and fill up the pickup truck (a Toyota....after watching the videos every week, I'm tired of that commercial).  Once the time limit was up, the trucks were weighed and whoever had the heaviest truck won.  This was a mismatch on paper, as Juan and Peter looked too small to be able to hang with Tarick and Joey, albeit Joey is injured.  My suspicions were right, as Joey was effective with the sledgehammer and the West won easily.

No drama for the picks this week.  With the West winning the mission, Tarick Salmaci challenged Juan De la Rosa.  These two were about as different as night and day, lifestyle wise.  Tarick is an experienced boxer at age 32 while Juan is only learning the game at 18 years old.  However, Juan went to Mexico at age 15 in order to turn pro there. 

According to Yahoo's profile, Tarick was actually an Olympic trials finalist, losing in the championship bout of the U.S. trials.  He turned pro, and became the NABO Middleweight Champion and was ranked #4 in the WBO and #6 by the WBC.  During that time, he only lost one fight.  After he quit the sport, Tarick's wife was expecting a child, and he went into residential real estate, making a six figure salary.  He now lives with his wife, Dena, and kid in Detroit.  So for Tarick, he's been there, and done that.  He's already a success, win or lose. 

Juan is a different story, as his extended family; his dad, three siblings, and grandmother share a two bedroom house in Texas.  His grandfather, who encouraged him to take up boxing, died a year ago, and is his motivation for winning.  So, far, so good, as he compiled a 12-0-1 record as a pro.

I'm not going to try to sugarcoat this fight; it wasn't that good.  There were some good punches landed and they stayed busy at the beginning of the fight, but it seemed as if both were out of gas in the fifth round. 

You could tell Juan was a Mexican fighter, because he fought like one: stand there toe-to-toe and swing until someone falls.  Juan was swinging haymakers, and would hit Tarick with one every once in a while to sting him.  However, Juan's technique was sloppy, and you could tell that he came into the fight real anxious and hyper.  He possibly won the round, but he was sucking air at the end of it.

Tarick's experience came into play in the second round, as Juan continued to throw wild punches, which was sure to sap his energy.  Juan's fighting style reminded me of Ricardo Mayorga; in other words, he didn't have one.  Meanwhile, Tarick used the jab, and got in some good combinations.  He looked like the better fighter after Round two.

But all of a sudden, Tarick seemed as he had lead in his gloves in Round three.  I don't know if it was due to conditioning, or what, but Juan was able to get some hooks in there and also do a bit of bobbing and weaving.  Tarick was stung by some of Juan's punches, and Juan took the round.

Juan tried something new in Round four:  boxing.  Instead of trying to dive in with punches, he worked inside, tried to work the body a bit and set up the hook to the head.  It worked perfectly, as he tagged Tarick three times with that combination.  However, Tarick at the end of the round gets a straight right hand in that cuts Juan above the eye.  We knew that was the beginning of the end for Brent last week.  But Juan finishes the round pretty solid.

Round five was more holding and sloppiness than anything.  Neither were landing punches that had any kind of effect whatsoever.  They duked it out at the end of the round, but the fight was pretty much over by then.

Juan won by unaminous decision.  Considering Tarick seemed as if he didn't come to fight, a sloppy fight by Juan sounds like the right decision.  However, I don't expect Juan to win his next fight, unless he fights a more technically sound fight than he did tonight.

Meanwhile, Tarick will go home.  Something tells me he didn't want it as bad anyway.  He has no regrets, and he's glad he finally got his opportunity.  Poor guy; now he has to go back home to his nice job and family.  Something tells me he'll be alright.

Next week is Joey vs. Jimmy.  That should be a decent fight as long as Joey's leg holds up.  See ya.

My Other Contender Posts:

1.  The Contender Quarterfinals:  Ishe vs. Sergio
2.  The Contender, Episode Eight:  Jimmy vs. Joey
3.  The Contender Episode Seven:  Juan vs. Tarick
4.  The Contender Episode Six:  Anthony vs. Brent
5.  The Contender Episode Three:  Ishe vs. Ahmed

Today the folks at Blogs for Terri received word that Mae Magourik has been transported to a hospital in Alabama and is receiving fluids and nourishment:

THANKS TO THE SUPPORT OF ALL OF THE FRIENDS OF TERRI, MY AUNT MAE MAGOUIRK HAS BEEN AIR LIFTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA-BIRMINGHAM MEDICAL CENTER

... and receiving IV fluids, nourishment and some of the finest medical care available in the United States! Praise be the name of the Lord GOD... Thanks to Terri's friends... It would NEVER ever have been possible without bloggers who love life , and the truth!! I am racing from my home to UAB now and will type a detailed update after I see my Aunt Mae! Thanks guys, your calls, emails, blogs and prayers did it ALL!!!

