23 August 2011

Jindal Attacks Obama for...Creating Jobs!!!

I begin to wonder when our Gov last told the truth--I certainly can't recall a single time. His latest pack of lies came in an email 19 August 2011:
Dear Friend -Louisiana is now in the tenth month of consecutive, private-sector job growth according to new numbers from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics—with new, even lower unemployment numbers to boot.

These numbers serve as the tangible validations of our plan to put Louisiana's best foot forward in spite of a difficult national economy, in spite of a bloated and ineffective Washington.

Make no mistake; we arrived in our current situation because we had a plan.

When businesses were asked why they didn't come to Louisiana – one of the most cited reasons was corruption.  Thus, we laid out historic ethics reforms to inspire confidence in our state, tax cuts to embrace growth, and workforce training that guarantees citizens are ready and able on day one to go to work.

The evidence is clear: cleaning up government and empowering employers has brought us jobs, new families and growth during a national economic crisis!

President Obama's plan, or at this juncture shall I say plan-in-planning, is to preach from the national pulpit about the evils of wasteful and overly large government all the while expanding it as fast as he possibly can.  He is talking the talk, but staying rigidly immobile when it comes to walking the walk.

He has no plan, has not had a plan in many months, and is currently on vacation in Martha's Vineyard taking in the ocean views while the country scratches its head in total bemusement at how utterly disengaged this president is.

The plan will come next month, he tells us.

It's big government to the rescue in typical big government style—at the pace of a particularly lazy snail.

A plan should have been in place since day one. We had one, it worked, and Obama has only to look south toward Louisiana to see a clear path toward a brighter economic future.

Enjoy your vacation, Mr. President. We will continue working.

What was Jindal's plan? To publicly denounce and reject the Stimulus money from Washington before accepting it and handing out, via expensive helicopter trips, over-sized checks with his name on them, as though the checks came from him. He also fails to mention that a lot of that Public Sector job growth occurred in Charter Schools subsidized by the Feds, Katrina and Rita and BP clean up and rebuilding, subsidized by the Feds (and by money the Feds forced BP to pay). I am sure a few jobs were created by Jindal's dark deals with Chouest, Halliburton  and other friends.


Jindal criticizes The Pres for announcing he will present a plan for reducing waste and creating jobs without announcing that plan. That is very squirrelly logic from an ethically challenged man. And where is Jindal's Plan for Jobs? Where is the plan of the National Republican Party? 


They don't have one.

14 August 2011

Republicans and The Right to Die

I thought it was a bad deal when The Right to Work Law passed in Louisiana in 1976. I was 24 at the time and naively thought it wouldn't last long. But as the years went on and it remained law, I began to call it The Right to be Fired Law, for I could see the only group benefiting from it were employers (the Capitalists)--not workers. 


The Cato Institute has a different take on this, they hold that Federal Labor Laws infringe on the employment liberty of workers to sell their (our) services without constraint by Federal or State Laws, i.e., if a worker wants to sell his services below minimum wage or work more than 40 hours without overtime, that worker should be able to do that. And that is what The Right to Work Law does, it empowers everyone to work longer for less. The Cato Institute and their followers really do; read this screed written by Richard Vedder in 2008, or as much as you can stomach.


The AFL-CIO has a different take on this law, they call it the The Right to Work for Less.  They provide some interesting facts--documented, of course--that prove their point, like:
1. Right to work laws lower wages for everyone. 
2. Federal law already protects workers who don’t want to join a union to get or keep their jobs.
3. Right to work endangers safety and health standards that protect workers on the job by weakening unions that help to ensure worker safety by fighting for tougher safety rules.


There are 22 states with Right to Work Laws. Every Southern State has bought into this and their people suffer for it. 


The average worker in a right to work state makes about $5,333 a year less than workers in other states ($35,500 compared with $30,167).[1] Weekly wages are $72 greater in free-bargaining states than in right to work states ($621 versus $549).[2] Working families in states without right to work laws have higher wages and benefit from healthier tax bases that improve their quality of life.


Since the Right to Work for Less or Be Fired Law was enacted, Louisiana has gotten poorer, our population and tax base have shrunk. Jindal and his cronies have done everything they could to cut taxes on the wealthy and the corporations. 


God forbid the Unions ever gain a foothold in Louisiana, and without Unions the rights we will have are the Right to Live Poor and the Right to Die. Norma Rae, where are you?

01 August 2011

Our Local Elected Toadies

This should sound familiar to anyone paying attention to Bobby Jindal--he is the featured speaker at this conference:
  • The following politicians are going to the ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) junket 3 - 6 August in New Orleans at a cost of nearly $20K of our tax-payer money. ALEC, if you don't already know, is a lobbying group that writes right-wing bills and pays politicians to support those bills.  Some of ALEC's issues: 
  • Passing new laws to disenfranchise voters with Poll Taxes and Literacy tests; 
  • Making it harder for Unions to organize--they are behind the defunding of the FAA for that reason; 
  • Fighting efforts to address Climate Change; 
  • Sponsoring Anti-Immigration laws and promoting For Profit Prisons to hold more people
  • They are opposed to Healthcare Reform
  • They want to end Public Education
Feel free to call these "lawmakers" and chastise them for abusing our tax dollars when we have a state budget problem. Click here and give them hell: Senators, Reps
  • Nobel Ellington (who is national chair of ALEC)
  • House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown
  • Jeff Arnold, D-New Orleans
  • Cameron Henry, R-Metairie
  • Nita Hutter, R-Chalmette
  • Girard Jackson, D-Harvey
  • John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie
  • Walt Leger III, D-New Orleans
  • Anthony Ligi, R-Metairie
  • Thomas Willmott, R-Kenner
  • Senator A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell
  • Senator Ed Murray, D-New Orleans 
The above are the New Orleans Metro area pols: the compleat list is:
  • Nobel Ellington (who is national chair of ALEC)
  • House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown
  • Jeff Arnold, D-New Orleans
  • Elton Aubert, D-Vacherie
  • Damon Baldone, D-Houma
  • Jim Fannin, D-Jonesboro
  • Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles
  • Johnny Guinn, R-Jennings
  • Joe Harrison, R-Napoleonville
  • Cameron Henry, R-Metairie
  • Bob Hensgens, R-Abbeville
  • Frank Hoffmann, R-West Monroe
  • Nita Hutter, R-Chalmette
  • Girard Jackson, D-Harvey
  • John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie
  • Bernard LeBas, D-Ville Platte
  • Walt Leger III, D-New Orleans
  • Anthony Ligi, R-Metairie
  • Joe Lopinto, R-Metairie
  • Rick Nowlin, R-Natchitoches
  • Erich Ponti, R-Baton Rouge
  • Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport
  • Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs
  • Thomas Willmott, R-Kenner
  • Senator A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell
  • Senator Ed Murray, D-New Orleans
  • Senator Neil Riser, R-Columbia
  • Senator Gerald Long, R-Winnfield
  • Senator Francis Thompson, D-Delhi
  • Senator Mike Walsworth, R-West Monroe

Sic em!