BP: Scum of the Earth? You make the call.

 

 

Jeez, and I thought Home Depot was bad.  Well, it's no secret that news organizations have been prevented from filming certain areas of the Gulf and Gulf coast. This has been done with the cooperation of the Coast Guard and the federal government. (Who really needs the first amendment?)

 

It has also been reported that over 1500 oil spill workers have gotten ill. BP is spending millions of dollars on national TV advertising explaining how they are in it for the long haul and will clean up the Gulf no matter how long it takes and they will compensate the fishermen for lost income. Well, Drudge is reporting that folks aren't getting their checks as promised and now we have this from the supposedly stand-up, responsible and caring BP:

 

News is breaking from the Gulf of Mexico that cleanup workers — who are really just contracted fishermen — are being told they will be fired if they wear protective gear. BP is not providing the gear, but if workers wear respirators they secure for themselves, the company says they will be fired, according to Louisiana Environmental Action Network and a local environmentalist who just returned from the Gulf.

 

Reports of illness among the workers began almost as soon as the cleanup did. But the government-run health clinics where they are being treated are among areas the federal government has deemed off limits to reporters. The feds also barred press from oiled wildlife and booms in a move that makes them look an awful lot like the PR crew for the British oil giant.

 

A coalition including commercial fishermen's groups, environmental groups and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is petitioning the government to force BP to provide respirators for workers. In its first three hours, the petition has garnered more than 16,000 signatures.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?&entry_id=67426#ixzz0tDQ5zjOc

Home Depot: Greedy corporate scum, squared.

"(Expletive) Michael Powell," the executive said. "Let him sue us."

 

Home Depot knew exactly what it was doing,' U.S. District Judge Daniel Hurley said. 'They simply pushed Mr. Powell away and they did it totally and completely for their own economic benefit.'

By Jane Musgrave

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 4:35 p.m. Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Posted: 7:40 p.m. Monday, May 10, 2010

 

WEST PALM BEACH — When a Home Depot executive was told inventor Michael Powell might have a claim against the hardware giant for stealing an invention that keeps store employees safe, his reaction was swift and vulgar.

"(Expletive) Michael Powell," the executive said. "Let him sue us."

The crass response typifies the company's attitude toward Powell, who crafted an simple, yet ingenious, way to keep Home Depot employees from slicing off their fingers while they're cutting wood for customers, a federal judge said Monday.

"Home Depot knew exactly what it was doing," U.S. District Judge Daniel Hurley said. "They simply pushed Mr. Powell away and they did it totally and completely for their own economic benefit."

Calling the company callous and arrogant, he ordered it to pay the former Boca Raton man $3 million in punitive damages. That's on top of the $15 million a jury in March said the company should pay him for stealing his so-called "Safe Hands" gadget that is now affixed to radial saws at nearly 2,000 Home Depots nationwide.

The damages for Home Depot don't end there. Hurley also ordered the firm to pay Powell's attorneys the $2.8 million they say they are owed, and to pay Powell an estimated $1 million in interest annually on the judgment. The interest began building in 2006 and will continuing accruing until Home Depot pays up.

The roughly $25 million judgment could have been avoided had the company agreed in 2004 to pay Powell the $2,000 he offered to charge for each device. That bill would have come to $4 million.

Instead, Hurley said, the firm dispatched workers to duplicate the saw guards Powell allowed them to test in eight stores in Georgia and California.

"It's sad to say, but Home Depot literally organized a theft of the Powell invention," he said.

Powell, who now lives in North Carolina, declined to comment on the verdict on the advice of his attorneys . Home Depot attorneys also declined to comment.

A company spokesman said Home Depot disagreed with the ruling and is considering an appeal.

"We have a strong commitment to dealing with our business partners fairly and with integrity, which is how we've maintained long-standing relationships with literally tens of thousands of suppliers over the past 30-plus years," company spokesman Stephen Holmes wrote in an e-mail. "We would never condone actions that intentionally violate another company's intellectual property rights."

