Twinkies and abortion: Two from the ‘I hope you’re happy’ files
One from each side of the ideological spectrum. I’ll start with a smack upside the religious right’s collective head:
According to Rasmussen Reports, in a survey conducted after a presidential election in which abortion rights and the stupid statements of two GOP Senate candidates featured far too heavily, 54 percent of Americans describe themselves as “pro-choice” versus 38 percent who say they’re “pro-life.” This is in sharp contrast with Gallup’s finding back in May, in which half of respondents said they were “pro-life” versus 41 percent who were “pro-choice.” In fact, Gallup’s annual survey on the topic hasn’t found such a sharp pro-choice majority since 1995.
It will be interesting to see what Gallup finds on the question next May, after election-related passions have cooled. But to the degree the Rasmussen survey shows the consequences of changing what it means to be “pro-life,” I blame those right-to-life groups that have pushed politicians to oppose exceptions for rape and incest.
Senate candidates Todd Akin of Missouri and Richard Mourdock of Indiana probably wouldn’t have even been talking about abortion and rape together if not for this anti-exceptions push, a.k.a. the “personhood” movement. I’ve explained my thoughts on personhood a few times before, and this was yet another election that bore out my point. In fact, my point about personhood being a political loser will, unfortunately, be truer than ever if one of the conservative Supreme Court justices or court swing vote Anthony Kennedy ends up leaving the bench during the next four years and President Obama gets to nominate his replacement. The question will truly be settled for another generation, in large part because the RTL groups tried to move the goal posts before they ever made much of a kick.
So, to the degree Akin and Mourdock hurt Mitt Romney’s candidacy — and I think Romney’s showing with women, particularly single women, and younger voters suggests they probably did — the hard-line right-to-lifers have really bitten themselves. Way to go.
Now for the stubborn boneheadedness from the other side, via the AP:
The maker of the iconic U.S. snack Twinkies said Friday it is going out of business and laying off all of its 18,500 workers after a national strike crippled its operations. …
Hostess Brands had warned employees that it would file a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to unwind its business and sell assets if plant operations didn’t return to normal levels by Thursday evening.
Talk about killing the goose that laid the golden, er, snacks.
Insisting on your position as a union is tricky enough in normal times. When unemployment is around 8 percent and a bankruptcy judge has authorized the company to rework some of its labor deals, you’d think the union would be wise enough to realize things could end this way.
Apparently not. Well, they sure taught those capitalists a lesson, huh?
– By Kyle Wingfield
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236 comments Add your comment
Del
November 16th, 2012
3:46 pm
500 hundred in the bakers union took down 18,000 jobs along with their own.
Linda
November 16th, 2012
3:50 pm
The Teamsters Union had agreed to contract negotiations with Hostess & begged the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers Internatl. Union (BCTWGM) to reconsider their strike. Now, unions are fighting with unions.
33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, 5500 delivery routes & 570 bakery outlet stores will close.
An expert predicts it will cost US taxpayers $438.5 M in unemployment benefits & $58 M in Medicaid benefits.
A song should be written: I fought the boss & the boss won……
Twinkie ~ How's that union job working for you
November 16th, 2012
3:51 pm
Food stamps, unemployment checks ?
Just sayin’…
mike
November 16th, 2012
3:51 pm
Hostess reminds me of one of those furniture companies that have a perpetual “GOING OUT OF BUSINESS” sale. We’ll see if they ACTUALLY go out of business. Like American Airlines and many, many others, my guess is that they just want to get out from under their pension obligations and cheat their employees out of pensions they worked all of their lives for.
iggy
November 16th, 2012
3:52 pm
Del…yup…2.7% took down the whole Sha-Bang. 2.7% flushed the entire company right down the ole toilet.
Mr Spock could learn a lesson here…The needs of the many didnt outweigh the needs of the few.
Lil' Barry Bailout - OBAMAPHONE!!!
November 16th, 2012
3:52 pm
When investor and newspaper fan Warren Buffett bought the Media General newspaper chain last year, there was hope for all of them, including the Manassas News & Messenger and the Richmond Times-Dispatch.But Buffett’s company announced today it is shutting down the News & Messenger after 143 years, as well as its highly informative Web site, InsideNoVA.com. It is the only paper in the Media General chain being shuttered by World Media Enterprises, a division of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
———–
More management ineptitude, eh?
Kyle, You Are Right
November 16th, 2012
3:52 pm
Single professional female here – I am grateful to earn a decent salary at my job. Since the Federal government would benefit from being cut by 20%-50%, I wanted to vote for Romney but was unable to do so because the government the Republicans want is sooo small, it fits right into my uterus.
The Republicans made it very clear that they wanted to meddle in my life….and I want to be left alone. The Federal government wants to meddle in my life as well, and I don’t want that either.
