Liberty and Justice for All!

Well would you look at that!

After all the nay saying and doom and gloom that people tried to have us believe that if a moratorium was put in place that the companies would just get up and leave and never come back…

Despite uncertainty about when the federal moratorium on deepwater oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico may be lifted, drilling companies say they are readying to return to work, maintaining their full complement of rig workers at full pay, and making improvements in their rigs to meet new federal safety standards required by the Interior Department.

and

The remarks by Newman and Williams and the assessment of industry representatives, indicate that, despite concerns that the six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling imposed by the Obama administration would cost rig workers their jobs and send rigs en masse to distant shores in search of work, so far that is not the case.

So it seems, the moratorium has not caused most of the companies drilling in deep water to leave and that in the short term during the moratorium, those companies are working to improve the quality of their disaster prevention techniques (exactly what the moratorium was supposed to do). We have the BP money that was set aside to pay those who lost work on those rigs and to also potentially help those whose jobs including supporting those rigs as well.

Seems as if all the chicken little politicians, like David Vitter and Bobby Jindal, have absolutely no idea what they are talking about when it comes to their criticism of President Obama and his successful moratorium plan.

The punditry commenting about these investigations into Waters and Rangel are all backwards and crazy on what party should be suffering by this.

See, when Tom Delay had his ethics scandal, the Republicans voted to weaken ethics rules to protect Delay. Our Governor, Bobby Jindal, was one of those Republicans who voted to weaken those House ethics standards.

When Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters are accused of unethical behavior, the Democrats bring ethical charges forward and pursue them.

If the DNC, Obama, and anyone else on the left had proper wordsmiths, they would be showing the differences between the parties and how they react when one of their own is accused of ethical problems.

Those Democrats and/or Liberals who do not embrace these ethics investigations, and who instead claim that there is some sort of racist witch hunt going on, are really missing the boat.

Sand berms already eroding.

So not only has Jindal dredged from our existing natural barrier islands making us more susceptible to storm surges,  he has also wasted the manpower and money building these berms that scientists told him would not work anyway.

And the guy who took the picture of the eroding sand berm did not want to be identified for fear that the Governor’s office would enact some sort of retribution for daring to give the public information. You know, because Jindal likes to operate in secret.

Can someone please give us a moratorium on Jindal? That would seem to be the best thing for our state.

Alan Levine, the head of Louisiana’s Department of Health, has decided to leave the Jindal administration for the private sector. This is not the first member of the Jindal administration to leave. Other people who have left are Angelle Davis, Tim Barfield and many others have left as well.

Maybe they don’t like his dredging the remnants of the barrier islands, destroying part of the last remaining natural storm surge protection, and want to get the hell out of dodge before the next hurricane comes. Maybe he doesn’t like how Jindal eels it necessary to hide every piece of information that comes through his office and feels dirty working for the super secretive Jindal. Either way, I don’t blame them one bit.

According to guest columnist Len Bahr, most of the sand being dredged for the sand berms are coming from existing barrier islands that are no longer visible above water. He states:

Although the dredging doesn’t leave a visible change at the surface, it alters the subsurface profile of an area and reduces the bottom friction that formerly absorbed hydraulic energy during approaching storm surges.

He also states:

 I’m not alone in challenging this project, although I can afford to be more vocal than most of my science colleagues. Many of them, along with their employers, fear the financial consequences of alienating Gov. Jindal, who tolerates no criticism of his sand berm fantasy.

There are also several other points made in the article that are a must read. Anybody who cares about the long term health of our coast needs to read it. Jindal is not only putting his political ambitions ahead of logic, reason, common sense and science. He is putting his political ambitions ahead of the safety and lives of the citizens of southeast Louisiana who could be hit harder by the stronger storm surges that will come because of his irresponsible dredging.  It is time that the citizens of Louisiana stop worshiping the wunderkind as if he was the second coming (or first coming for those of us who are Jewish). It is time that we demand our governor to stop rejecting good science.

The Army Corps of Engineers has denied the use of rocks to prevent oil from reaching our coast.

The reason given by the Corps is given here and includes their suggestion that by placing the rock walls that they would drive water into new channels and increase coastal erosion.

Kyle Plotkin, Bobby Jindal’s  spokesperson stated:

Only a government bureaucrat would say rocks are more harmful to our water and marshes than oil. The Corps took weeks to review the plan only to reject it today - and this denial is another unfortunate example of the federal government’s lack of urgency in this war to protect our coast

Right, because the best way to make sure that the coast doesn’t get damaged with oil is to make the coast erode so it is no longer there.

Perhaps if Bobby Jindal and his administration had taken time to actually study ways to protect our coast without destroying it instead of whining and complaining about how ineffective the federal response is, we could have a solution instead of constant clashes between the state and the feds.

This almost makes me think that Jindal would rather have our coastline damaged so the GOP could have something big to attack Obama on in 2012 instead of working with him to solve his problem so they lose an opportunity to attack Democrats.

Governor Jindal signed a bill into law that returns the federal elections to an open primary system. Both parties did not like the law, which is consistent with their push to enact the law that closed the primaries in the first place.

However, this law is great for voters because it allows them to support who they actually want in the primary and then they can vote against the lesser of two evils in the runoff if their desired candidate does not make it. It also requires incumbents (as well as everyone else) to get 50%+1 of the vote to be elected. This is how it should be.

I may not agree with Bobby Jindal on much. However, I applaud him for signing this particular bill. Good Job!

To those who do not know I ran for Congress in Louisiana’s First Congressional District back in 2004. One of my opponents was Bobby Jindal.

In that campaign I was the only candidate to make coastal restoration and hurricane protection his top priority. Included in my platform was the desire to focus on methods that would work to prevent saltwater intrusion into our wetlands.

It seems to me that if we had a method to prevent saltwater from intruding into our wetlands that other substances (like oil) would also be prevented from intruding into our wetlands.

Perhaps the voters need to consider this when deciding who to support in elections instead of just supporting the popular or the establishment candidate.

Just sayin…

What is up with the conservatives in this legislative session?

First they passed legislation giving the Secretary of Health more power to shut down clinics if the clinic is deemed to be a danger to a patient of the abortion doctor. Of course, anyone with half a brain would realize that this is just an attempt to be able to call the fetus a patient of the abortion doctor and shut down abortion clinics for … wait for it… performing abortions.

They also will be requiring women to obtain an ultrasound before they obtain an abortion, you know because women make such rash decisions when making the decision to have an abortion and they can hardly be trusted to think for themselves, right Bobby?

Now they want to deny doctors the ability to be covered by malpractice insurance for elective abortions.

I cannot imagine that last bill will stand any sort of constitutional test. To say that a doctor cannot be insured when administering a legal medical activity is absurd.

Abortion is a legal medical procedure. Let’s stop treating women like second class citizens and trust them to make the right decision for themselves, shall we?

Since Oyster has moved his blogging over to The Lens, I am stealing one of his regular posting features (at least for this one post).

The AP asks:

Could the spill restore Jindal as a GOP whiz kid?

No.

This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.