Gov. Bobby Jindal

[shrugs]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us...hp&oref=slogin

[rollhead]

I read that. Looks like he is kicking some ass. Or at least trying to.

Good for him.

[shrugs]

He is.

The ironic thing that swayed a lot of voters to Blanco last time around was the abortion issue. And what does she do? Signs a law that state LA will make abortion illegal if the Court turns over Roe vs. Wade.

I don't agree with all his ideas but his stance on ethics reform here in the Gret State should be applauded.

And the great thing is that bills involving ethics reform are letting us see the true light of certain elected officials. Sen. Derrick Shepperd was involved in the reelection of William Jefferson along with the recently deceased Sheriff Harry Lee, and what do you know....

Shepperd was a major opponent of the portion of the special session that focused on the Inspector Generals Office here in New Orleans.

Like General Honore said after Katrina, we need transparency.

[Monte Smith]

Some reformers come in and talk like they are going to clean the Augean stables. Jindal had that largely done for him. Good luck to him, though. Louisiana has an opportunity here, after the disaster.

[shrugs]

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

Some reformers come in and talk like they are going to clean the Augean stables. Jindal had that largely done for him. Good luck to him, though. Louisiana has an opportunity here, after the disaster.

Much more than a reformer.

He's gonna be around for a long time.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Unless he runs for President.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by shrugs

He's gonna be around for a long time.

Hope so. I think the guy is fantastic.

[Gordon B]

Originally Posted by Darryl G. Thomas

Unless he runs for President.

If Jindal succeeds in reforming LA and Obama wins two terms, I'll expect Jindal to run in 2016.

[shrugs]

Originally Posted by Gordon B

If Jindal succeeds in reforming LA and Obama wins two terms, I'll expect Jindal to run in 2016.

The main reason I voted for him against Blanco was that he seemed likes a person who can only succeed. And must succeed since the governorship is just a portion of a long political career.

Blanco wanted the office for all the wrong reasons.

[shrugs]

POP

Jindal vetoes legislative raise
by Ed Anderson, The Times-Picayune
Monday June 30, 2008, 11:17 AM

BATON ROUGE -- Gov. Bobby Jindal announced today that he has vetoed the legislative pay raise.

After days of saying he would not reject the unpopular measure, Jindal said this morning that he had changed his mind.

"I thank the people for their voice and their attention," Jindal said of the public outcry against the raise. "I am going to need your help to move this state forward. ... The voters have demanded change. . . . I made a mistake by staying out if it" originally.

Jindal said that legislators "are going to be angry I broke my word to them" by promising to stay out of the pay raise issue. "Let them direct their anger to me and not the people of this state," Jindal said.

The governor said that although he originally promised to refrain from injecting himself in the issue because a veto may threaten his future legislative programs, he was wrong.

"The bottom line is that allowing this excessive legislative pay raise to become law would so significantly undercut our reform agenda and so significantly diminish the people's confidence in their own government that I cannot let it become law, so I have vetoed the bill."

Jindal announcement came at an 11 a.m. news conference. He said he vetoed the pay raise bill "a few minutes" before the start of the meeting with the media.

Lawmakers had voted to raise their annual base salary from $16,800 to $37,500. The raise was to go into effect Tuesday.

Jindal was widely criticized for failing to to stop the raise before it was passed and his initial refusal to veto it. He said he had promised lawmakers that he would not use his veto, but he also pledged during his gubernatorial campaign last year to prohibit an immediate legislative pay raise.

The governor and five lawmakers already have been targeted with recall petitions, a clear sign of voters' unhappiness. Organizers of the Jindal recall announced today that they are pulling the plug on the effort now that the governor has issued the veto.

[jesus marion joseph]

Does the legislature sit year-round, or are they part-timers? I ask because that seems like ridiculously low pay for a thankless job.

[shrugs]

Originally Posted by jesus marion joseph

Does the legislature sit year-round, or are they part-timers? I ask because that seems like ridiculously low pay for a thankless job.

