Tag Archives: Louisiana

The Morons Are Coming, The Morons Are Coming!

So Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) made the rather obvious and understated comment that the South “has not always been the friendliest place for African Americans.”  Yeah, you could say slavery and lynchings and discrimination in every aspect of life are kind of “unfriendly.”  Or you could be the GOP and go absolutely batshit.  It’s always a safe bet that the higher the reading on their outrage meter, the less there really is to be upset about.

Truth?  They can’t handle the truth, whether it’s history, economics, biology, climate science, or physics.  We already have a Congress and state houses filled with morons and on Tuesday we’re going to get even more.

Did Cassidy’s Daughter Really Have a Choice?

Bill Cassidy, the staunchly anti-abortion GOP candidate for Senate from Louisiana, has announced that his unmarried 17-year-old daughter will have a baby sometime this summer.

I just hope that this is what she wants, and not what Cassidy and his wife want for her.  Their daughter may well want children five or ten years from now, but not as she begins her senior year in high school.

I know that many abortion opponents argue that some women are unduly pressured into having abortions by their parents or spouses or boyfriends, and that’s a terrible thing.  But I think it’s equally sad if a girl is pressured into not having an abortion, if that’s what she wants.  Meanwhile the boy who shares responsibility seems to be going his merry way.

Sochi Hypocrisy?

WaPo has an interesting story* pointing out that eight U. S. states have so-called “no homo promo” bans in their school curricula that are very much like Russia’s anti-gay laws.  These states — and I’m sure you already guessed some of them — are Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, Utah, and Oklahoma.

But I’m still not watching the Olympics because of the dog killing.  You spent $50 billion and you couldn’t build an animal shelter?

* “Eight U. S. states have policies similar to Russia’s ban on gay propaganda,” Niraj Chokski

“Diaper Boy” for Gov?

GOP Louisiana Sen. David Vitter is running for governor.  You’ll recall that Vitter was implicated in the DC Madam prostitution scandal, and he confessed, with his wifey beside him looking miserable, that “mistakes were made.”

But that wasn’t the end of it.  When his patronage of DC prostitutes became public, his hometown hookers in New Orleans spoke out, and said that he preferred to let the good times roll while wearing a diaper.  Yes, people, a U. S. senator, now running for governor, managed to creep out the prostitutes in New Orleans.

Oh, and here’s a further fun fact for you — Vitter has done a campaign ad featuring him changing one of his children’s diapers.

Should Have Seen This Coming

The Duck Dynasty Robertson clan is partnering with Mossberg, a gun manufacturer, to promote a line of guns, including nice shotguns, two rifles, and a semi-automatic pistol.

Says vagina-loving, anus-hating Phil Robertson on the web site, “You know what makes me happy, ladies and gentleman? To blow a mallard drake’s head smooth off.”

Um, why do you need a semi-automatic to go duck hunting?  And now I’m stuck with a mental image of severed duck heads flying through the air, dripping blood.

Question for Sen. Landrieu

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), facing a tough re-election fight next year, is sponsoring a bill in the Senate that wouldn’t just allow health insurance companies to renew the policies being cancelled, but would require them to do so.

About 92,000 Louisianans are expected to face cancelled policies.

Okay, so she’s just outraged about those people.  But why isn’t she outraged about the 400,000 Louisianans who won’t get Medicaid next year because her state has refused the expansion.

The Ultimate in Revisionist History

Hurricane Katrina occurred in August 2005.  President Obama was sworn in for his first term in January 2009.

Yet, in a new poll, 29% of Louisiana Republicans blame Obama for the government’s Katrina failure, while 28% blame Bush, the guy who was actually, you know, president at the time.  Another 44% aren’t sure which one to blame.

Jindal Popular With His Party, But Not His People

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has backed away from his budget plan to eliminate the state’s income and corporate taxes while raising the sales tax and heavily cutting health care and education.  Jindal’s approval rating has dropped to 38%, while support for his plan was at 27%.

Jindal is also one of the GOP governors refusing to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, even though the federal government initially pays for the entire expansion and subsequently pays for almost all of it.  Businesses support the expansion — why wouldn’t they want a healthier work force?

Jindal’s failed budget in some ways makes him a canary in the coal mine for GOP policies.  He’s very much in line with his party and groups like the Club for Growth, but not so much with his red state’s voters, who saw his budget as giving to the rich at the expense of the poor and middle class.

If Jindal really hopes to run in 2016, he needs to thread the needle of re-gaining his popularity at home while hewing to GOP orthodoxy.

The GOP seems to think its hope come from its governors, but when you try to enact its principles in the states, people don’t like the results.  It’s much easier for a congressman like Paul Ryan or senator like Rand Paul to spout this inequality-extending stuff in theory than to live with its unfair consequences in practice.

 

Hey, Jindal, Brown Called and They Want Their Diploma Back

GOP Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, one of the 2016 hopefuls, has a degree in biology from Brown University and was a Rhodes Scholar.

Yet, even with his Ivy League education and Oxford experience, he signed the Orwellian “Louisiana Science Education Act,” which in fact has nothing whatever to do with science, but brought creationism to the state’s biology classes.

He also lets state vouchers be used for tuition at bible-based private schools, where kids are taught that The Flintstones is history, not a cartoon.

Um, Bobby, you’re looking kind of cartoonish yourself.