Wash. Post: Record of family’s global corporation follows Jon Huntsman Jr.

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The Washington Post has this rather critical profile of Jon Huntsman's business career: "Some of the products made by Huntsman Corp. have alarmed environmentalists and been phased out of the market. The $9 billion-a-year company has eliminated hundreds of U.S. jobs as it gradually shifts operations to Asia. And it has helped fund cancer research even as it stands accused of exposing communities near its manufacturing plants to cancer-causing and other harmful chemicals."

How?

A Texas grand jury investigation found a criminal pattern of releasing benzene, a carcinogen, at a Huntsman plant in Port Arthur. The pollution occurred before and shortly after the company bought the plant.

In 1997, Jon Huntsman Sr. met with the lead prosecutor, according to an internal company presentation. After a two-week investigation, the prosecutor moved to indict two plant managers and decided not to prosecute the corporation, finding that leadership wasn’t aware of the managers’ actions. (The prosecutor later joined Huntsman Corp. as an environmental compliance adviser.)

Huntsman paid $9 million, then the largest fine imposed under the state Clean Air Act, to settle a state civil case stemming from the pollution.

Other problems had erupted in Odessa, Tex. The smokestack of a Huntsman plant emitted chemical clouds for three days in late 1998 and early 1999, and again in 2000. Some of the chemicals released had been deemed cancer-causing.

And how will he explain this to unemployed Americans?

Huntsman Corp. employs about 12,000 people worldwide, but from 2004 to 2010, the number of positions in the United States dropped from 3,200 to 2,139. Huntsman officials estimate an uptick of 108 U.S. jobs in the first half of 2011. The share of its U.S.-based revenue has dropped from two-thirds to one-third in the same period.

When announcing layoffs in the United States and Europe in 2008, Huntsman officials described the cuts as part of a long-term restructuring begun in late 2006.

So these are the people who want to defeat Obama in 2012:
- Herman Cain: Islamophobe
- Rick Santorum: radically religious, homophobe
- Michele Bachamnn: ditto
- Ron Paul: really wants to see government drown in the bathtub like Grover Norquist wishes
- Mitt Romney: outsourcer and tax evader
- Newt Gingrich: compulsive jewelry buyer, wife-leaver, moral hypocrite
- Tim Pawlenty: radically religious, left behind a huge deficit as Minnesota governor
- and now Jon Huntsman is behind a corrupt, outsourcing business

While Obama may be struggling right now, think about it: Are you willing to let ANY of these people - either elitists or bigots - running this country after 2012?

Oh, I forgot to mention the more sensible yet unknown GOP candidates like Gary Johnson, Fred Karger, and Buddy Roemer. On last Monday's Thom Hartmann, Roemer criticized free trade policies. And Johnson wants to make marijuana legal. Karger is a gay rights activist. But the Republican establishment prefers career politicians or people who can echo the radical religious agenda rather than a candidate "of the people."