Disenfranchised Citizen

You sons of bitches...

So, this week the New Orleans Saints go into St. Louis to play the “Rams.” Ha…sorry, still can’t get over the whole St. Louis Cardinals football team winding up in Arizona, and Los Angeles Rams winding up in St. Louis thing…it would seem to me, why not just have Arizona become the Rams and the Rams become the Cardinals so balance can again be restored to this horrible, wonderful world…

Okay, but that’s not really my point, so, sorry.

Oh, and the point is also not to tear down the Cardinals winning the World Series.

I don’t really care who wins the World Series anymore…and the reason why, okay, that is a larger part of the overall point…

You see, back when I was a wee lad, my family and I used to go on vacation every summer. Everyone loads into the fire engine red Chevy Vega and off we go, hitting the interstate to whatever relative we were going to spend a week with this year…we hit Tampa, we hit Hershey, Kansas City and oh yeah, we hit St. Louis. Went to Six Flags, went to the Arch, saw the Mississippi River and yes, we went to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game at Busch Stadium, and it wasn’t just any game. This was late summer in August of 1977. Back then, I was a huge baseball fan, played in Little League, collected baseball cards and paid attention to all the milestones so I was well aware that  Lou Brock of the St. Louis Cardinals was closing in on Ty Cobb’s once considered untouchable career stolen bases record. As we got closer to the game I knew we’d be attending, I began paying attention to how many stolen bases Brock still needed, how many left he still had to go. I wondered, would we be at the game when he did it? Could the stars possibly line up in this way?

Um, no.

He broke the record the night after my family was at the game.

Disappointed!

You know, but I got over it. No worries…it took some time, but I moved on and right about the time I’d moved past all that, five years later, that same goddamned Cardinals team beat my hometown baseball team in the 1982 World Series.

Disappointed again!

But, okay…okay, I got over that too…the Cardinals, I stopped hoping for plane crashes, I stopped wishing death upon the entire team…no worries, moving on…and then let’s flash forward 15 years. This would be the year of the whole Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire home run chase. I was excited and interested. Even though I was no longer the biggest baseball fan (NHL…Hockey baby! Violence! Speed! Precsision! Blood! In love!) but I paid attention to the narratives and I was enjoying the competition. For my birthday that year, my parents asked me what I would like to do and I said, in lieu of any sort of gifts, let’s go see the Cardinals play, see if McGwire hits a home run. So we go to a game and every time he comes up to bat, the flash bulbs would start popping, everywhere across the sold out stadium. It was fascinating, thrilling and in McGwire’s 3rd at bat, he did it.

I got to see Mark McGwire hit a home run the season he hit 70 and first broke Roger Maris’s record.

Yep, sure did.

What do you mean, steroids?

Curse you Cardinals!!!!!!!

And that brings us to this weeks Saints game. I know the Saints are playing the “Rams,” but as I mentioned before, they are still the damned Cardinals to me and though it may be a different sport, it’s the same name and the same town and the Saints need to win for the city of New Orleans and just as important to me, they need to win to avenge my disappointment, my disillusionment and the tarnishing  of various family memories that damned city is responsible for ruining.

Who dat!

Go Saints!

Enjoy the game and have a nice day…

So, I might as well address this to the highest ranking of you, though I’m not so sure that’s something to be proud of these days…in fact, from where I sit it’s something to be rather ashamed of but nonetheless, this goes out to Obama, Pelosi, Boehner, Cantor, Reid, Geithner, Bernanke, McConnell…

Yeah, all of you public servants(?)

Okay, something is happening in this country that none of you really seem to understand…I mean, have you looked around yourselves lately? In the cities? Have you read the polls? Have you bothered for a moment to look past your office walls, your meeting rooms and political staffers and handlers and their gratuitous nods of the head?

I don’t think you have…

You see, I and a lot of other Americans read the news and I don’t know about you politicians, but what I’m reading lately simply doesn’t make sense.

Poll after poll shows that Americans want taxes raised on the wealthy and the safety net? They want it left alone. It’s almost universal, bipartisan…consider these headlines of late: 68% of Millionaires support raising taxes on millionaires and Poll: Tax the rich, corporations and Vast Majority Of Americans Favor Buffett Rule’s Millionaire Tax: Poll Also consider these: Washington Post/Bloomberg poll: Even GOP majorities say tax rich, protect Social Security, Medicare and New Poll shows Republicans have it all wrong with Social Security and Attacks on Social Security called “un-American” and Faith groups target ‘Super Committee’ on poverty

That all seems a pretty clear message.

