workingassets

This morning, I was greeted with an email from Working Assets, my progressive-minded wireless and long distance carrier, entitled "plastic with a purpose".

Working Assets was offering me a credit card. A MBNA credit card. Just what purpose are we talking about here?

I'm appaled to see a so-called progressive company doing business with MBNA corp, a company that supports a variety of dubious neo-conservative causes, and was the top contributer to the Bush campaign in 2000.

Between 1989 and 2002, MBNA has donated $7,139,894 to the Republican Party. In 2000, MBNA donated $3,565,205 to various 'causes', with the majority of this spending spree going to George W. Bush's Presidential bid. They donate these large amounts by the highly questionable practice of "suggesting" that all their executives make donations. These "suggestions" come in the form of Internal Memos which tell executives how much they should donate to each "preferred" candidate, and asking that they send photocopies of the checks to top executive John W. Scheflen. CEO Charles M. Cawley is one of Dubya's "Pioneers", those $100,000 and up fundraisin' cowboys. Yee-haw.

By the way, Cawley, Scheflen & other execs at MBNA have just sold massive amounts of their MBNA stock - they know something we don't?

Why would Working Assets choose to do business with such a company? Why not CitiGroup, which makes roughly equal donations, or Providian, who hardly donates at all?

There are lots of lesser evils in the world of corporate banking (not to mention credit unions!), and I would expect a company like Working Assets to do its homework. Campaign finance data is open to the public, people!

After an extended stay in the UK, I have just returned home. I was planning to re-activate both my long distance and wireless services, but after receiving this credit card offer, I am dubious about where my money would really be going. I'm thinking, great, I'll donate 10 cents to Human Rights Watch for every $1000 in interest I pay to MNBA.

Now that's plastic with a purpose. It's just not my kind of purpose.

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Information sources:

The Center for Responsive Politics
www.opensecrets.org

The Delaware News Journal
"MBNA's campaign clout grows" 03/12/2000
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/archives/mbna/0312200a.html

MSN Money: MBNA
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/insider/trans.asp?Symbol=KRB