Methinks the pot doth protesteth too much

Don't get me wrong, I've come to expect hypocritical turns from the Democratic Party at just about every juncture possible. But I am still wowed when the American left can find all new ways to call the kettle black.

Carrie Lynch is bloviating in her blog about Wal-Mart and the evils she and her business-loathing buddies enjoy assigning Sam Walton's legacy. Specifically, she is going off on the company's alleged use of illegal immigrants as employees. She quotes Union Labor News (and, please, I beg of you, let's consider the source before proceeding) as reporting:

When workers heard rumors of an INS raid on a distribution center in eastern Pennsylvania, 38 workers failed to show up for work on the Beaver Dam distribution center site. By the following Monday, the job was shut down completely.

Ms. Lynch interjects:

And with Walmart getting pretty small fines from a federal government willing to either look the other way or give notice that they are coming for an inspection, why should they stop. [sic]

So why my confusion? Isn't it the same American left that keeps pushing for more fluid boarders, amnesty for illegal aliens and the forceful arrest of members of the Minuteman Project?

You can't have it both ways.

But, alas, the American left is certainly trying its best. And there may be no finer example of such than the legislation just passed in the state of Maryland, as reported by the New York Times:

Under the Maryland law, employers with 10,000 or more workers in the state must spend at least 8 percent of their payrolls on health insurance, or else pay the difference into a state Medicaid fund.

How is this an assault on Wal-Mart? As the same article notes:

There are four employers in Maryland with more than 10,000 workers - among them, Johns Hopkins University, the grocery chain Giant Food and the military contractor Northrop Grumman, but only Wal-Mart falls below the 8 percent threshold on health care spending.

And so a conservative governor's veto has been overridden in Maryland because the legislature apparently hates one of the state's top four employers. Never mind the principles of laissez faire economics or that higher health care costs will lead to higher prices for the state's poorest citizens, Maryland is hellbent on making on a point.

There is a great story about a Wal-Mart in Canada unionizing – the first store of the chain to do so. How did the corporate office in Bentonville, Arkansas respond? It closed the store at once. The message was clear: don't mess with the low prices our customers deserve.

So now I am left wondering how many employees Wal-Mart would have to lay off in Maryland to get its payroll down to 9,999. I really don't know the answer. But if it is even within the realms of possibility, it might not be a bad idea. Tragic for the state's economy in the short run for sure. But perhaps just the valuable lesson that needs to be taught in the long run. After all, Wal-Mart stores everywhere learned the lesson of the Canadian union fiasco.