Guess Which Company Is The World’s MOST Profitable?

Wal-Mart?

Good guess, but no. From Amanda at ThinkProgress:

Exxon Mobil ranked as #1 most profitable company for fifth year straight.

Oil giant Exxon Mobil takes second place on the new Fortune 500 list, with first place going to Wal-Mart. Exxon Mobil, however, was the most profitable company for the fifth year in a row, “raking in a record-breaking $40 billion in 2007 earnings.”

I made a decision last year to avoid Exxon, unless running on fumes and there is not another source for petro. Last chance, as it were. We don’t have many choices, so they have a stranglehold on this country.

Sort of like rebelling against telephone companies due to their complicity with Bush on eaves dropping and spying on Americans. There aren’t many to choose from that DIDN’T work with Bush. And those that refused end up in jail on trumped up charges (imagine that).

I swear, I would buy some alternative energy car just so I would not have to buy gas anymore and give these crooks even more profit.

BTW: if you rednecks still think that it is just a coincidence that Bush and Cheney are Oil Men and that the price of gas has more than tripled since “Mission Accomplished” then you are surely a fool.

Joseph Nacchio: Crook or Hero?

A quick bit from Wiki on Joseph Nacchio for background:

Joseph P. Nacchio (born June 22, 1949), in Brooklyn, New York, was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Qwest Communications International from 1997 to 2002. He was convicted of 19 counts of insider tradingin Qwest stock on April 19, 2007.^[1]On July 27 2007, Joseph Nacchio was sentenced to six years in federal prison. Federal Judge Edward Nottingham also ordered Nacchio to pay a $19 million fine and forfeit $52 million he gained in illegal stock sales. As of October 15, 2007 he was free on bail, appealing his conviction on the basis that the U.S. government retaliated against Qwest for his refusal to give customer data to the National Security Agency. ^[2]

Back when the Bush Admin began its illegal wire-tapping, they approached the bigger telephone companies and “asked” their permission and for their participation in the illegal activities. AT&T, Verizon, Bellsouth (and others) joined right in and made huge profits for being Bush’s partners-in-crime. But there were a few patriots who understood that it was against the law and stood up to the Hitleresque tyrant.

Amazingly, it wasn’t long before this man became a target of retaliation (so it appears and since everything else Bush does is illegal or for retribution, it must be the case now, as well) and was convicted of a crime, when the “crime” was still 9 months into the future. What is important to note is that he was a key figure at one time in government, with security clearance and the whole works (he probably knew full well that what they were asking for was illegal):

Nacchio joined Qwest in 1997 from AT&T^[5].

While Chairman, Nacchio was serving on two federal advisory panels — the Network Reliability and Interoperability Council and the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. He was Chairman of the latter and was given a top secret security clearance in the late 1990s.

Now, I don’t know if this man is a crook or not, but I do know that anything and everything Bush’s Admin does is subject to illegality (likely perpetrators, is more like it) or complete stupidity. In any event that can be dreamed up, any circumstance in his tenure and all I come up with is Massive Fail. So, it gives me some hope that justice may be real when I read something like this from the Wall Street Journal:

A federal appeals court has ordered a new trial for Joseph Nacchio, the former chief executive of Qwest Communications International Inc. who had been convicted on insider-trading charges.

The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals based its decision on the improper exclusion of testimony by an expert witness but said the evidence against Mr. Nacchio “was sufficient for the government to try him again without violating the double jeopardy clause.” The court also ordered a new judge to preside over any new trial for Mr. Nacchio.

The appeals court had been pondering Mr. Nacchio’s case since Dec. 15.

In April Mr. Nacchio was found guilty on 19 counts of insider trading for selling $52 million of stock in the spring of 2001 while knowing that his company’s finances were in trouble. He was sentenced in July to six years in prison but has remained free on appeal.

Federal Judge Edward Nottingham invoked greed as a motivation for Mr. Nacchio’s actions, ordering him to pay a $19 million fine and to forfeit $52 million he gained in illegal stock sales.

Mr. Nacchio’s appeal argued that what he knew about the company’s finances when he sold stock wasn’t “material” information requiring disclosure to investors.

OK, so my 1st thought (and Google search) was who is this Federal Judge Edward Nottinghamand for goodness gracious sakes alive, what a bad, little naughty, nasty boy this Judge has been. Big Spender with the ladiesstrippers, it appears (altho his wife wasn’t such a stripper fan).

But “human frailties and foibles” be what they may, and the fact that I could care less if he is paying horses to strip for him, personally, I want to know what association this dude has with Bush, for when their is fire, there is a burning Bush.

