"A huge national company conducts a dirty tricks campaign for its own goals, and a city and a developer become collateral damage," complains.... WAL-MART?!?!?!

You have to read it to believe it.

The Wall Street Journal -- a paper that feels comfortable cutting checks to Karl Rove for his forgot-we-messed-up-the-economy ramblings, and champions the concept of "corporate personhood" when it comes to campaign finance -- published today an "expose" revealing that -- GASP! -- smaller grocers might be hiring professional help to keep Wal-Mart's job-killing, wage-lowering supercenters out of their market.

Shocking!

The story comes complete with photo of tie-wearing bad guy (consultant who fights developments) and shirt-collar "good guy" (the poor, victimized developer).

Wal-Mart has stepped up recently in terms of sustainable practices and should be recognized for that (better late than never). However, even the most hardened Wal-Mart apologist has to wince at the crocodile tears shed by the WSJ for the poor megacorporation, which virtually wrote the book on dirty tricks and shameless astroturf campaigns.

Shameless as well is this fantasy-based assertion from an Illinois city official:

City Administrator John Labaido says the village and school district have lost an estimated $6 million a year in sales and property-tax revenue.

His city must be that rare place where Wal-Mart does not demand -- and get -- many more millions than that in subsidies and infrastructure spending in their vicinity.