Jindal, B

=2016
http://theweek.com/articles/613587/sad-decline-bobby-jindalbj said sup trump if nom:...Trumpocalypse reveals people's true character. Chris Christie correctly pointed out all the ways Donald Trump is unfit for the presidency, but endorsed him anyway. Now, at least, we know a lot about who Chris Christie really is. It's been very instructive to watch who has thrown away principle and supported Trump, explicitly or implicitly. That applies to Jindal now, too.It's depressing to see Jindal's sad and dramatic decline into perhaps the lamest politician in the contemporary GOP (which is saying something!), when he used to be one of the party's most interesting young prospects. Jindal first became famous, at least among conservative wonks, because he was a wonk's wonk. A Rhodes scholar, he was appointed in his twenties as secretary of health of Louisiana, and later, at 28, was the youngest ever president of the University of Louisiana system. As governor of one of the most infamously corrupt states in the union, he passed sweeping ethics reform. Most conservative wonks, myself very much included, saw him as a potential future president.<a target="blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Wilderness-Republican-Combative-Contentious-Chaotic/dp/0316327417/?tag=thwe0f5-20" style="color: rgb(87, 136, 170); text-decoration-line: none;">The Wilderness</a>, the great book by BuzzFeed political reporter McKay Coppins on how many Republican wannabes prepared for 2016, gives an engaging and inspiring portrait of Jindal. His teenage conversion to evangelical Christianity was deep and sincere, and eventually blossomed into an intellectual Catholicism. This, in turn, prompted him to go into public service out of a genuine desire to serve his fellow man.That Bobby Jindal is a distant memory today.<div class="mobads" id="mob-ads-1" style="text-align: center; line-height: 0; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: minion-pro; font-size: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" />Perhaps the most embarrassing thing about the Trump phenomenon for conservatives is that it seems to confirm every caricature of the conservative movement that progressives make. That conservatism is not at all motivated by a belief in principles such as limited government, but by anger, resentment, and white identity politics, and that it is somehow in essence anti-intellectual. In a sense, it's understandable that Jindal is now backing Trump, since, even as Trump embodies that caricature, Jindal seems to have come to believe it's true.After writing that the GOP needed to "stop being the stupid party," Jindal changed tack, and seemed to believe that his ticket to the presidency was to run the most aggressively stupid campaign he could imagine. As a student, Jindal wrote a memoir on healthcare policy arguing that Catholic ethics required a healthcare system that provided universal coverage, even though as a conservative he believed such coverage should be provided along free-market lines. The best conservative ObamaCare alternatives cover as many people as the Affordable Care Act, while improving efficiency, consumer choice, and innovation. But all of a sudden Jindal blasted those plans as "ObamaCare-lite" and boosted his own politically suicidal and morally indefensible plan, which basically involved taking away people's ObamaCare and replacing it with, essentially, a middle finger.For a very long time, he seemed obsessed with the idea that Obama would magically win the war on terror if he could somehow bring himself to say the words "radical Islamic terrorism." (There's a fair debate to be had about the politically correct way in which Obama, like his predecessors, dances around the putative link between jihad and Islam, but Jindal's obsession was bizarre.) He started opining about European "no-go zones" where Sharia law is enforced, something which, again, only has a tiny kernel of truth in it and which he tried to turn into a bizarre culture war salvo.In short, the man who was probably the highest IQ governor in America became a walking, talking Breitbart comment section.What's Jindal's angle? His governorship is effectively over, he's still young, and he can have a national future. But he's certainly not going to get it by allying with Trump, who will get destroyed in November if he's the