R.I.P. June 30, 2012 Killed by Bobby Jindal

Bobby Jindal has stood by quietly while his henchmen in the lege have terminated the office of State Inspector General (“IG”).

The IG was created in 1988 and made permanent by Jindal in 2008. The purpose of the office is to ferret out waste, fraud and corruption in the Executive Branch of government.

It is the only such office in state government where we mere citizens have to go to report waste, fraud and corruption.

When the IG’s funding ends at Midnight on June 30, we will have nowhere to go.

What to do

Numerous people have asked what they can do to restore the funding to the IG’s office. Technically, it merely requires an amendment to the State Budget (HB 1) adopted in the Senate Finance Committee.

However, in the world of political reality at our state capitol, the only way the IG’s funding can be restored is if Jindal tells the leges to put the funding back.

It’s more than ironic that a man who ran on a reform platform is now standing by watching one of his only reforms be destroyed without lifting a finger to stop it.

Please pass this message on to other LA citizens who mourn the loss of our IG.

C.B.

The bully

This past Friday the fiscal conservatives in the House passed a common sense amendment to remove from the state budget all the one-time funds.  After the vote, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Jim Fannin, had what can only be described as an emotional breakdown.

I’ve never seen a lege throw a childlike tantrum at the House podium. Fannin, in effect, said that he was taking his budget and going home.

The Fiscal Hawks removed less than $300 Million in one-time funds from a $25 Billion budget. Fannin said that as a result he was unable to explain any of the figures in the state budget. For the rest of the debate Fannin pouted and sulked like a child.

Prior to the amendment passing Fannin, in his best bullying fashion, had taken to the podium to threaten any lege who voted for the amendment. It was a shocking display of disrespect for his colleagues.

The back story

What Fannin seems to not understand is that the leges finally had enough of his condescending, overbearing, threatening, tactics.

Until Friday, Fannin has managed to restrain himself in public and thus has given the media and thus many in the public the erroneous impression that he is a gentleman. He’s anything but in private.

Even the meekest of us after being beaten up enough by a bully will eventually fight back regardless of the consequences. Friday, was last straw for many leges who had just been publicly threatened.

On Friday, the people of Louisiana got what they wanted – fiscally-responsible government and Fannin got what the deserved — his butt kicked.

Keep up the good work Hawks! The people are behind you.

C.B.

“Huey P” Jindal

It’s not too early to begin writing the legacy of Bobby Jindal.

A lot of conservatives in the national media are touting Jindal for Vice President of the United States. Either these conservatives are not fiscal conservatives or they are ignorant of who Jindal is.

While I would like to rid Louisiana of Jindal as soon as possible, I don’t wish to inflict him on my fellow Americans. So, I will begin the process of introducing the facts into the Jindal myth.

Jindal vs. Long

Bobby Jindal is doing his best to live up to and exceed the worst traits of the late Huey P. Long. Long was a ruthless, tyrant who ran our state in the 1930s who punished his “enemies” (anyone who didn’t do things his way) in every way but physical torture or at least we think he didn’t.

“Huey P” Jindal (his latest moniker) is following in Long’s footsteps. However, where Long merely used the poor people of our state to remain in power, he didn’t punish them.

Jindal, on the other hand, punishes the poor people of our state and merely ignores his “enemies” (anyone who doesn’t do his bidding without question).

Unlike Huey, Jindal lacks the guts to even face his enemies. Jindal orders his lackeys to threaten, intimidate and coerce his enemies.

The lackeys also lack the guts to address the enemies, so the lackeys take Jindal’s ire out on the little people of Louisiana. There two very recent examples of Jindal’s tactics.

Jindal punishes the people

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee stripped all of the funding from the governor’s office for the State’s Inspector General’s Office. The job of the IG is to ferret out waste, fraud and corruption in LA.

Jindal stood by and did nothing.  Friday, Jindal helped defeat an amendment to the State Budget to restore the funding for the IG.

