Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2010 6:34 PM
The Boss
By tom karlson
Submitted to portside by the author
Ends at eighty
Silver spoon found near his moving jaws
Filled with white teeth and fleeing grey words
1952 Air Force, Ohio bound, no Korea for him
The Boss sending orders
Hiring, firing
Secretaries, managers, coaches
Church going family man
Running his old man's business
Buys the Yankees 1973 8.8 million
Stadium renovation, complete 1976
Strapped city shells out
200 million
Yankees, rent less with sweetheart lease
City, landlord from heaven
Extorting dough for Tricky Dick
Obstructing justice…1974 felony
Suspended from baseball 2 years
Pardoned by Ronnie 1989
Desires Macomb's Dam Park for three decades
Play land, one thousand working class ghosts
Running, racing, catching fongoes, footballs, kicking soccer
balls
Second felony
Trying to renege on a contract
Banned for life from baseball, 1990
Sanitized and reinstated 1993
Blackmails city threatens abandonment
Will run the Yanks to Jersey, Connecticut, the West Side
The braying mayor springs for another stadium
Rises up on Macomb's 28 acres, 2.3 billion
Tickets $25 to $5000
The people's team
tom
***
http://www.truth-out.org/bps-scheme-swindle-small-people61509
BP's Scheme to Swindle the "Small People"
By Dahr Jamail
Truthout: July 19, 2010
Gulf Coast fishermen and others with lost income claims against BP are
outraged by a recent announcement that the $20 billion
government-administered claim fund will subtract money they earn by working
on the cleanup effort from any future damage claims against BP. This move,
according to lawyers in Louisiana working on behalf of Louisiana fishermen
and others affected by the BP oil disaster, contradicts an earlier BP
statement in which the company promised it would do no such thing.
Kenneth Feinberg, who was appointed by President Obama as the independent
administrator of the Gulf Claims Facility for the $20 billion BP Deepwater
Horizon oil disaster compensation fund, said yesterday that the wages earned
by people working on BP's cleanup will be deducted from their claims against
the company.
He said the fund is designed to compensate fishermen and others for their
lost income, and if BP is already paying someone to help skim oil and
perform other cleanup work, those wages will be subtracted from the amount
they're eligible to claim from the fund.
Attorney Stephen Herman, one of two interim liaison counsel for cases
pending in the eastern district of Louisiana before Judge Carl J. Barbier,
told Truthout he has spoken with Feinberg and that this recent announcement
contradicts an earlier statement made by BP, in which the company clearly
said it would not do this.
A letter dated May 2, 2010, from Herman's firm, Herman, Herman, Katz &
Cotlar LLP, in New Orleans, sent to Murray Greene in BP's Legal Department,
asked Greene to confirm in writing that BP agreed to destroy voluntary
waiver and release forms issued to response workers at a meeting in Venice,
Louisiana, and stated:
"Lastly, we inquired as to BP's position with respect to any future claim of
credit or set-off due to payments made to individuals who are assisting BP
in mitigating its exposure to individuals and others for the unprecedented
environmental and human losses as a result of this incident. It is our
position that since my clients are effectively helping BP minimize its own
future exposure as well as attempting to preserve the wetlands and the
environment that BP ought not to seek any offset or reduction of claims as a
result of any payments made to these individuals who courageously take on
the dirty work of cleaning up BP's mess."
The next day, May 3, A.T. Chenault, a lawyer representing BP, responded in
writing via letter stating, "We have no personal knowledge of the
presentation of a Voluntary Waiver and Release to numerous people from
Plaquemines Parish in Venice, Louisiana. However, it is the position of BP
that any such documents will be rescinded and not binding on anyone signing
same."
Chenault's letter concluded with a statement that directly contradicts
Feinberg's recent announcement.
"Lastly, we confirm that BP will not offset payments to vessel owners or
other volunteers against claims they might have," wrote Cheault, who is with
the firm Fowler, Rodriguez, Valdes-Fauli.
Today, during a speech at the Economics Club in Washington, Feinberg
appeared to be attempting to dissuade claimants from filing lawsuits against
BP.
"You're crazy to do so, though," Feiberg said. "Because under this program,
you will receive, if you're eligible, compensation without having to go to
court for years, without the uncertainty of going to court, since I'll be
much more generous than any court will be. And at the same time, you won't
need to pay lawyers and costs."
