Reason Morning Links: Birth Control, Oysters, and Other Restricted Items

- Barack Obama calls for a $50 billion bailout of state and local governments.

- Five New Orleans cops and ex-cops are indicted for a Katrina killing.

- New Jersey launches a war on oysters.

- Americans say they've uncovered almost a trillion dollars' worth of untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan.

- The FDA considers a more reliable form of emergency contraception.

- Iceland's parliament votes unanimously to legalize gay marriage.

- More war clouds gather in Iran and Korea.

Comments

[Suki]

In other news: the king of sausage, Jimmy Dean died, aged 81.

Prediction: Mineral riches found in Afghanistan. Left fears "Corporations" will turn it into Pandora. No comment from James Cameron, yet.

Government oil continues to spew into government water and is beginning to arrive on government beaches.

[?]

And government "cleanup" crews take another 2-hour lunch break.

[Rich]

Why not? They're doing a great job. One thing you do not see on the BP television, um, ad is ... oil.

[?]

Lots of happy pelicans, however. And the beaches! So white it hurts.

[Resident Smartass]

Obviously the beaches are racist.

[Corduroy]

Yes, "Corporations" should get out of the way. "Government" will exploit it properly.

[Robert]

I was introduced to him in a restaurant. Always got him mixed up with the other James Dean.

[Little Old Lady]

"We must take these emergency measures," [Obama] wrote

Very clever, young man, but it's turtles emergency measures all the way down!

[NJ Lover]

Maybe New Jersey's oyster lovers can explain to him that they're not worried about their food, so he shouldn't be worried about it either.

Hell, we're more contaminated than the oysters.

[Hawk]

Nuke their ass and take the gas lithium!

[Rich]

Just use stimulus money to train all the poppy farmers as miners.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Friends in High Paces

Morning Bell: How the White House is Making Oil Recovery Harder

[Malik Zulu Shabazz]

Cool moniker, what?

[Johnny Longtorso]

Barack Obama calls for a $50 billion bailout of state and local governments.

Still want the 17th amendment repealed? If the Senate was appointed by state legislatures, what do you think that would do to the odds of this passing?

[Corduroy]

Not much. It will pass anyway.

On the bright side, $50B ain't even close to what it will take to close the pension gap. Maybe we will have lost our taste for throwing money down the hole by the time we get to that.

[Sasha]

Not until that damn hole is plugged!

[Nick]

If you love American, you'll throw money in it's hole. Happy Flag Day.

[Astrid]

My father worked two jobs to be able to throw money in that hole!

[JW]

I love the money fires...

[Tulpa]

It couldn't help them any -- it's definitely going to pass anyway.

If anything, you might have senators from states whose legislatures have kept within their means opposing having their ant citizens paying to bailout their grasshopper cousins.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Americans discover almost a trillion dollars' worth of untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan.

In case the place didn't have that middle east feel for you up until now.

[Corduroy]

Now that made me laugh.

[Hamid Karzai]

Me too!

[John]

Finding minerals is never a bad thing.

[anarch]

Never say never.

[IDF]

We'll soon be finding some in Iran.

[Suki]

+1

[Suki]

Predictions: If any Western company is hired to help, it will be "Big Mineral raping Afghanistan" all over the MSM.

If the Afghans do it with picks and shovels themselves "Big Mineral" will be accused of not offering high enough a price for the extra labor they need to mine "green."

[Tim]

The Afghan Jed Clampett was out shootin at some infidels when his stray RPG-7 done blowed up some gold from the ground.

[Joe]

You can't get a lower carbon footprint than using 12 year-olds with shovels and buckets to do the mining.

[Nick]

There's this one mineral deposit in the Gulf of Mexico...

[MlR]

It will take a few decades' development until it reaches Middle East stature.

[Suki]

They made it to satire decades ago.

[dbcooper]

Some commentary:

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/....._resources

[?]

Nanny Staters and their willing minions:
Prepare yourself for NBC Universal's "Healthy Week."

[Rich]

Come on, ?. There's no way NBC will stop broadcasting for a week!

[anarch]

The DEP seems to fear that there are people out there who will find our reefs bureaucrats ... remove them ? though they are firmly affixed to immovable structures ... We think that danger is vanishingly unlikely.

