Tonight - we have a tale of two oil spills.

Or I should say...a tale of two oil spill responses.

Last month - an oil well belonging to the Chevron corporation began leaking oil off the coast of Brazil - about 370 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro.

According to estimates - more than 3,000 barrels of crude leaked into the Atlantic Ocean - though most question whether or not that number is accurate - and Brazilian officials believe Chevron has withheld more accurate information regarding the true size of the spill.

Especially since a massive oil spill was visible for weeks after the incident.

Also responsible for the oil leak off the coast of Brazil was a drilling company called Transocean.

You remember those guys right?

They played a role in another oil disaster - the BP oil spill last year - that killed 11 men - and spewed at least 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

And just like the much smaller oil spill in Chile - many think BP kept it a secret exactly how much oil leaked into the Gulf.

But aside from the role that Transocean played - and aside from the corporate secrecy over just how bad the spills are - the similarities between the two spills stop.

That's because the governments of the United States and Brazil have taken drastically different courses of action to punish the corporations responsible for ruining local environments.

Last week - the federal police in Brazil submitted a report recommending that 17 employees of Chevron and Transocean be charged with crimes against the environment.

One of those charged is Chevron's president in Brazil - a guy named George Buck.

As the lead police investigator said - his name, by the way, Fabio Scliar - he said:

I am utterly convinced that the company’s institutional policy is reckless and irresponsible. Therefore, the executives are responsible.

And we're not talking about civil penalties here - there already have been and will continue to be A LOT of those - but we're talking about criminal charges.

In other words - the Brazilian police want to throw some suits in jail.

Not only that - Chevron has been suspended from doing any further oil drilling in Brazil in the short-term - and prosecutors are seeking a permanent ban on Chevron - preventing that corporation from ever drilling for oil again in Brazil - a country which, by the way, just this weekend became the 6th largest economy in the world.

So the sixth largest country in the world, economically, just filed an action to execute essentially the corporate death sentence.

All because Chevron and Transocean acted irresponsibly - and in the process let a few thousand barrels of oil spill into the ocean.

Meanwhile - here in the United States - where there was an oil spill more than 1,000 times larger - and where 11 men were murdered as a result of corporate crime - not one criminal charge has been filed against one executive - or anyone - at BP or Transocean.

Not only that - BP and Transocean are right back to business as usual - right now as they speak they're drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

So why is that?

Why is it that in Brazil - police want to put suits in prison and ban oil corporations from ever again doing business in that nation ever again - yet here in the United States - when people die - it's just a slap on the wrist and water under the bridge?

It's because we're bought out.

Corporations have seized control of our lawmakers - our regulators - and our justice system - and now they can pretty much get away with whatever they want...even murder.

BP boss Tony Hayward was called before Congress - received a thorough tongue-lashing from lawmakers - but then he was free to go on his private jet.

It was all a spectacle - a show for Americans to think that someone was being held responsible for murdering 11 men, and for the worst ecological disaster in our nation's history.

But it was theatre, and nothing more.

None of our politicians would take take on a huge transnational corporation like that. Why? Because the company would punish them by funding their opponent in the next election with invisible money, courtesy of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision.

But down south in Brazil - we're learning what happens when the people still control things.

As President Grover Cleveland said back in 1887:

Corporations...should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people.

We as Americans need to demand more.

From the banksters on Wall Street - to these murderous oil barons - we need to start demanding that corporations and their executives be punished for their crimes.

Let's end the lawlessness in corporate America - and bring back business in the public interest.

Go to move to amend dot org to see how we can take America back from the billionaires and the corporations.

That's The Big Picture.