Jindal eerily uses the Hurricane Katrina disaster to attack government and used a race-profiling Sheriff
By John Amato Wednesday Feb 25, 2009 3:15pm
There was so much insane gobbledygook that came out of Gov. Bobby Jindal's mouth last night that I could keep wring for days about it. I couldn't believe my ears when Bobby Jindal used the utter failures of the Bush administration over their "Brownie" handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster to attack the role of the federal government in our lives. Especially when the state of Louisiana has received billions of dollars from the federal government to help them recover.
The federal government has devoted more than $175 billion to the region since Katrina. It's unclear how much more money will be needed to fix the leftover damage. But nearly everyone agrees the federal government should continue investing heavily to strengthen the region's levees and make other flood control improvements to prevent a repeat of Katrina's devastation.
I'm sorry, but the federal government is a necessary player to help Americans in times of any kind of natural disasters. Even from Volcanoes. What was up with this Sheriff Lee that he praised? Oh, that's right, he's a race profiler who fits in perfectly in the GOP's world.
In the wake of Katrina, Lee grabbed national headlines by suggesting his deputies could randomly stop blacks to combat a rise in drug crimes caused by the displacement of low-income New Orleans residents.
He later abandoned the idea -- but never apologized.
In an earlier incident, Lee sparked a firestorm by ordering his force to arbitrarily stop “young blacks in rinky-dink cars” driving in white neighborhoods, according to The Associated Press. He backed off that plan, calling it a mistake after the NAACP called on him to resign.
Shortly before his death, Lee stoked controversy again, telling a TV reporter: "We know the crime is in the black community. Why should I waste time in the white community?"
And he completely ignores the fact that President Bush and all the Republicans voted to increase the federal deficit more than any other time in our history.
Bush ran up more debt for this country than all previous presidents combined.
Jack Cafferty asked the right question today: Are the Republicans in any position to lecture President Obama on fiscal responsibility? Being lectured by the Jindal's of the GOP is irresponsible and ridiculous. And it was creepy. I call him the Exorcist for a reason:
...in an essay Jindal wrote in 1994 for the New Oxford Review, a serious right-wing Catholic journal, Jindal narrated a bizarre story of a personal encounter with a demon, in which he participated in an exorcism with a group of college friends. And not only did they cast out the supernatural spirit that had possessed his friend, Jindal wrote that he believes that their ritual may well have cured her cancer.
Reading the article leaves no doubt that Jindal -- who graduated from Brown University in 1991, was a Rhodes Scholar, and had been accepted at Yale Law School and Harvard Medical School when he wrote the essay -- was completely serious about the encounter. He even said the experience "reaffirmed" his faith.
I don't think the media dared to mention this fact to America and it certainly wasn't part of Michael Gerson's wonderful Villager profile on Jindal. But he's the future of the Republican party as their party leader Rush Limbuagh warns them.
Joan Walsh astutely points out that there's also a deeply noxious racial stench to the governors like Jindal who are refusing these funds.
Even the wingnut base was shocked at his performance.
Townhall's Amanda Carpenter has always struck me a young lady of simple All-American tastes, who would be dazzled by a fistful of carnations and the early bird special at Applebees. Tonight:
Well, I don't feel as good about the Jindal response as I did earlier today.
There was a cheesy, salesman-like quality to the response that I don't think connected with the Rick Santelli-inspired anger so many Republicans are feeling right now. And, I'm pretty sure he's going to be SNL's next target. His speech tempo was just, so weird.
Enough complaning from me. He didn't pass the primetime test and it makes me sad. I don't want to dwell.
Oh dear. One can almost see an evening spent on the couch beneath a Snugglie, a pitcher of Twisted Devils at hand and a Gretchen Wilson CD blasting away on the stereo until the police show up and pound on the door.
