Speaking from Venice, Louisiana, the President spoke about the administration's all-hands-on-deck response to the crisis:

"We're dealing with a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster.  The oil that is still leaking from the well could seriously damage the economy and the environment of our Gulf states and it could extend for a long time.  It could jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who call this place home.

And that's why the federal government has launched and coordinated an all-hands-on-deck, relentless response to this crisis from day one.  After the explosion on the drilling rig, it began with an aggressive search-and-rescue effort to evacuate 115 people, including three badly injured.  And my thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the 11 workers who have not yet  -- who have not been found.

When the drill unit sank on Thursday, we immediately and intensely investigated by remotely operated vehicles the entire 5,000 feet of pipe that's on the floor of the ocean.  In that process, three leaks were identified, the most recent coming just last Wednesday evening.  As Admiral Allen and Secretary Napolitano have made clear, we've made preparations from day one to stage equipment for a worse-case scenario.  We immediately set up command center operations here in the Gulf and coordinated with all state and local governments.  And the third breach was discovered on Wednesday.      

We already had by that time in position more than 70 vessels and hundreds of thousands of feet of boom.  And I dispatched the Secretaries of the Interior and Homeland Security; the Administrator of the EPA, Lisa Jackson, who is here; my Assistant for Energy and Climate Change Policy; and the Administrator of NOAA to the Gulf Coast to ensure that we are doing whatever is required to respond to this event."

To find out more, the Administration has set up a site where you can track the spill and the EPA's ongoing efforts in the area.

"About 26 percent of the district’s 67,950 eligible voters turned out for Saturday’s runoff, an increase from the 20 percent voter turnout in the Aug. 1 primary."

With Democrats nursing a 4-seat lead in the Louisiana State Senate and a 1-seat lead in the State House, the three legislative special elections this past Saturday had statewide implications. But despite state Republicans making a serious run at all three seats over the weekend, Democrats pitched a shutout in their two open seats, preventing any Republican advance in the Legislature.

If you have any questions or need any information, please feel free to contact me at LaVeraD@dnc.org.

In light of Hurricane Gustav and the ongoing situation along the Gulf Coast, the DNC announced that it has canceled the tomorrow morning's news conference at the DNC's More of the Same Media Center in St. Paul. We continue to keep our friends and families in the area in our thoughts and prayers.

Damien

Damien LaVera
Deputy Communications Director
Democratic National Committee
LaVeraD@dnc.org

It's been three years since hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the failure of the federal levee system devastated New Orleans, the region, and parts of the Gulf coast.

The Bush White House, the Republican leadership, and FEMA showed up not just late, but unprepared.

America deserves a FEMA that works. A FEMA that understands the best ways to leverage the private sector and non-profits. A FEMA that will rebuild our communities with respect, dignity, and determination.

America deserves a president who is willing to cut through the red tape and serve the people, not the bureaucracy. A president who will stand with mayors and governors, not against them, to get the job done.

That is the hope of the people of America, and that is the promise of Barack Obama.

Thank you.

John McCain is campaigning aboard an oil rig, Genesis, jointly owned by Exxon Mobil and Chevron in the Gulf of Mexico. It is laughable that McCain would campaign on the Genesis to push his phony "drill here, drill now" nonsense because it took Genesis ten years to produce any oil at all.

Not exactly the imagery the McCain campaign wants to create.

Throw this one on the heap of McCain gimmicks -- like the gas tax holiday -- that will not provide any real relief for Americans.

John McCain will say and do anything to win this election, including selling out to Big Oil on gimmicks that won't provide any real relief to Americans, but boost their profit margins.

Chris Whittington, Chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party:

"Here in Louisiana, he started off touting ethics reform as his gold standard, but he gutted the system with a "clear and convincing" standard as opposed to the former preponderance of the evidence. This resulted in mass resignations on the ethics board and makes it nearly impossible to prove ethics violations. He shields his activities from the taxpayers: the group the Citizen Access Project at the University of Florida ranks Louisiana dead last when it comes to access to the governor's office."

Mike Gehrke, DNC Research Director:

"We do think that Gov. Jindal would be an interesting pick for John McCain because in him you've got someone who served in the Bush administration, voted with him in lockstep when he was in Congress, and has toed the line as a governor too. So if John McCain picks him he's hit the trifecta of someone who would be most like George Bush and Dick Cheney."

"We can go down the list on issue after issue--whether it's jobs, disaster recovery, law enforcement funding, health care. He's taken his lead from the Republicans and voted right down the line with George Bush and Dick Cheney."

The bus tour also builds on the success of the DNC's 50-state strategy and Senator Obama's commitment to running a 50 state campaign, and the belief that if Democrats show up and ask for people's votes, we can win everywhere. Throughout the tour Governor Dean will engage local leaders and grassroots activists in the effort to register new voters and talk about Barack Obama's strong message of change.

Starting Thursday, you can register to vote, find more information on how to register others to vote and follow the bus tour state-by-state at registerforchange.com.

"After eight years of George Bush and with John McCain promising more of the same on everything from the economy to Iraq to Social Security to health care, America is ready to join Barack Obama and Democrats to Register for Change," said Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. "People are really struggling. They want different leadership, not more of the same failed Bush policies that John McCain will continue. So we'll be going neighborhood by neighborhood, door by door to bring more people into the process to elect Barack Obama and Democrats up-and-down the ticket to bring change that all Americans can believe in."

The Register for Change tour kick-offs of Thursday, July 17, in George W. Bush's backyard in Crawford, Texas - a clear reminder of John McCain's promise of a third Bush term on everything from the economy to Iraq to health care. The tour then heads to Austin, Texas for a Register for Change rally at noon before Dean speaks to the Netroots Nation Convention that night.

