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As is the case in almost every disaster, some people are trying to take advantage of the misfortune of others.
NBC station WJHG of Panama City, Fla., reports widespread complaints that recreational fishermen are trying to get into BP's Vessels of Opportunity program ahead of out-of-work commercial fishermen with legitimate claims.
Florida officials report a surge of people applying for new saltwater fishing licenses, which BP requires for anyone entering into the program that pays captains to help make up for the business they've loss because of the spill.
"These are attorneys, doctors who have their boats in the program" illegitimately, says Bob Zales, president of the National Association of Charterboat Operators.
Henry Cabbage, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, confirms that if someone applying for the program doesn't make most of his or her money from commercial fishing, "they aren't eligible."
He says BP is working to make sure those who aren't eligible are weeded out.
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Gee, what a surprise. Now you know why BP is trying to be so careful about claims. There are a lot of thieves out there who will try and take advantage. So get of BP's back about slow pace of claim payouts.
This is your justification for BP paying pennies on the dollar to its victims? IDIOT!
There must be some confusion between an insurance coverage reimbursement and a State Lottery. How much will those vessels sell for at auction? The behavior is fraudulent. Yo-Ho-Yo-Ho a Pirates life for free.
The reality is BP has done pretty good on their payments. Nowhere near pennies on the dollar and some are actually making more than if they hadn't been impacted by the spill. You're the idiot...
The more you read about people in general and how far they will go to line their pockets confirms the belief that we have a society that is rotten to the core!!-----and you expect to elect honest politicians???????? GOOD LUCK!!!!
You are so right!
I'm waiting to see how many from Katrina are going to try and scam BP.
If they catch anyone they should sue them for fraud or at least be arrested.
These lazy unemployment collecting Americans disgust me! Now they are lying to BP so they can get jobs working! I say the Republicans were right to deny further benefits to people like this! First they say they need money because they can't find jobs! Then they lie to BP so BP will hire them! How dare they lie to BP!The Republicans are good at judging character. These unemployed people are just bad bad people!
Really?? Not once did the article mention unemployed people.
"These are attorneys, doctors who have their boats in the program" illegitimately, says Bob Zales, president of the National Association of Charterboat Operators."
Attorneys and doctors equals unemployed people to you??? And of course, I'm certain that there's a large number of unemployed people out there who own fishing boats. Forget feeding your family or paying the rent, instead let's take that HUGE unemployment check and buy a boat. Do you have any idea how idiotic and uneducated you sound!?!? With a thought process like yours, I sincerely hope you're not a voter.
You are an ass, alot of people out there lost there jobs do to cut backs and it's almost impossible to find work if you don't allready have a job. But it's not right to lie to anyone to try to get one,
.
And you wonder how W. managed to get re-elected? It truly is sad when cousins marry...
due you have even the SLIGHTEST clue what you are talking about? especially the "how dare they lie to BP" part of your comment? i mean seriously.....,!!!!! i'm sure that 99% of readers don't agree with doctors and lawyers taking jobs from the people of louisiana who truly are legitimate victims of this disaster, but......., (your comment was just so ignorant that i can't find the words to describe it!!) now as far as the "lie to BP" comment, if BP has been so honest and upfront to us, then would you please tell me WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DRILLING IN DEEP OCEAN WITHOUT A CONTINGENCY PLAN FOR A BOP MALFUNCTION? (that means "blowout preventer". i wasn't sure if your obvious lack of education prevented you from knowing what BOP meant) and by the way, who approved the permit to begin with? don't these people know how to confirm information? (these are OUR officials that gave this company the permits)
You had me going!
(-;
Happy Fourth!!!
low lifes ...i am so sick of people like this.....they ae nothing but greedy selfish garbage!!!
Another side of it is people who have invested their money in charter boats and are now simply out of luck. Why shouldn't BP be responsible to them as well?
I hope these fake fishermen and anyone else that takes advantage of this situation or any other situation are treated as criminals and have to pay the consequences for their actions. I will never understand the low-life individuals we have in this world that are ready to jump in and take advantage of any terrible situation that arises. We need to be doing all we can do to help our fellowman that has fallen on hard times.
i bet if those illegitimatly claimers lost their boats like drug-dealers loose their cars/trucks, they would think twice before they acted.
Hey! Radar015, I do not think these people are the unemployed. Most people on unemployment don't have the funds to own a large boat, which is what you need to be part of this program. People like you who don't really care bout the welfare of others; you got yours so people less fortunate just go to hell or maybe go to work at some really low paying job. When I worked construction some jobs I made about $2000 a week gross. My unemployment check was about $450/wk, so $1500 less weekly pay. So Radar015 I would like to see you live on 75% less and see how you like it. In the state where I live now in 2008-2009 there were about a 1 Billion dollars in building permits let in just our county. 2010 less that $100 million, all because of the banking failure, because the Bush administration, and the republicans in congress did not believe in any and all types of regulatory authority. So the banks collapsed, construction loans disappeared, and thousands of construction workers lost their jobs at no fault of their own. Now, some idiot like you whines about people trying to make up the difference any way they can. The banks got their bailout, that most have paid back by now. But the unemployment rate nation wide is still just under 10%, so Radar015 my question to you is : Why don't you get your head out of your ass?
radaro 15, you are nuts, and a horrible human being
It's called sarcasm. Seems half you guys are mad at me because they knew I was being sarcastic and the other half are mad because they didn't. Next time I'll use a Smiley face.