Then, lo and behold, Abovethelaw.com has an archive page on this rascal who not only puts the “ho” in “your Honor”, but likes to threaten handicap people after he steals their handicap parking spot (what a total asshole… he must be kin to Bush):

Longtime readers will recall that Chief Judge Edward Nottingham (D. Colorado) is no longer eligible for our coveted Judge of the Day prize. After he threatened to call the U.S. Marshals service on a handicapped woman whose handicapped parking spot he stole, a few short months after it was revealed he dropped more than $3,000 at a strip club in two consecutive days — but couldn’t remember doing so, ’cause he was so darn drunk — we decided it wasn’t fair to the rest of the judiciary to leave him in the competition.

That call now appears prescient. From Denver 9 (via the Rocky Mountain News):

[T]he U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit is investigating Chief U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham for the third time in the past year. He is being investigated for improper judicial conduct after his full name and personal cell phone number appeared on a list of clients from a Denver prostitution business.The business called Denver Players or Denver Sugar was shut down in January after IRS and Denver Police investigators served search warrants at the brothel on Fillmore Street.

First the prominent governor of a leading state, and now the chief federal judge in a major city. Are high-class call girls a growing trend in the upper echelons of the legal profession?

More details, including the judge’s highly appropriate nickname — no, not “Paulie Walnuts” — after the jump…

Now, I’m only on the second search result on Google and haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. So, click some more and find that virtually no one likes this guy and many thought he was a tyrant and dickhead (see, I told you he was Bush’s kin):

“One of the meanest, most imperial judges in the history of Colorado,” is how one lawyer described this judge in a March 14, 2008 column for The Westword.

For the last nearly twenty years, Edward W. Nottingham has been described by journalists as an “irascible,” “impatient,” “no-nonsense federal judge with a low tolerance for courtroom shenanigans, unprepared attorneys or unnecessary delays.”

He has been described by attorneys as caustic, vitriolic, callous, cantankerous, ill-tempered and disharmonious.  Characteristic of his denigrations of attorneys (as quoted from one example case) is, “You people are unbelievable,” his voice growing in volume, he adds, “What I’m dealing with here is a couple of children, and I’ll tell you that right to your face.”

As for pro se litigants, we’ll never know how he might have treated them, because they rarely have the “privilege” of their day in His Majesty’s court. (click here)…

But what about Republican or reTHUGlican connections (for they aren’t necessarily the same). Papa Bush annointedappointed him and he certainly is a republican and Thug, so you do the math… nevermind, I’ll do it. He is a reTHUGlican. This means that anything he does is suspect as illegal.

Then I realized when I visited dotcommonsense (as many of you already knew) that Elliot Spitzer was the prosecutor that brought down Nacchio, so WTF? There are too many intertwining connections in all of this and as I mentioned, they cannot be trusted for they are either evil maniacs or idiotic fools (neither is acceptable to me). Something is amiss, as they say.

Hmmm. Federal District Judge Also Caught in Investigation of Hooker Ring.

One or more of the reports linked here mentioned that Nottingham was appointed to the District court by George H.W Bush.  But other details emerge, and his behavior was so well documented and bled even into court that I don’t think this qualifies as balancing the secret investigation of Spitzer.

And finally (on the second page — aka disappeared) tells us that Nottingham is the judge that convicted Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio of insider trading last year.

Nacchio Nacchio where did I hear that name before?

Well, the CEO of Qwest was investigated in 2003 by New York Attorney General (you guessed it) Eliot Spitzer.

According to Rocky Mountain News report “Allegations against Spitzer don’t affect Nacchio case, experts say “

Spitzer became famous for his zealous attacks on Wall Street as New York’s attorney general. The cases ensnarled prominent Colorado executives and companies such as Nacchio, Qwest founder Phil Anschutz, Invesco and Janus.

Spitzer charged Nacchio and Anschutz with improperly profiting from hot initial public offering stocks in exchange for steering investment banking business to Salomon Bros.

They also add some additional links on the subject, but all this seems a bit too convenient for me.

If you must know more about the Colorado judge and Nacchio cases also read

Rocky Mountain News reports:

Appeals difficult vs. Nacchio judge

And

Complaint vs. judge probed

For more salicious details on Nottingham try the more mainstream Denver Post:

Not-so-honorable judge presides

About Qwest being the only major telecommunications company to defy  NSA data request see USA Today report:

NSA has massive database of Americans’ phone calls