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No more kisses
The Washington Times ^ | February 25, 2005 | John McCaslin

Posted on 02/25/2005 8:05:56 PM PST by kingattax

This Valentine's Day, Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, encouraged the romantic sweethearts in his party not to buy chocolates from three of the nation's biggest chocolate producers: Hershey, Nestle and Mars. After all, he warned, all three are "red" companies — purportedly supporters of President Bush and his policies. It's not just Hershey's Kisses that Democrats were asked to give up. Outback Steakhouse is similarly a target of the left, as are hundreds of Wal-Mart stores that are "not so blue." And Democrats are pumping Hess "blue gasoline" these partisan days. "You may have voted blue, but every day you unknowingly help dump millions of dollars into the conservative war chest," reads the mission statement of Buy Blue — buyblue.org.

(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: harkin; hershey; mars; mccaslin; nestle; professionalmoron
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To: kingattax
Something smells here - sounds like something, if it were done by a republican senator, would be at the very least a "ethics" issue
41 posted on 02/25/2005 9:38:27 PM PST by maine-iac7 (."...but you can't fool all of the people all of the time" LINCOLN)
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To: maine-iac7

dimocRATS follow laws, rules, proprieties, morals, or ethics ????.......surely you jest


42 posted on 02/25/2005 9:51:08 PM PST by kingattax
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To: smoothsailing

I don't want to ruin your beer drinking but Coors is not exactly the kind of company you'd want to support.


43 posted on 02/25/2005 11:42:47 PM PST by OldFriend (America's glory is not dominion, but liberty.)
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To: kingattax

BTTT


44 posted on 02/25/2005 11:46:28 PM PST by Fiddlstix (This Tagline for sale. (Presented by TagLines R US))
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To: Gumption

My wife and I looked at their list of products and determined that it would be impractical, if not impossible, to eliminate all P$G products from our home, so we picked a few that we buy a lot of and decided to change brands or do without. We figured if everyone did that, it would be noticed.


My wife and I did the same. We couldn't believe all the products that P&G makes. We did cut everything EXCEPT Folgers.


45 posted on 02/26/2005 12:03:12 AM PST by loboinok (Gun Control is hitting what you aim at!)
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To: kingattax

Are we talking about Tom "I'm gonna' get up in front of the whole nation during Clinton's impeachment trial and make a fool of myself" Harkin? Or, are we talking about Tom "the Sandinista Commie lover" Harkin? Or, are we talking about Tom "I lied about my military (Viet Nam) record" Harkin? Or, are we talking about Tom "the dancing bug accompanied by Dean screams" Harkin? I juz wants ta make chure I know which Tom Harkin youse guys iz talkin' 'bout. Which one? Somebody please tell me!


46 posted on 02/26/2005 12:03:54 AM PST by AwesomePossum
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To: Darkwolf377
This Valentine's Day, Sen. Tom Harkin won't be giving his wife a box of chocolates -- instead, he'll opt for flowers. He and his colleague, Rep. Eliot Engel, maintain that major U.S. chocolate companies -- Nestle, Mars, and Hershey -- rely on child slave laborers in the Ivory Coast to get their sweets to supermarket shelves.

There are about 600,000 cocoa farms in Cote d'Ivoire (The Ivory Coast). The highest estimates of forced child labor there are 15,000 (Save the Children, Canada). Therefore at least 97.5 percent of cocoa farmers do not use slave labor. So (says the hard left and their liberal dupes) let's screw them to make us feel better. And by all means let's not mention or acknowledge that George W. Bush has done more to combat slavery in Africa and free slaves there, and to combat the sex slave trade in Asia, and to combat human trafficking generally, than any previous president in the last century or more.

47 posted on 02/26/2005 3:48:42 AM PST by Stultis
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To: Stultis
Specifically the Bush administration, through the North-South peace agreement in Sudan -- one of the very first foreign policy initiatives Bush pursued after coming into office -- has already liberated at least as many slave as the 15,000 in The Ivory Coast, and in the end will liberate more than ten times as many.

In this case, as is usual, conservatives actually solve problems, or at least meaningfully address them, while the left prefers superficial, symbolic, "feel good" gestures that, often as not, actually hurt the interests of hard working people in the developing world.

Hard leftists, such as Harkin (and as opposed to well meaning but stupid liberal dupes), actually want to preserve or increase suffering in the developing world as this improves the conditions for radical revolution.

48 posted on 02/26/2005 4:06:33 AM PST by Stultis
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To: loboinok
We did cut everything EXCEPT Folgers.

