Thursday, February 03, 2011

A Hybrid?

More like a chimera.  From the NYT:

Fund Official Not Neutral, Judge Rules

This post is like one of those sitcom episodes where they flashback to old memories so they don't have to shoot a new episode.  Let's flash back:

American Zombie: Love is in the Air

and then this:

American Zombie: Feinberg has contracts with other Big Oil Companies?

And in case you haven't been paying attention to the counter spin in camp BP/Feinberg...look at this headline...and keep in mind that most people just read headlines, not stories:

Gulf Oil Spill Fund Fraudulent Claims Top 7,000

Ok...over 7000...then when you actually read the story:

Attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who is overseeing the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, said of more than 481,000 claims filed, 7,575 are considered potentially fraudulent. The Justice Department has already indicted eight claimants.

Eight out of 7,575 have been prosecuted....and the headline suggests over 7,000 claims ARE fraudulent....not suspected to be...it says over 7,000 ARE fucking fraudulent.  And what constitutes the "potential fraud"?  Inadequate paperwork, perhaps?

He called the program a success that has already paid out more than $3.3 billion to about 168,000 claimants. He said roughly half of all claims have been denied because of ineligibility or lack of documentation.

You see what's going on here?  Please tell me you do.  This whole thing is a Vaudeville side show and MSM critics bought and paid for by BP wrote the glowing reviews before the fucking curtain was even raised.

BP knew going into this that a large portion of these fisherman couldn't produce an accurate tax return which came close to representing their normal income.  These are people who live off the land (or ocean if you will)....they are what's left of the American frontier...the American dream.  Many of them couldn't even read a tax return, but they can fish and provide for themselves and their families....or rather they used to.  They do not fit in to "the machine" and therefore they are simply in the way.  It would seem the MSM, even local outlets, are more than willing to bow to their corporate masters and marginalize these good people into oblivion along with the health of the entire Gulf Coast ecosystem.  It sickens me...it enrages me.  

One last flashback...Taibbi:

American Zombie: Yup

I have a friend from my small town in Kentucky who got her masters degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.  Mizzou is considered to be one of the best journalism schools in the country.  She told me on her first day of class one of her professors walked in the room and asked the class for a show of hands, "How many of you are here to become investigative journalists?"  She said less than half the students raised their hands.  The professor then said, "What the fuck are the rest of you here for?"

It's a good question.

Hey, there's always the AP.
        

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is easy to see what you are on about. No worries.

Kevin said...

Both stories are from the AP, written by the same people, one week apart.

The lying headline was written by one of Arianna Huffington's editorial winged monkeys who probably didn't read past the first graf of the story, and still got it wrong.

bruthas_back said...

i never thought i would see the day that i would agree with rep. scalise. but he was totally on point when he asked feinberg to show how he determined eligibility, what industries were paid, and the formula he used to deny claims. i know for a fact that people who work at the same place and do the same job were denied claims that their other co-workers were paid. which i think is what scalise was trying to get at.

Superdeformed said...

"BP knew going into this that a large portion of these fisherman couldn't produce an accurate tax return which came close to representing their normal income. These are people who live off the land (or ocean if you will)....they are what's left of the American frontier...the American dream. Many of them couldn't even read a tax return, but they can fish and provide for themselves and their families....or rather they used to. They do not fit in to "the machine" and therefore they are simply in the way."


The fishermen not paying taxes should not affect their compensation. But, I don't think it's right they get out of paying income taxes either.