THE ALLUSION IN THE SUBJECT LINE, IN CASE ANY OF YOU READERS ASK, is to the blurb used on packaging a few years back for a Japanese brand of breath mints.

In English, mind you!

As a matter of fact, things are rather windy here in the Minnwissippi as I prepare this--so windy, in fact, that it can blow over the recycling bins of a neighbour in "the projects" where I live, who chooses to keep said bins outside rather than inside. Not to mention the occasional peek of sunshine in the bargain.

Things, it seems, can only get worse weather wise before they can get better.

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THE BLOG OF WAKEUPWALMART.COM DESERVES KUDOS FOR RECOMMENDING THE FOLLOWING VIDEO of a recent item off HDNet's Dan Rather Reports programme revealing the extent of power and intrusion Wally World will go to for the cause of Realpolitik according to Wally World.

Equally worthy of note is that it used actual videos from the Flagler Production archives as were made under informal agreements with Wally World, thus making the case all the more brazen. See it for yourself, boys and girls, and don't come crying to meme:

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AS IF THAT WEREN'T ENOUGH, IT'S EMERGED THAT WALLY WORLD EXECUTIVES may have been some of the biggest cheerleaders for the Latest Grand Delusion of His Fraudulency's Great Within--as in those sham Economic Stimulus Payments starting @ $300 in the hope of encouraging wasteful and frivolous consumer spending with little or no real regard for value for money.

Again, we turn to WakeUpWalMart's blog:

Jack Shewmaker, Wal-Mart Stores director, has confirmed what we've been saying for quite some time. He said that President Bush's economic stimulus plan, which will send $600 checks to millions of Americans will give Wal-Mart a "real boost." He also talked about the 2008 economic forecast, suggesting that Wal-Mart will have a strong year as it 'repositions' itself. This all just backs up what we've been saying for quite some time. Wal-Mart profits from the country's poverty, and Wal-Mart desperately wants your rebate check. We think its rather disgusting that Wal-Mart is all giddy about the shaky economy, but then again, Wal-Mart has always profited off the backs of their associates, so why shouldn't they do the same with all of America?

Here's the story from the Bloomburg News Service via Asbury Park Press:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. director Jack Shewmaker said a U.S. economic stimulus plan that includes tax rebates for 130 million households will give a "real boost'' to sales at the world's biggest retailer.

Customers who cash rebate checks at the discount chain will probably spend them there, Shewmaker said in an interview in Barcelona Thursday. He joined Wal-Mart's board in 1977 and is a retired vice chairman of the company.

The rebates start in May, part of a $168 billion government package to spur the economy. Sales at many U.S. retailers have slowed as consumers grapple with fuel prices, and soaring oil costs will make the industry "reconsider its model," Shewmaker said in a speech today. Wal-Mart raised its profit forecast Thursday after its price cuts lured cash-strapped shoppers.

"I think Wal-Mart has repositioned well," Shewmaker said in the interview, adding that 2008 will be a "strong year."

[***]

The Bentonville, Ark.-based company said yesterday that March sales at stores open at least a year increased 0.7 percent, while clothing retailers Limited Brands Inc., Gap Inc. and American Eagle Outfitters Inc. posted sales declines that exceeded analysts' estimates.

Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley declined to comment on Shewmaker's remarks.

Wal-Mart fell 12 cents to $54.54 in early New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares gained 15 percent this year through Thursday, compared with the 3.5 percent drop by the Standard & Poor's 500 Retailing Index.

Spending by U.S. consumers, which has sustained the economy during housing's worst slump in a generation, rose at the slowest pace in more than a year in February, stoking concern the country will enter a recession.

A close relationship with suppliers and daily sales updates for store managers enable Wal-Mart to adapt quickly to changes in demand, Shewmaker said.

"Partnership with suppliers is more important during these times," he said in the interview. "If your suppliers are negative or inefficient, then guess what you're going to be."

Retailers' same-store sales fell 0.5 percent last month, the biggest decline in almost a year and the worst March since 1995, the International Council of Shopping Centers said, based on a survey of 37 chains. The trade group had predicted sales would be little changed.

There are "hundreds of things" Wal-Mart should consider doing differently to cut costs, Shewmaker said in a speech at the World Retail Congress in Barcelona today. Soaring oil prices will be a "huge factor" for all retailers, he said.

The earliest Easter in almost a century may have brought forward seasonal spring sales, distorting revenue figures Wal-Mart reported Thursday, Shewmaker said.

Easter has "kicked off the spring season early" and April sales data will bring a "clearer picture," he said.

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SOMETHING COULD GET ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA HEADING INTO INDECISION 2008--as in the Secretary of State certifying petitions authorising a second go-round for a plebiscite seeking to impose a "complete and final" blanket ban on abortions.

Which, you will recall, was rejected back in 2006.

Known officially on the ballot paper as Measure 11, the campaigning therefor is no doubt expected to get emotionally down and dirty, what with the emphasis behind the plebiscite suggesting that abortion is as much about the murder of human life (which, the anti-abortionist crowd is forever contending, "begins @ conception") as it is about psychological and emotional harm for the materfamilias who undergoes same.

Especially when the weird and unwholesome element from interstate seeks to exploit the Vote Yes campaign vis-a-vis Measure 11 for no useful purpose save to attract attention.

That, and perhaps the likelihood of supporters for Measure 11 as collected the signatures in question using subcontractors from interstate, which could raise questions of the measure's legality and, in the right circumstances, be enough to remove same from the final ballot paper (cf. a trio of Montana ballot plebiscites sponsored by Wise Use Movement sympathisers stricken from the 2004 ballot paper after irregularities in signature collection were uncovered).

And let's not forget the possibility of invoking Luddite articles of faith in certain weird and unwholesome circles to justify banning abortion (cf. the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceauçescu in Romania--about as "pro-life" as it got, and then some, enough to inspire some closet adoration among anti-abortionists, no?).

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AND TALK ABOUT GOING INTO FULL-ON BALLISTIC "WINNING OF HEARTS AND MINDS" MODE over to a highly-controversial cause, and its defence: Such seems to be the case of late with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) in response to the removal to care of 429 girls from their Texas compound.

Which, to the FLDS, amounts to nothing short of that "Christian Persecution! Christian Persecution!" meme being repeated to pathetically ridiculous effect, especially their invoking the suggestion that a hoax call from interstate using VoIP technology may have actually been responsible for the intervention.

Hopefully, the DNA testing of all the principals should sort out just how complex the FLDS bloodlines can get, even considering where FLDS articles of faith tacitly excused the preening of youngsters as nothing less than sex machines serving not so much Christian as racial duty.

And still, though, how many others on the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right have been playing along with the "Christian Persecution!" meme that the FLDS is playing so eloquently all this time?