Wednesday, August 27, 2008

It's Good to Be the King


Today, Exxon agreed to pay $383,000,000 in settlement for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Let's see--hire a drunk captain, wreck a ship, spill oil, cause $7B in damages. The original suit placed by fishermen was $2.5 B in settlement costs for lost livelihood. That was in 1989. So fishermen have waited for 21 years for money that they lost because of dead fish, lack of work, etc. In those 21 years Exxon has been able to stonewall the people until they could get a Supreme Court that would kiss their ass, ooops, I mean say that they were being charged too much. 21years to wait for lost income and interest and here Exxon-Mobil settles for 1.534451 days of profits, given their current income stream. This does not include legal costs, I am sure. These probably were in the $230M range, for a 21 year legal fight. These are rolled into their general budget and guess who pays for those? Consumers at the pump. So as they roll up record profits, we pay for them and their legal fees.

Another item--U.S. angry at Russia backing breakaway republics in Georgia. Seems to me we backed the dissolution of the USSR easily enough. What are two more countries. Even though, if Ossetia wants to be a country, why doesn't Russia offer to join North and South Ossetia? Yes, both countries foreign policies suck on this issue. Seems like Chechnya wanted independence, too and no one granted them that. Is it any wonder these smaller countries and provinces feel powerless? This can break the will of a country, ruin their creative spirit and give them the terrorist option as a means of being heard. Larger countries have determined what should be their borders for years. The Kurdish Republic was supposed to have its own country, as was Armenia after WW1. We forgot to create them. and as a result millions of Armenians were slaughtered or sent to Siberia during Stalin's reign. Always need someone to blame and fear. and we have a Kurdish problem now. Is terrorism hard to understand? Think of the creation of Israel and the Palestinian problem.

O yes, North Korea is now starting a weapons grade uranium enrichment program again because America forgot to take them off of the terrorist nations watch list as promised after they dismantled the program the first time.

and Dennis Kucinich makes me proud to be from Ohio, after last night's speech.

rojo

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