And why not? It's the free market after all. As I watch these robots slice the riser from the blowout preventer and read the news about lakes of oil moving towards the coasts of Florida, I'm wondering who to blame for this. The list is long, but, in part, I blame anyone who bought into the lines: "government is the problem" and "the era of big government is over." It's been systematic deregulation and the elevation of free market libertarian laissez-faire capitalism that have wrought this damage and allowed potentially destructive corporations to write their own rules and do as they please.

Does anyone seriously believe that BP has suddenly become a philanthropic venture interested in doing whatever it takes -- sparing no expense -- to make the Gulf region whole again? It will do the absolute minimum necessary to weasel its way through this crisis. Not a red cent more.

Forty years of corporate deregulation by conservative Republican Ayn Rand fetishists (and their Democratic enablers) have successfully poisoned the Gulf of Mexico. Ironically, the most liberal pro-regulation president in this same span of time -- the president who has announced on several occasions a significant break from Reagan's "government is the problem" mantra -- appears to be the only politician being blamed for this so far. One of many reasons why I fear it'll be another 40 years before we roll back this free market monster.

And, as I watch this video, the solution occurs to me: they should just plug the oil leak with every single existing copy of Atlas Shrugged.

Yeah what we need is more regulation, which is why we are drilling 5000 under water in the first place. And also to blame Ayn Rand for this.

The responses to the BP oil spill, from the public, from the government, and from the company itself have been a master class, a perfect exhibition of enterprise greed, political indifference, and corporate apologetics.

If ever there was a case of seeing, demonstrable and in action, the power and Svengali-esque sway held by the largest companies in the world over the government, over the media, and over the people, this is it.

As I said before, BP executives, at this point, are basically Spaceballs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/how-soon-until-the-free-m_b_598305.html

Predictably, BP has lied or misrepresented the truth all along the way.

* Before a drop of oil was spilled, they deliberately refused to invest in crucial failsafe mechanisms to prevent this sort of tragedy in the first place.

Following the rig explosion, they detained workers who witnessed the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

They consistently low-balled the estimated volume of oil leaking from the riser and blowout preventer, arguably to avoid harsher liability.

They brazenly refused to stop using Corexit despite evidence that it was more toxic than other chemical dispersants.

BP was responding to an EPA directive Thursday that gave BP 24 hours to identify a less toxic alternative to Corexit -- and 72 hours to start using it -- or provide the Coast Guard and EPA with a "detailed description of the alternative dispersants investigated, and the reason they believe those products did not meet the required standards."

BP spokesman Scott Dean said Friday that BP had replied with a letter "that outlines our findings that none of the alternative products on the EPA's National Contingency Plan Product Schedule list meets all three criteria specified in yesterday's directive for availability, toxicity and effectiveness."

Dean noted that "Corexit is an EPA pre-approved, effective, low-toxicity dispersant that is readily available, and we continue to use it."

They ordered federal Coast Guard officers to shoo the press away from tar-balled beaches.

Neither BP nor the U.S. Coast Guard, who are responding to the spill, have any rules in place that would prohibit media access to impacted areas and we were disappointed to hear of this incident. In fact, media has been actively embedded and allowed to cover response efforts since this response began, with more than 400 embeds aboard boats and aircraft to date. Just today 16 members of the press observed clean-up operations on a vessel out of Venice, La. The only time anyone would be asked to move from an area would be if there were safety concerns, or they were interfering with response operations. This did occur off South Pass Monday which may have caused the confusion reported by CBS. The entities involved in the Deepwater Horizon/BP Response have already reiterated these media access guidelines to personnel involved in the response and hope it prevents any future confusion.

This week, they not only denied the existence of massive underwater plumes of dispersed oil

A third scientist, LSU chemist Ed Overton, said simple physics sides with BP's Hayward. Since oil is lighter than water, Overton said it is unlikely to stay below the surface for long.

But Hogarth and Cowan said BP's use of chemical dispersants to break up the oil before it reaches the surface could reduce its buoyancy, keeping it in deeper water.

You absolutely need government in place to handle and enforce lawsuits.

Other than that, what is the government doing exactly? Basically coordination and monitoring.

When have corporations EVER shown themselves to be good wards of the environment?

Compared to the wonderful environmental situations that China and the USSR sponsored on behalf of their people. Look at both sides before you talk.

And the Free market is stepping in, BP is trying to fix it, while the government for once freely admitted they lack the skills, equipment, ability to solve the problem. Bp is going to pay the price for this, I have not heard any libertarian/conservative/what have you argue even a peep for no punishment.

If you are angry organize a boycott, don't buy from them, hit them where it hurts, vent that rage!

If the punishment is of sufficient force to compensate for the total problems caused, prevention is guaranteed.

Yeah, because the USSR and Chinese governments are SO alike ours...