Femmy Nazis

The Nimrods at Newsaxon.com recently blocked New Timesfrom accessing their site after The Bird's blogging bro, Feathered Bastard, wrote about them, but that's why the Good Lord made proxy servers, boys and girls, allowing us to do an end-run around their restrictions. Plus, why do the Newsaxonites care? This rascally rooster thought they were proud of their cretinous creed.

A HOLE

Speaking of authoritarian asswipes, here's one who appears even worse than all the neo-Nazi swill mentioned above: Richard Adkerson. Never heard of him? Don't worry, neither had this mallard 'til a pal forwarded this eco-friendly avian some background info on Adkerson, CEO of Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc., one of the largest mining companies in the world, and one of the most notorious in terms of environmental damage and supporting human rights abuses abroad.

Adkerson's company recently dug up $26 billion to acquire Zona-based Phelps Dodge Inc., making the resulting goliath the biggest publicly held mining company on the planet. As a result, Freeport's relocating its HQ from New Orleans to P-town, specifically to (soon-to-be renamed) Phelps Dodge Building at One North Central Avenue. Adkerson himself, the Dark Prince of Dirt-diggin', is movin' caboodle 'n' kit to the PHX to oversee the empire. Your guess as to whether the exec eventually lands in Scottsdale, or more appropriately, Parasite Valley.

Where Adkerson makes his nest may be of importance to those in his homeowners association. See, the modern-day Crassus' digs in the Big Easy have been picketed in the past by pissed-off protesters rankled by alleged abuses at Freeport's cornerstone operation, the Grasberg mine complex. High in the mountains of Papua, Indonesia, the operation is epic in avarice and size. It's the largest gold mine on Earth, containing an estimated reserve of 46 million ounces of the precious metal. It's also the world's third-largest copper mine. That's a Grand Canyon of pennies and pile of Krugerrands higher than Squaw Peak.

To lay hands on that fortune, Grasberg's corporate masters have seen to the excavation of nearly a billion tons of earth in the past 30 years. The gaping maw left behind can be seen from space, where it was once mistaken for Rosie O’Donnell's ravenous pie-hole. Kidding aside, just Google "Grasberg mine," and you'll find NASA photos online detailing the cavernous sore.

Critics claim Freeport's allowed the Grasberg mine to devastate what was recently an unspoiled river system with its acidic mine waste. Bugging activists more are reports that Freeport paid millions of dollars to Indonesian government security forces, which have a record of extrajudicial killings and other abuses of the native Papua population. Indonesia assumed control of Papua in the '60s, and its tactics have been condemned by groups like the West Papua Action Network, (see www.westpapua.ca), and the West Papua Solidarity group, the latter of which picketed Adkerson's N'awlins abode two years go.

Roger Featherstone, a southern Arizona representative of Earthworks, a Washington, D.C.-based mining watchdog group, says it's not his org's style to picket a mining exec's home. But Featherstone (no relation to this avian) and other environmentalists told New Times they'll keep watch on Adkerson and his company, 'cause Freeport now owns former Phelps Dodge mines in Arizona and New Mexico.

Grasberg's "a pretty glaring example of what not to do when operating a major mine," according to Featherstone. The hope is that Freeport won't import any of its bad practices to the American Southwest.

"Certainly, there are big concerns," worried Featherstone. "Given their track record, it doesn't look good."

Freeport officials rebuffed requests for an interview. However, the company has made public gestures toward the criticisms, spending millions on environmental cleanup programs and hiring an independent audit in 2003 to examine Papua's human rights situation.

Adkerson, a pedigreed graduate of the Harvard Business School, can be seen in a short video on Freeport's Web site, www.fcx.com, crowing about the Phelps takeover. He states with a straight face, "Our company will continue to operate in an environmentally sensitive manner."

State Mine Inspector Joe Hart says Freeport will be required to pay 100 percent of the cleanup costs of any environmental damage from local mines. Hart asserts that "the days of environmental rape and pillage are over in America." Maybe so, but the moral outrage over the Indonesia mine will and should continue. Doofus denizens of these United States often puzzle over why the rest of the world hates our friggin' guts. Well, here's a perfect example. Ever heard of the ugly American?

RUSTY´S RAGE

Will the real Rusty Childress please stand up, please stand up? Check this week's letters page for a measured response from the Kia peddler to this immigration-lovin' egret's report on the Thump-day prejudice parties he holds at his PHX automall ("Bigot Bash," April 19, 2007). In the missive, Rusty trumpets "the rule of law" and "the First Amendment," as if the rich wingnut actually understood what those terms meant.

See, Rusty's true hue was revealed last week, when New Times circulation director Jack Erickson got a call from a manager over at Childress Kia, asking that Erickson fetch New Times' rack there. Apparently, Childress and his lackeys were all p.o.'d about The Bird infiltrating Childress' KKK-like confabs. So Erickson heads down to the dealership, and asks this same manager for the steel newspaper stand.