Class Act
Next up, Bush said, should be curbs on asbestos litigation and medical malpractice awards.
Some might note that under Vice President Dick Cheney, Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root unit -- the single largest benefactor of no-bid support contracts in the War on Terror -- entered bankruptcy protection to avoid paying billions of dollars in class action awards regarding, specifically, asbestos litigation. Halliburton was represented in several such actions by Houston law firm Vinson & Elkins, whose rising star employee at the time was -- you guessed it -- Alberto Gonzales. Mr. Gonzales went on to become Texas Supreme Court Justice for a year, during which time the courts overthrew a $2.6m finding against Halliburton's KBR even amid evidence of a full court judicial pay-off. He did not recuse himself.
No kidding -- Google "Halliburton" and "asbestos" and tell me that you don't see a connection to this legislation.
Also, why the hell are legally bankrupt companies even considered for multi-billion dollar government contracts, bid or no-bid?
I guess that's why they call it a bill.
posted by Sparky at 1:25 AM
1 Comments:
Here's the thing. All this sheot is true and all of it disturbing. While F9/11 got some superb publicity it still didn't close the door on W. There's certainly enough material: Halliburton, Saudi Links, overt corporate handouts, the fictions behind the war, historical drug use... the list goes on. What we *need* is a new untainted mouthpiece to distill these things into an easy-to-digest & understand set of memes. While Michael's good, the media has succeeded in painting him in a certain coloUr. No matter how accurate his subsequent work is, he'll still be the liberal who is not afraid to lie. Maybe that's a required compromise as a) He's good and b) He can get the backing to build one or more media items - movie, spots, etc.
I would think that whatever messages are put forth, they're tight and difficult to argue against. A single powerpoint slide worth of info with 5 bullets. We need 5 phrases that have the same commonplace feeling as "War on terror" and such. My 2c anyway. In short, we need to lose a bit of the nuanced message because the nuance is lost and spun. We're in a world of sound bites. Nobody knows *why* Kerry voted for the bill before he voted against it. Nobody.
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