(Borrowed from the ‘Forward Now’ blog)
It seems we have all been dead wrong about Gov. Bobby Jindal’s aspirations to become Commander-in-Chief.
He would much rather be anointed as Prophet-in-Chief if that speech he gave at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Thursday is any indication.
And you may wish to change the spelling to profit—as in political profit—as might be realized by his shameless pandering to the religious right, the Family Forum, and, of course, the Tea Party.
Three words kept coming to mind as I read the text of his speech—written, by the way, on the Louisiana Governor’s Office letterhead so as to completely blur the line between church and state (wouldn’t his campaign committee letterhead have been far more appropriate?).
Those three words are: sanctimonious little twit.
While wagging his finger in our collective faces, Jindal had the nerve to quote John Adams as saying, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.”
There is but one way that statement can be taken: sinners and rapscallions need not apply. The accused no longer are entitled to a fair trial if their crime was not committed in the name of God. Those who profess to no religious belief apparently have no rights under our Constitution if those words are to be taken literally.
But Jindal failed to mention a couple other Adams utterances:
- “The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”
- “A constitution of government once changed from freedom, can never be restored. Liberty lost once is lost forever.”
The first quote simply means we should trust no one who would impose his version of morality on the rest of us. The second quote is self-explanatory.
And to be sure, the freedom to express no religious conviction is every bit as sacred as setting oneself up as a moralist over society. The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of religion—and that includes the practice to not cling to any religious tenet, including Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism or the Presleyterians/Elviscopalians (those who think they will come back in their next life as Elvis).
Pointing out (correctly) that “every person wants to live out his or her values,” Jindal proceeded to cite several cases in which the federal government (Obama, in his preferred nomenclature) has sought to impose certain conditions, including attempts to force businesses to accept the administration’s contraception mandate under Obamacare, trying to protect a single teacher at a church-affiliated elementary school who became pregnant from being fired by the school, and a ruling by the New Mexico Supreme Court that a photography business had violated the state’s Human Rights Act by refusing to photograph a same sex wedding ceremony.
Even as he invoked the word tolerance (“There was a time when the left preached tolerance.”), Jindal quietly ignored events in his home state: the refusal of a justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish to preside over an interracial marriage and the expulsion of a pregnant teenager at a church school in Richland Parish while the boy who impregnated her, a football player, received not so much as a reprimand. Moreover, the school then attempted to impose a policy whereby it could indiscriminately test female students for pregnancies. Public outcry was such that the school quickly backed down from that hypocritical policy.
“There was a time when liberals in this country believed in debate,” Jindal said. “But that is increasingly not the case for the modern left in America.”
This from a man who tolerates absolutely no dissenting opinion in this oligarchy, er… administration.
All one has to do to understand how open this governor is to debate is go down the Jindal Teague List:
- Tommy and Melody Teague;
- William Anker;
- Cynthia Bridges;
- Mary Manuel;
- Raymond Lamonica;
- John Lombardi;
- Dr. Fred Cerise;
- Dr. Roxanne Townsend;
- Scott Kipper;
- Murphy Painter;
- Tammy McDaniel;
- Jim Champagne;
- Ann Williamson;
- Entire State Ethics Board;
- State Rep. Jim Morris;
- State Rep. Harold Richie;
- State Rep. Joe Harrison;
- State Rep. Cameron Henry
These are people who were either fired or demoted for the unpardonable transgression of disagreeing with Jindal on some level of policy or legislation.
So much for any belief in debate by this administration.
And now Jindal, who never seems to find the time to hold press conferences or to give interviews in his home state, goes traipsing off on yet another out-of-state trip in his quixotic pursuit of the presidency to give yet another speech about how everyone else should think and act as he does.
But did anyone notice that nowhere in that 4,500-word speech did Jindal once mention the word compassion?
Compassion. That’s a word that has been strangely absent from this entire administration.
Where was Jindal’s compassion when he vetoed that $4 million appropriation for the developmentally disabled last year?
Where was his compassion when he refused the expansion of Medicaid, thus depriving adequate health care for hundreds of thousands of Louisiana’s poor?
Where was his compassion when he attempted to “reform” the state’s retirement program that would have cut some state employees’ retirement by tens of thousands of dollars per year?
Where was his Christian compassion when he said the only reason for Louisiana’s public school teachers remaining on the job was the fact that they are breathing?
