I think it's important to bear in mind the difference between what's morally right and legally right.
BP will have to bear the cost of the clean up. As the company overseeing the operation it is their obligation. They will also compensate, because the cost to them is tiny compared to the PR loss of not doing it. But (to the best of my knowledge) they didn't break US deepwater drilling regs so they can't possibly be charged with any negligence. You will always get bitter ex-employees saying they did of course. And maybe they did, but all the info I've seen suggests not. And yes, both sides are very biased.

But I think if there really was a chance of a succesful prosecuation, Obama wouldn't be shouting so loudly. And really, on the kilospoons irony scale, the US government should take a fucking big look into it's own house and think long and hard about how hard they fought to get Union Carbide off the hook over Bhopal, because, "hey, it's only dirty ragheads, right?"
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 14 Jun 2010, 12:28, 1 reply)

This last bit x100000

( TFD is sporting this season's finest necropants, Mon 14 Jun 2010, 12:34, closed)

Thirded.
I have been saying this.
( Wicca'd Witch needs ideas for a new sig on..., Mon 14 Jun 2010, 12:36, closed)

8,000 people died at Bhopal.
eight thousand. After all these years the families recieved compensation of about £900 each, and no US employee has ever gone to trial, and it was widely accepted as negligence. Deepwater horizon is a tragedy, but it needs to be put in perspective.

(my favourite perspective stat is that Exxon Valdise killed, at best estimates, 250,000 birds. That's the same number that are killed by cats in the UK every couple of days)
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 14 Jun 2010, 12:38, closed)

To put it into perspective
More oil is spilled every year in Nigeria than has been lost in the Mexican gulf - www.theroot.com/buzz/nigeria-s-agony-dwarfs-gulf-oil-spill

but no-one gives a fuck because, well, it's Nigeria
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Mon 14 Jun 2010, 14:16, closed)

that very much, too.
that would have been my next rant, but hey, one's enough for a monday.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 14 Jun 2010, 17:18, closed)