Small government = don’t tread on me.
Is there any political party that will both reduce the size of the Federal government and also just LEAVE ME ALONE?
iggy
November 16th, 2012
3:53 pm
” I fought the boss & the boss won……”
LOL
Chuck
November 16th, 2012
3:53 pm
I do not believe that any of the employees that went out on strike, or any of the other employees that refused to cross the picket line should get unemployment. They were told what would happen if they did this, so to me they quit their jobs.
Rockerbabe
November 16th, 2012
3:56 pm
carlosgvv:
This is my country and the US Constitution gives me the same rights as men. I’m not going anywhere. If the GOP doesn’t like it and doesn’t change their attitude towards women and their needs, then they can remain an out-of-power political party and hopefully will dry up and blow away.
mike
November 16th, 2012
3:56 pm
As far as abortion is concerned: if you’re against abortion don’t have one. Why is it so many people feel it necessary to meddle in the lives of others?
Chuck
November 16th, 2012
3:56 pm
“Is there any political party that will both reduce the size of the Federal government and also just LEAVE ME ALONE?”
Read up on the Libertarian Party, I think that you will find that are right up your ally, but no where near your uterus.
Del
November 16th, 2012
3:57 pm
Chuck,
You make an excellent point.
Ding Dongs ~ How's that union job working for you
November 16th, 2012
4:01 pm
Half a ho hos look any better than no ho hos at all to you yet ?
Just sayin…
Chuck
November 16th, 2012
4:01 pm
Read up on the Libertarian Party, I think that you will find that they are right up your alley, but no where near your uterus
My spelling and grammer be awful today.
@@
November 16th, 2012
4:01 pm
I was testing the waters with my 3:11 and 3:13.
Apologies for the lengthy post.
A then and now observation from Glenn Greenwald:
On Israeli assassinations:
Then?
2001—”The United States, while also condemning Palestinian violence, made clear its disapproval of the assassinations.
“State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: ‘The use of Israeli helicopter gunships, Palestinian attacks against settlements and motorists, the use of mortars by Palestinians and the targeted killings by the Israeli Defence Force … are producing a new cycle of action or reaction which can become impossible to control.’
“Mr Boucher added that the new Secretary of State, Colin Powell, who is due to visit the Middle East next week, had spoken several times ‘about the need to avoid these kind of actions’”.
That US condemnation of Israel’s targeted killing came, by the way, from the George W. Bush administration.
Now?
2012—When asked about the possibility of a ground offensive, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters on a conference call that the United States respects Israel’s right to defend itself, but would not like to see the conflict escalate further.
“Our view is the Israelis have a right of self-defense when their citizens are faced with the threat of indiscriminate rocket fire from within Gaza. Ultimately it’s up to the Israeli government to make a determination about how they are going to carry out their military objective,” said Rhodes.
Be sure to scroll down to Greenwald’s “Obama’s Second Term” discussion (three links).
An excerpt from one of the transcripts:
On cuts to entitlement spending?
NERMEEN SHAIKH: But you also make an argument, Glenn, about why it would be easier and it will be easier for Obama to curtail these programs in a way that it would not have been possible, say, if Romney had been elected. Can you elaborate on that?
GLENN GREENWALD: Sure. I mean, this, to me, was the principal deficiency of the discussion and discourse leading up to the election in Democratic and progressive circles. If you were a journalist working for the last year, as you were, as I was, and identifying things that President Obama was doing that were wrong or that were erroneous, the argument that you would immediately hear is, “Well, Mitt Romney is worse,” by which those people would mean that the position that Mitt Romney had in the campaign on those issues was either as bad as or worse than the one that President Obama had. Now, in one sense, that was irrelevant. If you’re a journalist, if you’re a citizen, your duty is to hold the people who exercise power accountable. And the fact that Mitt Romney is worse doesn’t alleviate that obligation. But even from an election perspective, that’s an incredibly simple-minded and incomplete way of looking at things. The question is not: Is Mitt Romney’s view on a particular issue, or are the Republicans’ position on a particular issue as bad or worse? The question is: What are each candidate able to accomplish in their particular field?
[snip]
And lots of Bush officials had said, “There was a lot of this stuff that we wanted to do that we knew we couldn’t do, because had we tried, there would have been an enormous storm from Democrats, from the media, and we just couldn’t do it.” But Obama can do it because he brings progressives and Democrats along with him. Mitt Romney never would have been able to cut Social Security or target Medicare, because there would have been an enormous eruption of anger and intense, sustained opposition by Democrats and progressives accusing him of all sorts of things. President Obama has the ability, as he’s proven over and over, to bring Democrats and progressives along with him and to lead them to support and get on board with things that they have sworn they would never, ever be able to support. And for that reason, he is in a much better position, he’s much more effective, at institutionalizing these horrible policies than Mitt Romney or any other Republican would have the ability to do.
