Laurie David Asks The Right Questions About the Gulf Oil Spill

I stumbled across this piece on The Huffington Post that asks the questions I've been pondering over the last 50 days:

Why are we giving oil companies a free pass to drill a mile below the ocean's surface, where the pressure is so intense it causes oil to shoot out like a rocket, when we don't know how to fix major leaks?

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Why haven't more heads rolled at the Minerals Management Service, where our officials have cozied up with oil executives for over a decade? (I bet they forgot to discuss giant oil spills in all of Cheney's secret energy meetings.) How has only one person been fired, while the other 1,700 MMS employees -- the same people who let BP bypass safety tests - are still in their jobs and have approved over 30 new drilling projects since the Deepwater Horizon sank?

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Why are we using dismal and inadequate boom technologies from the 60's to try to stop the biggest oil slick in U.S. history from suffocating our coastlines? With all the billions of dollars that have been poured into new 21st century drilling technologies, are absorbent pads really the best we can do? Really? Where are Shell's ideas, or Chevron's?

Good questions, all. I hope we get some answers.