Tag: Gulf Oil Spill

“And the quarterback is toast….” Son of self proclaimed King of Torts Daniel Becnel suspended for a year by the ODC.

You gotta admit, this has been a tough couple of years for the sons of the Kings of Torts. Zach Scruggs was railroaded into copping a plea to a crime he did not commit and Daniel Becnel III appears to be a simple fool.  I’ll also add being “The Turd” has been tough lately too as Murphy the Turd just had a bad run in with the ODC.  Here is the order from the LA ODC on Becnel the Turd which suspends him from the practice of law for one year.

Anyone else remember Daniel Jr’s massive self promoting media blitz trying to capitalize on the oil spill. He landed himself in Business Week and on MSNBC.  I have it on good authority Team BP laughs at the “Firehouse Dog”, especially on the day Judge Barbier washed his ass outta the trough.

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Claims Magazine updates the changes in BP spill claims. ESIS still out. Worley still in.

We recently highlighted this unfolding story here which has been made easier for us due to the fact both Deb at Dimechimes and Claims Magazine contributor Mary Anne Medina have been monitoring the developments closely.

So speaking of developments, Crawford and Company went on the record for Claims Magazine and confirmed that ESIS has been curbed and they are now in helping Ken Feinberg dole out money from the BP claims fund. Worley Catastrophe, a name we well know here at Slabbed is also still in helping staff the claims centers. Once again Deb at Dimechimes gets the hat tip for keeping this story on our radar screens.

We’ll keep updating this story here on Slabbed as it develops.

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Slabbed takes a second stab at explaining why clean impartial courts are important to everyone.

I mentioned earlier in a comment that I was practically overwhelmed with emails of late.  All were very respectful but several were like this one from a disturbed regular reader that asked:

Doug: Your “battle royale” with Feldman is “interesting”, but I’m not sure why you’ve stuck your neck out so far. If things are as “bad” as you believe them to be (and I’m not sure they are since we have only “limited” information since 2008), then won’t USDOJ and The White House go into an attack mode? Maybe I don’t understand, but don’t you BENEFIT from enjoining the moratorium? I know we all have to be “principled”, but don’t commit suicide.

Before I share the gist of my answer I think I need to share a little bit more about myself and how my previous life experiences translates into this highly successful project called Slabbed.

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are

Until Hurricane Katrina all my blogging was confined to the Yahoo finance boards, a strange and at times wonderous place where retail investors, money managers, corporate executives and paid shills come together. Blogging there means there is money on the line every time you press the post button.  After I ventured into individual equities in 2002 I had a good bit of luck early on playing certain publicly traded construction companies including one that had a special run. I followed all the rules and the sage advice from the talking heads and I scoured the SEC filings of the companies in which I invested. Continue reading “Slabbed takes a second stab at explaining why clean impartial courts are important to everyone.”

Slabbed covers the coverage of the story we broke to the world on Katrina's "Who Dat" Judge Martin Feldman.

I’ve received quite the education in the workings of the media since Katrina and never cease to be amazed how those that supposedly see things as they are (ie journalists) over PR spin are impacted by the same cognitive biases that afflict the rest of us mere mortals. Since we broke the news contained on Judge Martin Feldman’s 2008 financial disclosure form regarding his affinity for oil related stocks, the media have woven that facet into most every report on Feldman’s ruling yesterday blocking President Obama’s drilling moratorium. Simply put it appears results oriented Judge Feldman has a huge conflict of interest here, one that his backers will not be able to wish away and sweep under the carpet New Orleans style.

Normally one would expect the best reporting on this would come from the local media outlets and indeed some have done a masterful job covering this story. Sadly, the regions premiere newspaper The Times Picayune has chosen to circle the wagons around Judge Feldman and break out the pom poms rather than explore how Feldman’s ruling is now tainted. Becky Mowbray, a fine journalist who has done some fantastic reporting on the scams insurers employed to dump their wind claim obligations on the National Flood Insurance Program and whose work we have featured on stabbed more times than I can count took a journalistic leave of absence in favor of pom poms and it is with her story we begin:

A federal judge in New Orleans blocked the Obama administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling Tuesday, prohibiting the government from enforcing the six-month drilling ban announced just weeks after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig that many in Louisiana fear will be economically devastating. Continue reading “Slabbed covers the coverage of the story we broke to the world on Katrina's "Who Dat" Judge Martin Feldman.”

Hey Bobby take your sand berms and shove it! And take that fat ass crook Billy with you. The Feds halt the environmental rape of the Nungesser/Jindal Sand Berm Scheme.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

We’re just the little blog that could folks. Our previous coverage of the Sand Berm boondoggle can be found by clicking here. WWL radio has the story. Sanity prevails over self serving, corrupt politicians.

