"Federal officials want a face-to-face meeting with Gov. Kathleen Blanco to discuss her objection to the August sale of federal leases for oil and gas exploration off Louisiana’s coast.It's impressive to see that she's willing to carry through with this plan, and is playing hardball. How many governors have I heard complaining about how Louisiana doesn't get their fair share of oil revenue. This is the first one who has put something on the line to change that.
The Blanco administration has agreed to the meeting with two caveats:
- It must focus on ways to address the governor’s concerns.
- It should include high level officials, such as, the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior or the director of the Minerals Management Service.
Blanco is attempting to block the federal government’s lease sale as part of her push for the state to glean some of the billions of dollars going into the U.S. Treasury."
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Keep their feet to the fire, Madame Governor
2theadvocate.com | News | Feds want to meet Blanco on Gulf lease dispute:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
Absolutely! Let's call the Republicans on their states-rights bluff. Of course they ignored that argument with Bush vs. Gore, or was it Gush vs. Bore. But they didn't repudiate the right of communities to discriminate in various ways among the citizenry, or potential citizenry. So what are they going to say about a state and its oil?
In general, I've never had a problem with generating government revenue through taxes. What I object to is what they do with the money. If they used my money to help rebuild New Orleans, I'd be happy. But I've got enough nucular bombs as it is, or rather my President, who I don't trust as far as I can throw him, has them.
Chomsky quotes polls showing that a large majority of the American public would support paying more taxes for things they want, like health care and taking care of people in need (though if you ask about welfare, they're against it). The Democratic governor of Kansas, an iconic red state even before Thomas Frank's book, has popularity ratings in the high sixties, apparently due to her focus on real issues like education, jobs, and health care, as opposed to the bullshitative issues of flag burning, gay marriage, and immigration. Perhaps we're starting to see women in politics who don't have to act like men à la Margaret Thatcher; or maybe it's a return to the theories of the old Roosevelt coalition that the federal government can actually be useful, if aimed correctly and run competently.
Post a Comment