Where was his compassion when he turned his back on the people of Bayou Corne, refusing to so much as visit the expanding sinkhole for months on end?
And now he’s going to strap on his halo and wings and travel around the country telling anyone who will listen how great he is, how Christian he is, how tolerant he is, how open to debate he is?
Perhaps Gov. Jindal should read 1 John 4:20.
- “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
Never have the words to the song One Tin Soldier been more appropriate than for Jindal and his minions:
Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend;
Do it in the name of heaven,
You can justify it in the end.
Louisiana Voice 
Thanks for keeping us informed. I will do my best to spread your work and your word. Mike
Maybe we should start calling him Father Bobby so he can exorcise the demons of liberalism that pulse through this independently registered body. Actually it’s just an aversion to corrupt egomaniacs I’m infected with. That and the sadness I feel from the destruction he has left Louisiana with.
Amen.
[…] by Tom Aswell […]
I have always said he is an a$$hole!!
Brava! Short and sweet!!
He called himself and EVANGELICAL CATHOLIC! There is no such thing! Catholicism is a liturgical belief system that relies on following rules and rituals as the basis of faith and salvation. This is the opposite of Evangelicalism which relies on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ for salvation. The only thing evangelicals and Catholics have in common religiously is a belief in the same GOD! It’s like a mythical mammal shrimp. (one that fed milk to its babies and had fur.)
The only reason he attacked our religious freedom is because he knows that even if every practicing Catholic in Louisiana voted for him he would not have a majority. He has to have the backing of fundamentalist evangelicals. Many, perhaps most, evangelicals are not fundamentalists, however, and few fundamentalists believe that Catholics are Christians.
Prophet in Chief is right. FALSE PROPHET, the faithful sidekick of the Anti-Christ.
L’il booby is last person to speak about religion. If you think for one second the reason for him switching his religion from Hinduism to Catholicism had anything to do with anything but his running for public office, you’re sadly mistaken. As goofy as he is, he was smart enough to know the chances for a Hindu to win an election in Louisiana, of all places, was zero and none. Opportunist as he is, that’s not a far-fetched conclusion. Does this sound like a man on a religious trip?
Jindal is the perfect example of a committed conservative. As such, several conclusions are evident: the concepts of “common good” and “social justice” are completely alien to these people; conservatives are completely dedicated to enriching self and their kind at the expense of everyone else; the truth is not in them; they unabashedly lie and cheat at every turn to advance their agenda; the agenda appears to be domination, control and the establishment of theocracy; the word “compassion” does not exist in their lexicon. Jindal proves the theory there is no such thing as a compassionate conservative.
Note to our fellow citizens throughout the U.S.: if you have enjoyed observing the destruction of Louisiana, you’ll love Jindal’s plan for the rest of you: America Next. A clear warning,
Tom, as ever your insight is phenomenal. Question: would the $5 million consultants agree that a budget cutting strategy would be for the governor to stay his butt home in Louisiana? Even if his campaign paid for the actual travel expenses, we the taxpayers paid for the ancillary expenses such as the security detail. How did this self-serving speech (written by state employees as evidenced by the use of state letterhead) benefit the citizens of our state? What about payroll fraud on the part of those people, who are on the state payroll, even if they are unclassified? What about the governor’s salary while he is out promoting himself rather than doing the people’s business? It’s very easy to identify some cost-cutting “efficiencies”…….
When I saw this article I had to wonder if Jerry Philips had been teagued (or is it Teagued?)
Undersecretary leaves Department of Health of Hospitals
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/02/undersecretary_leaves_departme.html
I do love that pic of lil booby. I’ve saved it and if and when I use it I shall give credit.
The commenters over at CNN are not to enthused over lil booby’s speech, so far.
I’ve always felt Jitler’s true burning desire was world domination. He loves playing the dictator way too much. Put a little moustache on him…Be very afraid.
As a former U.S. Marine who served honorably for four years and did a tour in Vietnam who follows NO religion at all, I find Booby to be an idiot. Worse, he is a hypocritical idiot with a messianic complex. Bets that his heroes include both supposed US “saints”; that would be “saint” Woodrow Wilson and “saint” Ronnie Reagan.
