Republican Dirty Tricks

The Republican Party exists solely to do the bidding of transnational corporations who seek to ride working people to the bank unfettered by the pesky government.  Their Republican (and Democrat in Name Only) operatives in the Halls of Power work to make that possible – and ingratiate their own coffers as well.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman is a case in point.  Feldman is the judge responsible for overturning the Obama Administration’s 6-month moratorium on off-shore drilling in the wake of BP’s greed-sponsored destruction of our Gulf Coast… but surprise, surprise!  Judge Feldman owns stock in numerous companies involved in the offshore oil industry—including Transocean, which leased the (now-exploded) Deapwater Horizon drilling rig to BP.

Yahoo Newsroom reported, “According to Feldman’s 2008 financial disclosure form, posted online by Judicial Watch [pdf], the judge owned stock in Transocean, as well as five other companies that are either directly or indirectly involved in the offshore drilling business.”

As FDR said, they “consider the government of the United States a mere appendage to their own affairs!”

We can certainly expect more favorable rulings that will keep the oil-industry’s choke hold around the neck of America since an AP investigation discovered  that more than half the federal judges in the districts affected by the BP disaster have financial stakes in the oil and gas industry.  Money trumps all in a government that exists to ensure the wealthy get wealthier without restraint while suggesting the rest of us “pray.”

UPDATE:  (Friday June 25)  It came out today that the judge owns shares in a company with a rig that was DIRECTLY impacted by the drilling moratorium with hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake – and thus would have negatively impacted Judge Feldman’s investment – every day the ban ensued.  Read more about that here. My father always used to say, “we can only expect a grunt from a pig.”  Especially a corporatist pig.