My Response to Chevron's "We Agree" Ad Campaign

Chevron Loses in Ecuadorian Court!

Ecuadoran court slaps Chevron with $8 billion fine

David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

An Ecuadoran judge today fined Chevron Corp. $8 billion in a bitter, 18-year-old lawsuit over oil-field contamination in the Amazon rain forest.

The judgment, however, does not mark the end of the marathon court case, closely watched by environmentalists and oil executives worldwide...

This is way less than the plaintiffs were asking for, and Chevron will, of course, employ every dirty trick in the book to delay and avoid paying this fine, but it's still an historic victory. The war is far from over, but the good guys just won a major battle.

Sorry Chevron, you just got PWNED!

From Yahoo News:

New Chevron ‘We Agree’ ad campaign hijacked by anti-corporate tricksters

Hah, hah, hah!

Do be sure and check out the fake Chevron site right here:

http://chevron-weagree.com/

Hey, if Chevron can make a fake Web site like The Amazon Post, in which one of the world's most notorious polluters masquerades as a concerned corporate citizen, why shouldn't the people who actually care about the rain forest make a fake Chevron site?

Chevron's Toxic Waste Pits in Paradise

The good folks at Amazon Watch have posted a new video on their Chevrontoxico blog, giving you an up close and personal view of the toxic sludge pits which Texaco/Chevron intentionally created in the rain forest, sludge pits that were designed to pollute.

Don't watch this video if you don't want to feel disgust and outrage:

Chevron Toxic Waste Pit in Ecuador: Designed to Pollute

If you have a YouTube account, please "like" and "favorite" the video:

Watch on YouTube

And please share this video with folks on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, and anywhere else.

The more we get the word out, the more weight of public opinion is brought to bear, the more Chevron will be forced to finally own up to what it's done.

Breaking News: Ecuadorian Government Under Seige!

As I write these words, Ecuador is in a state of chaos, due to a violent uprising by police officers protesting the country's new austerity measures. Rebellious police have seized control of police barracks in several cities and have set up numerous roadblocks with burning tires in order to cut off access to Ecuador's capital city, Quito. Looting has been reported, and a state of martial law has been implemented in order to restore order.

President Rafael Correa was even physically attacked and brutalized by out-of-control police officers. True to his tough nature, however, he faced down anti-government protesters, saying,

"If you want to kill the president, here he is! Kill me!"

Read the whole story here:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/world/police-soldiers-in-ecuador-seize-airport-block-roads-in-protest-of-benefit-cuts-104088148.html

What does all of this mean?

Well, I want to be the first person to publicly go on record as saying I sense the hand of Chevron working behind the scenes.

We know Chevron is guilty of playing all manner of illegal, dirty tricks in their effort to undermine the lawsuit in Ecuador (see my previous blog entry about Chevron's attempt to recruit a Mexican journalist to spy on the plaintiffs for one small example of the company's ruthless criminality).

We know the vast, overwhelming majority of Ecuadorians love and cherish their president, who they regard as a hero.

We know Chevron does not like Ecuador's president at all, because he has been uncompromising in his commitment to the victims of Chevron's genocide.

We know Chevron got the lawsuit relocated from North America to Ecuador because they felt they had a much better chance of corrupting the process and undermining the suit if they were dealing with a third world legal system, as opposed to a US court of law.

What, therefore, are the ramifications for the lawsuit against Chevron, if the country in which the suit is to be heard is thrown into a state of instability, chaos, and possible regime change?

And what wouldn't Chevron do to promote such insurrection and upheaval?

Pray for Ecuador.

Pray for her president.

Thank You, Frog Blog!

The team of artists and writers responsible for the awesome Frog Blog have given Chevron Shills some very welcome exposure by featuring my anti-Chevron cartoon art. Check it out:

http://obituarytypo.blogspot.com/2010/09/gocomics-reader-art-flight-suit.html

I love how they even included my colorful ¡Viva Ecuador!

If you like Frog Blog (and how couldn't you?), do be sure to also check out their daily comic strip, Frog Applause.

