People's lives are at risk due to this but they kinda asked for it..

Zitat

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New Jersey is in a pickle as a rule of the high seas shuts off the flow of salt to keep roads clear.

State officials are now being forced to turn to a briny pickle juice-like mixture as an alternative to de-ice the roads, while racing to get a federal waiver that is currently holding up a 40,000-ton shipment of rock salt.

The salt is sitting at a port in Maine, docked until New Jersey officials obtain a federal waiver. Once that is done, it will take two days to ship the load from Maine to Newark.

The shipment is being denied entry because it’s on a vessel that isn’t flying under a U.S. flag – a violation of the 1920 federal Maritime Act -- also known as The Jones Act -- that requires shipments to arrive on a ship with goods traveling between two U.S. ports to be flying the American flag.

New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson said during a radio interview that the nearest U.S.-flagged vessel would take a month to deliver the shipment of salt.

"We've been going back and forth with the feds," Simpson said during the interview. "This is the kind of stuff we're dealing with. Even government, the federal government, gets in the way."

New Jersey Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez have reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the state Department of Transportation to resolve the matter quickly, but have yet to obtain a waiver.

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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/...r-to-jones-act/

Oh, please, Mr Federal Government, may we have our salt? Please, please, pretty please? The only good news in this, if it can be called good, is that it is happening in one of those states where the people just love government, the more the better, and elect such luminaries as Booker and Menendez.

So how's that working out for you, New Jerseyites?

New Jersey gets the treatment they deserve.....

Algernonpj, I have been thinking about this statement for quite some time, Speaking as a Jerseyite, many more of us are not fans of big government than the outside world realizes. I realize the truth of that statement for as Rev pointed out, Obama won New Jersey with 58.0% of the popular vote. which means about 4 NJ voters out of 10 did not want him as President. Sadly though, you and your fellow "not Obamas" are forced to be in the same boat with the Obamaniacs and because of them suffer the leaks and rough seas.

There is also one other dimension to this story which occurred to me. Namely, what level of stupidity can Republicans achieve? This Fed "salt" blockage is a ready made TV ad for NJ's Republican Party. All they have to do is point out how the Obama admin is creating a dangerous situation for NJ drivers and emergency vehicles. They can add this shows how ineffectual Menendez, Booker, and the other NJ Congressional Democrats are in persuading the Obama admin to act in the best interests of New Jersey residents. Add a tag line like, "Remember in November". (If the Dems hit back with Christie on this, so what? Isn't he Obama's close buddy?)

An ad like that would drive the Dems crazy and you can bet Obama & Co. would react with alacrity when it comes to that salt. Then the Republicans could claim they got his admin to do what no Democrat in Congress could.

I think an ad like that is a great idea, which means the Republicans will never do it.