Corporate Greed

The UN report on climate change has come out and says global warming is now "unstoppable". So who do we thank for getting to this point? Here is a starter:

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Yup - the greedy bastards at $75,000 a minute Exxon are a big factor behind this. Of course they couldn't have got this far with out help from Bush himself. Since the rest of the world actually takes global warming more seriously than we do, this makes another great reason for them to hate us. Thats ok. Once we are all dead because this planet can not sustain life anymore, these idiots will be nothing either. They can't take the money with them and I hope there is really a hell as people like this will be very welcomed.

That is the profit Exxon Mobile earned last year - $39.5 billion. But we should feel sorry for them! I wish I made $75,000 in the time it took me to write this post.

Remember when Christmas was about "peace on earth and goodwill towards men"? This would be a perfect way to symbolize that sentiment.

Well it is unless you live in one of those corporate run communities that have a home owners association:

A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

Some residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He said some residents have also believed it was a symbol of Satan. Three or four residents complained, he said.

"Somebody could put up signs that say drop bombs on Iraq. If you let one go up you have to let them all go up," he said in a telephone interview Sunday.

So the home owner's association is upset because they feel it speaks out against Iraq - you know that war where we are supposed to be spreading democracy? So how about this democratic approach to handling the situation:

Kearns ordered the committee to require Jensen to remove the wreath, but members refused after concluding that it was merely a seasonal symbol that didn't say anything. Kearns fired all five committee members.

That sounds like George Bush styled democracy to me - if something isn't decided upon the way you want then you fire them. I really hope this case ends up going to court so that these so-called "activist judges" can rule in favor of freedom of speech.

If anything people should learn a lesson from this. Don't purchase a home in a condominium or community with a home owner's association. It deprives you of your very basic right in this democracy of owning land. They also deprive you of your constitutional right of free speech and a shining example of why corporations absolutely hate what America stands for.

A post-election e-mail to executives at the drug company GlaxoSmithKline details just how tough. "We now have fewer allies in the Senate," says the internal memo, obtained by The Washington Post. "Thus, there is greater risk over the next two years that bad amendments will be offered to pending legislation." The company's primary concerns are bills that would allow more imported drugs and would force price competition for drugs bought under Medicare.

The defeat of Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) "creates a big hole we will need to fill," the e-mail says. Sen.-elect Jon Tester (D-Mont.) "is expected to be a problem," it says, and the elevation to the Senate of Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) "will strengthen his ability to challenge us."

That is buried in an article in yesterday's Washington Post. Should they be afraid? Hell yeah they should! The 109th Republican controlled Congress has been a gift horse to mega corporations in this country and it has been the American people that have paid the price. The Democrats need to restore the power to the people and take it away from these corporate greed mongers. They also need to start pushing legislation through that makes such things as price gouging a serious crime with mandatory prison time for anyone involved. We pay the highest prices in the world for medicines and there is no excuse for that.