Yet, then I read this bullshit: Boehner Dismisses Democratic Super Committee Proposal As Unserious

Now, I happen to agree with Boehner about this, but me and the majority of Americans? Our reasons are quite different from Boehner and the GOP’s reasons for disagreeing with the proposal. Boehner says the Dem proposal is unserious because it raises taxes on the wealthy whereas I disagree with the Democratic’s proposal because it proposes billions in dollars in cuts to Medicare, even more extensive cuts than the Catfood Commission’s proposal. The cuts however, Boehner is almost fine with except he wants them to go deeper than the Democrats have proposed…

Okay, so…in light of all this, what the hell is wrong with you politicians?

You’re not listening…or maybe you are. Maybe you are listening quite intently, you’re just not listening to the majority of Americans, instead keeping your focused ear intently on your campaign donors, the financial institutions, big money lobbyists…essentially anyone but the American people.

Seems fairly evident, but I suspect you all might disagree with this assessment. Yeah, two words to that…fuck you. I’m not stupid, please stop treating me as such.

So then, if you are there in DC to do the work of the people, why is it you choose to ignore the people completely? This is why you have a 9% approval rating, Congress. Oh, and Boehner, Cantor, McConnell and the rest of you GOP hacks, what the American public really wants are jobs. Jobs!!!! And jobs aren’t created by lower taxes on the wealthy. Stop your bullshit, they aren’t. Jobs are created by demand. Demand is created by people with money to spend, keeping the social safety net and unemployment benefits puts money in people’s pockets, which they then spend which creates demand, which creates jobs. Know what else creates jobs? Spending on infrastructure, which again puts money in people’s pockets…and so on and so forth. Austerity makes everybody broke, nobody spends, no demand…it ain’t that hard to figure out…are you all just fucking stupid? Now, I know you have said that you’re spending cuts thus far enacted have created jobs, but they haven’t. In fact, they have done the opposite: REPORT: House GOP’s ‘Job Creating’ Spending Cuts Destroyed 370,000 Jobs.

Oh, and Barack and Nancy? Let’s not get all full of righteous indignation on this one. Last week, the GOP decided to put you guys in the corner by agreeing to one part of your jobs agenda, while linking it with a budget cut item: House GOP Lays Trap For Obama On Jobs Plan. Yeah, the GOP agreed to end a three percent withholding tax on private contractors intended to keep corporations from cheating the government on taxes, and in return the GOP proposed to pay for this by limiting Medicaid eligibility for people who also receive social security benefits.

Wasn’t that nice of them?

Private contractors get the a-ok to cheat on their taxes, paid for by kicking grandma and the disabled off their health insurance.

Well, it would seem this GOP proposal was tailor-made for the Democrats to stand up, just say no, go to bat for those less fortunate and tell the GOP to blow while explaining to the American people what the GOP was trying to get away with…except the Democrats didn’t do this. Nope. Instead, they agreed.

More money for the wealthy, more costs for the poor.

I seem to be picking up on a pattern here…Barack, Nancy, Harry…who are you standing up for?

You agree to Medicare cuts on the poor and kicking some people off Medicaid, which runs counter to what the American people have said they wanted. And you…Eric, John, and Mitch…you are giving more and more money to the wealthy, at the expense of the poor, which again, is the opposite of what the American people have said they want to see happen…

Yes, a pattern.

And then you wonder why thousands of people are hitting the streets nationwide, fueling the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Oh wait, I forget, many of you have said you understand the people’s frustrations. Yeah, great…well I understand that you’re all a bunch of self-righteous assholes, but that don’t turn you into good people, now does it? Nope. And none of you are doing much about that frustration you claim to understand either, except presenting proposals that either do nothing to address income inequality, or will only serve to make it worse.

