Thursday Open Thread [5.30.13]

If you haven’t been following the saga of Toronto’s alleged crack-smoking and murdering mayor, you should start here with Josh Marshall, who has been following the story in depth.

Sometimes our enemies reveal why they are our enemies. Exxon’s CEO on his opposition to alternative energy and cutting our dependence on oil:

“What good is it to save the planet if humanity suffers?”

In his mind, humanity is depending on oil. Depending on forms of energy other than oil to support humanity is inhumane and will lead to suffering. And Rex Tillerson (his first name is fit for a supervillian) has truly revealed his motive:

If we keep using oil, humanity will not suffer, and Rex and Exxon get their profits.
But if we keep using oil, in 40 years oil will run out, and then humanity will suffer, but Rex and Exxon get their profits.
And if we keep using oil, we will further pollute the planet, making it unliveable for humanity, and then humanity will suffer, but Rex and Exxon get their profits.
If we transition from oil now, humanity may experience some short term suffering in the transition, but the real tragedy is that Rex and Exxon do not get their profits.

Rex and Exxon are perfectly fine with human suffering, so long as they get their money.

So you may have heard yesterday that President Obama has tapped a former Bush official to lead the FBI and you may have screamed a little bit to yourself. But there is a good reason why:

President Barack Obama has tapped former deputy attorney general James Comey to head the FBI, according to Administration officials. A Republican, his selection is likely to be met with broad bipartisan support. That has much to do with his sterling résumé, which includes his time at the Department of Justice and his record as the top prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

But it has even more to do with Comey’s leadership during the most important confrontation between U.S. law enforcement and the White House since Watergate. Comey is rightly viewed as a hero for his handling of the famous hospital incident of March 10, 2004, during which George W. Bush’s top White House aides, Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzales, attempted to get bed-stricken, delirious Attorney General John Ashcroft to reauthorize an electronic-surveillance program that Justice Department lawyers had determined was illegal.

That episode itself and alone should have led to the imprisonment of Andrew Card and Alberto Gonzales and the impeachment of President Bush. But Republicans who are loud now were silent then.