“[Jindal's] mantra is simple, ‘We don’t have time for meetings. We don’t have time for red tape and bureaucracy.  We’re literally in a war to save our coast. Every hour matters. Every day matters.’

And Jindal, unlike BP and the Obama administration, is taking action.  He has been in the affected areas of Louisiana every day since the spill, assessing the damage, talking to locals, looking for solutions…

In a recent news conference, he said, ‘So far we’ve not heard an alternative plan; all we’ve seen is bureaucracy and roadblocks.  We have told them ‘no’ is not an answer, ‘no’ is not a plan, ‘no’ is not acceptable.’

While he is furious with BP, he is also unhappy with the government…

‘We don’t understand why our federal government would be making excuses for BP,’ Governor Jindal has said. ‘They’re the responsible party. They’re the ones that caused this oil spill… it is their oil that is showing up in our coast and our wetlands and our marshes. It just makes sense that they pay to clean up this damage. ‘…

The BP oil debacle has again focused attention on Jindal, who has risen to the occasion with pistols blazing.  He is not playing politics, he’s looking for a way to solve the problem and help his people…

Despite the difficulties facing his state, Bobby Jindal is bullish on Louisiana.  After BP capped the gushing well, the Governor cautioned that it was not yet time to declare victory.  At the same time, he noted his faith in the people of Louisiana.

‘We know that we’re going to be successful in getting our way of life back,’ said Governor Jindal. ‘Our people are resilient, they’re tough.  They got through Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike.  And they’ll get through this oil spill as well.’”

Click Here To Read The Full Article In The Washington Times

“…It’s a little after 12:30 p.m. at the Port of New Orleans. Gov. Bobby Jindal has assembled a room full of local parish leaders and high-ranking state officials to unveil a four-point plan for revitalizing the Louisiana coast in the aftermath of the oil spill. It’s bold, transformative, even inspirational. In the absence of federal leadership, Jindal is forging ahead, taking control of a desperate situation.

Jindal is full of energy and enthusiasm as he commands the meeting. He works through his four items, then delves back in for a second go-around to explain them in more detail…

When the oil started spewing from the Gulf of Mexico three months ago, Jindal set his team in motion. The state’s emergency response website serves as the go-to source for information on the spill. Since April 22, it’s had more than 300 updates on everything from recreational fishing to requests for federal help.

Information overload? Not for Jindal. He’s constantly consuming data. This is evident at the daily briefing he attends on the oil spill. He asks pointed questions about the status of the cleanup, pushing for more details about oil sightings and skimmers…

Jindal’s four-point plan won’t be easy to implement or execute. He wants to put in place an ambitious coastal restoration project to restore the ecosystem, get fishermen back on the water quickly, lift the federal government’s offshore drilling moratorium and hold BP accountable for damages to the environment…

Through it all, Jindal has remained upbeat and optimistic…

Unlike Hurricane Katrina, which captivated the nation for months and years, the cleanup probably won’t generate the same level of attention or sympathy with the oil no longer flowing…

That’s not lost on Jindal. His response to last week’s good news: It’s too early to declare victory. ‘We have been fighting a war against this oil for months now and we know our battles don’t end even when the well is capped,’ he said.

Then, doing what he does best, he shifted from straightforward chief executive to awe-inspiring leader with a compassionate heart and optimistic outlook.

‘I have no doubt that we will come back stronger than ever before from this disaster, just as we have done in our recovery from four devastating storms in three years,’ Jindal said. ‘It’s the perseverance of the people of Louisiana that will ensure our successful recovery and fully restore our Louisiana Way of Life.’

If Jindal has no doubt Louisiana will persevere, it would be foolish to doubt him.”

Robert Bluey directs the Center for Media & Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation.

Click Here To Read The Full Article In The New Ledger

“To the dismay of oil-slicked Louisiana and the oil-threatened Gulf Coast, President Barack Obama chose philosophy over fighting when he addressed the nation Tuesday night…

Obama gave an 18-minute speech that said what he has said before: We must stop the flow, hold rig operator BP Plc accountable and fix the regulatory failures of previous administrations.

