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Commentary: Jindal leads GOP on a ‘march to folly’

Commentary: Jindal leads GOP on a ‘march to folly’

Over the course of history, governments, political regimes and leaders have done some stupid things despite all arguments to the contrary, at times even against their own self-interest.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Tuchman (best known for “The Guns of August”) chronicled this in “The March of Folly,” examining the Trojan War, the provocation by the Renaissance Popes that led to the Protestant secession, the unnecessary loss of American colonies by Britain and the now well-documented United States loss in Vietnam.

Fast forward to 2009. The Republican Party has just suffered a bad but not unprecedented defeat. The U.S. economy is in shambles. And the patch of ground some leading figures in the GOP have chosen to occupy to rally back is to oppose expanded unemployment benefits in the middle of a recession.

They could have chosen a stronger national defense and terrorism policy, personal responsibility or even market-based health care reform. Arguing that President Obama’s publicly-supported economic stimulus bill was full of wasteful spending (Rush Limbaugh termed it “Porkulus”) was not enough.

No, their cause in this time of crisis is to deny expanded unemployment benefits to tens of thousands of jobless workers by saying they would not accept added federal funding for them.

So my home state governor, creationism-toting Bobby Jindal, the newly-tapped spokesperson of the Rush Limbaugh-led Republican Party, and a handful of Southern governors, took their stand on expanded unemployment benefits which make up about 2 percent of the economic recovery package.

This, despite the fact that economists from all political ideologies concluded that extending the length of time that workers can collect unemployment insurance benefits would be one of the most effective stimulus measures.

A 2008 Congressional Budget Office memo stated that it would be an effective measure for Congress to pass because “it seems likely that recipients would spend most of those benefits.”

Mark Zandi, former economic adviser to Sen. John McCain’s campaign, estimates that for every $1 invested in unemployment benefits assistance, $1.64 in economic activity is generated.

Gov. Jindal is being joined in this folly by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, whose states have high jobless rates and could use the most economic assistance.

Worse, the right’s new hero is CNBC’s Rick Santelli, a man who on September 2, 2008, said the economy was healthy and blamed the business media for the financial crisis.

He has taken a similarly small, eroding patch of ground to mount a charge against the government’s recovery package by suggesting that the government should let more homes needlessly fall into foreclosure.

In his latest tirade, Santelli comments the government is “promoting bad behavior” and that it’s going to “subsidize the losers’ mortgages.” Well Mr. Santelli, President Obama’s home affordability plan will help stave off even more foreclosures and allow those who are barely staying afloat to refinance their mortgages, both of which are in the best interest of the American economy as each foreclosed home reduces nearby property values by as much as 9 percent.

This is the same guy who recently said that the all-white, all-male stock traders next to him represented “a pretty good statistical cross-section of America. The silent majority.” This from a former derivatives trader — a patriotic profession up there with the likes of soldiers, teachers and farmers. Like what America needs now is advice from a derivatives trader.

Today’s Republican Party, the lowest-held political party in the history of modern polling, should be in agony. They have just committed a serious blunder, a folly have you.

If the great Mrs. Tuchman were still alive, she’d surely call this latest Republican gambit the Cap Pistols of February.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of James Carville.

Mayor who sent watermelon e-mail says he’ll resign

Mayor who sent watermelon e-mail says he’ll resign

Thu Feb 26, 11:48 pm ET

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – The mayor of a small Southern California city says he will resign after being criticized for sharing an e-mail picture depicting the White House lawn planted with watermelons under the title “No Easter egg hunt this year.”

Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose issued a statement Thursday saying he is sorry and will step down as mayor at Monday’s City Council meeting.

Grose came under fire for sending the picture to what he called “a small group of friends.” One of the recipients, a local businesswoman and city volunteer, publicly scolded the mayor for his actions.

Grose says he accepts that the e-mail was in poor taste and has affected his ability to lead the city.

First the NY Post; now this….

They couldn’t even wait for Black History Month to be over……..

First the NY post and its racist cartoon picture and now this (Mayor is criticized for White House watermelon patch e-mail). I am afraid that it is going to get worse. There is a segment of America that can’t accept that for the first time in the history of our country that the people have elected a President who is of color. Some people argue that Civil Rights and community activist leaders are spending too much time and effort with the NY Post issue; but as you can see there is a lot of cultural conditioning that is taking place and the people who are displaying their ignorance need to be called out.