Speaking for the more or less Y chromosome side of the aisle, Ol' Bacon 'n Playdoh hisself:
Awful. He walked out like an earnest dork and has a weird inflection, trying to sound upbeat and sunny when it's clearly not his natural metier. It sounds false, and he looks false.
I don't care how much of a star Jindal is, America doesn't elect somewhat-off dorks as president.
That's Ace.
Calling someone else a "dork".
He almost killed off his chances in 2012. Here's the transcript of what he said.
During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: 'Well, I'm the Sheriff and if you don't like it you can come and arrest me!' I asked him: 'Sheriff, what's got you so mad?' He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration.
I told him, 'Sheriff, that's ridiculous.' And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: 'Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!' Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people. There is a lesson in this experience: The strength of America is not found in our government.
It is found in the compassionate hearts and enterprising spirit of our citizens. We are grateful for the support we have received from across the nation for the ongoing recovery efforts. This spirit got Louisiana through the hurricanes -- and this spirit will get our nation through the storms we face today
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If that is the best the Republicans have, Obama is in good shape. Jindal was pathetic.
100%
The R's are doomed, doomed I tell you, in 2012 if Jindal is the best they can come up with.
LONG LIVE TOPSY.
This guy has a future and I see a couple of options for him based on that performance last night - insincere TV preacher or cheesy infomercial host.
they're sooooo desperate, that they're just rotating their hopefuls to see who gets the most attention.
Fortunately for us, and the rest of the world actually...they don't have much "talent" to choose from.
And this Jindal character...wow...what a spectacle his rebuttal was...he's going to be picked apart.
I thought he was reading to a third-grade class. I was just listening and when I finally looked at the screen I halfway expected to see him reading from a picture book.
The Republicans (like the Catholic Church of old) hopes that the general population remains stupid and not to question authority.
Keep talking, Bobby, you're doing a heckuvajob! I fully support a joint GOPer ticket with he and Sarah Palin in 2012. He's going to be out of a job by then anywise, once the LA voters have their say. Palin/Jindal is just the ticket to nicely finish off the GOPer Party for a generation or two.
Obama's speech was excellent. I hope we elect enough competent politicians to effectively implement the ideas he so eloquently laid out in his speech that night.
everybody seems to be glossing over with their adulation for Obama's speechwriter. He can't implement anything without honest political help, and unfortunately, that is in very short supply in Washington.
just wanted to say "yo" -i'll be going out tonight, won't be around. have fun & keep kickin'!!
Jindal and Palin are the best they've got that's great. If W hadn't totally screwed the pooch for the last 8 years, I'd be laughing my ass of now, but Obama more than has his hands full.
No wonder Barney's been biting the hands of reporters lately.
Jindal's reference to him was freakin' hilarious! My wife used to work in a sales position in which she had direct contact with law-enforcement decision-makers throughtout the U.S. and Canada. When I asked her thoughts on Lee?
"He was a fucking crook," was her response.
Great job, Bobby!
But boiled down to pure simplicity, regardless of Lee's character,
he was a Democrat and thus Jindal's lesson is:
Listen to local Democrat, survive.
Listen to Washington Republican Bush official, drown.
Does Jindal really want people to go all vigilante after a natural disaster? Sure, I can understand being frustrated with bureaucrats, but the whole, "ignore the cops" thing is not going to help a rescue response.
Gulliani never missed a chance to bring up 9/11 during his campaign to win the GOP nomination.
Now it looks like Jindal's gonna do the same with Katrina.
and with the same spectacular results.
The "Flirtin' With Disaster" tour.
If Jindal is the new poster boy for the GOP.. Heard of bottom of the barrel? Lift the barrel, looking underneath it, is where you find such as Jindal.
That's where the slugs and worms are and once in a while you'll find a snake.
.
Wed, 02/25/2009 - 15:39 — Nowonmai
"bobby" is the bottom of the barrel after the monkeys got done with it.
Potential drift requiring Site Monitor attention.
"Brownie" handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster to attack the role of the federal government in our lives.
