War in the Middle East
Syria-bound missile components intercepted, claims US
Syria-bound missile components intercepted, claims US Equipment bound for Syria which could be used to test ballistic missile components was intercepted during a previously undisclosed mission, the United States has announced MORE.
Israel's Staticide
There is a Greek tragedy unfolding today in the Middle East. In response to past mistakes and as a result of hubristic political calculation, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is setting in motion forces that promise to lead inexorably to grief for his nation. The result could be staticide, the destruction of the Jewish State, with incalculably serious repercussions for the Free World in general and the United States in particular.
In the pursuit of peace with its neighbors, Israel has made one strategic concession after another. In 1979, it surrendered the Sinai to Egypt when Anwar Sadat promised peace and then was murdered for doing so. In 1993, Israel adopted the Oslo accords, legitimating one of its most virulent enemies, the PLO terrorist chief Yasser Arafat, and setting the stage for Palestinian control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Eight years ago this month, Israel unilaterally withdrew from South Lebanon, creating a vacuum promptly filled by Iran’s proxy army there, Hezbollah. Then, in 2005, Israel forcibly removed its citizens living in Gaza and turned the Strip over – temporarily – to Arafat’s right-hand man and successor, Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas. MORE
Global Warming
Sacrifices to the Climate Gods
By Roy Spencer
It is well-established that the ancient Mayan, Aztec, Incan, and Toltec peoples offered human sacrifices, probably in the belief that such rituals would placate the gods who were in charge of nature; for instance, to help bring life-giving rains to their crops.
Although we shudder at the thought of such barbaric practices, I believe that we have unwittingly reinstituted human sacrifice in modern times. But while the list of justifications has grown immensely, our new rituals are still performed in the name of avoiding the wrath of the gods of nature.
Our environmental protection practices have already caused the deaths of millions of people, mainly in poor African countries. By far the most humans — mostly women and children — have been sacrificed in the mistaken belief that the use of any amount of the pesticide DDT would harm the environment. As a result, the preventable disease malaria has continued to decimate Africa.
The Plain Truth's Your Health Today has the latest health news so you can keep yourself and your family healthy and happy! See what God has to do with your good health!
Click Here for YOUR HEALTH TODAY!
THE THIRD WORLD WAR
Why NATO Troops Can't Deliver Peace in Afghanistan
Forty nations are embroiled in an unwinnable war in Afghanistan. Anyone who travels through the country with Western troops soon realizes that NATO forces would have to be increased tenfold for peace to be even a remote possibility. By Ullrich Fichtner more... [ Forum ]
With two weeks to go until the Lisbon Treaty referendum, Irish voters are slowly making their minds up on how to vote. Worryingly for Brussels it is the 'No' campaign that is steadily gaining support, as it plays on fears relating to neutrality, taxation and abortion. By Siobhán Dowling more...
An Opposing Viewpoint
Black Gold and Greenbacks
BEFORE ANYONE GETS MORE HOT AND BOTHERED ABOUT THE RAPID and seemingly ineluctable ascent of the price of oil, or Congress gets a notion to punish somebody for it, consider this: By one measure, the price of a barrel of petroleum today should be lower than it was in 1959.
![[pic]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vhC419ibRO8gtc3GWt4B8RsSYyR6gSUJBy5ssW7MbNUwIrbVlK27vPdb1uObEtkHaT2SQgeEqNhoGIR8kCy3ptIYiIHHnCWusF2N6sIWhhN1guwgxo7opAzBAMdmeqaUHbNUnlSsmaTgGH-9DNlg=s0-d) |
| William Waitzman |
Not only that, a recent analysis of oil prices over the past 50 years, adjusted for the increase in the money supply as measured by a gauge known as M3, lays the blame for surging petro prices squarely at the feet of Uncle Sam, particularly the Federal Reserve.
"By rapidly increasing the money supply and thereby decreasing the value of the dollar, the government is solely responsible for the increase in the oil price," writes Paul van Eeden, president of Toronto-based Cranberry Capital, a private investment company and publisher of a weekly commentary at <FONTSIZE=4>www.paulvaneeden.com.
