World of Suck

We have a ticketing system here. Keeps track of work recorded for various clients, and the time spent completing said work. It's all made in house. That's generally good because it allows us flexibility for the more unusual types of items we need to maintain records of.

Anyway, someone had an idea. That we needed a marker in the tickets to indicate what line of service a ticket was related to. I'm sure there is a very good reason for this additional field. However, I question the manner of it's implementation.

You see, it was done by adding the field to the database and making it a required field. And now, because of that, we manually have to go back through the system and mark each ticket appropriately. Honestly... is that the best they could do? Manual data entry?

Lucky for us that there are only a few thousand entries. 15 to 20 seconds to modify each one. Most of which my particular group is not responsible for. But that doesn't make the way this was added any less of a SNAFU.

I mean to write this last week, but I was busy. Sue me.

I'm pissed. I know I know... you're shocked.

A senior Pentagon official, Charles D. Stimson, in charge of detainees made an interesting comment last week. He said that he was dismayed that lawyers from many top law firms in the country were representing clients in Gitmo. He elaborated by saying that he hoped that corporations and businesses would cut all ties with the legal firms until they chose not to represent terrorists. He went further and actually published a lit of the firms involved to support his position.

Then he went further. He suggested that the pro bono representation being offered by these firms could very well be paid coverage from "who knows where". That's pretty low. Trying to imply that these lawyers are being paid by terrorism or something. Fucking low.

Frankly, it's an abhorrent position to me. To honestly indicate that the people down there don't deserve representation is amazing. Murders, rapists, fucking Timothy Mcveigh, and the Unabomber all got the right to representation. Why the fuck should we punish the people representing the people held down in Gitmo. And beyond that, why should a government hack take pot shots at American legal firms. He's attempting to damage their business because he doesn't like the fact they're representing people he's in charge of?

Fuck him. The only good thing about this little dillhole's comments is that the legal world smacked him down. The American Bar Association made a statement that said in no uncertain terms that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law, no one more deserving of representation than anyone else.

Frankly Charles, I think it would be more amusing if you lost your job and no one hired you because you're a fucking moron.

Let me take you back. The year is 1989. The place is Prince William Sound Alaska.

The Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground and spilled around 10 million gallons of crude oil all over the place. The immediate effect of it was the death of thousands of animals and the destruction of an entire area of an ecosystem. The long term effects are still being cataloged today as populations have not returned to pre-spill levels and a large number of birth defects have been reported.

Of course, they were taken to court. Originally, they were ordered to pay up 4.5 BILLION dollars as a penalty for the spill. However, early last year, it was reduced down to 2.5 billion. Less, but still not exactly a slap on the wrist.

Here's the good part... they're still refusing to pay. It's been 18 fucking years. They say that since they've already spent 3 billion dollars. Some of it on actual cleanup costs and some of it defending itself from federal and state fines and lawsuits. Because they've already spent so much, they don't think they should be fined additional money.

This is made worse because they took the oil loss and cleanup costs as a tax deduction. And their insurance reimbursed them for the cleanup costs. And for a kicker, they set aside 5 billion dollars in 1989 to pay for their fines. Good idea. But it's been earning interest since then. Estimates say that money has nearly doubled since it was set aside.

So here's my little fuck you to Exxon. You see, you're supposed to pay for cleanup. That's part of the gig. You're also supposed to pay for your own court costs (unless you're innocent which clearly you're not). A fine is a penalty. Punitive means exactly that. It's the cost on TOP of all those other costs. It's the government telling you that you were a bad boy and here's your punishment. The fact that you haven't really suffered for your negligence makes it worse.

You did the deed.

Now pay the man.