Our Gifts to Future Generations (revisited)

Our Gifts to Future Generations (revisited)


Typical Retirement Party: Now that you have reached the age of retirement (110 years old - ever rising qualifications for for SSI & Pension Benefits), may you enjoy the last fifteen minutes of your life and experience all the wonder and joys of travel, hobbies, second career, interests, that retirement affords (always remember, the penny wages, and tiny benefits you earned are very democratically competitive, and your taxes were insufficient to allow retirement at an earlier age). GE, Exxon Paid No U.S. Income Taxes in '09 http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Tax/ge-exxon-paid-us-income-taxes-09/story?id=10300167

As we all know, with the world population expanding at an explosive rate, more and more people are not going to want to eat, have homes to live in, obtain the basic necessities or proper medical care; much less are they going to want to work or buy the luxuries and other wonders science and technology have provided to make life more comfortable and enjoyable. (How else would you explain why the world economy is crashing, with millions of Americans out of work, losing their homes, losing their life savings and many going hungry)

So We Ask You to Continue to "Adapt" with "Political Correctness" (Implied threat linked to your bread & butter source - Nazi Tendency?) To The Following:

Adapt To Global Warming




















Adapt To Forever War and Profit until human lights/existence go out with Really Advanced Smarty Bombs
Will The Human Race Ever Grow up?
(not as long as someone steals and starves another, individual or group) "Poverty in all its forms is the greatest single threat to peace, democracy, human rights, and the environment. It is a time bomb against the heart of liberty" World Trade Organization Director Mike Moore. Whatever happened to intelligence, wisdom, science, understanding ....... the 3 day work week, retirement at age 35, prosperity for all?








Adapt To Nature's Ever More Violent Response To our Disregard of Evolutionary Processes -
"Inadequate comprehension and application of Energy, in all its forms, in an increasingly complex and evolving civilization, is the single greatest causal factor of poverty - and the vehicle to self-destruct." Decatalyst)
























Adapt To Ecological Imbalance
Spills in Nigeria Dwarf Gulf Oil Spill Almost Every Year;












Texaco's oil adventures in the Ecuadorian Amazon over the course of 30 years, until 1990, the company permitted more than 19 billion gallons of toxic oil wastewater and 17 million gallons of crude oil to leach into the environment. It's by far the largest oil disaster in the world.














Adapt To Ever Greater Freedom for your master Corporations, and deteriorating freedom for individual humans
Human servants, kneel and subjugate yourselves to the New Lords, Non-Living Corporate Entities - Beyond Law - of the Universe.
For the corporation, By the corporation, Of the corporation
Above the law, Bought the law, Creates the law.
I concede! All these are not conspiracies!
As all the experts scream, these are market fundamentals

Farewell - American Democracy
It's Official. Corporations Rule.
The American Justice System has decided
Ask your two year old on a seesaw about balance, weight and power when 2% golden greedy guts owns 98% of the worlds’ Wealth and Resources









true to scale model would render top image invisible

total world population Feb 2010:......... 6,801,000,000
2% Golden Greedy Guts population:........ 136,020,000
98% rest of us population:................... 6,664,980,000

“Fascism is about the state running things on behalf of corporations. Adrian Lyttelton in his book on Mussolini wrote that ‘Fascism can be viewed as a product of the transition from the market capitalism of the independent producer to the organized capitalism of the oligopoly.’ It was a point that Orwell noted when he described fascism as being but an extension of capitalism. Lyttelton quoted Italian Nationalist theorist Affredo Rocco: ‘The Fascist economy is. . . an organized economy. It is organized by the producers themselves, under the supreme direction and control of the State.’ ”

Adapt To Our Immobilized Transportation Systems Contemplate the "gigantic delusion" of Freedom and the Reality Gifts we will pass to future generations as you travel down Freedom's Severely Constricting Highway........... because some thought it best to keep the people ignorant in the science of energy evolution and the unfathomed wonders it would bring to all.