However, Hurley said, that's not what the evidence showed during Monday's day-long hearing or during a nearly monthlong trial.

Recognizing it was a Goliath to Powell's David, the company sought to cut him out of any profit for the invention that saved the company millions in worker's compensation claims. In the year before the devices were installed, the company paid out $1 million in claims related to injuries caused by the saw. In the year after the gadgets were installed, it paid out $7,000.

He also criticized Home Depot attorneys for their handling of the case, which he described as "nasty, mean litigation." For instance, when Powell's attorney asked for records of injuries cause by the saws, Home Depot attorneys handed over 6,000 documents. In a spot check of 2,300 pages, Powell's attorneys found one document that dealt with a saw injury.

"This is the kind of activity that people look at that engenders outright disgust for the legal profession," Hurley told Moss. "It is shameful."

==============================

 

Just one more example of America circling the bowl.

Finally, some good economic news.

 

Worlds billionaires grew 50% richer in 2009.

(link)

 

Now there's some change we can believe in. From WSWS: (My bold)

 

"2009 will be remembered by millions of ordinary people as the year they lost their job, their house, or the prospect of an education. For the rich, however, it was a bonanza.

 

The world’s billionaires saw their wealth grow by 50 percent last year, and their ranks swell to 1,011, from 793, according to the latest Forbes list of billionaires.

The combined net worth of these 1,011 individuals increased to $3.6 trillion, up $1.2 trillion from the year before. On average, each billionaire had his or her wealth increase by $500 million.

Four hundred and three billionaires reside in the United States. They constitute just 0.00014 percent of the country’s total population, but control 8 percent of the national wealth. Each of these individuals holds over 300 million times more wealth than the average US resident.

The list included 21 hedge fund managers, who as a group more than made up for whatever losses they incurred in 2008. Some of them, including James Simons, John Arnold, and George Soros, raked in profits during both the collapse and the market recovery.

Topping the list of wealthiest hedge fund managers was John Paulson, at $32 billion. Paulson made billions in 2008 by betting that the housing market would collapse, and billions more through the stock market recovery of 2009.

Only one of the 21 hedge fund managers on last year’s Forbes list fell off. This was Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon Group, who was arrested last year on charges of insider trading.

Hedge fund managers James Simons, John Arnold, and David Tepper got average returns of 62, 52, and 31 percent, respectively, between 2008 and 2010. David Tepper made $2.3 billion over the past year, while John Paulson’s wealth grew by $6 billion.

The number of US billionaires grew to 403, up from 359 last year. The Asia-Pacific region had 234 billionaires, up from 130 the last year. Europe has 248 billionaires, despite having twice the population of the United States.

The 1,011 people on this list command a phenomenal amount of personal wealth. Their holdings are larger than the gross domestic products of every country besides China, Japan, and the United States. The wealth of the 403 US billionaires could more than cover the 2008 US federal deficit, with money left over for the states.

 

and.....

 

The hedge fund managers and financiers on the list benefitted directly from the bank bailout, which transferred huge sums of public funds into the accounts of the largest financial companies. But the billionaires in every other industry were the indirect recipients the government’s wealth transfer program also.

The Wall Street Journal, commenting on the figures, wrote, “How did the world’s rich get so much richer? Stock markets…. In short, what the stock market had taketh, the stock market hath giveth back–-at least to the billionaires.”

But the stock market recovery itself is no accident; it was the direct outcome of policies pursued by both US political parties. The bailout has been financed by a policy of fiscal austerity and high unemployment. The rapid increase in the wealth of the billionaires is the result of the impoverishment of tens of millions; it is the other face of mass unemployment, poverty, utility shutoffs, and foreclosures.

Aside from direct government handouts to the banks and super-rich, the major driver of the recovery of corporate profits—and thus the stock market—was productivity growth and corporate downsizing."

 

See, I told y'all, some good news----at least for the billionaires.