In the Brownie case, he might have a point, but that was BUSH'S federal governement, which fucked everything up.
PS MY second grade teacher talked to us like we are more intelligent than Jindal did. Dork is right.
Someone said today that he reminded them of an elementary school child playing a part in the school play. That seemed about right to me.
I love the screen capture of Jindal's face uptop. Looks like he walked into his parents bedroom and caught them having sex.
he reminded me of Andy Kaufman staring into the camera and rambling on about something he knows nothing about. tank you berry much.
There is not a single Republican who has the potential to speak to the interests or values of East coasters, West coasters and Mid-Westerners. Today's Republicans are latter day Dixiecrats who speak only to the fears, hatreds and dysfunctions of an unenlightened, bigoted and insurrectionist South that is deservedly in it’s final death-throws. Based on post-speech polling, voodoo exorcist Bobby Jindahl failed dismally to promote an alternative Republican agenda, which was the purpose of his rebuttal.
Republican leaders are in a state of panic. They have no sense of reality, no brains, no sense of responsibility, no truth, no shame, no ideas and no compassion. They are consumed by their personal self-interests. They have NOTHING constructive to offer the American people in a time of dire crisis. Absolutely NOTHING!
Two things about Harry Lee:
1. He was way more than a racial profiler. He certainly was that, and I don't seek to excuse him for that. It's important to understand that Lee was sheriff in the parish adjacent to New Orleans, and New Orleans was quite near a failed state at some points in his tenure. Lee would try anything to have positive results for his constituents, and his ideas about racial profiling were not spurred by racism (they were just innately racist). Despite having a ridiculous amount of power and influence, Lee didn't end up in the Edwin Edwards mold of taking advantage for his personal wealth. Lee also had a lot of more progressive policies. By the way, Jefferson Parish is David Duke country (actually from neighboring St. Tamany Parish), and I'd imagine it's hard to maintain perspective when surrounded by so many wackos.
2. Harry Lee is now deceased which is the only reason Jindal is selling this bs story now. Lee would have been on the late news last night telling everyone what a crock that story was.
is who in hell picked Jingle to do the rebuttal. They must be insane!
Apu appears to have a better sense of community than Jindal, and he's got more business experience.
I've been listening to Rachel for nearly five years and can't remember a single instance that she was so nonplussed.
To use Katrina as an example of Republican victory was astounding.
I'm not sure but it seems he's in need of an exorcism.
:) :) :) :) :) Damn! I thought I was watching Saturday Night Live skit!
I bet you will be watching one similar to it on SNL real soon.
so it is unclear why Jindal didn't offer up his services. It seems as strange as McCain keeping his Osama bin Ladin capture plans secret.
It’s like the Pubes are playing limbo or something. The bar is now set so low, they have become contortionists.
President Obama=eloquence and rising oratory that fills the heart with hope
Bobby Jindal = token Republican brown person who instantly became a parody of himself
You have to love the way so many Republicans arrogantly assume that their failures of leadership are not personal failures, but a failure of government as a concept.
"Hey vote for us, we promise we won't do anything!"
The problem is not allowing things to be managed by governments. The problem is allowing things to be run by stupid governments.
It's the stupidity, stupid!
alas you put it much more eloquently than I could.
Indeed, the jist of this GOP stooge's message was: elect us, so we can get a nice salary doing nothing.
Where is the value proposition on such display of logical dissonance?
I think it is completely intentional. They run on a platform that Gov't. can't solve any problems, and then they get elected and prove it. The logical extension of this philosophy is the Iraq war. So many decry the war as an abject failure. Not the the repukes, their idea in the first place was to overrun and destroy a country, (using military and their contractors) and then "rebuild" (using civilian contractors, i.e. KBR) and in turn the Gov't becomes giant ATM machine for their corporate overlords. From this POV, the war was/is a roaring success.
n/t
Of course Louisiana needed Federal Government funding after Hurricane Katrina. Controversy ensued because it took so long for them to receive help. But there was never any question over whether or not the state truly needed the funding and rescue help that only the Federal Government could supply that quickly.
