Tuesday letters
Fox penning and politics in today’s letters to the editor.
Pick of the day: Spread blame for jobs getting iced
The Hostess Twinkie story (“Twinkies maker Hostess shutting down,” Nov. 17) is subheaded, “The company was dragged down by high cost of unionized work force.” Ten paragraphs down, we learn “nearly a dozen executives received pay hikes of up to 80 percent in 2011.” No dollar amount mentioned.
We know Hostess is paying $100 million a year in pension costs, but we don’t know how many millions these executives are taking out of the company. We do know their 80 percent pay increase is a sudden dramatic increase in costs, while pension cost increases are gradual and foreseeable. But the subhead does not say, “Company wrecked by sudden executive pay increase.”
And we don’t know how many workers accepted a pension as part of their pay, and will be cheated out of it. We don’t know the costs to government programs where these pensionless workers will now be dumped.
No mention of the damage to our economy if these jobs are shipped to some low-wage country so a few people at the top can pay themselves a lot and hide it in the Cayman Islands so they don’t have to pay U.S. taxes. What do they owe us anyway?
ERIC SUTPHIN
HILLSVILLLE
November 20, 2012 - 7:57 AM
Rock on brother Sutphin!
Gary Hunley I’m guessing you are a lifelong Republican? You called Richard Nixon’s scandal “..just a little case of opposing-party espionage.” I think it may have been the political scandal of the 20th century. Do you recall how many went to prison, how Nixon was directly involved in the cover-up and his eventual resignation and the birth of “dirty tricks”?
How about the following snips found in http://www.history.com
“……In a controversial executive action, President Gerald Ford pardons his disgraced predecessor Richard Nixon for any crimes he may have committed or participated in while in office. Ford later defended this action before the House Judiciary Committee, explaining that he wanted to end the national divisions created by the Watergate scandal.”
“…..In a political scandal independent of the Nixon administration’s wrongdoings in the Watergate affair, Agnew had been forced to resign in disgrace after he was charged with income tax evasion and political corruption. Exactly one month after Nixon announced his resignation, Ford issued the former president a “full, free and absolute” pardon for any crimes he committed while in office. The pardon was widely condemned at the time.”
Maybe you can explain to me the stupidity of the Watergate break when Nixon held such a commanding lead over his most honorable opponent and WW II hero George McGovern.
“he just got caught playing spy” and it was “just a little case of opposing-party espionage.”
Yeah, it was only an abuse of power intended to undermine the democratic principles on which the country was founded, that’s all. Good grief.