Dog Days of Summer

It's the dog days of summer around here to be sure.  My blogging has been kind of slow over the past couple of days, too.  Everything slows down.

We got a little rain yesterday for the first time in weeks.  The grass turned green again overnight so I got out and did the yard this morning before we hit triple digits again.  It always looks so nice when it has just been mowed. 

Even the dogs are feeling the heat; the lab thinks he wants to go outside and chase the tennis ball, but after four or five throws his tongue is hanging out and he's ready to go back inside.  Both of them have rejected the carpet and spend the afternoons on the tile floor in the bathroom or the Pergo in the kitchen, and that's with the AC cranked down meat locker temps.

My mother has read every single book in the local library that remotely holds her interest.  I spent an hour, literally, in there yesterday trying to find something she would read and walked out empty handed.  I'm headed to Barnes & Noble today and maybe some used book shops.  She's heavy into memoirs and biographies. Some fiction but she prefers female authors and nothing racy or "obscene."  Think Rosamunde Pilcher.

I'm reading the latest Abigail Adams biography (in sidebar) and it's really good.  Very "readable," whatever that means.  I love the purity of the language and the way they spoke then.  It was just beautiful.  We've mangled the English language through the decades.  Seriously.  My teenager says things to me I can't even deciper. "Man!  That car is FIRE!"  Hunh?  "He's stuntin' on me."  ?????  Okay.

So things are slow but I think back to the school year when my stress level was off the charts and I had too much to do and too few hours in the day and I would have given anything for a few quiet hours to read and write and work on my blog.  My goal for the summer, as it always is, is to try and get my stats up and increase readership.  I'm still plugging along about where I always was with hits.  I missed some major part of Stacy McCain's How to Get a Million Hits lesson, apparently. 

Life is slow, but it's okay.  It's summer!  I still have some interior painting to do and a couple of closets to clean out.  Then I'll feel like I've accomplished something around this place.

I'm going to hit the showers and get the yard sweat off of me and see what the day holds.

Abita Sends an SOS

Abita beer is sending out an SOS for the Gulf shores.  The company has announced a new beer which will hit the shelves of 41 states in mid-July brewed specifically for the purpose of raising money for "the rescue and restoration of the environment, industry and individuals fighting to survive this disastrous oil spill." 

The company previously raised a half a million dollars for Katrina recovery with the marketing of a specially brewed Restoration Pale Ale.

From the SOS.Abita webpage:

This Abita Beer is a message in a bottle...a distress signal for the troubled waters of our Gulf Coast. For every bottle sold Abita will donate 75¢ to the rescue and restoration of the environment, industry and individuals fighting to survive this disastrous oil spill. This unfiltered Weizen Pils is made with Pilsner and Wheat malts. It is hopped and dry hopped with Sterling and German Perle hops. It has a brilliant gold color, a sweet malt flavor, and a pleasant bitterness and aroma.

Side note:  the SOS webpage is adorable; mouse over all the flying and swimming creatures and they all have a message.  Very cute.

The SOS (Save our Shores) bottles are etched with pelicans, fish and other creatures spelling out SOS.

There will also be a line of merchandise with the SOS logo: shirts, caps, pins, magnets, etc. 

Take a Trip to Jefferson, Texas

Hot!!!!  That's how I describe our day-trip to Jefferson, TX today.  Hot.  Blazin' hot.

It was so hot, my picture taking mojo wasn't even working, but I'll share a few with you.  We took Steve's old buddy Bob and his family to Jefferson because they'd never been there.  Bob is from New Jersey.

We left around 10 this morning and arrived around 11.  Our first stop was the General Store.  This place has everything.  It opened in the 1870s as a hardware store and today has everything under the sun including a five cent cup of coffee.

They also have an old fashioned soda fountain where you can get floats, shakes, chili dogs.  You can sit at one of the tables already set with a checkers game ready to go.

From there we walked down to the huge antique mall, but it has no air conditioning and the overhead fans just weren't getting it.  Steve and I have gone in there before and it's an awesome place to poke around and find treasures, but it was just too hot today.

We decided it was time to sit down in the AC and get some lunch so we headed to my favorite, Auntie Skinners.  I had a club sandwich and I think everyone else had burgers.  Steve and I both enjoyed a cold Sam Adams Boston Lager on draft.  You can tell by the picture it was a slow day; usually the place is jammed, but on a 98 degree Wednesday at 2:00, it was slow.

We had Bob take our picture outside.

There was this guy standing behind Bob waiting for him to take the picture before he went inside; I told Bob, "Don't take it if I look fat!"  The guy said "You don't look fat; you look just lovely and I'd be hittin' on you but that guy's bigger than I am!"  It was funny.  People are friendly there.

