Supreme Court: Exxon-Valdez fine slashed 90%
Now here's some real bullshit.
For those of you who may or may not remember how awful the Exxon-Valdez oil spill was, here it is in a nutshell: The tanker, bound for Washington, USA, hit Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef in Alaska and spilled 10.8 million gallons of crude oil. This has been recorded as one of the largest spills in U.S. history and one of the largest ecological disasters.
Article from 2/1/2008:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Exxon Mobil made history on Friday by reporting the highest quarterly and annual profits ever for a U.S. company, boosted in large part by soaring crude prices.
Exxon also set an annual profit record by earning $40.61 billion in 2007 - or nearly $1,300 per second. That exceeded its previous record of $39.5 billion in 2006.
... so what happened Wednesday???
After 19 years, Exxon Mobil Corp. succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to slash the additional amount it must pay Alaskans harmed by the 1989 Valdez oil spill from the original $5 billion to $500 million.
A lower court had already cut punitive damages to $2.5 billion before Exxon appealed to the highest court.
These oil companies make so much money they clearly don't even have to care about their public image anymore. Remember when companies at least pretended not to be evil? Nowadays they can just sit back and let the corrupt judges knock down their fines which they CLEARLY can afford.
Fucking assholes.
R.I.P. – George Carlin
I got to see George Carlin in 2003 with my stepdad from the 2nd row at a show in Davenport, Iowa.
I've seen dozens of comedy shows, and I won't lie, his wasn't the best. But he did give off this vibe that just screamed "hey. you're watching a god damn legend here."
And that's just what he was. A legend. RIP, George.
Carlin was arrested on July 21, 1972 at Milwaukee's Summerfest and charged with violating obscenity laws after performing his "seven words you can never say on television" routine.
The case, which prompted Carlin to refer to the words for a time as, "The Milwaukee Seven", was dismissed in December of that year; the judge stated that the language was indecent but cited free speech, as well as the lack of any disturbance.
What the fuck is happening to the USA?
OK, this is another long one. There has been some important shit going on and I feel the need to let my friends (or whoever may stumble on this site) know about it.
Well, if you were too busy watching the Cubs beat the Whitesox in the bottom of the 9th on Friday, you might not have noticed what went down in Washington DC.
Less than a day after introducing a measure to expand Bush's authority to spy on us, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted to approve the administration and Republican-supported bill, sending it to the Senate where it will likely be adopted. This bill was crafted behind closed doors in negotiations among moderate Democrats, Republicans, the White House and telecommunications lobbyists. Anyone who still willingly calls themself a "moderate Democrat" can just go ahead and join the Bush lunatics on their side. We don't want you. 105 "moderate Democrats" voted for this measure today. You are all a disgrace to your party and your country.
"It’s Christmas morning at the White House thanks to this vote," Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, said in a news release. "The House just wrapped up some expensive gifts for the administration and their buddies at the phone companies."
Friday's vote represented the beginning of the end in a legislative battle aimed at reining in the warrantless surveillance program Bush acknowledged instituting after 9/11.
"Immunity for telecom giants that secretly assisted in the NSA's warrantless surveillance undermines the rule of law and the privacy of every American," said Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "Congress should let the courts do their job instead of helping the administration and the phone companies avoid accountability for a half decade of illegal domestic spying. If this legislation passes the Senate and is signed into law, the American people will have lost their last best chance to discover the true scope of the president's wiretapping program and to determine whether or not the law was broken."
Makes that Cub win seem somewhat less important, doesn't it?
293 of our Congressmen have trashed the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and are a danger to all Americans and should be removed from office. These Congressmen are not to be trusted, they have zero respect civil liberties.
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Do I have your attention yet? Are you STILL not convinced? OK, I have one more story for you.
By now you probably have heard about the huge floods in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, etc. The news reports it like they always do, the president ignores it like he always does, and life goes on... right? Not so fast. Let's not forget what we just learned. We are a police state now.