Chevron Attempts to Bribe Journalist to Spy on Ecuadorians

There truly is no depth to which Chevron will not sink. The Atlantic just published a stunning article detailing the oil company's effort to recruit a Mexican journalist to spy on the plaintiffs in the Ecuadorian lawsuit and "dig up dirt" on them.

Read all about it here, and prepare to be outraged:

http://www.chevroninecuador.com/2010/08/chevron-tries-to-bribe-journalist-to.html

More Lies and Law-Breaking from Chevron

Chevron, which is one of California's biggest polluters, is at this very moment using well-paid lobbyists to try and gain an exemption from state environmental laws for the rebuilding of its notorious Richmond refinery.

Listen to KQED radio's report on the situation right here:

http://www.kqed.org/a/kqednews/R201009081730/a

Or read all about it at the San Jose Mercury News:


http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_16018970?IADID


A highlight from the article:

"The courts have said, 'You didn't follow the law. You are going to be polluting communities a whole lot more than you are disclosing," said Tina Andolina, legislative director for the Planning and Conservation League, a Sacramento environmental group. "This company broke the law, and now they are coming to ask for an exemption to the law they broke."

Chevron's shills will inevitably be posting pro-Chevron comments on both of the pages I've linked to, so I encourage you to visit both pages and post your feelings about Chevron's criminality and the genocide in Ecuador.

Thank you.

The Amazon Post's Sickening Lies

For a while now I've been meaning to mention Chevron's primary shill site, The Amazon Post.

Originally, The Amazon Post masqueraded as an impartial information source, purporting to tell the truth about Chevron's genocide in Ecuador. Anybody searching the Web might find themselves reading The Amazon Post, and it would only be when they got to the bottom of the page that they might happen to notice the fine print stating that the site represented the views of Chevron employees.

More recently, the phrase "Chevron's views and opinions on the Ecuador lawsuit" has appeared at the top of the page. I can only assume that the site's original, more deceptive configuration did not test well with focus groups.

Anyway, I just popped over to The Amazon Post to make sure I was getting its URL right so that I could link to it here. I hadn't meant to actually read any of their disingenuous content, but the following shameful blog post immediately jumped right out at me:

Amazon Defense Front Exploits Ecuadorian Hardship in Gulf Publicity Stunt

Chevron's blogger writes,

"A recent delegation led by the Amazon Defense Front traveled to Louisiana in attempt to draw a parallel between a lawsuit backed by U.S. trial lawyers against Chevron and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

There is no question that the people of Oriente face difficulties. However, there is no valid comparison with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the trial that is currently taking place in Ecuador. It is disappointing that the Amazon Defense Front (the named financial beneficiary in the Ecuador trial) and its supporters would take advantage of the people of the Gulf and their tragedy in an attempt to legitimize their fraudulent lawsuit against Chevron..."

And that's just the first two paragraphs. To see a major American corporation engaging in such a blatant and extreme distortion of the truth is truly chilling. This reality-distorting spin reminds me of exactly the type of galling dishonesty exhibited by shills for the Chinese government when they're trying to justify their continued occupation of Tibet.

It reminds me of the propaganda employed by the National Socialists against the Jews in the years leading up to World War II.

For the truth regarding the Ecuadorian mission to Louisiana, please refer to my previous blog entry, or get the straight dope from a real unbiased news source (Public Radio International) right here:

Ecuadorians Share Lessons for Battling Oil Companies with Louisiana Tribes

This is a photo a friend of mine took during a recent visit to Ecuador. Seen here is a caregiver walking on the grounds of an orphanage with one of the countless children whose parents have died as a direct result of Texaco/Chevron's poisoning of the Ecuadorian rain forest:



This is who Chevron is calling a liar.




Photo credit: Mary "Grassroots Girl" B.

Thank you, Public Radio International!

