It is a wicked business to try to suffocate the truth. A most wicked business is when a private concern gets the assistance of government to put a choke hold on truth seekers. BP continues to try to hide, with the government's assistance, the extent of its damaged to the Gulf's ecosystem. and it has done dirty rotten thing elsewhere too. In Texas, at its oil BP refinery in Texas City, where an explosion allegedly caused by the negligence of BP management took the lives of fifteen people.

The Huffington Post reports that this past weekend, at the behest of a BP security official. a photographer from ProPublica was locked up behind bars for taking photos of a BP refinery.

BP is a dirty company. It has a dirty, rotten history. From the Huffington Post -- "Over the weekend, ProPublica filed this report on a BP refinery in Texas City, Texas: Two weeks before the blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the huge, trouble-plagued BP refinery in this coastal town spewed tens of thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals into the skies. The release from the BP facility here began April 6 and lasted 40 days. It stemmed from the company's decision to keep producing and selling gasoline while it attempted repairs on a key piece of equipment, according to BP officials and Texas regulators. BP says it failed to detect the extent of the emissions for several weeks. It discovered the scope of the problem only after analyzing data from a monitor that measures emissions from a flare 300 feet above the ground that was supposed to incinerate the toxic chemicals."

Can you believe that BP failed to detect the poisons it released, placing at risk the heath of Americans for 40 days? BP now estimates -- if you can believe their estimates -- that 538,000 pounds of chemicals escaped from the refinery, while it was replacing the equipment. Shame, BP! And Republicans think the government is too tough on BP? Shame! Shame on them.