Big Oil's Clever Collusion

So we learn:

On Tuesday, in the same hearing room, executives from BP and two oil services companies exchanged blame for a Gulf of Mexico rig accident that occurred despite similar assurances that technological upgrades had made offshore drilling perfectly safe.

Of course they did.

At both hearings, BP America President and Chairman Lamar McKay said the failure of the "blowout preventers" owned by rig operator Transocean, had to be considered as a possible cause.

Steven Newman, CEO and president of Transocean Limited, said the blowout preventers "were clearly not the root cause," suggesting they might have been damaged from debris from cement barriers installed by Halliburton just before the accident.

Tim Probert, Halliburton's president of Global Business lines, said the company had followed BP directions, and noted that the drilling contractor "used seawater for the final cement plug," which some industry officials said is unusual.

How tidy. The colluders in crime all point the finger at one another. One can imagine the hidden smirks and winks behind the pretend gravity of their somber finger pointing. It's almost enough to make a person think that these slimy bastards planned this circular blame game from the outset. They're all cowards. Here are three companies all acknowledging that something went terribly wrong, that they're all clearly implicated (I mean, where else does the buck stop?); and yet their circular finger-pointing confounds anyone one of them truly owning up to the responsibility for this disaster of epic proportions.

They disgust me. I mean I can't properly express how disgusted I am with these slimy, shifty, cowardly, pathetic excuses for corporate honesty, decency, and responsibility. Not only are these slimeballs in full CYA mode, but they are colluding in this.