Category: Business & Capitalism

Now that the Portland, OR police department has re-opened its sex attack investigation against Al “You-big-lummox-of-a-sex-poodle” Gore, should Apple Chariman Steve Jobs make Al Gore take a leave of absence from the company pending resolution of the investigation?

Apple’s sexual harassment policy defines harassment as…

<blockquote… unwelcome or unsolicited speech or conduct based on factors such as race, color, age, sex, or sexual orientation. It may include activities such as viewing sexually explicit sites or displaying an inappropriate calendar. It may include unwelcome touching or advances, jokes, slurs, and other offensive behavior. [Emphasis added]

While the policy also says that it only applies to,

… interactions with employees, customers, suppliers, and applicants for employment and any other interactions where you represent Apple…

… surely the policy doesn’t mean that it’s open season for board members when it comes to the rest of the public. Or does it?

If Gore is cleared, he can always be reinstated.

Former GE CEO Jack Welch said today on CNBC that:

1. Obama should be focusing on the gulf oil spill “not new energy plans”; and

2. Our “pretty good economy” should not be “damaged” with “carbon taxes.”

“Let’s get [the economy] going,” he said.

Ironically, GE CEO Jeff Immelt and other USCAP CEOs will be pushing the climate bill on Capitol Hill tomorrow at a luncheon prior to the Democratic caucus meeting.

Welch built GE into the largest and most valuable company in the world. Immelt, in contrast, brought GE to the verge of bankruptcy, requiring a $140 billion federal bailout.

Click to watch the three-minute CNBC clip.

Meet Exelon CEO John Rowe…

John Rowe is the “Carbon Bandit.”

Here’s his JunkScience.com-commissioned bobblehead…

… and here’s the bobblehead being presented to his Rowe at last week’s Senate hearing on Kerry-Boxer:

Will the real John Rowe please stand up… or at least stop rent-seeking?

At the urging of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Obama administration is throwing up roadblocks to BP’s upgrading of a large refinery in northwest Indiana.

Ironically, BP and NRDC are both members of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) that is lobbying for global warming legislation.

We’d call the NRDC a bunch of backstabbers, but then again, BP walked face-first into this one.

Today’s Washington Post features a full-page ad urging the Senate to adopt carbon caps this year — ironically, an ad that may signal the demise of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), the coalition of rentseeking big businesses and socialist activist groups lobbying for global warming regulation.

The ad is signed by 22 companies and 6 green groups.

While 15 of the ad’s signatories are USCAP members (Boston Scientific, Dow, Duke, Dupont, Environmental Defense, Exelon, GE, Johnson & Johnson, NRDC, Nature Conservancy, NRG energy, Pew Center, PG&E PNM Resources, Rio Tinto, and Word Resources Institute), 15 other USCAP members didn’t endorse the ad (AES, Alcoa, Alston, BP America, Caterpillar, Chrysler, ConocoPhillips, Deere, Ford, FPL, GM, Pepsico, Shell & Siemens).

It’s hard to believe that the ad wasn’t shopped to all USCAP members — who could have endorsed it at no cost. The ad states,

“This ad is paid for and/or supported by the aforementioned organizations.”

“Or supported” means that some signatories were not charged to participate.

It’s not surprising that Caterpillar and ConocoPhillips didn’t endorse the ad since they opposed Waxman-Markey, albeit at the last moment. But it is notable, for example, that natural gas producer BP America and free-allowance-seeking FPL didn’t sign on.

While some companies are leaving the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over climate, the USCAP den of thieves and scoundrels may be experiencing it’s own difficulties.

… it would leave China, not the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Apple told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in its resignation letter:

“Apple is committed to protecting the environment and the communities we operate in around the world. We strongly object to the Chamber’s recent comments opposing the EPA’s efforts to limit greenhouse gases. We would prefer the Chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis. However, because the Chamber’s position differs so sharply with Apple’s, we have decided to resign our membership effective immediately.”

So when will Apple pressure the Chinese government to adopt the Clean Air Act? Isn’t actual air pollution in China much worse than the invisible, if not debatable/mythical, problem of U.S. CO2 emissions?

We doubt that Apple has any answers to those questions as Al I-need-cap-and-trade-to-become-the-first-carbon-billionaire Gore sits on its board of directors and, no doubt, cheerled Apple’s resignation from the U.S. Chamber.

Sen. Barbara Boxer’s climate bill set to be released today contains a provision that will compensate General Electric quite nicely for its lobbying and media efforts promoting climate legislation.

Section 821(c) requires that, by December 12, 2012, the EPA set standards for greenhouse gas emissions from “new aircraft and new engines used in new aircraft.”

General Electric is the world’s largest manufacturer of commercial and military jet engines, a business worth about $12 billion in annual revenues.

So the Boxer bill would compel airlines and the military, when purchasing new aircraft and new aircraft engines, to purchase more expensive “green” engines made by GE, according to standards set by the current and GE-lobbied Obama administration.

Keep in mind that GE CEO Jeff Immelt is member of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Council.

More evidence that GE’s political action committee (GEPAC) meant what it said in its August 19, 2009 e-mail to employees:

The intersection between GE’s interests and government action is clearer than ever.

Other payoffs to GE will likely be unconvered as Boxer’s bill virtually requires the purchase of other GE products including wind turbines, solar panels and water products.