Dear Claimant, Hey, how’s it going? Weather’s pretty warm for a January, huh? Yeah, I was able to leave all the really cold weather clothes back at the hotel and…okay, first, allow me to introduce myself. Well, kind of introduce myself… I work for a rather unpopular agency down in the Gulf Coast. Let’s call it an insurance company and yeah, turns out we’re about … Continue reading An Open Letter to Gulf Coast Residents…
When it comes to our government and its accompanying systems, people tend to fall primarily into two camps: believers and skeptics. The believer tends to take the government’s word for it, listen to what they have to say and nod accordingly, maybe occasionally troubled by its actions but ultimately believing they are working for the greater good. The skeptic is more inclined to questions, more … Continue reading Q and A on Gulf Narratives…the skeptic’s lament.
Approaching nine months after the Deepwater Horizon exploded, spilling 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, sensitive marshes off the coast of Louisiana are still covered with oil. Friday, state and local representatives took the media on a tour of Barataria Bay, showing an area where the oil continues to destroy the marshes and also where protective boom is gone or has been eaten … Continue reading “It’s like you’re in bed with BP.”
The Associated Press reports British Petroleum will survive the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico: Cleanup, government fines, lawsuits, legal fees and damage claims will likely exceed the $40 billion that BP has publicly estimated, according to an Associated Press analysis. But they’ll be far below the highest estimates made over the summer by legal experts and prominent Wall Street banks, such as Goldman … Continue reading BP’s gonna be okay…coastal residents? Umm, not so much, not yet
So, Bobby Jindal maintains that in the next legislative session, he will not permit taxes to be raised to close the monstrous Louisiana budget gap, but like all things having to do with terminology, language and narrative, this is untrue. Sure, he won’t force everyone to pay a higher state income tax, but what about… Are bus fares going up around the state? Are school tuition … Continue reading A Quick Note on Taxes and Narrative…
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, ever concerned about the needs of his constituents, spent yesterday attending to Louisianans in the grand ol’ state of Texas. He gave a speech. He hawked his book. He did a fund-raiser. Oh, and while Bobby was out of town again… The National Oil Spill Commission declared that Jindal’s great sand berm idea was ineffective to say the least, largely as … Continue reading Bobby’s Bad Day…in Texas
Hello everybody… Typically, I try not to make these things all that personal, usually covering up a lot of feelings with humor, dark cynicism, take a few jabs at politicians while emotionally stepping slightly outside of myself, a calculated distance learned from many years of social work that makes it easier to blunt the emotional impact of what I do for a living, but I … Continue reading The Newer Meanings of Black Friday…sentimental thoughts
So, a group of BP’s investors got together last June and decided to sue British Petroleum, Tony Hayward and Bob Dudley for wasting corporate assets, exposing the company and therefore, its shareholders to billions of dollars in liabilities and for violating their responsibilities to its shareholders by allowing the BP oil catastraphuk to happen. This lawsuit was filed in Houston. Ah, but BP has a … Continue reading BP Changes Court Strategy: We Are Not Americans
As a teenager, my sisters used to enjoy exploiting my temper to get me in trouble, pushing my buttons until I did something stupid and wound up grounded. I fell for it all the time. I think it was their secret game but I’ve never been able to prove it. One day when our parents were out, my younger sister and I argued about taking … Continue reading Hanging Pictures…Six Months Later
Making things right…? The other shoe dropped in court on Friday where BP’s lawyer suggested the very company that made all those promises to everyone in the Gulf Coast… well, they may finally be ready to hide behind the Oil Pollution act of 1990 which caps damage claims at $75 million dollars. BP’s attorney, Don Haycraft suggested the inevitable, that BP had already forked over “lots and lots” … Continue reading Judge Barbier Gives BP One Week to Declare their Intentions on $75 Million Cap
Drake Toulouse: Photography and Words 