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Anita Lee is reporting on her blog her guess is the brown stuff discovered Bay of St Louis is oil.

Anita Lee reports on her blog the brown stuff discovered in the Bay of St Louis looks like oil to her.

Meantime we await the test results. IMHO being slicked on Mississippi’s West Coast is a matter of time. I hope I’m wrong.

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GOP = Grand Oil Party?

Partisanship once again trumps statesmanship. (H/T Dambala @ AZ)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sydlY3No7TY]

Joe Barton’s 6th Congressional District stretches across the central counties of east Texas, far inland from any threat of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. From that safe vantage point, the compensation fund established by BP at the insistence of President Barack Obama may appear to be a “$20 billion shakedown” that makes Barton, a Republican, “ashamed.”

But seen from the perspective of South Mississippians living near, and dependent upon the Gulf of Mexico, the fund is merely a down payment on BP’s liability. Continue reading “GOP = Grand Oil Party?”

Making the case against the Jindal/Nungesser sand berm scheme: Rob Young appears in the New York Times. Slabbed highlights Billy Nungesser's double dealing with BP.

Editilla was very kind to stop in with us a few days back sharing a link to the Louisiana Coast Post which has been all over the folly of the sand berms. Let’s begin there:

Most residents of south Louisiana and the main stream media have swallowed, hook, line and sinker, the fish story from Governor Jindal and his staff that we can dredge our way out of the B.Pocalypse by constructing sand barriers around our sinking deltaic coast. The sand berm sales job has clearly been an outstanding success.

But wait, a new Robert Young has now emerged as a media figure, not an actor playing a salesman but a coastal scientist playing the critical role of a policy advocate. This modern Robert Young, a coastal geology professor at Western Carolina University, has weighed in on Governor Jindal’s sand berm solution for saving our coast.

Professor Young wrote an Op/Ed Column in The New York Times on June 11 about this controversial and curious concept, the idea of preventing BP spoilage of the Mississippi River delta, not with shrink wrap but with sand berms. His column lists the very same concerns about going through with this project that have been expressed in LaCoastPost here; here; here; here; and here.

Rob well makes the case in the NYT. Here is a snippet:

The state understandably wants to move quickly and on a large scale, and no one wants to stop a project like this simply because it is spending too much of BP’s money. The problem, however, is that the berms won’t work as promised, and their construction will monopolize resources that could be used more effectively elsewhere. Continue reading “Making the case against the Jindal/Nungesser sand berm scheme: Rob Young appears in the New York Times. Slabbed highlights Billy Nungesser's double dealing with BP.”

Boss Hogg comes out against the BP escrow. Phil Bryant still in hiding after previously beclowning himself.

Folks, there is nothing like a disaster to bring the corporate shoeshine boys into the light of day and that has certainly been the case with our Governor Haley Barbour and his sidekick Lite Gov Phil Bryant. In this installment of Boss Hogg is in it for himself, Barbour comes out against his own people and those similarly situated on the Gulf Coast in favor a huge multi national corporation that has polluted the Gulf of Mexico to the verge of extinction. It has become clear the majority of voters here in Mississippi voted against their own welfare and best interests by elevating these two BP waterboys to the pinnacle of State Government. Let’s begin with a WTOK report (H/T Yallpolitics) where Barbour says the escrow is a bad idea and he uses logic that Captain Queeg would certainly appreciate to explain why:

Gov. Haley Barbour said Wednesday he believes making BP put money in an escrow account makes it less likely for victims to be paid.

“We expect them to pay. But if you take $10 to $20 billion out of their operational funds and make them give it to the government in an escrow account, how are they going to generate the revenue to pay what the people of Mississippi are rightfully owed?” asked Barbour.

Worth noting is the $20 billion is to be paid over 4 years in $5 billion dollar installments. To the extent it will reduce any amount BPs pays in litigation I don’t see Barbour’s point, especially since the victims of this disaster will be the beneficiaries of the escrow. Is he saying that paying the innocent victims of this mess is a bad idea or should we just let BP decide when to compensate the victims at a time when it benefits them the most?

Boss Hogg wasn’t done carrying water for BP on this subject though as he spoke with AP reporter Emily Wagster Pettus as well:

Mississippi’s governor said Wednesday he’s not sure the federal government should have made BP put $20 billion into escrow to compensate victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill because the company needs it to drill more wells and make money so it can pay up.

I guarantee if BP had offered Boss Hogg’s kin folk big fat no-bid contracts he’d be singing a different tune. Ol’ Haley didn’t make the list the Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington’s list of the nations most ethically challenged governors for nothing. Continue reading “Boss Hogg comes out against the BP escrow. Phil Bryant still in hiding after previously beclowning himself.”