You got to love huge multinational corporations...

Chevron's Plan to Evade $18b Ecuador Liability Falters

See the documentary "Crude" for background on this article:

http://www.crudethemovie.com/

"U.S. courts are showing increasing hostility toward Chevron and its CEO John Watson over the company's $18 billion Ecuador liability as the oil giant's plan to quash the landmark case continues to falter"

"Documents recently obtained via U.S. discovery actions shows that Chevron engaged in extensive acts of corruption and fraud in Ecuador. Chevron doctored soil samples to mislead the Ecuador court and used a secret lab to hide evidence of toxic contamination; paid $2.2 million in hush money to a man who threatened to expose the company's corruption in the Ecuador trial; tried to entrap an Ecuadorian judge with secret video recordings, and used U.S.-based experts to lie to the Ecuador court about the company's deceptive field sampling."

"Chevron is already facing likely criminal charges in Brazil -- a country with enormous reserves coveted by the company -- for lying about its recent spill off the coast of Rio province."\

"Chevron simply cannot change the fact its horrific contamination in Ecuador is visible to the naked eye and has been confirmed by journalists and courts the world over," she added. "The evidence is so overwhelming that no amount of trickery can save the day for Chevron at this point"

Contact: Karen Hinton, 703-798-3109, Karen@hintoncommunications.com

SOURCE Amazon Defense Coalition

Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved

Chevron CEO's Plan to Evade $18b Ecuador Liability Falters As Courts Slam Oil Giant, Says Amazon Defense Coalition - MarketWatch

Getting our national "family" out of debt...

There’s a bill in Congress that may have real solutions for the economy, and it’s called the 99% Act. It was introduced in congress earlier this month. Yes, it's from the left. Get over it.

The 99% Act claims it would create 5 million new jobs in two years, raise taxes on Wall Street and millionaires, add a public option to the Affordable Care Act, and much more.  I've been looking for the full text of the bill, but no luck so far...but http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/uploads/4OnePagerRAD99.pdf has more details.  Probably a good thing as the actual text is probably painfully long and obfuscating - like any legislation.

It hits most of the items I'd put down in a "note to self" over the last few months:

The solution to reduce the national debt is pretty simple and straightforward, but not easy given entrenched interests.  I appeal to the sense of patriotism I hear shouted out by many - but that really means "Give Me what I want out of My country, and give back My 1950's style Andy Griffith all white country." 

Here's what I'd do if I were El Rey:

Remove enough $$ from the pockets of the 1% to pull the country that built them into billionaires out of the hole they dug for it, and enable a new start for everyone.

Unfair you say? Not hardly, I say it's more like their patriotic duty.

Leave the poor and middle class enough of a safety net they need not fear personal bankruptcy and ruin from medical emergencies or other personal disasters, by having access to basic preventative healthcare and

Higher education for young students either in university or the trades, and continuing education/retraining for existing laid off workers.

Remove the "money is free speech" rights from any corporation that is not wholly American owned and American based and paying full tax rate with no subsidies -- those that qualify in that way will have an interest in America, as well as their stockholders (only Americans can hold stock in the company). Huge multinationals would never qualify under this plan, but small and medium sized American corporations would - the real job creators.

Get the money out of politics. Corporations are not people. Money is not speech.

Reform (radically simplify) the tax code (keeps tax lawyers from finding loopholes & makes auditing easier) 

Remove corporate tax loopholes and lower corporate rate as they'd like, but resulting in more net tax income.

Have everyone pay some amount on their income so they have some "skin in the game" - but keep a progressive tax structure.

Get for-profit corporations out of the role of basic care for everyone, use the VA as a model for how to provide care.  It's done well enough for our veterans - I guess government can do some things. We're the richest country in the world - for now - we CAN afford it - especially if it's not handcuffed - allow that system to negotiate drug costs based on volume - the WalMart model. 

