ExxonMobil Continues To Clean House

The majority of Americans are struggling at the pump and consequently in all other places that deal with their bank account (food, health care, utilities, etc). With record prices for oil and the popularly refined product known as gasoline, people are being tapped out more than ever to get from point A to point B. So where is all that money going?

From RawStory:

HOUSTON - Exxon Mobil reported second-quarter earnings of $11.68 billion Thursday, the biggest quarterly profit ever by any U.S. corporation, but the results fell well short of Wall Street expectations and shares fell in premarket trading.

The world's largest publicly traded oil company said its net income for the April-June period came to $2.22 a share, up from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 40 percent to $138.1 billion from $98.4 billion in the year-earlier quarter.

Nearly twelve billion in profit....that is approximately a billion dollars a week....for one single oil company (granted it is the largest, but still). How we do not have a windfall profits tax on these greedy bastards is incredible. People are suffering across the country because of the high cost of oil and only a select few are making money off of it.

Bush would never sign anything to help anyone but his base, but Congress must get a bill ready for President Obama to sign in January so that we can start to fix this problem by reining in the oil companies and starting to make a meaningful investment in alternative energy.

McCain's On The Lowest Of Low Roads

Obama's latest ad counters the lies and smears that John McCain has been spreading recently. Now that we all know he is a liar, the next ad should get back to business and bring the fight to John himself.

Nearly Seven Years Later FDNY And NYPD Can Communicate

Nearly seven years ago, our city experienced one of the worst national tragedies our country has ever witnessed. Thousands died in the attacks on the World Trade Center and that included hundreds of firemen, but not from the police department. That occurred because while the NYPD could hear on their radios to get out, the firefighters didn't get the message because their radios weren't able to pick up the same frequencies. Not long after that terrible day, we as a city realized that Giuliani had a chance to fix the radios several years earlier but he did nothing. And now, in 2008, it seems to have taken several years afterwards to fix the error.

From The NY Times:

Emergency medical workers can now contact the police directly via radio. Fire officials use information beamed down from police helicopters. Law enforcement officers and emergency service agencies hold joint drills at high-rise buildings, jails and the city’s tunnels.

Seven years after the harsh lessons of the Sept. 11 attacks, New York City has improved the ability of its Police and Fire Departments to operate together.

On Wednesday, these and other advances were enumerated before the Federal Communications Commission at a public hearing in Brooklyn on improving public safety through better communications among government and emergency agencies.

I am glad to hear that things are working the way they should have nearly fifteen years ago. Though we needed this technology to be in working order as soon as people understood just how much New York is a target for attacks, namely after the 1993 WTC bombing. Yet Giuliani was negligent with the radio problem....and it took nearly the entire term of the Bloomberg Administration too.

Now Out Of The Senate, Lott Is Still A Scumbag

Trent Lott was a real piece of work when he served in the United States Senate and he hasn't parted with his corrupt ways since he left a few months ago. Lott quit the Senate to take a cushy lobbyist job, leaving the State of Mississippi in a tangle (partly due to the Governor) over a special election.

Now three years ago, I remember that George Bush was deeply saddened by the tragic loss of human life and much of New Orleans fact Trent lost his home due to Hurricane Katrina (now thats what I call elitist!). So you'd think that with the Hurricane having personally affected him, he'd take the experience to heart....but then again, he'd have to have one pumping with warm blood to feel empathy for people...and that includes knowing what ethics are.

From ThinkProgress:

Former Mississippi senator Trent Lott, who left Congress last year to become a lobbyist, is alleged to have “urged witnesses to give false information in a Hurricane Katrina lawsuit.” In a sworn deposition last week, an attorney for State Farm Fire & Casualty Cos. asked Lott’s nephew, Zach Scruggs, who had represented the former senator after his house was destroyed by Katrina, if it had been his “custom and habit in prosecuting litigation to have Senator Lott contact and encourage witnesses to give false information?” “I invoke my Fifth Amendment rights in response to that question,” replied Scruggs.

Isn't it funny how these Republicans love to cling to the Bill of Rights when it suits them? Fourth amendment for regular folks, eh, whatever. Fifth amendment to save their own hides, sign me up!

