American Morning
LIVE Blog: Chat with us during show
Editor's Note: Welcome to American Morning's LIVE Blog where you can discuss the "most news in the morning" with us each week day. Join the live chat during the show by adding your comments below. It's your chance to share your thoughts on the day's headlines. You have a better chance of having your comment get past our moderators if you follow our rules: 1) Keep it brief 2) No writing in ALL CAPS 3) Use your real name (first name only is fine) 4) No links 5) Watch your language (that includes $#&*).
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/06/14/obama.gulf.beach.gi.art.jpg caption="President Obama will visit the Gulf states affected by the oil spill on Monday and Tuesday and then address the nation Tuesday night from the White House."]
Obama to address nation on oil disaster Tuesday night
(CNN) – President Barack Obama will visit the Gulf states affected by the oil spill on Monday and Tuesday and then address the nation on Tuesday night from the White House on the next steps in responding to the environmental catastrophe, his senior adviser said Sunday.
On his fourth visit to the Gulf region since the disaster began on April 20, Obama will make stops in Theodore, Alabama; Gulfport, Mississippi, and Pensacola, Florida, according to senior administration officials.
After returning from the two-day trip, Obama will make a televised statement from the Oval Office on the night before he is scheduled to meet with top BP officials.
David Axelrod, the senior adviser to Obama, said the president would push BP to create a BP-funded escrow account that will pay for damage claims from the worsening oil spill. In addition, Axelrod said, the plan would call for an independent third party to handle the claims process.
"The president will use every legal device at his disposal to make sure that this money is escrowed and that there is an independent administrator so that claims are not slow-walked, people can get the relief they need in a timely fashion and that we don't create more victims from this terrible disaster," Axelrod told reporters. Read more
Full coverage | LIVE: Undersea view 
Sound off: We want to hear from you this morning. Add your comments to the LIVE Blog below and we'll read some of them on the show.
About this Show
Welcome to the American Morning blog where you can get daily news updates from American Morning's reporters and producers. Join us for "the most news in the morning," weekdays from 6-9 a.m. ET, only on CNN.
The people of the Gulf coast are dreaming of a long term pay back from B.P. but has any one stoped to find out just how deep there pockets are and who controls the majority shares the long time payback may consist of one year .
Precisely Rebecca, why did Pence call for bigger government and more regulations when all the GOP do is scream Smaller Government...Less Regulation. Less regulation and oversight is why we are in this predicament to begin with. The GOP is like all politicians....pandering to whatever is the flavour of the week. Now the GOP wants millions of dollars of booms, clean-up people, skimmer boats and Hercules aircraft standing by to rush off to an oil spill at a moments notice. But they are against big spending. Doesnt make any sense. Hypocrits. Why dont the OIL COMPANIES have all this equipment and people standing by? It is their product and should be their problem. If they cant clean up after themselves they should lose their operating licenses. But BIg Oil makes big contributions to the very people that are supposed to watch them. Conflict of interest. Nothing good will come of it...as we now know.
With all the scientist in this great big world it seems like America could reach out for more scientist to solve this oil giser problem our biggest draw back is letting B.P. use only it's scientist we need outside help because the present scientist are making no headway .
I can't believe all the politicians & talking heads calling for an end to the moratorium & to open the Gulf to more drilling. They claim drilling in shallower water is safer. Since the spill, everything they attempted to stop the leak "has never before been attempted at this depth." But all of the procedures were attempted at much shallower depths & didn't work!!! The Ixtoc 1 leak was only 165 ft deep & it took 10 months to build & get the relief wells working. And it happened in the Gulf!!!
They dont require workers to wear respirators because then the people might realize just how toxic oil is!!! If the ppl actually realized how dirty and poisonous oil IS...then the ppl might insist that something more be done when it comes to trucking oil and working with it in the refineries. It is SPIN....Big Oil Propaganda to keep regulations to a minimum. If the ppl realized how bad oil is they might use less of it or change to a different source of energy. That would cost Big Oil alot of money. The sad part is that your politicians are helping Big Oil to fool the ppl. Drill baby Drill says the GOP. What does that tell you?
We have too many incidents involving energy company's happening in our country from cutting corner's while at the same time destroying our Eco system we need to find the people taking bribes under the table and get them out of office before they destroy our once prestein country .
Bill, you are suggesting they make the leak larger than try to force in back into a smaller opening. If the breaches under the seas floor became major leaks due to the pressure being cut off, they couldn't reverse the damage by opening the valve back up. The majority of the oil wouldn't be reaching the BOP any longer. It would be gushing from under the sea floor.