After lunch we went to the Excelsior House, which has been in operation since the 1850s.  Lots of famous people have stayed there; in the lobby they have the guest register signed by Ulysses S. Grant and by Oscar Wilde.  I took this lame picture with my phone where George and Laura Bush stayed there in July 1996:

One of the things I really love about the Excelsior House is sitting outside on the front porch just watching the slow traffic go by.  Even though it was hot today, it was very relaxing.

Bob wanted to take the Jay Gould Railroad Car tour, so we did that; as many times as Steve and I have been to Jefferson, we've never toured the railroad car.  It was really interesting and cool.  I could totally have traveled across the country in style in that thing!  Our guide, Sarah, was very knowledgeable and answered every question Bob had for her, and he had a lot!  In short, Jay Gould was a self made millionaire by the time he was twenty-one.  He grew up without any money but learned every trade and skill he possibly could and made his fortune.  He got into the railroad business and wanted to run his railroad through Jefferson.  His proposal was rejected because it would have meant tearing down most of the important buildings there.  He got mad, put a curse on the town and moved on.  But his private railroad car is there now and is open for tours:

This was Mrs. Gould's bedroom:

and his adjoining room; the rooms were connected with a full bath complete with a claw footed tub.

The kitchen/servants quarters:

And a kind of sitting room where Gould also conducted business:

There was a dining room at the far end of the car, but there was no table in it.  Our guide said there would have been a table with eight chairs and a sofa when Gould had it.  The original silver serving pieces were in a glass fronted cabinet.

Here are we tourists on the car:

After that we hit a couple more antique shops and the Fudge Shop.  We drove around town a little, looking at the neat houses, and then headed home.  We got back in Shreveport around 5:00.

We had a good time but next time, we'll go when it's a little cooler!

Time For Another Day Trip

Blogging will be light around here this morning/afternoon; we're off on another day trip.  This time it's to Jefferson, Tx., one of our favorite destinations.  We're taking Steve's friend Bob, from New Jersey, and his family.

Expect another travelogue this evening, I suppose, similar to my recent report on Coushatta.  Here is the account of our last trip to Jefferson.

Have a spunky day and behave yourselves. 

The Feds Latest Attempt to Kill Louisiana: Dredging Stopped

The federal government's latest effort to shut down Louisiana's effort to protect the coast is to halt sand berm dredging near the Chandeleur barrier islands.

The feds are requesting that the dredging operation be moved two miles further offshore.

The Chandeleur islands are an important nesting area for the brown pelican which has been hard hit in the oil crisis.  Interior Secretary Tom Strickland says the current dredging operation compromises the islands in the event of a hurricane.  He explains that the state was to install pipe that would transport sand from a less sensitive area, however, it would take five to seven days to run the pipeline, time which Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser says could be better used to just build the berms. 

NOLA has the full story here.

I'm trying to see both sides here; I'm trying to understand the "coastal scientists" who contend that the berms will "change tidal patterns" and lead to more long term erosion of the islands, but if the islands are killed off by the oil what difference does it make?  To borrow from Greta Perry's analogy, if my house is on fire, what does it matter what room I try to extinguish first?  It's all doing down.

Jindal's argument is that it took so long to get the project approved in the first place, he doesn't want to stop and go through all the red tape again.  Dredging is scheduled to stop at midnight Wednesday.

And if you don't think Louisianians are watching this map closely, well...time is of the essence:

It seems that the feds are doing everything they can to cripple Louisiana's own response to this crisis.  Bobby Jindal reached his exasperation point long ago when he said, and I'm paraphrasing, If you're not going to fix it, get out of the way and let us do it ourselves!  From the moratorium, and Salazar's promise to appeal the strike down of that moratorium, to the crazy red tape on the berm projects, to shutting down the skimmer barges for 24 hours, and now this?

Well, we could get the idea that Team Obama was trying to neutralize Jindal's response, as if he were threatened by Bobby Jindal, or something.

Surely not, hunh?

Update:  Billy Nungesser is....ticked off: (H/T: The Dead Pelican)

Jindal Responds to Moratorium Ruling

Via WWL news, Governor Bobby Jindal is pleased with the moratorium ruling today, and encouraged the White House not to appeal the ruling:

We were very please with the preliminary injunction today...the judge called the moratorium arbitrary and capricious.

Listen to your own scientific experts that met with Secretary Salazar yesterday, to say they never recommended a six-month moratorium," Jindal implored the White House. "Listen to the same experts who said that six month moratorium was not necessary to improve safety in the Gulf," 

 Reuters reports, however, that the White House will immediately appeal the ruling, citing safety and concern for the environment. The Hill confirms this.

Wait, what?  Concern for the environment?  When did that happen?  Did Obama waive the Jones Act and let those Dutch skimmers come in?  Did I miss that?

Because, you know, when one person screws up, we have to punish everybody.  Sort of like how the government shut down all auto manufacturing when Toyota had that problem with those brake pedals awhile back.

What?  No?

Right.