nominee, and after which conservatives will take knives to anyone who polluted themselves with him.Why Bobby, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world. But for Trump?Bobby Jindal's federal PAC doled out about $59,000 to other pols last year. The top beneficiary? The New Hampshire Republican Party.SHARE THIS: Among those backing Bobby Jindal’s 2016 bid? Conservative super-lawyer Jim Bopp, who, for decades, has called for campaign finance rules to be be loosened.SHARE THIS: "Duck Dynasty” star Willie Robertson has also endorsed Bobby Jindal. The reality TV show enjoys generous tax breaks for filming in Louisiana.raga: Mr. Miller was pleased. “Just the kind of strike force I was talking about,” he said in an interview. And the input poured forth. The states worked to detail major federal environmental action, like efforts to curb fish kills, reduce ozone pollution, slow climate change and tighten regulation of coal ash. Then they identified which attorney general’s office was best positioned to try to monitor it and, if necessary, attempt to block it. Follow-up by Mr. Pruitt’s federalism office often came after coordination with industry representatives, especially from Devon Energy. The company, one of the most important financial supporters for the Republican Attorneys General Association, is guarded about its public profile. But it readily turned to Mr. Pruitt and his staff for help, setting up meetings for the attorney general with its chief executive, its chief lobbyist and other important players. “We have a clear obligation to our shareholders and others to be involved in these discussions,” John Porretto, a Devon spokesman, said in a statement. While some of the exchanges were general in character, others were quite explicit, especially the communication about the E.P.A.’s methane regulations that had prompted Mr. Whitsitt, the Devon official, to propose that Mr. Pruitt send a letter to the agency. “Just a note to pass along the electronic version of the draft letter to Lisa Jackson at E.P.A.,” said one September 2011 letter to Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff from Mr. Whitsitt. “We have no pride of authorship, so whatever you do on this is fine.” Mr. Pruitt took the letter and, after changing just 37 words in the 1,016-word draft, copied it onto his state government letterhead and sent it to Ms. Jackson, the E.P.A. administrator. That was just one of his challenges to Washington. Devon officials also turned to Mr. Pruitt to enlist other Republican attorneys general and Republican governors to oppose a rule proposed by the Bureau of Land Management that would regulate hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on federal land. “As promised, we are sending you the attached draft of the R.G.A./RAGA follow-up letter to President Obama opposing B.L.M.’s proposed rule,” Brent Rockwood, Devon’s director of government affairs, wrote to Mr. Pruitt’s staff in late 2012, in an email marked “confidential.” Weeks later, that letter was sent to Mr. Obama without only a few word changes, signed by Mr. Pruitt and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who was the head of the Republican Governors Association at the time.Gov. Bobby Jindal: The former Louisiana congressman and current governor is not quite like some other Trump loyalists. In an <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/im-voting-trump-warts-and-all-1462739009" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">op-ed</a> for the Wall Street Journal earlier this year, he called the president-elect a “narcissist” and an “egomaniacal madman.”But then he continued, “I think electing Donald Trump would be the second-worst thing we could do this November, better only than electing Hillary Clinton to serve as the third term for the Obama administration’s radical policies,” concluding the article with an endorsement for Trump.Jindal, who ran the Louisiana Health and Hospitals Department in his mid-20s, holds a number of titles: the youngest president of the University of Louisiana System, the second Indian American in Congress, the first Indian American governor in the U.S., and the second youngest governor of Louisiana. He is no stranger to the federal Health and Human Services Department either, as he was an assistant secretary there early in President George W. Bush’s administration.