The good(?) Dr. Murray's patients are rallying around him. Is it news when a bunch of junkies cry when their dealer is getting hauled off. Of course they love this guy-he's loose with the prescription pad. Way to go Continued Nonsense Network. The fact that the president took shots over his attacks on BP and these same people savagely attack a goalie who made a mistake in a TIE game. Really, maybe the news is how screwed up our moral and ethical compasses are because they've been going South for a long time and its getting worse.
Afgan is going to kick our butt's out of there country once they get there mines going and China and other country's that didnt lift a finger to help gain there freedom will profit lets bring our troops home and let China fight there war for them .
There are reports that some of the lab tested oil samples show that some of the oil has come from illegal dumping by freighters off the coast of FL. Many industries have been polluting the Gulf for several decades. This leak is only damaging the environment & aquatic life more rapidly than dumping, (legal & illegal), minor leaks and other forms of pollution. After this leak is stopped, those pollutants, toxins & chemicals will continue to poison the Gulf w/o much of a whimper from the media, govt or citizens.
Awe John!
I normally love your perspective and the way you question your guests, but this morning I find myself wondering if you watched Fareed this weekend...Just in case you didn't, in the first 5 minutes of his show, he mused on why – with all the complexities of the Gulf tragedy and the many serious issues the president is dealing with – just why the media is fixated on Obama's detached style. It's really worth watching.
The president was down in Louisiana in the first few days and has continued to go down there at regular intervals. You know as well as I do that the federal government doesn't drill for oil and doesn't have the technical "know-how" to fix this problem.
I find it ironic that senators like Mike Pence, who in the past have seized on every opportunity to chastize this administration as being too big, and some even calling for stronger states' rights, are now looking to the Federal government to fix a problem that's not normally in their purvue!
If you're going to show Mike Pence, don['t you think it would be fair to show the other guest on 'State of the Union' who spoke in favor of the president??? I hope you'll air some part of this message. I used to write to cnn all the time but my thoughts were never used, so I've taken up an attitude that it's a useless waste of time. But this morning, I just couldn't let it slip by. Thank You.
T\he oil spill is very BAd,The little Boy Who IS missing is even worst Has Any One Check With The Nature Mom? Maybe She Has Him!
Amfix,
Thanks for the opportunty.
All the experts have been saying that this spill is rather unusual and rightly so a massive investigation is warranted.
We have a new president who is black or mixed race and you have a lot of angry connected right wingers who may stop at nothing to discredit this man.
Please CNN let us know what the president did as soon as the spill occured. We all know he did not call the president of BP as some spinners on CNN keep reminding us. Let us stop the constant criticism of this president and contribute to the clean up.No more Carville and Maitlin we have had enough of them.
After weeks and weeks of playing Best Guess regarding the need to know how much oil is flowing from the ruptured well it seems BP has remembered these things called Pressure Sensors.
Pauly,
If the valve is left in the open position while it is being installed, I would think that most of the problem with the pressure would bleed off during the fitting of the new flange and vlave?
To reducce the risk of a bow out at another location the system could be monitored as the valve is slowly closed. If a problem arises the prcocess could be reversed very quickly.
I am not an engineer and perhaps this is all to simple but that is my input.
These are the states where last summer all we heard was states rights and the federal government was socialist, that they wanted no bailouts. There were protests and threts of leaving the union. Now they are crying, pointing fingers, and heaping blame on the president. I think it is time for them to get their states rights, they should go to the free market and free traders for their bailouts. And take their claims to their tort reformed courts. After all that is what they preach, and how they vote. They vote for less government let them have it for all to see. When they get sick from this. Let them take it to their workmans comp system. It is time for all to see on this scale the system they were voting for.
With the comments about people smelling the oil, has the EPA done VIC testing?
Bill, you are not the only one that has suggested removing the flange & replacing it. Removong the flange would undoubtedly increase the flow rate & the pressure. How do you suggest you place a new flange on the BOP against this pressure, let alone hold it in place until it can be bolted?
The other problem w/ your suggestion is that there have been reports that oil is leaking from under the sea floor. Sen Nelson of FL stated he saw evidence that this was the case but didn't elaborate. This suggests that the casing under the sea floor has been breached. Cutting off the pressure at the BOP would cause these breaches to become major leaks. If they can't stop a leak above the sea floor, what would they do w/ leaks thousands of feet under the sea floor?