All together now - stay focused on Ipod, Footsybally, and Trivia - our masters will take care of our survival needs (as in Goldman Sachs' "trust me with your money" as they bet against you and won - you lost)

Toxic world fallout from Iraq invasion

"....The critics countered that the threat was an illusion, that the US was invading illegally and sought control over the region and Iraq's oil". Others recalled the United Nations world wide telecast announcement by US speaker giving the reason for the Iraq invasion - and how many women and children died and were maimed because of Iraq's WMDs, weapons of mass donkeys?

US World Image Projection - What are we Projecting? Is there a deliberate design flaw in the Economic & Judicial systems of rule and law which ignore Reality, lopsidedly benefiting corporate greedy guts? Where science and facts play second fiddle to the power of the Mouth backed by money? Is the current status quo in energy science the best 21st Century Intelligence has to offer?

There is not an intelligent being alive that could not understand Natural Capitalism with justice and economics based on natural laws, facts and unfettered science; where human life comes first and foremost, the primary factor upon which justice and profit is gaged: the greater the health and prosperity of all, the greater the justice and profits for all (simple numbers game). So who CHOKED THE SYSTEM, on top of scientific suppression of advanced energy systems from the late 1940's (Evolving Advanced Energy Systems without which Human Life Cannot Survive) ?

Mild shock and disbelief barely registered in the nation of the most productive, overworked, underpaid, underinsured, vacation deprived, low paid slave/workers in the world, as they watched their bridges fall down, while their taxes, gas and energy costs continued skyrocketing to uncharted realms, as the masses stagnated in unmovable traffic, and government departments threatened to close due to lack of funds - On the bright side, the worldwide corporate 2% greedy guts, individually, had aplenty, more wealth than 30 nations combined, apiece.... irrelevant to who is paying for their errors (as in subprime loans).

As common sense in science is lost with the continued stagnation of our energy base and deep troubling theoretical foundational issues in physics, so too, Civilization's Survival Parameters fly out of sight, out of mind, along with the values and

morals inherent within new scientific understanding which new energy systems would reveal. Scientific Stagnation bodes an ill wind to evolution, sustainability, and survival as "cycles of humiliation, dumbing us down, violence, and Unrestrained Corporate Greed prompting resource wars with nuclear finality" join hands with global warming and ecological imbalance to precipitate the historical "rise and fall of civilization" - a Tsunami accelerating toward us with a far more spectacular event than the legends and myths of 'Atlantis and Lemuria"........ had more people known that Energy from Corn (or going backwards to a dimwitted concept of radioactive nuclear power application ) sounded a wee bit kindergartenish and senile for the twenty first century......the Future may have had a chance.

Toxic world fallout from Iraq invasion
By Paul Reynolds World affairs correspondent BBC News website
The war in Iraq was supposed to be over long before now.
It was not supposed to provoke a conflict between Sunni and Shia or stir up an al-Qaeda hornet's nest.
Nor was it supposed to alienate much of the rest of the world from US foreign policy, which post 9/11 was on the crest of a wave of sympathy.
It was intended, its proponents argued, to remove a threat to world peace and to plant the flag of freedom in a Middle East democratic desert.
The critics countered that the threat was an illusion, that the US was invading illegally and sought control over the region and Iraq's oil.
Bush doctrine
The Iraq invasion was also part of President Bush's doctrine of pre-emption and of his hopes for what he called the "advance of freedom".
In a speech in November 2003 he declared: "Iraqi democracy will succeed - and that success will send forth the news, from Damascus to Teheran - that freedom can be the future of every nation."
His doctrine, under which a pre-emptive attack is justified even if the threat is not critical, has been another casualty of the war.
Dr Dana Allin, Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Affairs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said: "All three candidates in the US presidential election will move away from it in significant ways.
"To a significant extent the experience in Iraq has discredited the doctrine of pre-emption, though it has not killed it off. But the US will not naively invade again and simply hope everything will turn out OK, as seems to have happened in Iraq."
Hopes rise again
The last chapter on Iraq of course has not been written. After the recent improvements, there are claims that it will still all work out, not unlike the Korean War, which went through its own disastrous phase.