I so love you guys!!!!!!!!!!
Ken Mullinax, nephew of Mae

That's definitely good to hear.

No information as of yet on how she was released from the hospice, but Mullinax did mention that the "opposition", which I'm sure means her granddaughter, is trying to have her readmitted.  I'd imagine the judge met with the doctors assigned to Magourik and made the decision to give Mullinax and her brother custody.  Hopefully we'll hear more about that sometime tonight.

A few weeks ago, in my post "Death....and the Left", I said this:

How far will Schindler v. Schiavo go in allowing guardians and the government in terminating the lives of disabled patients?  Although evidence was presented in court by numerous doctors testifying through affidavits that she was not legally classified as being in a persistent vegetative state and that it was possible for her condition to improve, the order to starve her to death went through anyway.  The time where judges won't have to consider PVS for a death order to stand is coming sooner rather than later.

Well, it looks like that scenario did indeed came sooner rather than later.  The LaGrange (Ga) Daily News is reporting on another story where a family is desperately trying to save a 81-year old woman's life after she had her feeding tube taken out.

According to her nephew, Kenneth Mullinax, Mae Magourik hasn't eaten or received fluids since March 28th, and the hospice is keeping her sedated on morphine and ativan.

There's a problem, however (from World Net Daily):

According to Mullinax, his aunt's local cardiologist in LaGrange, Dr. James Brennan, and Dr. Raed Agel, a highly acclaimed cardiologist at the nationally renowned University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center, determined that her aortic dissection is contained and not life-threatening at the moment.

Mullinax also states that Gaddy did not hold power of attorney, a fact he learned from the hospice's in-house legal counsel, Carol Todd

GHPCO is a committed member and supporter of the Georgia Collaborative to Improve End of Life Care, a partnership of providers, academics, business leaders and community members that has worked together for the past 5 years to improve end of life care in Georgia. The accomplishments of the Collaborative include community education through Georgia Health Decisions' CRITICAL Conditions program; support of physician, nurse and allied health provider end of life education and training; outreach to community organizations; research on current practices and the Emmy award-winning documentary Final Choices: Changing a Culture. 

When I read the WSJ editorial praising the Justice Department for the job they had done on the Sandy Berger case on Thursday, I was a bit skeptical, but I didn't think it was anything worth noting.

In today's editorial, however, not only does it seem as if they're doing damage control on the behalf of the Justice Department, but they took a knock at doubting conservatives:

The confusion seems to stem from the mistaken idea that there were handwritten notes by various Clinton Administration officials in the margins of these documents, which Mr. Berger may have been able to destroy. But that's simply an "urban myth," prosecutor Hillman tells us, based on a leak last July that was "so inaccurate as to be laughable." In fact, the five iterations of the anti-terror "after-action" report at issue in the case were printed out from a hard drive at the Archives and have no notations at all.

and later:

Meanwhile, conservatives don't do themselves any credit when they are as impervious to facts as the loony left.

It seems as if the WSJ wanted to make this a mix between a news article and editorial.  However, it would have been better served as a news article, minus the commentary.

However, through it's editorializing the WSJ places the cart before the horse.  After all, informing readers about the facts while claiming they are being "impervious to facts" in the same piece doesn't make much sense, unless this assertion had been reported before.  WSJ never resported a statement like this previously, nor has any other media outlet - at least any that I've known - disputed any notes possibly destroyed by Berger.

Also, for Hillman to simply dismiss the note controversy as an "urban myth" is hot garbage.  People didn't make this up out of hot air.

The Washington Post:

The government source said the Archives employees were deferential toward Berger, given his prominence, but were worried when he returned to view more documents on Oct. 2. They devised a coding system and marked the documents they knew Berger was interested in canvassing, and watched him carefully. They knew he was interested in all the versions of the millennium review, some of which bore handwritten notes from Clinton-era officials who had reviewed them. At one point an Archives employee even handed Berger a coded draft and asked whether he was sure he had seen it.

If people were engaging in an urban myth, it was due to the information reported by the press, and Hillman waited until now to respond to it.  It was his failure to respond to the allegations that allowed for these "myths" to foster for so long.

Maybe the WSJ and the Justice Department is correct in stating Berger wasn't trying to engage in a cover up for the Clinton Administration.  However, that's still no excuse for giving him a slap on the wrist for stealing and destroying documents from the National Archives.  I still say Berger should have his Archive privilege taken permanently, and possibly some jail time added as well.