Congresswoman Maloney On The Colbert Report

Stephen Colbert's "Better Know A District" didn't have to travel far for this week's segment. Crosstown from the Colbert studio is the 'fightin 14th' and is represented by my very own Congresswoman. Stephen's shtick is to embarrass the interviewee, but even with his pumping, Carolyn stayed cool (unlike me who couldn't stop laughing):

Bush Professes His Love Of Women By Paying Them Less

Our President may want gynecologist to express their love for women, but when it comes to their paychecks it is a different story. The Paycheck Fairness Act is making its way to the President, but he is showing signs of pulling out his veto crayon and marking all over it. As usual, the White House makes whine out of the upcoming legislation.

From ThinkProgress:

This week, the House is expected to bring the Paycheck Fairness Act to the floor for a vote, legislation that would help close the wage gap between working men and women and “close loopholes that have allowed employers to avoid responsibility” for discriminatory pay. In an official statement, the White House said it would veto the bill:

The bill would unjustifiably amend the Equal Pay Act (EPA) to allow for, among other things, unlimited compensatory and punitive damages, even when a disparity in pay was unintentional. It also would encourage discrimination claims to be made based on factors unrelated to actual pay discrimination by allowing pay comparisons between potentially different labor markets. In addition, it would require the Department of Labor (DOL) to replace its successful approach to detecting pay discrimination with a failed methodology that was abandoned because it had a 93 percent false positive rate. Thus, if H.R. 1338 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.

Wow, what an utter piece of garbage. Does the White House really think anyone is going to believe these excuses? With the pay gap virtually unchanged in thirty years, how successful is the Department of Labor with their approach at detecting pay discrimination? That 93% sounds like their failure rate to protect women, but then again, that number is probably too low.

Cops Assaulting Innocent Cyclists Isn't New

Finally, after months years of the press not covering the brutality of the NYPD in regards to the Critical Mass Bikerides, they decided to put it on their television screens and newspapers for more than five seconds. The video from last week showed the cop in question to be lying about his interaction with one bike rider and thankfully had him fired. Though sadly, for many New Yorkers this is the first time anyone's heard about what goes on. That is why right now, we must speak up on the pattern of abuse, not just the one incident.

From The Gothamist:

Environmental group Times Up! is taking advantage of all the publicity generated by the video of a cop shoving a cyclist off his bike by reminding everyone that this is hardly the first such incident, nor the only one caught on video. The group points out that in 2007 one Richard Vazquez was taken down by a cop in Times Square during a Critical Mass ride, and in 2006 Adrienne Wheeler, a Critical Mass legal observer, was pulled off her bike by then-NYPD-Assistant-Chief Bruce Smolka, who's since retired. (The city settled with Wheeler for $37,000.) In a statement, Times Up! asserts that, “Unfortunately the July 25, 2008 incident is part of a pattern of targeting Critical Mass bike riders.” What's also unfortunate is that the production values on these old videos fail to live up to the new gold standard for police brutality porn.

What needs to happen in order to prevent another senseless beating is something that defies the status quo. Instead of simply dismissing the one bad cop, there should be a formal inquiry into the NYPD and their systemic problems with people who want to ride their bikes together. All these citizens are doing is to promote bicycle riding as a means of transportation, not to irk the police. Perhaps some sort of training is required to inform those ignoramuses that yes, riding a bike is perfectly legal and not an excuse to exercise some sort of internal rage.

A Special Day For Ted Stevens

Kate Klonick of TPMtv explains why July 30th is such a memorable day or the Senator from Alaska:

Republicans Block Bill To Help Paralyzed Americans

Actually that bill, dubbed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Act is one of many items that were initially passed by Congress but because of an arcane Senate rule, one Republican has held up with the support of 41 of his colleagues on the right today. Majority Leader Harry Reid had designed a bill to get all of Coburn's blocked legislation through, but those compassionate conservatives in the Senate thought otherwise. Obviously it is better to play partisan games than to pass bills to help people.

From RawStory:

The Christopher and Dana Reeve Act, named for the actor who was made famous by his portrayal of superman and later became a champion of the disabled, along with his late wife (pictured at right), is part of a broad package created by Democrats which lumps together 36 bills.

It would have allocated $25 million for research on spinal cord injuries, rehabilitation and measures to improve the quality of life for paralyzed Americans. The effort is backed by the Paralyzed Veterans of America, which claims 19,000 members. Some 200,000 Americans suffer spinal cord-related injuries.[...]

