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Post by lumpy on Feb 29, 2008 15:21:59 GMT -5
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703207.html?hpid=topnews 19 years later and Exxon still hasn't ponied up?!?! A new trial? After 19 years of legal fighting? Out on the plaza after the argument, Brian O'Neill, one of the Alaska victims' lawyers, conceded that, whatever the Supreme Court's ruling, Exxon had already won. "I guess the lesson you learn," he said, "is that if you're big and powerful enough, you can bring the system to a halt." Do the corporations buck the system? It seems to me that they are the system.
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Post by lumpy on Feb 29, 2008 15:30:29 GMT -5
Exxon suxx. McCain duxx By Greg Palast 27 February 2008.
Nineteen goddamn years is enough. I’m sorry if you don’t like my language, but when I think about what they did to Paul Kompkoff, I’m in no mood to nicey-nice words.
Next month marks 19 years since the Exxon Valdez dumped its load of crude oil across the Prince William Sound, Alaska. A big gooeysmallalaksaoil.jpg load of this crude spilled over the lands of the Chenega Natives. Paul Kompkoff was a seal-hunter for the village. That is, until Exxon’s ship killed the seal and poisoned the rest of Chenega’s food supply.
While cameras rolled, Exxon executives promised they’d compensate everyone. Today, before the US Supreme Court, the big oil company’s lawyers argued that they shouldn’t have to pay Paul or other fishermen the damages ordered by the courts.
They can’t pay Paul anyway. He’s dead.
That was part of Exxon’s plan. They told me that. In 1990 and 1991, I worked for the Chenega and Chugach Natives of Alaska on trying to get Exxon to pay up to save the remote villages of the Sound. Exxon’s response was, “We can hold out in court until you’re all dead.”
Nice guys. But, hell, they were right, weren’t they?
But Exxon didn’t do it alone. They had enablers. One was a failed oil driller named “Dubya.” Exxon was the largest contributor to George W. Bush’s political career after Enron. They were a team, Exxon and Enron. The Chairman of Enron, Ken Lay, prior to his felony convictions, funded a group called Texans for Law Suit Reform. The idea was to prevent Natives, consumers and defrauded stockholders from suing felonious corporations and their chiefs.
When George went to Washington, Enron and Exxon got their golden pass in the appointment of Chief Justice John Roberts. Today, as the court heard Exxon’s latest stall, Roberts said, in defense of Exxon’s behavior in Alaska, “What more can a corporation do?”
The answer, Your Honor, is plenty.
For starters, Mr. Roberts, Exxon could have turned on the radar. What? On the night the Exxon Valdez smacked into Bligh Reef, the Raycas radar system was turned off. Exxon shipping honchos decided it was too expensive to maintain it and train their navigators to use it. So, the inexperienced third mate at the wheel was driving the supertanker by eyeball, Christopher Columbus style. I kid you not.
Here’s what else this poor ‘widdle corporation could do: stop lying.
On the night of March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez was not even supposed to leave harbor.
If a tanker busts open, that doesn’t have to mean a thousand miles of shoreline gets slimed – so long as oil-slick containment equipment is in place.
On the night of March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez was not supposed have left port. No tanker can unless a spill containment barge is operating nearby. That night, the barge was in dry-dock, locked under ice. Exxon kept that fact hidden, concealing the truth even after the tanker grounded. An Exxon official radioed the emergency crew, “Barge is on its way.”
Paul’s gone – buried with Exxon’s promises. But the oil’s still there. Go out to Chenega lands today. At Sleepy Bay, kick over some gravel and it will smell like a gas station.
Cut and Pasted from Fark thread attached to original article. I cut out the connection to John McCain as I felt it wasn't truly relevant to the issue.
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Post by kittenhart on Feb 29, 2008 21:46:22 GMT -5
They can’t pay Paul anyway. He’s dead. That was part of Exxon’s plan. They told me that. In 1990 and 1991, I worked for the Chenega and Chugach Natives of Alaska on trying to get Exxon to pay up to save the remote villages of the Sound. Exxon’s response was, “We can hold out in court until you’re all dead.” I am starting to think this is the general strategy of all major corporations in response to enviro contamination.... Don't even think about reading about groundwater contamination cases unless you have a huge box'o'Kleenex. No offense to any lawyers that may be around the boards, but sometimes your job must make you just vomit, thinking about all the lies, piled miles and miles deep, oozing black piles of lies that seep like creosote out of every fucking crack. It is very sad....not sure what could be done about it though. Your average joe just does not have the knowledge, money, or connections.
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Post by freckles on Feb 29, 2008 21:50:58 GMT -5
It was all caused by Beer
A Drunk Captan & Crew
They should also Sue Beer
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Post by kittenhart on Feb 29, 2008 21:57:00 GMT -5
People should not drink and drive any kind of vehicle or machinery....but people seem to think that boats are safer, which is definately not true....
but I don't think you can just blame it all on the booze, Freck.
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Post by lumpy on Feb 29, 2008 22:09:02 GMT -5
People should not drink and drive any kind of vehicle or machinery....but people seem to think that boats are safer, which is definately not true.... but I don't think you can just blame it all on the booze, Freck. The scope of the disaster had more to do with Exxon not following proper procedure. No radar guidance+no cleanup barge=ecological disaster. It's a farking joke that they are still trying to wheedle their way out of this.
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Post by kittenhart on Mar 1, 2008 12:42:41 GMT -5
Isn't it illegal not to have radar and SatNav on commercial boats? It's not that expensive, truthfully.
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Post by lumpy on Mar 1, 2008 13:32:21 GMT -5
Isn't it illegal not to have radar and SatNav on commercial boats? It's not that expensive, truthfully. Yep. It's also illegal to have a tanker of that size operating in coastal waters without a clean-up barge operating within an hour's range of that tanker. The whole thing is a joke. They make their own rules.
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Post by Saucy on Mar 1, 2008 21:19:54 GMT -5
there was another oil spill in puerto rico, supposedly hush hush, bcause noone gives a shit.
pretty sad honestly.
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Post by gdgross on Mar 3, 2008 19:31:27 GMT -5
This shiat pisses me off.
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