Judge Martin Feldman Receives Death Threats After Banning Drilling Moratorium

In a move that a New Orleans publication is calling "bold," - presumably for standing up to Eric Holder, the Judge who overturned Obama's moratorium on Gulf drilling, is receiving death threats. Judge Martin Feldman is now accompanied by a federal marshal security team.

Judge Martin Feldman

After Feldman's initial decision came down, the government asked for a "stay" of the decision until they can get their case through the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Feldman refused the "stay."

The Judge noted that just because the BP well was beset with problems and resulted in a massive oil spill, there is no reason to believe other wells would have similar problems. "If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are? Are all airplanes a danger because one was? All oil tankers like Exxon Valdez? All trains? All mines? That sort of thinking seems heavy-handed, and rather overbearing,” Feldman wrote.

While the Judge said  there was no "rational connection between the facts found and the choice made," distractors questioned Feldman's integrity. At one time he held stock in Transocean and Halliburton. According to Bayoubuzz News, he owned those stocks in 2008 and sold them long before issuing the ruling.

The 5th District Court uses a sophisticated computer system to check whether judges have a conflict of interest in any legal proceeding. This system automatically determines whether a judge needs to be recused from a particular case. In this lawsuit, Feldman was allowed to take the case because he did not own any stock related to the parties involved.

To the dismay of coastal residents, overwhelmed with the BP oil spill, Obama's moratorium on drilling has further threatened any chance of a livelihood in the area:

I think he's lost his mind. If they shut down the oil fields, I might as well shut down," said Joan Strohmeyer, who owns a hotel in Venice, Louisiana.

Before the moratorium, Obama instructed Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to convene a panel of experts to determine what needed to be done now to further protect the Gulf area. After the panel signed off on the final report, Salazar and Obama changed the report, indicating the panel agreed with to a moratorium. In fact, they did just the opposite and a Berkley professor (yes, Berkley!) called Salazar on it, who then admitted he AND Obama changed the report to suit their preference for a moratorium:

If anyone should be questioned, it is the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar who disregarded the advice of his own scientific experts in declaring the deep water drilling moratorium. In the wake of the Judge’s ruling, Salazar said he would issue a “refined” moratorium, ask for a stay of the ruling and appeal the decision. Some legal experts predicted the preliminary injunction would lead the government to compromise on the moratorium. In fact, Salazar decided to be confrontational instead of working with business interests in Louisiana to find common ground.

The lawsuit was brought against the U.S. Department of the Interior by "more than a dozen companies involved in offshore drilling operations.

Linked by Conservative Hideout - Thanks Matt!

Brazil Soros Eye Idle Gulf Deep Water Drilling Rigs: Drilling Moratorium Unintended Consequences?

The appalling news that Interior Secretary AND Barack Obama, changed a peer-reviewed document to suggest ways of improving deep water drilling this week, now makes sense. The Obama moratorium, against the advice of his panel of experts, will have unintended consequences...or, are the consequences intended? Is Obama clearing a path for deep water drilling rigs to move to Brazil - another perk for the Democrat's biggest donor, George Soros, after already giving him a $2 billion loan guarantee for the Soros investment in Brazilian Petrobras?

George Soros

The question now is, did Obama declare a moratorium, against the advise of his expert panel, to clear a path for deep water drilling rigs to move to Brazil - another perk for George Soros, after already giving him a $2 billion loan guarantee for the Soros investment in Brazilian Petrobras?

As I noted in my post about Salazar's willful deception, which he says Barack Obama participated in, the biggest news is the possibility of the drilling rigs being moved elsewhere around the globe, and rendering them unavailable to the U.S. for years. When the panel of experts signed off on Salazar's suggestions, the report did not advocate a moratorium. In fact, the experts were implicitly against a moratorium, for various reasons, but chief among them was losing our rigs.

It appears Brazil is eyeing our idle rigs.

Larwyn remembered that last summer, Obama gave George Soros a $2 billion loan guarantee to finance Brazil's Petrobras drilling, while Obama opposed any expansion of drilling off American shores. Most of us were outraged, but there is so much we are enraged about, we didn't put the pieces together. Larwyn did.

From Doug Ross:

Reuters reports ("Brazil sees silver lining in BP spill: more rigs") that the shuttered deep-water oil rigs will soon move to areas off the Brazilian coast.

Brazil could benefit from the BP Gulf of Mexico spill as a U.S. moratorium on offshore drilling boosts available rigs for the country's deep water oil exploration program.

Even as an ecological catastrophe makes the future of U.S. offshore drilling less certain, Brazil is plowing ahead with a $220 billion five-year plan to tap oil fields even deeper than BP's (BP.L) ill-fated Gulf well, which is still leaking crude.

With an estimated 35 rigs idled in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil is already receiving inquiries from companies looking to move their rigs here, where vast discoveries in recent years may soon turn the country into a major crude exporter.