In these occupy demonstrations, in all of these different cities, stand Americans of every race, age, class and creed. And you know what else they are? They are the disenfranchised of this country. Do you think these people would be suffering the elements, the police brutality if they really felt that voting for one of you frauds would change anything? Doubtful. These protests, these people are the fruit of your labors, those who believe the system to be broken, or if it is working, it sure ain’t working for them…and not for me either. I’ve attended a few of these rallies in different cities and you know what I see? I see middle-aged couples, the elderly, the young, white, black, hispanic…and all these different members of society, they are uniting against you, against your bullshit ways, your bankrupting ways…your Republican power-grabs and your Democrat craven cavings to the financial industry and the banks…

And speaking of banks…

Hey Bernanke and Geithner, do you honestly think we haven’t been paying attention to what you’re currently letting Bank of America get away with?  And Barack, these assholes were appointed by you…so you’re on the hook as well. Right now, your crew, with GOP assent, is seeing fit to allow Bank of America to set up American tax-payers for another huge debt, all so this bank doesn’t have to pay for their own investment mistakes, again. Yes, Bank of America has moved 75 trillion dollars in potentially bad derivatives from its holding company, into Bank of America proper…want to know why?

Because unlike its holding company, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America is FDIC insured, so if these 75 trillion dollars in bad derivatives fail, the government (FDIC) will have to pay out, which of course means, the taxpayers have to pay out, bail out Bank of America for more bad investment decisions. Bernanke, Geithner and Obama are allowing this to happen. They are allowing this to happen to you… once again taking the money from the middle class and potentially giving it to the wealthy to compensate for their poor choices.

So back to that pattern:

The Democratic leadership, in the form of Pelosi, Reid and Obama have shown they are quite willing to cut the social safety net, to cut benefits to the poor and disabled, to the elderly so long as the Republicans are willing to allow some marginal taxes on the rich. The Republican leadership in the form of Cantor, Boehner and McConnell are of course unwilling to do this, no how, no way, and in return for their refusal, they want even deeper cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security than the Democrats are willing to offer. Meanwhile, the Fed is letting Bank of America off the hook for bad investments again, with American tax-payers potentially footing this bill if the derivatives go bad…again moving money from the poor and middle class to the wealthy.

Yes, a pattern.

These politicians, elected by the American people only agree on one thing, doing whatever it is the American public doesn’t want you to do while at the same time, doing very little about job creation.

Yet all of you feel you should be reelected.

Why is that?

Since the occupation protests have begun, thousands of protestors have been arrested across this country…but of the people working in the financial institutions who caused the recession that led to millions of lost jobs, of bankrupted pensions, savings, cities and states?

Nobody arrested. None. Zero.

Again, why is that?

Are you simply admitting in cold hard arrest statistics that the rule of law is dead, provided you are wealthy enough to have received a Bush tax cut, extended further by Obama? Is that the established line in the sand? If you qualify to receive a tax break due to wealth, the law no longer applies to you?

I’m thinking that rather than being reelected, what should really happen here is Obama, Reid, Pelosi and Bernanke, Cantor, Boehner, McConnell and Geithner, all of you need to wind up in a cell right next to the heads of the major banking institutions in this country. You all, who have taken it upon yourselves to damn your children’s futures for your own selfish gain.

Pathetic, all of you.

Off to jail, lock them in the Bastille…why not? What do we really have to lose anymore?  This way, the rest of us can try this again, we can have our country back, see if we can do better and I’m betting we can. After all, you pathetic politicians have lowered the bar so far…be pretty damned impossible to do worse.

Or better yet, get involved with the Occupy Protests in your city, what else you gonna do? Sit bitching on the sidelines? Vote? Yeah, good luck with that…the people currently in power, and the politicians too would like nothing better than for you to just stay home and vote at the appropriate time for one of the politicians they’ve hand-selected to serve (them) you…

Think about it.

And have a nice day, even the aforementioned politicians…right before you trip down your front steps and chip your tooth on the sidewalks our taxes paid for…and if you bloodied your nose, that’d be cool too. Okay…I’m sorry about that last part, not that I didn’t mean it…I’m just sorry about being petty sometimes, trying to work on that…kind-of.

Oh, and P.S. – To the mayor of Oakland, Jean Quan…resign, and take the members of the Oakland Police Department who caused the violence with you…you’re all one collective disgrace…and to San Francisco (interim) mayor, Ed Lee and Police Chief Greg Suhr, stop with the games already…you really want another Oakland on your hands? Seriously…let it go.

Because...this time I mean it.

Feinberg testified thursday at a hearing before the House Committee on Natural Resources that new rules will be created to make payouts more generous for the Gulf Coast shrimpers suffering through this, and possibly future terrible seasons.

“I think we’ve got to do better for the shrimpers,” Feinberg said.

It was a rare concession from Feinberg, that perhaps things aren’t going as swimmingly in the Gulf as the GCCF estimated they would by now, and even though he said he hopes to announce the new rules in two weeks, shrimpers remain skeptical about what they will entail.

