Germany is again a target of the presidential campaign of John McCain. First he mocked the thousands of "fawning Germans" who cheered Barack Obama in Berlin. Now he is going after the evil German "locusts" (Heuschrecken) who are taking away the jobs of thousands of workers in Ohio. Airfreight giant DHL Express is shutting down its hub in Wilmington, Ohio and outsourcing the work to rival UPS. The move will result in 8,000 workers in Ohio losing their jobs. DHL is owned by Deutsche Post. No wonder John McCain is livid. Only problem is that John McCain and his campaign director enabled DHL to acquire the Ohio facility in the first place:
Little known to those citizens, McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, played roles in the fate of DHL Express and its Ohio air park as far back as 2003..."Those jobs are on the chopping block because Sen. McCain and his campaign were involved in a deal that resulted in control of those positions being shifted to a foreign corporation, and there's no getting around that," said Joe Rugola, president of the Ohio AFL-CIO.
The roles of McCain and Davis in the 2003 DHL deal have not been noticed in the current Wilmington flap. They were mentioned briefly, however, in a Washington Post story in June on Davis' lobbying work. In 2003, Davis lobbied the Senate to accept the proposal by DHL to buy Airborne Express for $1.05 billion. Airborne Express at the time ran the airport and package-sorting facility in Wilmington .
Ohio is an important "swing state" in the upcoming election. So McCain, a champion of globalization and the unrestricted movement of capital, is forced to limit the potential damage to his campaign. He has pledged to summon the executives of Deutsche Post to Ohio to explain their actions. He will ask the US Justice Department to investigate the activities of Deutsche Post and possibly ask Congress to intervene. Free markets are great, except when they cost you votes.
Deutsch Post CEO Frank Appel scoffs at McCain's threats:
"Es gibt keine echte Alternative. Sonst würden wir unser gesamtes Expressgeschäft in den Vereinigten Staaten gefährden, und am Ende des Tages wären noch wesentlich mehr Arbeitsplätze bedroht", sagte er der F.A.Z. ("There is no other real alternative. Otherwise our whole express business in the US would be jeopardized, and in the end considerably more jobs could be threatened" he told the FAZ).
DHL Express is now losing $5 million a day in the US.
People are running scared about McCain and his dirty tricks. I suggest we ignore all that and work on keeping our own house in order.
The Halperin thing is an example. How can we demand ethical behavior of McCain when we give careerist slime like Halperin a free pass? Aren't we supposed to be better?
Posted by: Hattie | August 13, 2008 at 03:21 PM
McCain's freelance foreign policy-making over the past few days , urging war against Russia, shows that the man is truly dangerous.
Posted by: David | August 13, 2008 at 04:23 PM
He's just doing that for votes. Is Obama going to run with some military type for his VP?
Stay tuned.
Posted by: Hattie | August 13, 2008 at 11:59 PM
Let me back off here. You are right about McCain on this one.
Posted by: Hattie | August 14, 2008 at 01:02 AM
I vote McCain. He will destroy the old evil order. But there's a real danger he will just croak while on the job, like the last three Soviet presidents.
Posted by: antonymous | August 14, 2008 at 06:00 AM
Did you see this?
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080812_georgia_war_a_neocon_election_ploy/
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