![[chart]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t0uuhLJRFc46YcrvJ1--Bu7Usta-BRsNhsGrdBZKlce8DWN-p3JCIMwlU3ToqXwXjHOcWsqLKa16pz33TF5CJMzTaj3N9ITJ7lvVGXXK12haQfyGcB0xyvq_KkJW4x2nLe0vQpBq7ZO3jV-Jsgng=s0-d)
Though van Eeden says that the doubling of oil in real terms since 2003 mostly reflects market factors, he ascribes oil's dizzying longer-term advance almost completely to the falling dollar and the increase in the money supply engineered by the Fed, to stimulate the economy.
Van Eeden compares the current dollar/euro exchange rate to what it would have been in January 1970, against a basket of the 12 currencies comprising the euro before its launch. His conclusion? Absent the greenback's long-term debasement, oil would probably be less than $10 a barrel, taking it back to long-ago levels. Something to ponder next time you're filling up with $4.10 a gallon regular.
BRAVE NEW SCHOOLSBy Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
 Friendswood Junior High |
Public school students at Friendswood Junior High in the Houston area have been roped into Islamic training by representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations during class time, prompting religious leaders to protest over Principal Robin Lowe's actions.
Pastor Dave Welch, spokesman for the Houston Area Pastor Council, confirmed the indoctrination had taken place and called it "unacceptable."
"The failure of the principal of Friendswood Junior High to respect simple procedures requiring parental notification for such a potentially controversial subject, to not only approve but participate personally in a religious indoctrination session led by representatives of a group with well-known links to terrorist organizations and her cavalier response when confronted, raises serious questions about her fitness to serve in that role," the pastors' organization said. MORE
Mad as Hell
100,000 Americans Petition Congress to Drill for Oil Now
'Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less' campaign continues to gain momentum
WASHINGTON, May 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- American Solutions for Winning the Future announced today that more than 100,000 Americans have now signed a petition urging Congress to immediately start drilling for oil domestically to ease gas prices. The petition is part of the "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" campaign American Solutions launched last week.
The petition reads:
"We, therefore, the undersigned citizens of the United States, petition the U.S. Congress to act immediately to lower gasoline prices by authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries."
Next week, American Solutions will deliver the signatures, gathered from citizens in all 50 states, to the U.S. Senate as a first step toward stopping the destructive Warner-Lieberman bill which would raise the cost of gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, and aviation fuel.
According to American Solutions' research, 73% of the American people agree that with appropriate safeguards to protect the environment, we should drill for oil off America's coasts to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. This belief is so widespread it is supported by a majority of Democrats, Republicans, and independents.
"Our message of 'Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less' is clearly resonating with hard-working Americans who are struggling to pay for rising gas prices," said Dave Ryan, American Solutions Executive Director. "The voices of more than 100,000 Americans are demanding that Congress offer real solutions to our energy challenges, and that begins with drilling for oil now."
For more information about the "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" campaign, visit www.AmericanSolutions.com/DrillNow.
About American Solutions
American Solutions for Winning the Future is a new, non-partisan organization built around three goals: to defend America and our allies abroad and defeat our enemies, to strengthen and revitalize America's core values, and to move the government into the 21st Century. Its General Chairman is former Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Paid for by American Solutions for Winning the Future.
Not authorized by any candidate, or candidate committee. Not printed at government expense.
SOURCE American Solutions for Winning the Future
Corporate Greed
Oil prices to be probed by US regulator CFTC
By James Quinn, Wall Street Correspondent
Note From Robert R. Barney: Notce that within 12 hours of this announcement the price of oil plummted and gas came down overnight. Does it really take a rocket scientist to figure out what is happening?
America's leading commodities regulator has launched an unprecedented investigation into possible market manipulation in the US crude oil market amid record prices which continue to cripple various parts of the global economy.
 | |
| Oil prices hit a record high of $135.14 a barrel last week |
The Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC), working closely with other international regulators including the Financial Services Authority in the UK, has begun a series of detailed inquiries over concerns that energy speculators are behind the rising oil price.
In a detailed statement, the CFTC admitted for the first time that it began its investigation in December, taking what it called the "extraordinary step" of disclosing the probe "because of today's unprecedented market conditions". MORE
By Phil Stewart
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican issued its most explicit decree so far against the ordination of women priests on Thursday, punishing them and the bishops who try to ordain them with automatic excommunication.
The decree was written by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and published in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, giving it immediate effect. MORE
|
They may have been the largest flying creatures that the Earth has known, but many pterosaurs preferred to walk, according to new research.
