F*ck you, Forbes. I hate slide shows!
Here is all the text of the slides in a readable list.
No. 1: Wal-Mart Stores

Sales: $401 billion Pretax income: $20.9 billion Income taxes: $7.1 billion Tax rate: 34.2%

$1.2 billion of Wal-Mart Stores' taxes are international.

No. 2: ExxonMobil

Sales: $311 billion Pretax income: $35 billion Income taxes: $15 billion Tax rate: 47%

None of ExxonMobil's income taxes were paid in the U.S. In 2008 the company's income tax bill was $36 billion.

No. 3: Chevron

Sales: $172 billion Pretax income: $18.5 billion Income taxes: $8 billion Tax rate: 43%

Chevron paid $19 billion income tax in 2008. Of this year's taxes, just $200 million were paid in the U.S.

No. 4: General Electric

Sales: $157 billion
Pretax income: $10.3 billion
Income taxes: (-$1.1 billion)
Tax rate: N/A

GE's financial services unit, GE Capital, keeps the overall tax bill so low. Over the last two years, GE Capital has displayed an uncanny ability to lose lots of money in the U.S. and make lots of money overseas, where tax rates are lower.

No. 5: ConocoPhillips

Sales: $152 billion Pretax income: $10 billion Income taxes: $5 billion Tax rate: 51%

ConocoPhillips paid $13 billion in taxes in 2008.

No. 6: AT&T

Sales: $123 billion
Pretax income: $19 billion
Income taxes: $6.2 billion
Tax rate: 32.4%

AT&T's executive officers are eligible to bill the company $14,000 a year for their own income tax preparations.

No. 7: Bank of America

Sales: $120 billion
Pretax income: $4.4 billion
Income taxes: (-$1.9 billion)
Tax rate: N/A

How did Bank of America not pay any taxes on $4.4 billion in income? Because of deductions like $860 million in tax-exempt income, $670 million in low-income housing credits and a $600 million loss on shares of foreign subsidiaries. With a provision for credit losses of $49 billion, Bank of America probably won't be paying taxes for a long time.

No. 8: Ford Motor

Sales: $118 billion
Pretax income: $3 billion
Income taxes: $69 million
Tax rate: 2.3%

Ford's tax rate is so low because of past years' losses from U.S. operations.

No. 9: Hewlett-Packard

Sales: $115 billion
Pretax income: $9.4 billion
Income taxes: $1.75 billion
Tax rate: 18.6%

HP's low tax rate is due to lower tax rates in foreign countries. The company says in its annual report that President Obama's proposals to end tax deferrals on international operations would mean a big tax hike.

No. 10: Berkshire Hathaway

Sales: $112 billion
Pretax income: $11.5 billion
Income taxes: $3.5 billion
Tax rate: 30%

No. 11: JPMorgan Chase

Sales: $100 billion
Pretax income: $16 billion
Income taxes: $4.4 billion
Tax rate: 27.5%

Chief Executive Jamie Dimon has spoken out against an Obama proposal to levy a special tax on banks to recoup bailout costs. "Using tax policy to punish people is a bad idea," said Dimon. "All businesses tend to pass costs on to customers."

No. 12: Verizon

Sales: $108 billion
Pretax income: $11.6 billion
Income taxes: $1.2 billion
Tax rate: 10.5%

Verizon's low tax rate is due to its $42 billion wireless joint venture with Vodafone, which draws off much of Verizon's income.

No. 13: McKesson

Sales: $107 billion
Pretax income: $1.1 billion
Income taxes: $241 million
Tax rate: 22.7%

No. 14: Cardinal Health

Sales: $100 billion
Pretax income: $1.7 billion
Income taxes: $500 million
Tax rate: 31.4%

No. 15: CVS Caremark

Sales: $99 billion
Pretax income: $5.9 billion
Income taxes: $2.2 billion
Tax rate: 37.3%

State taxes added on top of the 35% federal rate (and no international operations) give CVS its high rate.

No. 16: IBM

Sales: $96 billion
Pretax income: $18 billion
Income taxes: $4.7 billion
Tax rate: 25%

Big Blue pays 49% of its income taxes overseas. In Japan it is appealing a $330 million tax assessment that followed an investigation into alleged tax evasion.

