Lies, deceit and carelessness

The Associated Press, with little effort, found dozens of outright lies, deceitful "data" and careless, unkempt records in BP's "response" package - the information they gave congress and others to assure them they would be able to handle any emergency for offshore drilling in deep waters - and how.

You can read their report here.

Some in the US Congress consider this report to be so afoul of actual facts that it's outright criminal.

I wish this meant that those responsible will actually be held accountable, but they have not so far in our history. Perhaps it's up to us to keep the pressure on - but pressure was kept on those who created and caused the deaths from Hurricane Katrina and still no one was held accountable.

Because the Exxon Valdez legal action took 20 years, few were held accountable, and then it was only a slap on the wrist. People in Alaska died waiting for the justice they had been promised, paid only a fraction of what they were rightfully owed - after their deaths.

Banks that robbed millions in mortgage money still have not been held accountable - one bank is trying to get the court to throw out a class action lawsuit by people who lost their homes so it won't have to pay those who were harmed by their predatory banking practices.

Was there ever really a time when we would stand up and admit we had done something wrong then try to make it right again? Was there ever really a time corporations actually cared about the people whose money they take? Was there ever really a time people took responsibility for their actions without hiding behind a lawyer, paid to twist the law like a garter snake?

As the corporate chiefs tend to be pretty emotionless about the people they or their businesses harm as a "cost of doing business," it's time to - without emotion - make them accountable. As people and as corporations.

The animals - including hundreds of thousands under water you won't see until their bodies rise to the surface and wash ashore - are suffocating from being covered in oil. As in, they cannot breathe. Imagine dying such a death and not understanding what the hell is going on. That is what they are suffering. Few that are "cleaned" will survive because they've already been poisoned when they try to clean their fur or preen their feathers.

This is not anthropomorphism, this is a factual account of what is killing them and how they are dying. And yet - precious little is and has been done to either prevent or clean up the catastrophe of hundreds of millions of gallons of crude oil smothering the Gulf, and soon the sea.

Interestingly, there are numerous oil spills that wreck havoc on water and wildlife; it's just not reported or reported as extensively because there are no photo ops as there are here - this is a National Geographic photo.