Welcome to the first annual Blogging Stocks Turkey Awards. With this new feature, we'll take a look at executives at companies we follow who most deserve a basting -- not that they necessarily did anything illegal, but just something dumb, thoughtless, or ridiculously silly.

This year, our nominees for the six biggest turkeys of the business world include:

- Patricia Dunn, Hewlett Packard Company's (NYSE:HPQ) erstwhile board chairwoman, who apparently masterminded a corporate spying program against fellow board members -- or at least is taking the fall for it.

- Andrew Young, the former Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) spokesman and long-time civil rights leader, who had to step down from the job after making prejudiced comments against ethnic groups that operate mom-and-pop stores in urban neighborhoods.

Wal-Mart can't seem to get a break from the PR spotlight -- but what else is new. While WMT shares closed the week at $44.49, a drop of $0.14 or 0.31% from Thursday's close, Wal-Mart PR spokesman Andrew Young was blurting some words that kind of upset some people. As this was going on, WMT shares hung around this week under the $45 price level and just watched the ride without much movement. No air movement, nothing really. Stagnant? Perhaps.

Wal-Mart had to stand up to play the defensive line with U.S. Presidential hopefuls criss-crossing the state of Iowa brandishing some words of their own -- standard operating procedure for politics. Hornet's nests are on usually on sale at "always low prices", yes? Arkansas governor even came to the defense of the global retailer with some wisdom of politician attacks being a "traveling circus".

How about the age old question of Wal-Mart outgrowing its britches? I posed this question this past week and some of the responses have been great -- on both sides of the coin. With Wal-Mart packing up its international tents in Germany and South Korea, but with what appears to be a rapid expansion plan in China, is Wal-Mart's growth in the U.S. headed for a downwind or an upwind?

Has Wal-Mart started to reach the maximum tipping point in the U.S. in terms of store penetration? Judging from all the opposition the retailer seems to get from communities where it wants to build stores, this would seem to suggest that Wal-Mart is not that close to the growth stopping point with is domestic strategy. Maybe in 2015 or so.

Brian White has worked in various executive positions in technology and telecommunications and now focuses on editing and writing.

It's a sad day for race relations in this country when a prominent Civil rights leader goes over the line from being provocative to downright offensive. Andrew Young, hired by Working Families for Wal-Mart to improve the giant retailers' image, is stepping down from his position after he was quoted in a Los Angeles paper criticizing (to put it mildly), mom-and-pop stores that operate in urban neighborhoods.

For Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) this is yet another painful day for its public image. It started the week taking political hits from presidential hopefuls. Now that Young can no longer be the face of the kinder, gentler Wal-Mart, who will the company turn to?

The first part of Young's widely quoted comments aren't so bad. He reportedly accused small urban stores of "overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables." That point is well-worn and most city residents will recognize an element of truth to it. There are often small shops in poor neighborhoods that are dirty, expensive and badly run. But we frequent them anyway for convenience since there are few alternatives.

If I had been in the room with Young, I can picture myself waving my hands in his face and saying "stop, stop," after he made that one point. That was provocative enough. But Young went on to vilify ethnic and religious groups that often run small shops in many cities. I won't even begin to take those remarks apart. He is plain wrong on so many levels.

What's sad is that by mixing a half-truth with bigoted remarks, Young has no doubt triggered thousands of painful and damaging debates in homes, offices, stores and bars around the country today. I just read a bunch of the comments on AOL's message boards and already the blame, anger and accusations are flying.

Rather than improving understanding, I fear these debates will create more wounds and resentment between racial and ethnic groups. My only hope is that at least some people talking about this story will use Young's statements as a way to build bridges rather than erect higher walls dividing us all.

Andrew Young, the rather outspoken civil rights leader who was retained by Wal-Mart to assist in upping its public image, has resigned his position with the global retailer over some insensitive comments by the former associate to Dr. Martin Luther King.

Young, when asked if Wal-Mart should be concerned that it causes mom-n-pop stores to close when it enters new markets, replied with this response: "Those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables ... I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores."

Wow -- that's quite an offensive statement by a public image employee of Wal-Mart, although everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. There is also such a thing as verbal couth, though, and Young's statement above is not an example of it.

Young decided to end his relationship with the "Working Families for Wal-Mart" group after the comments became very public and he started receiving calls about his remarks, which he then apologized for. But the damage was already done. With Young such a visible civil rights advocate, it's quite surprising that he'd use the words and tonality of bigotry and prejudice in anything he would say, but what is said is said.

Brian White has worked in various executive positions in technology and telecommunications and now focuses on editing and writing.