"This has to be the worst managed foreign policy of any president since the Second World War" David Rothkopf, Carnegie Endowment
The former White House economist Lawrence Lindsey, who believes the financial cost of the Iraq war is "relatively minor in budgetary terms", still hopes for the best.
He wrote in Fortune magazine: "A stable Iraqi government selected by its own people would be a first in the Arab world. It would suggest that there is a third alternative to the current choice between repressive regimes and Islamic fundamentalism."
One of those who called in 2006, not for a withdrawal but the surge, was Washington writer Frederick Kagan. In the neo-conservative bible, the Weekly Standard, he says it has worked and credits the American commander General David Petraeus and his subordinate General Raymond Odierno:
"When General Odierno relinquished command of MNC-I [Multi-National Corps Iraq] on February 14, 2008, the civil war was over. Civilian casualties were down 60%, as were weekly attacks. AQI [al Qaeda Iraq] had been driven from its safe havens in and around Baghdad and throughout Anbar and Diyala. The situation in Iraq had been utterly transformed."
The cost
However, even if the war turns out to be "winnable", its critics dismiss any suggestion that it was "worth it".
David Rothkopf, a former Clinton administration official and now with the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, said: "Declaring this to be a success based on recent improvements is like saying that a person badly disabled by gunshots has seen his wounds heal. The damage has been done.
"Bush's foreign policy has been a failure and it will be judged on Iraq. He will bear responsibility for an unnecessary and costly war that violated international law, alienated allies and distracted us from the core issues of terrorism, Afghanistan and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.
"This has to be the worst managed foreign policy of any president since the Second World War. Even if in the medium term Iraq becomes comparatively peaceful, would it be worth the cost? I do not think so."
The diplomatic fallout
As for America's standing around the world, the war alienated some major American allies, France and Germany most notably. Others did send troops after the invasion - Spain and Italy among them - but then left as public opinions at home turned hostile.
On the other hand, a number of smaller countries, many of them from the former Soviet block, saw an opportunity to show their loyalty to the US and sent contingents - the Czech Republic, Poland, Georgia and others. For them, a strong and active United States bodes well for their future security.
In turn, Britain's support for the United States has led to further divisions within Europe. These had an impact in the Lisbon treaty talks about a future foreign policy for the EU, strengthening the British determination to keep it firmly in the hands of individual governments.
The invasion of Iraq also caused alarm bells to ring in Russia. There, a new mood of hostility to the West has developed and the Russians have become wary of American power.
Nor has Iraq sparked the democratic revolution in the Middle East that Mr Bush hoped for. And the Israeli/Palestinian conflict remains unresolved.
Ironically it is Iran, with which the US shares a mutual hostility, that has emerged with greater strength, to the concern of the Gulf Arab states.
The fallout continues.
mailto:Paul.Reynolds-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7293689.stmPublished: 2008/03/16 12:23:06 GMT

China issues human rights record of United States in 2007

US World Image Projection - What are we Projecting? Is there a deliberate design flaw in the Economic & Judicial systems of rule and law which ignore Reality, lopsidedly benefiting corporate greedy guts? Where science and facts play second fiddle to the power of the Mouth backed by money? Is the current status quo in energy science the best 21st Century Intelligence has to offer?

There is not an intelligent being alive that could not understand Natural Capitalism with justice and economics based on natural laws, facts and unfettered science; where human life comes first and foremost, the primary factor upon which justice and profit is gaged: the greater the health and prosperity of all, the greater the justice and profits for all (simple numbers game). So who CHOKED THE SYSTEM, on top of scientific suppression of advanced energy systems from the late 1940's (Evolving Advanced Energy Systems without which Human Life Cannot Survive) ?