I was just listening to Public Radio International's The World and was pleasantly surprised to hear them discussing the disaster in Ecuador and interviewing the lead plaintiff in the suit against Chevron! Go here and click "download mp3" to hear the piece for yourself:

Ecuadorians Share Lessons for Battling Oil Companies

It was deeply moving, and quite horrifying, to hear the man's account of what happened when oil company personnel showed up in his village in 1963. He explains that his people had never seen helicopters before, and initially fled into the jungle, thinking some type of strange ghost had arrived.

He goes on to describe the oil company cutting down the trees which were sacred to his people. It's like a scene right out of the film "Avatar."

Then he explains that his people had never seen oil before, and that when they asked the oil company employees if the oil flowing into the river which provided their drinking water was dangerous, they were told that it was not only perfectly safe, but that it had medicinal properties, and could be used to treat a wide variety of illnesses!

This is mind-boggling to me. Why would anybody deliberately mis-inform the villagers? Were they intentionally trying to kill these people? Was it all just a big, funny practical joke to them?

"Hey, get a load of this: I just told them dumb sonsabitches that drinking oil was good for 'em, and they believed me!"

Because of what was done to their families and to their rain forest home, some Ecuadorians have concluded that God is dead.

I don't think God is dead, but I do suspect He's very angry.

A Chevron Executive Tours Ecuador

Please click on each panel to enlarge for maximum readability.







Correction: The 700 Billion Gallon figure IS accurate, but it refers to the total amount of toxic waste (oil plus chemicals plus contaminated water), as opposed to just oil.

Don't Get Gagged!

Here's a little something I created in Photoshop to illustrate the Orwellian level of control which Chevron currently exerts over the public discourse regarding their destruction of the Amazon rain forest.

This Photoshop manipulation is based on a Wikimedia Commons image, and is being used under the GNU Free Documentation License. The original image can be found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ball_gag1.jpg and is the work of JBC Productions/Aussie Rope Works http://www.aussieropeworks.com/

Why We Fight

This is a resident of the rain forest, recently photographed in Quito (Ecuador's capital). He commutes with his family from the rain forest to the city in order to play music on the streets. He is one of the Quechua, and the woman who took this photograph is worried these people won't be around much longer.

The photographer told me that when you look into the eyes of a rain forest native, it is as if something indescribably ancient and vast is looking back at you.

"When you look at somebody like this," she said, "you feel as if you're looking at a unicorn."


Photo credit: Mary "Grassroots Girl" B.

Numbers

280: Chevron's yearly profit, in billions, USD.

40: Percentage of Chevron's public relations budget currently devoted to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Horrifying Fact of the Day

Ecuador's Sacha Sur tribe used to number over fifteen thousand. Today there are about three hundred of them, less than two percent.*

When your pockets are as deep as Chevron's, you can afford to wait out most anything. Delay court proceedings long enough, and eventually the people suing you will die off. Especially if you've made them sick with cancer.

Here's a story about one such person:

Mother of Three Dies of Cancer



* Correction: I've just been informed that the actual number of surviving Sacha Sur is 200, not 300.

Just to put those numbers in perspective, if we were talking about an animal species rather than a human tribe, this is the category that the Sacha Sur would be placed in:

"Critically Endangered is the highest risk category assigned by the IUCN Red List for wild species. Critically endangered means that a species' numbers have decreased, or will decrease, by 80% within three generations."

The only category between this one and Extinction is "Extinct in the Wild."

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critically_Endangered

The Word "Echo Chamber" Comes to Mind

Here is aptly-named, know-nothing blogger Jeff Poor, toeing Chevron's party line:

NewsBusters.org article

I almost hesitate to link to this sort of material, because every time you link to something, you're helping its Google ranking. It's important, however, to expose just how pervasive and repugnant this type of Chevron shilling is.

Look at the comments people have posted on the guy's essay; he really is in an echo chamber, preaching to the converted, telling them exactly what they want to hear.

I find it deeply troubling that so many angry conservatives on the Web have chosen to view this as the "liberal media" and dirty poor people (Spanish speaking ones, no less) trying to exploit an innocent American corporation.

