http://www.truth-out.org/corruption-and-collapse60356Since the explosion of the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, we have been treated to a case study in both the endemic corporate corruption of US politics and the inherent environmental catastrophes of the fossil fuel economy. The spread of toxicity, whether from oil, chemical dispersants, or corporate lobbyists and their willing handmaidens in Washington, DC, is so evident that even President Obama has been forced to ramp up his rhetoric about "cozy relationships" and conflicts of interest.
Yet, how can one take seriously a president and his administration when they continue all of the worst practices of corporate toadying? Examples abound, from capitulating to Big Pharma in the health care debate to doing the bidding of Wall Street in their desire to maintain hedge funds and derivatives, the key components of casino capitalism. Tinkering with banking regulations will hardly end such corporate corruption when the Treasury departments of the administrations of both Republicans and Democrats are filled with devoted banksters.
Beyond the Treasury Department, each recent administration has put into key positions little more than political foxes guarding the consumer hen houses. Departments of Interior are especially notorious for protecting the interests of oil and major cattle growers. Obama's Department of Interior with Ken Salazar, a Colorado cattleman, as head honcho and Sylvia Baca, a former BP flack, as Deputy Assistant Secretary for land and minerals management, are only the most current representatives of such notorious conflict of interests.
If one needed a more compelling argument against the fossil-fuel economy and its reliance on drilling for oil, the BP/Halliburton disaster in the Gulf of Mexico provides the tragic indictment. Yet the hand-wringing and grandstanding by the DC policy-makers has allowed BP to continue their cover-up of the extent of the spill and enable their misguided efforts to contain their potential litigation costs. Of course, one should not expect the political accomplices of the corporate fossil-fuel corporations to take fundamental steps to stop this immediate environmental catastrophe and reverse the insanity associated with this industry.
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