Mild shock and disbelief barely registered in the nation of the most productive, overworked, underpaid, underinsured, vacation deprived, low paid slave/workers in the world, as they watched their bridges fall down, while their taxes, gas and energy costs continued skyrocketing to uncharted realms, as the masses stagnated in unmovable traffic, and government departments threatened to close due to lack of funds - On the bright side, the worldwide corporate 2% greedy guts, individually, had aplenty, more wealth than 30 nations combined, apiece.... irrelevant to who is paying for their errors (as in subprime loans).

As common sense in science is lost with the continued stagnation of our energy base and deep troubling theoretical foundational issues in physics, so too, Civilization's Survival Parameters fly out of sight, out of mind, along with the values and morals inherent within new scientific understanding which new energy systems would reveal. Scientific Stagnation bodes an ill wind to evolution, sustainability, and survival as "cycles of humiliation, dumbing us down, violence, and Unrestrained Corporate Greed prompting resource wars with nuclear finality" join hands with global warming and ecological imbalance to precipitate the historical "rise and fall of civilization" - a Tsunami accelerating toward us with a far more spectacular event than the legends and myths of 'Atlantis and Lemuria"........ had more people known that Energy from Corn (or going backwards to a dimwitted concept of radioactive nuclear power application ) sounded a wee bit kindergartenish and senile for the twenty first century......the Future may have had a chance.

11:35, March 13, 2008
China issues human rights record of United States in 2007
Related News
One out of eight U.S. citizens lives in poverty More people in U.S. go hungry, homeless "Cash race" has permeated various kinds of elections in U.S. Workers' right to unionize restricted in U.S U.S. authorities improperly obtain citizen's personal information
China issued on Thursday the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2007 in response to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007 issued by the U.S. Department of State on Tuesday. Released by the Information Office of China''s State Council, the Chinese report listed a multitude of cases to show the human rights situation in the United States and its violation of human rights in other countries. The report says the United States reigns over other countries and make arrogant and malicious attacks on their human rights issues, but mentions nothing about its own human rights problems. By publishing the Human Rights Record of the United States in 2007, the report says it aims to "help the people have a better understanding of the real situation in the United States and as a reminder for the United States to reflect upon its own issues". The report reviewed the human rights record of the United States in 2007 from seven perspectives: on life and personal security, on human rights violations by law enforcement and judicial departments, on civil and political rights, on economic, social and cultural rights, on racial discrimination, on rights of women and children and on the United States'' violation of human rights in other countries. The report says the increase of violent crimes in the United States poses a serious threat to its people''s lives, liberty and personal security. According to a FBI report on crime statistics released in September 2007, 1.41 million violent crimes were reported nationwide in 2006, an increase of 1.9 percent over 2005. Of the violent crimes, the estimated number of murders and nonnegligent manslaughters increased 1.8 percent, and that of robberies increased 7.2 percent Throughout 2006, U.S. residents age 12 or above experienced an estimated 25 million crimes of violence and theft, according to the FBI report
11:35, March 13, 2008
China issues human rights record of United States in 2007 (2)
In the United States, about 30,000 people die from gun wounds every year, according ...

China issues human rights record of United States in 2007 (3)
The freedom and rights of individual citizens are being increasingly marginalized in the United States,

China issues human rights record of United States in 2007 (4)
Poor population in the United States is constantly increasing. According to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau in August 2007, the official poverty rate in 2006 was 12.3 percent. There were 36.5 million people, or 7.7 million families living in poverty in 2006.

China issues human rights record of United States in 2007 (5)
The invasion of Iraq by U.S. troops has produced the biggest human rights tragedy and the greatest humanitarian disaster in modern world. It was reported that since the invasion in 2003, 660,000 Iraqis have died, of which 99 percent were civilians.

Full Text all the above

Subprime CEOs Explain Why They Made Millions While Americans Lost Homes

"...Congressional Democrats got right to the point today: How could the CEOs of three companies behind the subprime mortgage market make millions of dollars while thousands of Americans lost their homes and investors lost billions of dollars?" There seem to be two different economic realities operating in our country today." Is there a deliberate design flaw in the Economic & Judicial systems of rule and law, lopsidedly benefiting corporate greedy guts? Where science and facts play second fiddle to the power of the Mouth backed by money?