Shame on Reuters and Shame on Miley

I don't spend much time worrying about celebrities.  I don't read TMZ or Perez Hilton.  I have a low opinion of most celebrities, but there are a few exceptions.  There are some who believe their opinions matter more than most just because they are famous (like Sean Penn), but I rather miss the old days when celebrities kept their private lives, and body parts, to themselves.

We live in such a voyeuristic society today.  What are the rules when celebrities are actually children?  Is is just open season on them because they have put themselves (or someone else has...) put them in the spotlight?

Last week Perez Hilton came under fire for publishing the "upskirt" photo of Miley Cyrus climbing out of a convertible without proper undergarments.  Was he wrong to publish the picture?  Morally, yes.  Legally, the issue is that she's a minor and therefore it could be considered child porn.

But, what can you expect from Perez Hilton, anyway?  That's no excuse, but still...

Now we have Reuters, a normally respected news agency, publishing the latest wardrobe malfunction of Miley Cyrus at the MuchMusic Video Awards last night.  I'm not going to even link to it because it's disgusting.  Reuters defends the publication of the photo saying " it occurred on stage in front of hundreds of people and other cameras, as well as the fact that the teen sensation is transitioning away from 'Hannah Montana' and into a more grown-up performer."  Not good enough.  She's not "grown-up" - she's seventeen.

Where do we, as a society, draw the line when it comes to children in show business?  We've seen the absolute meltdown of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan occur right before our eyes.  Have Miley's handlers or parents learned nothing from this?  This is a dangerous road.

There are many young girls who hear Miley Cyrus and think "Hannah Montana!"  Does she have an obligation to set an example for them?  Does Miley have an obligation to herself to maintain some class and dignity?

I'm rather at a loss for words on this one.  Normally, I'd say, "She's a celebrity, practically an adult...if she wants to go down that road, fine."  But, she's still a child.  She's seventeen.

It's just sad.

It's sad that anyone, ANYONE, let her go out on that stage "dressed" like ... well, like that, last night.  Her performance last night, on top of the Perez Hilton scandal last week signals a dangerous road for Miley, to me.  Her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, caught a lot of flak over the Vanity Fair shoot two years ago (when she was fifteen), and apparently learned little from it, or just doesn't think it's a big deal.  At the time, I thought the photos were kind of creepy, but I let it go.  In retrospect, maybe we should have paid more attention. 

I hate to see a promising, formerly wholesome, young girl go the same route as Britney and Lindsay.  I'm not a prude or Victorian by any means, but .... she's seventeen.  Honestly, it wouldn't be much better if she was 21, but ... she's seventeen.

Shame on Reuters for publishing such rot.  Shame on her parents and shame on her.

Sad.


(H/T:  The Other McCain)

Judge Blocks Drilling Moratorium

Just breaking via Breitbart:

A federal judge in New Orleans has blocked a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling projects that was imposed in response to the massive Gulf oil spill.
Several companies that ferry people and supplies and provide other services to offshore drilling rigs had asked U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans to overturn the moratorium.

President Barack Obama's administration has halted the approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling at 33 exploratory wells in the Gulf.

Feldman says in his ruling that the Interior Department failed to provide adequate reasoning for the moratorium. He says it seems to assume that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger. 

The White House plans an immediate appeal, according to Fox.

The Quick Low Down on the Oil Spill

Ben Stein has the short 'n sweet of the Gulf oil spill today over at American Specatator.  In a brief article of bullet points, Stein points out exactly what's going on and he's absolutely dead on. 

There's been all the clamor over the Jones act, which I've delved into as well, and Obama's failure to waive it even as foreign ships with more than adequate technology offer to come help clean up the mess.  It's the unions, stupid!  Obama is sacrificing the wetlands for the unions. Period.

Stein raises several other points with which I fully agree, most particularly that of the $20 million BP shakedown:

I can always tell which people have never read the Constitution and/or have no idea of Constitutional law by who says, "It doesn't matter that the law does not allow Mr. Obama to just extort money out of BP's shareholders -- most of whom are widows and pensioners. He can do it anyway because the situation is urgent and a crisis."
 
The Constitution makes no exceptions about limiting the President's powers if he deems an event a crisis. The Constitution is a document of enumerated and limited powers for each of the three branches and for the federal government itself. Nowhere does it say, "However, if the President says it's a crisis, he can do anything he pleases and this document means nothing."
 
The whole point of the Constitution is that it is in control no matter how dire the situation. The fact that Mr. Obama does not recognize this, and that when one lone Congressman points it out he gets spit on by his colleagues, is deeply frightening. The truth that the media almost never calls him on it is even more worrisome.

Rep. Joe Barton maybe chose the wrong forum for his comment, or maybe he shouldn't have apologized to Tony "Let's Go Yachting!" Hayward, but he's correct in calling a shakedown a shakedown.   And he's correct in asserting it is unconstitutional.

Read the whole thing.

