F@#%ing Walmart strikes again

Every single time I read or hear something about Walmart, I hate them a little bit (okay, a lot) more. Here's the beginning of a recent MSN article:

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has legions of close friends, collected over decades as a Hollywood box-office draw and rising political star. Yet few may consider him as dear as Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, news, msgs), which gave the Republican governor $22,300 on May 15 and earlier contributed $200,000 for initiatives Schwarzenegger had supported. In addition, the company has given $300,000 to the state GOP and additional funds to local politicians, making California the biggest recipient of Wal-Mart's political largesse.

California is just one of the places where local politicians are benefiting from Wal-Mart's growing interest in state affairs. Over the past four election cycles, the giant retailer has been steadily boosting its contributions to state and local politicians, just as such politicians have been taking on bigger roles in deciding key issues concerning the company's operations, from the local minimum wage and required health-care benefits to zoning for big-box retailers.

Money has gone to everyone from Schwarzenegger and New York gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer to Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich and Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones Jr.

I really, really don't understand how some people sleep at night. I can't even fathom how the bigshots at Walmart can justify spending thousands (and millions) of dollars to keep their precious stores legal when they spend so little money on the folks who actually run the stores.

The article gets worse:

One of the California bills the governor vetoed would have prohibited employers from locking workers into stores while they work. The other bill would have forced the disclosure of corporations that have employees who rely on taxpayer-funded health care. The bills arose out of a huge furor over Wal-Mart's practice of locking in janitors in some of its stores at night and information that many Wal-Mart employees and their children were receiving state-funded health care. Wal-Mart says it opposed the latter bill because it had several flaws, one of which was that it didn't require data from public-sector employees.

Wal-Mart still locks employees in at night, despite incidents reported in Texas and Colorado where medical attention for injured or sick employees was delayed due to the policy. Says spokesman Simley: "It is only in some locations that we lock in associates at night, and it is done for the protection of the associates, the safety of the store and to guard against internal theft that may occur, and managers who have the key will let them out in case of an emergency."

I'm sorry, WHAT? Is this actually true?? If this doesn't sound like something out of some weird horror flick, I don't know what does. I'm completely outraged.