From 2005 to 2007 as a member of the House, Jindal raised a total of <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cycle=Career&type=I&cid=N00026786&newMem=N" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">$4.6 million</a>in contributions. He garnered the most financial support from individuals and PACs in the health sector, who donated a total of <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=Career&cid=N00026786&type=I" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">$728,772</a>. This <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=Career&cid=N00026786&type=I" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">includes</a> $413,195 from health professionals, $121,641 from the pharmaceuticals industry, $105,750 from hospitals and $83,131 from the health services industry.During his one unsuccessful Louisiana gubernatorial campaign in 2003 and two subsequent successful campaigns, he raised a total of <a href="http://followthemoney.org/show-me?f-fc=2,3&c-t-eid=6613013" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">$35.2 million</a>. The health sector again topped contributions by giving <a href="http://followthemoney.org/show-me?f-fc=2,3&c-t-eid=6613013&d-ccg=8#%5B%7B1%7Cgro=d-id" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">$1.9 million</a> over the years, closely followed by the finance sector, including $37,500 from nursing care provider Magnolia Management and $20,000 from Louisiana Hospital Association.During the brief period he ran for the presidency this election cycle, his campaign collected <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate.php?id=N00026786" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">$1.4 million</a> contributions; outside groups, including his single-candidate super PAC <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00571711" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Believe Again,</a> raised and spent about $4.5 million on his behalf. At the presidential level, the energy and natural resources sector gave the most to Jindal’s campaign and pro-Jindal outside groups, totaling <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/industries?cycle=2016&id=N00026786&src=t&type=f" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">$1.4 million</a>. Health professionals still gave the most direct in contributions to his campaign (<a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/industries?cycle=2016&id=N00026786&src=c&type=f" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">$74,451</a>).Louisiana oil industry boatbuilder Gary Chouest, whose company Edison Chouest Offshore was awarded the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bobby-jindals-biggest-donors-benefited-from-his-administration_us_55e9e976e4b002d5c075fb17" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">very first contract</a> with the state government after Jindal took office in 2008, donated $1 million to Believe Again this cycle. The longtime Jindal supporter has donated a total of $16,900 to his state and federal campaigns over the years.Social welfare group <a href="https://opensecrets.org/pacs/indexpend.php?cycle=2016&cmte=C90015439" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">America Next</a> also spent $392,648 in “independent expenditures” supporting Jindal for his brief presidential campaign last year; the nonprofit is chaired by Jindal. As a 501(c)(4) group, America Next does not disclose donors, but a <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/11/17/drug-lobby-gave-thousands-to-pro-bobby-jindal-nonprofit.html" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">tax filing</a> obtained by the Center for Public Integrity shows the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America donated <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2514765-phrma-form-990-for-2014-select-schedules.html#document/p25/a261984" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">$50,000</a> last year to the pro-Jindal group.(America Next and Believe Again also seem to have shared a common consultant, as they paid $781,572 and $2.6 million each to vendor <a href="https://opensecrets.org/expends/vendor.php?year=2016&vendor=ONMESSAGE+INC." target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">OnMessage Inc.</a>, run by Jindal campaign’s chief strategist and senior GOP fundraiser <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/bobby-jindal-2016-campaign-staff-power-players-119372" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Curt Anderson</a>.)
Another strong critic of the Affordable Care Act, the governor is known for helping <a href="http://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/collection_e7a4e526-aba1-11e6-be08-7309f702c6ec.html#1" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">privatize</a> hospitals and Medicaid in Louisiana over the years.=...And the input poured forth. The states worked to detail major federal environmental action, like efforts to curb fish kills, reduce ozone pollution, slow climate change and tighten regulation of coal ash. Then they identified which attorney general’s office was best positioned to try to monitor it and, if necessary, attempt to block it.
Follow-up by Mr. Pruitt’s federalism office often came after coordination with industry representatives, especially from Devon Energy. The company, one of the most important financial supporters for the Republican Attorneys General Association, is guarded about its public profile. But it readily turned to Mr. Pruitt and his staff for help, setting up meetings for the attorney general with its chief executive, its chief lobbyist and other important players.
“We have a clear obligation to our shareholders and others to be involved in these discussions,” John Porretto, a Devon spokesman, said in a statement.
While some of the exchanges were general in character, others were quite explicit, especially the communication about the E.P.A.’s methane regulations that had prompted Mr. Whitsitt, the Devon official, to propose that Mr. Pruitt send a letter to the agency.
“Just a note to pass along the electronic version of the draft letter to Lisa Jackson at E.P.A.,” said one September 2011 letter to Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff from Mr. Whitsitt. “We have no pride of authorship, so whatever you do on this is fine.”
Mr. Pruitt took the letter and, after changing just 37 words in the 1,016-word draft, copied it onto his state government letterhead and sent it to Ms. Jackson, the E.P.A. administrator.
That was just one of his challenges to Washington. Devon officials also turned to Mr. Pruitt to enlist other Republican attorneys general and Republican governors to oppose a rule proposed by the Bureau of Land Management that would regulate hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on federal land.
“As promised, we are sending you the attached draft of the R.G.A./RAGA follow-up letter to President Obama opposing B.L.M.’s proposed rule,” Brent Rockwood, Devon’s director of government affairs, wrote to Mr. Pruitt’s staff in late 2012, in an email marked “confidential.”