The Prophetic Michael Yon

Add war correspondent Michael Yon to those calling for the firing of General McChrystal as a result of the Rolling Stone article.  Yon has a copy of the article and has been posting excerpts to his Facebook page, including this one:

"By midnight at Kitty O'Shea's, much of Team America is completely shitfaced.  Two officers do an Irish jig, mixed with steps from a traditional Afghan wedding dance, while McChrystal's top advisers lock arms and sing a slurred song of their own invention.  "Afghanistan!"  they bellow.  "Afghanistan!"  They call it their Afghanistan song."

McChrystal steps away from the circle observing his team.  "All these men," he tells me, "I'd die for them.  And they'd die for me."

Yon reports that this drunk-fest was also the same week he was de-embedded.

Yon writes:  "From here on out I'm going to call McChrystal President McChystal until President Obama fires him or McChrystal denies this article," citing complete insubordination to the president.

Yon has been critical of McChrystal for weeks now and warning of a failed outcome in Afghanistan under current leadership there.  Most recently, Yon reported on June 12 that morale is dangerously low and McChrystal should be replaced.

Looks like Yon might have been right.

The Rolling Stone article is here.

Jindal Goes to Court

Governor Bobby Jindal is now fighting the deepwater drilling moratorium in court.  The Hill reports:

Jindal and state Attorney General Buddy Caldwell on Sunday filed a legal brief in support of a Louisiana-based offshore services company that’s asking a federal judge to lift the ban. The ban is “effectively turning an environmental disaster into an economic catastrophe for the state,” the brief alleges.

The brief also points out that federal officials are required to work with states in such matters and in this case, the State of Louisiana was ignored:

The brief supports a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Hornbeck Offshore Services, which alleges the ban violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

Jindal is raising his own claims too. The brief cites language in the offshore statute that calls for federal officials to work with states in making decisions about development policy in federal waters.

“Inasmuch as the State of Louisiana was completely ignored by Defendants in the establishment of the moratorium for alleged safety reasons, the question arises whether that failure renders Defendants’ action invalid,” the brief states.

 How are the coastal residents faring this week?  Poorly.  NPR has the story of Marty Theriot who operates an ice house in Dulac, La.   There isn't much need for lots of ice now that the fisherman aren't fishing and the shrimpers aren't shrimping:

"I'm making as less as possible," Theriot says. "Trying to save money. I just make a little ice during the day, so I can sell them ... to keep my doors open. Just made a batch of ice."  This year, the Monday after Mother's Day was supposed to mark the start of Theriot's busiest season.

"We worked all day Saturday," Theriot says. "Then we get a telephone call saying they just closed the shrimp season because there's oil coming into the coast."  Instantly, 90 percent of Theriot's customers stopped fishing, and therefore buying ice.

Paul Clement in Chauvin opened Paul's Drive-Thru in January in anticipation of the upcoming tourist season which, of course, will not materialize.   He's going to cleanup sites begging workers to patronize his business, so far, to no avail.

There are hundreds of stories like theirs.

As for the cleanup efforts, many locals in the local service industry are finding that BP is bringing in materials and equipment from the outside that are already in place locally.  The locals are getting shut out:

Don Griffin, who owns Griffin's Marina in Leeville, said he has watched BP contractors bring in portable fuel tanks and doing construction on a nearby dock to supply cleanup boats. His business, about a mile away, has been providing fuel services for years.  “It seems mysterious: Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on something that's already there?” he asked.

Same goes  for Jimmy Lirette who owns a rental company.  His business has dropped since the moratorium but even worse, he, too, sees BP bringing in equipment from the outside:

“I kept seeing trucks from Florida and Missouri with the same equipment I had here in the yard, not on rent,” Lirette said. “It was just a bit frustrating.”

Maybe the people at the Daily Kooks can explain to all these residents why the moratorium should stay in effect.  Jed Lewison calls Bobby Jindal "a fool" and his position "stupid beyond belief."  Lewison believes we should "fully understand" deepwater drilling before it is resumed.  Lewison will likely never understand anything more complicated than a keyboard but he does represent the views of many leftists who would shut down all drilling altogether, which, as we all know, is totally unrealistic.

State Attorney General Buddy Caldwell explains:

The drilling ban may cost Louisiana’s economy, “which was already weakened by Katrina and is now crippled by the Deepwater Horizon disaster,’’ almost 11,000 direct and indirect jobs in five months, Caldwell said in papers filed yesterday in federal court in New Orleans.

“Even after the catastrophic events of Sept. 11, the government only shut down the airlines for three days,’’ Caldwell said in support of Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC’s lawsuit seeking to end the moratorium.

A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments today regarding the moratorium.  

And, as I've suggested before, nobody suggested placing a moratorium on coal mining after the April explosion in West Virginia in the Massey coal mine which killed 29 workers.

The brief filed can be found here. (PDF/17 pgs.)

