Your daily Letter to the Columnist, Aug. 28, 2012
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The government helped ‘Chris the Baker’ when he declared bankruptcy
Dan Casey:
I’m wondering about “Chris the Baker,” the new GOP “hero” in Radford who turned down Joe Biden’s campaign to visit his bakery on the recent stop in Radford.
A letter to the editor from Gene Stuckey, in yesterday’s The Roanoke Times, put it better than I’m doing, “A better story might have been: How does one declare bankruptcy in Blacksburg and come up with the cash to start a new business in Radford?”
In the current I-built-it-myself-with-no-help-from-the-government-or-anyone-else popular GOP theme, how does it happen that this can happen without any questioning?
In the front page story about this, Saturday, August 25, Mike Gangloff quotes developer Bob Pack as saying. ” . . . Crumb & Get It’s owners had ‘pulled out in the middle of the night’ and he couldn’t contact them about rent that was due.” That was in reference to the Blacksburg location.
Mr. Casey, I’m writing because I’m curious how this could happen in the I-built-it thinking popular with Republicans who took words out of context that President Obama spoke earlier in Roanoke.
Sincerely,
Harriet Little
FINCASTLE
August 28, 2012 - 1:30 PM
I’m a talking point…. nom nom nom nom ad nauseum.
Funny, you applaud some talking points…
chris the cookie guy’s bankruptcy hurt no one but the people to whom may have lost money. in general, landlords like developer Pack make provisions for tenent bankruptcies in their business planning, and they do their own due diligence before deciding whether to actually award a potential tenent with a lease. now, i’m not suggesting that such things are no big deal…because they of course can be very big deals. however, in this instance, both parties entered into the lease relationship with their eyes wide open. presumably, the landlord in Radford assessed the level of risk involved in doing business with Chris, and deemed he or his backers to be credible.
now, for another side of the story, many of us might remember the plight of the Kaplan family, owners of Dominion Dodge in Salem, who were arbitrarily severed from their long-standing and profitable franchise relationship with Chrysler Corporation, back when the federal government, using yours’ and my tax dollars, picked winners and losers among their franchisees, and summarily discontinued doing business with some dealers (the losers), one of which was Kaplan’s Dominion Dodge.
@2 – Yep, nom nom nom nom, Chris the baker, nom nom, didn’t do it, nom nom, himself, nom nom nom.
WTFC
The Republicans asked for it by building their local brand around a “businessman” who has already declared bankruptcy.
hey kristen, ….and, the guy we applaud had the gumption to get up, find more backers, and make arrangements with a new lessor, all in pursuit of running a small business. when Chris is successful, he’ll hire staff, which will be a good thing for people who need jobs. your attitude emulates obama’s, which is to denigrate small businesses…which in turn keeps a lid on hiring opportunities. i applaud Chris, and folks like him, who put it all on the line, everyday.
Sounds like Chris the Baker is getting the Joe Wurzelbacher treatment. This is what happens when you embarrass Idiot Boy by minding your own business. Remember, these men didn’t ask to be celebrities. In both cases 0bama came to them.
Are Democrat public officials illegally helping the MSM dig for details on Chris McMurray like they did with Joe?
Actually it does sound “like Chris the Baker is getting the Joe Wurzelbacher treatment”, both stuck their feet in their mouth and the right wing went nuts to make them an icon. The rest of the world sees through this crap and it is a crying shame that you cannot. Sure, just as “Joe the Plumber” was a “coulda been a contenda”, so can “Chris the Baker”, so long as the world, like the right wing, will conveniently overlook a few details.
I find it laughable that the people who destroy any Dem or Lib who speaks out, are whining about the treatment their “stars” get. Hypocrites!
suzie, i have no doubt that Chris is on the pres’s and ol’ joe’s radar screens….pretty sad, eh? i wonder when we’ll next see either one of those guys back in southwest virginia…
McMurray’s broke in six months.
Rather than debate the merits, or lack thereof, of Chris the baker’s accomplishments, let’s talk about President Obama’s accomplishments.
It is time for the GOP to quit trashing President Obama’s accomplishments. He has done more than any other President before him. He has an impressive list of accomplishments:
First President to apply for college aid as a foreign student, then deny he was a foreigner.
First President to have a social security number from a state he has never lived in.
First President to preside over a cut to the credit rating of the United States.
First President to violate the War Powers Act.
First President to be held in contempt of court for illegally obstructing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
First President to require all Americans to purchase a product from a third party
First President to spend a trillion dollars on ‘shovel-ready’ jobs when there was no such thing as ‘shovel-ready’ jobs.
First President to abrogate bankruptcy law to turn over control of companies to his union supporters.
