Louisiana Voice

You’ve got to hand it to the Boy Blunder: he’s got more brass than a New Orleans second line band.

For the third straight year, beginning with 2010 when he attempted to abolish Civil Service by proxy through his lapdog Rep. John Schroder (R-Covington), Gov. Piyush Jindal has issued a proclamation of State Employee Recognition Day.

SERW_-_2012_Governor’s_Proclamation

This year it’s Wednesday, May 9.

Yippee.

Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater even sent out an email giving all Division of Administration (DOA) employees permission to wear jeans that day.

Double yippee.

Rainwater wears jeans every day that he’s not involved in meetings or testifying before the legislature. Even then, he most often changes back to jeans when he’s finished.

State employees, who have had no pay raises for three years, with the privatization of their group medical benefits almost a certainty and their being in imminent danger of having retirement benefits shredded by Jindal lackeys in the House (Rep. Kevin Pearson, R-Slidell and Sen. Elbert Guillory, D-Opelousas), must really feel special with this latest proclamation.

Hey, it even has the gold seal of the State of Louisiana.

Copies of the proclamation were not sent to individual employees, however; it was simply sent out in a mass email – in color, so recipients could see that the seal was really gold. Every employee got one, even those that Jindal doesn’t particularly appreciate—all 50,000 thousand or so of them.

It’s a curious thing how Jindal can even bring himself to go along with National Public Employee Appreciation Day. The very notion reeks with hypocrisy and is nothing more than just another slap in the collective faces of public employees he unquestionably holds in utter contempt—a feeling that is almost certainly reciprocal.

But in spite of the bitter irony, it is amusing to see someone, even for a fleeting moment, try to put on a sincere face when announcing Public Employee Appreciation Day. The image of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (form whom Jindal campaigned and who is the subject of a statewide recall effort) offers a priceless image as he issued his proclamation:

http://www.avclub.com/madison/articles/walker-announces-state-employee-appreciation-day-o,55674/

For those who have an affinity for the inane, there are the following suggestions from the national employee appreciation group designed to make happy:

• Create a bingo card of 16 blocks. In each block print humorous or interesting personal facts about each team member;

• Invite all employees to participate in a paper airplane throwing competition;

• Hold team mock elections to recognize key employees for positive attributes;

• Distribute five coins to employees who in turn distribute their coins to co-workers throughout the day as a form of recognition whenever they observe co-workers being helpful or doing a great job. At the end of the day the employee with the most coins wins prizes and public recognition.

No jokes, folks. These are actual serious suggestions to give you that warm fuzzy. In that same vein, Piyush, in his proclamation, says:

• Louisiana’s state employees contribute significantly to the well-being and quality of life for all citizens of our state; and

• Louisiana’s state employees preserve public safety and the health of our citizens; protect our clean air and water; care for less fortunate members of society; rehabilitate and counsel people in need; preserve our economic well-being by attracting and supporting commerce; build and maintain our highways, schools and other infrastructure; administer justice; protect citizens’ rights; care for victims of crimes; inspect our food; license our vehicles; help educate our children; make astounding advances in medicine, science and technology; and handle a host of other essential duties the public entrusts to them; and

• The dedicated individual strive daily7 to perform their jobs with professionalism and integrity in order to improve the lives of our citizens; and

• State government is more responsive, innovative, and effective because outstanding employees produce excellent work products.

There’s more but you get the idea. Some people have it and some people don’t. Piyush is full of it.

And as lagniappe, just in case you missed it, CNN.com carried a lengthy story on-line by writer David Frum on Wednesday speculating that Piyush just might be back on the short list for Mitt Romney’s vice presidential running mate. In language that may be a bit over the heads of us ignorant Louisianians, Frum described the potential choice of an Asian running mate like Jindal as “a doozy.”

The best part of the story was the photo that accompanied the article. It’s a shot of Piyush, obviously posing for the camera as he surveys the scene during the infamous BP oil spill. He’s probably envisioning where he wants to place his ill-fated berms. The only thing missing from this ridiculous Gen. George S. Pattonesque pose are the .45 caliber revolvers that would be strapped around his waist but for the fact they kept falling down past his hips.

Frum, writing as someone about as detached from reality as Jindal himself, further described Piyush as someone with “a brilliant policy mind with an inspirational life story who has run an effective government in corruption-tainted Louisiana (Frum obviously has not run a check on Jindal’s campaign contributions). He can talk data with Romney and credibly sit at the kitchen tables of the struggling middle class.”

Wait. What?

When has he ever sat at any table with anyone from the “struggling middle class?”

Appearances at Protestant churches in Dry Prong and Punkin Center don’t count.

But don’t take our word for it. Here is the link to Frum’s story:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/02/opinion/frum-vice-president-rubio-jindal/index.html?hpt=hp_t2