The fantasy these free-market neo-conservatives have bought into is that corporations are inherently virtuous, that attempting to make a buck is a fundamentally noble endeavor, and that greed really is good.

I miss William F. Buckley, but perhaps it's a blessing that he's not alive to see how these idiots are destroying the conservative movement.

Enemy Mine

Although this blog's chief purpose is to expose Chevron's covert shills, no discussion of this topic would be complete without a mention of Chevron's Über-Shill, Justin H. I do give him credit for being completely truthful about the fact that he is a Chevron spokesperson, but that's where Justin's truth-telling begins and ends. Here are just a few of the footprints Justin's left on the Web:

Justin commenting on The Pump Handle blog

Justin attempts to undermine HuffPo blogger Han Shan

Justin's many comments on various Huffington Post articles

Justin commenting on Green Energy News

An Open Letter to Justin H of Chevron:

Dear Justin,

You may not believe this, but there's a lot that I like about you. I admire your rhetorical skills. I like that you understand the subtle art of lying with facts. You're good at this.

Real good.

But you're doing wrong.

You know this.

You know it in your bones.

You know it in the quiet moments when it's just you looking in the mirror. You'll know this many years from now when you're retired, living comfortably off the wealth you built shilling for Chevron.

I have faith in you Justin, faith that you truly do know these things, because you're not a dumb guy. To do what you do every day, I can only assume that you must have to force yourself to disconnect from your own heart and your inner sense of what's right, much in the same way that a streetwalker has to stuff her feelings in order to prostitute herself.

Is this what you want to be known for, Justin? When you look back on your life, are you going to say, "I sure am glad I did such an effective job helping Chevron avoid its responsibilities?"

Of course not, Justin.

You're better than that.

Join us.

We can't offer you the money and power that Chevron can.

We can only offer our friendship and support. You'll need these things when you finally do begin the hard work of setting the record straight.

Join us Justin, and find out what it feels like to be a hero instead of a villain.


Sincerely,

Brendan "FlightSuit" B

Why We Fight

A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine journeyed to Ecuador to do some volunteer work with the latest generation of children orphaned as a result of Chevron's refusal to clean up after itself. She could not help but fall in love with these little humans as they climbed all over her. Since climbing and hugging was one of their chief activities, she came to think of them as the Climby Huggies. This is what a Climby Huggy looks like:




Photo credit: Mary "Grassroots Girl" B.

Don't Believe the Tripe

Hello, and welcome to Chevron Shills. I'm starting this blog as a resource to keep track of the various canned comments which Chevron's paid supporters are posting everywhere on the Web. They do this as part of Chevron's well-funded, ongoing campaign to control the conversation about their destruction of the Amazon rain forest and de facto murder of Ecuador's indigenous peoples.

Whenever this topic comes up on any public message board, forum, blog, news site, Twitter or Facebook page, it is inevitable that Chevron's shills come out of the woodwork, pretending to innocently offer an alternative view.

They're easy to spot, because they always hit the same talking points. When "Joe from Arkansas," "Betty in Des Moines," and "Larry in SF" are posting on three different message boards, and all three posts contain, verbatim, the words, "I saw the documentary Crude and was outraged by what I learned, but then I did some research and now I feel I've been duped..." well, it's pretty obvious that Joe, Betty, and Larry are all the same person, using different screen names to create the false impression that Chevron enjoys massive, grassroots support.

When you see examples of this sort of blatant, dishonest shilling, please submit links and/or screen shots to formerlyflightsuit at gmail dot com so they can be listed here. It is my hope that this blog will become a resource you can use when fighting the shills.

That way, the next time you see "Bertha in Big Bend" posing as a concerned citizen and spreading Chevron's propaganda, you'll be able to post a reply saying, "Gee, it's funny that you claim to be Bertha in Big Bend, spontaneously offering these thoughts just off the top of your head, because, according to the Chevron Shills blog, you have posted the exact same words under several different names on several different Web sites. Here's a link..."



Thank you, and...



¡Viva Ecuador!