Disappeared News

HONOLULU April 1, 2009—Waterboards, orange hoods and other instruments of torture were found mistakenly placed on shelves at a Home Depot store near downtown Honolulu but later removed, according to an anonymous tipster emailing our leak line.

It appears that these items were not intended to be displayed for sale, but were possibly sent to stores by senior corporate management under orders from Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus. Marcus was reported to have called for store managers who did not take action against the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to be shot, but did not immediately follow through on his threat.

The Alternet article, Revealed: Bailed-Out Execs Plotting Against EFCA, January 27, 2009, (“These crooks are asking us to bail them out and then using that money to stop workers from improving their lives.”) described a recorded phone conversation among corporate executives during which Marcus declared holy war against the Employee Free Choice Act, which President Obama promised to pass when elected. According to the article, he was heard to say:

"This is the demise of a civilization," said Marcus. "This is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I'm watching this happen and I don't believe it."

Marcus was clearly distressed. He continued:

"If a retailer has not gotten involved in this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to [former Sen.] Norm Coleman and all these other guys, they should be shot. They should be thrown out their goddamn jobs," Marcus declared.

Following widespread dissemination of his threat on the Internet, it appears that Marcus may have backed off from his proposal. So far, no store managers have been executed.

Instead, the articles of torture that were mistakenly placed on shelves in the Honolulu store may have been intended as warning signs to line management, should they even think to support employee free choice.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 4/01/2009 04:01:00 AM