Part timers with lots of perks.

[Scott Dolan]

If he ever does become President, we'll have the hottest First Lady of all time in the White House:

[Gordon B]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

If he ever does become President, we'll have the hottest First Lady of all time in the White House:

Really? Jackie Kennedy was much, much better looking. Dolly Madison, Sarah Polk, and Grace Coolidge also were better looking, IMO.

[Scott Dolan]

That's your opinion, and you're free to be incorrect.

Is this a great country, or what?

[Jeffrey Wozniak]

It WILL be if Jindal becomes President one day.


REAL hope and change, baby!

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

If he ever does become President, we'll have the hottest First Lady of all time in the White House:

I still have high hopes for Kucinich.

From the current Nation:


Perhaps because the media have fixated on Jindal's image, rapid rise and sweeping popularity, they have left his voting and policy records largely unexamined. Countless articles have sung the praises of this "wunderkind"--who changed his name from Piyush to Bobby (he was a fan of the youngest boy on The Brady Bunch) and converted from Hinduism to Catholicism--yet few have delved into the "whip smart" governor's ideology. In fact, postpartisan gloss aside, whether in Louisiana politics or in Congress, Jindal has stood firmly with the religious right, has never wavered from the privatization mantra of the GOP and has been in lockstep with the neocons on foreign policy.

Healthcare is a good place to begin. Louisiana had a single-payer system, known as charity hospitals, which more or less had provided everyone with access to free healthcare since 1736, making it the second-oldest public hospital system in the country. Under Governor Foster, Jindal landed his first major post, in 1996, running the only single-payer health system in the country. As health secretary, Jindal immediately set to work reining in spending and beating back the large bureaucracy that had bogged down the department for years.

Brad Ott, a healthcare activist who dedicated his life to strengthening the charity hospital system after it saved his life from a stroke, points out that the harm Jindal could do to the charity system began to manifest during his term as health secretary. In 1997, while Jindal was running the agency, the Louisiana State University hospital system was directed to take over charity, and although Jindal's day-to-day role in the takeover is unclear, Ott says, "Since it did happen during his watch, he obviously did sign off on it." Ott believes that Jindal narrowly lost to Kathleen Blanco in his first run for governor because "Blanco ran commercials which spotlighted Jindal's 1996-98 DHH tenure, which had attempted to close several rural charity hospitals, notably Lallie Kemp in Independence." In Blanco's commercial, Kemp's medical director warned that if Jindal was elected, voters could expect the dissolution of the charity hospital system.

Jindal also initiated cuts to the healthcare system that made it much harder for doctors to treat poor patients. From reducing Medicaid payments made to facilities that care for the mentally ill to laying off hundreds of mental health workers to denying certain prescription drugs to poor patients, Jindal's cuts were swift--and the results predictable. In 2000, shortly after Jindal's term ended, the Louisiana State Medical Society surveyed more than 600 doctors. Its report showed that 37 percent of the doctors said they were treating far fewer Medicaid patients than they were two years earlier. A further 37 percent said they had stopped accepting any new Medicaid patients.

As governor, Jindal appointed Alan Levine as health secretary. A Floridian and a former healthcare adviser to Jeb Bush, Levine had presided over Broward Health, one of the country's largest public health systems. In 2006 Levine was at the helm of the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration, where he was the chief architect of Governor Bush's contentious plan to privatize Medicaid at Broward. Lawsuits were filed against Florida by Broward Medicaid beneficiaries in the post-privatization period, and an attorney at Legal Aid recently told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, "the Medicaid reform program has been imposed on poor and disabled people, and they are not getting the medical care and rights the law promises them." Should Levine, under Jindal, bring such privatization schemes to Louisiana, which is currently ranked second to last among all states for healthcare, the outlook for patients is not rosy.

