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.”

Sixteen barges sat stationary today, although they were sucking up thousands of gallons of BP’s oil as recently as Tuesday. Workers in hazmat suits and gas masks pumped the oil out of the Louisiana waters and into steel tanks. It was a homegrown idea that seemed to be effective at collecting the thick gunk.

“These barges work. You’ve seen them work. You’ve seen them suck oil out of the water,” said Jindal.

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.

Fire extinguishers and life vests. Are you freaking kidding me? Is anyone in the impereial federal government operating with more than half of a brain. I sit here literally seething.

From the AP:

The unemployment rate dropped unexpectedly in January to 9.7 percent from 10 percent while employers shed 20,000 jobs, the government said Friday.

The rate dropped because a survey of households found the number of employed Americans rose by 541,000, the Labor Department said. The job losses are calculated from a separate survey of employers.

Government stats are meaningless apparently. No wonder the market shrugged off the “good” news this morning.

The Examiner notes:

The latest numbers from the Census Bureau show that there is a mass exodus of taxpayers happening in all the most liberal states. This means that such states are not only losing urgently needed revenues at the worst possible time, but also representation both in the electoral college and in the House.

As usual, California topped off the list. Even including the illegal immigrants perpetually pouring into the state, it still managed to lose almost 100,000 more residents than it gained in the year ending July 1st.

New York, Michigan, Illinois and Ohio rounded off the top five.

And isn’t it interesting that the states with the most potential for bankruptcy also happen to Democrat/liberal controlled? More from the Examiner:

As Democrats continue senselessly plunging our nation into the very same kind of left-wing fiscal insanity and government-run everything that has utterly devastated cities like Detroit, it is worth noting that the ten most bankrupt states in the country right now are also run by liberals…or they are border states being systematically decimated by the left’s persistent attempts to import an underclass of 15 million new Democrat voters.

The study, conducted by the Pew Center on the States, found that California, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin are among the most bankrupt states in the country. The only ones not run top-to-bottom by Democrats were Arizona, Florida and Nevada…all of which have huge illegal immigration problems.

Bravo, liberals. Way to show us evil, misguided proponents of the free market how it’s done.

And what should have been a lesson learned by the asshats in Washington was basically ignored. Obama and the Democrats tripled the national deficit in less than one year with their $787 billion failed stimulus. Obama increased the national debt to $12 Trillion. And he nearly doubled the unemployment rate from the Bush years since his failed Stimulus Plan was passed.

From the 5-min Forecast:

After being put into conservatorship in September of last year, Fannie and Freddie were given a nice $200 billion government cushion. (The two mortgage misfits have already managed to burn through $111 billion of that bailout.) The Treasury announced on Christmas Eve that it has removed the $200 billion cap, “to accommodate any cumulative reduction in net worth over the next three years.” It’s a slimy move, but we’re a tiny bit impressed… what’s the point in pretending that either of these institutions will ever be allowed to fail?

As taxpayers we had no say in the matter, but as investors we take note: It would be hard to bet against any company in 2010 that’s just been written a government-backed blank check. (Shares of Fannie and Freddie opened up over 15% this morning.) Also, isn’t this an implicit Treasury forecast of more housing hurt?

Barack Obama does not have Angelina Jolie’s seal of approval.

“She hates him,” a source close to the U.N. goodwill ambassador, 34, tells the new issue of Us Weekly (on newsstands now).

“She’s into education and rehabilitation and thinks Obama is all about welfare and handouts. She thinks Obama is really a socialist in disguise,” adds the source.

But don’t expect to see the Salt actress rally against Democrats on Fox News like her staunch Republican father, Jon Voight.

“Angie isn’t Republican, but she thinks Obama is all smoke and mirrors,” the source says.

And those political views are putting her at odds with Brad Pitt, 45, who is a big fan of the president and even went solo to the 2008 election party in Chicago.

“They get in nasty arguments all the time about it,” says the source. “She doesn’t respect Brad when it comes to politics, but, in the end, this won’t tear them apart.”

I’m not certain how much I believe this but I found it interesting if only at least one A-list movie star has reportedly said they didn’t care for Obama. Like the quote says, she’s no conservative, but it sort of shows how far this President has fallen in such a short period of time.

The ultralow interest rates the U.S. has been paying on its colossal debt may not last much longer, and the White House estimates that the tab will exceed $700 billion a year in 2019.

In ten years taxpayers of this country are going to be servicing a debt that is over three times what it is now. Think about that before you jump back into your video game or sit down to watch the next episode of American Idol.

I don’t care if you are liberal, conservative or simply apathetic. This debt burden that was started under Bush and expanded greatly under Obama is going to be impossible to repay. We are ALL going to be SLAVES to our creditors like China and Japan. This is unsustainable.

We are destroying our future. We are stealing from our children. It is generational theft that our government is doing. For God’s sake, whether you are liberal or conservative, you HAVE to know this is bad. Use you common sense. THINK! We cannot keep spending like this. We have to demand that this spending stop. Conservatives have tried all spring and summer with the Tea Party rallies, which the liberals dismiss. But numbers do not lie. We need liberals to understand that there is no more money to spend. We cannot keep borrowing. Americans have to stand up and shut this Congress and administration down. Fix the economy. Save. Stop spending. Future generations are going to loath each one of us that voted for these asshats or stood by and did nothing to stop this. Liberals or conservative, it doesn’t matter. If you are in favor of spending you are ALL toxic.

