Redefining Greed
And who else but an oil company to do such?
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.
Well, at least those high gas prices we’ve seen lately are now explained. But Exxon’s shares dropped in price after they recorded the biggest quarterly profit ever? The mind reels. Of the stock traders and Exxon, I’m not sure which side is the lesser evil.
John McCain, the Bush Administration, and Iraq
Interesting developments going on over the past few days vis à vis plans and agreements for Iraq’s future. On Monday, Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, announced that he wanted to work out a timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops:
My Strawman of the Day
Since some of the commenters here like deriding any opinion they disagree with as a “strawman”, I’ll take care of step one for them by calling anything I say a strawman. Since if you don’t agree with it, that means the opinion must not be valid, right?
Today’s a new day, so it’s time for a new strawman!
Based on the easy contracts oil companies just got, the Iraq war really was about oil.
Feel free to not only disagree, but launch “That’s a strawman!” and other various insults that seek to defame the holder of the opinion rather than discuss the topic at hand. But please be advised that I still reserve the right to show you this.
What John McCain Meant, and Why It Doesn’t Matter
The story about John McCain telling a reporter for the Orange Country Register that he doesn’t remember the last time he pumped gas or what it cost is picking up velocity. Only now it turns out he does know. Via Patterico’s Pontifications by way of John Cole, McCain was quoted by Environment News Service, on June 18, as follows:
Full of gas
GOP presidential candidate and economic genius John McCain admits to not knowing what gas prices are right now, but to defend himself, he quips that he doesn’t “see how it matters” anyways. I guess consumer confidence dipping to all time lows partly because of gas prices doesn’t matter, either.
Just think: if any Democrat said this, the calls that he or she is “elitist” and “out of touch” would be screamed 24/7. But when McCain says it? Feh, the dude’s a maverick! He could boink Monica Lewinsky on live television and the media would still kiss his feet.
Moving Away From a Proprietary Fuel System (update)
When it comes to music, and mp3 players, I’ve yet to meet the person to actually give me a good hard sell on iPods. Why not?
Because iPods are too focused on a proprietary system.
Senator McCain Proves He Doesn’t Learn From Other People’s Mistakes
We can nitpick on what’s Bush-like, and what’s not Bush-like. We can argue about whether McCain is too close to Bush’s policies, or if he’s distancing himself from them (I’ll give you three guesses as to the kinds of folks that are pushing the latter argument and the first two don’t count).
But one of the things that has made Bush a terrible president wasn’t simply his ideology. Don’t get me wrong, the ideology is bad, but it was the insular attitude, and the inability to admit to, and thusly learn from mistakes.
Freedom Is Slavery; Slavery Is Freedom
There have been scattered news reports in the U.S. media about the Iraqi government’s objections to signing the so-called Status of Forces Agreement, which will give the United States a legal rationale for being in Iraq for the next [fill in the blank with the number of your choice] years. So Patrick Cockburn’s Independent article earlier this week isn’t totally brand new information. But Cockburn’s piece is much more specific than the other reports I’ve seen, and also the sourcing is much more direct: Details of the plan, which Bush administration officials have been trying to keep very closely guarded, were leaked to the British paper:
Here’s something to think about while paying $4 a gallon
Exxon, everyone’s favorite Texas oil company, has finally admitted to funding climate change denial groups and pledges to stop.
The move comes ahead of the firm’s annual meeting today in Dallas, at which prominent shareholders including the Rockefeller family will urge ExxonMobil to take the problem of climate change more seriously. Green campaigners accuse the company of funding a “climate denial industry” over the last decade, with $23m (£11.5m) handed over to groups that play down the risks of burning fossil fuels.
Donate to CFLF
Blogroll
Pennsylvania Blogs
The Liberal Media
Blogging Liberally
Advertising
Comments From Left Field is a member of...
Memeorandum
Archives
- 2008: J F M A M J J A S O N D
- 2007: J F M A M J J A S O N D
- 2006: J F M A M J J A S O N D
- 2005: J F M A M J J A S O N D
- 2004: J F M A M J J A S O N D
- 2003: J F M A M J J A S O N D
Blog Stuff