The only reason the prices at the pump are down 11 cents is because BP is driving the price down to smooth over the American people. Let's not forget, after every other disaster in this country, Big Oil has wasted no time spiking crude prices to take advantage of consumers.
Maybe my high school math is a little rusty but ….. If the gulf oil original leak is represent by X gallons per day. After the broken pipe was cut off the spill flow rate went up 20%. That would be X+20% . BP now say that they are capturing about 30% of the flow... Therefore X+20% – X-30 % = X -10%. The question is what is the original value of X ? We still have thousands of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf. Is this a success? Denial is not just a river in Egypt !
I sent the message below to BP 20 days ago. I wonder if I will ever receive an answer from them?
Fabricate a modified top flange assembly for the top part of the flange on the blow out preventer. This fabrication would contain a shut off valve. Remove the damaged top flange and pipe and replace with the modified top flange which contains the shut off valve. Leave the valve in the open position until flange is bolted down and sealed.
Bill Ashby
Canada
There is not nearly enough time spent reminding people of just who were the loud voices saying things like "Drill baby drill" and "Drill here, Drill now" Where are those voices today with suggestions on cleanup/stopping the flow? If you want to be the loud advocates for a position, you should be called out when that position proves to be an unmitigated disaster.
I do not have illusions that this president doesn't share some of the blame, but let's not heap it all on him either.
Come on, this morning is the first comment I've heard from any news source about gas prices during the current BP Gulf crisis! Then you guys sit there and joke about the fact that prices are going down right now!!! The economy has been bad relative to gas for at least two years and that never stopped big oil before...in fact, over the past decade every time there was a sneeze in that industry (Nigerian rebels make a threat or a small pipeline breaks somewhere) the price of gas would jump 25 cents...then after gouging people for a few weeks they would drop it back 15 cents and everyone would be relieved that it went down. So all the talk of Congressional hearings would go away, until the next time they did it...that is how we went from around $1 to nearly $3 a gallon now. Remember Velchy’s oil barrel on your program??? And they want us to believe that this Gulf problem is not causing the same kind of market pressure? Can you guys say...price fixing?
BTW, I’ve also never heard any news folks look at the impact of those oil price hikes on the economic crisis…the party line is that it was all the fault of the housing industry and Wall St, but as I recall, one of the biggest jumps in gas prices occurred about six months before all hell broke lose in the economy. Why is no one looking into that big oil connection to the economy either?
Why force BP to place money into an escrow? Just give them & the other oil co's more leases, more tax breaks, more incentives & more subsidies. That'll teach them!!!!
I think it is so funny ( funny Ha Ha ) how we the people want less gov. But how we wine when we think they move to slowly, Less gov. or just gov. when we want it but any way you look at it we are a funny funny big nation that really do not know what we want, I think this just goes to show us that we need our gov. when we feel we want it, but boy in any other day and age we want them not in our lives so much, make up your mind, this president has done a great job and needs to be told that , not all the this bull he is out of touch with us. I think he has been on the job and doing a great job!!!!!!
Regarding the World Cup coverage by CNN. Usually I don't see much sports coverage so I wonder why the emphasis on these soccer matches? The world may care but most, and I do mean most, in the US could not care less about it now. Should the US play in the championship match I'm sure that would be worth mention.
Today you showed video of a small rally, a few thousand, US soccer fans, watching the US vs England match. On Friday the city of Chicago hosted the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks victory celebration. The Chicago Office of Emergency Management estimated the crowd total as 2 MILLION... 2,000,000 people at one event. No riots, not violence, just a lot of fun. And yet I didn't see one mention of it on CNN.
Coverage for a few thousand versus no coverage for 2 million... makes you wonder about the world centered view of CNN.
BP installed pressure sensors on the leaking pipe in an effort to find out how much oil is leaking. Surprisingly, this installation apparently worked with no problem even though they probably never attempted it at that depth before...
They can install a pressure sensor at that depth but they can't repair the leak? HA!
ABBY GIRL, the next time you try this take your "PARENT'S" with you!!! Cause the next time you "FAIL" You'll need your PASSPORT to get in these UNITED STATES!!! NOW being a"MINOR" , THE "LAW" is and will be on "OUR" side!!! THE Parent's and the Video's show's CLEARLY CHILD ENDANGERMENT!!! GOOD LUCK!!! USA is the way!!! NOT THIS WAY!!! ALWAY'S!!!
With all the cynics responding, no one President inherited so much turmoil coming into the Oval Office. I think Americans need to realize that there is no quick fix to 8 years of poor decision making.