Feinberg can say he’ll increase payments to shrimpers, “but I’ll have to see it to believe it,” said Allen Estay, owner of Bluewater Shrimp Company, ”They’re going to have their rules and regulations.”

And that skepticism is warranted.

Though Feinberg testified he has paid $5.5 billion dollars to 213,408 claimants, some members of the house committee wanted to know why over 300,000 had been denied.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said that despite assurances from the White House following the oil spill that BP would be held fully accountable “that does not appear to be the case.” He said the number of people paid to date, considering how many have applied for money, is “simply unacceptable.”

And from an article in Houma Today:

“Many locals in the shrimp industry say they’ve lost faith in the man heading the claims facility, who has attended many meetings in Terrebonne and Lafourche, talked to many of them firsthand about their troubles and made many promises that never materialized.

Dean Blanchard, owner of Grand Isle Seafood, a shrimp processing company, said he was in Washington watching the committee meeting Thursday.

“(Feinberg) is a nice guy, the problem is he won’t work with us,” Blanchard said.

Rep. Steven Palazzo R-Miss also questioned Feinberg about the fund, “the $20 billion was supposed to be the floor, not the ceiling.”

And from a recent AP article:

An Associated Press review published in February that included interviews with legal experts, government officials and more than 300 Gulf residents found a process beset by red tape and delay, and at the center of it all a fund administrator whose ties to BP have raised questions about his independence.

Critics say little has improved since then, and in some cases has gotten worse.

Many observers worry a big chunk of the $20 billion will be returned to BP when the Gulf Coast Claims Facility ceases making payouts, which is currently scheduled for August 2013. At one point, Feinberg told reporters that he expected half of the fund to be sufficient to compensate all victims. He took considerable heat for making that prediction, and he has declined to speculate on the issue in the months since then.

Yes, skepticism abounds…but how bad has it gotten?

“It might sound strange to say, but if Ken Feinberg would quit today and they turned (the claims fund) over to BP, I’d celebrate,” said David Chauvin, co-owner of Mariah Jade Shrimp Company.

Put British Petroleum back in charge of paying damages?

Man, that’s pretty bad, even for Feinberg.

Read the articles:

Shrimpers skeptical of claims chief’s promise

Oil spill claims czar: Shrimpers’ pain continues

Have a nice day.

"Okay Barbier... you will grant our appeal... you will grant our appeal... you will grant... grant... grant... grant... grant... grant... grant... grant... DAMN!"

Back in August, US District Court Judge Carl Barbier issued a ruling allowing for claimants in the B1 Bundle to sue British Petroleum for punitive damages, a ruling BP appealed.

“I have given this a lot of thought,” Barbier said about BP’s appeal at the end of last week…

Denied.

The B1 bundle includes all claims for private or “nongovernmental economic loss and property damages…” meaning claims for economic damages filed by fishermen, seafood processors and distributors, recreational and commercial businesses, plant and dock workers and those who worked for BP’s Vessels of Opportunity program.

British Petroleum attorney Andrew Lanagan seemed to suggest that by kicking these claims out of the litigation, Barbier would only be doing these claimants a favor, “We still have the GCCF [Gulf Coast Claims Facility] in place. If these claims are all eliminated from litigation, litigants will have no option but to go through the GCCF.”

Yes, through the GCCF, where claimants can’t receive compensation for punitive damages, where they are getting shafted by low compensation offers, where they’re claims are often dismissed outright by Ken Feinberg’s process.

You know, that place where British Petroleum can exact a certain amount of control, unlike Barbier’s Courtroom.

In defending the plaintiff’s right to not have their cases dismissed on appeal before they even had a chance to be heard, Elizabeth Cabraser, the plaintiff’s attorney, argued, “The law, like time, does not flow backwards.”

And this must have come as news to British Petroleum, who in the past week has not only announced what CEO Bob Dudley called a “turning point” in its profits for the third quarter, but they have also received permission to resume deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Interior Department.

Yes, if it weren’t for Barbier’s ruling, it might seem like March of 2010, all over again…

Read the article:

Judge Denies BP Appeal That Might Have Killed Thousands of Claims

Have a nice day.

I'm thinking the Saints got this one...

Sometimes, I think I like the drink a little too much.

