Daryl Hannah: NJAPF* . . . .

*Not Just Another Pretty Face

Don't limit your thoughts of Daryl Hannah to her "Steel Magnolias" and "Kill Bill" roles. She is one tough debater as the shill for Big Oil finds out in their debate on CBC's "Power and Politics" today. She handles herself very well, is well-versed on the issues and makes a strong argument for the environmental side of this issue.

At one point a comment made by the Ethical(?!?)oil rep created the same response from Daryl and I at the same moment: "Oh my god!" (I'm not even a believer in imaginary beings, but that's a whole 'nuther story.) The shill brings out Canadian values of "respect for minorities and gays and lesbians" as a reason to support "fair trade" tarsands oil. Amazing thing to see and one wonders how he sleeps at night.

Check out the video here . . . .

Climate Action on Cambie Bridge . . . .

Vancouver turned out in force for climate action today.

Yours truly was there with thousands of others.

We looked for you, Lady Alison and RossK - Hope you made it.

Some pics in case you didn't make it:

How embarrassing!
For a moment there I thought I was
in Mississippi or Arkansas . . . .

Let's hope stevie harper is paying attention.

Bets, anyone ? ? ? ?

That's Fair . . . .

Well, the Supremes have ruled on the Exxon Valdez debacle.

Far be it from them to put any undue financial burden on the cash-strapped corporation.

Per Reuters this morning:

Exxon Valdez $2.5 bln oil spill ruling overturned
Wed Jun 25, 2008 - By James Vicini
















WASHINGTON, June 25

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the record $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp had been ordered to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska.

The nation's highest court ruled that the punitive damages should be limited to an amount equal to the total relevant compensatory damages of $507.5 million.

In the court's opinion, Justice David Souter concluded that the $2.5 billion in punitive damages was excessive under federal maritime law, and should be cut to the amount of actual harm.

_______________


Soaring oil prices have propelled Exxon Mobil to previously unforeseen levels of profitability in recent years, posting earnings of $40.6 billion in 2007.

It took the company just under two days to bring in $2.5 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2007.

The Exxon Valdez supertanker ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound in March 1989, spilling about 11 million gallons of crude oil.

The spill spread oil to more than 1,200 miles (1,900 km) of coastline, closed fisheries and killed thousands of marine mammals and hundreds of thousands of sea birds.

The big guys win again . . . .

Pumping Profits . . . .

In light of my ZENN car post below, this bit of good (?) news from Reuters today:

Exxon, Chevron earnings soar on record oil prices
Fri Feb 1, 2008 By Michael Erman

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp, the world's largest non-government-controlled oil company, on Friday posted the highest-ever quarterly and yearly profits by a U.S. company, propelled by record oil prices.

_______________


Exxon's net income in the quarter rose nearly 14 percent to $11.66 billion, or $2.13 a share, from $10.25 billion, or $1.76 a share, in 2006. Analysts, on average, were expecting earnings of $1.98 per share.

_______________


The company's quarterly result as well as its full-year earnings of $40.61 billion set new records for U.S. profits, beating out previous marks also set by Exxon.

Now ya' wanna put your order in for that ZENN car ? ? ? ?

Your Moment of ZENN . . . .

Thanks to the folks at Things are Good: good news blog for posting this Rick Mercer video on the made-in-Canada ZENN car. (The blog is a great place to get away from all the negative news in the world, BTW.)

I want one ! ! ! !

harperco has made it: Now a "Minion" . . . .

From CBC today:

EU lays down ultimatum to U.S. at Bali climate talks

U.S. 'principally responsible' for deadlock, Gore says
Last Updated: Thursday, December 13, 2007

A deadlock between the United States and the European Union jeopardized the climate change talks in Bali Thursday as EU nations threatened to boycott a U.S.-sponsored meeting next month unless Washington accepts their figures for negotiating deep reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.

_______________


Meanwhile, former U.S. vice-president and climate change activist Al Gore told an audience at the conference that the U.S. is "principally responsible" for the deadlock at the Bali conference, which is aimed at launching negotiations toward a new climate change pact.

"My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali," said Gore, who shared this year's Nobel Peace Prize with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for helping alert the world to the danger of global warming.

_______________


U.S., Canada a 'wrecking crew': environmental group

A number of environmental groups have been critical of Canada, which has adopted a similar bottom line as the U.S. in Bali.

Environment Minister John Baird has said Canada won't accept a climate deal unless it includes major polluters like the U.S., China and India.

Jennifer Morgan of the Climate Action Network accused the U.S., Canada and other countries of holding up the document's final ratification.

"There is a wrecking crew here in Bali led by the Bush administration and its minions," Morgan told CBC News. "Those minions continue to be the governments of Canada, Japan, Saudi Arabia and others." (Emphasis mine, ed.)

Well isn't that just special?

'Ole stevie, john baird and their ilk have successfully progressed to "minions" from the #1 Poodles they were previously.

Well Done ! ! ! !

Photo Credit: Alison

harperco: Learning From the Best . . . .

From McClatchy Newspapers today:

'Ya gotta give stevie, john baird and company credit.