Given that this is all he has in his arsenal, he should have saved the nation the time and gone directly to the bottom of the TelePrompTer: ‘We pray for the people of the Gulf.’…

While on the Gulf Coast earlier this week, Obama told leaders of hard-hit Louisiana parishes that the displaced workers certainly are eligible to sign up for unemployment compensation.

That statement is stunningly gross, but it does something important.

It speaks to the distance between Obama’s agenda and his concern about the reality that is crippling the Gulf Coast: Like the devastation being done, the distance cannot be measured.”

Click Here For The Full Article In The Alexandria Town-Talk

“Louisiana’s efforts to attack oil approaching coastal wetlands have repeatedly been stymied by BP and federal officials, state officials on Wednesday told members of the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which oversees coastal restoration and levee construction projects…

Garret Graves, authority chairman and coastal adviser to Gov. Bobby Jindal, said the latest obstacle was a Wednesday order from Coast Guard officials to recall several barges carrying vacuum trucks that officials were using to suck oil out of the Gulf near wetlands and barrier islands…

The innovative idea is one of several that Graves said were brainstormed ‘like we thought up turducken,’ a reference to the Cajun delicacy consisting of a turkey stuffed with a duck stuffed with a chicken.

The state’s attempts to rapidly deploy oil-catching strategies is being driven by increasing concern that the oil is beginning to have serious effects on wetlands. Some oiled wetland patches were clearly dead after only three days, he said…

The frustration also extends to the decision by National Incident Commander Adm. Thad Allen to approve construction of only six island berms the state hopes will capture oil before it reaches interior wetlands or natural barrier islands.

Allen’s reluctant decision to approve even that 40-mile batch of sand pits — four west of the Mississippi River’s bird foot delta and two on the east side, along the Chandeleur Islands — still leaves hundreds of miles of shoreline at risk, Graves said…

The sense of urgency caused by the threat of oil and the often-misunderstood relationship between coastal Louisiana residents and the oil industry seem to be difficult for both federal officials and environmental critics to understand, Graves said…

Because state officials knew the potential effects of a worst-case spill on the state’s wetlands, they were surprised when, three days after the spill, their original requests for 5 million feet of hard boom and 6 million feet of absorbent boom were ignored, as were repeated requests for a copy of the federal plan for dispensing boom during an emergency…”

Click Here For The Full Article In The New Orleans Times-Picayune

“…’This job killing ban on drilling is causing more problems right now than the oil [spill] long term because it’s threatening over 40,000 jobs,’ said Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.). ‘It’s starting to already have reverberating, crippling effects to our economy…’

Scalise, who visited Grand Isle, La. last week, said he heard from local leaders that they’re ‘spending more time battling the federal government and BP than they are battling the oil.’…

‘There’s no excuse for that,’ he said.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) … said Obama is using the crisis to advance energy policy that people don’t want.

‘The president is preparing this evening, in the midst of this widening crisis, to use his address to the American people to advance his disastrous national energy tax known as the cap and trade,’ he said. ‘The American people don’t want the administration to exploit the crisis in the gulf to advance their disastrous energy policies. We won’t cap that well with cap and trade…’”

Click Here For The Full Article In The Politico

“Like the enterprising weavers who promised the emperor new clothes with extraordinary powers, Democrats in Congress have promised more than they can deliver…

While the claims are extraordinary, the health reform law is not. In April, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released their analysis of the new law and found the legislation will increase government health care spending, set up provider shortages and limit access to providers because of low Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates.

And that is just the beginning. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the official scorekeeper for Congress, estimated your families’ health insurance premiums will rise by as much as $2,100 annually.

The new law also imposes job-killing tax increases on businesses when nearly one out of 10 Americans is out of work. These increases have led companies such as Caterpillar, John Deere and AT&T to announce losses of hundreds of millions of dollars or more and others such as White Castle to announce significant expected job cuts…

And what about the deficit?…

The bottom line is the cost has not been fully counted. What we do know is the new health care reform law will increase health care expenditures, raise your families insurance premiums, increase the deficit, cut senior citizens’ benefits, expand Medicaid — a program already facing a provider shortage because of low government reimbursements — and be financed with $568 billion in job-killing tax increases, a half trillion dollar slash to senior citizens’ Medicare coverage and by raiding Social Security.

