Liberty and Justice for All!

In showing how the Republican party does not quite understand the real world, not only did the Republicans affirm their quest to obtain a constitutional ban on abortion, they also removed the reductions of abortions from their party platform.

So let me get this straight. The party who claims to be pro-life and wants to protect embryos is only caring about criminalizing abortion and not worrying about reducing their numbers? How is that for not being genuine?

Republicans also affirmed their hatred of homosexuals by continuing their support to ban gay marriages. I am sure that marriage defenders David “who would Vitter do” Vitter and Larry “toe tapping” Craig will be leading the battle charge on this one. I’m shocked they are not calling for both a return to Jim Crow laws and a constitutional amendment to keep women in the kitchen and out of the voting booth. Could the Republican Party be any more archaic?

Cross posted at Barack Obama for President.

Bobby Jindal refused to continue the executive order signed by Blanco that would prevent workplace discrimination against homosexuals.  

This is really nothing new, Jindal whined about this very thing when Blanco signed it at the beginning of her term. At the time (in a post I unfortunately cannot find) I criticized Jindal for two reasons. First, he had promised to work together with the Governor and the first thing he does (before even being sworn in to his only full term as Congressman)  is criticize Blanco instead of talking to her first about his misguided fears about what this would do.

Bottcher said Jindal’s letter violates the “spirit of cooperation” expressed at a meeting last week between the governor and members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation. Jindal should have called Blanco if he wanted clarification about the executive order, Bottcher said.

“Certainly the governor believes that public officials ought to talk to each other directly and not write a letter, send it to the media and have the media call the office,” Bottcher said. “Her door has certainly always been and always will be open to any Louisiana congressman.”

Second, Jindal showed he had zero understanding of federal law on this issue. He should have educated himself before making this public criticism. Instead, he shot first and never bothered to ask questions later.  

But Blanco spokeswoman Denise Bottcher said the directive will not restrict the ability of religious groups to pursue government contracts, noting that federal law already protects their right to use hiring practices that conform with their particular beliefs.

“The governor’s executive order does not have the power to change federal or state law or any court decision, and Gov. Blanco has said the order does not impact the hiring practices of faith-based organizations,” Bottcher said.

I am assuming that nothing changed in federal law that would make this claim invalid. So I guess in Jindal’s 3 years as a Congressman, he didn’t learn anything about federal law on this issue and still remains ignorant of the facts. The fact is that Blanco’s order would not have effected the hiring practices of religious organizations and Jindal’s “excuse” for not continuing the executive order does not hold water.

According to the Advocate:

Louisiana Family Forum is a group that seeks to “persuasively present biblical principles” in political and other issues. During the campaigns last year, the group’s leaders told Jindal and some legislators running for office, how disappointed they were in Blanco for signing the executive order, said Gene Mills of Baton Rouge, the group’s executive director.

“Gov. Jindal comes from a different mindset, understanding the damage that this potentially poses to children and to the economy. He decided not to re-up that executive order but to simply let it sunset,” Mills said.Jindal is refusing to continue the executive order that Governor Blanco issued that included sexual orientation as part of the protected class of groupings (like race and gender).

Gene Mills is an idiot if he thinks that government protecting people from discrimination is harmful to children and to the economy. Of course, being the head of the “Louisiana Family Forum” tends to not require a lot of logical reasoning skills. Just hate gay people and you are good to go.

And Bobby Jindal? Well, Jindal has proved that even when he was shown that the order would not effect religious groups, he closed his ears and like a child went “LALALALA, IM NOT LISTENING”. He instead listened to fear mongering gay hating groups and made it the official policy of the office of the Governor to not care about gay people and any struggles.

I am really not shocked that Jindal would promote a policy that allows for discrimination based on sexual orientation. However, for him to fall back on the same excuse that was proven wrong 4 years ago may serve to show that Jindal really is not as smart as his backers wants us to believe. Either that, or perhaps he is just choosing to remain willfully ignorant about the issue. Either way, it does not bode well for the people of Louisiana.

But don’t blame me, I never voted for Jindal.

Update:Someone suggested to me that perhaps he is neither dumb or ignorant. Perhaps he just believes that the voters are dumb and/or ignorant. It is possible that Jindal may be playing up to the masses because he feels that they are dumb. I mean, the majority of the voters bought his B.S. during the election. I guess he figures he has carte blanche to continue to spread his B.S.

That is an old quote from The Gipper himself, Ronald Reagan. And the Louisiana Republicans have dusted that old tired line out to try and convince current Democrats to turn over a new leaf (just like John N. Kennedy did).