I try to respect the beliefs of all decent people and only object to religious people when they try to tell me how to believe/what to believe. I made it to 66 by thinking for myself and need NO help from the likes of Mr. Jindal. He is the sort who WILL be extremely dangerous should he ever attain the office of the presidency of the United States of America. One should also point out to those like Booby that the founders were NOT exclusively Christians. Mostly they were deists, Unitarians, and the like. He and his sort would NOT recognize the founders as “true” Christians in any way at all. HE needs a history lesson AND an intense refresher course in the US Constitution, which I took an oath to defend against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic when I enlisted and I was never told the oath no longer applied when I received my final honorable discharge. What has HE ever done FOR the nation?
Yes, my tone IS on the nasty side. His sort really gets me extremely disgusted. I despise hypocrites and liars most of all.
Thank you, Mr. Aswell, for posting this and for all that you do to keep us all informed.
Thank you, David, for your service in the military and for standing up for what you believe and for the truth. We need a lot more people like you.
DavidAmbrose66, Your observation that our forefathers were, for the most part, deists, is both precisely on point and relevant. I have made that same point in previous posts.
Perhaps Mr. Jindal, in the realization that his chances for higher office are minimal at best, is considering a second career as a televangelist. He certainly knows how to raise money which is a prerequisite for that vocation.
Heh. He also knows how to steal it from people too:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/02/jindal_elderly_trust_fund.html#incart_most-comments
Hooray for all your excellent comments, especially davidambrose66. I got to work with Jindal’s predecessor and the contrast could not be more extreme. She was intelligent, insightful, compassionate, honest, honorable, cooperative. He is none of that. His only positive is a good rote memory. My cell phone has that too. People like Jindal became used to thinking they are ‘intelligent’ because they got good grades in class. But they never took any courses that required reasoning and they have no idea what’s involved.
At some point in most of our lives, we have all taken that oath. Didn’t he take one when he was admitted to the House of Representatives and when he was inaugurated governor? The problem with him and most “conservative” politicians is that they are self-righteous. Our founders, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, all wrote extensively on the necessity of remembering that all men are infested with evil and that we must control that evil through better government. When we encounter someone who wants “less” government that is usually so he can do more evil without restraint.
Somewhere out there someone must be assuring him that what he says, people want to hear, undoubtedly, they neither care for nor are for Louisiana, but for themselves and what they can get out of Jindal or for Jindal. Could it be a foreign government that has bought out our governor or is he stupid and incompetent? Either way I hope when he meets his maker that he finds a list of wrongs and rights and he can face the music!!! Sorry it won’t be southern music cause, he probably doesn’t even know any, anyway.
This really hit close to home. I get sick every time I read about Jindal’s latest “decision on behalf of his state.” Each bit of news seems worse then the last. I am not from here. I came here with the USAF and have made this area my home. I teach and I have seen the destruction of our public school teachers as another part of his annihilation of an informed populace. It is far easier to control citizens if they have no knowledge of things other than what the government wants them to know. He is counting on this, counting on a populace which for the most part seems to be ignoring this wolf in sheep’s clothing, hiding behind his Christian faith, and devouring all who disagree or get in his way. Every change for the public schools here have been horrific; fantastic teachers are leaving and the very teachers he claims to be ridding the school system of, are staying. They are the ones who have learned to play the “game,” pander to the conservative Christian families by refusing to teach or advocate for science, giving grades to keep parents happy even if it hurts the student, refusing to stand up and disagree with the state mandated changes even knowing they are wrong. Keeping parents happy is the goal. Keeping parents happy is fine as long as it is part of the overall goal of the best education possible for ALL children taught by professionals who know and live what the Constitution teaches. Keeping SPS scores up, even with the smoke and mirrors supplied by John White is key. Shaming and shunning teachers that speak out is normal and then, because sheep cannot stand to see evidence of the truth, banding together to force out these great teachers, who live for the students, advocate for tolerance and compassion for all kids no matter how important, or unimportant, their parents are to football funding! Daily they are subjected to being told, “No one cares what you think and if you don’t learn to play the game you’re gonna end up fired!”Their ideas are ignored. Their concerns are brushed off. Their professionalism is judged by how perky and cheerful they are.
In the military it is called falling on your sword. I am so grateful to the people here, to Mr. Aswell who writes the truth and to all the others who read and know and share it. I share it and will have to make sure my sword is sharp. It is only a matter of time for me—For many of us. But the truth won’t stop….and THAT is what is important!
[…] at a library memorializing a man who famously never went to church.”. And, as Tom Aswell of Louisiana Voice […]