Yes, "Single Payer" health care, "Medicare for all" if you wish -- that provides basic preventative, emergency and long term care to everyone - from prenatal to the grave. And yes, man up, you are going to die - and at some point replacing everything in your body when it wears out isn't going to be affordable for that kind of system.  Enter - the role for private insurance: Let for profit insurance companies shift gears to provide 'gold plated' insurance for those that want/can afford it.

To dig out of the current hole - call on/require/tax the 1% to provide financing (perhaps in exchange for low-return or negative return bonds - again, it's their patriotic and moral duty)

Allow repatriation of foreign corporate funds at a low tax rate - but not without tax and only IF THAT $ IS USED TO GENERATE JOBS - allow some low multiplier for $ per job.

Impose tariffs on imports in line with our foreign competitors.

No tax breaks for companies that shift jobs out of the US, and tariffs on the products they return to the US.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, as always, said it best:

"The deficit was caused by two wars not paid for, huge tax breaks for the wealthiest people in this country, and a recession as a result of the greed, recklessness and illegal behavior on Wall Street. And if those are the causes of the deficit and the national debt I will be damned if we’re going to balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the sick, children, and the poor. That's wrong." 

-----------------

The 99% bill is based on the contract to rebuild the American Dream: http://contract.rebuildthedream.com/ 

Go hit the link for more info, but here's an introduction...from the website:

To produce this Contract for the American Dream, 131,203 Americans came together online and in their communities. We wrote and rated 25,904 ideas. Together, we identified the 10 most critical steps to get our economy back on track and restore the American Dream:
10 CRITICAL STEPS TO GET OUR ECONOMY BACK ON TRACK

• I. Invest in America's InfrastructureII. Create 21st Century Energy Jobs

• II. Create 21st Century Energy Jobs

• III. Invest in Public Education

• IV. Offer Medicare for All

• V. Make Work Pay

• VI. Secure Social Security

• VII. Return to Fairer Tax Rates

• VIII. End the Wars and Invest at Home

• IX. Tax Wall Street Speculation

• X. Strengthen Democracy

Here's the graphic they've put out about the act; note the top marginal income tax rate graph -- we did pretty good as a country from Eisenhower through LBJ - Carter was left with the fallout of the Vietnam war, tried to get us pointed in an energy independent route - and was derided constantly for his efforts. Reagan cut taxes, then raised them something like 5 times to make up for the mistake...and the '80s were on...Wall Street's fictional Gordon Gecco (Michael Douglas) showed us how it was done.  Mergers and Acquisitions reigned, corporations grew like cancers until they now, unregulated  threaten to kill the host -- the U.S. We need a dose of some chemo-therapy and radiation to drive the cancerous rot of huge, too-big-to-fail multinational corporations out, so we can have decent "mom and pop" medium sized, and even huge, but all-American companies.

1 infographic, 5 million jobs | Rebuild the Dream | A Hub for the American Dream Movement:

Go to Americans Elect and participate in getting Presidential nominations OUTSIDE the Republican/Democratic party processes. 

In 2012, Americans Elect (AE) will empower the people to nominate a competitive third ticket for President and Vice President through the first-ever Online Convention

Our political system is broken and our country is in trouble! The two political parties are so

polarized that Washington is paralyzed. Our elected officials continue a vicious cycle of mindless

partisanship, inaction on crucial issues and unsustainable dysfunction covered endlessly in the 24-

hour news cycle.

Although the Founding Fathers feared it, our two-party system has generally served us well in the

past, when leaders found common ground and did what was best for their country. The two

parties have always argued, but we’ve often been the better for it. History shows that, on

important things, in the end they have come together.

 Social Security:!!Even after President Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, elected in 1932,

a huge majority of Republicans in Congress voted for Social Security Act.

 Medicare:!!A majority of Republicans in Congress backed President Lyndon Johnson’s

Medicare program in 1965.

 Welfare Reform:!!After the Republicans gained control of Congress in 1994, a

majority of Democrats in both houses, and President Clinton, too, helped get a Welfare

Reform package enacted.

Now is the time for leadership that puts principled progress above petty politics and restores

cooperation, civility, and compromise. Leadership for genuine and sustainable change can only

come from the people.