Weeks later, that letter was sent to Mr. Obama without only a few word changes, signed by Mr. Pruitt and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who was the head of the Republican Governors Association at the time.
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ANDREW P. MILLER A version of the lobbyist’s bill was approved by the West Virginia Legislature. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York TimesCompany officials again expressed their pleasure to Mr. Pruitt.
“I’ve learned that we’re having an effect — and may be able to have more, perhaps even to having the rule withdrawn or shifted to almost a reporting-only one,” Mr. Whitsitt wrote, in another email marked “confidential.”
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David Nice December 8, 2014I am not very surprised by this article. Disappointed but not surprised.mannyv December 8, 2014Don't environmental groups and other liberal causes get into secretive alliances with government officials and the press all the time?What...Armando December 8, 2014This is because we are in the list of corrupted countries. But the voters are not informed, the media do not educate the people and it is...SEE ALL COMMENTSThe rule — which the industry claims would cost $346 million a year to comply with — has still not been issued.
Coordination between the corporations and teams of attorneys general involved in the Rule of Law effort also involves actual litigation to try to clear roadblocks to energy projects, documents show.
Energy producers, for instance, wanted to sue the Interior Department as it considered adding animals such as the sage grouse — which nests near sites of oil and gas drilling — to a list of endangered species, a move that could put tens of thousands of acres off limits to new drilling.
The energy companies could have sued on their own, but their executives believed that the case would be more potent by bringing in Mr. Pruitt and the weight of the State of Oklahoma.
“We just came to the conclusion he would be the best person to be the lead attorney on this,” said Mike McDonald, an owner of Triad Energy, a small oil and gas exploration company, and the president of a group that calls itself the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance. “He has exceeded our expectations.”
For the industry, the state is an extremely valued partner because states are granted “special solicitude” from the federal courts, a critical advantage to private companies that helps confer legal standing and means that a matter is less likely to be dismissed.
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Mr. Pruitt’s office, in a statement to The Times, rejected any suggestion that the attorney general has been wrong to send to Washington comment letters written by industry lobbyists, or to take up their side in litigation.
“The A.G.’s office seeks input from the energy industry to determine real-life harm stemming from proposed federal regulations or actions,” the statement said. “It is the content of the request not the source of the request that is relevant.”
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HAROLD G. HAMM The oil drilling executive was the chairman of Mr. Pruitt’s re-election campaign. Credit Kevin Cederstrom/Associated PressPersuading lawmakers to offer legislation has been another effective lobbying tool. In West Virginia, Mr. Miller handed Attorney General Patrick Morrisey a draft of legislation that he argued would put West Virginia in a better position to sue the Obama administration over proposed regulations to tighten pollution controls on power plants, emails show.
“I trust you will find the legislation acceptable in its present form,” Mr. Miller wrote to Mr. Morrisey in February, referring to a private meeting the two had had in the law library of Mr. Morrisey’s office in Charleston. “If so, I would appreciate your having it introduced by your friends in both the Senate and the House.”
A version of the bill was introduced and passed by the West Virginia Legislature in March. Delegate Rupert Phillips Jr., the chief sponsor of a second bill that also contained language identical to what Mr. Miller had requested, said in an interview that he had acted with Mr. Morrisey’s support, an account supported by William B. Raney, the president of the West Virginia Coal Association.
“It is nice to have everybody singing from the same sheet of music,” Mr. Raney said.
A spokesman for Mr. Morrisey disputed this account, saying that while he supported the effort to challenge the rule, he did not play a role in promoting the legislation.
Blurred Lines
The work in Mr. Pruitt’s office has sometimes seemed to blur the distinction between his official duties and the advancement of his political career.
Mr. Pruitt’s chief of staff, Crystal Drwenski, served as gatekeeper to his office, arranging meetings and helping companies get Mr. Pruitt and his staff to intervene with the federal authorities. But Ms. Drwenski also played an important supplemental role for the attorney general: fund-raising aide.
