Jindal's Plans

I just found this courtesy of jindalwatch.com/wheresbobby/ I consider Jeff Crouere a phony pundit and a fairly brain-dead Neo-Con but he got this right:

After spending the past few months fundraising and campaigning for out of state Republican candidates, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal began a jammed packed eight day book tour today. This morning, the Governor was interviewed on the Today show and Fox and Friends. He is also being featured on Fox News as one of the top 12 GOP presidential prospects for 2012. He will soon jet to California for meetings and fundraisers and then travel back across the country to Washington D.C. for more book promotion. He finally arrives back in Baton Rouge next Tuesday. In a poll on www.TheDeadPelican.com  67 percent of respondents believe that all of this travel is purely for self promotion that solely benefits the Governor.

 All of this publicity will help Governor Jindal sell copies of his book, “Leadership and Crisis,” make plenty of money and raise his profile nationally. However, while he is busy travelingand promoting, Chad Rogers, publisher of the Dead Pelican, and many others are asking a very simple question, “Who is running Louisiana?”

 I guess the state is just running itself. So, if a Governor is not needed, maybe we can save the salary and let the Lt. Governortake the job. From the minute he was elected Governor, Bobby Jindal has been consumed by an overwhelming desire for the national spotlight. In recent months, his national ambitions have reached an obscene level. During the fall campaign, he traveled all across the country, raising money, collecting political favors and helping various GOP candidates. Curiously, he refused to endorse any Louisiana candidates and neglected our state’s severe problems.

I think Jindal is destroying Public Health, Public Schools, Public Transportation, and fighting Social Security so he can cut taxes. The only reason to do this is to put it on display as being "Fiscally Responsible" to the Republican Party, the NRC, for a reach for some national office. It is clear that Bobby will have to hightail it out of the Bayou state pretty soon because his vultures will come home to roost and things will get very ugly here and for him. 

The only reason he is running for reelection is that LA has an off-year election for the Governor, so he won't have a shot for a National spot until next year. 

I don't think Fox would hire him, as they did hire Palin, as a pundit, so he'll need a job until that National offer comes.

National Oil Spill Commission Report

The report is finally in and it isn't good for Jindal

They accuse him of showboating and wasting resources on building the useless berms. As early as July 2010, scientists were calling on the Gov. to end the berm project. Of course, his popularity remains high in the state but I see it falling badly before the election. Going after LSU, public schools and teachers will backfire.

His new idea is to get businesses to partner with Charter Schools so they can tailor the instruction to ensure a stream of new workers.

This is a very bad idea. It would turn public schools into factories, each one with a different curriculum and no standard degree program. It would also help Jindal to fight teachers by destroying tenure. So education would spiral down and would most likely make a college education not an option, certainly not a Liberal Arts education.

Dept of H&HS Lowers Fluoride Level in Drinking Water

Today the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) published their recommendation for lowering the level of fluoride to 0.7 parts-per-million for all public drinking water that is artificially fluoridated.  Their proposal appeared in the Federal Register and is available at

http://origin.www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-01-13/html/2011-637.htm

Public comments on the recommendation can be submitted by email on or before February 14 to CWFcomments@cdc.gov

· 0.7 ppm is too high. It neither protects teeth from dental fluorosis, the stated reason for the lowering, nor does it protect the baby's developing brain, an issue not even mentioned in today's announcement.

· An infant who receives formula reconstituted with fluoridated tap water at this new level (0.7 ppm), will receive approximately 175 times more fluoride than a breast-fed infant. These infants are not being protected with this new level.

  Doubt that fluoride is toxic, doesn't protect teeth and actually damages them? Read 50 Reasons to Oppose Fluoride

Jindal's War on Louisiana

No word on mental health, but as I posted a month or so ago, closing access to mental health will have severe repercussions and look what happened last Saturday in Arizona.
The Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals’ Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Unit provides these facts about Louisiana on their website:

• Approximately 208,000 adults or seven percent of adults in Louisiana have been diagnosed with diabetes.
• African Americans have the highest prevalence of diabetes, with a nine percent diagnosis rate, compared to five percent of Hispanics and six percent of the white population.
• Over 20% of adults currently do not have health insurance of any kind, including Medicaid or Medicare.
• Nearly one out of four adults is obese.
• Louisiana has the fourth highest cardiovascular death rate in the nation.
• One in four adults in Louisiana are current smokers.
• One in four Louisiana children have tried cigarettes by the 6th grade.
• Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Louisiana, accounting for almost 40 percent of all deaths in the state.

Sidney Bechet's House is Gone

With so much news in the past 4 days, I almost missed this piece in the T-P. It is great that Da Mayor is working on our blighted neighborhoods, but really! Sidney Bechet's house couldn't be saved? And the city is about to demolish The Outer Banks Bar, Dixie Brewery and Das Deutsche Haus (I know, there is a plan to move it, but that is not definite yet). New Orleans used to be the city that care forgot, but since Katrina and the Federal Flood, we can't be the city that forgot to care. These places need to preserved and celebrated. Especially the homes of people that created America's music, Jazz.

Don't fear the Reaper

What is with these girlie men Congressmen announcing they will now go in public packing heat? There were several people at Gifford's event who were carrying weapons and none of them could prevent 20 people being shot.
And if our elected officials are going to carrying weapons, shouldn't we? Come on, step it up a notch!

Huey Long

Something you need to remember: Huey Long, a man who was not a progressive, not a liberal, he actually did good stuff for Louisiana. Was he corrupt? Sure, but balance his corruption with what he did for the state, think highways, Charity Hospital, LSU; you have to give the man his due, and compare him to Jindal, Huckabee and that stupid man in Mississippi.
I am not for corruption, I would like to see it gone, but Huey did more for Louisiana, more than any other politician in our time.