On matters of education, Jindal made a state voucher system that would move up to 1,500 children from public to private schools a priority of his first 100 days, bullying legislators into voting for his plan. The bill, having passed both houses of the State Legislature, was signed by Governor Jindal on June 26. As Representative Bobby Badon, a freshman Democrat from Carencro, recalls, "I was told that if I don't support the governor on this, I may not bring projects home. That's wrong. I voted no because it was the right thing to do. I voted my conscience. I guess I will not be bringing much home to my district."

While many have celebrated Jindal's election as a victory for people of color in the South, a closer look at his relationship with the black community reveals otherwise. Jindal has been accused of snubbing NAACP invitations and was given an F rating on issues of race for his policy choices and political stances. Perhaps most telling was his response to the Jena Six, the case that captured the nation's attention when a local District Attorney charged six black high school students with second-degree attempted murder for their part in a schoolyard fight with a white youth who had made racial taunts related to nooses found hanging from a tree on school property. As tens of thousands of mostly African-American protesters from all over the country marched through Jena's streets on September 20, 2007, gubernatorial candidate Jindal told a group of students at LSU-Shreveport that the protesters were "outside agitators" there to "cause problems." Jindal lost the town of Jena to Blanco in 2003, 61 percent to 39 percent. Not surprisingly, after his stand with the white community, Jindal received the endorsement of controversial DA Reed Walters, the mayor of Jena and the Jena police chief. Jindal comfortably won the city of Jena by 55 percent in the 2007 election

[shrugs]

Blanco and Jindal agree on one thing:

Abortion

She signed the bill to have abortion made illegal in LA if Roe vs. Wade is overturned.

It might also be noted, that during their campaigns, Blanco added her maiden name, Babineaux, to garner the Cajun vote.

[Jeffrey Wozniak]

I had to find a piece to counter the far left Nation hit job. Now a view from the far right: Newt Gingrich


Bobby Jindal, America's Most Transformational Governor


You may have heard his name mentioned as a possible vice presidential running mate, but if you don't know anything more about Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, you should.

Governor Jindal is leading a revolution of conservative reform in Louisiana. He is the most transformational young governor in America today. The principles that motivate his Louisiana Revolution are the same pro-innovation, pro-competition, anti-bureaucracy and anti- big government principles that I urge each week in this newsletter - the same principles that are so desperately needed in Washington, D.C.

For those of you who don't yet know him, I'd like to take a moment to introduce you to Governor Bobby Jindal. And for those of you already familiar with this rising reformer, read on. You may just learn one more reason why Bobby Jindal is a reformer to watch, regardless of whether or not he gets a spot on the 2008 presidential ticket.

In Six Months, Jindal Has Accomplished More Than Most Do In a Lifetime
The first thing to know about Governor Jindal is that he has been in office as governor for just six months.

Six months.

And in just six months he's accomplished more than most elected officials accomplish in a lifetime.

Governor Jindal has built his impressive record of conservative reform through an innovative, aggressive leadership that should be required learning for officials in Washington, D.C.

He didn't wait for the Democratic controlled Louisiana legislature to come to him. He went to it, calling two historic special sessions before the regular session of the legislature even had a chance to begin.

"A New Day Louisiana, a New Day!"

In the first special session back in March, Governor Jindal began his reform agenda where it had to begin: fixing the culture of corruption and cronyism that has long dominated Louisiana politics and damaged Louisiana's economy.

The ethics reforms won by Governor Jindal catapulted Louisiana from a state with one of the lowest rankings to among the states with the highest ethics standards.

Thanks to Bobby Jindal, today Louisiana ranks as the number one state in financial disclosure requirements of its elected officials. And this new transparency and accountability in government is having real world results.

New financial disclosure requirements for public officials that went into effect last week have prompted mass resignations from state boards and commissions.

Said one Louisiana voter: "I don't know about anyone else, but I'm kinda liking the fact that this is resulting in 'out with the old and in with the new.' ... A new day Louisiana, a new day!"