The biggest family of the prehistoric winged reptiles probably fed like modern storks and ground hornbills, stalking prey on foot before grabbing it with their monstrous jaws, British scientists have found MORE
Editors Note: If anyone thinks that Obama has a prayer of a chance to carry this election, then they are either as dumb as this current administration or as evil. America will vote for the right black man, but not a communist race baiting one from a liberation theology church. Maybe in 2040, but not in 2008.
CARLSBAD, California (Reuters) - News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch on Wednesday predicted a Democratic landslide in the U.S. presidential election against a gloomy economic backdrop over the next 18 months.MORE
Predatory lending in the housing market with two sets of books coupled with oil speculators who buy black gold by the hundreds of thousands of barrels a day and sit on it until they've made a pile (minimum buy on the Rotterdam spot market is 1,000 barrels), and many other sleights of hand are forcing America's Airlines, once the envy of the world, to look at Chapters 7, 11 or 12 of bankruptcy laws.
Casualties are mounting as airlines face fuel bills $89 billion larger than last year. Airlines reckon they may lose $40 billion this year, thrice the deficit recorded after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. MORE
The book title — "The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation" — conveys an academic exercise for eggheads who made a career of the Middle East peace process.
It's about the peace process all right, but also a fascinating inside look by a 50-year-old Arab statesman, the first to write a book in English, who was privy to all the secret machinations since the age of 30. MORE
Exxon Mobil CEO takes aim at environmentalists
GettyChairman of the Board and CEO of Exxon Mobil Corporation Rex Tillerson listens to a reporter's question after the annual shareholders meeting in Dallas, Wednesday, May 28, 2008.
DALLAS -- Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest oil-and-gas company, came out swinging Wednesday against the environmental movement, arguing the science of climate change is far from settled and that his company views it as its "corporate social responsibility" to continue to supply the world with fossil fuels.
This is the Most important Website You will visit this week!
The Plain Truth's Your Health Today has the latest health news so you can keep yourself and your family healthy and happy! See what God has to do with your good health!
Click Here for YOUR HEALTH TODAY!
OUR UN AT WORK
Ironic Irony!
Some US farms outsourced to Mexico
IRAPUATO, Mexico - Antonio Martinez used to pay smugglers thousands of dollars each year to sneak him into the United States to manage farm crews. Now, the work comes to him.Supervising lettuce pickers in central Mexico, Martinez earns just half of the $1,100 a week he made in the U.S. But the job has its advantages, including working without fear of immigration raids More....
By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
JERUSALEM – Terrorists in the Gaza Strip are rejoicing at an Israeli decision today to evacuate troops stationed at a major Gaza-Israel border crossing following repeated Palestinian attack against Israel's side of the border station.
"This retreat proves the Israeli army is a paper tiger. What we proved to the world in 2005 (when Israel evacuated its Jewish communities from the Gaza Strip) we are proving once again. We are reaching a new step and proving our resistance and our rockets are working," Muhammad Abdel-Al, spokesman and a leader of the Hamas-allied Popular Resistance Committees terror group, told WND. More....
The Middle East
Carter says Israel has at least 150 atomic weapons
Asked at a news conference at Wales's Hay literary festival on Sunday how a future U.S. president should deal with the Iranian nuclear threat, Carter put the risk in context by listing atomic weapons held globally. More....
 |
|---|
   |
||
|---|---|---|
|
|---|
In 1915, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields," Moina Michael replied with her own poem:
| We cherish too, the Poppy red That grows on fields where valor led, It seems to signal to the skies That blood of heroes never dies. |
Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.
There are a few notable exceptions. Since the late 50's on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. In 1951, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of St. Louis began placing flags on the 150,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as an annual Good Turn, a practice that continues to this day. More recently, beginning in 1998, on the Saturday before the observed day for Memorial Day, the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts place a candle at each of approximately 15,300 grave sites of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park on Marye's Heights (the Luminaria Program). And in 2004, Washington D.C. held its first Memorial Day parade in over 60 years.
To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans "To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to 'Taps."
The Moment of Remembrance is a step in the right direction to returning the meaning back to the day. What is needed is a full return to the original day of observance. Set aside one day out of the year for the nation to get together to remember, reflect and honor those who have given their all in service to their country.