Them little crystals stole your heart huh?

49 posted on 02/26/2005 5:34:06 AM PST by Gumption
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To: kingattax
Corporations budget money for political contributions the same way they budget for everything else. Who or what organization gets the dough is a matter of "Is it the best deal?" Charitable contributions are given out as a matter of how much good press can be gained, Outlays for commodities for best price/best return and political contributions for how much access and legislation backing can be bought from whichever party or candidate.

I don't believe in boycotting or backing any company based on past political contributions. It will more than likely be reversed by the next election cycle, so the one you choose to buy from today that backed Bush and the GOP in '04 could be backing Hellary and the DNC in '08. It all depends on who can close the deal at the last meeting before the check is cut.

50 posted on 02/26/2005 6:36:57 AM PST by woofer
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To: Stultis
"And by all means let's not mention or acknowledge that George W. Bush has done more to combat slavery in Africa and free slaves there, and to combat the sex slave trade in Asia, and to combat human trafficking generally, than any previous president in the last century or more."

This shows the hollowness of the dems. Slavery in foreign countries is not exactly a hot issue people vote on, and yet they can't even compliment Bush on that, as it might risk one voter somewhere thinking kindly of him for five minutes. It's this kind of thing I think of when I see Reid and Pelosi lying about "reaching out" and all that garbage.

51 posted on 02/26/2005 7:29:13 AM PST by Darkwolf377 (Condi Rice: Yeaaahhh, baybee! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1350654/posts)
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To: Gumption

Them little crystals stole your heart huh?

Grounds... we are BUNN type coffee drinkers.

Crystals is camping, hunting and emergency type coffee. ;^)


52 posted on 02/26/2005 11:02:25 AM PST by loboinok (Gun Control is hitting what you aim at!)
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To: kingattax

We conservatives boycot lots of leftist backers. No problem. I think it is really no problem because the left is selfish and will give lip service to boycots but still buy as they please. We are serious when we boycot. Ask France and K-Mart.


53 posted on 02/26/2005 11:26:59 AM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all things that need to be done need to be done by the government.)
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To: loboinok
Crystals is camping, hunting and emergency type coffee. ;^)

Every time I hear the word Foldgers I think "them little crystals". It might be because of T.V. but I don't think so because every time I hear Chock Full Of Nuts I think of my grandmoms fruitcake.

But anyway ...

Get one of these for camping ...

Put it right in the fire. It totally changed our camping lives

54 posted on 02/26/2005 11:47:03 AM PST by Gumption
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To: kingattax
Whoops, I just drank Nestle chocolate milk yesterday. Hershey Chocolate Bar happen to be my favorite Candy Bar
55 posted on 02/26/2005 11:50:25 AM PST by youngtory (Rights are rights are rights. Just like a proof is a proof is a proof.-Liberal dorks.)
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To: woofer
Corporations budget money for political contributions the same way they budget for everything else. Who or what organization gets the dough is a matter of "Is it the best deal?" Charitable contributions are given out as a matter of how much good press can be gained, Outlays for commodities for best price/best return and political contributions for how much access and legislation backing can be bought from whichever party or candidate.

VERY good points in your post. I remember seeing some of those "red" companies on conservative boycott lists in the past - Geico, for example. This is all a matter of practicality, and you're right, the distribution of donations can change dramatically from one cycle to the next.

Sprint has been my cellular service provider ever since they started doing business in that market. I've never had a problem with their service. Well, a couple years ago someone told me that Sprint was a huge donor to dems who supported gun control policies, and that made me go do some research. What I found was that their campaign contributions were pretty evenly split, and this holds true for all kinds of companies on all levels.

So it's basically corporate CYA we're talking about here. The only reason I'm going to stop buying a product is if the company makes very obvious, repeated public statements about its political leanings. (Ben & Jerry's comes to mind.)

56 posted on 02/26/2005 12:09:57 PM PST by dbwz (I know you are but what am I?)
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To: Gumption

Get one of these for camping ... got one and yes, it does make a huge difference.


Chock Full of Nuts...wasn't that 'Salted Nut Logs'?


57 posted on 02/26/2005 5:04:03 PM PST by loboinok (Gun Control is hitting what you aim at!)
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To: loboinok

No, it was definitely fruit cake. But for now on I will no doubt think of a Salted Nut Logs. I'm highly suggestible you know.


58 posted on 02/26/2005 5:18:40 PM PST by Gumption (I'm waiting until the time is right.)
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