General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAnatomy Of A Sellout.....
just so we're all clear on how things work in this country. Let's take a trip in the Wayback Machine (well maybe not so Wayback) to early March when news of Chris Christie's billion dollar giveaway to ExxonMobil first hit the news. How-or why-could someone sell out the future of their state to a mega corporation that had spent generations destroying the state's natural resources? As puzzling a question as that might be, the answer turns out to be pretty simple. You can sum it up in three words-Pay to Play.
Now we already know that making large contributions to the Republican Governor's Association is an investment that pays great dividends for folks in the investment world- How To Loot A Public Pension. Well, it works the same for other things too. The Exxon Mobil settlement is back in the news this week because a judge is about to rule on whether or not the settlement is adequate and in the public interest. This should be a fairly easy call but......we'll see. Meanwhile, the IB Times reports that Exxon's lobbyist has made a very nice donation to Chris Christie's SuperPAC-demonstrating once again that a politician makes a great pet and anyone who is anyone needs to own one.
As Chris Christies administration is being slammed by environmental groups for pushing in court for a reduced settlement with ExxonMobil, one group is expressing its support for the governor: the oil giants New Jersey lobbying firm.
Public Strategies Impact, the firm that represents Exxons interests in New Jersey, has donated $50,000 to "America Leads," a super PAC supporting Christies presidential campaign, according to federal campaign finance filings released Friday.
The Christie administrations proposed settlement, which was announced in February, aims to reduce levies against ExxonMobil from $8.9 billion to just $225 million for widespread environmental damage at the companys facilities in northern New Jersey. The decade-long case was reviewed in court this week. The governor and his appointees have defended the agreement as a good one for the state. New Jersey Democratic legislators have been seeking to block the settlement.
The donation to the super PAC from Exxons lobbying firm is not surprising, said Democratic State Sen. Raymond Lesniak, who has led the charge to block the settlement. If the judge approves Christie's settlement, Exxon will walk out with a check," he said. "The settlement's that bad.
America Leads spokesman Tucker Martin, asked by IBTimes about the propriety of accepting money from Exxon's lobbying firm, said, We greatly appreciate the support of all our donors.
read on here: http://www.ibtimes.com/chris-christie-exxons-lobbying-firm-donated-his-super-pac-governor-pushed-new-jersey-2034448
We greatly appreciate the support of all of our donors-is that the punchline to a joke?
Looking back to March once more, we already knew some other interesting facts:
2. Former Christie DCA Commissioner and former Wolff & Sampson partner Lori Grifa is now a partner and lobbyist for Archer & Greiner-the law firm representing Exxon in this litigation.
3. Former Christie Deputy Chief of Staff Lou Goettner now works for Public Impact Strategies, the lobbying firm representing Exxon's interests in NJ.
4. Exxon donated $751,000 to the RGA in 2014 while Christie was in charge and nearly $1.8 million during the period of time Christie has been governor.
5. Public Impact Strategies donated $80,000 to the RGA.
6. Archer & Greiner donated $30,000 to the RGA.
7. Christie saw an opportunity for a quick infusion of cash into his ailing budget and a chance to reward his corporate benefactors.
You can go to the IB Times article to see a list of others who have all bought a piece of Christie in return for lucrative public contracts, but the ExxonMobil deal is probably the most damaging because it sells out public health and the environment for generations to come. It's a sleazy tale of powerful corporations, a corrupt and ambitious politician and how money and influence can buy almost anything in this country. It's all for sale-only the average person is the one paying the price. When you want to know how these things could possibly happen, all you have to do is scratch the surface to find the money connections and the personal ambition that makes people sell out. If Billy Mays were still alive he'd be pitching Chris Christie as some kind of miracle product. He'll get you out of legal liability, he'll get you billions in investment money, he'll get you lucrative public contracts! He's better than the shamwow! Only you're not getting him for $19.99-and who in their right mind would want to Act Now to get a second Chris Christie thrown in for free?
Head on over to the Christie Crime Digest to read lots more on how you can buy a Christie of your very own!
daleanime
(17,796 posts)can't kick this enough.
Beach Rat
(273 posts)and I can't imagine having to clean up after Christie!
Laxman
(2,419 posts)for that visual.
FlatBaroque
(3,160 posts)homegirl
(1,434 posts)"Public Strategies Impact, the firm that represents Exxons interests in New Jersey, has donated $50,000 to "America Leads," a super PAC supporting Christies presidential campaign, according to federal campaign finance filings released Friday."
Laxman
(2,419 posts)to do a Billy Mays spoof. "You've seen the stain fighting power of Oxy Clean. You've witnessed the Ginsu Knives cut through cans. But you haven't encountered any product quite like Chris Christie! He may not get that pesky wine stain out of your favorite blouse, but play your cards right and you might have enough money to buy the factory that made that blouse! A multi-million dollar public contract? Avoiding billions in environmental damages? Legal troubles? Chris Christie can do it all!
Then you could have some testimonials:
I bought a Chris Christie and got an $850 million contract with the Port Authority-Jerry Jones, Owner, Dallas Cowboys
I bought a Chris Christie and avoided over $8 billion in environmental damage claims- Rex W. Tillerson, CEO ExxonMobil
I bought a Chris Christie and now I control over $200 million in NJ Public Pension Funds-Paul Singer, CEO Elliott Associates
Now you can own a Chris Christie too!
Thank you.
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/05/christie-spent-82000-on-snacks-at-nfl-games.html
And he complains Obama "gave away the store to the Iranians."
Chris Christie: Obama 'is lying to the American people' about Iran deal
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/chris-christie-obama-is-lying-to-the-american-people-about-iran-deal/article/2568900
Oy!