There is not an intelligent being alive that could not understand Natural Capitalism with justice based on natural laws, facts and unfettered science; where human life comes first and foremost, the primary factor upon which justice and profit is gaged: the greater the health and prosperity of all, the greater the justice and profits for all (simple numbers game). So who CHOKED THE SYSTEM, on top of scientific suppression of advanced energy systems from the late 1940's (Evolving Advanced Energy Systems without which Human Life Cannot Survive) ?

Mild shock and disbelief barely registered in the nation of the most productive, overworked, underpaid, underinsured, vacation deprived, low paid slave/workers in the world, as they watched their bridges fall down, while their taxes, gas and energy costs continued skyrocketing to uncharted realms, as the masses stagnated in unmovable traffic, and government departments threatened to close due to lack of funds - On the bright side, the worldwide corporate 2% greedy guts, individually, had aplenty, more wealth than 30 nations combined, apiece.... irrelevant to who is paying for their errors (as in subprime loans).

As common sense in science is lost with the continued stagnation of our energy base and deep troubling theoretical foundational issues in physics, so too, Civilization's Survival Parameters fly out of sight, out of mind, along with the values and morals inherent within new scientific understanding which new energy systems would reveal. Scientific Stagnation bodes an ill wind to evolution, sustainability, and survival as "cycles of humiliation, dumbing us down, violence, and Unrestrained Corporate Greed prompting resource wars with nuclear finality" join hands with global warming and ecological imbalance to precipitate the historical "rise and fall of civilization" - a Tsunami accelerating toward us with a far more spectacular event than the legends and myths of 'Atlantis and Lemuria"........ had more people known that Energy from Corn (or going backwards to a dimwitted concept of radioactive nuclear power application ) sounded a wee bit kindergartenish and senile for the twenty first century......the Future may have had a chance.

Subprime CEOs Explain Why They Made Millions While Americans Lost Homes
Three CEOs Testify About the Subprime Mortgage Collapse and Their Pay Packages
By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ ABC NEWS Business Unit
March 7, 2008 —
Congressional Democrats got right to the point today: How could the CEOs of three companies behind the subprime mortgage market make millions of dollars while thousands of Americans lost their homes and investors lost billions of dollars?
"There seem to be two different economic realities operating in our country today. And the rules of compensation in one world are completely different from those in the other," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "Most Americans live in a world where economic security is precarious and there are real economic consequences for failure. But our nation's top executives seem to live by a different set of rules."
In 1980, chief executives in the United States were paid 40 times what the average worker made. They now make 600 times the average worker's salary, Waxman said.
"I think there's merit to pay for performance," Waxman said. "But it seems like CEOs hit the lottery even when their companies collapse."
But the Republican ranking member on the committee warned ...full text

Revolt in Mississippi: Indian Workers Claim 'Slave Treatment'

"The workers claim they were defrauded by a Signal International recruiter in India who promised them green cards and permanent residency in the U.S. in exchange for a $20,000 fee. The workers allege that they instead received 10-month work visas, which was only enough time for them to pay off their recruitment fees. The workers also claim that Signal forced them to live in substandard housing, with 24 men crammed into a small room. The men say Signal charged them more than $1,000 a month to live in company housing."For more than one year, hundreds of Indian workers at Signal International have been living like slaves," Is there a deliberate design flaw in the Economic & Judicial systems of rule and law, lopsidedly benefiting corporate greedy guts? Where science and facts play second fiddle to the power of the Mouth backed by money?

There is not an intelligent being alive that could not understand Natural Capitalism with justice based on natural laws, facts and unfettered science; where human life comes first and foremost, the primary factor upon which justice and profit is gaged: the greater the health and prosperity of all, the greater the justice and profits for all (simple numbers game). So who CHOKED THE SYSTEM, on top of scientific suppression of advanced energy systems from the late 1940's (Evolving Advanced Energy Systems without which Human Life Cannot Survive) ?