Tah-dah.

[CoyoteBlue]

Obama asks lawmakers to be patient on the deficit, noting that a special commission is at work on a comprehensive deficit-reduction plan.

Yes, mr. president, we'll just keep the firehose of spending going while you carefully study the efficacy of decreasing it by a gallon a week.

[John]

I will stop drinking someday. I have a team of experts working on the problem. In the mean time, pardon me while I have my morning bottle of scotch.

[Astrid]

Only one bottle? Have too many last night?

[Tim]

We could try lowering a top hat on it.

[Pip]

The pipe in the gulf is to oil,
As Obama is to spending.

[Rich]

Check out the new DNC ad "We Can't Afford To Go Back". I'm hoping Warty will suggest some better background music.

[John]

We can't afford to go back to having thousands of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, GUITMO being an open sore on the US image abroad, the President ordering drone strikes to kill people without trial or due process (including American citizens), to an out of control deficit, to a government that aggressively whistleblowers, to a government that refuses to practice any form of transparency, and to the days when we lived under the Patriot Act and other presidential emergency powers. Right?

Man, that add writes itself.

[Fluffy]

That's pretty good.

[Pro Libertate]

"You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" should be the campaign song for all of the Democratic incumbents running this year.

[Astrid]

You should have included something along the lines of "It's a policy only terrorists would love." Other than that, look's like you could have a future as a DNC ad writer.

[John]

Thanks. All it takes is a little word smithing and the ability to have absolutely no shame.

[JW]

C'mon, The Who should be doing the background music.

[Michael Ejercito]

GUITMO being an open sore on the US image abroad

How is Gitmo an open sore on the U.S. image abroad?

[John]

I wasn't saying it was. The whole thing was a joke. Many liberals claimed just that. And indeed the Zero promised to close GUITMO. But it is still there. All of the statements in the post were things that liberals claimed were the end of the world under Bush but have continued under Obama. That was the joke.

[Michael Ejercito]

GUITMO being an open sore on the US image abroad

How is Gitmo an open sore on the U.S. image abroad?

[Warty]

I'm hoping Warty will suggest some better background music.

I'm thinking something bombastic.

Lie to me, slander me
This is why I hate you

[Fist of Etiquette]

It seems to me this innocent legislator is simply making a citizen's congressman's arrest as some punk is callously violating wiretapping laws right there in full view of everyone.

[CoyoteBlue]

Did that thug congressman say he had a "right" to know the kid's name?

I like how the ruling class is afraid of little cameras. They should be. Or to use the old standby "Why should they worry about surviellence if you're not doing anything wrong?"

[Nick]

Why didn't the kid just say "No, you don't?" and "You're hurting me, Congressman. That's assault, Congressman. Thanks for giving me an ironclad lawsuit against you, Congressman. Make the checks out to Cash cuz I'm still not telling you who I am, mother fucker."

[Fist of Etiquette]

Take your complaints over here, boys.

[P Brooks]

Five weeks ago Escambia County officials requested permission from the Mobile Unified Command Center to use a sand skimmer, a device pulled behind a tractor that removes oil and tar from the top three feet of sand, to help clean up Pensacola's beaches. County officials still haven't heard anything back.

Why do they even need to ask?

[Rich]

National shoreline. Can't have unregulated yahoos damaging it.

[Slut Bunwalla]

Maybe they can get Dark Helmet's crew to comb the beach instead.

[Suki]

Thought they were out working their putz?

[Hobie Hanson]

Segregated sand beaches are the last relic of Jim Crow left in the South. I wish all those birds didn't have to get tarred and feathered in the process, but I'm glad to see those racist beaches integrated.

[Innocent Legislator]

I woke up in a DC doorway
A student knew my name
He said "You can go sleep at home tonight
If you can get up and walk away"

I staggered back to the metro
And the breeze blew back my hair
I remember throwin' punches around
And preachin' from my chair

[Chinny Chin Chin]

Dr. Demento off the air.

End of an era.

[Pro Libertate]

What? That's unpossible!

[JW]

**Squeak squeak! Honk honk!**

Never really got in to the Doctor, but this saddens me a bit, just the same.