(Terrorism) noun: the use of violence (or threat of violence) by a person or an organized group against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear
Hmmm... organized group? You mean like the Taliban? Or more like the CIA, FBI, NSA, DHS, CFIA, CPS, or FEMA?
Watch this video. It is more than worth your time. It takes place in my home state of Iowa... actually about an hour drive from my hometown. Cedar Rapids is a mid-size midwestern city with about 120,000 people... so it's not exactly a farm town, though it does have it's fair share of the tractor-lovin' crowd. These are the ones that our media usually picks to interview.
WHY IS OUR GOVERNMENT INSTITUTING MARSHALL LAW!?!?
Judge for yourself:
Government terrorists are continuing their agenda of terrorizing the American people and destroying individual liberty. I am not a militant. I don't own any guns and never want to. I am not a threat to anyone or anything. I am a taxpayer and I love my country. I am just really fucking pissed at my government right now... and I don't understand why other Americans aren't.
I just hope Obama plans on using all of these new loopholes to FIX ALL OF THIS NONSENSE and promptly close those loopholes via constitutional amendment. That way this can't happen so easily next time the lunatics are in charge. Whoever gets elected president in November will have the power to do this. I have a feeling Ron Paul, Henry Waxman, Joe Biden, or Dennis Kucinich would fix things. Those are the guys on our side.
I'm getting ahead of myself.... what about our 100 Senators who can stop this NOW? We'll find out who sides with terrorists when the senate vote comes to the floor. They're really making this easy for us taxpayers to see who the lobbyist-lovers are and who is on the side of the people and the constitution.
If this passes the senate I think I'll start browsing for real estate in Vancouver or the Caribbean instead of here in Chicago. How's that for a stimulus, Mr. Bush?
I would hope that I should not have to fear my government... but it is sure starting to look like that's what they want.
"What? The land of the free? Whoever told you that is your enemy." -Rage Against the Machine
-Ross
PS-
Cubs walkoff vs. Whitesox:
Music Videos: RATM & Toadies – Lollapalooza 2008
I'm not a huge fan of bigass music festivals. Water is $4, they get really effing hot, and people smell.
This year, two of my all-time favorite bands just happen to be playing on the same day (back-to-back, no less) at Lollapalooza.
Single day tickets finally went on sale...$80?!?!. I'll bite.
The Toadies and Rage Against the Machine are worth 80 bucks to me.
Enjoy:
Rage Against the Machine - Know Your Enemy (Live @ Rock am Ring, 2000)
The Toadies - Possum Kingtom (Live @ 120 Minutes, 1995)
Understanding Iran and Oil Prices
I'm just trying to break down this whole Iran thing for us all.
Here goes nothing....
1. Iran sits on the 3rd largest oil reserve in the world and is not (very) actively pumping or selling it.
2. About 20 years ago, Iran threatened to dump all of their oil on the world market for an extremely cheap price if oil gets too expensive and/or if other oil-producing nations start inflating prices.
3. America is currently overpaying oil-producing countries for oil at the pump. These countries control supply and they know demand is growing (mostly due to India and China).
4. They are using their insane profits to buy-up American debt and taking bribes for oil.
5. In 2006, Iran announced that it will no longer use the American Dollar (Article Here)
6. Last month, they did just that. (Article Here)
Get it now? Iran has completely flipped the bitch on our corrupt government. If Iran decides to dump all of their oil on the market at an extreme discount, this will make the American Dollar worthless. Our economy is directly linked to the oil profits of the world. What do you think would happen if $135 per barrel turned into $20? Now do you get why our government and the press continues to make up shit about Iran wanting/having nuclear weapons when the exact opposite is the real truth?! Our government needs (they think) a reason to invade Iran to prevent them from dumping their oil. The easiest way to do this is to tell the American public that Iran is the boogeyman and that they have nukes. Sound familiar? Everyone thought that Iraq was about oil.... it was... but not to keep gas cheap. It was to ensure that Iraq didn't join up with Iran and their oil strategy.
