Eat your peas. NOW!

   By Donna Cole


 First Lady Michelle Obama has taken to the pages of The Wall Street Journal with an op-ed telling the business world that it is good business to sell healthy food if you know what is good for you because she would hate for anything to happen to this nice business you have here.


 In her piece, the FLOTUS really talks up Wal-Mart and how they have made good business out of healthy food. Of course, with the two choices Wal-Mart was given, sell healthy food or we are sending in the AFL-CIO, the choice was easy. Broccoli anyone? Mrs. Obama writes;

"Take the example of Wal-Mart. In just the past two years, the company reports that it has cut the costs to its consumers of fruits and vegetables by $2.3 billion and reduced the amount of sugar in its products by 10%. Wal-Mart has also opened 86 new stores in underserved communities and launched a labeling program that helps customers spot healthy items on the shelf. And today, the company is not only seeing increased sales of fresh produce, but also building better relationships with its customers and stronger connections to the communities it serves."

 Remember back when then Senator Obama was just beginning his run for the Democrat nomination in 2007? Have you forgotten? Mrs. Obama was on the board of directors of TreeHouse Foods, a major Wal-Mart food supplier. She resigned from the board in late May '07 citing "campaign commitments." At the time, columnist Lynn Sweet writing for The Chicago Sun Times thought otherwise, from her piece;

"Wal-Mart is a target of organized labor in the U.S., a Democratic constituency playing a key role in determining the 2008 Democratic nominee. Obama’s link to Wal-Mart through TreeHouse was a potential liability for Sen. Obama. On May 14, during an AFL-CIO forum in Trenton, N.J., Sen. Obama was asked about Wal-Mart. “I won’t shop there,” he said."

 Hmmmm? Sweet does note that the other Democrat candidate at the time, one Mrs. Rodham Clinton, was on the Wal-Mart board from 1986 to 1992 (HINT: Arkansas connection), then she continues on about Mrs. Obama's part time job;

"According to the Obamas’ income tax returns, Michelle Obama collected $51,200 from TreeHouse in 2006. She leaves the board with an option to buy 2,266 TreeHouse shares at a strike price of $29.65. Shares closed at $28.10 Tuesday."

 
 In 2010, Michelle Malkin reported more on Mrs. Obama's time at TreeHouse Foods;

"In June 2005, a few months after her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate, Mrs. Obama hustled a seat on the corporate Board of Directors of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. Despite zero experience, the food-processing company put her on its audit and nominating and corporate governance committees. For her on-the-job training and the privilege of putting her name and face on their literature, the company forked over $45,000 in 2005 and $51,200 in 2006 to Mrs. Obama — as well as 7,500 TreeHouse stock options worth more than $72,000 for each year."

 One has to wonder, would President Obama shop at Wal-Mart now? Given the First Lady's new found love for the corporate giant, I think the answer is yes. You can call that a flip flop on an issue. Something else I bet Mrs. Obama loves is that stock, TreeHouse Foods is trading today at $57.95. That is a nice paycheck for stocking shelves at Wal-Mart. 


 Another bet I'll make is that I bet that fat slob Dick Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO, is feeling screwed in more ways than one over all this. He is still a fat slob, and Wal-Mart is no closer today to being unionized than it was the day President Obama was first elected.


 Look, I try to eat healthy, and I think more people should. I just don't want it crammed down my throat by the First Lady or have less healthy choices taken away from me by the Nanny State she and her husband are trying to create. It's one thing for her to promote a healthy lifestyle, I am all for that, but it's another to use the president's office to bully the nation's largest retailer into selling food that she thinks they should sell or where to open stores, like in some mythical urban food desert. That is the job of the free market, not Mrs. Obama, her husband, or some other socialist central planner.


  This post gives me the excuse to post a picture of Cabbage Head from the old Kids in the Hall comedy show. He is really funny, but not very healthy because he is a smoker (Like the president by the way).

    And of course, a video. Cabbage Head runs into some "fine foxes."