Shreveport Police Lose One of Their Own

Sad news today:  Sgt. Greg Washam, a veteran Shreveport police officer, has died after emergency surgery related to a cerebral hemorrhage he suffered last week.  He'd been on the force for 20 years.  He was also in the United States Army Reserves where he reached the rank of Lt. Col.

He was 45 years old, married, and the father of two sons, ages 11 and 16 months.

From the website of his family:

In a eulogy posted by friend and co-worker, Shreveport Police Cpl. R.T. Edwards writes, "Lieutenant Colonel Greg Washam: Greg has fought this last battle with all his heart, giving no quarter, but today he received the order to withdraw. Greg ignored the order refusing to give up his position until the very last minute. On the 20th day of June in the year 2010; LtCol GD Washam broke camp and withdrew to his final position. He has rallied with those who fell before him, he is in very good company. "All the way Sir!" He will be missed but never forgotten."

There's been a trust fund set up to help the family.  Go here.

Protest Rally in Houma While NOLA Calls Moratorium "Myopic"

NOLA has an editorial today in opposition to the six month drilling moratorium which clearly states how devastating this move by the administration will be.

The thing about the moratorium that the administration doesn't seem to get (or maybe...they do...) and, which I've tried to express before, is that it isn't just the workers on the rigs who will lose their jobs.  When Obama does a "shakedown" on BP and they agree to open a fund for those "affected" by the shutdown, does it also include support for those "people in oil-related jobs" who "earn their livings on tugboats and supply boats and in shipyards, helipads, catering kitchens and other places on shore"?

NOLA calls the administration's move "myopic" and, indeed it is.  What it really is, though, is even still more evidence that this country elected the wrong leader.  An experienced man, a man with background in running a business, or making a payroll, or managing something more complicated than a campaign, would have forseen that a six month shutdown of all drilling in Gulf waters would simply cripple the Louisiana economy.

This is yet more evidence that when we elect leaders, charisma and rhetoric is simply not enough.

Even the fund BP is required to set up wasn't even properly considered (besides the legal issues, I mean); from NOLA:

In all, 18,000 to 24,000 jobs related to the 30 shuttered rigs across the Gulf are in jeopardy from the drilling moratorium. But this fund, which BP agreed to provide, targets only 6,000 to 8,000 Gulf Coast residents who work on the rigs themselves. Those workers make an average of $2,400 a week, counting benefits, which means the fund could dry up in as little as six weeks, with months left before the moratorium ends.

Dandy.  Now add to that:

According to the LSU Center for Energy Studies, Louisiana residents account for 3,339 of rig workers who are likely to lose their jobs, but another 7,656 Louisianians who work in jobs related to drilling also face likely layoffs. That's 10,955 people who stand to lose their source of income, joining the fishers, shrimpers, oyster harvesters, charter boat operators, seafood processors, restaurateurs and many others whose livelihoods have already succumbed to the oil spill.

Does this fund include just the rig workers, for which it will already be insufficient, but will it also include these others?  All they have to look forward to is 99 weeks of unemployment checks. And if you're a self-employed shrimper, how are you supposed to get traditional unemployment?  How are you supposed to find another job in an economy where nearly 11,000 have also joined you in the ranks?  Other estimates say 40,000 will be out of work.

There was a rally in Houma, Louisiana yesterday against the moratorium.  About two hundred people came out to protest and even a sudden rainstorm couldn't stop them.  People at that rally are already feeling the effects of the shutdown and children's author Patsy Powell said, "We are all in the oil industry, whether we work at a school or a snoball stand.”

Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet said, “Mr. President, if you’re going to punish all the oil companies because of one oil company, that’s wrong,”

Louisiana legislators have unanimously voted to declare today a statewide day of prayer:

"Thus far efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail," state Sen. Robert Adley said in a statement released after last week's unanimous vote for the day of prayer. "It is clearly time for a miracle for us."

I'm all for miracles because that is, indeed, what it looks like we'll need.


(Photo credit:  Getty Images)

Rahm Focuses on Ways to Help the Gulf Region

Oh I just can't let this one go.  I've already complained about Obama going to the baseball game while he's supposed to be all over the oil spill.  But this is too rich.

Today, Tony Hayward, as you've heard by now, went yachting in England and Obama played golf with Joe Biden.  Wonder what the "small people" in south Louisiana were doing today?

Even better?  Rahm Emanuel's line to ABC's This Week:

Referring to the yachting, Emanuel tells ABC's "This Week," ''He's got his life back, as he would say."  Emanuel says the focus should stay on capping the leaking well and helping the people of the Gulf region.

What stones this guy has.  

Anybody have any ideas how golfing and baseball is "helping the people of the Gulf region"?

(More at Memeorandum)

On the Presidential Image

I wonder how looking at this picture makes Mike Ellis of Harvey, La. feel?  Or Capt. Richard Garner?  Or the 50,000 people expected to be out of work because of the moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf?