Laxman
(2,419 posts)when it came time to really fight, he chickened out! Afraid to take a case he had already won to trial. My God. What a gutless wonder. They had expert reports to back them up. Exxon had none. They had already won on liability. Yet they folded like a cheap suitcase. Cowards! Or maybe this is just what it looks like-a sellout.
Acting state Attorney General John Hoffman on Thursday defended a controversial pollution settlement with Exxon Mobil before the Superior Court judge tasked with approving the deal.
Hoffman and attorneys for the state Department of Environmental Protection and Exxon all praised the deal during a hearing at Burlington County Superior Court.
The case, first brought in 2004, started over contamination at two North Jersey refineries, known as Bayway and Bayonne, but has since grown to include Exxon's industrial facilities and gas stations around the state.
The proposed deal drew public outcry earlier this year when news broke that Gov. Chris Christie's administration was seeking to settle for $225 million, far less than the $8.9 billion experts testified Exxon owed the state at trial.
But Hoffman told Judge Michael Hogan the $225 million sum was more per acre than the state had received in previous pollution cases and comes on top of the Texas oil giant's obligation to perform remedial cleanups at the sites.
"They may spend hundreds of millions if not billions to clean up this site," Hoffman said of the Bayway facility.
read the rest here: http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/07/exxon_settlement_was_best_deal_state_could_have_go.html#incart_river
Laxman
(2,419 posts)Exxon's attorney and the state attorney general complete agreement with the sellout.
Lawyers for Exxon Mobil and the Christie administration touted the benefits of a controversial $225 million environmental settlement before a state judge on Thursday, trying to counter significant criticism of the deal from environmentalists and Democrats in the Legislature.
The proposed settlement involves money to restore about 1,800 acres of wetlands damaged by pollution from Exxons former refineries in Linden and Bayonne. It has come under intense attack because the $225 million is a tiny fraction of the nearly $9 billion the state had originally sought from the oil giant.
Opponents are also appalled that the $225 million covers damages to natural resources at 16 smaller sites, including a Teterboro fuel tank farm, as well as 1,800 gas stations that were not originally part of the case.
This is a fair and reasonable resolution after 11 years of litigation, John J. Hoffman, the states acting attorney general, told Superior Court Judge Michael Hogan during oral arguments in Mount Holly.
Hoffman said that in 2012 he tried to get an objective sense of damage awards that the state had deemed to be fair in the past by looking at prior settlements and what it had accepted as a reward per acre of damaged land. He said it turned out to be an average of $84,000 an acre, and by that measure the state would have accepted $159 million from Exxon. We did better than that by $62 million, Hoffman said.
And Theodore Wells Jr., the lawyer for Exxon, said that he had always argued, and believes still, that the damages should be zero. But Exxon agreed to settle to end more than a decade of litigation, and to avoid what it perceived as its own litigation risks. Both sides have reached a compromise, he said.
The damages should be zero? I guess he believes they paid off Christie with enough donations that they should be zero, but hey, four hours worth of profit is close enough to zero.
read the rest here: http://www.northjersey.com/news/lawyers-for-n-j-exxon-defend-controversial-pollution-settlement-in-court-1.1383539
Octafish
(55,745 posts)What a con-tree.
Laxman
(2,419 posts)every time I add a new entry to the crime digest. How does this behavior go unpunished. Why isn't he held accountable? Some of this stuff is no that difficult a call.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Getting him out of the way cleared the way for a lot of stuff, all bad. If I may pile it on a bit:
U.S. Judge Mark E. Fuller, the guy who helped railroad Gov. Don Siegelman.
Fuller just happens to be the owner of a company that's made a huge fortune off the Pentagon and War Inc via no-bid crony War on Terror largesse.
The Pork Barrel World of Judge Mark Fuller
By Scott Horton
Harper's August 6, 2007, 5:14 pm
For the last week, weve been examining the role played by Judge Mark Everett Fuller in the trial, conviction, and sentencing of former Alabama Governor Don E. Siegelman. Today, we examine a post-trial motion, filed in April 2007, asking Fuller to recuse himself based on his extensive private business interests, which turn very heavily on contracts with the United States Government, including the Department of Justice.
The recusal motion rested upon details about Fullers personal business interests. On February 22, 2007, defense attorneys obtained information that Judge Fuller held a controlling 43.75% interest in government contractor Doss Aviation, Inc. After investigating these claims for over a month, the attorneys filed a motion for Fullers recusal on April 18, 2007. The motion stated that Fullers total stake in Doss Aviation was worth between $1-5 million, and that Fullers income from his stock for 2004 was between $100,001 and $1 million dollars.
In other words, Judge Fuller likely made more from his business income, derived from U.S. Government contracts, than as a judge. Fuller is shown on one filing as President of the principal business, Doss Aviation, and his address is shown as One Church Street, Montgomery, Alabama, the address of the Frank M. Johnson Federal Courthouse, in which his chambers are located.
SNIP...
Doss Aviation and its subsidiaries also held contracts with the FBI. This is problematic when one considers that FBI agents were present at Siegelmans trial, and that Fuller took the extraordinary step of inviting them to sit at counsels table throughout trial. Moreover, while the case was pending, Doss Aviation received a $178 million contract from the federal government.
CONTINUED...
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000762
There's a special place for Judge Fuller, and it's not on the bench, it's where warmongers and war profiteers should be working making little rocks out of big rocks.
Laxman
(2,419 posts)the original Christie Crime Digest just reached 50,000 views over the weekend. I hope that means it's doing it's job. Now granted 5,000 of those views must come from my edits. 5,000 more must come from Rocktivity. I would think 10,000 come from Ron Paul opposition researchers. That still leaves 30,000 views from some other source.