BP, Liar "Extraordinaire"

How does one spell liar "extraordinaire"? In fact how does one spell incompetence, dissembling, distortion (of the facts), propaganda, amoral or any number of descriptive terms that can best be used to describe BP?

The "Top Kill" procedure, the latest in a string of efforts by BP to end "the mother of all" environmental disasters (with apologies to the deceased Saddam Hussein) has resumed the procedure after first creating "the impression earlier in the day that the strategy was working"but disclosed later in the day that they had stopped pumping the night before when engineers saw that too much of the drilling fluid was escaping along with the oil."[1]

So should we be relieved that this "procedure" has resumed or remain skeptical and wary waiting for BP's next mea culpa of failure. The latest had Doug Settles, BP's chief operating officer for exploration and production" saying "It's quite a roller-coaster"It's difficult to be optimistic or pessimistic. We have not stopped the flow."[2] Ah, thanks for the update Doug but we're all quite aware of the last part of your comment.

So is this like jumping on the pile after everyone else has thrown in their two cents and has already condemned BP for this enduring nightmare? Maybe so, but the BP debacle should be a sharp reminder of the consequences of the incestuous ties between big corporate interests and their government brethren whose lax oversight and enforcement (read no enforcement) of governmental rules and regulations betray their miscreant ties when these BP type disasters happen.

Should we be continually surprised when these man-made disasters destroy livelihoods and despoil sensitive environments that may take decades to recover?

It is no different with our natural disasters i.e. Hurricane Katrina. It wasn't because the inadequate levee system before Katrina hit was unknown to be incapable of withstanding a category 4 hurricane. It was known, but nothing was done about it. Then the lack of coordination between federal, state and local agencies compounded that natural disaster and made it into a man made disaster.

Our financial calamity and the resultant "great recession" have been portrayed by our financial "masters of the universe" as a sometime occurrence and a natural (though unfortunate) consequence of our free market, capitalist system. As if the risk taking and excesses of our financial geniuses were not abetted by the deregulatory laws Congress enacted had nothing to do with precipitating the meltdown of the financial house of cards that came crashing down in the fall of 2008.

A system that has big moneyed corporate and special interests dominating and controlling the political landscape (to the detriment and neglect of the peoples interests) will continue to have environmental catastrophes, financial and economic calamities and natural disasters that turn into man-made disasters.

As the Sun rises and sets each day, we can count on these types of occurrences happening again and again.