“A.G. Pruitt is working with the Republican Attorneys General Association on their national meeting in Washington,” Ms. Drwenski wrote to Mr. Whitsitt. “The benefit of membership and participation is having 25 Republican A.G.s in a room to discuss policy issues.”
Ms. Drwenski wanted Devon Energy’s help in enlisting the American Petroleum Institute, and Mr. Whitsitt agreed....--<div class="entry-content" style="margin: 5px 0px; word-wrap: break-word; color: rgb(33, 43, 74); line-height: 24px;">And then there were 14.With only $260,939 left as of Sept. 30, Louisiana Gov. <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate.php?id=N00026786" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Bobby Jindal</a>withdrew from the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination Tuesday. Jindal strategist Curt Anderson <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/bobby-jindal-2016-suspends-presidential-campaign-216002" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">told Politico</a> during a conference call with reporters that fundraising was “certainly a part of” the candidate’s decision to drop out.In a <a href="https://www.bobbyjindal.com/thank-you-11-17-15/" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">statement</a>, the former House member said his parents “raised me to believe Americans can do anything, and they were right, we can. But this is not my time, so I am suspending my campaign for president.” Jindal said that when his term ends, he will return to work at<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=C90015439&cycle=2016" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">America Next</a>, a nonprofit he founded in 2013 that has run pro-Jindal ads.Jindal had raised less than $1.2 million and spent almost $900,000 by the end of September. The bulk of his donations, 88 percent, were individual contributions of more than $200, indicating anemic grassroots support.His home state was by far his biggest financial supporter: 81 percent of his donations came from Louisiana, with $446,000 coming specifically from the New Orleans and Baton Rouge metropolitan areas.While his fundraising was lackluster compared to the major GOP candidates, Jindal did benefit from a super PAC dedicated solely to him called <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=C00571711&cycle=2016" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Believe Again</a>, which has reported $2.6 million in independent expenditures. As of June 30, the group had raised $3.7 million, about three times as much as Jindal’s campaign had raised by the end of September.
A million-dollar donation to the super PAC came from Gary Chouest, the president of Louisiana-based shipping company <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000033379" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Edison Chouest Offshore</a>. Another $250,000 came from hedge fund manager Robert Mercer, but Mercer has mainly supported Sen. <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate.php?id=N00033085" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Ted Cruz</a> (R-Texas) in the 2016 race. Mercer donated $11 million to a super PAC backing Cruz, the largest gift to an outside spending group during the cycle so far. Tracy Krohn, the founder of Houston-based natural gas and oil producer <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000063948" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">W&T Offshore</a>, also gave $250,000 to Believe Again.America Next, the 501(c)(4) nonprofit, was the first of the single-candidate “dark money” groups to report any spending to the Federal Election Commission this election cycle. The nonprofit paid for Jindal’s travel before he officially declared his candidacy in June and spent $340,000 on television ads supporting him. America Next isn’t required to disclose its donors, but tax filings this week <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/11/17/18867/drug-lobby-gave-50000-pro-jindal-nonprofit" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">showed</a>that Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000504" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">(PhRMA)</a> gave the group $50,000 in 2014.</div><footer class="entry-meta" style="line-height: 15px; color: rgb(170, 170, 170);">
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Tags: <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/america-next/" rel="tag" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">america next</a>, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/baton-rouge/" rel="tag" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Baton Rouge</a>, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/believe-again/" rel="tag" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Believe Again</a>, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/bobby-jindal/" rel="tag" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Bobby Jindal</a>, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/brianna-gurciullo/" rel="tag" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Brianna Gurciullo</a>, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/edison-chouest-offshore/" rel="tag" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Edison Chouest Offshore</a>,<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/gary-chouest/" rel="tag" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Gary Chouest</a>, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/louisiana/" rel="tag" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">louisiana</a>, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/new-orleans/" rel="tag" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">New Orleans</a>, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/robert-mercer/" rel="tag" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Robert Mercer</a>, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/tracy-krohn/" rel="tag" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Tracy Krohn</a>, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/tag/wt-offshore/" rel="tag" style="color: rgb(17, 123, 184); text-decoration: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">W&T Offshore</a></footer>=up 5x<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/09/five-fold-upsurge-super-pacs-dark-money-groups-spending-far-more-than-in-12-cycle-at-same-point-in-campaign/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/09/five-fold-upsurge-super-pacs-dark-money-groups-spending-far-more-than-in-12-cycle-at-same-point-in-campaign/</a>.,..f any type of group is in vogue, it’s the “single-candidate” committee, according to FEC data, and that means a boon for conservative groups in terms of sheer spending power. Of the 40 organizations that have spent the most so far in the 2016 cycle — a list that includes political nonprofits, super PACs and business associations — more than half are dedicated to one candidate and one race. The same is true of the top 20 biggest spenders, which includes 11 single-candidate groups.