First President to by-pass Congress and implement the Dream Act through executive fiat.
First President to order a secret amnesty program that stopped the deportation of illegal immigrants across the U. S., including those with criminal convictions.
First President to demand a company hand-over $20 billion to one of his political appointees.
First President to tell a CEO of a major corporation (Chrysler) to resign.
First President to terminate America’s ability to put a man in space.
First President to cancel the National Day of Prayer and to say that America is no longer a Christian nation.
First President to have a law signed by an auto-pen without being present.
First President to arbitrarily declare an existing law unconstitutional and refuse to enforce it.
First President to threaten insurance companies if they publicly spoke out on the reasons for their rate increases.
First President to tell a major manufacturing company in which state it is allowed to locate a factory.
First President to file lawsuits against the states he swore an oath to protect (AZ, WI, OH, IN).
First President to withdraw an existing coal permit that had been properly issued years ago.
First President to actively try to bankrupt an American industry (coal).
First President to fire an inspector general of Ameri-Corps for catching one of his friends in a corruption case.
First President to appoint 45 czars to replace elected officials in his office.
First President to surround himself with radical left wing anarchists.
First President to golf 73 separate times in his first two and a half years in office, 102 to date.
First President to hide his medical, educational and travel records.
First President to win a Nobel Peace Prize for doing NOTHING to earn it.
First President to go on multiple global “apology tours” and concurrent “insult our friends” tours.
First President to go on 17 lavish vacations, including date nights and Wednesday evening White House parties for his friends paid for by the taxpayer.
First President to have 22 personal servants (taxpayer funded) for his wife.
First President to keep a dog trainer on retainer for $102,000 a year at taxpayer expense.
First President to repeat the Holy Quran & tell us the early morning call of the Azan (Islamic call to worship) is the most beautiful sound on earth.
First President to tell the military men and women that they should pay for their own private insurance because they “volunteered to go to war and knew the consequences”.
Then he was the First President to tell the members of the military that THEY were UNPATRIOTIC for balking at the last suggestion.
First President to side with a foreign nation over one of the American 50 states ( Mexico vs. Arizona ).
That’s quite an impressive list of firsts!!!
Jeez what Republican fail on this thread.
The baker will be filing again and soon. Who cares?
\oo/, canf really believe Dan approved that crap.
actually kriston, the only “First…” i can find that is partially incorrect is that obama was the First American President to demand the resignation of an American automaker….which was GM, not Chrysler. I think oi!/o nailed it!
#3 Frank, you must have missed it. According to several posts on the BRC, cookie guy didn’t hurt ANYBODY at all when he declared bankruptcy. I guess the people who didn’t get paid enjoyed it.
A real conservative this little twerp is, screwing people out of money, yep, a real conservative. I imagine their are roaches in his food since he screwed the pest control company out of their money and they have not returned to his restaurant to treat for pests…
#1
Hilarious…and true.
Obama is the combo Sam Bowie/Sidd Finch of American Presidents.
Frank, I don’t bother reading walls of cut and pasted nonsense. Ever. Once a post is more than 4 inches long, I don’t bother, period. There’s no one here capable of filling that much space with anything interesting, except Dan, and he owns the blog.
Did we not establish that racial slurs would no longer be tolerated here?
#7 I guess cookie man was just passing by minding his own business when he stumbled onto the Ryan stage at Northwest Hardware, eh?
I hope you’ve continued to remind people that they shouldn’t be buying anything at Northwest since box store prices are so much better.
Really Frank? It’s easy to “put it all on the line, every day” when you can walk away scot free when it craps out. Give me a break.
I said on some other blog….building a business model around selling overpriced cookies in economically depressed SWVA isn’t a business model to draw smart money.
For the Republicans I guess Chris the Baker is this election cycle’s version of their Joe the Plumber in 2008. If you’ll recall, he wasn’t quite what they all wanted us to believe he was (an actual plumber).
Kristen and Gdad, just curious… How many small businesses have each of you owned and operated?
kristen, it’s up to lessors to decide whom they will lease to.
obama used YOUR money (assuming you pay taxes) to fund, then try to bail out solyndra, when his own people said it was risky. Chris used his own money.
“Chris” could have used that money to pay back his debts.
None matt…nor wanted to particularly. I’ve also never declared bankruptcy and I owe no one anything. I don’t fetishize small business owners either. It’s one way to go in life, but there are plenty others.
DAN, WTF the right wing talking points without even a freaking HINT of attribution in #11? Seriously, is this the sewer you want for a blog?
Kristen and Gdad, just curious… How many small businesses have each of you owned and operated?
