Saddam Hussein was hanged today. I know the vast majority of people cheered the hanging, but I don’t agree with the state killing people for their crimes, even when it is a brutal dictator like Saddam. I know that is an unpopular view with most people and that the majority of Americans agree with capital punishment, but I believe it should be abolished and punishment of life in prison without possibility of parole substituted in its place. It is true…
The National Law Journal reports (12/4/06) that the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, a case involving global warming. The EPA declined to act under the Clean Air Act, claiming it had no authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. Not only did it duck its responsibility, it said that even if had the authority to act, it wouldn’t do so because of the "uncertainty" about global warming claims. The state of Massachusetts sued to require…
After weeks of opening statements, the plaintiff’s attorney in the Microsoft trial in Iowa, showed not one but two videos to the jury as the opening evidence in the case. The jury spent six days watching video testimony. The first one was a ten hour video deposition of Bill Gates. That was followed by a video deposition of the former CEO of Novell, Richard Williams which was not completed. In three weeks the jury has heard opening statements and the…
The scandal of greedy CEO’s and irresponsible Corporate Boards includes the outgoing CEO of Eddie Bauer, Fabian Mansson. I’ve reported about this fact before (12/19), and now the Seattle P.I. reports that even though Edie Bauer lost $275 million this year and is worth just one third of it’s value a year ago, the outgoing CEO will be paid a $10 Million dollar golden parachute after four years as head of the failing company. Mr. Masson was hired in 2002…
Congress has created a number of regulatory agencies and given them specific roles to protect the public interest. It’s my belief that when Congress creates such a regulatory agency, the President has no right to appoint people to senior positions in the agency with a hidden agenda of intending to undermine or frustrate the agency purpose. Many such appointments do not require approval of Congress and a President is free to appoint anyone he wants whatever their lack of fitness…
Merry Christmas from San Miguel de Allende Mexico.We have come here to spend Christmas. This is a small 450 year old town in the interior of Mexico, some five driving hours from Mexico City. It is is over 6000 feet in elevation with temperatures in the day in the mid 70’s and at night in the mid 40’s. We have rented a 300 year old house which is five blocks from the center of town – the main square. The…
I’ve previously reported here (12/6/06) about the appointments of the Bush administration. They have consistently demonstrated an objective of appointing people who are unfit to head regulatory agencies and positions designed to protect the public from harm and which instead favor big business and industry interests. This failure to put the public first, before money interests, has occurred again. Public Citizen has expressed it’s concern about the White House plan to nominate Susan Dudley as administrator of the Office of…
Discover magazine covered the year in science this month and had many interesting reports. Here are a few. One of them was about Terry Wallis who suffered severe brain damage in an auto accident and for nineteen years was in a speechless, minimally conscious state until one day in 2003 he suddenly called his mother “mom.” After recovering speech he regained some limb use. Doctors used a technique to study his brain and found that it had developed…
Earlier this year, Senator Jay Rockefeller and others sent a letter to ExxonMobil Corporation CEO Rex Tillerson, urging Exxon to stop funding efforts to deny and distort the facts about global warming. The National Association of Manufacturers immediately characterized the letter as a "senators attempt to muzzle global warming debate." As reported previously here, (10/25/06, 11/5/06 & 12/9/06) the oil industry is generally opposed to efforts to control consumption of oil and fossil fuel use as against their financial interests….
Scandal has involved the U.S. home mortgage market which in turn has contributed to the loss of value of the U.S. dollar. Our government doesn’t directly fund or guarantee house mortgages, but it created programs to obtain mortgage loans. To do this the government charted two corporations. They are The Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac"). Fannie Mae was created by the United States Government in 1938 to help provide a…