But what may be needed to return the solemn, and even sacred, spirit back to Memorial Day is for a return to its traditional day of observance. Many feel that when Congress made the day into a three-day weekend in with the National Holiday Act of 1971, it made it all the easier for people to be distracted from the spirit and meaning of the day. As the VFW stated in its 2002 Memorial Day address: "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day."
On January 19, 1999 Senator Inouye introduced bill S 189 to the Senate which proposes to restore the traditional day of observance of Memorial Day back to May 30th instead of "the last Monday in May". On April 19, 1999 Representative Gibbons introduced the bill to the House (H.R. 1474). The bills were referred the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Government Reform.
|
Restore The Traditional Day Of Observance For Memorial Day
Enter your name: Display as "Anonymous" Click here to read this petition.
Newest 20 of 10,657 signatures
|
|---|
Visit our Help Restore the Traditional Day of Observance page for more information on this issue, and for more ways you can help.
To see what day Memorial Day falls on for the next 10 years, visit the Memorial Day Calendar page.
Sources and related links:
Big Brother
Government Says Bill of Rights doesn't apply in Wartime
Irony can be pretty IRONIC!
Id-Protection Ads Come Back To Bite Pitchman
I think this is funny! Not usually the news I would put up on The Plain Truth (I usually reserve this for WWW.RaceRap.Com ) but this is a good message to be wary of stupid claims.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Todd Davis has dared criminals for two years to try stealing his identity: Ads for his fraud-prevention company, LifeLock, even offer his Social Security number next to his smiling mug.
Now, Lifelock customers in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia are suing Davis, claiming his service didn't work as promised and he knew it wouldn't, because the service had failed even him.
Attorney David Paris said he found records of other people applying for or receiving driver's licenses at least 20 times using Davis' Social Security number, though some of the applications may have been rejected because data in them didn't match what the Social Security Administration had on file.
Davis acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that his stunt has led to at least 87 instances in which people have tried to steal his identity, and one succeeded: a guy in Texas who duped an online payday loan operation last year into giving him $500 using Davis' Social Security number. More....
Interesting History
The Original Indiana Jones
As Indiana Jones returns to our screens, John Preston looks at the Nazi archaeologist who inspired Spielberg's hero, and finds a story more bizarre than anything the director could have dreamt of
Very little is certain in the short life of Otto Rahn. But one of the few things one can with any confidence say about him is that he looked nothing like Harrison Ford. Yet Rahn, small and weasel-faced, with a hesitant, toothy smile and hair like a neatly contoured oil slick, undoubtedly served as inspiration for Ford's most famous role, Indiana Jones.
 | |
| On joining the SS: 'A man has to eat. What was I supposed to do? Turn Himmler down?' |
Like Jones, Rahn was an archaeologist, like him he fell foul of the Nazis and like him he was obsessed with finding the Holy Grail - the cup reputedly used to catch Christ's blood when he was crucified. But whereas Jones rode the Grail-train to box-office glory, Rahn's obsession ended up costing him his life.
However, Rahn is such a strange figure, and his story so bizarre, that simply seeing him as the unlikely progenitor of Indiana Jones is to do him a disservice. Here was a man who entered into a terrible Faustian pact: he was given every resource imaginable to realise his dream. There was just one catch: in return, he had to find something that - if it ever existed - had not been seen for almost 2,000 years.
What we can say for sure is that Rahn was born in 1904 and at an early age became fascinated with the Holy Grail. At university he was inspired by the example of another German archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann. Largely as a result of immersing himself in the Iliad, Schliemann had found what he believed to be the ruins of Troy on the western coast of Turkey.
Rahn decided that he was going to go one better: he would use the 13th-century epic Parsifal as his guide to finding the Holy Grail. Why did he think Parsifal would lead him to his goal? This is a tricky one - and, as with anything to do with the More....
The Plain Truth's Your Health Today has the latest health news so you can keep yourself and your family healthy and happy! See what God has to do with your good health!
Click Here for YOUR HEALTH TODAY!
Corporate Greed
Learning from the Mafia: Corporate Greed is why we have high prices!
By Robert R. Barney
1) Force out all competition by legal or "head smashing" tactics. Make sure that you and a few friends are the only players in whatever business you want to get into. Remember the old trash company joke? They weren't jokes!