Bad radar015, bad bad (heh-heh) Here's one :-)
Seeing how this article is very vague I have included a few links to articles which help to decipher what this article is trying to say.
Henry Cabbage states that if you have a charter boat business as a 2nd income you are not elegible which makes sense as it seems that fishermen who's only income is from fishing should come first.
The rules for how you get into the program are in the following links I have provided and show that it is possible for out of state owners that are commercialy licensed and have their vessels docked in an elegible VoO state to slip through. The articles also show that some states have hired their own cleanup crews and they are being mistaken as BP VoO vessels
Lawyers have already posted their contact information in one of the articles as the Coast Guard had to send 120 or so Vessels back as crews were getting sick and crew members on three of the boats reported symptoms including chest pains, debilitating headaches, dizziness and nausea from the chemical dispersants being used to break up the spill as well as from the toxic oil fumes themselves.
This Spill is the worst spill in history and the problems are only going to escalate.
http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/gulf_oil_spill/locals-vent-frustration-at-bp-program
http://www.maritimeaccidentattorney.com/blog/coast-guard-grounds-bp-vessels-of-opportunity-program.cfm
http://helpcleanupthegulfcoast.com/paid-oil-spill-jobs/bp-vessels-of-opportunity/
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9033656&contentId=7062004
Is there not one honest man to be found anymore? I truly am surprised God has not ended it all in pure disgust with us.
Yes there is but nobody believes him...
Hey I got an Idea,
How about you people stop fighting with each other and try to come up with a way to contribute to this situation. Instead of BP trying to recover the oil how about just pluging the hole for good. There are so many ways to acomplish this task but any one with good sense knows that that oil is more important to them than US coast line. Every idea to stop the flow and every atempt by profesional clean up crews have been ignored by BP. They want their lives back? We want our coast line and eco system back.
What do you need with an honest man?
the worst is yet to come. 50 dolphins. wait till you see 5000 float to shore
I can't imagine the lack of intelligence it requires to make such a statement!!!
The fact that BP has chumped so many claims so far is justified by this one little news article?
For all the hundreds of thousands of claims so far, the comparitively small amount of bogus claims are enough for you to look the other way about the completely horrible way they have paid out pennies on the dollar to the lucky ones that have recieved any money at all?
IDIOT!
Doctors, lawyers, people with money trying to lay claim to more money at the fishermans expense.
Isn't it great how American selfishness can be......sarcasm in abundance with a boatload of truth.
They are just as bad as BP, worse, because they are trying to make a bad situation even worse.
Am I missing something here? Isn't there enough oil out there to occupy every vessel from here to the South China Sea? Come to Pensacola and go out to the beach. Your first glimmering insight will be "what boats?" BP isnt trying to clean this crap up, they're trying to LOOK like they're cleaning it up. They should be paying everyone who has anything that floats and is willing to get out there. They should be going door to door with fistfuls of that BP cash asking "Got a kayak? We need you!" But instead they find a way to paint themselves as victims. And you maroons that are sympathetic to the bp cause, please come to Pensacola and have a look around.
This is BS so BP can say it need's to investigate the claims is aimed to confuse and buy more time to get out of paying. I say BP hire all that are willing to work on your mess now and get the job done and Quit playing BS politics with the local labor. I wanna see all willing boats out there working before the storms come and royal screw us.
It does appear that BP is setting up its American victims to lose a protracted legal battle, much like Exxon Valdez. This is how corporations work. Did you hear the republican apologize for them being "shaken down"? Maybe instead of a $20B escrow they should have a daily cash payment into the fund based on the leakage WE estimate. 60,000 barrels a day at a clean up cost of, say, $5,000 each sounds about right. I believe that's about $9B a month, which should be available to compensate legitimate claims and organize a cleanup using every resource available the world over. Every BP exec and board member should be on the beach with a mop, not yachting around. Wait until the oil rain hits the heartland.
WOW, no mention of ACORN, The Community Re-Investment Act, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac let alone all the people who wanted one of those ATM's called houses that all of us "rich" folk owned even though they couldn't afford it and were just waiting for the appreciation to cash out, sadly they lost the BIG GAMBLE! The Clinton Administration, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd along with the above caused this huge problem, fortunately, I earn enough to pay my mortgage!
The people who wanted to own houses were for the most part hardworking and honest. For every person envying the "rich" folk (getting tax cuts during two wars that weren't payed for) who wanted to buy a house,there were people with plenty of money to own a house that decided to own 3 or 4 or who could afford a $200,000 house but bought a $500,000 one! Every administration over the last 30 years or so helped cause this problem, both "D" and "R" but go ahead and think your team's got the answers!! BTW your asinine post has exactly what to do with fake fishermen a$$holes trying to earn money they didn't earn by hiring on with BP (who may or may not be making this whole story up)??
I thinks i should be able to get some bp money cause I fell off my barstool cause they was some slick stuff that looked like oil on the floor. It really hurt my drinking arm. Hell they need to pay for my rehab if i get to shaking cause i cant tip a beer.
Radar 15 uyou forking stupid. Unemployment is paid by the worker. Its not forking welfare. You good gopb folks dont have a problem with the rich getting help for government. Go lay down turn the lint ball up real loud. Try to take a deep breath and hold it for 2 hrs. Mission accomphished @!$%# for btrains
bp sucks!!! republicans suck!!!!
OBAMA STINKS!!!OBAMA SUCKS!!!
bp stinks!!! republicans suck!!