Bob Herbert: An Unnatural Disaster

[highplainsdem]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/opinion/29herbert.html

An Unnatural Disaster
By BOB HERBERT
Published: May 28, 2010

“Where I was wrong,” said President Obama at his press conference on Thursday, “was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios.”

With all due respect to the president, who is a very smart man, how is it possible for anyone with any reasonable awareness of the nonstop carnage that has accompanied the entire history of giant corporations to believe that the oil companies, which are among the most rapacious players on the planet, somehow “had their act together” with regard to worst-case scenarios.

These are not Little Lord Fauntleroys who can be trusted to abide by some fanciful honor system. These are greedy merchant armies drilling blindly at depths a mile and more beneath the seas while at the same time doing all they can to stifle the government oversight that is necessary to protect human lives and preserve the integrity of the environment.

-snip-

Forget BP for a moment. When is the United States going to get its act together? Will we learn anything from this disaster or will we simply express our collective dismay, ignore the inevitable commission reports (no one pays attention to study commissions), and bury our heads back in the oily sand?

President Obama said on Thursday that his administration was “moving quickly on steps to ensure that a catastrophe like this never happens again.” Well, he can’t ensure anything of the kind. And, in fact, his corporate-friendly policy of opening up new regions for offshore drilling (that policy is only temporarily halted) will all but guarantee future disastrous spills.

The U.S. will never get its act together until we develop the courage and the will to crack down hard on these giant corporations. They need to be tamed, closely monitored and regulated, and constrained in ways that no longer allow them to trample the best interests of the American people.

-snip-

[indepat]

1. A corrupt and venal corporatist Congress will never get its act together

and what administration is ever going to put their feet to the fire sufficiently to reign in the giant corporations that have the money and power to gain their ends. :shrug:

[chill_wind]

2. You don’t want to know what people will do for that kind of money. "

"He knows — or should know — that the biggest, most powerful companies do not have the best interests of the American people in mind when they are closing in on the kinds of profits that ancient kingdoms could only envy. BP’s profits are counted in the billions annually. They are like stacks and stacks of gold glittering beneath a brilliant sun. You don’t want to know what people will do for that kind of money.


But we're finding out now, every day now, what BP is frighteningly capable of.

[intheflow]

3. Like reading the Upton Sinclair of our time.

Herbert hits this nail right on the head. K&R

[highplainsdem]

4. kick

[marions ghost]

5. Obama's getting a bitter lesson

in how it really works. I'm sure he's regretting his unregulated support of offshore drilling right about now. His anger is genuine. He was snowed and betrayed like the rest of us.

It's a wake-up call. For the administration, but also for the people.