shell game

This week Royal Dutch/Shell cut their reserves again (second time this year). The last time they lost $67 Billion in estimated future revenue. This restatement was smaller, about 10 percent of the last one. There is again talk of insider trading and the possibility that the leaders knew about it in 2002.

How do you really stand with a straight face and say, "Oops, that $70 Billion in assets on the books was just a mistake?"

putting due process through porn star style contortions

So the US finally dropped the charges against the Muslim chaplain who was working at Guantanamo (see CNN story). Now when they charged him in the first place it sounded spotty. Then a few months later when they tacked on pornography charges I thought they had to be desperate. Now they claim they don't want to prosecute because the evidence they bring would endanger national security.

Okay, so you don't want to admit that you don't have any evidence and never did. You ruined someone's career and screwed up their life for nothing.

If the "military investigators" that gave the customs agent the tip really had any evidence why couldn't they... well investigate and press charges. Instead they tip a Customs agent who probably had no knowledge of the type of documents involved or experience in classified protocols.

This is just one thing that sucks. There are countless others every day, but this is a great example of how the US Administration's carte blanche totally destroys the point of a free society based on basic legal protections.

Oh, in other news in LA, Paul Reubens had to plead to obscenity because his art collection contained a 1901 black and white tintype with a nude male with genitals exposed. Since Mr. Reubens didn't have proof of age of the subject he was open to prosecution. That evidence was found based on the seizure of 30,000 photos. In LA county in 2001 there were 588 murders, 1409 rapes (reported), 33,080 aggravated assaults (all statistics from US DOJ). I'm glad we had the prosecutorial firepower to bring down Mr. Reubens.