Tag: Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell

People across the State of Louisiana are getting hip to the Buddy system……

Well “tickle my ass with a feather” if Hammerman didn’t put the hammer down on Buddy Caldwell and the apparently illegal contracts he let to his political supporters like Allan “Show me the money” Kanner, who is evidently is sleeping while on tower in Judge Barbier’s courtroom. None of this is a particularly new topic for us as Slabbed has covered the MDL litigation as well as the crash and burn of Ex Rel Branch but the grandaddy of Buddy Caldwell blogging is over at the Hayride with my colleague Scott McKay.  We’re gonna get to Scott in a second but first Hammerman:

Yeah Buddy, Allan Kanner got lucky alright and you need a seeing eye dog if you are paying an attorney $600.00 an hour to sleep on the job.

Scott McKay over at the Hayride broke the transcript.  He also had this in a follow up post that nails it:

There is additional context to the Kanner-Barbier-Caldwell donnybrook. We’re told by a friend in the legal community that Kanner and Barbier hate each other. We’re also told that Kanner really is a good attorney, but that once that case went in front of Barbier it was suicide to have Kanner sitting at the attorneys’ table. So when the judge singles out Kanner for abuse from the bench that’s nothing less than a the judge taking a chance to stick a knife in a guy he can’t stand. Who’s our attorney, by the way, and a damn expensive one, at that.

So we’re shelling out $600 an hour for this train wreck. And here comes Caldwell, who, asked about Barbier dissing his lead hired-gun outside counsel attorney in the trial transcript, thinks it’s a good idea to trash the judge for his level of attention to the trial.

The Buddy system in action, ain’t it grand.

Law Enforcement on the move: A four pack of previous Slabbed topics.

As FBI moves in, Janus voted out as D’Iberville city manager ~ Mary Perez

Criminal investigation examining Jefferson Parish Housing Authority, sources say ~ Manuel Torres

Somethings tells me Slabbed will end up giving some of the Housing Authority types an “Alfortish Special”. 😉

Louisiana attorney general passes on sanctions against Orleans judges for suspect spending ~ John Simerman

Slabbed played a very small role in the above when Judge Calvin Johnson used these pages to get in a word on the subject. Meantime disgraced former NOLA pol Sherman Copeland is back in the news:

Bond set at $10,000 for former New Orleans state Rep. Sherman Copelin Jr. ~ Michele Hunter

Yes Virginia, these new age Coastie politicians are rotten to the core.

Gulf Live file photo of politician Michael Janus

If memory serves Michael Janus and our fluffer Congressman are lifelong associates:

Michael Janus, a man who Congressman Steven Palazzo described as a “close friend of my family for years” was formally named Palazzo’s chief of staff on Thursday.

The families that politic together thieve together as well:

‘Oversights’ disclosed in $3M BP grant ~ Mary Perez

“The six council members knew nothing of the agreement until after the grant was received,” said city attorney W. Fred Hornsby III. The council could have chosen not to pay Maxwell-Walker, he said, but agreed to give the firm the standard 6 percent finder’s fee of $180,000 for the grant.

The payment to Maxwell-Walker was not discussed in an open council meeting, only in executive session, Janus said.

Rather than putting a resolution for payment on the budget, it was added to the Dec. 20, 2011, docket of claims with the city’s other bills.

And then there are the obvious conflicts of interest. D’Iberville Mayor Quave works at DMR and is paying his former boss’ son. Janus, the City Manager is in business with Scott Walker via JaWa Investments LLC, a name I thought funny considering the jabberwalk BS involved in terming all this a mere “oversight”. Continue reading “Yes Virginia, these new age Coastie politicians are rotten to the core.”

Hark did someone mention Buddy Caldwell and the Oil Spill????

Yesterday Melenda Deslatte and Michael Kunzleman at the AP did in fact.

Gulf Oil Spill Case: Buddy Caldwell, Louisiana Attorney General, Has Already Spent Nearly $24 Million ~ AP via The Huffington Post

I’ll let all you newbies out there in on a little secret. Slabbed was one of a select group of local blogs everyone in the National Media read during the oil spill, often times ripping off our material without any attribution. My own perspective is it is hard to respect anyone in the media that does not have the common decency to attribute where they got their story leads which is why I have such little respect for the national media.

So what in the heck does this all have to do with Buddy Caldwell and the Huff Po?  Mainly because on the “Around the Web” widget at the bottom of the story that I linked above, Slabbed’s previous coverage of Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell is linked at the #2 slot right below Bloomberg.  I personally think we should be #1.  😉

Well tickle my ass with a feather……. :mrgreen:

Monday tease: Slabbed finally locates the MIA Jefferson Parish DA Paul Connick. Simple junior, the Buddy System in action (Updated)

Slabbed has obtained documents related to certain contracts let by State Attorney General Buddy Caldwell in various state litigation against big pharma. It strongly appears Caldwell is using Allan Kanner as a “buffer” to give state contracts to local luminaries such as DA Paul Connick and Dale Atkins in these suits. Documents at 10 below the jump. Continue reading “Monday tease: Slabbed finally locates the MIA Jefferson Parish DA Paul Connick. Simple junior, the Buddy System in action (Updated)”

The Buddy System: GlaxoSmithKline sues Buddy Caldwell

This suit derives from GlaxoSmithKline’s unsafe drug Avandia, which is now the subject of litigation across the country. Glaxo’s suit is going after the team of private lawyers Caldwell hired to pursue the case, all major political cronies of his.  Joe Gyan has all the skinny for the Advocate for today is evidently insurance litigation reunion day here on Slabbed as we welcome back Allan Kanner, who got his balls busted badly in Ex Rel Branch. (I think by Judy “Ball Buster” Barrasso if memory serves.)