Sadly reading the comments on the NYT indicates many simply do not get it. Blame Bush. Some think we need to tax more. Even the NYT socialist writer Paul Krugman suggests we need to spend MORE. It’s a sad state we find ourselves in. Lots of stupidity in charge. And the American people still fight the urge to give a shit.

What that means is that the government could have actually done REAL stimulus and put that $303,750 dollars in the hands of a small business and let them hire 7 extra plumbers. But the current regime apparently has no love for small business. If they did the stimulus would have been spent far differently.

Today on the Glenn Beck show, Eric Bolling interviewed Dave McArthur who runs a bakery in St. Louis. He said that if the government had given him the $300K he could have hired 3 people and pay 30% of his debt. “Do that for three years and I’ll be debt free and a chain in five years.”

He went on to say that “government doesn’t have a clue”. Bolling wanted to know how he was going to pay for health care and make ends meet asking, “are you going to charge your customers more?”

McArthur said that’s what the government think you can do. Just raise the prices and pass them on to the customers. But as McArthur said, “ask around the room there…do you have any extra money to spend? The consumer has no more money, Washington. Listen! They have no more money.” (2:12)

Listen to this guy. He understands how Obama and his minions will drive small business out of business. This is the problem with having a President, an Administration and far too many members of Congress that have never run a business before. They do not have a clue. They think government can solve everything. They think they can run everything and that business is the cause of the problems.

Sadly with a bunch of politicians that do not care for capitalism this is what you end up with. As Margaret Thatcher said, “The problem with Socialism is that you run out of someone else’s money.” It’s pathetic that they think they can spend government money and get us out of this economic hole. They need to give incentives to small, medium and large businesses to create jobs and spend money. That is not happening with this Congress and Administration.

The glow from a health care triumph faded quickly for President Barack Obama on Sunday as Democrats realized the bill they fought so hard to pass in the House has nowhere to go in the Senate.

All those Democrats that were bought off by Nancy Pelosi, plus one RINO, are probably not having a good afternoon reading their favorite statist newspaper. Senators are flat out rejecting the Pelosi plan. The people spoke. Pelosi chose to cram it down anyway in the dead of night in an obscure piece of legislation that no one could read. The payoffs to those Democrats that voted for the bill notwithstanding, these liberals continue to walk right off the cliff with Pelosi holding the blade. I love it.

I was surprised that my congressman, Bart Gordon, did not vote for it. He’s voted for every single other piece of Obama/Pelosi legislation, but apparently he listened to his constituents. He may have staved off his 2010 political execution. Though he did vote cap and trade which is troubling. His email indicated he was bought off by Pelosi for his vote. But I digress.

I feel at least a little better that the government takeover of health care has been granted a possible stay. The fight continues. Big Socialist government politicians infest D.C. The statists still want control over the people.

And what do we get from this crisis? A cram down of a health care plan that does not solve the problems of an insurance system that is broken. These people in Washington are complete idiots. Just yesterday it was reported that Senator Barbara “don’t call me ma’am” Boxer broke Senate committee rules and passed Cap and Trade legislation without a single Republican present. These people are completely out of control.

They are not doing what is best for the country right now. Doing anything other than whatever it takes to get people working is unacceptable. Talk about a country without leadership. I can’t wait for 2010 and 2012 elections.

Transcript:

“As President Ronald Reagan said: ‘Since the American founding, we have been a people with a government, not the other way around.’”

“Now comes the Pelosi plan for a government takeover of health care. It is a freight train of runaway spending, bloated bureaucracy, mandates and higher taxes.

“If the liberals in Washington have their way, they will forever change the relationship between the government and ‘we the people.’

“If the Pelosi plan for a government takeover of health care passes, we will each become dependent on the political class in Washington for the provision of services of the most urgent and personal nature.

“Illness, our own, or more importantly the illness of a parent, or a spouse, or a child, has the capacity to suspend our priorities.

“What was important before the crisis grows dim in the harsh light of disease affecting a loved one.

“The Pelosi health care plan targets us when we are most vulnerable.

“The Pelosi health care plan makes us dependent on the state at the most urgent moment in the life of our family.

“Their hope: that little by little, we’ll yield our freedoms and our resources to the ever-growing appetite of the federal government.

“After years of runaway federal spending, borrowing, bailouts and takeovers, it’s easy to give way to despair; but I assure you: there is a remnant that still cherishes freedom, personal responsibility and limited government all across this land.

“I have seen it in the faces of ordinary Americans who have traveled to rallies, town halls and tea parties. I have read it in my mail. I have heard it from friends and neighbors who have lost their jobs but not lost their faith in America.

“The time has come for those who still cherish our ideals—the ideals of our founding: life, liberty and the pursuit of the American dream—to arise.

“Wherever you are, whoever you are, let your voice be heard.

“Republicans in Congress who are standing in the gap, cannot do this alone.

“I often tell my colleagues that a minority in Congress plus the American people equals a majority.

“‘We the people’ have the power to stop out-of-control spending at the federal level.

“‘We the people’ have to power to stop the Pelosi health care plan, in its effort to take over one-sixth of the American economy.

“And ‘we the people’ have the ability to protect the finest health care system this world has ever known and demand real health care reform that will reduce the cost of health care without growing government.

“I appeal to you not as Republicans or Democrats, liberals or conservatives, but as Americans.

“You cherish freedom, you fear the crushing weight of big government and debt that Congress and this Administration are leaving to our posterity, and you still believe that the strength of this nation is in the character and courage and ingenuity of the American people, and not the politicians and the bureaucrats.

“This is your moment, now is your time, let your voice be heard.”