Mild shock and disbelief barely registered in the nation of the most productive, overworked, underpaid, underinsured, vacation deprived, low paid slave/workers in the world, as they watched their bridges fall down, while their taxes, gas and energy costs continued skyrocketing to uncharted realms, as the masses stagnated in unmovable traffic, and government departments threatened to close due to lack of funds - On the bright side, the worldwide corporate 2% greedy guts, individually, had aplenty, more wealth than 30 nations combined, apiece.... irrelevant to who is paying for their errors (as in subprime loans).

As common sense in science is lost with the continued stagnation of our energy base and deep troubling theoretical foundational issues in physics, so too, Civilization's Survival Parameters fly out of sight, out of mind, along with the values and morals inherent within new scientific understanding which new energy systems would reveal. Scientific Stagnation bodes an ill wind to evolution, sustainability, and survival as "cycles of humiliation, dumbing us down, violence, and Unrestrained Corporate Greed prompting resource wars with nuclear finality" join hands with global warming and ecological imbalance to precipitate the historical "rise and fall of civilization" - a Tsunami accelerating toward us with a far more spectacular event than the legends and myths of 'Atlantis and Lemuria"........ had more people known that Energy from Corn (or going backwards to a dimwitted concept of radioactive nuclear power application ) sounded a wee bit kindergartenish and senile for the twenty first century......the Future may have had a chance.

Revolt in Mississippi: Indian Workers Claim 'Slave Treatment'
Workers Call for Signal International to Be Prosecuted on Alleged Human Trafficking Charges
By JOSEPH RHEE
March 7, 2008—
Rebelling against alleged "slave treatment," some 100 workers recruited from India staged a dramatic protest at a Mississippi shipyard Thursday, claiming they had been tricked into coming to the United States.
The workers, brought from India to work as welders and pipe-fitters at Signal International shipyard in Pascagoula, hurled their hard hats at company gates and demanded a federal investigation.
The workers claim they were defrauded by a Signal International recruiter in India who promised them green cards and permanent residency in the U.S. in exchange for a $20,000 fee. The workers allege that they instead received 10-month work visas, which was only enough time for them to pay off their recruitment fees.
The workers also claim that Signal forced them to live in substandard housing, with 24 men crammed into a small room. The men say Signal charged them more than $1,000 a month to live in company housing.
"For more than one year, hundreds of Indian workers at Signal International have been living like slaves," said former Signal worker Sabulal Vijayan. "Today the workers are coming out to declare their freedom. This trafficking needs to end."
The workers have reported their situation to the U.S. Department of Justice and are calling for Signal International to be prosecuted on human trafficking charges.
Signal International strongly denied ...full text

Mortgage Company Heads Grilled By Congress

"....There's a complete disconnect with reality," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. CEOs now receive about 600 times what the average worker earns, compared to about 40 times in 1980." Is there a deliberate design flaw in the Economic & Judicial systems of rule and law, lopsidedly benefiting corporate greedy guts? Where science and facts play second fiddle to the power of the Mouth backed by money?

There is not an intelligent being alive that could not understand Natural Capitalism with justice based on natural laws, facts and unfettered science; where human life comes first and foremost, the primary factor upon which justice and profit is gaged: the greater the health and prosperity of all, the greater the justice and profits for all (simple numbers game). So who CHOKED THE SYSTEM, on top of scientific suppression of advanced energy systems from the late 1940's (Evolving Advanced Energy Systems without which Human Life Cannot Survive) ?

Mild shock and disbelief barely registered in the nation of the most productive, overworked, underpaid, underinsured, vacation deprived, low paid slave/workers in the world, as they watched their bridges fall down, while their taxes, gas and energy costs continued skyrocketing to uncharted realms, as the masses stagnated in unmovable traffic, and government departments threatened to close due to lack of funds - On the bright side, the worldwide corporate 2% greedy guts, individually, had aplenty, more wealth than 30 nations combined, apiece.... irrelevant to who is paying for their errors (as in subprime loans).

