Shell posts "obscene" profits

Daily Mail

Shell smashed all-time British company profit records today, posting 2007 earnings of $27.5billion (£13.9billion), and immediately ran into a storm with union leaders, who are demanding the Government hits the oil giant with a windfall tax.

Shell's profit surge - it is now making a staggering $75million (£38million) a day - on the back of a booming oil price that touched $100 a barrel this winter, was labelled as "obscene" by Tony Woodley of Unite, the UK's largest trade union, as Britons struggle with soaring energy costs.

What can I add? It's obvious that there need to be higher taxes on obscenely wealthy corporations and obscenely wealthy individuals. Perhaps the UK with their stronger labor traditions can make this happen. In the US, we don't seem to be interested in higher taxes for the wealthy, under the mistaken apprehension that this will somehow stifle growth. What a crock.

Who needs activist judges?

The rabid right is always going off about "activist judges" (translation: judges who rule against their dearly-held beliefs). But as John says, who needs judges at all, when you've got a pen?...

Why don't we all just go home now. Bush isn't going to abide by any law that Congress passes, and Congress doesn't really seem to care that the executive has stolen all of their power. So seriously, why are we here? If you guys aren't going to defend yourselves, how can we count on you to defend the country?

From the Boston Globe:

President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq, that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill.

Bush made the assertion in a signing statement that he issued late Monday after signing the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008. In the signing statement, Bush asserted that four sections of the bill unconstitutionally infringe on his powers, and so the executive branch is not bound to obey them.

No, in America we go to court to determine if laws unconstitutionally infringe on the president's powers. The president doesn't just get to decide by himself, especially when he's a blithering idiot. No one in America gets to decide which laws do and don't apply to them. That's a judge's job. B

A little cognitive dissonance anyone?

Stick around 'til the end, it's worth it. Love how the right-winger on the panel contributes only his idea that the apostles would be packin' heat if they were around today. This impressive contribution to the debate is rapidly shot down (pun intended) by D.L. Hughley.

Dan Savage is wonderful as the "Ozzie and Harriet, but homo" who makes it hard for the Hucklechuck supporters to hate him to his face. Oh, that's right, love the sinner...blah blah blah.

Want to "fix" social security?

About.com

Fact - Payroll taxes (called FICA) are now withheld from US workers' paychecks on the first $97,000 of their annual incomes. That means that if a person earns $400,000 a year, he pays exactly the same FICA as the person who earns $97,000 a year. (This is called a payroll tax cap, because it's capped at $97,000.)

Fact - If the payroll tax cap was raised to $200,000 per year, there would be NO Social Security funding gap for more than 100 years.

Fact - When President Bush states that he will not raise taxes to "reform" Social Security, that means he will not ask the wealthy to pay more because he refuses to raise the payroll tax cap.

Easy, huh?

File Under "H" for Hypocrisy; Cross-ref "R" for Republican

365Gay

The district attorney who defended the Texas law criminalizing homosexuality before the US Supreme Court is desperately trying to keep his job following the discovery of e-mails containing sexually explicit videos, racist jokes and what is described as torrid love notes to his executive secretary.

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal (R) is facing a state investigation into the emails which were discovered on his office computer.

If he is found in violation of "official misconduct'' he could be removed from office. The office computer also contained evidence he had used it for political purposes.

Rosenthal who is married and portrayed himself as a "family values" candidate ended his re-election campaign last week after the sexy emails to his secretary were discovered. His current term runs out at the end of 2008

The more someone decries "Family Values!!! Family Values!!!!" the further you should stay away. The more someone screams how honest they are, the tighter you should hold on to your wallet.

It would be funny if it weren't so sad that so many Americans are still fooled by the old "Family Values" canard.

Holy Air Compressor Batman

From Cliff Schecter:

There exists a non-polluting, inexpensive car. But it's not for sale here. That would upset Big Oil and BushCo. No, no, it will be available in Europe and India, not in the USA, the biggest contributor to global warming on earth:

BBC News is reporting that a French company has developed a pollution-free car which runs on compressed air. India's Tata Motors has the car under production and it may be on sale in Europe and India by the end of the year.

The air car, also known as the Mini-CAT or City Cat, can be refueled in minutes from an air compressor at specially equipped gas stations and can go 200 km on a 1.5 euro fill-up -- roughly 125 miles for $3. The top speed will be almost 70 mph and the cost of the vehicle as low as $7000.

NOT Charlie Wilson's War

So we got around to seeing "Charlie Wilson's War" over the weekend. Some thoughts:

• It should have been called "Joanne Herring's War" since according to the movie and this Telegraph article, Joanne was the real driving force behind getting Charlie to Pakistan which started him down the path to funding the Mujahadeen. Now, why it wasn't called "Joanne Herring's war" probably has more than a little to do with the fact that the original book about the topic was written by a man (George Crile); and that the movie was directed and written by men (Mike Nichols and Aaron Sorkin)



• Wealthy Texas socialites who are only involved in world affairs through the wealth of their trophy-husbands should NOT be involved in world affairs. Joanne, for example, was a great supporter of Franco, Pinochet along with her zeal for General Zia. According to her interview on CBS' Sunday Morning this morning "sometimes a benign dictator is necessary to rise people out of poverty." Benign would be the operative word in that sentence, Joanne. And methinks "sometimes a benign dictator is necessary to keep people like Joanne Herring safe in their hundreds of millions of dollars from those who might want to distribute wealth in a different way."



• Conspiracies can and do exist. Witness this 10 year, $3-10 Billion dollar war which was funded completely in secret and was never discovered by the American press nor the American public. Many don't believe conspiracies can exist as "someone will talk." Puh-leeze people, a few well-connected well-funded levers can and do move the world and no one breathed a word about it.

Spears - A Look Back

September 2003

SPEARS: Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision he makes and should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens.

CARLSON: Do you trust this president?

SPEARS: Yes, I do.

I have nothing but sympathy for this poor woman. She has never really been made to know her own mind. Quotes like the above show that she is part of the large part of America who has been raised to just listen to authority (be it the president or the pastor) and has NOT been taught to think for herself.

If we want to avoid Britneys, we need to teach children to think critically, to question, to reason, to critically evaluate all the millions of bits of information thrown-up on them each day. Perhaps if Britney had been taught to question more, she may have been able to tell who were her friends and who were hangers-on; she may have sought help earlier in her life.

I hope that she can somehow get the help she needs to start again as a reasoning human being who understands how best to avoid scenes like those plastered on our TVs this morning. I hope she can be a better parent. I hope she can teach her sons what she was not taught: Question everything:

This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul.” -----Walt Whitman