The move is being seen by many as an attempt by Feinberg to sell the
compensation fund to victims, so as to prevent more lawsuits against BP.
Herman told Truthout that he believes Feinberg has said things that "are not
consistent," and that Feinberg "may not have been familiar" with the
aforementioned agreement by BP to "not offset payments to vessel owners or
other volunteers against claims they might have."
Herman, who has already met with Feinberg on several occasions, said he
expects to meet up with Feinberg's law partner, Michael Rozen, "very soon."
Attorney Robert Wiygul in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, represents many
fishermen involved in BP's oil response program, and told Truthout he "finds
it very troubling" that BP and Feingold appear to be trying to position
themselves to avoid future compensation claims from fishermen, as opposed to
handling it on a year-to-year basis.
Clint Guidry is a Louisiana fisherman, and is on the board of directors of
the Louisiana Shrimp Association. He is also the shrimp harvester
representative on the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force created by executive order
of Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Guidry told Truthout that he believes Feinberg is "trying to limit BP's
liability," adding that "every time Feinberg announces something he changes
what he said before."
According to Guidry, Feinberg first proposed a partial claim settlement that
would provide settlement checks for up to three years. This would have
allowed fishermen to determine if there were "holes in the ecosystem."
If the oil disaster kills off enough shrimp, for example, there would be no
shrimping season next year, and no way for shrimpers to earn a living.
"But now his new plan is to do away with that by having folks take a
settlement," Guidry added. "There's not much of his program I like. It
appears he is protecting BP."
On May 24, in Galliano, Louisiana, Guidry testified to a delegation of US
senators, congressmen and various Obama administration departments and
agencies. He said:
"BP committed fraud in furnishing oil-spill-response data required to obtain
a permit to enable them to drill the MC 252 location. The reality is they
were not prepared to handle or control a blowout and resulting oil spill of
this magnitude. Simply put, they lied.
"BP, in their haste to cut corners and save money in the completion process
on the well location at MC 252, exhibited willful neglect in their duties to
complete the well safely, which led to the blowout and explosion that killed
11 people. Eleven souls that will never come back. Eleven families with
mothers and fathers and wives and children. Children who will never see
their fathers again.
"This neglect and loss of life constitutes negligent homicide and all
involved should be arrested and charged as such."
Guidry told Truthout he believes, "There has been a BP cover-up from day
one," and "the US government, OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health
Administration], the Coast Guard, NIOSH [National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health], all of them are in on it."
Guidry is very concerned about the health of the fishermen he represents, of
which there are approximately 600, who are working on the oil response for
BP.
"These people are putting their health at risk by working for them, and now
look at how they are being treated," Gui
This morning, Herman sent this letter to Rozen and Feinberg:
"Dear Mr. Rozen and Mr. Feinberg,
"It was reported in the local media last night that BP (presumably thru the
Claims Facility) was going to take a credit or offset for payments to
fishermen and others engaged in the Vessels of Opportunity and/or other
clean-up/remediation efforts against what is owed to them for lost profits
and/or diminished earning capacity.
"Please note that BP very early on agreed not to do this. (See Letter from
BP Counsel A.T. Chenault to my partner Jim Klick dated May 3, 2010.)"
Herman also provided Truthout with an email he sent to persons concerned
with BP's and Feinberg's recent moves, in which he expressed concern with
the procedures of the Claims Facility. While Herman stated that Feinberg and
Rozen "have attempted to answer some of these questions, (with perhaps some
inconsistency), no one -- it seems -- has ever seen a document signed off on
by BP."
Herman asked, "What, specifically, has BP committed to do? What,
specifically, has BP given Mr. Feinberg (as an "independent" agent or
administrator) the authority to agree to on behalf of BP? The attached
letter was sent to BP's local counsel here in New Orleans on July 3rd. We
have still not received a formal response, and, to my knowledge, no one
(including Mr. Feinberg) has seen a formal written document (other than a
White House Press Release) that purports to be authored by, signed by,
agreed to or otherwise binding on BP. So, it would seem to be time to start
asking BP (and/or the administration) : Where is BP? Or, perhaps stated
another way: Where's the beef?"
On June 1, BP Board Chairman Henric Svanberg stated, "[President Obama] is
frustrated because he cares about the small people, and we care about the
small people. I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy
companies or don't care, but that is not the case in BP. We care about the
small people."
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