Ugh

ABC News reports:

Against Gov. Jindal's Wishes, Crude-Sucking Barges Stopped by Coast Guard

Eight days ago, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered barges to begin vacuuming crude oil out of his state's oil-soaked waters. Today, against the governor's wishes, those barges sat idle, even as more oil flowed toward the Louisiana shore.

"It's the most frustrating thing," the Republican governor said today in Buras, La. "Literally, yesterday morning we found out that they were halting all of these barges."

So why stop now?

"The Coast Guard came and shut them down," Jindal said. "You got men on the barges in the oil, and they have been told by the Coast Guard, 'Cease and desist. Stop sucking up that oil.'"

A Coast Guard representative told ABC News today that it shares the same goal as the governor.

"We are all in this together. The enemy is the oil," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dan Lauer.

But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges.

The governor said he didn't have the authority to overrule the Coast Guard's decision, though he said he tried to reach the White House to raise his concerns.

"They promised us they were going to get it done as quickly as possible," he said. But "every time you talk to someone different at the Coast Guard, you get a different answer."

After Jindal strenuously made his case, the barges finally got the go-ahead today to return to the Gulf and get back to work, after more than 24 hours of sitting idle.

Sigh. Who would have thought that in the year 2010, the government of Louisiana would be so much more effective, more competent, more and less corrupt than the federal government?

The headline says it all.

Today on Slate:

The Ethanol Trap

The oil blowout will mean more
subsidies for the corn-fuel industry. That's bad news for consumers.

Conservatives have been writing about the ethanol scam for years -- how it is a lousy, inefficient fuel that drives up food prices; wastes food, fuel, and cropland; does zilch to help the environment; and gobbles up enormous amounts of public funds to no good end. It is nice to see that at least some liberals can take a break from sneering at how dumb and greedy conservatives are long enough to agree with us.

Not that the Slate author mentions that conservatives have been banging the drums on this for years, but no matter. The important thing is that the truth about this boondoggle -- a boondoggle fully supported by President Obama and his band of selfless supergeniuses -- is being reported in a place where liberals might read about it.

Fiscal Responsibility

This story perfectly captures the ridiculousness of the "stimulus" bill, and the ineptitude of the education establishment.

Polk school district to give iPods to some parents Wednesday, February 10, 2010

POLK COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- The Polk County school district is giving away iPods to some parents. The school district is using the device to reward parents of children with disabilities who fill out a 10-minute online survey. The district wants to know how well it's connecting with the parents and how to get parents involved in their children's education. The district is spending about $350,000 in federal stimulus money for the iPods. The district has more than 10,000 students with disabilities.

More evidence that we are governed by supergeniuses

This morning the good gentlemen at Powerline direct us to some particularly egregious misuses of stimulus funds. From a list compiled by the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota:

University of Minnesota - $190,464 to study sex reversal in mice:
When taxpayers were promised that economic stimulus funds would be spent only on the most critical public projects, few would have predicted that one of those projects would involve sex reversal in mice. But that's exactly what the University of Minnesota received nearly $200,000 to study.

Rodent sexuality is apparently a hot topic these days -- another ten grand went to a Dartmouth study of "sexual arousal in anesthetized female rats." And you thought "stimulus package" referred to the economy! One can be confident that these expenditures have saved or created innumerable jobs in the crucial anesthetized-and/or-transsexual-rodent sector of the American economy.

Everybody knows that old saying that legislation is like sausage; you wouldn't want to see either being made. But that's unfair to the Jimmy Deans of the world. When they make sausage, the end product tastes good. By contrast, the stuff that comes out of the Pelosi / Reid grinder leaves a foul taste in your mouth.