Louisiana Gov. Piyush Jindal (R) caught lying about national guard deployment response to BP's Gulf oil disaster

You know how Louisiana Governor Piyush 'Bobby' Jindal likes to blame the Federal government for the damage caused by BP's oil spill, arguing that he could have kept all the oil at bay if President Obama had only given him the resources he needed to fight it?

Well, last night CBS News tore Jindal's argument to shreds, pointing out that while President Obama has authorized up to 6,000 National Guard troops to fight the spill, Jindal has only activated 1,053 of them -- leaving more than 80% sitting idle, doing nothing to protect the state.

When CBS confronted Jindal about leaving so many guardsmen idle while oil is washing ashore, Jindal -- naturally -- blamed the Federal government, saying that he had requested deployment for the full 6,000, but that his request had been denied because "the Coast Guard and BP had to authorize individual tasks."

It turns out Jindal's response was a lie.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander in charge of the government's response to the spill, said Jindal is just flat wrong.

"There is nothing standing in the governor's way from utilizing more National Guard troops," Allen said.

In fact, the Coast Guard says every request to use the National Guard has been approved, usually within a day. 

Gov. Jindal's office has since acknowledged to CBS News the governor has not specifically asked for more Guard troops to be deployed.

This is a very big deal. It exposes the fact that Jindal has been playing politics with the spill from day one. He's argued that the federal government has denied him the resources he needs to fight the spill, but even though he's had thousands of National Guardsmen at his disposal, he's only used a tiny fraction of them, allowing more than 80% of the resources at his disposal to go unused.

In light of Jindal's massive under utilization of National Guard resources, it's clear that his attacks on the Obama administration were motivated first and foremost by politics. More than anything else, Jindal wanted to take the heat off the oil industry and put it on the government.

Watch CBS report on the Louisiana Oil Spill National Guard deployment holdup: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6615749n&tag=related;photovideo

Former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin's legal defense fund ruled to be illegal, all money must go back to donors

Thousands of donors who contributed to a $390,000 legal defense fund for former Alaska half-term Gov. Sarah Palin will get their money back after an investigator said Thursday the fund was illegal because it was misleadingly described on a website.

State Personnel Board investigator Timothy Petumenos said the Alaska Fund Trust inappropriately used the word "official" on its website, wrongly implying that it was endorsed by Palin in her role as governor.

But Petumenos also found that Palin — the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee — acted in good faith and relied on a team of attorneys to make sure the fund was lawful and complied with the Alaska Executive Branch Act.

Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said the trust brought in almost $390,000 before Palin stepped down as governor July 26, 2009. More than $33,000 has since been donated, but Van Flein said that money will go toward $87,680 the trust has incurred in administrative and other expenses.

Palin's friends and supporters created the Alaska Fund Trust in April 2009. An ethics complaint was filed soon after by Eagle River resident Kim Chatman, who alleged Palin was misusing her official position and accepting improper gifts.

Chatman said she was glad the case came to a resolution, although she felt it fell short.

"I'm ecstatic the truth came out, but I don't understand how they said this was a good faith effort on her part and they're going to blame it on her attorneys," Chatman said. "She's never accountable for anything."

The multiple ethics complaints include an investigation by state lawmakers over Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner in the so-called Troopergate scandal, as well as a complaint over state-paid trips Palin took with her children as governor.

In the family travel complaint, also investigated by Petumenos, Palin agreed to reimburse the state about $8,000 for costs associated with nine trips taken by her children.

MSNBC host accused former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of 'vomiting out complete, baseless lies' on BP's Gulf oil disaster

MSNBC's Morning Joe host Mika Brzezinski accused former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of coming on the show last week to "vomit out complete, baseless lies."

Appearing on the show last Thursday, Giuliani claimed that the Obama administration had not talked with oil industry experts about how to stop the leaking well.

But Brzezinski said Monday the former New York mayor did not have his  facts straight and initially left the hosts "stunned."

"I'm glad there’s someone on the set who is actually asking questions when people come and vomit out complete and baseless lies on our set," Brzezinski said of herself. "I’m sorry but that was so over the top, and we sat there like stunned in silence because it was so untrue because we could not believe it."

She added, "But it was not true."

On Thursday Giuliani said Obama's handling of the crisis was inept.

“If Bush were the president and he handled it this way, there would be a movement to throw him out of office," he said.

But Brzezinski fired back Monday morning, saying that Giuliani wanted to simply "blather on about narratives."

“I did ask the White House for information on who they met with and when,” she said. “It's called asking questions.”

Still, Brzezinski's defense of Obama came under fire for being one-sided when co-host Joe Scarborough alluded to a file of "talking points" on the set supplied by administration officials, according to NewsBusters.org.

"Do you want to know why I have a file that I have been working on with the White House?" she asked guest and former General Electric CEO Jack Welch. "Because of your friend Rudy Giuliani who came on here last week spewing out a whole bunch of nothing."

Republicans and wingers defend Rep. Barton's (R.-TX) shakedown comments and BP on the Gulf Oil disaster

Fox has been parading a long line of Republicans through their studios defending U.S. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) for calling British Petroleum’s $ 20 Billion escrow fund a government shakedown. BP set up the escrow fund to offset the economic devastation brought to the Gulf region by their oil platform disaster.

The escrow fund idea was proposed by BP itself, at the prodding of Republicans who endorsed the idea well before President Obama ever heard of it.

This story is another example of the harm done by allowing talk radio & Fox define the debate rather than elected republican officials and aspiring candidates to define the GOP.

No one has heard any objection to the escrow fund from Mitt Romney yet. Has Mitch Daniels termed it a “shakedown”? Bobby Jindal seems cool with the idea, ditto Mitch McConnell. But these real leaders are crowded out by people trying to bump ratings a point or two by inciting another prime time hour’s worth of anti-Obama indignation.

In so doing, they have put the GOP on the wrong side of what Newt Gingrich, in other contexts, calls “an 80% issue.”

Watch the Republicans defend Rep. Barton and BP on Fox here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu2lvAm-Zuc&feature=player_embedded