As common sense in science is lost with the continued stagnation of our energy base and deep troubling theoretical foundational issues in physics, so too, Civilization's Survival Parameters fly out of sight, out of mind, along with the values and morals inherent within new scientific understanding which new energy systems would reveal. Scientific Stagnation bodes an ill wind to evolution, sustainability, and survival as "cycles of humiliation, dumbing us down, violence, and Unrestrained Corporate Greed prompting resource wars with nuclear finality" join hands with global warming and ecological imbalance to precipitate the historical "rise and fall of civilization" - a Tsunami accelerating toward us with a far more spectacular event than the legends and myths of 'Atlantis and Lemuria"........ had more people known that Energy from Corn (or going backwards to a dimwitted concept of radioactive nuclear power application ) sounded a wee bit kindergartenish and senile for the twenty first century......the Future may have had a chance.


Mortgage Company Heads Grilled By Congress
WASHINGTON, March 7, 2008

Lenders Under Fire
Congress is asking tough questions of mortgage lenders who made millions while the many Americans who borrowed from them lost their homes. Chip Reid reports

(CBS/AP) Three corporate executives called in for a shaming by Democratic lawmakers Friday defended raking in hundreds of millions of dollars despite contributing to the subprime mortgage crisis that has their companies reeling from losses and the nation on the edge of recession. "There's a complete disconnect with reality," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But the CEOs testifying before the committee, Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial Corp.; Stanley O'Neal, formerly of Merrill Lynch & Co; and Charles Prince, formerly of Citigroup Inc.; defended their pay as appropriate. "As our company did well, I did well," said Mozilo, founder of Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender and a key player in the subprime problem. "But when our company did not do well, as in 2007, my direct compensation and the value of my holdings declined materially, which is as it should be." Republicans on the committee generally agreed. "This is a hearing in search of bad guys," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. "All of you complied with the transparency rules and the best practices rules." The hearing was the second held by Waxman on the issue of executive pay, which Forbes magazine said averaged $15.2 million for the CEOs in the largest 500 U.S. companies in 2006, an increase of 38 percent in one year. The House Government Reform Committee last December also looked at large, publicly traded companies that hire compensation consultants who are receiving millions of dollars from corporate executives whose compensation they were supposed to assess. Republicans on the committee questioned the need for the hearing, saying it falls outside the panel's primary role of investigating waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. "The impact of corporate executive compensation is debatable," said Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, top Republican on the committee. "Fine, but that debate ... should not degenerate into a sanctimonious search for scapegoats." Rep. Waxman questioned how all three CEOs could profit handsomely at a time when their companies were losing billions of dollars and stock values were plunging. "You're in the middle of an enormous debacle," Waxman said. "It seems like everyone is hurting except for you." "It's only in the wacky world of CEOs where you get severance for failing," said Nell Minow, editor of The Corporate Library and one of the economic experts testifying. Committee figures showed that Countrywide suffered a $1.2 billion loss in the third quarter of 2007 and then lost another $422 million in the fourth quarter. By the end of the year, the company's stock had fallen 80 percent from its five-year peak in February. During the same period, Mozilo received a $1.9 million salary, $20 million in stock awards contingent upon performance and sold $121 million in stock. Some of those stock sales occurred at the same time the company was borrowing $1.5 billion to repurchase its shares. In 1969, Mozilo, a butcher's son from New York, co-founded Countrywide and turned a one-room office into a $500 billion home loan empire while turning himself into one of the nation's highest paid CEOs, reports CBS News correspondent Chip Reid. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., questioned Mozilo's insistence - documented in a November 2006 e-mail - that he be reimbursed for taxes owed when his wife traveled on Countrywide's corporate jet. Mozilo related how he had started Countrywide from the kitchen of his small New York apartment. He said his direct compensation and the value of his stock holdings declined substantially last year and he had not received, and will not receive, a bonus for 2007 and 2008. Mozilo also said he would give up some $37 million in severance pay if Bank of America proceeds with plans to acquire Countrywide. His defense of his compensation may fall on some unsympathetic ears however. While countless Countrywide customers faced foreclosure on their homes, Mozilo enjoyed his $15 million mansion and a high-flying lifestyle that included an abundance of expensive perks. At the same time, thousands of Countrywide employees lost their jobs, reports Reid. O'Neal received a retirement package of $161 million when he was pushed out as Merrill Lynch CEO last October. But the committee said that if the company had terminated O'Neal for cause rather than letting him retire, he would not have been entitled to $131 million of that in unvested stock and options. During 2007, the firm reported $18 billion in writedowns related to subprime and other risky mortgages. O'Neal countered that he had received no bonus in 2007 and no severance pay. He was defended by John Finnegan, chairman of Merrill Lynch's compensation committee. "All of the $161 million related to prior-period performance and all were amounts to which Mr. O'Neal was entitled as a retirement-eligible employee." The lawmakers also asked why Citigroup, which saw its stock fall 48 percent at the end of 2007 compared with a year earlier, would award Prince a cash bonus worth $10.4 million after he stepped down as CEO last November. He also received $28 million in unvested stock and options and $1.5 million in annual perquisites upon his departure. "I'm proud of my accomplishments," Prince said, speaking of his contributions over almost three decades to Citigroup's growth and the company's efforts to assist homeowners facing foreclosure. Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, top Republican on the committee, noted that Mozilo's total compensation package in 2007 was about $22 million, half that of 2006, while Prince also saw his compensation halved in 2007 to about $12 million. Linking executive pay to the subprime crisis "only seems to muddle the issue further," he said. Several of the executives did acknowledge public resentment over the fact that large company CEOs now receive about 600 times what the average worker earns, compared to about 40 times in 1980. The question, said Richard Parsons, chairman of Citigroup's personnel and compensation committee, is "how do we remain competitive without contributing to something that could be tearing at the fabric of society." Reid reports that some Republicans said today's hearing was nothing more than a search for scapegoats in the mortgage crisis, arguing that there's already plenty of blame to go around, even right here in Congress.

