Catastrophe in Gulf. They created it.

Big oil bought the politicians like Cheney and the state agencies like the Minerals Management Service (MMS). With the other oil criminal as President and Cheney as vice president they went to war in the middle east for oil, and they cut back all safety rules for the operation of oil rigs and exploration. They knew what they were doing. The result is the catastrophe in the gulf. Their motivation was profit. These people like Cheyney and Bush and the tops of BP are criminals. Any sane society would lock them up and throw away the key. But instead capitalism rewards them with more wealth and power. Capitalism does not work.

The regulatory body MMS was so dominated by the oil industry that it used to let oil and gas employees fill in the forms with pencils and they would write over with pens and turn in the completed forms. MMS Lake Charles LA, District Manager Larry Williamson told investigators: "Obviously we are all oil industry. We are all from the same part of the country. Almost all our inspectors have worked for oil companies out on these same platforms. Some of these friends they have been friends with all their lives. Hunting, fishing, and skeet shooting together." They will not do too much hunting and fishing and skeet shooting now. Their capitulation to the oil companies is wiping out the fish and birds. The corporations and their paid politicians are to blame. The trade union leaders who will not fight are to blame. But it is also necessary to say to people like this District manager that he is to blame. The catastrophe in the gulf has his name on it too.

The pollution of the gulf is made by capitalism. Capitalism wants oil to be used. It wants maximum profits and so wants oil production at the least cost. This means cutting out as many safety mechanisms as possible. We are all familiar now with the safety valves that BP did not put in because it wanted to save money.

We need to think about what we are watching when we see the oil spewing out of the sea bed in the Gulf. At a conservative estimate 5,000 barrels a day is being pumped into the ocean. Look at the poor birds, the fish, the fisher folks living being destroyed. When we do so think about how many more of these are going to happen if capitalism and its oil based profit addicted economy continues. The 5,000 barrels day amounts to only two minutes of oil consumption in the state of Texas. Countless more of these catastrophes lie ahead. There has to be a fundamental uprooting of capitalism and its oil based profit addicted economy if the earth is not to be destroyed.

Capitalism has forfeited the right to exist.

For a democratic socialist economy and society world wide.

Sean.