‘Tis true…back in my early to mid-twenties, there was no question about it and during the time I actually lived in New Orleans, again…no doubt. I liked a pitcher or two, perhaps a bit more than I should have but hell, in New Orleans I was taking a break from my social work career and tending bar in the French Quarter for fun and a change of pace so, no worries…the drinks were flowing and good times were had by all, and I can’t say it ever cost me anything. No failed relationships, lost jobs, drunk driving arrests…nothing. I tend to be more of the fun-loving, grease the wheels, laugh a little harder and a little longer, all good kind of buzzed.

Nonetheless, there have been times in my life when I felt the need to take a break from it all, like when I’m trying to focus especially hard on what I need to accomplish and that meant no distractions so, ya cut out the bad food, the booze, the cigarettes, television for the most part…etc.

Distractions, you know? Get rid of them until the task is done.

And until the game tonight this had been one of those times…but come on, Saints versus Indianapolis?

This game is the perfect storm.

Not only do I not have tonight off, which means I am free to relax and watch the game at my leisure, but I don’t have to work tomorrow either. Yep, got Monday off and on Tuesday, I only have to work like two hours, mid-afternoon.

Oh, but more important than all that?

Curtis Painter.

Yes…the Curtis Painter. That gridiron legend, the ironman quarterback threatening Brett Favre’s consecutive games played record…Indianapolis Colts Superstar, Curtis Painter. One of the highest paid, most talented quarterbacks in the game…Curtis Painter, and he is set to make this the game!

Oh yeah, we all know how Indianapolis is an aging team, they don’t quite have the running game or the receivers they once had; their defense is getting old and hitting opposing quarterbacks with canes and walkers, but so long as the Colts have Curtis Painter, so long as he calls the signals, executes his pin-point passing and hands off the ball like there is no tomorrow, the Colts, well, even with all their other deficiencies, they always have a Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz….

What?

Oh, halftime’s over? Cool, hand me a beers, few of them okay?

Thanks for waking me up…

Go Saints, enjoy the game all!

In his High School yearbook, Eric Cantor was voted most likely to soil his Armani underwear.

…running away?

…especially when they can’t control who will be in the audience?

…especially when many in that audience think Eric Cantor and the GOP response form a large part of the overall problem, championing many policies that cause much of the afore-mentioned economic inequality?

Okay then, glad we got that settled.

Eric Cantor and the GOP’s official response to issues raised by the Occupy Protests is as follows: gulp loudly, then don’t show up out of fear you won’t be able to control the crowd or the questions, with all of it on camera. Well played guys, and thanks for the update Eric…you complete and utter coward.

From the article in Firedoglake:

“Eric Cantor, staunch protector of the 1 percent and champion for that portion of the 99 percent duped into protecting the 1 Percent, but ever fearful of the mob, startled a disbelieving Beltway a few days ago by announcing that income and wealth inequality were real problems and that the GOP should do something about that.

In a moral universe, that epiphany should have been followed by lightning striking the man, as on the road to Damascus, but that didn’t happen.

Cantor promised to address those issues in a speech he planned to give today at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School. What would an unrepentant representative of the 1 Percent possibly have to say? Would he explain why the Senate members of his party unanimously opposed taxing the rich at one half of one percent on annual income over a million dollars so we could have 400,000 more teachers and thousands more first responders?

Well, we may never know. It seems Mr. Cantor has bugged out, after learning from his hosts that his speech might become the occasion for a mic check.

To continue reading about the credibility issues of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va), please…just click below:

Eric Cantor Skips Wharton Inequality Speech Out of Mic Check Fear

Have a good day, a better day than the House GOP leadership when they meet tomorrow in Boehner’s office, to discuss how this fiasco played out for their side, across all forms of media…

Oops…

"And I killed it in New York, in California...in Ireland, they loved me..."

On Wednesday, Ken Feinberg attended a meeting in Jefferson Parish where local fishermen, oystermen, shrimpers and crabbers weren’t as celebratory of his efforts with the GCCF as the law students were when he recently spoke in Ireland.

Harlon Pearce, owner of LA Fish & Seafood asked, “How do we go out and market this product, when we’re worried about having a product to market?”

This is becoming quite the valid question.

For the past couple of weeks, reports have been coming in to shore fast and furious about the lack of shrimp catch, “I am talking to the guys, I am talking to the docks, and they are telling me that they are 80 percent off,” said Clint Guidry, president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, “We should have had a good year this year.” Carol Terrebonne, who runs the Seafood Shed, a seafood wholesaler in Golden Meadow, agreed, “Usually at this time of the year, we are loading trailer loads,” Terrebonne said, “It’s just not happening.”

