How Republican of them! Refusing the ACA Medicaid expansion is somehow a 'fiscally sound' decision, but spending a lot of money on lawyers and lawsuits to squelch MoveOn's criticisms are perfectly fine.
Louisiana is suing national left-leaning policy group MoveOn.org in federal court, saying it violated copyright law when it put up a billboard and commissioned video ads critical of Gov. Bobby Jindal that use the state's tourism logo and motto.
Republican Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne has been locked in a pitched battle with the group for weeks, unsuccessfully calling for it to take down the billboard that is currently up on the I-10 coming into Baton Rouge from Port Allen.
"We have invested millions of dollars in identifying the Louisiana: Pick Your Passion brand with all that is good about Louisiana. No group should be allowed to use the brand for its own purposes, especially if it is for partisan political posturing," Dardenne said in a statement announcing the suit.
"MoveOn.org has every right to attack Gov. Jindal, the state's refusal to accept Medicaid or, for that matter, me personally. But they do not have the right to use our protected service mark, which is used solely for the purpose of promoting and marketing Louisiana. We own the mark and its use is under the direction of my office, not the Office of the Governor."
Dardenne is protecting Louisiana's marketing investment, which they've spent "millions" on, but the people who live in Louisiana aren't even worth the millions they won't spend because the federal government covers the full cost for the first three years?
As for 'trademark infringement', I'd like to remind Lt. Governor (who aspires to Governor) Jay Dardenne that the people of Louisiana paid for that and own it. And the people of this nation have decided free speech is something worth defending, and not just when the right wing decides it's ok.
Stay tuned.
