Kerry and Heinz Ketchup

[Beer Snob-50]

I was listening to the fountain of misinformation Rush this afternoon and he was railing about Kerry and the letter they sent out to the media saying that neither Kerry or his wife are involved in the operations of the Heinz company. Rush extrapolated out of this that they are distancing themselves from our next president because of his stance on companies operating outside of the company to avoid taxes. He then railed that maybe President Kerry and his wife should give all their benefits from the Heinz fortune back to protest the fact that they do have plants outside of the company.

Anyway, I decided to check to see if this was based on truth at all and have discovered that yes, Heinz does have plants in 57 different countries, but lo and behold they do pay taxes on that money.

This is going to be a long campaign.

[stellanoir]

1. bush & harkin energy. . .?

[Richardo]

2. ...and I doubt that those plants are re-importing back to the US...

I heard that too, and the gigantic nazi gasbag shot down his own argument when he was saying: "I can;t find any of those Heinz fried goats eyeballs here in the US." No shit, dipshit, that's why they have plants in the countries that have specific local or regional tastes, diets, etc.

Effenidiot. :eyes:

[Cocoa]

3. what's more American than ketchup?

at least the ketchup industry doesn't involve being cozy with the Saudis.

[Robb]

4. Am I the only one who thinks it's kinda cool

...that Heinz has plants in 57 countries? Not 56, not 58, but 57! :P

Now THAT's animating the brand. :thumbsup:

[Beer Snob-50]

5. I was fascinated by that as well. NT

[Democat]

6. Heinz distancing themselves from Kerry looks bad

You don't see Enron and Haliburton sending out letters trying to distance themselves from Bush and Cheney - at least if they did, it didn't become a major news story.

It makes Kerry look poisonous when a company with his wife's last name is trying to stay away from him.

[Westegg]

12. It kinda makes sense from a business P.O.V....

Heinz is major, world-wide corporate power, and the powers-that-be at Heinz don't want potential customers NOT buying Heinz products because said customers fear it's helping Kerry's campaign. That may well be considered a heartless, capitalist perspective, but Heinz Inc. does have truth on its side: Kerry and his wife do not run Heinz, and never have, despite rumours and Repub slander to the contrary. Heinz Co., in setting the record straight, is doing just that. So I don't see it as a "distancing" thing at all.

Comparisons to Enron and Haliburton are not relevant. IMO.

[seaglass]

16. That's an odd way of interpreting it. RWers were using

the Heinz connection to insinuate that Kerry was being two-faced about outsourcing because he and/or his wife supposedly had a management/substantial financial connection to Heinz, which does have overseas plants. The company in essence cleared his name.

In addition, it was a smart business move as RWers have been threatening a boycott.

I was happy to see the .pdf on their page, I already used it to refute a RWer on another site.

[cheezus]

7. Heinz in 57 countries? I thought it was 57 varieties

[stellanoir]

9. it was 1981. . .

and ketchup was a vegetable.

Or so sayeth Ronnie Raygun. Nevermind that a tomato is a fruit.
And I thought the government was scary back then. Sheesh. . .no comparison.

[Westegg]

15. Rest easy, knowing that they're now feeding Ray-Gun...

...Heinz ketchup through a straw.

[cheezus]

17. legally the tomato is a vegetable

scientifically a fruit. the good eats episode about tomatos clued me in to this. The supreme court actually ruled at one point tha ttomatos were vegetables and fell under the same import/export laws.

[RobertSeattle]

8. Snopes.... (Posted today!)

http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/heinz.asp

Claim: Senator John Kerry's wife owns Heinz, a company that outsources much of its work abroad.

Status: False.

Example:

[Zorra]

10. Beeeyoootiful post.

A real troll crusher.

[redqueen]

11. Great find!

:D

[Beer Snob-50]

13. Great find!

It is nice to crush that fat windbag!

[yellowcanine]

14. Heinz is an international company, just like CocaCola

They locate the factories where the raw ingredients are and market to that country - that is not the outsourcing Kerry is talking about - in any case even if it were - the only Kerry-Heinz connection is that Kerry's wife controls a foundation that owns about 4% of the Heinz stock - which isn't enough to control anything.