'Obama's Katrina': an Illustrated Timeline

Directorblueblogspot ^ | May 01, 2010 | Doug Ross

[Matchett-PI]

My post is here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2667719/posts?page=26#26

Judge Holds Interior Dept. in Contempt Over Ban
Judge in La. holds Interior Department in contempt over offshore oil drilling moratorium

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12827405
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS February 2, 2011 (AP)
The federal judge who struck down the Obama administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling after the Gulf oil spill held the Interior Department in contempt Wednesday, and ordered the federal agency to pay attorneys’ fees for several offshore oil companies.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman chided the department for its “dismissive conduct” after he overturned the agency’s decision to halt any new permits for deepwater projects and suspend drilling on 33 exploratory wells after the Deepwater Horizon blast, which killed 11 workers and triggered the massive spill.

After Feldman overturned the government’s moratorium in June, the agency issued a second nearly identical suspension.

“Such dismissive conduct, viewed in tandem with the reimposition of a second blanket and substantively identical moratorium and in light of the national importance of this case, provide this court with clear and convincing evidence of the government’s contempt of this court’s preliminary injunction order,” he wrote.

A magistrate will consider how much the companies’ attorneys should get.

An Interior Department spokeswoman wouldn’t comment. A lawyer for the companies hailed the ruling.

“We’re obviously delighted with the court’s recognition of the government’s manipulation of the judicial review process,” said Carl Rosenblum, an attorney for Hornbeck Offshore Services and other companies that sued over the first moratorium.

Rosenblum said the companies haven’t asked for a specific amount and aren’t trying to profit.

“The end game has always been to put people back to work,” he said.

Feldman also is presiding over a separate case challenging the Interior Department’s second drilling moratorium. That suspension was lifted in October, but the agency was sued by other offshore oil companies that want the permitting process to be quickened.

Last month, however, Feldman refused to order the government to move faster. The judge said it’s unclear whether the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management must approve or reject drilling permit applications within a specific time.

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JUST WONDERED THE OTHER DAY: Whatever happened to the $20B Obama and friends extorted from BP............. described as the largest campaign contribution the Dems ever got?

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APPOINTED BY OBAMA TO DOLE OUT BP’S $20 BILLION Pay Czar Ken Fineberg is a plus-perfect example of Ohaha’s foxes guarding the hen house. This guy Fineberg kept blabbering about “trying to decide” what to do with the $20B.....and did not ever provide exact details about who gets money and who doesn’t. Feinberg kept saying he was trying to “bend over backward to help eligible claimants.” The key word: “eligible.” Feinberg kept saying he’d come up with “an expansive” definition in the weeks ahead.

But when he appeared before the House Committee on Small Business, Feinberg said he would use “Florida law’’ as one measure of eligibility. Feinberg noted “some discretion’s going to have to be exercised.”

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QUESTION So, How did the Ohahas arrive at $20 billion without the benefit of a full investigation of the causes and without a final solution for the problem? How come the $20B agreement between Ohaha and BP was not published?

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WH Meeting with BP executives in the Roosevelt Room; taken and released June 16, 2010.
(L-R): BP CEO Tony Hayward, BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP General Counsel Rupert Bondy, BP Managing Director Robert Dudley, Senior Obama Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Labor Secy Hilda Solis, Attorney General Eric Holder, Biden, Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Rahm Emanuel also attended.

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The buzz is Joe Biden was tapped as the point man——and reportedly told BP-—”you give us $20B or we’ll take it from you.” Biden is the person to watch like a hawk w/ $20B floating around.

Keep in mind Ohaha put Biden in charge of the $2 trillion stimulus pkg (and that millions in stimulus are being hidden in the states for endangered Dems——unused portions then wire-transferred offshore to numbered accounts?) Read on.

Offshore fraudster had links to fund run by relatives of Biden
Reuters on Yahoo.com | 2/23/09 | BY Ajay Kamalakaran
EXCERPT -— A fund of hedge funds run by two members of VP Joe Biden’s family was marketed exclusively by firms controlled by Texas financier Allen Stanford, charged by regulators with an $8 billion fraud, the Wall Street Journal said.

The $50 million fund was jointly branded between the Bidens’ Paradigm Global Advisors LLC and a Stanford Financial Group entity, and was known as the Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund, the paper said.

Stanford-related companies marketed the fund to investors and also invested about $2.7 million of their own money in the fund, the paper said, citing a lawyer for Paradigm.

Paradigm Global Advisors is owned through a holding company by the vice president’s son, Hunter, and Joe Biden’s brother, James, according to the paper. Paradigm’s attorney, Marc LoPresti, who represents Hunter Biden and James Biden, as well as Paradigm, told the paper he did not know which Stanford entity invested the roughly $2.7 million. He told the paper the Bidens never met or communicated with Stanford.

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“Luckily” mayoral candidate Rahm, and dwindling Dems, have the $20 billion “campaign donation” that Ohaha, Rahm, and Biden extorted from BP. 3

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Federal judge: Feinberg not independent of BP (0bama’s oil czar)
Sun Herald ^ | Feb 2, 2011 | By HARRY R. WEBER and BRIAN SKOLOFF
http://www.sunherald.com/2011/02/02/2830251/federal-judge-feinberg-not-independent.html
Posted on Thursday, February 03, 2011 4:09:32 AM by Islander7

NEW ORLEANS — The embattled administrator of the $20 billion compensation fund for Gulf oil-spill victims is not independent from BP and must stop telling potential claimants he is, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, just hours after the fund czar released details on how final payments would be determined.

(Excerpt) Read more at sunherald.com ...

Lead attorneys in hundreds of lawsuits filed over last year’s rig explosion and massive oil spill had asked Barbier to intervene in the communications between Feinberg and fund claimants. The attorneys general in Mississippi and Louisiana have expressed support for the motion, and Florida joined in Wednesday. Among other things, they expressed concern with the requirement that people who accept final payments from the fund sign a form giving up their right to sue any party deemed responsible for the disaster. The lawyers have argued those claimants should still be able to sue BP for punitive damages and other companies for compensatory and punitive damages. 1

bttt

[Matchett-PI]

Thanks for the post! bttt