... "Since operators are shutting down at least temporarily in the U.S. Gulf, some companies are planning to move their rigs to Brazil now," he said, without offering details.

...Brazilian officials, including government leaders and Petrobras executives, have said Brazil has no intention of slowing its offshore development as a result of the spill.

Regarding the impact of the moratorium, experts have described several certain outcomes:

• "Tens of thousands will lose their jobs"

• U.S. oil production could fall by 160,000 barrels of oil per day in 2011

• The marginal cost of offshore drilling will increase by 10% due to new regulations

From GatewayPundit:

But, not everyone will suffer.

Oil companies are planning on moving their rigs from the Gulf of Mexico to South America off the coast of Brazil where the government is more friendly to energy corporations.

Reuters reported, via Free Republic:

Brazil could benefit from the BP Gulf of Mexico spill as a U.S. moratorium on offshore drilling boosts available rigs for the country’s deep water oil exploration program. 

Even as an ecological catastrophe makes the future of U.S. offshore drilling less certain, Brazil is plowing ahead with a $220 billion five-year plan to tap oil fields even deeper than BP’s (BP.L) ill-fated Gulf well, which is still leaking crude. 

With an estimated 35 rigs idled in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil is already receiving inquiries from companies looking to move their rigs here, where vast discoveries in recent years may soon turn the country into a major crude exporter. 

“What is bad for some may be good for others,” said Fernando Martins, Latin America Vice President for GE Oil and Gas, which provides services to drillers in Brazil.

“Since operators are shutting down at least temporarily in the U.S. Gulf, some companies are planning to move their rigs to Brazil now,” he said, without offering details.

The Lonely Conservative has an informative article about Obama investing the U.S. in Brazil and Soros, dated August 2009.

Ken Salazar Cheats Drilling Report: Drilling Moratorium May Prevent US to Drill for Years

Obama's Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, changed a critical report on the safety of drilling for oil in deep water environs. He cheated. A panel of experts "peer reviewed" Salazar's report and signed-off at the 'final' review. That final review report did not recommend a drilling moratorium. Never mind, Ken Salazar just changed it to suit his and Obama's ideological viewpoint (Obama was in on it) - which is to call for a moratorium on existing and new drilling permits. Most surprising, however, is the information that if a moratorium happens, the floating rigs will be moved to other places around the world and may not be available to the U.S. "for years." That's not all, the moratorium may be worse for the economy than the moratorium itself.

Ken Salazar Makes Cowboys Look Bad - Salazar Cheats

The 'experts' did not call for a moratorium, they actually opposed it:

The experts, recommended by the National Academy of Engineering, say Interior Secretary Ken Salazar modified their report last month, after they signed it, to include two paragraphs calling for the moratorium on existing drilling and new permits.

 "None of us actually reviewed the memorandum as it is in the report," oil expert Ken Arnold told Fox News. "What was in the report at the time it was reviewed was quite a bit different in its impact to what there is now. So we wanted to distance ourselves from that recommendation." 

Salazar apologized to those experts Thursday.

They also said that because the floating rigs are scarce and in high demand worldwide, they will not simply sit in the Gulf idle for six months. The rigs will go to the North Sea and West Africa, possibly preventing the U.S. from being able to resume drilling for years. 

Salazar implicates Obama, saying "It was my decision and the president's decision to move forward." In the cunning language of this administration, "move forward" means doing something completely against the will of the people.

In the wake of the oil spill, President Obama asked Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to produce a report on new drilling safety recommendations. Then on May 27 Mr. Obama announced a six-month deep water drilling ban, justifying it on the basis of Mr. Salazar's report, a top recommendation of which was the moratorium. To lend an air of technical authority, the report noted: "The recommendations contained in this report have been peer-reviewed by seven experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering."

 The seven experts doing the "peer review" said this:

"The Secretary should be free to recommend whatever he thinks is correct, but he should not be free to use our names to justify his political decisions," wrote the seven in a letter to Gulf Coast politicians.

The seven noted that they broadly agreed with the report and had even signed off on a proposal to suspend new deep water permits for six months. They also agreed to a "temporary pause" in drilling to perform additional testing on the Gulf's 33 deep water wells that have already received permits to drill.

But as for a "blanket moratorium," the seven said it "is not the answer. It will not measurably reduce risk further and it will have a lasting impact on the nation's economy which may be greater than that of the oil spill." If anything, the ban could prove "counterproductive to long term safety."  In a letter, the "seven experts" encouraged Salazar to "overcome emotion with logic." We have a clown troupe in the White House.

Laura Ingraham Bill O'Reilly: Ingraham talks of Spin and Shows the KoolAid on Factor Set Video

Laura Ingraham argues with O'Reilly that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is over FEMA, and Big Sis needs to go. See the video below.

