Exxon suxx. McCain duxx

Exxon suxx. McCain duxx

By Greg Palast
27 February 2008. Nineteen goddamn years is enough. I’m sorry if you don’t like my language, but when I think about what they did to Paul Kompkoff, I’m in no mood to nicey-nice words.

Next month marks 19 years since the Exxon Valdez dumped its load of crude oil across the Prince William Sound, Alaska. A big gooey load of this crude spilled over the lands of the Chenega Natives. Paul Kompkoff was a seal-hunter for the village. That is, until Exxon’s ship killed the seal and poisoned the rest of Chenega’s food supply.

While cameras rolled, Exxon executives promised they’d compensate everyone. Today, before the US Supreme Court, the big oil company’s lawyers argued that they shouldn’t have to pay Paul or other fishermen the damages ordered by the courts.

They can’t pay Paul anyway. He’s dead.

That was part of Exxon’s plan. They told me that. In 1990 and 1991, I worked for the Chenega and Chugach Natives of Alaska on trying to get Exxon to pay up to save the remote villages of the Sound. Exxon’s response was, “We can hold out in court until you’re all dead.”

Nice guys. But, hell, they were right, weren’t they?

But Exxon didn’t do it alone. They had enablers. One was a failed oil driller named “Dubya.” Exxon was the largest contributor to George W. Bush’s political career after Enron. They were a team, Exxon and Enron. The Chairman of Enron, Ken Lay, prior to his felony convictions, funded a group called Texans for Law Suit Reform. The idea was to prevent Natives, consumers and defrauded stockholders from suing felonious corporations and their chiefs.

When George went to Washington, Enron and Exxon got their golden pass in the appointment of Chief Justice John Roberts. Today, as the court heard Exxon’s latest stall, Roberts said, in defense of Exxon’s behavior in Alaska, “What more can a corporation do?”

The answer, Your Honor, is plenty.

For starters, Mr. Roberts, Exxon could have turned on the radar. What? On the night the Exxon Valdez smacked into Bligh Reef, the Raycas radar system was turned off. Exxon shipping honchos decided it was too expensive to maintain it and train their navigators to use it. So, the inexperienced third mate at the wheel was driving the supertanker by eyeball, Christopher Columbus style. I kid you not.

Here’s what else this poor ‘widdle corporation could do: stop lying.

On the night of March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez was not even supposed to leave harbor.

If a tanker busts open, that doesn’t have to mean a thousand miles of shoreline gets slimed – so long as oil-slick containment equipment is in place.

On the night of March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez was not supposed have left port. No tanker can unless a spill containment barge is operating nearby. That night, the barge was in dry-dock, locked under ice. Exxon kept that fact hidden, concealing the truth even after the tanker grounded. An Exxon official radioed the emergency crew, “Barge is on its way.”

Paul’s gone – buried with Exxon’s promises. But the oil’s still there. Go out to Chenega lands today. At Sleepy Bay, kick over some gravel and it will smell like a gas station.

What the heck does this have to do with John McCain? The Senator is what I’d call a ‘Tort Tart.’ Ken Lay’s “Law Suit Reform” posse was one of the fronts used by a gaggle of corporate lobbyists waging war on your day in court. Their rallying cry is ‘Tort Reform,’ by which they mean they want to take away the God-given right of any American, rich or poor, to sue the bastards who crush your child’s skull through product negligence, make your heart explode with a faulty medical device, siphon off your pension funds, or poison your food supply with spilled oil.

Now, all of the Democratic candidates have seen through this ‘tort reform’ con – and so did a Senator named McCain who, in 2001, for example, voted for the Patients Bill of Rights allowing claims against butchers with scalpels. Then something happened to Senator McCain: the guy who stuck his neck out for litigants got his head chopped off when he ran for President in the Republican Party in 2000 for what one lobbyists’ website called McCain’s, “his go-it-alone moralism.”

So the Senator did what I call, The McCain Hunch. Again and again he grabbed his ankles and apologized to the K Street lobbyists, reversing his positions on, well, you name it. For example, in 2001, he said of Bush’s tax cuts, “I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans.” Now, in bad conscience, the Senator vows to make these tax cuts permanent.

On “Tort Reform,” the about-face was dizzying. McCain voted to undermine his own 2001 Patients Bill of Rights with votes in 2005 to limit suits to enforce it. He then added his name to a bill that would have thrown sealhunter Kompkoff’s suit out of federal court.