2) Learn how to not pay taxes, that honest hard working legit small businesses do. Learn to find every legal and illegal way to never pay taxes. That becomes the best bottom line tactic that there is.
3) Learn to play golf! You see, on the golf course, one can meet with their so-called competition and FIX PRICES! It's done all the time. ON YOUR DIME! or should I say dollars....
I am in the paint business. Our company manufactures auto, marine, OEM and wood coatings. Our quality exceeds that of the "big guy". They don't need to make good products. They don't want to. The top 5 auto paint companies sell 90% of all auto paint in the WORLD! (see story below how they are caught price fixing). To make the most profit, they use the cheapest materials they can buy, price it 10 to 20 times higher than cost, meet on a golf course and agree to fix price, buy out smaller competition, or constantly threaten the little guys with lawsuits! We have had our letters from them! It's a joke when you know how to fight back. You ask yourself about "how can they get away with lousy quality products?" It simple. REFUSE TO PAY ANY CLAIM! Always blame the painter. Any painters out there in my audience? You know the score!
In the links below, you will see that every product thinkable is being controlled mafia style all over the world. It is not just America. This is happening globally and millions of people are starving to death because of it. GOD CALLS THIS GREED. This isn't capitalism, it is greed and immoral. Just like the mafia, people are being killed. Children starving to death are in God's eyes being murdered! Don't ever forget this fact: God is watching us.
Cement Cartel Success Boosts UK Claims Investigators gathering evidence over alleged cement price fixing in the UK have been boosted by Heidelberg, Lafarge, Holcim, Cemex and three other cement producers losing their court bid in Germany to throw out a lawsuit over a price-fixing cartel.. More....
Qantas staff accused of price-fixing role THE involvement of Qantas employees in illegally fixing air-freight rates was "extensive", US prosecutors have claimed.More....
Stop MasterCard, Visa from price-fixing Proponents of the bill charged Visa and MasterCard with price-fixing for electronic payments. They claimed the two collude to set the price and offer it up to merchants as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. They projected that the fees add about $2 to every $100 consumers spend in stores, or 2% of the price tag. More....
India accuses fertilizer makers of price fixing
VIENNA -- For three decades, India has subsidized its fertilizer industry to keep costs low for farmers. Now, with prices for chemical crop nutrients soaring, that subsidy is taking a giant bite out of the nation's coffers -- and India's agriculture leaders are accusing the world's suppliers of pushing prices too high and exacerbating the global food crisis.More....
Watchdog suspects steel makers of price-fixing The price of steel is going through the roof across the world, mainly because the cost of transporting it and buying the raw materials used to make it have risen dramatically. But the Anti-monopoly Service believes some Russian steel producers could be acting together to further drive up prices.More....
ADM sues five major railroads over price fixing Read the Story...Click here....
More food companies charged with price fixing Read the Story...Click here....
U.S. FTC eases price-fixing order for Nine West Read the Story...Click here....
Corporate Greed
PAINT PRICE-FIXING PROBE UNDER WAY
Anticompetitive practices are subject of Justice Department inquiry
MARC REISCH
In one broad brush stroke, the Department of Justice has subpoenaed five major automobile refinish paint makers for documents that could show evidence of anticompetitive practices.
 | |
|
COLLISION WITH JUSTICE Price-fixing among auto paint makers might have made it more expensive to get cars repainted. | |
But BASF, PPG, DuPont, Akzo Nobel, and Sherwin-Williams acknowledge that they have received requests for information on their auto paint refinish businesses. Together, they supply $1.2 billion in coatings annually to 1,300 U.S. auto-body repair shops, says Pinehurst, N.C.-based industry consultant Phil Phillips.
All the paint makers say they are cooperating with the Justice Department. However, publicly available documents suggest that Akzo is key to the inquiry.
The Dutch company's annual report states that last year it incurred $26 million in legal and settlement costs because of paint-refinish antitrust violations. And it reveals that the company has set aside $145 million to pay, over the next few years, "probable costs, fines, and civil damages" resulting from its behavior.
Akzo also discloses that this investigation has legs. Canadian and European Union investigators are looking into allegations of price-fixing among auto paint refinish suppliers.
On the U.S. investigation, an Akzo spokesman says the company is cooperating, but "it is company policy not to comment further on pending government investigations."