The Democrats' package bundled numerous uncontroversial proposals in an attempt to overcome procedural hurdles Coburn has imposed. Dr. Coburn is famous for his efforts to moonlight as a physician while serving in Congress, and was blocked by the Senate when he attempted to continue delivering babies while in office. He's also known for his annual screening of films warning congressional staffers of venereal disease.

So everyone, you can thank elected officials such as Tom Coburn and a majority of the Republican caucus for blocking no-brainer legislation like what you see above. Their leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky counters by saying that Senate Democrats merely want avoid legislation that deals with gas prices. What McConnell fails to note however, is that this bill would only take a small amount of time to get those programs passed and that "dealing with high gas prices" is merely a trick to give more leases to energy companies. Now once this bill gets through, then we can get down to energy legislation that involves alternative sources and not just giveaways to the oil industry.

Inflatable Rat Follows Lieberman To RNC

Not that Joe Lieberman needs a thirty foot tall inflatable animal to remind him of who he is, but it certainly is comical that there are enough passionate activists out there to do it anyways. The increasingly hawkish Senator Lieberman turned his back on his party and now he's practically a Republican. So what better animal is there to represent him than a big nasty rat.

From The Stamford Advocate:

If Lieberman's detractors get their way, their prop would be a 30-foot inflatable rat, the kind unions typically use when construction workers cross picket lines.

"The 30-foot rat is a big rat. A 12-foot rat you can kind of put in the back of a pickup truck A 30-foot rat you have to put on the back of a flatbed," said Ed Anderson, a New Haven Democrat who helped start the Web site DumpJoe.com.

A spokeswoman for Lieberman, who has broken party ranks to endorse McCain, said the self-described independent Democrat hasn't been invited to the GOP convention.

"At this time, there are no plans (to attend)," said Erika Masonhall, Lieberman's press secretary.

Lieberman outraged many Nutmeg State Democrats when he came out in support of his longtime friend McCain for president. To many of them, the move was the latest insult to the party by the man they call a "Democrat in name only."

Lieberman isn't even a DINO, he's lower than that, and thanks to the Democratic voters in Connecticut, he's officially an "independent" politician that had to form a party just for him. It would make a great photo-op to see the inflatable rat next to the real-life version but he doesn't have to show up to the convention in Minneapolis, his support for McCain, the war in Iraq and war in general is plenty for our party.

Even Club For Growth Is Getting Tired Of McCain's Antics

No matter where you are on the political spectrum, one quality that is good to see in a candidate is to know where they stand on an issue. So times must be rough for the McCain campaign if conservative groups like Club for Growth is getting worried about their prospects.

Brownback Outraged By Chinese Domestic Spying; Here At Home, Eh, Not So Much

Senator Sam Brownback was livid about the Chinese government's plans to spy on people at Beijing hotels during the Olympics. I have to agree with him, spying on people (specifically here their internet use) is terrible and should be stopped. The freer information is, the better. Though I have to wonder where his soapbox on this was when FISA was being voted on. Since the Republicans voted in lockstep to let the President spy on Americans, his name is in there to allow for the same thing right here at home. So what's going on here?

From ThinkProgress:

This morning on CNN, asked by host John Roberts if China’s action amounts to “spying,” Brownback continued his outrage:

BROWNBACK: This is the public security bureau in China requiring the installation of hardware that they can listen to anybody and everybody’s and their communications and their recordings that are sent over the internet in a real-time purpose or over long-term. That’s spying, John. […] Your internet communications can all be monitored in a real time basis by the public security bureau of the Chinese government. I think they’re clearly intent upon spying. they’re going to be spying.

Brownback also recently voted for the FISA reform legislation which gave the government greater powers “to tap directly into the U.S. telecommunications systems in order to monitor international emails and telephone calls with no individual warrant required.”

When asked about the difference between the Chinese and American spying practices, Brownback said, “We don’t put the hardware and software on hotels.” He added that the Chinese program can be used “on journalists,” “on athletes,” “on their families,” “democracy advocates,” and “human rights advocates ” — seemingly oblivious that all these groups could be spied on here as well. (HT: Atrios)

So is he dumb or just outright lying to all of us? Although Sam made some comments to the contrary of what George W. wanted to hear from his brethren in Congress, he still voted for FISA and is for what companies like AT&T and Verizon want to hear. Giving them more power and free reign is the wrong recipe for all of us, especially now that they know they can get away with helping an executive break the law as long as it's for "national security."