From Texas, the tour heads to New Orleans - a city that experienced the failings of Republican leadership in Washington firsthand - and then to Shreveport and Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Hattiesburg and Jackson, Mississippi. The second swing, July 25-26, will make stops in North Carolina and Georgia - two untraditional battleground states where voter registration efforts will help lead Barack Obama to victory in November. The tour will hit states in every part of the country, culminating in a swing through the Midwest on its way to the Democratic Convention in Denver.

Not exactly "Ich bin ein Berliner" star power...

(Hat tip: James L., Swing State Project; photo from Kennedy for Whatever)

Stateline columnist Louis Jacobsen writes:

Some Democrats hold out hope that Obama could actually win one of the six Southern states that he won so convincingly during the primary season — Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina — all of which have voted strongly Republican in recent presidential elections .

But while it’s an outside possibility in North Carolina, most analysts believe Obama’s likelihood of picking off any of the other five Southern states is a long shot.

More plausible, though, is a November scenario in which the voters Obama draws to the polls also pull the lever for Democrats up and down the ticket — in statewide posts, congressional seats, state legislative seats and even county positions.

Democrats in the region have been salivating over this possibility for months. Consider Waring Howe, a Democratic National Committeeman from South Carolina and, until recently, chairman of the Charleston County Democratic Party. When Howe first realized that Obama might become the party’s nominee, “I used that as a candidate recruiting tool. But I actually didn’t have to use it much, because a lot of the prospective candidates already felt that way anyway.”

Senator McCain's talk on sugar is a sign that McCain just doesn't understand the economic situation in the state. After seven years of a president who has ignored the Gulf Coast, Louisianans don't want four more years of inaction with John McCain.

McCain Ripped Into Sugar Subsidies During His First Economic Speech Of The 2008 Campaign. During McCain's "first major economic speech since announcing his run for the presidency," "McCain ticked off the most egregious violations of pork-barrel spending as he ripped the Democrats' attempt to lard the emergency war-spending bill still deadlocked in Congress. 'They took the lid off the pork barrel and said to wavering members 'help yourself, there's plenty more where that came from.' They gave $7 million to research water quality on pig farms in Missouri, $24 million to sugar-beet farmers, $74 million for peanut storage, $95 million to dairy producers and nearly $400 million for highway projects, two years after we passed a $244 billion highway bill,' he said." [Washington Times, 4/17/07]

McCain Wanted To End Sugar Subsidies. Asked, "The federal government spent a record $ 22.7 billion last year in direct payments to farmers. Is Washington spending too much money on farm subsidies?," McCain responded, "'Yes. The 1996 Farm Act was intended to decouple farmers from bureaucratic crop controls and implement groundbreaking, cost-effective reform. Instead, the bill catered to special interests and did little to reform the system. . . I believe we need fiscally responsible reform of our farm policies to provide assistance to farmers who truly need it and promote efficient, free-market policies. We must end inequitable special-interest subsidies, such as sugar, peanut and ethanol industries, that cost American taxpayers billions of dollars every year, and help farmers manage risk as cost-effectively as possible." [Dayton Daily News (Ohio), 3/7/00]

McCain Attempted To "Kill All Funding" For The Federal Sugar Support Program. The Advocate reported, "Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, asked the Senate to kill all funding for the [federal sugar support] program. The Senate tabled McCain's amendment, by a vote of 62-35, which in effect kills it. McCain said the government program is a subsidy for rich corporate farmers and drives up the price of sugar for U.S. consumers." The Palm Beach reported that McCain's amendment "would have ended federal subsidies for sugar farmers in Florida and 15 other states" and that Florida sugar growers argued "that preserving the program is essential to keeping sugar farmers from failing." [The Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), 7/21/00; Palm Beach Post, 7/21/00]

McCain Assaulted Sugar, Attempting To "Uproot" Government Support For Sugar Farmers. "Senators from sugar-producing states, including Louisiana, on Wednesday beat back another in a series of efforts to uproot the government system of price supports for sugar farmers. The assault this time came in the form of an amendment to the Agricultural Appropriations bill by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who called for a one-year suspension of the federal government's sugar program. His amendment was defeated 66-33, a margin only slightly more lopsided than a similar vote in the Senate two years ago….The program offers annual, low-interest loans to sugar farmers and sets strict import quotas. McCain and other opponents claim the program amounts to a generous subsidy for a small group of politically connected 'sugar barons' in South Florida and artificially keeps prices high." [Times Picayune, 8/5/99]

After casting himself as a "Maverick" in 2000, the new John McCain is walking in lockstep with President Bush, pandering to the right wing of the Republican Party, and embracing the ideology he once denounced. On the campaign trail McCain has callously abandoned many of his previously held positions, even contradicted himself, in a blatant attempt to remake himself into a candidate Republicans can accept in 2008. So just who is the real John McCain? The Democratic National Committee will present a daily fact aimed at exposing the man behind the myth.

State parties will publish their delegate selection rules and clearly explain how to participate in the summer of 2007.

Louisiana Democratic Party
701 Government Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70822
225-336-4155
225-336-0046 (fax)

District-Level Delegates: 37
At-Large Delegates: 12
Pledged Party Leader & Elected Official (PLEO) Delegates: 7
Unpledged Delegates: 12
TOTAL Number of Delegates: 68

Alternates: 9

TOTAL DELEGATION SIZE: 77

System type: Primary

State convention page: Available
State plan: Plan Available (PDF)
State filing form: Not available online. Please contact the state party to receive a copy.

** This information is prepared by the DNC's Office of Party Affairs and Delegate Selection and may be subject to change. For more information, please call 202-863-8000.