A PPG spokesman says his company received a subpoena for documents in January. As it complied with the Justice request, PPG did its own internal investigation and found that "no one did anything improper."
A BASF spokesman also says, "We have no reason to believe we violated any laws." DuPont says pretty much the same and adds in its statement, "We are not at liberty to comment further ... but we do not expect that it will affect our normal business activities."
A Sherwin-Williams spokesman says the company is cooperating with authorities and "is unaware of any improprieties."
Editors Note: This is old news. ALL of the paint companies that first denied this report, paid a total of over $150 Million in fines and probably over a BILLION in undeserved profits. I make paint. That is what I do for a living. That $200.00 gallon of paint that you pay these companies, cost them less than $20.00 to make! Is that not greed?
On another note, MOST of these same companies have since been fined and paid MILLIONS in price fixing again for the other products that they sold, not just paint. Fertilizer, Glass, chemicals, etc. If the government was honest, these people should not be paying small fines, they should be in jail and the company taken away from the largest stock holders that are in control!
Sweetheart deals to oil companiesBy Joel Hesch
© 2008
None of us really knows the truth about all the ways oil companies are gouging us, but I can shed light on a few ways they are cheating.
The government offers all the major oil companies an opportunity to remove oil and natural gas from federal lands or offshore areas controlled by the government. In return, they simply pay the government a royalty payment of one-eighth or one-sixth of the price for their first sale of the raw oil or natural gas. More...
Corporate Greed
JUDGMENT AGAINST PPG INDUSTRIES
A federal appeals court reduced by $30 million a judgment against PPG Industries in a lawsuit filed by a wood-products maker over deficient wood treatment. The Court of Appeals for the Eighth United States Circuit in St. Louis lowered the damages PPG must pay Marvin Lumber and Cedar Company and Marvin Windows of Tennessee for damage to their reputation stemming from a PPG treatment called PILT. The ruling reduced to $126.1 million a 2002 award won by the Marvin companies. PPG ''is evaluating its options for further appeals'' and will reserve up to $150 million for the judgment in the first quarter of 2005, said Jeff Worden, a spokesman.
Corporate Greed
Five ex-PPG employees claim age discrimination
PPG Industries Inc. is being sued by five former employees, each of whom claim they were fired for being too old and costly.
The paint, glass and chemical giant with headquarters Downtown faces a possible class-action suit filed Thursday in Pittsburgh's federal court. The company is accused of age discrimination, motivated in part by the perception that elderly employees are less aggressive than their younger counterparts and in part by a desire to stem escalating pension costs. More...
Greed
Special Series on Gas, Big Business, Big Government and the Plain Truth!
By Robert R. Barney
Today we have put up many stories in an effort to inform our readers the Plain Truth about Big Oil, Big Government and Big Business in general. If Americans do not try and take control of their government soon, everyone will become the working poor. Free markets and big business do not go hand in hand. Big business, just like big government is an evil entity that places greed over the welfare of any nation. These international companies and "international" nations do not have our best interest at heart. These leaders see things globally and not with any nationalism whatsoever!
The Bible predicts the time of doom for the USA. If you have been reading the Plain Truth for awhile, you will know the true biblical identity of the USA, Great Britain and most of Northern Europe. I for one do not think we are at the time of the end. Most of the signs that the Bible gives for the end of this age have not happened. I do know that it will happen someday, but I still think we have time. Time to change what is happening. Ronald Reagan was able to bring this country back to glory after the most failed Presidency in American history. Merle Haggard had a song, "Are the good times really over for good." Most thought so in 1980, but not Ronald Reagan. America, if we wake up and FIRE our leaders and send a message that we are not going to stand for what is happening, we can at least delay what will someday happen to a later time.
It is not too late. We must educate ourselves and stop swallowing the lies we are being fed by leaders who are not what they claim to be! Please read these stories carefully and understand that free markets can not exist with multi-national corporations!
BIG Government and Big Business Partners in CRIME
US report says oil royalties go unpaid
06-12-06 An eight-month investigation by the Interior Department’s chief watchdog has found pervasive problems in the government’s program for ensuring that companies pay the royalties they owe on billions of dollars of oil and gas pumped on federal land and in coastal waters.
