Louisiana’s been Obamafied

My first thought when hearing Republicans call Louisiana Governor Jindal their Obama is that they are so right but I doubt they mean it in the same way I do. My second thought is please, get him out of here before his record and positions get Louisiana any more Obamafied.  Considering John McCain won Louisiana by a bigger margin than any other state, you probably think this is a strange comment.  Like Obama, Jindal’s rhetoric and record are light years apart.

Obamafy(verb): to bamboozle the public so they attribute miraculous traits and records to a politician simply because of his appearance, rhetoric, and personality; to dupe the public into to believing one represents change and competency based on appearances, speeches, and personality only;  As in:  The Republican party has Obamafied Jindal because they’d really like him to be something he isn’t but since he looks different, maybe they can convince voters that he actually will be different.

Jindal is a throwback to the Dark Ages (oh, make that social conservative).  The Republicans can be certain of that.  The first time he ran for governor against Kathleen Blanco I remember watching their debate and hearing him talk about the most important time in his life was when he became a Catholic Christian while witnessing an exorcism.   He’s actually witnessed and written about the topic.  ( For those of you cynics:  here’s his published article:  Jindal, Bobby (December 1994). “Beating a Demon: Physical Dimensions of Spiritual Warfare“. New Oxford Review. “I began to think that the demon would only attack me if I tried to pray or fight back….Did I witness spiritual warfare? I do not have the answers…” )  He is hyperCatholic as only the recently converted can be. He also was brought to the American myth by The Brady Bunch.   His name is actually Piyush and much like Obama, he tries to mimic the American experience in a way only those who try to forget their past mimic the American experience.  He is definitely in love with the zygote nation–he is for a myriad ‘rights’ for protohumans but is fine with state sanctioned deaths of criminals and zygote-saving deaths of women. He does voice knee-jerk negative reaction to gay Americans (against even civil unions), and support flag burning amendments, human life amendments, and marriage defined as man and wife amendments.  But remember, there is supposed to be more to being a Republican than being the country’s leading Christian Cult Leader,  let’s look at his record.

I want you to see the actual record before thinking this guy is anything but a religious nut on steroids who is a curiosity because of his ethnic background and charming speech.   He can charm people to the point they believe what he says and not what he’s done.  In this manner, he is very much like Obama which is why my Puma friends, beware of Republicans offering up Jindal horses.

Before the Republican party became the party of hyperChristianity, it was the party of small government, fiscal conservatism and support of civil liberties outlined in the constitution.  (Think Barry Goldwater).  Jindal is hyperChristian but he only provides lip service to the other items. The Media Darlings of the Right Wing are very much in love with Jindal the way they used to be in love with Dubya because they believe his rhetoric.  But, in this way he is much like Dubya.  He’s become an obamafied candidate.  Remember, he’s been in office less than a year when you read this and also remember he’s already been in Iowa where the caucuses are just three short years away. Like Obama, Jindal is a job hopper so one complete term as a governor will qualify him as god in his eyes.

Is Jindala a fiscal Conservative or small government Republican?

He is if you listen to the in-love Right Wing Talking heads.   Let’s just check the record.

Jindal’s Hiring Freeze to ‘Lower’ the Number of state Employees and ‘save’ money

We’ve had TWO hiring freezes since Jindal got elected (10 months).  This I can really speak to since I’ve worked for two universities this year and he just stuck a blanket freeze on the entire state system minutes after he took the oath of office. This was a knee jerk, ideological, poorly thought-out action that didn’t produce the desired results.   He killed UNO’s chance at getting some key professorships that needed to be replaced badly.  Nearly every University here–most importantly the medical centers–are very short on professionals since Hurricane Katrina.  The Med centers are dangerously short of doctors and nurses.  UNO is struggling to get qualified folks to teach classes and has been using (in UNO’s case) highly questionable and untalented graduate students in their stead.  Since Louisiana ranks 50 now in preparation for Higher Ed which negatively impacts the state’s ability to attract companies, you should be able to deduce this is a really bad move.  So now, we’re on our SECOND hiring freeze in less than a year.  This is because what he says and what he did, are two different things.  Let’s look at  what Mr. Small government has done here. 

The Spin:  Jindal cuts jobs.  The truth:  Jindal cut jobs before he added jobs.  Jindal has said repeatedly in press conferences that he cut 1,000 state employee since taking office.  Recent questioning by legislators of Jindal’s commission of administration has painted a different story.  The state has actually added 2,400 employees.  Not only that but, state payrolls are up.   Way up.  (See infamous Louisiana muckraker C.B. Forgotston’s  “Wake up! and I mean fast!”  at the monthly satirical paper The New Orleans Levee: we don’t hold anything back;  December edition which isn’t up on the site yet as of this posting but should be shortly).  Since the initial Jindal freeze, the state payroll has gone from $169 million every four weeks to $176 million every four weeks.   It seems Jindal’s hiring freeze may actually be the reason why the state of Louisiana has one of the lower unemployment rates.  It’s really unfortunate that they come and go and disrupt the state agencies that really need the employees from getting the folks they need when they are available.  Btw, state spending in the current budget increased by $1 billion from the prior fiscal year under Governor Blanco. 

AP writer Melinda Deslatte had this to say about Jindal and Louisiana’s overall spending in her Nov. 30 column. Here’s Piyush taking credit for a decrease in the state budget that isn’t exactly of his making.  Does this remind Pumas of Obama or what?

Some of the rhetoric bandied about by Gov. Bobby Jindal hasn’t helped matters, particularly about overall spending. Jindal and other administration leaders have talked repeatedly of a multibillion dollar decrease in the current 2008-09 budget.

That’s not false, but it also has nothing to do with the actions of the Legislature and governor. The shrinkage is tied to the loss of one-time federal recovery aid after the hurricanes of 2005, a decrease in the budget that lawmakers did not control.

I’ve been going after Jindal in my economics classes since he first came into office saying he was going to blanket the state with rebate checks and get rid of the income tax system.  This was because there was such a huge surplus when he took the oath of office.  (The latest estimate we’ve heard this year is there’s about to be a $1.3 billion shortfall in the state budget.)  The windfall was the result of all those folks replacing stuff they’d lost in katrina and paying sales taxes on it as well as the monies coming in from the feds.  Jindal, however, wanted to spread the money to even the northern portions of the state while everything below I-12 is pretty much a pile of damaged infrastructure and they are the source of the funds. Can you imagine where the state would be if that money hadn’t landed in the rainy day fund?  This is the brainiac trustee of the Reagan Legacy?  Well, he may subscribe to voodoo economics, but he certainly has done it without use of a synapse.

If you really want to get in touch with the real Jindal, then start reading up on what’s out there now before the web becomes completely obamified and the evidence is gone.   I certainly hope Puma’s are not going to relive tingly leg moments when watching George Will or any other of the right wing pundits three years from now.