(Reader Warning: Please put your hip boots on as the bullshit gets deep.)
So there I was watching the morning show on WWL early one morning last week with my trusty canine companion when the poor pooch had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of my coffee spew that roughly coincided with airing of a teaser for an Eric Paulsen report on Bull Durham himself that wowuld be airing on the 10:00PM news!
I immediately knew there would be a post which covered the “coverage” but life’s travails, trials and tribulations have focused my attention elsewhere so the post would have to wait until today.
Paulsen, whom we introduced to the Slabbed Nation a few weeks ago via Paulsen v State Farm and his lawyer/friends, Danny Abel and Carl Finley, got their asses kicked in Federal Court and rightfully so. What is amazing to me as moderator of Slabbed is that State Farm didn’t tip insurance industry shill David Rossmiller about the case as he had a knack for receiving tips on the low hanging fruit but such is our gain here on Slabbed for a number of reasons. Lest I digress.
I would submit Paulsen was the natural choice to pump the latest Costner scheme IMHO. He is plugged into the old Aaron Broussard political network for example via Abel and company and he has demonstrated a fantastic ability to check whatever formal journalism training he has received whenever there is the need for a shill rather than a journalist as I think his latest story on Costner illustrates:
If there is one thing most people agree on during the BP oil disaster, it is that the oil industry and the federal government were not prepared for a disaster of this magnitude.
But actor Kevin Costner and Louisiana barge builder Lee Dragner say the industry can prevent another disaster with their proven technology, a fleet of massive skimmer barges called the Big Gulp, equipped with a machine Costner brought to Louisiana during the BP oil spill.
His centrifuge, which separates water from oil, did prove successful, as did Dragner’s skimmer barges in cleaning up oil floating on the surface.
In fact, Costner said had this fleet been available at the start of the BP oil spill, 90 percent or more of the oil that reached the surface could have been contained.
A real journalist would have questioned the very assumptions upon which the rest of Paulsen’s fanciful tale is predicated. The fact of the matter is there is no evidence Costner’s machine actually worked at all. The fact is history indicates the free market place rejected Costner’s machine as any sort of oil spill solution for over 20 years preceding the Gulf Oil Catastrophe. The record indicates BP only bought the machine after Costner, with the help of an uncritical media and certain local politicians put out a massive PR campaign to force the machines on BP. In fact court filings indicate that Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell was the deal sealer in this particular post spill shakedown of BP.
All that said Paulsen’s report would not look credible if he just had Costner on in a massive self promotion so he needed another source. So I guess it was only natural Paulsen turned to South Louisiana’s master of disaster, the soon to be indicted Billy Nungesser as we continue.
In fact Costner says he has talked with parish presidents about using these smaller barges along with organically made boom and other technology to clean the oil still in the marshes without harming them, which he says is happening now.
Right now he is trying to get this into Plaquemines Parish to do just that, but Nungesser, who wants Costner’s company there, said BP and the federal government are stonewalling. He and other parish presidents say they hope that isn’t the case with Costner’s proposal to use his company’s fleet to protect the Gulf.
Natural that Paulsen would turn to Nungesser? Sure, Paulsen is the group’s minstrel as illustrated by this recent celebrity roast in “honor” of Nunny a few weeks back MCeed by the toolman himself.
Behold folks the next shakedown, likely taxpayer-enabled/funded. We’ll be keeping this on our radars. I’ve embedded the entire Paulsen pump of Bull Durham below. ~ sop
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