The people punished by eliminating the IG effective July 1 was not the leges, it was you and me. The IG is the only place that we ordinary citizens have in state government to report waste, fraud and corruption.

Jindal is thus condoning corruption in our state.

Friday, a group of fiscally-conservative, Republican, leges tried to meet with Jindal to discuss alternatives to violating the state constitution by using one-time funds in the State Operating Budget. Jindal refused to meet with them.

Not only did Jindal refuse to meet with the leges, he ran out of the Capitol to avoid seeing them. Jindal went to New Orleans to dedicate two industrial cranes at the Port of New Orleans.

The fiscally-conservative leges ultimately prevailed and removed the illegal funds from the state budget.

Jindal’s reaction was to send out a threatening letter in retaliation for the leges removing to the illegal funds. Jindal will now cut healthcare for poor, elderly and children. He will also cut funding for Higher Education which only hurts our young people who we would like to see remain in our state after graduation.

These actions are of tyrant who is afraid of the leges so he takes out his wrath on those who can’t fight back. That is a true definition of a coward.

A work in progress

What you just read is the real Bobby Jindal. There’s more to come as the real Jindal continues to unfold and his legacy is written by us.

If anyone has direct contact with the national media conservatives, please pass this on to them in an effort to save America from Bobby Jindal.

Thank you.

C.B.

Seen this man?

In a business near Bodi White’s (alleged) lege office in Hammond a friend has agreed to look out for my missing state senator.

My friend will call me as soon as White is seen near his lege office. My friend is a pretty big man and will attempt to restrain Bodi if he attempts to flee before I can get there.

Meanwhile, I will be distributing fliers around Hammond hoping to enlist the help of my fellow residents in locating our senator.

Interim replacement

Until we can replace Bodi as senator I may have to consider putting myself up for adoption by another senator.

The constitution says I’m entitled to be represented by one representative and one senator.

Therefore, I will press my right to senate representation in court if none will voluntarily represent me.

Please report all sightings of Bodi to me at: cb@forgotston.com

C.B.

Our team!

The House Fiscal Hawks who were looking out for the taxpayers of Louisiana won the day at the Capitol on Friday.

The state constitution prohibits the use of one-time funds in the State Operating Budget. Bobby Jindal ignored the prohibition.

The Hawks stood strong for us and our constitution. The Hawks forced a budget reduction equal to the one-time money illegally inserted in the budget by Jindal.

Team Jindal threw everything they had that the Hawks, but never landed a punch. The Hawks led by Reps. Cameron Henry, Brett Geymann and John Schroder kicked butt! Henry did a superb job of presenting the Hawks’ amendment to the House.

Where was Jindal during the battle? He was dedicating two industrial cranes in New Orleans. No, I didn’t make that up.

Jindal didn’t have the guts to face the Hawks who offered to work with him.

After Jindal got his butt kicked he took off for a Republican fundraiser in Oklahoma.

Jindal is probably told those Oklahoma Repubs that he is a fiscal conservative. That lie, no matter how many times he tells it, will ever be believed by those of us who live in Louisiana.

A brief summary of the Hawk victory can be found here.

To see if your lege is a Fiscal Hawk or a Jindal lackey look at the vote here. The YEAs are the Hawks and NAYs are the lackeys.

If your lege is a Hawk congratulate them; if a lackey tell them that they need to stop following orders from Jindal and start representing you.

The budget still has a long way to go before it becomes law; there’s lots of work to do in the senate, but today we celebrate the Hawks’ big win.

We fiscal conservatives haven’t had much to celebrate since Jindal became governor.

C.B.

IG eliminator

Obviously, Rep. Joe Harrison still hasn’t gotten the message from the public. He continues to support stripping the funding for the State Inspector General. See Harrison’s response to our efforts to restore the funding here.

Thanks to “Watchcat” (a complimentary term) Jeremy Alford for posting the response by Harrison.