LOL. That’s a laugh.
matt:
22.”Kristen and Gdad, just curious… How many small businesses have each of you owned and operated?”
matt, Suzie, how many small businesses have you operated?
matt, Suzie, how many small businesses have you operated?
I owned a small business until about 15-20 years ago.
I’m sure anyone could sell Shaklee if so inclined.
Suzie:
“I owned a small business until about 15-20 years ago.”
This short, one-liner may fool some people who skim the blog, but not me. I asked if you OPERATED it. Anyone with a little green or family connection can own a business, but that is hardly the same as running it. Being married to the boss when the “big” business was smaller is NOT the same thing either, but thanks for trying.
So you’ve never operated a small business, large business, or any business, correct?
John,
Actually, I have never been a small business owner. Haven’t had the chance-just finished school in May. But, owning a small business might be possible someday. I did grow up in and work in my parents small business-a business they started, owned, and operated. That business is still open today. So, I do have quite a bit of perspective on what small business owners go through on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis. I watched it with my own eyes. I only asked Kristen and gdad that question because, in my opinion, they were speaking about small businesses in a way that made it sound like they had personal, hands-on experience running a business.
How about you, John? You are currently a small business owner, correct? May I ask what kind of business?
OK, John Wilburn, since you’re late to the party, I’ll fill you in.
My husband started the company right after college. I worked as an engineer at another company then helped him on my off hours and off days get it going. My working in the early years allowed him to devote all his time to the fledgling company. I’ve helped in just about every facet at one time or other, especially in the beginning when the principals have to do everything. In more recent years, I’ve been in on the interviewing and vetting of employees since I’m considered very good at spotting character and doing detective work. Today, I don’t do much hand-on stuff, but I am a sounding board to my husband’s ideas and think about things he’s trying to do. He says I’m still probably his best engineer even though I don’t officially work in that capacity. I also mingle with employees some to inspire them and reinforce the principles with which we drive our business. I also do what I can to help my husband do his job well.
So you can put whatever label you like on my role, but that’s what I do.
And as an addenda to my comments about vetting employees, I’ll say this. We don’t hire liberals. We don’t put a name to it in the interview process, but we do ask probing questions to see how a person thinks, and what his or her general attitudes are. We tend to find people who share our view of how things should work. Now you people can say what you like about it, but the philosophy has been very successful since we started it. The personnel problems are way down.
The last thing we need are folks with an entitlement mentality who demand to be given this and that, who aren’t team players. We don’t need people getting on their computers on our time blasting everything decent like some of the folks in here do. The by-product of our vetting, although not it’s stated goal, is we get stable people in stable relationships who go to church and who are personally responsible. It’s sort of like the Chik-fil-A model.
Suzie,
Did you and your husband send around a memo requiring your employees to take the day off for Paul Ryan’s visit, and reminding them that it was mandatory that they show up for his event, but that they wouldn’t be paid?
Suzie: “The last thing we need are employees who believe they should be paid for their work.”
There. Fixed it for you.
matt:
“How about you, John? You are currently a small business owner, correct? May I ask what kind of business?”
Real estate firm.
Suzie:
“I’ve been in on the interviewing and vetting of employees since I’m considered very good at spotting character and doing detective work…..I also mingle with employees some to inspire them and reinforce the principles with which we drive our business.”
You’re either insufferable or much nicer in person. I hope it’s the latter. I still fully call this “marry well”, but I sincerely appreciate that you actually answered it and for that, I give you props.
33.”And as an addenda to my comments about vetting employees, I’ll say this. We don’t hire liberals….The by-product of our vetting, although not it’s stated goal, is we get stable people in stable relationships who go to church and who are personally responsible. It’s sort of like the Chik-fil-A model.”
Chick-fil-A is nowhere as bigoted or discriminatory in thier hiring as you. So you would not hire an atheist with a great team attitude that was by far the best candidate? You wouldn’t hire a single person who isn’t in a “stable relationship”? You wouldn’t hire someone who chooses not to go to church?
No wonder you so dearly value your cloak of anonymity! No one in their right mind would apply to work for Hubby’s company on purpose.
AMEN4! Excellent point John Wilburn.
Suzie, the one thing your post says, quite loud and clear is that
1) You are a legal liability for your husband’s firm
2) You have an imagination that knows no bounds
3) You are a pathological liar
4) All of the above
Sandi, she did stop herself short of mentioning how they feel about hiring black people.
Suzie, is it a law firm or HVAC company this week?
#32 most ill-informed posted, “So you can put whatever label you like on my role, but that’s what I do.”
I think your title is, ummmm – wife. Not that there is anything wrong with that…
25….is this the sewer you want for a blog?
Comment by Sandi Saunders — August 29, 2012 @ 8:05 pm
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That ship sailed years ago.