The rise of single-candidate operations gives conservative organizations an edge in a presidential race marked by a large crop of Republican presidential candidates. Of the 20 biggest spenders, just one has a liberal viewpoint: the establishment-Democrat-backing <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=C00484642&cycle=2016" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Senate Majority PAC</a>.In 2013, back when single-candidate groups spent just under $2.7 million before September, 14 of the top 20 biggest spenders had supported liberal candidates or opposed conservative ones.The super PAC supporting <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate.php?id=N00037008" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Chris Christie</a>, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=C00573055&cycle=2016" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">America Leads</a>, is at the head of the pack in terms of spending this time around, having laid out $4.7 million to support the New Jersey governor’s bid for the GOP nomination. <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=C00571372&cycle=2016" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Right to Rise</a>, the super PAC that had raised more than any other as of mid-year — four times more <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2015/07/jeb-bush-super-pacs-103-million-dwarfs-what-2012-groups-raised/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">than all super PACs combined at this point in 2012</a> — has reported spending $2 million to back<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate.php?id=N00037006" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Jeb Bush</a>, the former governor of Florida. But Right to Rise reportedly is shelling out a whopping <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/15/politics/jeb-bush-right-to-rise-ad-buy-24-million/index.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">$24 million for ads</a> in Iowa and New Hampshire that began running last week; that money is just beginning to show up in FEC reports.Democrats know how far they’re down, and essentially admitted to the FEC two weeks ago that though they deem some of Republicans’ tactics <a href="http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/sites/default/files/CLC%20%20D21%20v.%20Jeb%20Bush_Complaint_3.31.15.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">legally</a> <a href="http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/sites/default/files/CLC%20%20D21%20v.%20Scott%20Walker_Complaint_3.31.15.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">questionable</a>, they’ll do the same if given the green light.
Meanwhile, as of mid-September 2015, groups with the single-candidate designation have spent $16.2 million. That’s more than 55 times as much as the 2012 generation spent at this point and outpaces 2014’s single-candidate super PACs by $14 million. Single candidate groups would go on to spend <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?cycle=2012&chrt=V&disp=O&type=C" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">$269 million by the end of the 2012 cycle</a>, and <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?cycle=2014&chrt=V&disp=O&type=X" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">$62.6 million in 2014</a>.[scary graph]...Having yet to spend even 6 percent of what they have reported raising, single-candidate groups have cash stockpiled for ad buys, voter calls and mailers, regardless of the course Democrats choose.“Dark money” advantagesRepublican advantages may go beyond sheer numbers. In “America Next,” Gov.<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate.php?id=N00026786" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Bobby Jindal</a> (R-La.) has the backing of the first single-candidate “dark money” group to report spending to FEC this cycle. This 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, which can accept unlimited donations without revealing donors’ names, is <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/outsidegroups.php" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">one of several</a> functioning almost as de facto arms of the campaigns themselves, continuing a trend that <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/11/latest-candidate-must-have-your-very-own-dark-money-group/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">began only in 2014</a>.While Democrats, including <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pres16/candidate.php?id=N00000019" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Hillary Clinton</a>, have <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?cycle=2016&chrt=V&disp=O&type=C" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">single-candidate super PACs</a>providing them big-money firepower this cycle from sources that are disclosed to the public, they have not yet taken the step of incorporating single-candidate dark money organizations into the mix. That’s not to say that liberal dark money groups are entirely silent: <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=C90005471&cycle=2016" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Planned Parenthood</a> has reported spending $74,057 attacking Clinton’s opponents.