Both the president and plant manager of the Peanut Corporation of America refused to answer any questions at the hearing, citing Fifth Amendment protections. One congressman held up a jar of recalled products, wrapped in police tape, and asked if either would be willing to eat any of the products. They declined to answer. (Photo: C-SPAN)
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So why even show up? These people are going to jail, I hope. Or some people with the company should be, because this is Fuckery of both the crunchy and creamery varieties.
“Oh, there’s salmonella-hmm, surely no one will notice. Go ahead and ship it.”
@lalaland13: Probably because they were subpoenaed.
@Plates: Rove didn’t bother to show up and nothing happened to him…
@oneliketadow: But Rove’s BFF was the guy in charge of everyone doing the arresting.
@thisotherguy: Rove has a letter from his parents the White House Counsel, excusing him from testifying.
@oneliketadow: Rove knows the secret AIG handshake. These guys are going to get railroaded. I hope they serve time for negligent death.
Well duh. It’s like asking that guy if waterboarding is torture. And it would be if it was done to him.
Morons. THIS is what management driven to the point of desperation gets you; a bunch of bad products on the market with little or no explanation to cover for it.
Their role model must be the PHB from Dilbert.
Hope they wind up in a Federal Pen somewhere and wind up getting to “meet” Mr. Tiny.
@Nighthawke: Well, it’s pressure to deliver earnings to shareholders and make a profit.
The bottom line is always more important than the safety and health of people. I thought this was common knowledge.
@hypnotik_jello:
Except that this isn’t true. In no way did the actions of the executives maximize their long term profitability. The conflict here is not between the public and the companies interests. The conflict is between whether companies take a long or short term to evaluate results. Companies taking the long view may ride some unpleasant swings but as long as they keep their vision long term like Intel has then they will be fine. It is the selling out of the future to eek out slightly better results today that in my mind is the real problem.
@hypnotik_jello: Yeah, it makes a lot of business sense to injure and sicken your customers. Great for bottom line earnings.
@Canino: Of course it doesn’t make sense, but they executives rarely think in the long term. It’s all about short term profit and gain. Why do you think we’re in the mess we are in now with the rest of the economy and wall street?
@Canino: Worked for cigarettes.
@nataku83: Worked for cigarettes.
Touche.
@Canino: Thats the solution, right there! We just need addictive peanuts!
@m4ximusprim3: Hey, if they could do it with tomacco ….
@Eyebrows McGee: This tastes like grandma!
@Nighthawke: Considering the current economic crisis, and the affordability of peanut butter, I don’t see HOW they could be worried about their bottom line. Really.
@Nighthawke:Like most “too smart by half” criminals, they just assumed if they cut corners, they wouldn’t get caught.
Scumbags. That’s all that really needs to be said.
Well, it IS within their rights to hide behind the protections granted with the Fifth Amendment. I know if I were accused of something and I know it wouldn’t look good placing myself at the scene of a crime I certainly wouldn’t want to incriminate myself if I didn’t do it.
Of course, the evidence is NOT on PCA’s side. They’re going to burn either way. They better or else there will be a riot. The Peanut Butter Riots of 2009.
(I’m looking to loot a new TV myself)
@Applekid: Kids today don’t even know how to riot, they just sit around all day playin them dang video games!
@Mad Dog McCree: Should I get off your lawn now?
@LuluStarPony: Maybe after looting his video game system.
If this was China they would be executed for this. While I normally don’t support extraordinary rendition I would make an exception in these cases. I hope they go to jail for murder.
@Michael Knoll: I was thinking that if this happened in China or Japan the owners would probably have killed themselves by now.
@Michael Knoll: In china, they would get a ride on one of these: [i.gizmodo.com]
@Michael Knoll: Execution is such a waste though.
Instead, he should be chopped up for parts – you know, heart, liver, corneas, kidneys, etc.
At least there’s a chance that the recipients will be better people than he was.
I wouldn’t answer any questions in Congress’ kangaroo court either. They wrapped the PB in police tape? Comeon, they’re just playing to the cheap seats.
@cmdrsass: The cheap seats dominate about 75% of the electorate, I’d venture.
“Durrr, you can’t come here in a jet! Yes, I fly in a jet several times a month, but dammit I’m an important politician!”
“How dare you make profit exploring, refining, and distributing a precious commodity!
@cmdrsass: I wonder if it would have been smarter for them to talk to Congress, though, since Congress generally isn’t very good at investigating, and has in the past mucked around so badly that they’ve made criminal prosecution impossible.
Tie their hands behind their backs and put some of that peanut butter on bread and stick it to the roof of their mouth.
What’s that?
mmmphhhh mmmmphhhhhh
It’s salmalitious?
mmmphhhh mmmmphhhhhh!!
You wan’t some more?
@Skeetz: “salmalitious”
Did you just make that up?
@thisotherguy: yeh.. the two words blend better than peanut and salmonella do..
peanutella?
oh wait SALMANUTTY could work!
They need to be forcefed the shit they put out on the American public.
These asshats need to then go to jail and only be alowed 3 squares a day (of peanut butter sandwiches and nothing else).
“One congressman held up a jar of recalled products, wrapped in police tape, and asked if either would be willing to eat any of the products.”
How very Erin Brockovich of them!
Want to make them really cringe. Tell them you are going to feed the tainted PB too their children.
(To those who can’t read between the lines. I don’t really want them to feed the tainted PB to the children! Tactics!)
so these people are likely to go to jail for a short duration while the people who did the same thing in china were sentenced to death…
@dragon2o00: No, they weren’t. In China, food was deliberately adulterated, and that’s not what’s happened here. And plenty of the people involved in the adulteration in China weren’t even prosecuted, let alone sentenced to death.
This just shows that Congress has no balls. I’ve arrested people with far less evidence. In my opinion, these two individuals should have been arrested on the spot for public endangerment and manslaughter. Those two charges + the two being a strong flight risk would mean you could keep them in jail until their trials. It’d set a rather nice example to the rest of the Agribusiness community to spend a few bucks on food safety rather than the <$0.01 they do now.
I sort of like some of these theatrical moments in Congress. They are supposed to be representing us. Who wouldn’t have wanted to offer the owner of that company a big heaping spoonful of tainted peanut butter just to watch him squirm and tacitly admit it is inedible.
It sounds like they will lose every penny of their personal greedy wealth. The Hartford is suing them for breech of policy to assert that the insurance policy terms were voided and The Hartford has no liability.
I hate insurance companies but they are probably right, the companies actions would have violated just about any commercial insurance policy written. I just hope the FBI is monitoring these people’s accounts for sudden transfers out of the country or big withdrawals.
Upon first glance, I thought the photo was Statler and Waldorf from The Muppet Show.
I appreciate the theatrics of it – but I’m hoping some more serious squirming happens when congress decides to write & pass something like a ‘reveal the sources of all your ingredients on the label & what inspection ratings those places got’ act for foods. It’s a fantasy of mine….. but wouldn’t it be great that if some point in the future, when the next salmalitious factory fails first inspection we can all see it in the products on the shelf, avoid that brand or anything containing those products, and they instantly feel it in their profits?
It would be a major incentive to keep things clean & safe. Like I said, I appreciate the theatrics, but I hope something substantial comes of this. It’s not like these are the only tainted foods around.
Isn’t it interesting that the owner of PCA served on an Agriculture Department advisory board on peanut quality, until he resigned the day before testifying to Congress.
[www.washingtonpost.com]
You’ll never guess which ex-President appointed him to that board.