The bottom line is, until our government feels the need to tell us the truth about Iran and their oil threats, we have no reason to believe that whatever we hear about Iran is anything more than bullshit propaganda to protect their coverup.
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So what do we do to lower gas prices?
Lowering gas prices will hurt the US dollar, so the government will not do anything to drastically lower them. BUT. There is one answer that might work. It's known as the "Enron loophole". This is the real reason prices have gone up so high. It's pretty lengthy to explain, but the short version is that companies that own oil are basically allowed to trade oil futures. This means they control the prices. If we can close this retarded loophole, analysts predict that the price of oil will fall 25-50%.
Remember that "Farm Bill" that the republicans were all against earlier this year? I wondered at first why they would be so against something to help out the Midwestern farmers who have been struggling. Oil is the reason. There was an amendment to that bill that included CLOSING THE ENRON LOOPHOLE. John McCain, George Bush, and their buddies made sure that congress knew this and that they should shut it down. We need to get this passed. Now. As Americans we can accept a 25-50% hit in the oil market. It will cause a depression and a huge recession, but we can bounce back from it. What we can NOT bounce back from is $20/barrel oil or a war with Iran.
-Ross
UPDATE1: Call me crazy, but I believe him: (Article Here).
Midwestern Flood Responses: McCain Prays; Obama Grabs a Shovel!
Obama visited the flooded Midwest later Saturday, stopping in Quincy, IL, to help fill sandbags.
Meanwhile, McCain issued a statement:
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those impacted by the flooding throughout the Midwest. Cindy and I would like to extend our sympathies to all those who have lost loved ones, and stand ready to help those in the Midwest to recover and rebuild."
For those of you who know me, it goes without saying that I'm not religious. But for those of you who are I pose a question... what good is faith without action? I dunno about you guys... but what exactly is he "standing ready" for? Enough with the talk. I know he's too frail to fill sandbags... but the least he could do is fly around Iowa in in Cindy's private plane and look confused, like Bush did as New Orleans was going down.
When you wish upon a star…
... make sure it's not shit. Seriously.
In the video below, Chris Hadfield, a space shuttle astronaut from the Canadian Space Agency, explains how they poop in space and what happens to it.
Wait… WTF?! We bombed Pakistan last night?!?
OK. Honestly, I don't know if this was justified or not... my guess is that it's not.
I'm more curious as to why ALL of the American media networks, newspapers, etc decided not to report to us that our country BOMBED ANOTHER COUNTRY. This is completely unacceptable. I'm sure it got bumped for the article telling us what Britney Spears was up to yesterday. Cuz that's what really matters to us. There is no such thing as "liberal media" in this country. Things labeled "liberal" like the Daily Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann are merely moderates.
"Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has condemned an air strike by Afghanistan-based US forces that Islamabad says killed 11 of its troops.
The incident took place inside Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan.
The US military confirmed it had used artillery and air strikes after coming under fire from "anti-Afghan" forces. "
Full article HERE:
John McCain admits (in 2008) that he doesn’t use a computer.
Oh, and he also said today that he would make Dick Cheney part of his cabinet.
Is it okay to call him FUCKING CRAZY yet?! How can you be a goddamn US senator in 2008 and not use the internet? I thought this type of pre-WWII politician died with Strom Thurmond. Guess I was wrong. I bet he is still amazed by color tv... the internet would probably make his fucking head explode! I think I figured it out.. by the time the internet came around he was already too old for porn. Otherwise he'd be using the internet!
Article about the Dick Cheney reference: HERE
The 2008 Democratic Primary in 8 minutes.
This video rules. If you're not a political person and haven't started paying attention to the presidential race yet... this will catch you up on the the last year and a half on the Democratic side.
No matter how apathetic you are, this is worth the 8 minutes.