Saudi King Condemns U.S. Occupation of Iraq

Long time Allies deserting? I suppose the question of the exponential rise of murder and killing, including the murder and killing of women and children since the "liberation" and "occupation", does occasionally arise. The oil fields are pretty safe though.

NYT March 28, 2007
Saudi King Condemns U.S. Occupation of Iraq
By HASSAN M. FATTAH
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told Arab leaders on Wednesday that the American occupation of Iraq is “illegal,” and he warned that unless Arab governments settle their differences, foreign powers like the United States would continue to dictate the region’s politics.
The king’s speech, at the opening of the Arab League summit meeting here, underscored growing differences between Saudi Arabia and the Bush administration as the Saudis take on a greater regional leadership role, partly at American urging. The Saudis seem to be emphasizing that they will not be beholden to the policies of their longtime ally.
The Saudis brokered a deal between the two main Palestinian factions last month but one that both Israel and the United States found deeply problematic because it added to the power of the radical group Hamas rather than to the more moderate Fatah. On Wednesday, the king called for an end to the international boycott of the new Palestinian government. The United States and Israel want the boycott continued.
In addition, King Abdullah invited President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to Riyadh earlier this month while the Americans want him shunned. And in trying to settle the tensions in Lebanon, the Saudis seem willing to negotiate with Iran.
Last week, the Saudi king abruptly canceled his appearance at an April White House dinner planned in his honor, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. The official reason given for the cancellation was a scheduling conflict.
Mustapha Hamarneh, director of the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, said the Saudis are sending Washington a message. “They are telling the U.S. they need to listen to their allies rather than imposing decisions on them and always taking Israel’s side.”
In his speech on Wednesday, the king said: “In the beloved Iraq, the bloodshed is continuing under an illegal foreign occupation.. full text