At the risk of repeating myself, even George W. Bush, who wasn't nearly as stupid as the liberals wanted you to think he was, realized the importance of image.  He quit playing golf during the Iraq war because he said,

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander-in-chief playing golf," he said. "I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them."

This is an attitude completely lost on Obama whose idea of image is something else altogether.   There have been a couple of good videos about Obama's lackadaisical response to the gulf oil disaster, but for me it comes down to distilled images. 

You have this

And you have this.

You have this:

And this:

The image of President of the United States should be one of dignified and responsible leadership rather than a mockery of the office with one who blathers about kicking ass.  Yesterday in Ohio, Obama poked fun at Joe Biden's earlier gaffe, saying the stimulus work in Ohio was "a Big....Deal."  He didn't have to say the word for you to hear it. 

Presidential?  I don't think so.

This is one of the things that just galls me about Obama; his total disregard for the image of the office.  He doesn't care what people think about the President of the United States; he cares about what you think of him, though.  He sees himself as above the office.

He has no leadership skills.  A leader would not be attending parties, baseball games, fundraisers, concerts, picnics, and playing golf while the worst environmental crisis in the nation's history is unfolding.  Even if he can't "suck it up with a straw" himself, he doesn't need to put himself in front of the cameras enjoying the high life at every opportunity. 

Stay home, Mr. President.  Consult with experts.  Figure out a solution for this mess.  Watch baseball on television.  Adopt an air of dignified compassion and concern rather than yukking it up with a beer at a baseball game.  It doesn't make anybody feel better to see you hosting a Cinco de Mayo party, going to the theater, or schmoozing with Paul McCartney and Bono.

And for crying out loud, spend Father's Day at home with your kids tomorrow and leave the golf bag in the closet.

(H/T:  Pundette)

Full Metal Jacket Reach Around: The Father's Day Edition

It's Father's Day weekend and I'll be thinking about my Dad tomorrow.  Well, I do all the time anyway, but it's Father's Day so...; he's been gone many years now but it seems like he's still with us.

I never knew what to get daddy on Father's Day.  Mostly I'd just go hang out with him and take some little something.  Dad was in the Army Air Corps during WWII and we were always buying him books on P47s or other WWII related stuff because he loved flying so much.  I have a whole shoe box of his letters he wrote home to his mom during those years; I posted one here a while back.  He loved golf too, and so we gave him books on golf, or written by golfers he liked. 

Be nice to your Dad this weekend if you're lucky enough to still have him in your life.  And if he's gone, like mine, honor him anyway with a kind thought, a prayer or just being grateful for his role in your life. 


On to the links:

We'll start out with Bride of Rove today.  She's got a round-up going here in which she chastises me for giving Obama ideas about closing down coal mining.  Of course, that was just a rhetorical question I posed yesterday.  He'd never do such a thing because he's got other plans for putting them out of business.  He's already explained that.  The moratorium on deep water drilling is just one way to get there.

Professor Jacobson has Harry Reid's new campaign slogan.

Fishersville Mike is back online after some technical problems this week.  I'm glad, because I missed him!

Pundette buries the lede in this post about Obama's goofy trip to Ohio yesterday, then points out he went to a baseball game last night.  So glad he has the leisure time to do that and there are no pressing issues he must attend to, like putting Louisiana out of business.

Little Miss Attila clears up for Peggy Noonan the definition of "unlucky."  No Sheeples Here adds to the debate.

The Other McCain reports another bank shutdown yesterday and says we're on pace for about 170 this year.  That would be an optimistic outlook according to a friend I talked to a while back who works for FDIC; he said they're expecting about 450-500 this year.  Crikey!

Fausta has a really good post on the gulf insanity - with video.

Pirate's Cove has a happy ending to the story about the kid who got in trouble at school about his hat.

Sister Toldjah has an awesome picture of Eric Holder.

Fuzzy Logic has thoughts on this administration's plans to green the entire economy.

Obi's Sister wonders if Bobby Jindal is the new Rudy.  Maybe!

A Cop's Watch comments on Jindal, too, and reports on a class he took ... in an abandoned convent!

Bliss has an adorable video to put a smile on your face as you click on out of this post.  Go on, watch it.  It's short.

Okay, that's it for today.  Have a great Father's Day weekend, especially all you dads out there!

No Bounce

A new low.

Corps of Engineers Still Mulling Approval for Jetties

Not only has the Coast Guard stymied cleanup efforts by idling those oil sucking barges for 24 hours while they checked for life vests and fire extinguishers, now the Corps of Engineers is holding up works on rock jetties in five passes to Barataria Bay.  Approval to build the jetties has not yet been issued according to The Advocate:

Gov. Bobby Jindal, in an afternoon news conference Thursday, urged faster action on the rock jetty proposal.  The Coast Guard and BP had previously approved the construction of two of the five rock jetties proposed to help close passes that lead into the Barataria Basin northeast of Grand Isle, Jindal said.

