Let's not forget BP's record in Prudhoe Bay, spilling oil all over the north slope. There have been massive spills on multiple occasions there, including two spills in 2006 alone.

For another take on the spread of guilt (and a great history lesson), I recommend the most recent post on http://theseventhfold.com

What about the gulf? In our rush to punish the guilty, can we take a time out to save the wetlands? Now is the perfect opportunity to restore the delicate wetlands of the gulf coast.

Hurricane season is one month away. Globs of oil on the streets of New Orleans. Can we focus on cleanup first--- then restoration--- THEN the blame and punish fest?

I live here. I love this place. Please help us clean it up.

Let's not forget that they tried to get the Indianapolis government to allow them to dump more than their "legal fairshare" into the Great Lakes.

I have been reading Palast's stuff for years now. He goes away for a while then poof! he returns with a vengeance with a few en-lightening bolts delivered with laser-like accuracy.

I hadn't seen anything from him lately so I knew he was up to something. Get a hold of his videos at gregpalast.com. You will be entertained/saddened for a reasonable amount of time and you will be contributing to a true investigative journalist who will never be invited to guffaw obligingly over heartless bon mots at the President's Correspondent's Dinner.

Remember Bush's skit of looking everywhere for WOMD? Everybody, including Juano Williams of NPR and...Fox News was tickled pink.

Finally, a real investigative reporter surfaces to ask the questions and check out the companies' practices and operational culture. Every network and every government agency should have asked these questions from Day 1.
And lo and behold, the hyper-conservative leading GOP senate contender in Florida and the new governor of Virginia still want drilling ASAP. It's time to clean house while we are doing our all to clean the Gulf. We've got to save the nation, our waterways and ecosystems, and this planet from such vicious, selfish recklessness.

To: Anonymous 23:52. I read that article to which you pointed. I agree that BP was not named in that article. However, essentially nothing related to the responsible party for preparedness was contained therein. Do you suggest that it was Alvin and The Chipmunks? Mr. Palast gave information that your cited article did not address. That in no way discredits anything Mr. Palast has written! That article was incomplete at best and addressed issues unrelated to preparation. That was a rather lame attempt to call Mr. Palast a liar but you failed. What a surprise.

I trust Palast. I believe what he says. It is however "weird" to actually see facts in print. There seems to be a total lock down on the facts on MainStreamMedia, which is not surprising.

Audit the fed, support HR 1207

Bryce offered, excerpted:

"Back in the '60's we called corporate scum like BP, Haliburton, et al, "pigs". [...] These miserable, wretched excuses for human beings don't deserve to breathe the same air as the rest of us.[...]"

BP is not a person, doesn't breath air, doesn't feel the environment it pollutes... is just a sorry, and all too powerful, beast.

BP deserves capital punishment - erase 'it' from our earth, send its human leaders to jail.

Thank you Greg - well summarized yet again,

DLewis

Thanks Greg.

So, how exactly does one bring down this massive corporation if they can somehow stumble through all these pr disasters?

The US people are too ignorant, too heavily propagandized by the media and its own government, and too afraid of the "communists" that they are incapable of doing anything but attacking their own self-interests. Due to the same ignorance, propaganda, and fear, they are incapable of identifying those self-interests. They are lost souls, in the hands of oligarchs and robber barons and generals, and a threat to humanity.

the conclusion after reading Palast`s column: stop sea oil drilling, until all the drill companies are compulsory contracted to have the safety gear that is lacking. Failing that since the american people want the government off their backs is, stop oil sea drilling .

If they want to drill at 5000 feet, they should have emergency response measures in place to deal with a leak at 5000 feet. The negligence is criminal, and I would bet it isn't just BP that is not prepared.