In a scathing report to Congress, the Interior Department’s inspector general says the agency’s data are often inaccurate, that its officials rely too heavily on statements by oil companies rather than actual records and that only about 9 % of all oil and gas leases are being reviewed. More....
Shell, Chevron, Saudi Refining accused of conspiring to boost pump costs
More gas station owners allege price fixing
SAN FRANCISCO - Nearly two dozen gas station owners in California sued Shell Oil Co., Chevron Corp. and Saudi Refining Inc., on Tuesday, claiming the companies conspired to fix prices for 23,000 franchise owners nationwide. More....
PRICE FIXING: Release from Kentucky Attorney General's Office
FRANKFORT, KY (May 10, 2007) – Attorney General Greg Stumbo announced groundbreaking litigation filed today in Franklin Circuit Court against Marathon Oil Corporation, Marathon Petroleum Company, LLC and Speedway SuperAmerica, LLC, charging the corporations with profiteering during the time of emergency following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The companies are alleged to have overcharged Kentucky consumers more than $89 million in grossly excessive motor fuel pricing.
“Today Kentucky becomes the first state in the nation to file suit protecting its citizens against price gouging by a major oil refiner,” said Attorney General Stumbo. “Following an 18-month investigation, my Consumer Protection and Rate Intervention divisions have uncovered evidence of massive overcharging for gasoline, affecting nearly every family and business in the state.”
The defendants are charged with violating Kentucky’s price gouging law (KRS 367.374) and Consumer Protection Act (KRS 367.170) during the declared State of Emergency following the hurricanes in August and September of 2005. Marathon Petroleum Company, LLC is alleged to have overcharged Kentuckians by $86 million in wholesale transactions, while Speedway SuperAmerica, Marathon’s wholly owned retail distributor, overcharged an additional $3 million, resulting in at least $89 million in consumer overcharges during the declared emergency.
The price gouging law specifically provides that during a declared emergency, “No person shall sell… a good or service…for a price which is grossly in excess of the price prior to the declaration and unrelated to any increased cost to the seller.” The price of gasoline and other motor fuels are included among the goods and services covered by the law.
“The worst thing about the massive overcharging for gasoline is that it took place during a grave national emergency,” Stumbo added. “Our nation was rocked by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It was a time for Americans to pull together but the lure of easy money made Big Oil hold consumers hostage to high prices. We all must buy gasoline in order to work, travel, buy food for our families and tend to the needs of our loved ones. Based on an exhaustive review of the evidence we are confident that Marathon’s price increases during the emergency period were not justifiable.”
Marathon is Kentucky’s biggest wholesale supplier of gasoline. In the months following the hurricanes, Marathon produced record amounts of product; and, after months of investigating, the Attorney General has found no significant cost increases for the companies during the State of Emergency that would justify the major spike in gas prices. The Attorney General has not ruled out pursuing other companies.
Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005. On August 31, at the request of the Attorney General, the Governor implemented the price gouging statute pursuant to Kentucky’s declared State of Emergency. Immediately, Stumbo began to review the petroleum industry’s pricing and established a hotline for gas price gouging complaints. Nearly 700 consumer calls were received and allegations of price gouging reviewed and/or investigated. On September 24, 2005, Hurricane Rita made landfall. One month later, on October 27, Marathon released its earnings and claimed an increase in profits directly resulting from the hurricanes.
In February, 2006, Attorney General Stumbo issued subpoenas to 30 Kentucky retail gasoline stations regarding pricing during the State of Emergency. In April, 2006, he issued subpoenas to 13 petroleum refiners and suppliers requiring the same data. On August 1, Attorney General Stumbo issued subpoenas to Speedway for data on all stations and announced settlements in the price gouging investigation totaling more than $50,000.
Attorney General Stumbo and Representative Tommy Thompson announced the filing of Anti-Price Gouging Legislation in February, 2004 (HB 471). It was signed into law in April, 2004. “When we proposed this law we could not have known the calamity that would befall us, requiring its protections. But today we see that these protections are absolutely essential to safeguard Kentucky consumers from heartless profiteering during times of danger and emergency. With this suit, I am sending a clear message to gas refiners, wholesalers and retailers that they cannot grossly inflate prices during a crisis. It’s just plain wrong and won’t be tolerated in Kentucky.”
VIDEONETDAILY