The rock jetties would help narrow the passes around Grand Isle by 70 to 80 percent, the governor said.  The state and the parish are waiting on corps permits to start the work, but Jindal said the mayor of Grand Isle, David Camardelle, has said he’ll start mobilizing for the work with or without the permits.

Jefferson Parish made a formal request to the corps June 7 for emergency authorization to install the rock jetties, which would rise 4 feet above the water in the five passes.

The request was made June 7; that's almost two weeks ago.  You know how much oil is seeping into those marshes in that time? 

Honestly, if the government was actually trying to slow down this recovery effort, I'm not sure what they'd be doing differently.

Why Didn't Obama Shut Down the Coal Mines Until They Were Made "Absolutely Safe"?

Byron York at The Washington Examiner poses a question this morning:  "Who told Obama drilling is 'absolutely safe'"?

There was one particularly striking moment in President Obama's widely panned Oval Office speech on the Gulf oil disaster. About midway through his talk, Obama acknowledged that he had approved new offshore drilling a few weeks before the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion on April 20. But Obama said he had done so only "under the assurance that it would be absolutely safe."

Absolutely safe? Even before the Gulf spill, few defenders of offshore drilling would go that far. And when the president announced his drilling plan, on March 31, he said it was "not a decision that I've made lightly" and that he and his advisers had "looked at [it] closely for more than a year." Surely he was told of the possible risks.

And so now we're dealing with this six month moratorium in Louisiana until Obama can make sure that drilling is "safe" and his commission can "do its work."

 

Tell me, why didn't he impose a six month moratorium on coal mining after the April 2010 explosion in a West Virginia mine that killed 29 miners? 

This is a rhetorical question.

17 Afghan Military Pilots MISSING from Texas AFB?

Holy crap - Doug Ross says this should send shivers down your spine, but, man - that doesn't even get it.  This is just nuts - from FOX:

A nationwide alert has been issued for 17 members of the Afghan military who have gone AWOL from a Texas Air Force base where foreign military officers who are training to become pilots are taught English, FoxNews.com has learned.  

The Afghan officers and enlisted men have security badges that give them access to secure U.S. defense installations, according to the lookout bulletin, "Afghan Military Deserters in CONUS [Continental U.S.]," issued by Naval Criminal Investigative Service in Dallas, and obtained by FoxNews.com. 

You just can't make this stuff up.  How in the world did this happen? 

And we've got to trust Eric Holder and Team Obama to find them?  OMG.

FLASH for Peggy Noonan: Obama Is Not "Snakebit"; He's Incompetent!

I lost patience with Peggy Noonan long ago.  So long ago that even now, when she says things that I might agree with, it irritates me.  She was so rhapsodic about Obama and his glowing, glorious potential...this rising moment in post-racial American history to elect such potential, such rhetoric!  Such possibility!  Bah.

So now, here is Mrs. Noonan with a column on our poor "snakebit" president. "It isn't Mr. Obama's fault that an oil rig blew in the Gulf and a gusher resulted," she says.  Well, except for the fact that his administration, via the MMS, gave BP authorization to proceed with the Deepwater Horizon rig even though all the paperwork and studies weren't in place:

Federal documents show that the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) gave BP a "categorical exclusion" on April 6, 2009 to commence drilling with Deepwater Horizon even though it had not produced the impact study required by a law known as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The report would have included probable ecological consequences in the event of a spill.

So, while technically it's not his fault, there is still that pesky issue of "the buck stops here" and all that.

Not only is Team Obama "unlucky," you can add unprepared to the mix considering the fact that, as Mrs. Noonan says, they "hadn't anticipated a spill this big."  Well, why not?  After the Exxon Valdez did nobody have a clue this could happen again?  After the 1993 Persian Gulf spill, we still didn't consider a proper cleanup plan?  Or environmental study?  Team Obama picked up no lessons at all from the spectacular clean up of that disastrous spill?

No, Mrs. Noonan; I don't call that "snakebit"; I call it stupid.  I call it arrogant and unprepared.  I associate that with lack of experience and vision.

Even immediately after the spill, while Bobby Jindal was screaming for boom and the administration was assembling academics, Noonan says:

The first weekend in May, when water was rough, contractors hired by BP to lay boom "mostly stayed ashore," according to a local official. "Shrimpers took matters into their own hands, laying 18,000 feet of boom," compared to about 4,000 feet by BP's contractors.

The "little people" were doing the heavy lifting while the beleaguered "snakebit" president assembled a team of consultants. He delegated cleanup to BP even though they were clearly overwhelmed with capping the spill.

