It’s been a while since I’ve gone off on a politically minded rant…a variety of reasons having contributed to this; disgust with the democrats nomination process, nothing to say about McCain that hasn’t been said before, generally trying not to pay a whole lot of attention for a while.
In any event, the supreme court had a couple rulings today.
First (well, I say first, but I’m not sure wish ruling was done in which order, but to suit my particular needs/biases, I’m going to say this one came first) the court slashed the punitive damages that Exxon would pay out for the 1989 oil spill in Alaska from 2.5 billion, to 500 million. The NY Times article claims:
Overall, Exxon has paid $3.4 billion in fines, penalties, cleanup costs, claims and other expenses resulting from the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
The question, of course, is whether or not “other expenses” includes legal fees…
In any event, I am not shocked in the least that such a ruling would come out of the current court, Bush having been able to re-stock a bit of the court during his time in office. Any pro-business ruling is, therefore, expected. And I suppose Exxon could lean on that figure of 3.4 billion that they’ve already shelled out…but when a company has a SINGLE QUARTER PROFIT of over 10 Billion dollars, I really wonder what the point was? At that rate, 2 billion dollars is less then 1/20th of their yearly profit.
So the second ruling (in another split) the court made was to reject the death penalty for cases of child rape.
I’ll just say it now, for those that don’t know, I oppose the death penalty in all forms (this may or may not reflect the opinions of NR staff/management/readership, etc.). It’s cost prohibitive, fails as a deterrent, and is the only irrevocable punishment. But I will say I am shocked, SHOCKED, at this decision by the court. I would have thought they’d be all over this…and the conservatives Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito, certainly were. It’s interesting that they couldn’t sway any of the “middle” justices. I mean, it isn’t exactly a lightning rod issue here, since it is a case and ruling based completely on specific context, as opposed to general principle. But I think this could be seen as a bit of a litmus test for the Roe v. Wade Episode II: The Culling, that the conservative masses are waiting for, and if so, then it didn’t bode well for them.
What else doesn’t bode well? If Obama gets elected, we may see a few more Supreme Court retirees (I base this on nothing but my own specious intuition). And if we do…well, then the Bush nominees will likely be nullified, especially if the Dems still control congress next January.
OK, status: politico disengaged. But, come on, you get it all here on Normality Restored…lively political discussion, trashy celebrity gossip, odd sexual fetish-style stuffs, Tim Powers, mediocre music recommendations, free fiction, comics, advice of a sexual nature, and so much more!
Heatmiser – Half Right
Eh The reason the death penalty is so hotly debated is its in humane. but religion also comes into play here. Say you atheist you since you think theres no afterlife you would be less willing to pull for the death penalty.
Well, I never said I’m an atheist…I’m decidedly not an atheist, in fact.
Ya, I’m going to go with Soul Suckingly Evil instead of being an Atheist.
In all actuality back during Clinton’s Admin the damages went from 5 billion to 2.5 billion. Which would make that “adjustment” the greatest change but this new ruling is the greatest percentage change.
Here is the sucky part of the ruling each plaintive is only going to get $30,000(each having received $15k already) for having their livelihood destroyed for the last two decades. Here is how I’d figure it in this case. Living expenses * the number of years this eco disaster lasted * the number of plaintive.