BP AND THE GHOSTS OF GONZO...

Not since we had to suffer the arrogance of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have I heard so many uses of "I cannot answer that question", "I was not a party to that decision", "I am unfamiliar with the details of that", " I do not recall", etc etc etc.

BP president Tony Hayward has proven himself to be a more consummate liar than Gonzo himself. In a display of corporate arrogance so profoundly egregious that it simply boggles the mind, Mr. Hayward continues to stonewall, feign lack of knowledge of events, spins and frames his answers to his Congressional committee questioners. He is under oath. But, that oath obviously means nothing to him or the company he works for. It is simply CYA for Mr. Hayward, British Petroleum, and, by extension... every other oil company in the world.

Make no mistake... the board of directors of BP is just as culpable as Mr. Hayward and the rest of the BP corporate executive team. They hire him... and they continue to employ him. They foster the corporate culture of greed, sense of entitlement, and separation of themselves from those they refer to as the "small people".

Unfortunately for the citizens of the world, BP has no lock on this attitude. Every oil, gas, big coal, big pharma, and the corporate controllers of the worlds energy, health, and water resources have exactly the same attitude.

Let's not forget that the lack of government oversight is not lost on us here. Oversight, it seems,  means "being in bed with the corporations we are supposed to regulate"... literally and figuratively.  Effective regulation is comprised of winks and nods and looking the other way... all for a few perks.  Streetside harlots are better business people... and more honest.  What we {you and I} are left with is a cesspool of mismanagement, misconduct, flaunting the law, moral decay, and total disregard for everyone... of epic proportions.

What is unfolding to the world is an example of corporate greed run amok.  Mr. Hayward sits at the highest rungs of a corporate food chain that is very willing to put its own employees, and the health of the worlds environment, at risk... to achieve its profit goals... the public be damned.

Our own government have become the poster boys of enabler's. Regulators that do not know how to regulate. Law makers that do not act when necessary. Administrations that look the other way in order to feather their own nests. "Let them eat cake"... is the phrase that rings in ones ears... loudly and clearly.

(c)Thom Reece