Unfortunately, disasters are opportunities. Volunteers and volunteered equipment are charging toward the gulf from all over the country. They do not expect to be paid. That is rediculous. Cleaning up someone's mess is dirty work. It should be compensated. This is a chance to institute a "new deal" kind of approach. Unemployed people should flock to the rescue of the gulf. They should know that they will be well paid for their efforts - not by the government - by BP. The oil company should have no choice. If someone wants to help, that person should be paid - time and travel. Something like a union hiring hall could process the paperwork. In economic times where large corporations have stripped people of their savings and employment, this could be the answer. Anyone needing employment simply responds to the disaster and works as long as it takes and is well compensated by BP. The corporation should have no choice.

"This is about the anti-regulatory mania, which has infected the American body politic. [...] 'Where was hell was the government? Why didn't the government do something to stop it?' [B]ecause government took you at your word..."

This. Completely this. In long words:

"You have destroyed all that which you held to be evil and achieved all that which you held to be good. Why, then, do you shrink in horror from the sight of the world around you? That world is not the product of your sins; it is the product and the image of your virtues. It is your moral ideal brought into reality in its full and final perfection."

TL;DR: "You fucked up; you trusted us."

To Sarah in the Gulf Coast area: I truly weep for you. If I had the answer I would surely help.

I am so sickened by this horrible mess that I can barely eat or sleep. The stinking people responsible for this are no doubt sleeping well b/c they are clearly asocial monsters.

I am thinking in the long term. What will happen with the shipping lanes for example? Will ships be thwarted when they attempt to bring in food? The implications of this incident make me feel as though this may be the beginning of the end.

To Mother Earth: Sorry we abused you so. We have scared you and rendered you a mass of oil and toxins. I am sure you will heal after we are gone.

To the creators of the earth: Sorry to see some of you go. We have not been very good stewards of your homes. But, we had a good run. It was great while it lasted.

All's well that oil's well.

Boycotting BP and Shell is a start. But each of us must find ways to use a lot less petroleum.

where do we apply to work on the gulf rescue effort?

The B does stand for British.
Why would they want to do anything but fsck us over? They're still fighting the revolutionary war.

I know I know!

We can let the government take over offshore drilling! Worked for North Korea and Cuba!

Nice to see the markets down 400 points today. The govt takes 43% of our income now and that isn't nearly enough, instead Obama is running unimaginable deficits. The Democrats crammed socialized healthcare down the throats of a populace that didn't want it. That will add trillions more to the tab. And through it all the unimaginably large government simply cannot. stop. spending. The last 30 years of ultra left wing rule in America coming home to roost.

But lets gripe more about a nonexistent oil spill. I actually saw an article in the Washington post a couple days ago that a "second" oil drenched bird had been found. Good lord, will the horrors never cease. No doubt if a third bird is found, it will get front page headlines. Never mind the people starving every day in Africa, we have an oil company to demonize.

really good article
UNTIL
you switched your blame to the US government and deregulation. Why do you think the government loves deregulation....Because companies spend billions in lobbying to make sure their interests come before the peoples. You should be calling out for a government investigation and lawsuit against BP not telling us how people are going the way of deregulation. The tea party is vastly exaggerated in numbers I really wish educated people would stop mentioning them and maybe they will fade from existence. I for one would love more regulation Oil Companies, The Fed, Banks, FDA pretty much every facet of America is greed and corruption and I think most Americans unlike the tea party realize the real problem are these corporate fat cats trying to inflate their bank accounts at the expense of the taxpayers. The FED should be demolished.

To Anonymouse about his comment: I believe this is a better reading of what happened at the Exxon Mobil spill:

Well yes, we know the accident was Exxon Valdez crews fault. BUT it was BP responsibility to clean up the mess, they were the ones on duty for cleanup should anything bad happen, and had signed paperwork to that effect. It was BP fault that the oil made it to the coast in Alaska, and it will be their fault again since they were again responsible for emergency cleanup.

In a perfect world, yes, love of nature would cause this very thing to happen.

But, realistically, if you were in competition with BP, using a percentage your profits to keep your own affairs in order while BP pockets all their money and uses that to their advantage in competition against you, would you want to use yet more of your profit margin to help them. I think not, you would wait for BP to come up off their pocketbook.