Dean Blanchard, a third generation shrimper who owns a processing plant in Grand Isle is being forced to close because far fewer shrimp are coming into the plant this season and some of the shrimp are showing signs of contamination. Blanchard says he is seeing first hand how the oil and dispersants are causing the wildlife and people to get sick, “We’re seeing dead porpoises, we’re seeing shrimp with no eyes that’s still alive, we’re seeing fish with tumors the size of golf balls in them, we’re seeing fish with oil all over the gills…it’s hard for me to think that everything is going to be alright.”

And back in the meeting at Jefferson Parish, Ken Feinberg stated the obvious, saying that the problems on the Gulf Coast go deeper than issues with his claims process, “There are fishermen in there complaining that though they’ve heard from the GCCF, they don’t like the news they’ve heard — about deficiencies, delays, denials — and that’s what we have to deal with.”

Yes, you do…because though the problems go deeper, the environmental concerns and your claims process are linked.

The GCCF was intended to make things whole for the people of the Gulf Coast, including the fishermen. If they can’t bring product to market, the claims process must address this and fill in the financial gaps until they are again able to do so. That was the whole point of the escrow account, to financially resolve damages caused by this oil spill…well, those damages are ongoing.

Some ideas to come out of this meeting that could help are:

1) There is a proposed separation of claims coming out of the so-called oil spill “Ground Zero” in Louisiana, mainly for those involved in fisheries in Lafitte, Grand Isle and Venice.

2) The setting up of a “Claims Day” in Jefferson Parish, where payment complaints could be handled.

3) A potential change in how the claims are processed and calculated.

And number three would seem to be the most important. If the estimates and calculations for the GCCF claims process are indeed wrong as the ongoing environmental problems would indicate, then those calculations need to be changed.

Also, the interim claims process need to be expanded. Claimants, especially those who make a living from the environment, from the seafood industry who previously accepted final and quick payments and now want to re-apply should be allowed to do so, given amnesty, given another chance as the science keeps rolling in. To say tough luck, shouldn’t have signed away your rights and taken those offers, who does this serve? British Petroleum, yes, but certainly not justice.  In addition, the GCCF needs to stop pressuring people into taking final claims, and that goes straight to the top, to Feinberg who has publicly stated that at some point, people need to move on.

If the fishermen have nothing to catch, how are they supposed to do that?

The worst part of all this?

For some it might already be too late, “I don’t even need [Feinberg] to pay me,” Blanchard said of his now closed processing business, “If he could just pay the fishermen, so they quit asking for credit, I would consider staying open.”

Feinberg needs to be reminded this isn’t about British Petroleum, nor is it about what’s easiest and best for the GCCF, it is about the people of the Gulf Coast and if they are still losing money due to environmental damages, if businesses are still closing down as a result of this oil spill, then the GCCF is not doing their job, which means Ken needs to go back to the drawing board and make right these problems and the people once and for all.

Supposedly, this is why he was hired.

Read the article:

Potential changes coming in processing of oil spill claims in coastal La.

Have a nice day.

Yeah, I guess Feinberg really did go to Dublin...

Ken Feinberg recently visited Dublin as part of the US-Ireland Alliance where he gave a talk to Trinity College law students, and then an interview to the Irish Times. During both engagements, he spoke of the cottage industry he has established as a mediator for a variety of compensation funds, including his role with the GCCF.

When discussing his role in the Gulf, Ken said, “In 13 months I received one million claims from all 50 states and 37 foreign countries…when BP said it was putting up $20 billion, it engendered a lot of very creative claims.”

Good one Ken, yes, “creative claims.”

Very nice, because obviously people from all over the world were trying to play the British Petroleum lottery, trying their best to fool Feinberg and get their fraudulent hands on all that BP money…but how many fraudulent claims did you actually refer to the Justice Department for investigation? A few thousand, out of over a million filed…yes Ken, very good joke, I’m sure much laughter was had as you misrepresented the integrity of those who filed claims, of those so affected by the largest environmental disaster in the United States.

And during his interview, Feinberg was asked, “Was there an element of compulsion in accepting the compensation, as people have to waive their right to sue when the full extent of the damage may not yet be known?”

Good question, very good…

To which Ken replied, “No one is required to accept a final settlement…if anyone feels the future is uncertain, they can opt for an interim payment and keep coming back until they are comfortable about the future; 25,000 people took that option.”