So…to sum it up in Greenwald’s words:
Will the Democratic Party, and specifically the progressive and liberal component of the Democratic Party, change its behavior from cheerleader, from blindly supportive, partisan apparatchiks, which is what they were in the first term, putting pressure on him in almost no instance, cheering for whatever it is that he did, no matter how contrary it was to their professed values, into some kind of a force where they actually fulfill their duties as citizens, which is to hold political leaders accountable?
Cheerleaders? Blindly supportive? Partisan apparatchiks? Absent values? Simple-minded?
Greenwald is calling you left-wingers out.
Well…there is AmVet. He professes to be the one true progressive? Conservative? Funny thing though…he’s the one who’s been celebrating an Obama win with the greatest enthusiasm.
Funny, that.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 16th, 2012
4:04 pm
“Over here in the real world successful companies have figured out that THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN THIER SUCCESS is the quality and engagement level of their employees.”
And it applies to Hostess – how – JDW?
No matter how hard you try, you cannot change the rules. Management still runs companies; good, bad and in between. Doesn’t matter how much or how little they value their employees, MANAGEMENT STILL RUNS THE BUSINESS.
mike
November 16th, 2012
4:04 pm
It should also be noted that the Hostess Brands, Inc. pension fund is currently underfunded to the tune of $2,000,000,000.00 (two billion dollars). Maybe that could have something to do with their decision to declare bankruptcy. Ya think?
@@
November 16th, 2012
4:08 pm
Oops! Forgot to include the link. I’ll find it and deliver.
Class of '98
November 16th, 2012
4:09 pm
You, you neglected to mention that these union fools voted to continue their strike in spite of the shutdown because the union leaders convinced them that as soon as Hostess closes, another company will come along, buy the brand(s), buy the bakeries, and give them all as much money, vacation, pension, etc. as they want.
We’ll see how that works out. I guess you could say an idiot and his job are soon parted.
Linda
November 16th, 2012
4:09 pm
Women harp about their rights much more than men complain about theirs.
Women harp only about certain parts of their anatomies & not others.
Some women harp only about conservatives entering their bedrooms & not progressives invading the rest of their homes, as well as their cars & their children’s lunchrooms.
It’s only conservatives who can define when rights begin.
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 16th, 2012
4:09 pm
“It should also be noted that the Hostess Brands, Inc. pension fund is currently underfunded to the tune of $2,000,000,000.00 (two billion dollars). Maybe that could have something to do with their decision to declare bankruptcy. Ya think?”
And maybe the REASON it’s underfunded is because the union deal remains too expensive for the company to fund. Ya think?
Nunna Yobinnes
November 16th, 2012
4:10 pm
I wish I could find that article now. It was astonishing. Something to the effect that the same person that loaded the truck, could not drive the truck, and the driver could not unload the truck or something similar. Kwazy.
Sno Balls ~ How's that union job working for you
November 16th, 2012
4:10 pm
If any of you jobless ex-Hostess union workers who voted for Obama want a real union job with the kind of paychecks you feel you’re entitled to and rightly deserve, then apply to MARTA immediately: Some of our bus drivers make in excess of $200K per year, plus benefits(while they last).
Just sayin’…
@@
November 16th, 2012
4:10 pm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/15/israel-gaza-obama-assassinations
Chuck
November 16th, 2012
4:11 pm
Mike
According to The Wallstreet Journal (conservative) and The New York Time (progressive) the entire pension fund is only worth 954 million dollars, so how in the world is it underfunded at 2 billion dollars. That must be government math.
carlosgvv
November 16th, 2012
4:13 pm
Tiberius – 3:03
In your case, it’s a rich kid being homeschooled who is filled with an undeserved arrogance and looks foward to a life of not having to lift a finger in any sort of work.
Class of '98
November 16th, 2012
4:13 pm
that last post was supposed to be addressed to kyle
Bullseye
November 16th, 2012
4:14 pm
Sounds like Executive pillage
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/11/16/1203151/why-unions-dont-shoulder-the-blame-for-hostesss-downfall/?mobile=nc
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 16th, 2012
4:15 pm
Typical failure on your part, carlos.
Thanks for playing.
@@
November 16th, 2012
4:15 pm
Oh….and keep in mind….if Obama could get hisself re-elected after having failed to deliver, he’s proven that he can do as he pleases without your consent. Useful tools being what they are.
Perhaps it was the promise of free stuff that won your vote?
schnirt
Linda
November 16th, 2012
4:16 pm
Is there a unionized company in the US that has a pension fund that is funded?