Jindal's Louisiana: A Place to Work, Invest and Raise a Family

In yet another special session of the legislature and the regular session which ended just last week, Governor Jindal has built a spectacularly impressive record of accomplishment for the people of Louisiana.

Here are just a few of the highlights:

Six Major Tax Cuts worth more than $500 million, including eliminating taxes on business and capital investment and the largest personal tax cut in the history of the state - a $300 million reduction in personal income taxes, worth up to $500 for an individual and $1,000 for a family.


Governor Jindal brought about a Transformation of Job Creation and Retraining. He completely eliminated the Department of Labor and passed a guarantee for employers that Louisiana educational institutions will train its workforce to meet their needs, and if they fail, they will retrain workers for free.


He created $10 million in Opportunity Scholarships so 1,500 poor children in New Orleans can escape failing public schools.


Jindal led the passage of The Health Care Consumers Right to Know Act, creating transparency of cost and quality for the first time in Louisiana's health care system.


Bobby Jindal expanded the number of charter schools in Louisiana from 42 to 100.


He passed legislation cracking down on child molesters and also passed a resolution calling for the creation of involuntary civil commitment of sexually violent predators to keep them confined for treatment after they complete their prison terms.

Louisiana's Third Bond Rating Boost in a Week

All this, and Governor Bobby Jindal is just getting started. Just last week he vetoed $9 million dollars in pet projects and pork barrel spending in the legislature's budget - another area in which this 37-year-old governor is showing the way to Washington.

Not coincidentally, Jindal also announced that for the third time last week, Louisiana's bond rating had been raised by a major credit rating agency.

"The World Needs More Bobby Jindals"

The Governor was also in the news because he vetoed a bill that the legislature passed doubling members' current salary and guaranteeing future pay raises. Jindal had previously said he wouldn't oppose the pay hike, but he came to the conclusion that it was incompatible with his reform agenda.

His earlier comments, the Governor admits, were a "mistake," one that he chose to correct by vetoing the bill. And Jindal's correction has cemented his reputation as a principled conservative reformer.

Here's how one would-be opponent of Jindal's put it:

Dear Governor Jindal: I wanted to leave you a quick note that I plan to withdraw my recall petition effective tomorrow (July 03, 2008). I filed the recall petition about an hour before you announced your veto. After researching your record, your goals, and your vision for Louisiana, the only conclusion I could come to is that the world needs more Bobby Jindals.

"The world needs more Bobby Jindals." I couldn't agree more.

[Gary Sisco]

He's a multi-talented guy:

June 11, 2008 5:36
Jindal's Exorcism

Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal has been mentioned as a potential veep for McCain, and he may bring some, um, interesting talents to the table -- such as excorism. This 1994 New Oxford Review article authored by Jindal, who converted to Catholicism in high school and is known for being very devout, has been kicking around the blogosphere. In it he talks about witnessing the exorcism of a female friend he identifies only as Susan.

An excerpt:


Strangely, I found myself repeating the Hail Mary until it became a chant. Being a recent convert to Catholicism, I had yet to accept the Catholic doc*trines concerning Mary and considered any form of Marian devotion to be idolatry. Though I had never before prayed a Hail Mary in my life, I suddenly found myself incapable of any other form of prayer. Somehow, Mary's intercessions allowed me to find peace during that long night; I knew that I had sur*vived the worst and that I would exit with my faith intact. It terrified me to recall how close I came to turning away from Christ out of fear.

The crucifix had a calming effect on Susan, and her sister was soon brave enough to bring a Bible to her face. At first, Susan responded to biblical pas*sages with curses and profanities. Mixed in with her vile attacks were short and desperate pleas for help. In the same breath that she attacked Christ, the Bible's authenticity, and everyone assembled in prayer, Susan would suddenly urge us to rescue her. It appeared as if we were observing a tremendous battle between the Susan we knew and loved and some strange evil force. But the momentum had shifted and we now sensed that victory was at hand.