Their stance in Bali comes naturally as they follow in bushco's dirty footsteps:

Democrats accuse White House of cooking climate-change testimony

By Erika Bolstad and Lesley Clark | McClatchy Newspapers



WASHINGTON — The White House censored climate scientists and edited their testimony on global warming before Congress, Democrats charged Monday after a 16-month investigation into allegations of political interference with scientific inquiries.

The Bush administration was "particularly active in stifling discussions" of a potential link between climate change and the intensity of hurricanes, according to the findings in a draft report issued Monday by Democrats on the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

_______________


The report also charges that the administration has engaged in a "systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warning."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called the report "rehashed rhetoric" and said that the Bush administration understands the "urgent challenge that is posed by climate change," a term the White House prefers to "global warming" because it doesn't suggest that human activity is responsible.

Perino said she was unaware of any attempts to downplay any scientific information that conflicted with the White House's politics.

_______________


The report also singles out an e-mail sent by a Commerce committee staffer for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who oversaw NOAA's climate research when he chaired the committee.

The e-mail came from Tom Jones, who worked on the Disaster Prediction and Prevention subcommittee, then chaired by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.

In an e-mail to Noel Turner, a NOAA staffer who was writing a statement for former National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield's upcoming committee testimony, Jones suggested that the hearing be used to discredit any link between hurricanes and global warming.

"We're going to work on smacking the s(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK) out of this issue," he wrote.

In his e-mail, Jones urged NOAA staffers to write phrases for Mayfield such as, "The individuals who are implying that Katrina has something to do with global warming are just plain wrong. They don't understand the science, and they're shamelessly trying to make political hay out of a national tragedy."

_______________

Well, who would have thought it?

bushco does have a legacy after all . . . .

bush on Global Warming . . . .

It's a holiday, I'm bored, so humour is called for . . . .





I feel better already . . . .

bush's Buddy List . . . .

As a little extra to the post below . . . . H/T to Kevin Grandia at DeSmogBlog.

You Can't Play In My Sandbox . . . .

Today's On Point radio program with Tom Ashbrook on NPR featured a story concerning global sovereignty. The current activity between Canada and Russia in the Arctic was the main topic. No doubt the US will soon enter the fray with the dwindling natural resources south of the as yet untapped area. (For some unknown reason the audio links on the site are inoperable. I'll update when available)

Global Resources Wars

By host Tom Ashbrook:

This hour On Point: flags and ice and the new resource scramble at the North Pole and around the world.

It was a quirky story in the US news media, and a national triumph in Moscow.

Last Thursday, in the frigid wake of a nuclear powered ice-breaker, Russia sent two mini-submarines 13,000 feet beneath the Arctic ice cap, and planted a titanium-encased Russian flag on the seabed of the North Pole.

"The Arctic," declared expedition leader Artur Chilingarov, "is ours." And with it, Moscow hopes, a huge share of the massive oil and gas reserves under the melting pole.




The US and Canada laughed, but not for long.

Fred Weir, Moscow Correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor

Michael Klare, Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College and author of "Blood and Oil"

Michael Byers, Professor of International Law at the University of British Columbia

Eric Posner, Professor of Law at University of Chicago Law School

One of the panel discussion participants, Michael Byers, is a professor of international law at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He cautions to not become hysterical at this point over the activity in the area. Hope he's right.

Ashbrook interviews a US Coast Guard lieutenant currently on the largest cutter in the fleet that is mapping the area for who-knows-what purposes?

The listener call-in comments are particularly interesting. Typical of the "us-or-them" US mentality is one caller who advocates setting up alliances with Russia as opposed to Canada in the battle to control resources. It would be interesting to get stevie harper and peter mackay's take on that type of attitude.

Now this headline from the CBC today:

Planned army base, port in North heat up Arctic quest

I wonder how all this figures in to the Deep Integration/SPP discussion?

How this plays out over the next few years should be quite a show. Get your popcorn and grab a seat . . . .

Surprise, Surprise. The More Things Change . . . .

From Bloomberg News:

G-8 Vows Greenhouse Gas Curbs;
U.S. Escapes Targets
By James G. Neuger June 7 (Bloomberg)

Leaders of the Group of Eight main industrial nations vowed a renewed global push to fight rising temperatures, while agreeing not to force the U.S. and Russia to set targets now for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The European Union, Japan and Canada pledged at the G-8 summit on the German seaside to cut carbon emissions in half by 2050. The U.S. and Russia promised to take part in talks on a new international treaty to combat global warming.


Why am I not surprised that what the MSM last week was calling bush's newfound outlook on global warming is not, in fact, quite the case.

If anyone thinks there will be any substantive change in this administration's environmental activities I've got some swampland in Florida I'd be glad to sell you.

No, seriously, I do . . . .

Too Little Too Late, george . . . .

Let's see now: We're how far away from the end of bushco? I calculate just over 20 months 'til
Inauguration Day, 2009.

george today is calling for climate change talks and meetings between countries "over the next 18 months." Why is he leaving the implementation of any substantive improvement in air quality and energy conservation to the next President? The jerk has had over 6 years in office to accomplish something in this regard.

Oh yeah, I forgot: He's been too busy fighting the waronturrur.

And just whose idea was that, george ? ? ? ?