Noonan says this lack of proper response "dinged" the administration's "reputation for competence."  I'm sorry, but when did they EVER have a reputation for competence?  When they took weeks and months to fill critical cabinet positions?  When they failed to vet people like Van Jones, Bill Richardson,  and Tim "Tax Cheat" Geithner, among others?  When they let the Salahis crash a state dinner?  When they sent the Queen an iPod loaded with Obama's speeches?  Competence?  Nah.  Not so much.

About the only thing I actually agree with Noonan about with regard to the speech was the ridiculous hand gesticulations he made.  It was terribly distracting and looked over-coached:

Throughout the speech the president gestured showily, distractingly, with his hands. Politicians do this now because they're told by media specialists that it helps them look natural. They don't look natural, they look like Ann Bancroft gesticulating to Patty Duke in "The Miracle Worker."

But, in the end, even this goes to his lack of competence and inability to foresee danger.  Rather than have a hard copy of the speech in front of him, an aide was off camera with one in case the teleprompter broke.  Even Noonan points out how odd it would have looked had Obama suddenly stammered, lost his way and reached for the hand just off camera with a hard copy of the speech. 

Noonan is still, however she may try not to be, sympathetic to Obama.  She feels sorry for him:

And seems so snakebit, so at the mercy of forces. When you're snakebit you get some sympathy, and some will come. 

It will never come from me.  Never.  Not as long as I have blood pumping through my veins and a breath left in my body I will NEVER feel sorry for this man for what he is doing to my country.  Never.  Ever.

He's not "snakebit."  He's not "unlucky."  He's supposed to be competent!  He's supposed to be a leader qualified to hold the office of President of the Untied States.  You don't get the luxury of passing your ineffectiveness off on being "unlucky."  The guy on the golf course who gets struck by lightning might be unlucky.  But not a president who fails to act properly during the worst economic crisis our country has ever known.

Not an option.  Not acceptable.  And Peggy Noonan's excuses are not acceptable any longer, either.

Governor Jindal Has a Plan for Medicaid Reform in Louisiana

When Obamacare passed at the end of March, Governor Bobby Jindal was outspoken in his opposition to it.  Jindal knows heath care.  Before becoming Louisiana's 55th governor, Jindal served as Governor Mike Foster's Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals where, under Jindal's tenure, Louisiana's Medicaid program went from near bankruptcy to boasting a surplus of $200 million in just three years.

With the passing of Obamacare, Jindal went on the record:

“The health care bill is bad for Louisiana; it is bad for our country,” said Jindal in a quick early afternoon news conference.  It brings added costs at a time of skyrocketing debts and a bad economy, he said.

Jindal said the health care legislation approved by the U.S. House Sunday will cost Louisiana $345 million more a year because of the expansion it calls for in Medicaid — the government’s health insurance program for the poor.

Those are just counting the 360,000 individuals who are projected today, he said. “New enrollees will come out of the woodwork,” he said.  In addition, it requires health care providers to be reimbursed at a higher rate, Jindal said.

Levine elaborates on their Medicaid worries here.

The Opelousas Daily World reports that Jindal and his Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine have worked quietly to contain Medicaid costs in Louisiana.  About a quarter of our population relies on Medicaid.  So they've worked to come up with a plan to offer choices for recipients, providers, and contain Medicaid costs. Their plan?

The answer Jindal and Levine came up with is, in effect, to hire networks of private providers to cover Medicaid patients, or at least the mandated populations, mostly single adults with children. Each parent could choose a plan based on a provider's success with specific health conditions that might be of concern in the family.


The providers would have a choice of taking a flat fee per enrolled recipient to provide whatever care is necessary or getting money on a fee-for-service basis. The plan is written into the state budget for next year and could be implemented statewide by July 4, 2011.


The Jindal plan has everything — choice for recipients, choice for providers, cost containment, expanded coverage, and the tantalizing prospect of improved results for our state and federal money.

This new "managed care program" focuses primarily on children and pregnant women and will begin in just seven parishes as the plan rolls out.  In just over a year from launch, this plan will be used statewide.  The elderly and those with special needs would not be affected under this plan. Secretary Alan Levine says, “We are trying to bring some organization to a very disorganized system that is frankly financially out of control.”

If Jindal's past record on Medicaid reform and containment is any indication, the plan is likely to be a success. 

The Advocate has more details here.

The Saints Get Their Rings

The New Orleans Saints received their Super Bowl rings last night.  The ring has 44 diamonds; on one side is an image of St. Louis Cathedral, the Super Dome and a scene from the victory parade; on the other side the final score of the game.

The Saints are raffling off a Super Bowl ring to benefit the Gulf Coast relief efforts.  You can go here to order your raffle tickets.  The deadline is Thursday, September 9.

Over My Head?

Louisiana leaders were not impressed with Obama's speech Tuesday night:



Guess CNN was right; maybe it was too professorial for us down here. I guess that speech just went right over our heads.

Patterns

I'm thinking the media needs to start asking Robert Gibbs in the afternoon briefings when Obama plans to resign.  If the pattern suggested by Byron York holds, he just might do it.