GOP’s Rising star; fail to shine giving GOP response

So I wasn’t the only one who thought that is response to President Obama’s economic plan (Republicans, Democrats criticize Jindal’s speech)  Where were his advisors or staff when he composed this speech?  Did Michael Steele see Jindal’s response in advance?  Someone high up in the GOP ranks had to have read this before they put him on prime time; or did they?

the forgotten black victims of nazi germany

The forgotten black victims of nazi germany

President Obama handles the people’s business

President Obama gave his first address to the American people in front of a joint session of Congress last night (Obama outlines ambitious agenda for ‘lasting prosperity’).  I think he gave a compelling speech explaining what his policies will do for working Americans.  I am concerned as to how we are going to pay for this, but have confidence that our President will explore all options as he attempts to tackle a historic national debt and bad economy.

The Republican response was rather interesting.  Louisiana Governor Jindal appears to be the party’s new ‘shinning star’ (Jindal calls stimulus ‘irresponsible’ in GOP response).  There are clearly huge philosophical differences between the Democrats and Republicans on how to move this country forward.  I was not sure who Governor Jindal was targeting, but it was not the average American. 

He started his response by acknowledging the historic accomplishment that this country made by electing the first President of the United States who is of color.   He then talked about his own experience; his parents came to the U.S. form India.  His mother was pregnant with him and his family could not afford to pay the hospital bill.  His father and the doctor worked out a payment plan and according to the Governor; never missed a payment. 

I am not sure why he mentioned that his dad never missed a payment.  I wonder what would have happened if his dad missed a payment?   They couldn’t take him from his parents or force him back into his mother’s womb.  What was he trying to say to the thousands of Americans have to file for bankruptcy or loose their homes because they could not afford to pay their medical bills?  Was he trying to warn these people never to miss a payment?

Governor Jindal is lucky that a doctor or hospital agreed to an affordable payment plan.  Jindal was born in 1971;  I wonder how successful an African American family would have been in trying to establish a payment plan for a hospital bill in Louisiana in 1971?  If anything, his story reinforces Obama’s call for health care reform right now!

The part of Governor Jindal’s response that was really misleading was his comments about Hurricane Katrina.  He used Katrina as an example of how government bureaucracy and big government is not good.  He claimed that a sheriff could no deploy boats to rescue people because of insurance concerns.  He and the sheriff decided to ignore the request and deployed boats to rescue people. 

I don’t know what part of Louisiana he was speaking of,  but he clearly wasn’t talking about the 9th Ward or New Orleans; we saw people trapped on top of houses and in the Dome; no one came to save them. 

In addition, Governor Jindal failed to mention that it was his party’s Presidential Administration who mishandled the Katrina recovery.  The problem was not that government was too big to handle Katrina, it was that the people who were in charge of running Government didn’t know what they were doing.

President Obama’s vision for this country is huge.  Some doubt his methods, but one thing that this country is known for is dreaming and accomplishing big things;  I believe that we can succeed.

Jack Johnson puts property tax proposal on ‘hold’

I was reading the Gazette this morning and  read an article that County Executive Jack Johnson is now putting his property tax increase proposal on ‘hold’  Proposed Prince George’s tax increase put on hold.  According to Johnson’s Chief of Staff, they want to research and explore other options of generating revenue.   You would think  that Johnson would have explored all possible options before bringing up an increase of property taxes.  I did not vote for Johnson in the last county election (I wrote in Rushern Baker’s name) and I can not wait fo his term to be over.

Jack Johnson considering running for state office

It appears that Jack Johnson may try his luck running for state office; Governor of Maryland to be exact (Johnson mulls run for state office).  I will let the readers discuss this one…..

 

 

Ny Post Cartoon

President Obama’s economic team constructed this stimulus package.  They have been working on this package since he was President Elect; before he was sworn in.  President Obama’s economic team gave the framework of the package to Congress for them to hash it out; but the majority of the bill is from President Obama’s econ team.

How often do we forget our history on how images like the one that we saw in the NY Post have been used to stereotype and degrade black people.   And for any person to say that this was a swipe at Congress and not President Obama is mistaken.

As you may have read, this week U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder made a comment at the Dept of Justice’s Black History Month Program that Americans are cowards when it comes to discussing race in this country.  He didn’t make those comments for kicks, he was responding to how this country has and still does have a problem with race; in light of the fact that for the first time in American History we have a President and U.S. Attorney General of color.

They say that black people are ‘too sensitive’, ‘playing the race card’, ‘always complaining’ or ‘should get over it’.  Some people even believe that because this country elected President Obama, that racism is magically supposed to disappear and that discrimination is a thing of the past.  This mind set falls under cultural conditioning. It is so common in our society that people subconsciously don’t realize it.