Escaping the Blame for the Oil Spill

There's plenty of blame to go around for the continuing catastrophe of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: BP corp., Transocean, Halliburton, and the U.S. Interior Department agency known as "MMS," foremost among the guilty parties.

Last night, Rachel Maddow showed where some of the blame should be placed. She also gives us a glimpse at how the executive teams for these miscreants can gin up special stockholder distribution plans, if they have to, to avoid their own responsibility -- thus beggaring themselves before the bills comes due -- and how several Republican politicians in Washington, including Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) James Inhofe (R-OK), can enable them by misusing the dysfunctional rules of the U.S. Senate.

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Shorter Senate Oil Disaster Hearing

Shorter Committee Hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources:

• British Petroleum CEO "Mr. McKay said that Transocean was responsible."
  
• Steve Newman, the CEO of Transocean, blamed Halliburton Corp., wondering aloud "whether there had been adequate testing of the cement and the casing process that was in progress at the well when the accident occurred."
• Halliburton's, CEO Tim Probert, blamed British Petroleum, pointing out "that BP directed his company’s activities at the site."

Then the committee adjourned; and in all probability the oil company executives made out more campaign donation checks to senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Following this, all the senators on the committee who voted to kill the Gulf of Mexico went home happy.