Tiberius - pulling the tail of the left AND right when needed
November 16th, 2012
4:17 pm
Bullseye, if you want control over executive pay, stop being an hourly wage worker and start your own company.
It’s a simple as that.
Nunna Yobinnes
November 16th, 2012
4:18 pm
Linda – all the pension funds can be located with Jimmy Hoffa, where ever he is.
@@
November 16th, 2012
4:19 pm
Is there a unionized company in the US that has a pension fund that is funded?
Not that I’ve seen. Overly generous in their heyday, underfunded as a result.
mike
November 16th, 2012
4:19 pm
“As of January 2012, Hostess’ pension fund was approximately $2 billion underfunded,”
http://business.time.com/2012/11/15/time-to-start-stockpiling-twinkies-hostess-in-limbo-as-workers-strike/
Chuck, how the heck should I know. I only know what I read.
Dmurphy
November 16th, 2012
4:19 pm
i cannot show sympathy,since so many republican whites and hispanics have been so rude to me in central florida and south florida,because barack obama has won,anytime the t.v.shows something aweful about republican white and hispanics and asians its gonna be oh well,they really dispay evil as you walk through the aventura mall in miami,evil as if god has a separate heaven fo them,i got a message for them god see when you treat other races evil,
Linda
November 16th, 2012
4:22 pm
Conservatives know better than to quote conservative websites, even on a conservative blog. Only an liberal idiot would quote a progressive website on a conservative blog to “prove” a point.
Don't Tread
November 16th, 2012
4:23 pm
Like your dad, my father spent a lot of time working at Eastern (40+ years).
The reason Eastern was vulnerable and eventually sold to Texas Air in the first place has a lot to do with union refusal to accept any cuts to their benefits, despite increasing fuel costs, deregulation, and increased competition from Delta, which was less unionized and could operate on an equal footing at lower cost.
Once the airline was sold to Texas Air, its days were numbered, and the employees knew it – but by that point it was too late.
mike
November 16th, 2012
4:24 pm
Linda: “Is there a unionized company in the US that has a pension fund that is funded?”
Yes, Linda, companies with Defined Benefit (pension) plans are required to fund those plans using actuarial projections. The biggest problem has been that under old actuarial projections, much less money was required to be set aside to fund pensions. That was because money invested could expect and far greater return than now. Now, with the bad economy and greatly dimished returns on investments, the amount of money required is much greater.
mike
November 16th, 2012
4:25 pm
I forgot to mention that Defined Benefit plans (pensions) are something of a dinosaur. Most companies now have a Defined Contribution plan (i.e., 401(k), etc.)
Nunna Yobinnes
November 16th, 2012
4:26 pm
Don’t Tread – My dad is retired from Delta, but I personally was glad that there was competition in the airline industry. Then Eastern, Republic (Southern) and Pan Am just vanished. Very sad.
mike
November 16th, 2012
4:28 pm
One thing all of you gloating right wingers need to remember is that if Hostess Brands, Inc. reneges on its pension obligations, you, the taxpayer are on the hook for it. You see, those employees will still receive most of their pensions (but not medical care) under the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, a federal agency. Guess who pays for their medical care in the form of higher insurance premiums? You got it! YOU DO!
Nunna Yobinnes
November 16th, 2012
4:28 pm
I thought the Eastern L-1011 planes were really good looking planes. I saw one on a documentary of some sort not too long ago.
Linda
November 16th, 2012
4:30 pm
That’s the problem with liberals. They only know what they read. Applies to Mother Goose but not the Bible.
mike
November 16th, 2012
4:32 pm
At least I read.
SBinF
November 16th, 2012
4:32 pm
Yes Linda, because reading the Bible would help figure out this confusing corporate bankruptcy stuff!
mike
November 16th, 2012
4:34 pm
@@ @4:10 That was a great article. Its nice to read the truth every now and again. The rest of you might try it sometime. You can start with that article.
Nunna Yobinnes
November 16th, 2012
4:36 pm
Mike, I’m a little slow. Why do our premiums go up because these unemployed workers lose their coverage?
Chuck
November 16th, 2012
4:36 pm
One good thing, maybe the government wll keep their nose out of this situation and let this company die. Bad companies should die regardless of how big they are (A.I.G., General Motors, Chase Bank) that is what keep the economy strong, it is Darwinism. The government (Bush & Obama) decided to invest our money (taxes) in General Motors, one of the worst companies out there, we will lose most of that money, then within 10 years we (taxpayers) will have to make another large investment to save them again. General Motors has been bragging about the record sales of Volts that they have achieved, they fail to report that they are losing money on every Volt they sell and even more on everyone that they lease, we should have put all that tax money down on the craps table, it would have been a better investment.