Those of us who live along the Gulf Coast are desperately hoping the federal government will soon stop helping us with the BP oil spill. But no ...

As we learned  this week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar plans to take another swing at imposing a ban on deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The first ban was overturned last week by U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who called it "arbitrary" and "capricious."

Government officials and voters across the Gulf protested the original ban, pointing out that it had no effect on the rigs of other nations, and would further suffocate the Gulf states' economies, which have already been brought low by the oil spill damage to fisheries and tourism.

To make matters even more maddening, we learned in recent days that the feds are also planning to lend $2 billion to Petrobras, a Brazilian company, to help them expand their deep sea oil drilling efforts. Some of those wells will be drilled 10,000 feet below the surface of the sea -- that's twice the depth of the leaking BP well. It's entirely possible that a new moratorium will mean some of the inactive rigs in the Gulf would be moved down to Brazil!

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse: liberal gadfly and friend to the powerful, George Soros, has $200 million invested in Petrobras.

Here's a great round-up of the story, with additional links.