CBS News reports that 82.5% of Louisiana's National Guard is sitting idle while Feds and BP try to get the oil spill under control.
The party of 'state's right's' rhetoric seems to have this backwards. When it comes to legislation, they want the federal government completely out of it. When it comes to disaster, they want the feds to pay the bill while their own resources sit idle.
While they complain - constantly - about 10th amendment rights and high taxes. And the deficit (that's funding the cleanup Jindal's Louisiana isn't paying for). Now - don't get me wrong - I don't have a problem with my federal tax dollars going to help Louisiana. Jindal does, however, when it's not HIS state that needs the help.
Jindal himself has criticized the Obama administration's reaction to the oil spill by saying:
"We will only be winning this war when we're actually deploying every resource," "They (the Obama administration) can provide more resources" and "It's clear the resources needed to protect our coast are still not here."
Jindal has resources of his own he hasn't bothered to deploy. In the spirit of Desperado's blog this morning - is it possible he wants the efforts to look poor to help his party's chances in November? The G.O.B.P.? Hell, if BP doesn't do well on the cleanup, big bad G.O.P. can fight the evil socialist communist Obama administration for going after B.P. (a saintly business) to secure compensation for the blue-collar workers (a.k.a. welfare rats) who's livelihoods are now destroyed.
Jindal's response is more of the same old 'pass the buck' game. It's not his fault, of course, that the National Guard hasn't been called up. It's the "Adjutant General" who hasn't said he needs them. In the next breath, he demands the feds do more. Now, if you are that dadgum pissed at the federal government for not doing more, doesn't that indicate that the National Guard is needed?
While Jindal panders and whines that there is too much red tape and everyone else but him isn't doing enough, 1,053 of the 6,000 available National Guard troops are working. That leaves 4,947 troops Jindal could call up tomorrow. But that wouldn't fit in to his political blame game.
The people of Louisiana need to stand up against this - demand that their elected officials put aside petty partisan politics and FIX THE DAMN PROBLEM.
I always like to point out that Nagin was a born-again Democrat. He changed parties to capitalize on the Democrat voting base. He oozed Republicanism from every pore, aka, He was a major as*h*le!
There are private enterprise boats (locally) lining up to cash in on the $1500 a day paid to the oil spill workers. Waiting? Isn't the state the first line employer in such a situation AND shouldn't BP have the leading role in shelling out responsibility money...The oil spill may have disastrous effects on nature but this is certainly not a natural disaster.
It is appalling to see Jindal playing TV photo-op politics in this situation when BP would pay La. for the efforts of its National Guard - this fact, combined with even worse numbers for National Guard utilization in Ala., Miss., and Fla. explains exactly who is trying to ' never let a crisis go to waste ', besides the additional fact the Miss. gub'nur and former lobbyist/RNC chairman is apparently raising money to run for Prez in 2012.
And to clarify, Jindal told CBS News, when asked for comment, that he ' would call up more troops when I'm told they are needed by the (Guard) captains. '
We can only conclude the Southern gub'nurs have been competing for some sort of Political Theatre Award, considering all the TV interviews and staging - we hope the camera lights don't give them sun-burns.
For states to not be helping themselves, to apparently not be implementing their disaster plans, and instead turning to the big, bad, socialist DC gub'ment runs counter to everything we know about Tea baggers, libertarians, and GOBP'ers doesn't it ?
Surely the gub'nurs wouldn't just be trying to whip up some sort of discontent about the Democratic prez by pretending there was something that could be done to help the situation which wasn't already being done, would they ?
Meanwhile, my teabagging FB friends keep posting messages about how the president is "playing golf instead of fixing the leak".
As for oilacct, we all know by now that whatever Pres. Obama (or the Dems) do is bad, in your teabagging-biased opinion. As for who fiddled while New Orleans died, where was your criticism about BUSH and "Heckuvajob Brownie"? Bush, who flew OVER several days later. The White House who now claims that they didn't have "up to the minute reports" about what was going on at that time. I guess none of those nimrods knew how to turn on the damned TV, did they?
Brownie couldn't find his way out of a damn paper bag. He was too worried about "how did I look on camera" and "are these the right cuff links?" Bush was just a puppet dancing on Cheney's evil string.
Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ....to borrow a phrase from a friend.
"FIX THE DAMN PROBLEM." Yeah!!!
They would have sacked Jindal in Nashville for such crap!
Oilacct,
a) I think you can do better than the debate equivalent of "I know you are but what am I"
b) No one here is claiming the Democrats that were in charge of Louisiana were anything special. Especially Blanco and Nagin. The right (including the GOP head Rush Limbaugh) treat Jindal as the next up and comer in the G.O.P. - the second coming of Ronald Reagan, as it were. You should expect better.
c) It took three days for National Guard to arrive in New Orleans after the levy failed. We're what - 60 some odd days into the oil spill? Three days isn't good enough. 60 days is an absolute disgusting failure.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/katrina-timeline.php
And the Democrats who ran Louisiana during Katrina fiddled while New Orleans died. What's the difference?