In 2003, McCain voted against Bush’s Energy Plan, an industry oil-gasm. But this week, following Exxon’s report that it sucked in $40.6 billion in earnings last year, the largest profit haul in planetary history, McCain failed to join Clinton, Obama, most Democrats and some Republicans on a bill to require a teeny sliver of industry profit go to alternative energy sources. On oil independence, McCain is AWOL, missing in action.

Well, Paul, at least you were spared this.

I remember when I was on the investigation in Alaska, fishermen, bankrupted, utterly ruined – Kompkoff’s co-plaintiffs in the suit before the court – floated their soon-to-be repossessed boats into the tanker lanes with banners reading, “EXXON SUXX.” To which they could now add, about a one-time stand-up Senator: “McCain duxx.”

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Hear Greg Palast with Rosanne Barr on Air America’s Clout! Rosanne is sitting in for host Richard Greene who carries the weekly Palast Report. Look for the podcast on www.GregPalast.com tomorrow

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The Religion (and Politics) of Hypocrisy

There are two subjects that grab 75% of my attention when on line… politics and religion. I take special critical notation of the intermingling of the two, especially when it relates to how radical fundamentalist Christians have pronounced their ownership of the Republican Party and what that ownership has done to destroy the party to some extent.

One key focus for me has been the hypocritical aspect of how right wing America uses its “Christian Nation” self-identification, while endorsing things Christ would have NOTHING, whatsoever, to do with (if you actually read and understand His words… they are red in many Bibles… just a hint).

I had an argument with my dad a few years ago, in which he kept suggesting that the war we find ourselves in is really Islam against Christianity… and at the time, I couldn’t believe anyone in the administration would ever admit it out loud, whether true or not.

But everyone knows that the rule of thumb for judging where the administration’s ideology sets is by listening to any of the reTHUGilcan pundits, such as Coulter, Hannity, O’Reilley, Limbaugh, Savage, etc) and you realize that race and religious attacks are, indeed, their weapon of choice. Just listen and realize how the meme changed from Islam being a religion of peace (Bush’s earliest speeches) to everything being “radical Islamic fascism”, etc. They have slowly brainwashed much of America (with the help of the religious nutcases on “our” side) that this is the case.

However, the “Men of God” (Christian Leaders) that sidle up to the ReTHUGs preach and teach the very same hatred and idiotic dominance type things, with the only exception, they know that inciting violence is illegal. They avoid that, but their bullshit is just as idiotic and brain numbing as the “other side” (Islam).

Glenn Greenwaldaddresses the latest endorsement for McCain, the “Man-of-God” (Mr “Snapper”, himself), The Reverend, Pastor, Doctor, Monsignor John Hagee… the Rapture Man. He compares the attacks against Obama for the endorsement Mr Farrakhan gave him (unrequested) and the radicalness of Farrakhan’s brand of Islam and how the right (McCain) can embrace Hagee (even though he, too, is a radical “crazy”). For Hagee truly is a nutcase:

* All Muslims are programmed to kill and we can thus never negotiate with any of them. From an NPR interview Hagee gave to Terry Gross in 2006:

TG: If you use the Bible as the basis for policy, is there any room for compromise? And if you use the bible as the basis for policy, should Muslims use the Koran as the basis for their policy, and then again, what possible basis is there for compromise at that point?JH: There is really no room for compromise between radical Islam –

TG: I’m not talking about radical Islam. I’m just talking about Islam in general. JH: Well Islam in general — those who live by the Koran have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews.

* God caused Hurricane Katrina to wipe out New Orleans because it had a gay pride parade the week before and was filled with sexual sin. From the same interview:

JH: All hurricanes are acts of God, because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that.The newspaper carried the story in our local area, that was not carried nationally, that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it would was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other gay pride parades.

So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the Day of Judgment, and I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.

* The End Times — Rapture — is imminent and the U.S. Government must do what it can to hasten it, which at minimum requires: (a) a war with Iran and (b) undying, absolute support for a unified Israel, including all Occupied Territories (hence, Joe Lieberman’s love affair with them). From Christian Palestinian Daoud Kuttab in The New York Times (h/t PZ Meyers):

A small minority of evangelical Christians have entered the Middle East political arena with some of the most un-Christian statements I have ever heard. . . . [Rev.] Hagee, a popular televangelist who leads the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, ratcheted up his rhetoric this year with the publication of his book, “Jerusalem Countdown,” in which he argues that a confrontation with Iran is a necessary precondition for Armageddon (which will mean the death of most Jews, in his eyes) and the Second Coming of Christ. In the best-selling book, Hagee insists that the United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West.