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Judge Barbier’s fee ruling in the Oil Spill MDL attracting more media attention.

I’ll keep this short and sweet folks as time is scarce for me today but we’re getting some referrals from a Joe Nocera column in the New York Times today about Judge Barbier’s recent fee ruling in the Oil Spill MDL and that also allows me to link Becky Mowbray’s reporting for the Times Picayune on Buddy Caldwell’s appeal of Judge Barbier’s ruling, which we covered here in a post that has been very well received in the new media. For my part I’m still cataloguing various instances where lawyers sitting on the PSC that also represent other clients against BP outside the PSC are taking diametrically opposing positions on the fee arrangement in motions filed before Judge Barbier’s court. This in turn lends the whole affair a three ring circus like quality.

Nocera, as is his wont, takes the side of corporate america, namely BP, in his piece but misses the mark by leaving out the fact that BP is an active participant in the cesspool that is this litigation even hiring the plaintiff firm that bears the name of legendary trial lawyer Wendell Gauthier to hand out campaign cash to local “luminaries” such as Bobby Jindal and Mary Landrieu. Nocera is what he is folks and his column is otherwise very accurate, well sourced and this much is true, BP has opened its wallet to make amends.

Becky Mowbray OTOH wrote the column that needed writing as she lent some much needed context to the political environment that got us here. Becky points out that Buddy Caldwell went to the legislature to obtain contingent fee authority from the legislature to pay the state’s contract lawyers in the MDL and was denied by same. She also honed in on the fact that the lawyer representing Team Jindal, Burton LeBlanc’s law firm, Baron & Budd sits on the PSC meaning Team Jindal has potentially interest conflicted council. The report had everything but Caldwell’s appeal itself, which a reader was kind enough to share so everyone could read the entire 56 page document for themselves.

I’ll have more on this down the line as the legal conflicts of interest are open, brazen and have amazingly been allowed to this point by Judge Barbier.

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Leon Cannizzaro: Yep I did it too but the rest of ’em need prosecution

All I can tell you folks is the backstabbing involved with NOLA DA Leon Cannizzaro and the NOLA Criminal District Court judges is stunning as John Simerman reports today for the T-P.  I’ve been hearing rumors about discord in both the NOLA civil and criminal district courts for well over a year and that does not count the expense funds both courts maintain that are alleged to be slush funds. Worth noting is DA Cannizzaro evidently admitted that he also partook of the forbidden fruit during his time as a criminal district court judge but that is also water long under the bridge.  Judge Frank Marullo is shit outta luck though.

This animal has lots of heads and there has been some high quality work done on various subtopics such as the computer crash at Mortgages and Conveyances by folks like Dambala at American Zombie via Humid Beings.  For my part I think Slabbed will be a net beneficiary of the strife and discord as Louisiana Attorney General Buddy ‘Tickle my ass with a feather” Caldwell enters the fray. Stay tuned folks.

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So what if BP is using Magnum to buy all the major politicians like Bobby Jindal and Mary Landrieu?

Just in case anyone was wondering how a relatively few individuals on Wall Street could almost single-handedly bankrupt the country and not a single person went to jail for any of the massive financial frauds that have come to light (we bailed them out instead) wonder no more as the good folks over at Zero Hedge compare and contrast campaign finance reports of Harry Reid with John Boehner pointing out both men are owned by corporate interests lock stock and barrel.

Now before the oil spill the politicians that were owned by big oil locally could be pretty open about that fact as Mary Landrieu’s career campaign finance reports indicate. I strongly suspect sight unseen Bobby Jindal got a bunch of oil and gas ca$h too as he got lots as a congressman.  After the spill it just wouldn’t look so good for any politician that was excoriating BP to take campaign ca$h from them but it seems as if there is always willing middle man to spread the wealth and into our narrative enter Magnum JD, his partner and their nonrefundable $1.115 million dollar contract with BP to provide advice on how to deal with state officials. Let’s follow the money and take a looksie at a partial list of the fundraisers ol’ Mags held around that time period:

In this episode of Magnum J.D. the conclusion to our two hour special: Pimpin’ ain’t easy so let’s hop aboard the ho’ train.

BP dropped its wallet in the wrong neighborhood. ~ Member of the national media recounting his favorite BP quote heard during the oil spill.

As one of the world’s leading companies, we have a responsibility to set high standards: to be, and be seen to be, a business which is committed to integrity. In a complex global business environment like ours, that’s not always easy. Our code of conduct is designed to help us achieve this.

Our code of conduct is the cornerstone of our commitment to integrity. As Bob Dudley, our group chief executive, affirmed: “Our reputation, and therefore our future as a business, depends on each of us, everywhere, every day, taking personal responsibility for the conduct of BP’s business”. The BP code of conduct is an essential tool to help our people meet this aspiration. The code summarizes our standards for the way we behave. All our employees must follow the code of conduct. It clearly defines what we expect of our business and our people, regardless of location and background. Ultimately it is about helping BP people to do the right thing.

And we have this from Magnum’s contract with BP:

BP Legal expects that the Firm will adhere to BP’s Code of Conduct when providing services to BP

But it actually gets better than that as we have this from Magnum’s contract with BP. Continue reading “In this episode of Magnum J.D. the conclusion to our two hour special: Pimpin’ ain’t easy so let’s hop aboard the ho’ train.”