:: I have been having a really blah day. Nothing got to me today, and nothing motivated me much either. Until I read that Republican Governor, Bobby Jindal had actually deprived the citizens of his state of certain unemployment benefits provided for in the stimulus package intended for Louisiana. Now I don't know about you, but I know that here in Michigan, people with out jobs are hurting. I also feel certain that just because they live in Louisiana doesn't mean that they are hurting less.
The idea that a man responsible for the welfare of a state could blithely and openly do something so egregious, so stupid, and with such an enormous impact on his constituents, in order to play a game of political craps, is unbelievable to me. In his effort to separate himself from the herd, and clearly planning his presidential run in 2012, he has done the people who elected him a disservice that is not even calcuable at this point. From Think Progress:
When President Obama signed the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act last week, it included three different provisions to benefit unemployed workers. The first provided funding to states that allowed for a $25 per week increase in benefits. The second extended the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program which gives 20 weeks of federally-funded unemployment benefits to individuals “who had already collected all regular state benefits,” while the third provision widened the pool of people eligible to receive unemployment benefits.
Today, however, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced his intention to oppose changing state law to allow his Lousiana citizens to qualify for the second two unemployment provisions. Jindal said the state would only be accepting money to increase the unemployment insurance payments for those who currently qualify for unemployment insurance.
And just so you know, this is the same guy who in 2008, was subjected to a recall petition when he refused to veto a pay increase for state legislators. From WIkipedia:
On June 27, 2008, Louisiana's Secretary of State confirmed that a recall petition had been filed against Governor Jindal. Ryan and Kourtney Fournier filed the petition in response to Jindal's refusal to veto a bill that would more than double the current state legislative pay. The petitioners had 180 days to collect the signatures of over 900,000 registered voters to force a recall election on the ballot. If accomplished, a simple majority would have been needed to remove the Governor. During his campaign for Governor, Jindal had pledged to prevent legislative pay raises that would take effect during the current term Jindal responded by saying that he is opposed to the pay increase but that he had pledged to let the legislature govern themselves.
On June 30, 2008, Governor Jindal reversed his earlier position by vetoing the pay raise legislation, stating that he made a mistake by staying out of the pay raise issue. In response, the petitioners dropped their recall effort.
Gov Jindal, you are TOAST, dude.
Image source Flicker photographer dsb nola.
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