Do you rednecks understand what this guy is saying? In the name of the Christ?

Can you honestly believe that he is “better” than any radical Islamic Emam? How so? Bomb from airplanes are far worse than one strapped to a single person… maybe not as personal, but far more efficient. And gutless. And the height of hypocrisy.

The GOP has long been given a pass on courting the most warped and twisted religious figures around. George Bush spoke regularly with Pat Robertson — never once forced to “denounce” or “reject” him. In 2006, Rev. Hagee had a private meeting with uber-White House neocon (and convicted criminal) Elliot Abrams, who just happens to run Middle East policy in the Bush administration, and afterwards, Hagee gushed that he and Abrams (like he and Lieberman) shared similar views towards the Middle East: “we felt we were on the right track.”

Watching the media’s treatment of Farrakhan and Hagee, is it possible to imagine a more transparent, and grotesque, double standard? In the framework of the Russert-led establishment press, white evangelical Christians are, by definition, entitled to great respect no matter how radical, extreme and hateful their professed views are. These are, after all, religious Christians — People of Faith — and, as such, it is wrong, even bigoted, to suggest that they should be repudiated. There is nothing ever radical, hateful or dangerous about the views of white evangelical Christians like Hagee.

Of course Farrakhan is a nutcase. But he is virtually the same as the “Men of God” who flirt with the right. Worse, because they are protected by the media and the THUG party.

How come Tim Russert — in all the times he sits and chats with Lieberman, McCain and various high Bush officials — never reads all of the inflammatory, disgusting, crazed “Rapture-is-Coming/ All-Jews-will-Burn/ Kill-All-Muslims/ Hurricanes-are-Punishment-against-Gays” pronouncements from John Hagee and James Dobson and Pat Robertson and demand that John McCain and George Bush and Joe Lieberman “denounce” those views and “reject” their support? What’s the difference, exactly?

Glenn, the difference is obvious. Big Media is framing the election. And we are the dupes.

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Jen’s Update: Direct From Lil Sis

hi, everyone! thanks for all of your supportive and wonderful comments. they are all so nice.

it’s jen and it’s late. i just checked this site out recently. i admit i felt a bit uncomfortable about having a page focused on my illness. must sound weird to some people, but when you’ve been so linked to fighting a tumor for going on 9 years, life can be a bit strange.

it dawned on me the other day that sometimes i can’t clearly remember life before diagnosis. this is neither good nor bad–just different. my life is filled with many gifts from God. i think it’s all a little trickier a life than i might have expected, but i certainly wouldn’t trade it.

on the subject of my scorpion ; ) trial, the injections and scans are done. i have another trip in a few months to visit the doc i think. well, matthew knows for sure–but he’s asleep.

it was quite an experience having scorpion venom injected into your head followed by a radioactive isotope. it was like they put a little paper placemat with a hole in the middle of it on the side of my head. then I felt a little pin prick and a very tiny amount of pressure. they would put a little in for about a minute and a half or so. then they took a minute break.. the whole injection process was less than 10 minutes per treatment.

As soon as I was rolled out in the hall from the infusion, I would be met with a Geiger counter. Having your radioactivity measured is just plain kooky! : ) and I was particularly “hot” from my first 2 infusions.

The night of my infusion, I would spend the night in a special area of the hospital. Two of the three nights I spent there, they had to put lead shields around me because I was literally “leaking” my radioactivity into the hall. That’s nuts!!!!

BUT…………………….THE CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The scrumptious meals they fed me—no kidding. Crazy, delicious food. French toast, chocolate cake, vanilla cake with super thick frosting, pot roast & mashed potatoes, clam chowder, outstanding fruit salad plates. Oh, my! Couldn’t pass on any of it. Tummy still hurts.

Worse part was really just the blood sticks. I just don’t have the veins for all the needles. Yuck!!!! Outside of that, it wasn’t scary or uncomfortable. It will be so odd next week when I have no trip to Alabama. I won’t know what to do without my little schedule.

I have to say the folks in ‘bama were great. I will miss seeing them. Well, I will get to see my trial nurse and doc three more times for MRI follow-ups. (I’m pretty sure that’s right)

Thank you all again for all your well wishes, prayers and messages. I hope the first part of my entry didn’t seem too strange for anyone. I’m just a little tired.

Lots of love!

jen

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