Of course there is probably some truth Reagan’s statement. See, the Democratic Party stopped being the party that used the mantra of “states rights” in order to keep black people as second class citizens and started to become the party that fought for civil rights legislation, equality, and liberty.

Reagan, on the other hand, announced the official start to his campaign in Neshoba County Mississippi, the site where three black civil rights activists were murdered in 1964. Reagan campaigned on the “states rights” platform and utilized the “southern strategy” to attract the racists who also felt that the Democratic Party left them too. Since Reagan felt that the place where three black civil rights activists were murdered was the best way to start off his “states rights” campaign then sure, the Democratic Party left him behind … in the dust.
You can see the front and back of the flier (or should I say f-liar) my wife received in the mail today.

Not only does the f-liar have a picture of the Gipper, but it also has one of the Governor himself. It asks Democrats to “join Bobby Jindal in the Republican Party”.

Most noticeable are the prominent Democrats that are pictured on the f-liar. You have Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Kathleen Blanco and everyone’s favorite Bill Jefferson. Absent is Mary Landrieu (who is likely to win re-election), Mitch Landrieu (who got more votes that Jindal statewide) and other Louisiana Democrats who tend to be a tad bit more Conservative on the issues than those pictured (with the exception of pro-life Blanco whose only difference with Jindal on the pro-life stance is that she has a heart and would allow exceptions for rape and the life of the woman).

The f-liar says what “Democrats Believe In”.

The first lie is that we believe in no new oil exploration. Well, there are 10,000 oil leases that are not being drilled on yet. Seems to me that the Democrats would not have allowed those leases to be opened if they are opposed to new drilling.

The next lie is that Democrats support Amnesty for illegal aliens. The truth is that Democrats in Congress supported a plan that would require any person here illegally to get back in the line and pay a fine for their crime before ever getting a chance at citizenship. Forcing someone to pay a fine does not sound like amnesty to me. Of course, the Louisiana Republican Party and Florist Gump himself forgets that Republicans don’t want illegal immigration to go away because that would mean their corporate buddies would have to hire people at the minimum wage. I would also point out that the plan Democrats supported was called the ________ - Kennedy Fair Plan. Anyone? Anyone? The McCain – Kennedy Fair plan. So if this plan is so called “amnesty” then I guess anyone who supports McCain wants “amnesty” too!

The next lie is that Democrats support tax increases on the middle class. This is, again, untrue. Democrats support eliminating the bush tax cuts for people making $200,000 and above. In fact, here is Obama’s tax plan.You can plainly see that he wouldn’t increase taxes on the middle class.

In fact, when I campaigned for Congress in 2004 I proposed that we give a housing tax credit to everyone and not require it be itemized. Obama supports:

establishing a universal credit for the 10 million homeowners who do not itemize their deductions

Good to see someone else agrees with me. 

They tell the truth about Government run health care. Democrats do support that. Of course, if you want to look at failures in Government run healthcare you only need to look at the tenure of Bobby Jindal and his time as head of the Louisiana Department of Health. During his “leadership”, Louisiana’s health ranking dropped to dead last. But that is just typical of Republicans. They cry about how awful government is and then spend their entire political careers proving it

The f-liar asks “what do you have in common with these Democrats”? Well, if I had to make a flier of my own, it would probably look like this. (Well, actually I would spend a lot more time on it, not do it in paint, and not base it off the old one, but you get the point).

Anyway, it sure seems that the Republicans are scared that they won’t be able to get John “the liberal candidate in the 2004 Senate race” Kennedy to beat Landrieu. I am happy my wife got the f-liar. It was good for a laugh and it is good to see the Republicans wasting money on that garbage.

It is time that the Times Picayune gave credit where credit is due. In it’s recent article (Demos vow to erase state share of levee cost) the Times Picayune reported that Bobby Jindal sponsored the legislation that allowed Louisiana to collect offshore oil royalties. This is factually incorrect. Bobby Jindal did sponsor legislation to get us a share of oil revenues and that bill passed the House. However, the Domenici-Landrieu bill was passed in the Senate, emerged from the conference committee unchanged, was passed by the House (in lieu of Jindal’s legislation) and was signed by the President. It was Mary Landrieu, and not Bobby Jindal, who got us a fairer share of oil revenues.

The Lower Algiers Senior Center is one of those places effected by Jindal’s pulling the plug on “NGO” funding. WWL news tonight had a story that the LASC, as well as other senior centers. They are covered by the New Orleans Council on Aging (a group that falls under the administration). However, the budget to run those centers are based on old figures and the rest of the money comes from the NGO funding that Jindal got rid of with his veto pen.