Apparently Harrison is hard of understanding. He is a representative of the citizens of Louisiana; thus we are his boss. Time for us to tell our employee what he is to do.

Email Harrison here: harrisoj@legis.la.gov

Also, contact your leges and tell them Harrison doesn’t speak for you.

C.B.

A can do man!

The House is at an impasse over the state budget. “Huey P” Jindal wants it his way or nothing. At least 36 brave souls are standing up to “Huey P”. That is historic.

Everyone is asking for a plan, but Team Jindal doesn’t like the plan of the 36 fiscal hawks.

Here’s my idea:

Return HB 1 to the House Appropriations Committee.

Ask State Treasurer John Kennedy to come sit with the committee to come up with $300 Million in non-essential funding to cut from HB 1.

Then return HB 1 to the House Floor and a 2/3’s vote is not needed to debate it.

It would save a lot of time. Right now, the leges will probably waste a couple of more days because the Jindal Administration insists on doing things their way.

I assure that $300 Million can be cut without affecting a single STATE program.

The integrity (or what’s left of it) of the House of Representatives and the Separations of Powers is at stake.

It’s time to stop playing “Huey P’s” childish my-way-or-the-highway game.

It’s also time to stop violating the constitutional prohibition on the use of one-time dollars for recurring expenses.

That’s my plan.

C.B.

Is she above the law?

It was recently reported by the Baton Rouge newspaper that Stafford Palmieri, policy director for Bobby Jindal drives a vehicle with a New York license plate.

Team Jindal flack, Kyle Plotkin, said “car belongs to Palmieri’s father and that she is borrowing it.” Advocate, April 22, 2012.

Louisiana law requires new residents of this state to register their vehicles within 30 days of establishing residency. No exception to the law was found for Team Jindal or for driving daddy’s car.

The purpose of the law is simple. If you live in LA and drive a vehicle you have to help pay for our roads.

Common sense says that Palmieri isn’t commuting daily from New York; she is residing in LA.

There are a lot of State Troopers at the Capitol. Surely one of them will notice the vehicle and ticket it.

Even better, Palmieri should use some of the money we taxpayers are paying her and register the vehicle.

C.B.

Danny can’t fool all of us

When savvy politicians don’t want to outright lie, they obfuscate.

That is exactly what State Senator Danny Martiny has done with the words “salary” and “compensation.” ( See article here.)

Martiny draws a distinction between a lege’s “salary” and the “automagic” per diem payments for attending lege committee meetings and sessions.

While there is a distinction between the two words there is none in terms of how it is applied to the income paid by the taxpayers to our leges.

If per diems were truly “compensation” the leges would not be paid for the days that they are not in session during a regular or special session.

Danny, as your fellow Republican Abraham Lincoln once said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”

C.B.

Rep. Joe Harrison claims the State Inspector General (“IG”) is a duplicated by the State Attorney General (“AG”). As such, he was successful in removing all funding for the IG starting at Midnight, June 30.

There no duplication with IG and AG when it comes to reporting waste, fraud and corruption.

The IG, unlike the AG (One must be a public official to even get an opinion.), accepts all reports from ordinary citizens and state employees, including those sent anonymously.

Removing the only state agency where citizens can report waste, fraud and corruption is exactly what Harrison wants. Apparently, a majority of the House Appropriations Committee agree with Harrison.

Finally, eliminating funding for the IG could never have happened without the approval of Bobby Jindal. He owns the Appropriations Committee and his staff watch it like a hawk.

This is the second time this session that Jindal has condoned corruption. The first time was his failure to support legislation prohibiting public officials from receiving public retirement benefits if convicted of a felony in connection with their official position.

Action needed

Please contact your representative and tell them to give back your ability to report waste, fraud and corruption to state government by funding the IG.

Contact Bobby Jindal and tell him to allow the representatives put the funding back.

C.B.