More Shocking Profit Taking by ExxonMobil & Oil Giants

More Shocking Profit Taking by ExxonMobil & Oil Giants

Previously unheard of profits of $39.5 billion dollars were reported this week by giant ExxonMobil for the year. With $1 billion you could purchase 50,000 automobiles at $20,000 per vehicle. One billion dollars could provide 500,000 people with $2,000 per person of health and/or dental care. With one billion dollars you could build 20 schools or hospitals with a price tag of $50 million each. While consumers were paying $3 a gallon at the pump, this giant corporation had profit…

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General George Casey Becomes Senator McCain’s Scapegoat

General George Casey Becomes Senator McCain’s Scapegoat

Talk about a predictable political tactic. Senator John McCain’s (R-AZ) attack on General George Casey & the other U.S.military leaders in Iraq at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing is classic political ducking and dodging on the part of Senator McCain. In August of 2004 during a prime time speech on the opening night of the Republican Convention, McCain strongly endorsed Mr. Bush’s Iraq policies. In spite of the failed Bush war policies, as a pro Iraq war hawk, the…

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Bonnie Prince Charlie & the Quality of Loyality

Bonnie Prince Charlie & the Quality of Loyality

The 1948 movie version of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" (1720 – 1788) staring David Niven is virtually all fiction. However, the historical facts are of interest at least in regard to the quality of loyalty. Charles Edward Stuart, known as "the young pretender" and "bonnie prince Charlie" was an exiled claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland living in Italy. He was the grandson of King James II who had been deposed in the revolution of 1688 and was…

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Vice President Richard Cheney – Unrestrained Arrogance

Vice President Richard Cheney – Unrestrained Arrogance

America has had Vice Presidents who have been notable for their conduct in office. Take Vice President Aaron Burr who killed Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. Then there is Richard Johnson, Vice President under Van Buren, who brought his slave and mistress with him to Washington to act as his hostess. It was Spiro Agnew, Vice President to Richard Nixon, who was sent to prison for income tax violations and took bribes in the White…

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Mr. Bush’s New Executive Order to Muzzle Regulagatory Agencies

Mr. Bush’s New Executive Order to Muzzle Regulagatory Agencies

I have complained previously about the people Mr. Bush appointments to executive positions in regulatory agencies because they were named in order to undermine the function of the agency. (Mr. Bush’s Appointment of Julie MacDonald 12/29) Now it appears Mr. Bush has found a new way of keeping regulatory agencies from doing their intended job. He has just issued a new executive order which gives him far greater power over government agencies. Mr. Bush’s order says each agency must have…

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Bush Politics & U.S. Attorney Carol Lam

Bush Politics & U.S. Attorney Carol Lam

United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has long time connections to President Bush. It dates back to Mr. Bush, as Governor of Texas naming him as his general counsel while Gonzales was a partner in the Houston firm of Vinson and Elkins during the time the firm represented Enron. Later he served as Texas Secretary of State before being appointed to the Texas Supreme Court by Mr. Bush. After Mr. Bush was elected President, Gonzales was appointed to serve as…

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Overpaid CEO’s & Tort Reform

Overpaid CEO’s & Tort Reform

One of the loudest cries of big business, in their tort reform campaign, is that of limiting the fees of contingent fee tort lawyers. Big business talks about the "greedy trial lawyers" and "outrageous fees" they want to limit to an amount which would effectively close the court house doors to injured citizens. So what about their own salaries? We have seen as common place, big corporations giving a wink and a nod to golden parachutes for departing CEO’s even…

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Umberto Nobile – Italian Airship Explorer

Umberto Nobile – Italian Airship Explorer

I enjoyed reading the book,Disaster at the Pole. It’s a story about Umberto Nobile, an Italian aeronautical engineer and pioneer in Arctic aviation. He had designed and built dirigibles for Italy during the Italo-Turkish war in 1912. The book is a discription of his historic flights in airships across the North Pole. Born in 1885 in Italy, he died in Rome in 1978. During his life he made two flights in balloons over the pole without landing on either flight….

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Sammy the Limo Driver & The War in Iraq

Sammy the Limo Driver & The War in Iraq

A few days ago, my wife Lita and I, along with our two Bischons’s, Napoleon and Josephine, were being driven to the Scottsdale airport for our flight back to Gig Harbor. During the drive our driver (call me "Sammy"), said he had been in Iraq for two years eight months and had recently returned. He was a translator for the military. He said he had been born in Iraq where his father was an engineer with the oil industry and…

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Senator Boxer, Condoleezza Rice & The Tactic of Personal Attack

Senator Boxer, Condoleezza Rice & The Tactic of Personal Attack

In argument, "selective observation" uses the technique of only focusing on part of what is said and ignoring the rest. This type of response in argument might be called "cherry picking." It creates distraction from the overall point and is used by politicians defending themselves. However, a much more common technique, especially with the Bush administration, is that of "personal attack." This form of response is well known in political and communication circles. It refers to the practice of responding…

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