Blanco adds up the costs: 375,000 jobless in Louisiana.

That's real people, and families. That's probably about a million people with no income in the family. In 2004 Louisiana's population was 4,496,334. That's 8% unemployment, way above the national average of 5.5%. A quarter of our people with no income? Louisiana is already a poor state. Its rich resources, timber and oil especially, are not its own. It has a typical extractive economy, with raw materials shipped elsewhere for others to reap the added value. We sacrifice our coastline for oil, and our forests are owned by multi-nationals. Workers involved in those industries are poorly paid, to begin with, and now they are out of work, perhaps for a very long time since nearly 41,000 businesses are not closed, many permanently. So, a message to the administration and congress: please, no boondoggles, no great projects to be run and staffed by DC bureaucrats or out-of-state businesses. All the skill and expertise and manpower to put this state back together is already here. Find ways to put our people to work.

P.S. You could start by helping us restore the wetlands destroyed by our nation's need for oil.