But as I said before, I'm not holding my breath.

- Now that college basketball is over, I'll be preparing for the NBA Playoffs.  I know I haven't mentioned the NBA much with the exception of the trade deadline, but I'll get into it soon.

- After the Finals, I don't know what will happen next.  I'm not into baseball as much, so mostly talk will be about offseason acquisitions until college football and NFL preseason starts up.  I tell ya; June-August is the longest period of the year sports-wise.

- I'm trying to find a new name for my blog.  "Expertise's Politics and Sports Blog" is simply too long and too basic.  I'm looking for something a little more creative.  If you have a suggestion, let me know.

- I'm trying to increase my posts daily, but there is only so much you can talk about that's actually interesting and hasn't been talked to death by the rest of the blogosphere within an hour of the news breaking.  Luckily I am up late at night, so I get a fresh look at the newspaper websites, but even then there is only so much you can talk about.

- I'll be the first to tell you that I don't have the largest readership in the blogosphere, but for the ones that do come on a regular basis, thanks.  I appreciate it and I hope you'll continue to visit.  Feel free to comment and to place your John Hancock on the tagboard.

Throughout the day there has been a lot of talk in regards to the news that the memo was traced to a member of Florida Senator Mel Martinez's office.

Over at National Review's The Corner, Jonah Goldberg said this:

I think it's probably good news -- or at least there's a positive side to the fact -- that the memo turned out to be real. It will probably caution some bloggers that simply because something is politically inconvenient and doesn't have an obvious explanation, that doesn't mean there's a dishonest liberal/media conspiracy at work. Better to learn that sort of lesson on a minor episode like this than something that grabs more attention.

But the question is, what did we learn?  While there's no question that a number of bloggers went a tad overboard once it was found out that ABC News and the Washington Post could not verify the statements they made in their respective articles on this topic, that doesn't mean Darling's admission vindicates them. 

They still couldn't verify any of their statements before Darling's admission.  Usually a journalist writes an article based on facts he/she can verify beforehand to be true, and the MSM didn't do that in this case.  ABC News or the WP couldn't do this, or they would have done so within a couple of days after being challenged (and a couple of days is actually giving them more time than is really needed).  Thus, they aren't off the hook.

Tim Graham responds appropriately:

The real lesson of the Schiavo memo is this: to the liberal media, every piece of internal Republican communication is potential news meat, especially if it can be used to make Republicans look bad. (Hopefully, freshman legislators learn this at orientation...) Every internal Democratic memo leak is clearly a Republican plot that should not see the light of day. The Washington Post and assorted other liberal apple-polishers may have accuracy on their side on this one, but they don't have balance.

And contrast the reaction of the media with the Schiavo memo and the Rockerfeller memo.  The media didn't initially care who created the Schiavo memo and more or less assumed it was geniune based on the word of the Democrats.  That, after all, is what started this whole fracas, because they couldn't back up their article when challenged and in some cases backed off of their assertions.

But the Rockefeller memo is a different story.  Instead of criticizing Sen. Rockefeller for politicizing intelligence for political gain - precisely what the Republicans are being criticized for in the Schaivo case - the media was more interested on who leaked the memo and how.  The one constant between both memos is that the media followed the Democrats' lead, whom wanted to use the leak as a smokescreen for Rockefeller's obvious exploitation of national intelligence.

Yet, there's no leftist bias in the media.  Right.

Over at The Kerry Spot (Geraghty, dude, it's time to change the name of the blog), Jim Geraghty posts a statement from a reader:

The Washington Post is getting all the credit for solving the Schiavo memo mystery, but in reality, it was the Washington Times that did the digging and pushing to find out what happened. Mike Allen of the WaPost was only able to write his story after the pressure from two Washington Times Capitol Hill reporters forced Martinez to get to the bottom of this and release his statement last night to all media outlets.

The Washington Times published a front-page story that reflected lots of leg work on the story by reporters Stephen Dinan and Brian DeBose. They contacted all 100 senators (either in person as they came off the floor or though their staff) and discovered that not one Republican had ever seen the memo and only one Democrat did — Harkin...

A fair reading of how this story has played out shows that the Washington Post misreported the story and the Washington Times set the record straight.

And Geraghty says:

Needless to say, the usual suspects are declaring this complete vindication for the Post. Yeah, yeah, and the Burkett memos might have been typed on a $17,500 typesetting machine that just happened to be in a Texas Air National Guard office.

Exactly.