Today the T-P had an interesting editorial from James Gill. It asked “When will voters see through Jindal?”.

Here is my response that I emailed him immediately after reading the article:

I have been wondering since 2004 when the media would start to see through Jindal. It is the fault of the media for failing to do its job that Jindal is able to get away with all he has gotten away with. Had the media done fact checking, they would have known that Jindal is a fraud, a hypocrite, and absolutely insincere when it came to ideas like “ethics reform” (or anything else for that matter)

Before blaming the voters, perhaps the Times Picayune should do some introspection and look back at the past reporting done on Jindal over the years. Many of the news articles written about him sound either like fluff peices or like campaign press releases. Your newspaper allowed Bobby Jindal to waltz into the Governors office without a hint of criticism or questioning.

I suggest you read this blog post I made after your paper endorsed Jindal for Governor.

http://www.jindalisbad.com/times-picayune-a-failure-in-fact-checking/

He lied about saving the healthcare system in Louisiana. He lied about bringing us our fair share of oil revenues. He lied about being supportive of ethics. And you guys not only let him do all those things, you published his lies as fact. And you wonder why the voters are not seeing through Jindal? The reason is because you helped create the monster in the first place! So before anyone on the Times Picayune blames the voters, they need to look inward and start blaming themselves first.

Cross posted at Liberty and Justice for All.

Jindal spoke to a GOP fundraiser last night and again proved himself to be a hypocrite.

Calling for more civility in politics, Jindal said “it is wrong to suggest that this new administration has anything other than good intentions.” He said the tendency in politics is to talk about the other party as if its members are “sinister people.”

Really? Is that why your campaign for Governor claimed that people who opposed you were part of some corrupt crowd? Bobby Jindal really needs to learn to practice what he preaches. When he doesn’t, the media needs to call him out on it.

During his trip to Washington, Jindal attended a fundraiser hosted by former Rep. Bob Livingston, R-Metairie, now a lobbyist, and was to attend another fundraiser today — both benefiting his 2011 re-election campaign.

Because Louisiana is prospering in this economic boom so there is not much for Governor Jindal to do back at home. And of course, Jindal and his staff would never use taxpayer funds to cover expenses on these trips, right? Wrong!

While the Governor uses campaign funds for travel that is not state business, his staff and security detail bill the state taxpayers for their expenses. In addition, taxpayers foot the bill for all of the car rentals that the Governor and his staff use on all of these trips regardless of the purpose.

And this was supposed to be the ethical governor? Are you kidding me? What do you say now Jindal apologists?

Cross posted at Liberty and Justice for All.

I could be talking about the series finale of Battlestar Gallactica. I could also be talking about Bobby Jindal gutting healthcare.

Back when Jindal cut the Louisiana Department of Health to shreds, helping to make it the worst healthcare system in the nation, he cut many programs and services. Now that he is Governor, it appears that everything is happening all over again.

Before Hurricane Katrina, there were about 350 mental health beds in the city. The move drops that number to fewer than 100.

Nobody should be surprised at this. Jindal doesn’t care about people getting needed services or if they have to drive across the lake to get them. All he cares about when it comes to healthcare is the money. Everything else is secondary.

The Democratic Party needs to get in gear and find someone who can challenge Jindal in 2011. The sick people in Louisiana cannot afford any more of his cuts.

So say we all.

Cross posted at Liberty and Justice for All.

In his continued attempts to leave our state in ruins on the way to the Presidency, Bobby Jindal has now announced that he wants to “streamline” government, in part, by changing civil service rules.

Jindal plans to change the civil service system to allow government managers more flexibility in dealing with state employees

Or in other words: Republicans view civil service like unions and want to gut them because they want to be able to fire people at will.

Jindal defends his general proposals to streamline government by saying:

The goal is to look at every one of these agencies, every one of these programs, all across government, every dollar that we spend. I don’t care if it’s constitutionally protected, statutorially protected. No sacred cows. Nothing’s fenced off. They’ll look at everything that government does, funds: everything we do.

