Corporate Slime

As the news coverage of the oil spill in the Gulf Coast flashes across the screen every time I tune into CNN, MSNBC, Fox News or one of the local stations it seems to be even more disconcerting than the time before. The egregious and irresponsible acts that have been committed by British Petroleum commonly known as BP are a cause for grave concern.

The ecological effects are immense and it seems that the blame game, which commonly can be played during these situations of national emergency are taking hold. Members of the right are accusing President Obama for being too passive on BP. They're accusing him of being too passive in his handling of the BP leadership. They're accusing him of not listening to men like Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA) (who somehow overnight became an expert in dealing with oil spills!--sarcasm) They're saying he isn't doing enough to ensure the small business owners and fisherman that everything is going to be alright! One delusional woman even went as far as to call this "Mr. Obama's Katrina!" While that assessment is both ludicrous and incomparable--it seems that a lot of Americans are misinformed yet again due to forces in the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity. These agents of division seem to prey on situations as such to push their far-right agenda.

However, the people that they accuse such as the Democrats in Congress have not done much to assuage or ameliorate the issue that surrounds the whole oil spill debacle. Congress hasn't investigated throughly in the past few years off-shore oil drilling. There have been less than 10 hearings from both houses combined on this issue and maybe if it was paid attention to more, we might now have ended up in this situation. However, Congress can't pay for the entire bill of blame either in this instance.

BP, who seems to care only for profits and not following the rules and regulations as admitted by employees who survived the initial blast needs to be held accountable. Their insistence that profits were more important than following the rules need to be throughly investigated by Attorney General Eric Holder and his Justice Department. Furthermore, once this oil is fully cleaned up--BP needs to be handed a bill for damages to the Gulf and whatever other damages that were incurred due to their negligence.

A word of advice to all those who wish to boycott BP; that isn't exactly the smartest thing to do right now either. If we boycott their business and force them to loss money, then the taxpayers of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida might left to foot the bill, which we all know they would not want to do in this case. Once the damages have been paid for then a full boycott should be carried on by the American people of this company.

Another issue that we should recognize is that of the ecological effects that the oil spill has brought about to the region. To watch many of the those animals suffer the way they have due to human imbecility, ignorance and imprudence is truly disconcerting. In respect to that, I would hope that the Environment Protection Agency, the Interior Departments and biological/ecological agencies are doing everything in their power to rectify and alleviate the ills that this oil spill have caused to the animals that inhabit this environment.

The overall goal of me sharing my thoughts was due to what I believe is a continuation in a long line of corporate slime that stretch from EnRon to Ponzi to the current debacle of BP. It seems as if these acts of frivolity and ineptitude will never stop. Year to year it seems that a new company will grace the news waves in disgrace. Who will be next? Texaco? JP Morgan? Hewlett Packard? This we do not know for sure yet, but guarantee it will happen as it always does due to the fact of human greed.

It does seem that Congress should do more to pay attention to the oil industry instead of flying to exotic islands and dining with them. That type of attention will no do anymore. Hard regulatory action should be taken and BP needs to be made an example of to let these other companies who want to put the private interest before the public comfort again know that real "change" is in effect and not the passive rhetoric that has been commonly been replaced to cover up tough action.

Just some thoughts......

Bashir Ali