The American Trial Lawyers Association

The Center for Constitutional Rights, along with Earth Rights International, has filed suit against the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell for their complicity with the murder of a human rights activist in Nigeria almost 14 years ago. Shell began oil production in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria in 1958. After more than 30 years of environmental devastation and exploitation by Shell, a nonviolent movement of the Ogoni people developed in the early 1990s, in opposition to Shell's presence in the region. At the request of Shell, and with Shell's assistance and financing, Nigerian soldiers used deadly force and massive, brutal raids against the Ogoni people throughout the early 1990s to repress the growing movement against the oil company. Shell accounts for more than 40% of Nigeria's total petroleum production, and oil revenues account for 90% of Nigerian export earnings and 80% of the government's total revenue, meaning that Shell is responsible for almost half of the government's total income. The case will be heard in New York.


In other news - In case you've been wondering why the ratio of lobbyists to elected officials in Washington, D.C. is several hundred to one, here's a newsflash – Hiring lobbyists pays off. According to a new report, corporations that hire lobbyists to get them major tax breaks can see as much as a 22,000% return on their investment. The report details efforts by hundreds of companies in 2003 and 2004 to push through a one-time tax "holiday" that lowered for a year the tax rate they paid on profits earned abroad. All told, U.S. companies saved about $100 billion in taxes, with pharmaceutical behemoths Pfizer and Merck & Co., technology giants IBM and Hewlett Packard, and health products maker Johnson & Johnson among the top beneficiaries. 93 firms spent as much as $282.7 million lobbying on the issue during that period, and ultimately saved a total of $62.5 billion through the tax change. A separate group of business professors reported last year that companies that lobbied had better market valuations and investment returns than those that did not. Lobbyists say they're not surprised by the findings, which prove what they tell their clients all the time: You can't afford not to have a seasoned Washington player on your team. I guess this is proof of who really controls our legislative practice.


And finally today, just when you thought that the network couldn't sink any lower than their failed program Joe Millionaire, Fox has come up with an exciting new reality series. In the new series, they will find a company that needs or wants to layoff employees, and turn it into a reality show competition. Each episode will feature a company with about 15 or 20 employees that needs to cut costs because of the economy. Instead of the boss deciding who is fired, the company will open its books to show everyone's salaries and let the employees make the call. Fox says the laid-off worker will get a small severance, but isn't saying whether the network or producers are paying the participants in anything beyond the chance for prime-time fame. The new show, titled “Someone's Gotta Go,” comes at a time when millions of people are losing their jobs across the country, and the issue really isn't a laughing or even entertaining matter.

Labels: Abuses, Farron Cousins, Fox, Human Rights, Joe Millionaire, Lawsuit, Lobbyist, Nigeria, Reality Show, Shell, Someone's Gotta Go, Tax Break

Corporate lobbyists have been working overtime recently to stop a proposed tax increase on corporations' overseas profits, which is currently being considered by the White House. The Obama Administration isn't actually considering imposing a tax hike, but instead they want to repeal a series of tax cuts that actually reward companies for shipping American jobs overseas. Repealing these cuts would bring in an estimated $100 billion dollars over the next 10 years. Groups including the Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Foreign Trade Council have helped form a lobbying coalition called Protect America's Competitive Edge that is devoted specifically to the issue. A letter sent to Congress last month opposing the plan was signed by 200 trade associations and companies, including General Electric, Intel, IBM, McDonald's, Merck, and Microsoft. The repeal of these tax breaks would also cause American corporations to lose their offshore tax havens which they have used to avoid paying taxes on their income. America is in desperate need of money right now, and if these companies want to continue doing business in the United States, they need to repay the system that they used to become wealthy.


In other news, former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has a message for his fellow conservatives – either rebrand yourselves, or you'll most likely see a fracturing of the party and as a result, we could see a third party rise up before the next election. During an interview on Fox News this weekend, Gingrich said quote, “Republicans need to understand that there's a country which did not like the big spending of the Bush administration, and they didn't like the interventionist policies of that administration.” Gingrich helped draft the Contract with America back in 1994 when his party regained control of both houses of Congress, and has been a powerful and influential figure in Republican politics for more almost 2 decades. He believes that if the party doesn't change, it could be all over for the modern Republican Party. Gingrich, who is now the chairman of the think tank American Solutions, said that Republicans must stop insisting on earmarks and big spending, and must begin paying attention to the "vast majority of Republicans." I think the problem with Newt's philosophy is that he doesn't quite understand that conservatism simply doesn't work. Over the last 8 years, George Bush executed the GOP's plans exactly how they wanted, and look where that has gotten us. The failures of the last 8 years aren't the failures of Bush, they are the failures of the Republican Party.


And finally today, in light of the Justice Department stepping in and attempting to get the conviction against Senator Ted Stevens thrown out, former Alabama governor Don Siegelman is asking attorney general Eric Holder to do the same for him. The Justice Department wants Stevens' conviction thrown out because prosecutors withheld evidence during the trial. If that's reason enough to throw out a conviction, then Siegelman shouldn't have anything to worry about. Siegelman's case was riddled with misconduct, from the first trial against him which ended with the judge throwing the charges out saying that they had no basis for a prosecution; to the new Republican judge going along with basically the same case. Then there's the involvement of Karl Rove, the testimony from Dana Jill Simpson, and the fact that what Siegelman was accused of doing wasn't even really a crime. With any luck, Siegelman will get the same treatment as Stevens, and the Justice Department will step in to finally end this long nightmare for him.

Labels: Barack Obama, Contract With America, Don Siegelman, Farron Cousins, GOP, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Offshore, Outsourcing, Tax Break, Tax Haven