While Alice and Louise held Susan, her sister continued holding the Bible to her face. Almost taunting the evil spirit that had almost beaten us minutes before, the students dared Susan to read biblical passages. She choked on certain passages and could not finish the sentence "Jesus is Lord." Over and over, she repeated "Jesus is L..L..LL," often ending in profanities. In between her futile attempts, Susan pleaded with us to continue trying and often smiled between the grimaces that accompanied her readings of Scripture. Just as suddenly as she went into the trance, Susan suddenly reappeared and claimed "Jesus is Lord."

With an almost comical smile, Susan then looked up as if awakening from a deep sleep and asked, "Has something happened?" She did not re*member any of the past few hours and was startled to find her friends breaking out in cheers and laugh*ter, overwhelmed by sudden joy and relief.

Apparently, this also came up in his run last year for governor, though, clearly, it didn’t deter any Louisiana voters. And, hey, one could argue there’re certainly a lot of demons to be purged in Washington.

[Root Doctor]

Jindal also conducts a mean exorcism. You never know when that skill will come in handy.

[Gary Sisco]

Handy as hell in DC.

[shrugs]

from September(they sometimes purge their archives so I figured I would post this since he is in the limelight)

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/disp.../news_feat.php

Jindal the Populist

Much like other Louisiana governors before him, Bobby Jindal is traveling the state's dusty roads to defend plain, common folk from the tyranny of elitist enemies.

By Jeremy Alford

Gov. Bobby Jindal may very well go down in history as one of Louisiana's most aggressive campaigners, and that doesn't even count his super-stealth bid to be John McCain's running mate on the Republican ticket. Although he has only been in office for eight months — with more than three years left in his term and the litmus test of re-election still to come — Jindal has tread more local turf than many of his predecessors. In fact, since he wrapped the third legislative session of the year in late June, Jindal has traveled to no less than 28 Louisiana towns and cities to conduct community meetings.

Jindal's public schedule reads like a laundry list of obscure Louisiana locales. He has been to Wisner (population: 1,100), Mer Rouge (only nine new building permits issued since 2000), Dubach ('The Dog Trot Capital of the World") and even Mamou (for more, consult Jo-El Sonnier's "Valse de Grand Mamou"). Jindal also found his way to Pollock, a tiny hamlet of roughly 370 people named for Oliver Pollock, an anti-British financial backer of the American Revolution. Pollock Mayor Jerome Scott says Jindal is the first Louisiana governor to personally visit with local residents in 51 years.

Such comments have been the norm during Jindal's nonstop tour. For instance, the Shreveport Times noted that "no one in Vivian [has met the governor] in the city limits since Dave Treen visited in the early 1980s." But even though residents of these off-the-map towns haven't seen a governor in decades, they know one when they hear one. Jindal often starts his talks by thanking folks for taking time away from work and makes promises to mom and pop on Social Security, farms in danger of going out of business and local jobs.

It's all vaguely familiar and simultaneously off-putting, like a wolf in sheep's clothing. Jindal, a conservative Republican guided by Christian principles, might as well be standing in the back of a flatbed truck in town squares, sweating and rolling up his sleeves as he rails against Big Oil, small paychecks and his political enemies. And in a way, he is — only corruption and complacency are now the culprits, ethics reforms draw the applause and there are no political enemies to speak of (at least in public).

In short, Jindal has become a modern-day populist. He's communicating with the middle-class and working poor like no other politician in the state. During last year's campaign, he constructed the necessary divide, with the people on one side and the political elite — in this case, Louisiana's storied political culture — on the other. "Populists can be conservative, too," says Albert L. Samuels, an associate professor of political science at Southern University in Baton Rouge. "[Former Ku Klux Klan leader] David Duke was a populist. We have to remember that populism can manifest itself in many different policy descriptions. An enemy to the people has to be defined, and you need a champion to overcome that enemy."

