Jambo asked...

"Whose responsible for the economic and financial assistance that the seafood employees will need in the coming months?"

Is it BP? In 1990, the Ninth Circuit Court decided Exxon was responsible for the lost revenue suffered by the seafood industry in Prince William Sound, and they settled for $64 million two years later. Total lost revenue damages paid by Exxon for the wreck totaled $500.7 million by 1999... almost equal to what the Supreme Court said they were liable for in punitive damages, anyway. So, history is on the side of holding BP accountable... but settlements and payoffs could be a decade away, and the fishing is over NOW. Where do these boat owners get their income from in the mean time? Federal unemployment? Should the Feds front the cost and have BP pay up later when its been decided?

I had pondered the idea of having those fisherman and seafood processors given the option of working for the Feds (temporarily) as part of the clean up process. In the first year of the Valdez cleanup, it was 88% volunteers cleaning the beaches, rocks and bays of the stinking, toxic crude sludge, but Obama is here and can easily use a temporary works program to put the unemployed fisherman to work washing rocks and carrying sand, and then use those figures to pump his "job creation" numbers to look better to voters. I abandoned the idea, however, when I imagined the tantrum Ryan would throw at hearing me suggest that a "public works project" might benefit someone other than elected politicians with a "D" next to their name.

Thoughts?