"The cost to our economy of litigation is conservatively estimated to be over $230 billion a year." –George W. BushBush and other proponents of so-called "tort reform," (the limitation of Americans' legal rights), have based their assertion that consumers pay a $200+ billion cost for our legal system on a study by the insurance industry- consulting firm, Tillinghast-Towers Perrin. Yet, data from the Congressional Budget Office, Business Week, and now the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) all discredit this report.EPI concludes that TTP's cost estimates are one-sided, inflate the impact of the tort system and ignore its benefits, and that corroboration supporting their numbers is weak or nonexistent. [Economic Policy Institute, 5/17/05]Bush Attributes CEO Executive Pay to Legal System Costs.By Bush using the supposed $230 billion number for legal system costs, he is also lumping in the millions of dollars made by insurance executives as part of his calculation. [Center For Justice & Democracy, 7/22/04]Bush Says Asbestos Victims Poisoned by Halliburton are Responsible for Consumer Costs.By using the alleged $230 billion number for legal system costs, Bush considers approximately 320,000 victims of asbestos poisoning by Halliburton subsidiary Dresser Industries a cost of the legal system. [Business Week, 5/21/03]Bush Covering Up $5 Trillion "Corruption Tax."According to Securities & Exchange Commissioner Paul S. Atkins, the corporate scandals occurring under the Bush Administration caused a $5 trillion loss in stock market value. Calling the scandals by Bush supporters such as Enron CEO Ken Lay "spectacular failures," Atkins pointed out that every American household lost an average of $60,000, or $17,544 per citizen. [Associated Press, 11/14/02]Number of Civil Trials Dropped by 47 Percent Between 1992 and 2001.According to statistics released by the U.S. Department of Justice, the number of civil trials dropped by 47 percent between 1992 and 2001. The number of personal injury cases decreased by 31.8% during the same period. ["Civil Trial Cases and Verdicts in Large Counties, 2001," Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 2004]Median Payout for All Tort Cases Dropped 56 Percent Between 1992 and 2001.According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the trend in damage size for tort cases is down. The median inflation-adjusted payout in all tort (personal injury) cases dropped 56.3% between 1992 and 2001 to $28,000. ["Civil Trial Cases and Verdicts in Large Counties, 2001," Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 2004]Tort Filings are Decreasing While Contract Cases are Increasing.According to the non-partisan National Center for State Courts, tort (personal injury) filings by individuals are steadily decreasing while contract cases are greatly increasing. Tort filings have declined 5% since 1993. Contract filings, which are more likely to involve businesses than tort cases, rose by 21% over the same period. ["Examining the Work of State Courts, 2003," National Center for State Courts, 2004]_________________________________________________The costs of the legal system are created by those who cause injury, not those injured through no fault of their own.
Do you know what "nemesis" means? A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent. Personified in this case by.....
leonard albert kravitz, arlo guthrie, bob dylan, zofka, francoise hardy, christopher george letore wallace, nina simone and not to forget the modern music da vinci himself: rick rubin. check his complete discography ~ from johnny cash, system of a down and the chili peppers to rage, beastie boys, jay z and slayer.
capote, little miss sunshine, anything by christopher guest, sling blade, 'rushmore' (now that's the quintessential quirky-funny movie), city of god (for the record, the 'additional material' on the 2d disc is just as interesting, if not more so, than the actual movie), thank you for smoking, good night and good luck, lawrence of arabia, goodfellas (the first 10 times i saw it), beautiful girls (it's like sex & the city - everyone tries to figure out what "character" or combo thereof they are), léon (aka the professional - "I like these calm little moments before the storm. It reminds me of beethoven. can you hear it? It's like when you put your head to the grass and you can hear the growin' and you can hear the insects. do you like beethoven?), zoolander (props to hui-hui for turning me on to it), the fog of war ("we and you ought not pull on the ends of a rope in which you have tied the knots of war. because the more the two of us pull the tighter the knot will be tied. and then it will be necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you.), "doc day" on sundance, monty python (run away!), lock stock and two smoking barrels, best in show (pair of jacks), the wedding singer, anything with philip seymour hoffman - i mean even 'owning mahoney'. woody allen and of course the greatest of all - mike leigh (do yourself a favor.... watch "naked" at least twice). some classics that we forget about - the bridge on the river kwai, chinatown, citizen kane, duck soup, easy rider, the graduate, breakfast at tiffanys, midnight cowboy, on the waterfront (i could have been a contender. i coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what i am, let's face it.)
intervention, frontline, the sarah silverman show, shooting sizemore, mclaughlin group, meet the press, south park, sopranos, rome, first three seasons of the simpsons (okay, maybe four), black adder, the office (bbc), extras, coupling (bbc), and I seldom - if ever - voluntarily miss the daily show...can someone please order me a tivo, because I haven't seen any of 'my' shows for weeks now. oh, for the love of tim russert!
the looming tower, in cold blood, the world is flat, cobra ii, freakonomics and any biographical book written by william manchester, imperial hubris, what's the matter with kansas, most of sy hersh's work, 'master and margarita', what do i consider great books? books that have stuck with me...don quixote, the brothers karamazov, the old man and the sea, pippi longstocking, lolita, the adventures of huckleberry finn, ramayana, midnight's children and all of those hardy boys books i read as a kid - oh, and lest we forget the sentimental favorite, the catcher in the rye!
cowboys... it's always been cowboys.
Take action at www.ufw.org/chavezholiday