It's interesting that he leads off with this story about ignoring bureaucracy to make an ethical decision. Yes, such a cause is valid. But obviously Sheriff Harry Lee would have accepted assistance from government officials had they offered it freely instead of requiring nonsensical procedures.
The first thing I thought of when I saw the stairs behind him was that they were the symbolic stairs to nowhere.
Where crazy brothers and crooks have stayed a night or two.
In Louisiana you are either under treatment or under indictment.
The left prefers Law enforcement officers who illegally seize firearms like Mayor Nagan's police force.
reading My Pet Goat.
Yeah, why are the leftist always supporting jack-booted thugs who take guns, kidnap people, torture detainees, and tap phone lines without warrants? huh?
you better watch yourself, son, 'cause the saddlebag saviour certainly is.
jesus is a cowboy; a range rider of righteousness.
he will come down from the sky, lasso you up and whip you out into the cosmos if you keep acting like an @$$hole!!
His "salesman delivery" to me sounded more naive than anything else. A bit like Kenneth the Page delivering one of his anecdotes about back home.
An Indian version of Bush and Sarah Palin...that's all Bobby is.
It is quite possible that Bobby Jindal was full of crawfish last night. His "touching" story of this sheriff may be completely untrue.
So, to sum up - bad presentation. no new ideas. maybe all a lie!
I thought he was creepy. Looked like a nerd running for student council president.
The younger people in the GOP seem to almost entirely be nerds, but yes, I totally get what you mean!
You know, I've been sitting here while multitasking my work trying to come up with something, anything to say in the Bobby Jindal threads, if nothing else, to decide for myself what I think about it, and I can't. I'm as speechless as the next person!
It's been written about at Crooks and Liars extensively before, and is totally consistent with Jindal's philosophy. If your philosophy is that government should not be used to help the people, you then staff agencies with political cronies who are not up to the task (or worse, people who ideologically oppose the very agency they head). Both Reagan and George W. Bush did this. Then, when a crisis strikes requiring that agency's expertise, the agency utterly fails to help. Then, the conservative politicians can say, "see how bad government is at solving people's problems?" Then, according to the conservative ideology, the people will agree that the agencies should be drastically shrunk or abolished, and government will be drowned in a bathtub.
Thankfully, the great majority of voters now see through this bankrupt conservative philosophy. They want a smart, effective government that works for them.
ran up more debt for this country than all other presidents combined"
This pretty much says it all. Why aren't the Democrats starting every conversation with those words. Like Bob Cesca said a few weeks ago, the repukes have ZERO CRED on the economy, fiscal responsibility, and everything else for that matter.
They're better for the super rich, too. And right-wing talk show hosts.
If everyone voted their own interests, democrats would get 100.00%. Even the crooks lining their own pockets would likely prefer a government that didn't destroy the country.
Ironically, Fox listed Jindal as a Republican whereas C-SPAN lists him as a Democrat! Check it out -
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/watch.aspx?MediaI...
What the...!
Since when have you needed a liscense and insurance to operate a small boat? Maybe Louisiana has some weird laws or something? But, I am having a hard time accepting this. It just sounds so weird. I think bobby just made that story up.
Jindal went on about the need for tax cuts even though obama just delivered a tax cut to 95% of the american people via the stimulus bill that the gop opposed. oh, wait... a tax cut isn't a tax cut unless it's for the ultra rich...
We shouldn't be spending tax dollars to study volcanoes! It's a waste of money. And while we're at it, we should stop spending money on all those airplanes they fly into hurricanes, and stop wasting taxes on all those silly levies, and for God's sake, let's not spend another penny on those idiotic rescue services, which pluck people off of rooftops during floods.
let me tell you a story.....
he was so mad he was litterally yelling into the phone
jeepers!
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