Americans understand this, and 63 percent want the new law repealed. It is a fundamentally failed concept and Americans are rejecting its socialistic tenants….

It is time for a reality check. It is plain to see the emperor has no clothes.”

Click Here For The Full Article In The Shreveport Times

New Orleans Times-Picayune
Editorial
Friday, June 11, 2010

“…Eight of the 15 members of the review panel are charging that the administration misrepresented their position by suggesting they supported a blanket moratorium that they actually oppose. Their criticism, and the administration’s response, are evidence that the six-month stoppage is based on politics rather than on science.

That’s not how a decision that could wreck South Louisiana’s economy should have been made — and the president should reconsider it…

“A blanket moratorium is not the answer. It will not measurably reduce risks further and it will have a lasting impact on the nation’s economy which may be greater than that of the spill,” the experts wrote.

They are right…

Gov. Bobby Jindal on Thursday worried that the White House just doesn’t get it. He said that in a conference call, presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett ‘asked again why the rigs simply wouldn’t come back after six months … I fear they think these rigs can just flip a switch on and off.’

That would be a grave misunderstanding of how the industry works and of what’s at stake for Louisiana.

The Obama administration also is trying to frame the moratorium debate as a choice between the president’s six-month stoppage and re-starting drilling without any safety improvements. That’s a false choice, and the administration knows it…”

Click Here For The Full Article In The New Orleans Times-Picayune

“…Rather than responding with reason and precision, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has provoked overreaction and error from Washington. Seized by emotion and alarm, the administration has reacted in knee-jerk fashion with an unnecessary and counterproductive moratorium on deepwater Outer Continental Shelf energy production…

Lacking the equipment or expertise needed to take control of an oil leak 5,000 feet under the sea, the federal government appears impotent.

In response, President Barack Obama’s emotion is described with a new adjective almost daily. He is ‘frustrated,’ then ‘furious.’ Lately, he is ‘enraged.’

Instead of bounding between emotions in reaction to media coverage, the president should take the long view. He should recognize that the verdict on his administration’s handling of this disaster will be rendered in six months or six years — not on the 6 o’clock news…

Emotion — not evidence — has led the president to this moratorium. It may give him a feel-good, get-tough headline today, but it will cause real suffering for those most affected by the spill.

When the president said he was looking for someone’s ‘ass to kick,’ I hope he didn’t intend to aim his foot at the 320,000 Louisianans who owe their livelihoods to the energy economy.

An offshore moratorium isn’t punishment for executives at multinational corporations that can move their rigs elsewhere. But it is harsh punishment for the welders, pipe fitters, roustabouts and workers in the range of service and support industries connected to energy production in the Gulf Coast…

With one of every 14 Louisiana residents directly or indirectly employed through petrochemical production, the president’s moratorium is expected to cost the state’s workers $330 million in lost wages every month.

The Louisiana Department of Economic Development estimates that this will eliminate more than 10,000 jobs in the near term and more than 20,000 within 18 months…”

Click Here For The Full Article In The Politico

“Since last month’s oil-spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, two very different leadership styles have been on display. On the one hand we have President Obama, who took nine days before making a public statement on the spill. On the other, we have Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has been intensely and vocally involved from the beginning…

Under the justification of maintaining a regular schedule and demonstrating calm, President Obama has cavalierly gone about with casual events, even fundraisers, choosing to keep most of his disaster response effort private. So private, in fact, that those of us living far away from the slick might even be forgiven for forgetting about it.

Down in Louisiana, people have seen a very different story. Gov. Jindal has engaged completely in all aspects of disaster relief efforts. He has been a tireless advocate for his state, challenging mistaken federal approaches and pressuring BP to make every possible effort to quell this spill…

I will be watching with the rest of the country to see where the president goes from here. I hope he will exceed the pattern he has shown us so far. And in the meantime, my prayers and support are with Gov. Jindal and the good people of Louisiana in the face of this tragedy…”

Click Here To Read The Full Article In The Opelousas Daily World