oil and feathers for whistleblowers

Much has been made of the mismanagement and corruption that cripples the Iraqi oil ministry. Before trying to clean up that house, perhaps we should look into cleaning up our own. The below from a NYTimes article on our government's attempt -- or non-attempt-- to get oil companies to pay royalties they owe for drilling on public lands.

Particularly striking were complaints by two auditors in Oklahoma City, Randall Little and Lanis Morris, who said that senior officials had refused to demand $1.5 million in back interest from oil companies caught underpaying, saying that requiring the companies to calculate their own bills would be a hardship. But the officials said the Interior Department could not get its own systems to do the calculations.

Mr. Little told investigators that the oil companies were getting a “free ride” and that “the taxpayers ought to be outraged.” After the auditors filed their lawsuits, Interior officials removed Mr. Little and Mr. Morris from their jobs at the Minerals Management Service and sent them to work below an entry-level technician at the Bureau of Land Management.

And the neocons wanted to hand over the Iraqi oil fields to Big Oil, expecting not a peep of protest from the Iraqi people?