Laura Ingraham

She points out that we don't need the top musicians at the White House (Paul McCartney). We need the top engineers from all over the country. Laura has the cojones to tell Bill "this is the spin zone," and it wasn't a slip of the tongue. Then she held up the Kool-Aid. It ends with Laura saying: "I'll give you a Salazar and I'll raise you a Napolitano and a Holder."

O'Reilly was stunned, and tried to cover. He told Laura he saw the Kool-Aid delivered to her house. Lame. Really lame. Really embarrassing for Bill, because Ingraham is saying what many of us are saying about Bill O'Reilly's Factor. Thanks to The Right Scoop.



Laura Ingraham and Bill O'Reilly on Spin and Kool-Aid (video)

Ken Salazar threatens to Nationalize BP Oil Spill

What is that Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar can do to clean up the BP oil spill? And if there is anything in his power to do, why hasn't he done it already?

BP Oil Sppill

"The government" gave BP "deadlines," and BP failed to meet them.

If we find that they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing, we'll push them out of the way," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters.

A clown troupe is running the country.

Linked by Larwyn's Linx and Doug Ross

DrillGate: Public Wants Drilling by 2-1 Ratio: Obama Admin Hides Deceives Manipulates Delays

Newt Gingrich's American Solutions has revealed our newest disgrace - DrillGate. Through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) we learn that the public is favorable to offshore drilling, as laid out by the Bush administration, by a 2-1 ratio. This has put the Obama administration in the awkward position (or maybe it's business as usual) of hiding, deceiving and manipulating analysis of comments from American citizens. Now, a new comment period has been announced - 45 days of additional delay.

Here's the story. Months passed. Months after the public commenting period ended in September 2009, nothing was forthcoming from Salazar or the White House. Through the FOIA, American Solutions found 530,000 comments submitted showing overwhelming support for GW Bush's five-year plan, which was on Obama's desk when he moved into the Oval Office. The federally-mandated commenting period was already underway at that time,  Flashback: "Drill baby! Drill!"

When Obama ascended to the Oval Office, the commenting period was extended to September 2009. An unnecessary delay, according to many. Perhaps the plan was to get ACORN online, filling out comments. Whatever...it didn't work.

Vince Haley at BigGovernment describes an email obtained through the FOIA showing the dishonest attempt to manage the public's very positive opinion of offshore drilling, by an administration not nearly as positive toward drilling as they wanted us to believe. This also  gave Salazar a way to avoid publicly acknowledging the public's clear support for drilling.  In fact, a spokeswoman for Liz Birnbaum said the agency had not completed "analyzing" the comments, although she acknowledge the results were favorable by a 2-1 ration. Translation: the agency had not completed manipulation of the data.

In an email dated October 27, 2009, Liz Birnbaum, director of the Minerals Management Service, informs other Interior officials that a preliminary tabulation of the results of the comment period had not yet gone to Secretary Salazar, adding “[s]o the Secretary can honestly say in response to any questions that he’s [SIC] has not yet seen the analysis of the comments – staff is still working on it. I did, however, confirm to him the 2-1 split that these guys [at American Solutions] are emphasizing.”

But this administration is never without "the next move." In January 2010, Salazar announced another 45-day comment period on a "study of how drilling would affect the ocean floor" off the Atlantic coastline. It is not clear who the commenters will be. You and I probably know little about the ocean floor, but to say experts in the field of oceanography know little, is unbelievable to me. But wait, this article says the 45-days are, indeed, for the public "to weigh in on "seismic exploration" in their area. What was the 2009 comment period for? Another orchestrated ACORN opportunity.

We don't see this as a bad thing," said Nicolette Nye, spokeswoman for the National Ocean Industries Association, which promotes offshore drilling. "We're pleased the new administration is continuing with the … process."

Energy companies are lined up to begin seismic research in the Atlantic coastline, to indicate the possibility of oil and gas under the ocean's floor, but the rumblings of dangers to marine life are already ramping up.

The Bush plan, which had the support of 68% of Americans, would have allowed drilling on up to 300 million acres off US coastlines and would have taken effect in mid-2010. Salazar is quoted as saying it "was a headlong rush of the worst kind." There is no doubt that while Birnbaum protected Salazar from the full data in writing, he knew and he enabled the stall full disclosure, promised by the President.

Vince Haley points out the "extraordinary benefits" of jobs that could be created, "without federal spending," at a time when our Nation is facing the highest unemployment in decades, with no bright outlook for changing the situation, and with another dishonest stimulus, verified by the previous stimulus failure, to create jobs.

The Freedom of Information Act protects citizens from their government's secrets, but when the government fails to disclose, and forces the public to file an FOI request, those responsible should be held accountable. The people should never have to d-r-a-g public data from elected officials.