If you are complaining about oil drilling on the water, and you drove to work today, or rode a bus, or mowed your lawn,or own a boat or 4 wheeler, then you are just as hipocritiacal as the company you are bitching about. Get off the bandwagon, unless you know the hard facts. Drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico has been an ongoing and continuous fact of life for half a century.Not to mention keeps 100's of thousands of people employed. This country will not (CAN'T) stop drilling for oil. Life as you know it would cease to exist. BP does need to clean up the mess. I agree 100%. But unless you ride a bike to work from your tent, and don't own a cellphone, or ANY of the luxeries that come from any machine that is lubricated by oil, STFU. Or better yet. Do something about it. Talk is cheap. especially hipocritical, ignorant talk. I am all for green energy, but it is not something that is going to happen cause somebody made some bad choices and caused, or weren't prepared for a catastrophe. Green energy is not capable of sustaining our current way of life.....Yet. Our knowledge is close, but our greed will never go away. Stopping drilling over water is not a solution. Making BP Put up a thousand windmills on abandoned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, and powering coastal towns, now that is an idea. Make them donate some of that profit to coastal businesses and cities effected by this spill. Now that is logical. When you just stop all drilling in the gulf, you hurt 1000's of gulf coast families that work in the oil patch, making it possible for you to drive ur SUV.....Over

Very informative article! As there is nothing we can do about spilled milk or shall we say spilled oil, let us just be more careful now and vow to take good care of our earth in our own little way.

Here's a related article:
http://www.ecoseed.org/ en/ general-green-news/ green-business-news/ green-business-news/ 6795-Australia-battles-to-stabilize-Barrier-Reef-ship

I agree thoroughly with the last comment. We are too trusting and believe others are honest, too. We need to vvote in people willing to speak up and get things moving in the right direction. Why is BP allowed to repeat its negligence in the safety of their workers and equipment and the environment. Let's not let the greed of a few take charge of our resources.

Government continues to be bought by corporations. It is the corporate media that popularizes the "Get the government off my back" propaganda. It's as if BP was on a mission with this drill job, the ends justify the means, in advance of legislaton that would open offshore drilling everywhere. Didn't methane get in Massey's way too?
. No one stands in the way when the country decides to go to war, on people or the environment.

British Petroleum has been a bad actor for so many years. In 1953 the seeds of our present terrorism were sown by BP as they talked President Eisenhower into overthrowing the democratically elected govt of Iran, because Prime Minister Mossadegh had insisted that Iran's oil was owned by Iran, not BP. The US installed Shah Resa Palavi, who was a US & BP puppet till he was overthrown by angry Iranians, and we risked American lives to get him and his family out of that country.

Read this book for all the details: "All the Shah's Men." You can get it at Amazon or any good bookseller.

Yes, we are hated over there for stealing oil.

If interested in further truths, read: "World on Fire," by Dr Amy Chua, a Yale Professor, who researched and wrote about the US plundering other 'little' country's resources.

AM/PM Convenience Gas Stations are British Petroleum (BP) franchise stations. They were known as BP Connect until they were re-branded as AM/PM.

Castrol is a BP oil sold in the US.

I think exposing business miscreants is a noble and necessary endeavour. Your article is very interesting but short of actual facts.

The Valdez incident is at best a stretch to blame on BP. At worst an outright lie. You cite nothing other than your own words for this article.

As was mentioned before, BP did not own the Rig. Transocean did. Transocean was responsible for the equipment. The taxi example is valid. Your drive hits a pedestrian and you should be held accountable for his action? I do not think so.

Your agenda is evident. We don't need to have people like you discredit the Environmental issues. You create more problems than you solve with your political agendas.

You obviously make a conclusion and then find or make up evidence to support that conclusion.

You are no better than those GOP hypocrites that call for drill here drill now. You do a diservice to our cause.

Why don't you do some investigation into the Auto and Oil Companies active repression of alternative fuel?

That would be actually helpful.

Excellent video! And thanks to Greg Palast for the comments.