Obama Wants Independent Third Party to Administer BP Oil Claims Payments

What kind of oversight will be given to that third party to avoid any corruption. That kind of money will attract a lot of crooks. That oversight will cost money. Where that money come from?

I think it's a good idea. I think the governors of each state that is involved in this should do it, then the federal government would stay out of it. When they get involved things do not go well or quickly.

While he's appointing third partys how about a third party investigation into Sestak and Romanoff?

If Obama wants to do something decisive, he can suspend the Jones Act like Bush did after Katrina.

There can be no doubt that BP is responsibile for the emergency situation we face. What I see is a whole lot of acting, postering, and ill conceived words used by an inept President. If BP files bankruptcy WE, the US, is in trouble and Obama will look worse than he does already.

We have a problem. Before we start throwing around stupid remarks about blame, law suits, etc, we need to allow BP to deal with the situation and then when the facts are in make a determination as to what needs to happen later. In the mean time US dollars should be used to speed up the relief for affected people and businesses. Then Obama can go after BP.

Way too much anti business attitude in Washington DC right now.

In the mean time damages can be offset by using Coastal people to man efforts to clean up the spill.

If BP would have installed a huge inverted funnel over the leak from the start to suck what they could not stop flowing while the are trying to invent something that should have already been online I don't think there would be oil all up and down the coast. It seems to me that BP is just trying to save the well because the resuavar is so large.

I think it is about time someone let us in on what is happening, and the plans to handel this problem. This has not been much of a media even. So far it has just been one bullie after the other bullie, and neither one of them are doing a good job of being a bullie. It like if you are on a ship and a ship yard worker cuts a hole in the bottom of the ship, you do not stand there and say you did it fix it and let the water rise over your head. So the most advanced nation in the world can not plug a hole it the bottom of the gulf. Makes you worry a little. So just fix the leak then go to court.

The media is running with this story.But how about a few facts about what else has been happening with oil spills that is not covered.Facts from places like Hughes rig counts,Christian Science Monitor etc.And before dems here start pointing the finger at republicans backing oil companies,you might want to check some facts.1527 US rigs,213 Canadian rigs,1090 international rigs.651 rigs between 2009-10.Exxon Valdez ran aground and dumped 10.8 million gallons.There are hundreds of natural oil leaks in our worlds waters.Coal Oil Point off of California leaks 2-3,000 gallons a day.30.2% of Americas oil comes from off shore drilling which also supplies our national reserves and militaries.1.3 million gallons of oil is spilled in US waters a year.Coast Guard reports 250,000 spills from 1971-2000.16% of spills come from on and offshore pipelines.92% comes from onshore pipelines per decade.Only 2% comes from Offshore rigs and pipelines.Since 1960 to date, we have had 267 Gulf of Mexico spills,Northeast US 140,Mediterranean Sea 127,Persian Gulf 108,North sea 105,Japan 60,Baltic Sea 52,UK and English Channel 49,Malaysia and Singapore 39,West of France and North and West of Spain 33,Korea 32.The kicker is that our off shore rigs and pipelines have only caused 2% of Americas spills but by importing oil using tankers has spilled 4.7 billion gallons from 1970-2009.We import 250 billion dollars a year of oil.The Exxon Valdez spill covered 1,300 square miles.If you look at these dates you will see that it is both parties in congress and their lobbyists that are to blame.There are thousands of oil companies in the world.Oversight not control is needed in America.It is time for a change.We need to stop importing oil.We need to drill for our own on and off shore.At the same time we need to seperate those who do the inspecting from those who recieve funds.This is what EPA and OSHA doesand what Mineral Management should do.At the same time we cannot let these committees completely shut down every industry in America which they could easily do upholding standards while the rest of the world abides by none.Getting rid of the lobbyists is a good start.Getting rid of key people in congress allowing all of this to happen is even better.And while they are at it,the government should stop subsidizing rich farmers to not grow and subsidize new farmers to grow.The government began doing this after the great depression to get control of food prices.And the lobbyists don't want it to stop.This began the spider web effect of costing America its greatness of production in agriculture,steel industries and oil industries which results in America becoming an import nation instead of an export nation which we used to be.

This oil spill is a sickening wake up call at its best. I believe that BP is not the only one to blame for this. BP can't do anything about this without our EPA oking it. So while we waste time having meetings about what should or should not be done the spill continues. Our past presidents had their hands in this problem as well as most of the shareholders of BP, which is probably most of our legislation. They didn't want to spend the money on the kill switch...well hows that working for them now? Who knows if the kill switch would have worked? This is a horrible situation that has far reaching consequences for everyone on this planet. How can BP possibly compensate everyone? We should be working together as a WORLD to stop this. One president isn't enough! Why aren't we having a special concert, fund raiser, donation spot from the Presidents wife for help?
Hati had all that. Why not our own SHORES?

Agreed, the oil spill is not a good thing. However, to those suggesting this is a foul toxic material introduced to mother Earth that could bring the Apocolypse as we know it...Please! Just remember the oil is PART of the planet and has been here for a very long time. Give the planet a little credit and quit letting the doomsayers sway you. My bet is Mother Earth will deal with this tragedy even if we fail but I suggest we roll up our sleeves and get busy doing the best we can to cap and clean it and take measures to prevent it from happening again. This will not cause the end of the world but our stupidity just might.