Okay, but taking a look at the most recent GCCF statistics, whereas you are correct Ken, approximately 29,0000 people have accepted interim payments, you again misrepresented this situation entirely. What you failed to mention is the GCCF has received over 100,000 interim claims, yet two out of every three claimants haven’t been paid.

Why is that?

Did they not qualify?

Were the offered payments so low, they instead took the final payment you also offered, out of frustration?

Are they maybe just still waiting to hear from you, after all the interim payments were the last to be processed, right Ken? Or maybe it had something to do with your continued statements about the Gulf so rapidly improving, people might not be happy down the line with final offers, or when you said there comes a time, that people just have to move on…perhaps if there were transparency in the GCCF process, we might have the answers to these question, but alas, there is not.

Now Ken, don’t get me wrong.

I don’t actually expect you to go to Ireland and talk about what a horrible job you’ve done as arbitrator for the BP compensation fund. I mean, who would do that? But, I also would expect you to not make light of the still terrible situation in the Gulf, or misrepresent claimants and facts, or make things appear better than they are… And now that I think about it, I really wouldn’t expect you to be in Ireland in the first place, haven’t you heard? They’re discovering some real alarming things going on in the Gulf environmentally that would seem to make an impact on not only the seafood catch, but the health of Gulf Coast residents and in turn, impact your calculations for your payment methodology…you know, the one you said was an estimate and could be changed down the line as new facts come in…

Ken?

Whereas I am sure the people in Ireland love ya a lot more than the people of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, so as I would certainly imagine it’d be more fun for you to be over there rather than in the Gulf…the people in Ireland? Well, they aren’t still waiting for you to finish doing your job.

So what do you say, maybe you should get back to work? After all, you are getting paid a hell of a lot of money, right?

Read the article:

Ken Feinberg’s Visit to Ireland

Have a nice day.

You could be forgiven for thinking that large object in the background is a crystal chandelier, but you'd be wrong...that's actually a specially built clear glass container where Bob keeps his ego. Yes I know, don't worry, the brand new, much larger container will be installed next Friday.

Bob Dudley announced Monday that British Petroleum had come to terms with Anadarko, which has agreed to give up its 25% stake in the Macondo Well and pay British Petroleum $4 billion dollars as its share of damage claims and cleanup costs.

“I am very pleased that they stepped in and are now shouldering some of the responsibilities,” BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley said. He went on to add the agreement was not an admission of liability from either party, but the settlement is “favorable for both companies.”

Well, of course nobody is liable, of course, but favorable to both Anadarko and British Petroleum…how might that be?

Well, simply put, British Petroleum has estimated total costs in cleanup and damages will eventually reach $42 billion dollars. Anadarko could have potentially been on the line for 25% of that due to its 25% ownership of the well. However, if Anadarko had been able to prove in its lawsuit that British Petroleum was grossly negligent, then they would have been financially off the hook altogether. So, essentially Anadarko chose to cut their losses, with BP agreeing to the company paying only 10% of projected damages and cleanup costs, while Anadarko also gives up its pursuit of proving BP was grossly negligent in the spill.

And in case one needs reminding, a proven designation of gross negligence would raise BP’s fine by $18 billion dollars, because the fine per barrel under such a designation would increase from $1,100 per barrel to $4,300 dollars.

And that’s getting expensive, really expensive, so though Bob was glad to see Anadarko “shouldering some of the responsibilities,” what BP really wanted was for the company to stop pursuing this designation, same as they want to settle with Transocean and Halliburton more than likely under the same terms, possibly saving British Petroleum billions… billions that would go towards the restoration of the Gulf Coast, billions that would certainly constitute BP fulfilling their sense of responsibility, and potentially coming closer to finally making the coast whole again.

So yeah, when Bob Dudley says on Monday, “There is clear progress with parties stepping forward to meet their obligations and help fund the economic and environmental restoration of the Gulf, it’s time for the contractors, including Transocean and Halliburton, to do the same,” that’s pretty damned annoying to hear from the CEO of British Petroleum, and pretty self-serving too.

I get that as a profit-making company, Bob and BP are beholden to their shareholders. I also understand it only makes sense in our current system for a profit-making company to try real hard to not pay out damages, regardless of who or how many it hurts, while at the same time, giving the impression they are doing all they can to make things right.

Okay, understood.

But Bob? Mr. Dudley?