And since populism, as used here, is chiefly a rhetorical and political style, Jindal, a man of many words in short order, excels at the craft. That's not to say, however, that the governor has changed stripes. To the contrary, Jindal is still a tightly scripted, heavily managed chief executive. While he has attended at least 28 town hall meetings, more than half were announced through media advisories just one day before the event — leaving very little wiggle room for promoting the gatherings. If fact, town hall meetings on the same day last month in Many and Winnfield were announced through a media advisory issued on the actual day of the events.

In the meetings, the governor has kept to issues related to the recent legislative sessions — and his vice-presidential ambitions, when prodded — but there's a bit of politicking involved as well. In fact, Jindal has used the town hall meeting format to perfect his constant campaign strategy. Whenever possible, he's out there on the road, pushing his ideas and communicating with voters. Never mind that the election is over. Approval ratings must remain high. Why else would Jindal motor on over to Ball, Columbia, Church Point, Farmerville, Homer, Jeanerette, Jonesville, Kenner, Moreauville, Napoleonville, Oak Grove, Springhill and Vidalia?

If supplementary evidence of Jindal's adoption of the populist style is needed, look no further than his recent odd-couple pairing with Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell. A north Louisiana Democrat who has the country twang to match, Campbell is the archetype of a boisterous Bayou State populist. He ran against Jindal for governor last year as a self-proclaimed populist who did, in fact, take on Big Oil in the tradition of Huey Long.

Jindal and Campbell shared credit last week for $10 million in state funds to assist Louisianians struggling with the high cost of utility bills. The money will be split in half between weatherization programs and individual assistance initiatives. True to form, Campbell went right for the jugular with his prepared comments in a joint press release, calling energy providers a "curse" to Louisiana families. Jindal took a more modest and practical approach, arguing "the money invested in homes [from the weatherization program] will cut costs and lower energy costs for years to come." While the two men differ in style and political philosophy, they both agreed, at least in this case, that the proverbial little man needed some relief.

So, where does this place Jindal in the realm of the great hayride? If former Gov. Edwin Edwards was the last great Louisiana populist, then maybe Jindal is the Louisiana populist reborn. Just consider the following passage when reflecting on Jindal, the man who energized voters last year with bold promises to help Louisiana recover from two hurricanes and a corrupt past:

'[The] election revealed a pattern new to Louisiana politics, a pattern startling and disturbing to those members of the old guard who could perceive what happened. Political divisions in the state had traditionally followed ethnic and religious lines. Suddenly everything had changed. [The new governor], who had lost the election four years earlier at least in part because of cultural and religious issues had now assembled a majority coalition "

That might sound like a sketch from Jindal's 2007 campaign, but it's actually a description of Huey P. Long's populist-fueled victory in the race for governor in 1928, as penned by historian Alan Brinkley. The passage does reveal history's repetitive tendancies, but it also highlights Jindal's own streaks of populism, which, before this recent round of legislative sessions, was barely visible.

[steve(thelil)]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

If he ever does become President, we'll have the hottest First Lady of all time in the White House:

I don't see it, Scott*. To me, based on that picture, Michelle Obama is better looking.



And I just knew Gordon still had the hots for Mrs. Polk.




*I assume that the right to be incorrect also extends to me?

[rollhead]

Not sure she'd be the hottest, but I think she'll be my all time favorite.

[Jeffrey Wozniak]

Originally Posted by rollhead

Not sure she'd be the hottest, but I think she'll be my all time favorite.

Is that Miles Davis?

If you consider him hot Rollie, more power to you...

[Ron Thorne]

You've hit an all-time low with that comment, Jeffrey.

Your all-star team lost. Get over it!

[Jeffrey Wozniak]

"My team" was never in the race. Still, it doesn't change the fact that Obama married Miles Davis.

[rollhead]

Woozy, has Palin and Jindal started a trend requiring that any GOP nominee has to undergo an exorcism first?

[Jeffrey Wozniak]

That and you have to eat moose burgers