they just turned into open water. and that s before all these wetlands and barrier islands started getting slimed with oil, which will kill them and speed up their disappearance dramatically. as i have said before and will probably say again, if we were losing this much american territory to a foreign country, we would be at war with that foreign country. but president obama has now announced a long-term gulf coast restoration plan, a concentrated effort to protect and rebuild the critical, critical shoreline of the gulf coast and the wetlands. very welcome, very good news that was slightly undercut by the one concrete thing that the president said the government is now doing off the louisiana coast. we ve approved the construction of new barrier islands in louisiana to try to stop the oil before it reaches the shore. new barrier islands. the barrier islands have been this political football that s beened around in louisiana, not just since the bp oil disaster started, but for a lo