http://freethoughtblogs.com/rodda/2012/11/13/hey-general-petraeus-hows-that-spiritual-fitness-stuff-working-for-you/

I hate hypocrites. And the first word that came to mind when I heard about David Petraeus’s extramarital affair was “hypocrite.”

…And what’s one of the big goals of all this “spiritual fitness” stuff? Strong marriages, of course! And who was a big proponent of this “spiritual fitness” stuff? Yeah, you got it – General David Petraeus…..

http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2012/11/17/funniest-election-tweet/

…Karl Rove has redistributed more money from billionaires than Barack Obama ever will.
— Guy Nicolucci (@Nicolucci1899)

http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2012/11/17/ups-stops-funding-boy-scouts/

Some good news for equality, as UPS has announced that it will no longer fund the Boy Scouts of America because of that organization’s policy of discriminating against gays (and atheists too). This is the second company to do this, in response to a petition drive…

Finally proof that being environmentally friendly is an evil atheist plot:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2012/11/17/hooray-american-atheists/

This is pretty darn cool. American Atheists has installed solar panels on the roof of their office in Cranford, New Jersey, which they say will be enough to provide 100% of their electricity….

The headline reads “Twinkies maker Hostess shutting down” with the sub-heading “The company was dragged down by the high costs of its unionized work force.”

For many people, that’s as far as they will read and will come away with the false impression that somehow, simply having a union will drive a company out of business.

I realize newspaper space is limited and the newspapers, in order to save on labor costs, often, simply repeat what comes down the wire. And for the most part, that IS good enough. But I have to think our country would be better served if the news media were to examine these types of stories with a jaundiced eye and look deeper.

According to the NY Times, reporting on this same story:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/11/16/hostess-brands-says-it-will-liquidate/

…As the national appetite for junk food waned, the company fell on hard times, …But the new private equity backers loaded the company with debt, making it difficult to invest in new equipment. Earlier this year, Hostess had more than $860 million of debt…..It originally hoped to reorganize its finances, seeking lower labor costs, including an immediate 8 percent pay cut….The Teamsters, which has 6,700 members at Hostess, said it played an instrumental role in ousting Hostess’s previous chief executive, Brian J. Driscoll, this year after the board tripled his compensation to $2.55 million…..the Teamsters agreed in September to major concessions, including cuts in wages and company contributions to health care. As part of the deal, the union was to receive a 25 percent share of the company’s stock and a $100 million claim in bankruptcy…..Frank Hurt, the union’s president, seemed to lose patience with Hostess’s management, upset that it was in bankruptcy for the second time despite $100 million in labor concessions…..“They [the union members] decided that they were not going to agree to another round of outrageous wage and benefit cuts and give up their pension only to see yet another management team fail and Wall Street vulture capitalists and ‘restructuring specialists’ walk away with untold millions of dollars.”

So here we see the union was not solely responsible for Hostess closing. It was also due in part to a private equity firm loading the company with debt, management greed and missteps and health conscious consumers lowering demand. The union had also given previous major wage concessions during their initial bankruptcy.

And to top it off, those now out of a job may or may not be able to get unemployment compensation based on which state they worked and if the went on strike or not. Here again, we see the problem with these so called “right to work” states and laws that punish the working class for going on strike. The State uses the loss of unemployment compensation as a stick to pressure workers to give in to the demands of the capitalist class.

You can learn more about this event at the World Socialist Web Site:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/nov2012/host-n17.shtml