Naturally you cherry-picked the least rational quote to sensationalize the issue. The truth is to be found in the parts you carefully avoided quoting. For example:

But opponents repeatedly have criticized the company's business practices, calling the company "predatory,'' and saying they would prefer trendy grocery stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's or Andronico's, and specialty shops like those in Berkeley's swank Fourth Street district.

Such retail offerings seem appropriate to them for a city that is widely touted as a leading example of New Urbanism for its redevelopment of nearly 430 acres of former industrial land according to principles designed to reduce the need for automobiles.

That approach came out of brainstorming sessions with citizens in 2000, which led the city to become the first in the state to adopt a "form based code,'' which prescribes the design of streets, building dimensions and requirements such as front porches and small yards for homes to allow for wetlands, parks and other public space.

The jewel in the plan is a high-density, mixed-use village near a shoreline park, with a train station, bus service and even a ferry stop to give residents an alternative to the automobile -- the opposite of a typical Wal-Mart store that relies on customers using their cars.

"A big-box store is not part of our plan. It's not what we want, and Wal-Mart has to respect that,'' said Brenda Smith Johnson, an information technology vice president with J.P Morgan Chase in San Francisco who moved to Hercules in 1992.

WalMart says to Hercules: "Eff your puny little municipal codes and your puny little master development plan and the puny wishes of your puny citizens to live in the puny town they want to live in and shop in the puny shops they want to shop in. We are WalMart and we will crush you like ants!"

Bad if the Federal government does it to a state, or a state does it to a city; but great if the world's largest retailer does it, right? As long as they make a buck, it must be good.