Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Please think about this

Our peerloess leaders are now pointing fingers at BP. Rightfully so. After all, the Texas City oil refinery explosion and fire that killed 15 and injured "more than 170 others" was BP's baby.

"BP was charged with criminal violations of federal environmental laws and has been subject to lawsuits from the victim's families. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration slapped BP with a then-record fine for hundreds of safety violations, and subsequently imposed an even larger fine after claiming that BP had failed to implement safety improvements following the disaster." (Wikipedia).

Of the 761 major safety and environmental violations over the last 4 or so years, BP has been guilty of 760.

NOW, when I see all the hand wringing and finger pointing by our various and sundry "leaders", I wonder where they have been all these years. BP has been guilty of serious breaches of all sorts of rules -- that OTHER oil companies manage to follow (more or less) -- for YEARS.

Where were all the Congressional "watchdogs" then? Where were the "protectors of the public good", the current "outraged leaders"?

This sort of crap has been going on for YEARS. There are various and sundry spills (oops!) almost DAILY. Unless you are personally affected -- you never hear about it.

In Great Britain BP portrays us as sniveling whiners. They cast themselves as "model corporate citizens" -- you know how weak those Americans are, don't you?

Unless you are there, unless you experience it, you do not have a clue.

Meanwhile, BP has a "full court press" from their PR folks. Our government folks go, "tsk-tsk", and point fingers.

Slowly the seas (ALL of them) will die, our government "watchdogs" will do nothing, the various corporations will continue to pay off judges and various legislators ---- punctuated by flurries of activity ("see how good I am") when the oil, or the shit hits the fan.

As I've said -- I'm beyond cynicism -- a cynic still has some hope.

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