To those of us who pay close attention to this story, we do see what is going on here. Your company complains Ken Feinberg is paying too much to claimants. Your company bought off scientists from universities all over the Gulf Coast in hopes of furthering your advantage in upcoming court proceedings. Your company killed eleven people in this catastraphuk alone. Your company is making it very difficult for researchers to get their hands on necessary oil samples so they can find ways to restore the coast your company fucked up. Your company stands accused of harassing plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits against it.

And yes, your company is fighting the designation of gross negligence while at the same time urging other companies to own up to their obligations and responsibilities.

In other words, Bob, you’re full of shit.

Your company is grossly negligent. There is little to dispute about that, but what, unfortunately, is very much in dispute is whether you sons of bitches are going to be able to buy your way out of it.

Read the article:

BP gets $4bn from Anadarko as part of a Gulf settlement

Have a nice day.

"Oh I'm sorry, you thought I was listening?"

Ahem…for reasons of disclosure, let me start out by saying I am a social worker…I am a social worker but I am also not stupid. I’ve worked in some social programs in my day that were, shall we just say, not cost-effective. However, let me also say that those days were a long time ago. Things have changed in my field and now pretty much everything is cost-effective.

That’s what happens when there is no money.

Many Americans, over the past year or so, have been introduced to the term austerity, but in social services austerity has been the order of the day for close to two decades so this is why, when I read in the Lens about Mitch Landrieu’s budget for the city of New Orleans, it makes me want to steal a NOPD squad car and drive it straight through the front doors of City Hall to, you know, creatively air my grievances in a way the mayor might finally pay attention to, because apparently all them listening sessions he did? They didn’t amount to dick as he just wrote a budget doing the opposite of what the people, the citizens of New Orleans, suggested.

“We heard folks at the budget meetings say spend less on public safety, but at the moment, we think it (spending more) is the right thing to do,” Landrieu said Monday in an overview presentation of his $495 million proposed 2012 budget to reporters.

Well, listening ain’t hearing, is it Mitch?

So though it will probably fall on deaf ears, let me try to explain a little something anyway, a little something about crime:

If you have a crime problem, and your solution to this crime problem is to cut the funding from every part of the budget that addresses social inequity, be it social services, education or whatever else…you will still have a crime problem. In fact, it will be worse, and if you then take all that money you cut and give it to the most bloated budget of every city in this country, to the police…well, then you will not only still have a crime problem, then you get a lost generation and a prison problem.

Why then a crime, lost generation and a prison problem?

Simple, if your only solution is to lock people up, you’re going to lock a lot of people up which then in effect, is throwing a lot of people away. In addition, social work ain’t the only place to become far too familiar with austerity, these same measures have long since ensured that in prison, there is no such thing as rehabilitation anymore. Instead of a trade or even a college education, all you get now is a criminal education and then people get out of the prison. They come back to your city where, because your mayor keeps giving all the money to the cops, there continues to be little or no support.

And then you still have a crime problem.

But hey, new cops in new uniforms sure do look good on the evening news and it’s something tangible a mayor can point to, puff out his chest and say, “Look at me, I’m doing something about the problem!”

Yeah, okay…but what the hell are you doing but perpetuating it? If I were to buy a shotgun and start driving around New Orleans and shooting homeless people, one might be able to argue that I am doing something about the homeless problem, but that don’t necessarily make it the right thing to do, and besides, then I might wind up in your cyclical non-solution to all things criminal in New Orleans.

Frankly, the simplest solution one can find to a complex problem ain’t necessarily the best way to go about it.

Call me crazy, but I’m thinking it’d be best to measure a city’s success in dealing with a crime issue, not by the number of arrests and convictions, nor by the length of prison sentences. I think a far better measure would be how many you were able to keep from committing the crime in the first place, by presenting them with opportunity to do something else, you know, give as many people as possible a realistic opportunity to display “personal responsibility.”

But yeah, I know…it’s a fuck of a lot harder to take a picture of that, to put crime prevention on the front page of the Times Picayune or to somehow fashion that into a bumper sticker to slap on the back of your car…

You know, before it gets stolen.

So congratulations Mitch, you’re now just like every other damned politician, offering a simple and ineffective solution to a difficult and complex problem…but hey…gotta fill Gusman’s bullshit jails somehow, eh buddy?

Read the article:

Despite community input, Landrieu increases NOPD spending, cuts most other areas

Have a nice day.