As citizens, we cannot allow Jindal to get away with this. I understand cutting actual pork. This is NOT pork. If 500 people donated $50 bucks, the LASC could stay open. If everyone in every community where a senior center was being closed down chipped in, we could help keep all of them open.

Send me an email at dan@lj4a.com if you would like to make a pledge of support.

C. B. Forgotston seems to think so. I have to somewhat disagree. I don’t think this is a matter of having a clue or not. I think that Jindal believes that if he says something as “fact”, that people will just believe it and the media won’t challenge it.

I wonder why he would get that idea…

Bayou Buzz reports that Jindal vetoed ethics legislation that would have required all elected officials, including Jindal, to disclose if a political appointment was also a campaign contributor.

Jindal supposedly rejected it because he disagreed with a problem with the wording. However, this bill was not just sprung on Jindal. He knew it was coming down the pipe and could have suggested other wording that may have been to his liking. My theory is that the only wording that would have made it to Jindal’s liking would be if it had said “except for the Governor”.

So here was an example of real ethics reform, yet Jindal vetoed it? How much more do people need to see to realize that he really is the person we said he was.

Cross posted at Bobby Jindal is Bad.

That’s right, after all of his grandstanding on how government needs to be more transparent, about how there needs to be increased disclosure and stronger ethics laws in the state of Louisiana… Governor Jindal’s office ranks dead last nationwide when it comes to transparency.

S.B. 363, a bill about the Louisiana Youth Advisory, includes an amendment to exclude any records in Jindal’s hands from the open records law.

Let me repeat this for all the Jindal supporters who still are grasping on to the hope that Jindal is a reform candidate. Bobby Jindal, the person who said:

Today, we embark on the single most important endeavor for the future of Louisiana - bringing comprehensive ethics reform and transparency to our state

will now only have to give you his records if he feels like it. You cannot make a public records request for them. You cannot do anything. Our Governor’s office now operates in secrecy. Of course, remember the words of Jimmy Faircloth on why the Governor needs to operate in secrecy.

… the governor’s office opposed the bill because it would create problems for the governor to freely receive ideas, policy recommendations and communications from legislators and others. He also said it would create problems with investors who want to privately negotiate with the state.

It is really hard to orchastrate bribes in the form of campaign donations when you are under public scrutiny after all.  

So now Jindal has his own propaganda machine, can operate in secret without anyone knowing what he is doing, and has a Press Secretary and the rest of his handlers who will make sure that you cannot even talk to him unless they want you to. This is the exciting change that Bobby Jindal was talking about? Seems to me that the “die hard Jindal supporters” where duped! I wonder when they will finally admit it! Seems one one of them already has. Ironically, Trotsky was one of the biggest Jindal supporters who attacked me constantly (and pathetically so I might add) for daring to challenge Jindal’s sincerity on reform. What is also interesting is that the real Trotsky also started a little magazine called “Pravda”. It all comes full circle.

In another example of Jindal’s hypocrisy, he will allow people in the executive branch to have pay raises while not allowing the legislature to have their pay raises. Does this sound familiar? Of course it does! Jindal has shown many times that the standards he sets for the legislature are not the same standards that he sets for “his branch” of government.

Oyster has called out the “pay raise zealots” and challenged them to stand up on this issue as well. However, from what I heard this morning on WWL on my drive in, I am unsure if that will happen. One caller said how Jindal has only been in office for 6 months and “should be given a chance”. Of course, had nobody taken action and they just gave Jindal “a chance”, he would not have used his veto power on the legislative pay raise either. And while some callers have called in to voice some outrage, you just don’t hear the passion on this issue as you did with the legislators raise. I hope I am wrong and that the people will continue their outrage (even though I don’t expect Jindal to be swayed from giving “his people” raises).

First he signed a bill allowing creationism to be presented in science classrooms. Then he signed a voucher scholarship bill. Now he has cut $2.5 million from Turn on To Learning.

What is Turn on To Learning?

The TOTL program was instituted by Governor Kathleen Blanco as a research project to measure the effectiveness of 1-to-1 laptop initiatives in the 6th grade classroom.  It is the former governor’s dream that the program will prove to be so valuable that schools, school districts, and whole states would wish to join in such a leading-edge project.

I guess Jindal doesn’t see the need for fancy pants technology in the classroom (since his end goal seems to be an elimination of public schools that would use this technology anyway).

Maybe Jindal just didn’t like the fact that the program was Blanco’s. (You know, cause according to all the Blanco haters she didn’t do anything right as Governor).

And while this has nothing to do with education, $100,000 was also cut from Louisiana’s Habitat for Humanity. You know, because Habitat for Humanity hasn’t done anything substantial for Louisiana at all… especially in the last 3 years or so.