He doesn’t care if something is constitutionally protected? Didn’t he take some sort of oath to protect the Constitution of Louisiana?

I guess Catholics will be happy to know that Jindal doesn’t believe in sacred cows.

The bottom line is this. Civil service is something that is very important to have in a government job because people should be able to do their jobs for government and not worry that they could lose their jobs because of the whim of a politician. Of course, Jindal is promoting this as part of his attempt to streamline government. However, cutting civil service is not a way to streamline government, and the people should call him out on it.

Cross posted on Liberty and Justice for All

Update: Jindal also wants to cut about 1500 jobs. However, most of them are not filled anyway. So is that really an example of him being fiscally responsible? We are not spending the money anyway.

On 60 minutes Bobby Jindal told the world that he has no secret plans to run for President.
Ya think?

I mean, how can your plan be secret if at every opportunity, even during your family vacation, you hold fundraisers in other states?

Cross posted at Liberty and Justice for All

I have been saying that Jindal has been a liar for years. So I guess we shouldn’t be shocked at another one. But for some reason I am a little shocked. He has repeated that story so many times. And now that it comes out that he lied about this too, I have to ask my Republican friends… at what point do you just stop believing him. Seriously….

Cross posted at Liberty and Justice for All

He is being insincere, but he is right.

In a column by Stephanie Grace, she describes Jindal’s explanation of what the GOP needs to do in order to get back into favor. One of Jindal’s quotes in the article was:

“We have to not worry about the messenger, and start focusing on the substance.”

What Jindal really means here is that it doesn’t matter who sends the message, what matters is that the people believe that they have the right message. Jindal was able to effectively convince the majority of voters in the State of Louisiana that he had the right message in the last Governor’s race. It really didn’t matter that he was full of crap and only wanted to put up the facade that he was bringing true reform. All that mattered was that the people believed it. 

So when the GOP tries to bring you its new message, perhaps brought to you by Jindal himself, just remember that the messenger wont necessarily be sincere. 

Cross posted at Liberty and Justice for All.

When Jindal was head of the Louisiana Department of Health, Louisana’s health rankings dropped from 48th to 50th. And now, more than a year after Bobby Jindal was elected to be Governor, Louisiana has dropped to 50th again.

Jindal has, in less than a year, eliminated transparency from his office, made it harder to convict people of ethics violations and now (under the supposed healthcare expert) we have the worst healthcare system in the nation. How much more must Jindal do in order for people to see him for who he really is?

Posted on Jindal is Bad.

Update: What is the Jindal response to Louisiana’s problems? He went to Texas to campaign and raise funds.

The fundraisers were described in his official schedule only as “private events” for Jindal’s re-election campaign. Melissa Sellers, Jindal’s communications director, declined to share more information about where the events would be, who is hosting and how much is being sought from potential donors.

Did they expect anything other than vague comments by Melissa Sellers? Have they not paid attention to the tactics of the Jindal administration yet?

How can Louisiana Democrats make sure that Bobby Jindal will never become President of the United States (in 2012 or any other year)?

Make sure he doesn’t win re-election in 2011.

If the citizens of his own state reject him as Governor, nobody nationally would take him seriously.

So how do you accomplish this goal? Well, you need to start working now to show the people of Louisiana that his promised ethics reform was just a bunch of lies. You need to show how he actually reduced transparency on his office and that he made it harder for the state to convict people on ethics violations by increasing the required burden of proof.

You then need to find a candidate with statewide appeal that can make the arguments against Jindal effectively while proposing true ethics reform (like eliminating the ability of corporations to contribute to political campaigns).  

Yes, I know, easier said than done. But if it can be accomplished, we would be doing the USA a huge favor.

He said:

Transparency inspires confidence, and confidence promotes cohesion

REALLY!?!?!? Is that why you signed a bill into law eliminating transparency on your office, removing it from the public records law, and making your office the least transparent in the state?

Hypocrite.

Cross posted at Liberty and Justice for All