Arnold Destroys the World

While Arnold Schwarzenegger has failed miserably as Governor, the 2010 election may feature a candidate who will try to employ an Internet scheme to manage the 7th largest economy in the world.

Let’s review some of Ebay’s and Meg’s accomplishments.

The Sacramento Bee reported that according to voter registration records, the 53-year-old billionaire and former eBay CEO was not a registered voter until 2002. The newspaper reported that no voter registration records for Whitman could be found in any of of the places that they reviewed (“six states and a dozen counties, including towns and counties in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island and California…”).

From
Chris Kelly
Writer, Real Time with Bill Maher
Posted: January 6, 2009 01:39 PM

Here are some highlights from her résumé. See if you can spot a pattern.

“Prior to eBay, Meg was the General Manager of Hasbro Inc.’s Preschool Division. In this position, Meg was responsible for global management and marketing…”

Young workers in China who make holiday toys for Disney, Hasbro and RC2… report that their bodies are often covered with red welts from the bug bites, which can easily become infected if the wounds are scratched… Workers are at the factory 93 hours a week, toiling 13 and a half-hour shifts, seven days a week…

— National Labor Committee Report

“Meg served as President of the Stride Rite Corporation’s Stride Rite Division… She had also been Executive Vice President for the Keds Division…”

Sixteen-year-olds put toxic glue onto Keds sneakers with their bare hands. When we visited the factory in July 1999, they were producing Keds sneakers for Stride Rite… When you went through the adhesive department where they worked your eyes stung from the strong chemical vapors. There was no special ventilation, nor were gloves or masks provided to the workers. The company general manager said they came to China “for the cheap labor” and “to get away from the unions in South Korea.” According to the company the average wage was 42 cents an hour.

— Another National Labor Committee Report

“Meg spent 1989 to 1992 at the Walt Disney Company, highlighted by her work as the Senior Vice President of Marketing of the Disney Consumer Products Division. During this time, she… developed the strategy for Disney’s entry into the book publishing business…”

NEW YORK (CNN) – The National Labor Committee… made new charges Thursday against The Walt Disney Company, releasing a videotape alleging that two Chinese factories making books for Disney operate under unsafe conditions. “There’s blood on this book,” Kernaghan said as he held up a copy of a child’s book made in China and published by Disney.

I’m not saying everything Meg Whitman touches turns to slave labor, I’m just not saying it doesn’t.

Also, in fairness, she’s worked for at least four companies that didn’t take whatever she was in charge of and move it to the Pearl River Delta.

Where she could pay people forty-two cents an hour.

Also, I feel legally compelled to say that Hasbro and Disney and Stride-Rite know a lot better than I do whether they’re behaving ethically. I’ve never even been to China.

And maybe the National Labor Committee just doesn’t like Meg Whitman.

My point is, you can’t simply write off Meg Whitman as another egomaniac stooge, set up to fail by a Republican party that needs a candidate who can finance herself. She’s a real person. With a genuine record. Of callous indifference not just to the dignity of labor, but to suffering in general.

Getting back to the Vietnamese girls who weren’t, in the end, sold on eBay. Hung Nguyen of the National Congress of Vietnamese Americans thanked Meg Whitman by name for eBay’s quick action. But he didn’t think that would be the end of human trafficking in Asia.