No. 17: Wells Fargo

Sales: $89 billion
Pretax income: $18 billion
Income taxes: $5.3 billion
Tax rate: 30.3%

Wells Fargo has booked a $25 billion allowance for loan losses, but that won't help reduce taxes until those losses are realized.

No. 18: UnitedHealth Group

Sales: $87 billion
Pretax income: $5.8 billion
Income taxes: $2 billion
Tax rate: 34.2%

No. 19: Citigroup

Sales: $80 billion
Pretax income: ($7.8 billion)
Income taxes: ($6.7 billion)
Tax rate: N/A

With $17.5 billion in future tax deductions and credits on the books, and a $39 billion provision for loan losses, Citi has many tax-free years ahead of it.

No. 20: Procter & Gamble

Sales: $79 billion
Pretax income: $15.3 billion
Income taxes: $4 billion
Tax rate: 26.3%

More than half of P&G's business is overseas.

No. 21: Kroger

Sales: $77 billion
Pretax income: $1.7 billion (excluding $1.1 billion goodwill impairment charge)
Income taxes: $530 million
Tax rate: 35.8%

Domestic-only retailers like Kroger have some of the highest tax rates among big companies because they have no lower-taxed overseas income to bring rates down.

No. 22: AmerisourceBergen

Sales: $72 billion
Pretax income: $824 million
Income taxes: $312 million
Tax rate: 38%

No. 23: Costco

Sales: $71 billion Pretax income: $1.7 billion Income taxes: $630 million Tax rate: 36.7%

Of the companies in this list, Costco can be proud of having the most straightforward (and refreshing) financial statements.

No. 24: Boeing

Sales: $68 billion Pretax income: $1.7 billion Income taxes: $400 million Tax rate: 23%

Boeing's lower tax rate is mostly the result of big research and development tax credits.

No. 25: Valero

Sales: $68 billion Pretax income: (-$450 million) Income taxes: (-$100 million) Tax rate: N/A

A gasoline glut means no profits or taxes for Valero.

Where I work the biggest holdup is that the company is run by old people who are incapable of understanding technology. Every email must be printed and filed multiple times. (one file for the recipient, one file for the sender, more files if there are CC's) and every website of our customers and competitors is printed in completion and filed. Yes, we actually do this.
So, we have two systems. One that is mostly paperless so that those of us working can quickly access information. The other system relies on a warehouse for storing documents (mostly printed emails and webpages) and a whole staff of people who only file and retrieve them.
We currently print and file over 200,000 sheets of paper annually.

We are a small company with 20 employees, but 1/3rd of our costs comes from moving and storing paper to satisfy the people in charge.
Even the most simple tasks require moving paper around. Let's say a sales lead comes in through our website. Management prints several copies of the email, and then has it delivered to sales. Sales types out a reply, and before sending it, prints a copy and then it is delivered back to management where it is approved, and then a message sent back to sales on any changes and finally the printed communications are filed. Eliminating any of these steps is "eliminating the paper trail" and any digital alternative does not work because it eliminates paper

As the "IT guy" I have tried everything to get them to stop using so much paper. Even staging a fake fire, to try and scare them into not relying on paper for storing all their information. (Failed, they started sending copies of more important documents to different locations to minimize risk.)
Needless to say, we are losing money and I don't expect to have this job for much longer.

Funny that most of this conversation is about creating more laws and not much about ideas for ways that technology can solve the problem.

Mobile communications are here to stay, there is no going back and there is no way you are going to stop people from answering their phone.
Why do cars not yet come with bluetooth?
This would be simple and inexpensive. A mic in the steering wheel and the sound comes through the speakers.

I stopped texting and driving once I got an iphone because I can not send a message while looking at the road, while previously I could use T9 without looking. But how about phones start offering text-to-speech and speech-to-text?
There are plenty of ways that we can make communicating on the road safer without trying to criminalize people.

The only problem I had is kernaloops giving me an error constantly that was really a non-error about ECC not being enabled on my bios.. But I think that was fixed today. It does bother me that they really seem to push the 6 month cycle. If they have a good stable release out, it's ok to take some extra time to make sure that the next release will be just as good.

I have about 100 sites hosted there right now that are offline, but none worth so much that a day or two of downtime will affect me so much. The worst part is getting phone calls from people who I host. and try to explain in as many ways as possible that No, I can not personally go to texas and fix it, and that there is absolutely no alternate way for them to get their email right now.