[Cap'n NoStar]

Revenue Sharing Redux: Since Obama has had such great success copying the worst policies of George W. Bush, it seens natural that he would now mine the policies of the worst Republican president, Richard M. Nixon.

[#]

right now he seems to be doing a pretty good job of mixing both nixon and LBJ.

[#]

speaking of which... having the back to back presidencies of LBJ and then Nixon, that must have felt very much like having Bush and then Obama. Is this was living in the late sixties and early 70s felt like?

[The Gobbler]

This is immeasurably worse.

[Jason]

We're not waiting in lines for gasoline yet.

[Pip]

? Barack Obama calls for a $50 billion bailout of state and local governments.

PLEASE STOP THIS FUCKER NOW!

[Pip]

"'Massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters'..."

Why don't they ever threaten to lay off regulators and building inspectors? I bet Mr. Hayek could tell us why...

[J sub D]

Five New Orleans cops and ex-cops are indicted for a Katrina killing.

Wait a minute. The news stories were all about lawless citizens being out of control in Katrina's aftermath.

I notice that the NO and LA haven't found a reason to bring charges. A cop commits murder and four cops (all who knew) covered up for him. Since 95% of cops are good cops, the odds of that happening are 1 in 3,200,000.

[Pip]

Where's that piece of shit pig at who tells us to take breathalizer tests when asked? I'd like to hear his take on this. I'd also like him to answer the open question -- Have you ever seen a fellow officer break the law and if so, did you arrest him?

Pigs = Shit

[Tulpa]

Bad cops are most likely to be bad when they know there are no good cops around. So your computation is flawed, as it assumes the goodness of a cop is independent of the situation the cop is allowed to witness.

[Byron]

Bad cops are most likely to be bad when they know there are no good cops around. So your computation is flawed, as it assumes the goodness of a cop is independent of the situation the cop is allowed to witness.

So many cops are good only when there is no compelling reason to be bad. Duly noted.

[P Brooks]

the policies of the worst Republican president, Richard M. Nixon.

Wage and price controls are what this country needs.

[#]

hes working on that? you seen the healthcare bill?

[Pro Libertate]

$50 billion, eh? How much of that will go to states not named California?

[Tim]

'bout $1.98

[J sub D]

The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

Before we start celebrating it is worth noting that Nigeria and The Democratic Republic of the Congo are veritable treasure troves of mineral wealth as well. How's that working out?

[P Brooks]

Trust the NYT to sniff out the Most Important Part:

Another complication is that because Afghanistan has never had much heavy industry before, it has little or no history of environmental protection either. "The big question is, can this be developed in a responsible way, in a way that is environmentally and socially responsible?" Mr. Brinkley said. "No one knows how this will work."

Dropping cluster bombs, and shooting depleted-uranium bullets at adobe houses are entirely appropriate, but heaven forbid somebody might dig a big ugly hole in the ground.

[Tim]

Afghanistan = Mordor?

[Ska]

Did you ever see that sketch in Robot Chicken? It's a great one.

[John]

That is right. And better for the people there to live in unending poverty and have a lifespan of about 40 years than to "develop irresponsibly". Never forget that environmentalists, and by extension many liberals, hate people.

[Tulpa]

Come now, they don't hate people. They just think their ideology is more important than people.

[J sub D]

The Times need not worry. The Interior Department is sending some Minerals Management Setrvice experts over to assure that no enviro-disasters happen.

[Tim]

"Obama's request for $23 billion to avert the layoffs of as many as 300,000 public school teachers has not won support in either chamber."

[Stretchy]

You can have your $50 billion when you have put in place Greek-style austerity measures.

[Ska]

State ass-sex measures for paying bond interest?

[Ragin Cajun]

They already have those. At least it feels that way.

[Butts Wagner]

Those are Greek-style posterior measures.

[Jason]

Congress to Big Biz: Lobby more, or else

Is the big government-big business complex self perpetuating?

Are Congressmembers trying to become like Mafia Dons with everyone owing them favors?

[Byron]

Umm...yes. 😐

[Robert]

As usual, the stories that interest me most -- the oysters and the drug -- draw no commentary.

[?????]

thank u