<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=C90015439&cycle=2016" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">America Next</a> has already helped Jindal in a least a couple of ways: The group bought $340,537 in television ads explicitly supporting Jindal’s candidacy for president after months of <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/s/33221/secret-fundraising-scheme-that-will-make-super-pacs-look-quaint-2016" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">paying Jindal’s travel bills</a> as he jetted around the country giving policy speeches before declaring himself a candidate.Most of the Republican candidates, like Jindal, are backed by politically active nonprofits set up to provide donors an anonymous avenue to support a candidate, and some — in particular the pro-Rubio Conservative Solutions Project — have<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/06/25/pro-rubio-nonprofit-to-launch-seven-figure-ad-campaign-on-iran/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">spent heavily on ads</a> supporting their candidate. By framing its support for Rubio as issue ads, though, Conservative Solutions has avoided having to report that spending to the FEC.But for some of the multi-candidate “dark money” groups, even their FEC-reported spending is higher than in 2014. <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=C90013285&cycle=2016" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Americans for Prosperity</a>, for example, never reported spending to the FEC before May of an election year. But as of Sept. 21, more than a full year before the 2016 election, the group <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=C90013285&cycle=2016" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(17, 123, 184); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">has spent $1.6 million</a>, according to its reports to the agency, making it the fifth-highest-ranking outside spending group so far this cycle.=http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/08/27/3695968/jindal-katrina-climate-change/ ,,,Obama is heading to New Orleans Thursday to mark the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. But there’s one subject Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal hopes the president won’t broach in his remarks to city residents: climate change.Jindal, who’s also running for president on the Republican ticket, <a href="http://wgno.com/2015/08/26/gov-jindal-katrina-anniversary-not-the-time-for-climate-change-talk/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">sent a letter</a> to Obama Wednesday urging the president not to mention climate change during his trip to Louisiana.“Although I understand that your emphasis in New Orleans will – rightly – be on economic development, the temptation to stray into climate change politics should be resisted,” Jindal states in the letter. “While you and others may be of the opinion that we can legislate away hurricanes with higher taxes, business regulations and EPA power grabs, that is not a view shared by many Louisianians. I would ask you to respect this important time of remembrance by not inserting the divisive political agenda of liberal environmental activism.”This week, Jindal writes in the letter, should be solely about mourning those lost in the storm and celebrating the recovery New Orleans has made so far.But Obama had a different plan for his time in New Orleans. The trip is the second stop in his 11-day climate tour, a trip that started at the Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas and will end in Alaska. Along the way, Obama is <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/08/24/obama-speak-frankly-11-day-climate-change-tour/32265433/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">planning</a> on speaking about the country’s need to invest in renewable energy, protect coastal communities, and be part of a global effort to address climate change.In New Orleans, Obama is planning to discuss the city’s “extraordinary resilience” in the face of the storm, and is also <a href="http://theadvocate.com/news/neworleans/neworleansnews/13283964-123/obama-heads-to-new-orleans" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">going to address</a> the government’s failings when it came to serving the people of New Orleans. But climate change — and the need to protect communities like New Orleans from future disasters — is also expected to come up.=A counterjihad echo chamberThe family of Gatestone’s founder and president, <a href="http://powerbase.info/index.php/Nina_Rosenwald" target="blank" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Nina Rosenwald</a> has long pumped millions of dollars into this anti-Muslim network, through various trusts and foundations including the Abstraction Fund, discussed shortly. For this reason, Rosenwald herself has been dubbed, by journalist Max Blumenthal, ‘<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/168374/sugar-mama-anti-muslim-hate" target="blank" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">the sugar mama of anti-Muslim hate’</a>.  Blumenthal notes that Gatestone emerged in 2011 as an offshoot of the right wing <a href="http://powerbase.info/index.php/Hudson_Institute" target="blank" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none;">Hudson Institute</a>. Since then it has become a hub for anti-Muslim ideologues of all hues; neoconservative, ultra-Zionist and so-called ‘counterjihad’. It has acted as a clearing-house, for example, for <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/david-miller-tom-mills/misinformed-expert-or-misinformation-network" target="blank" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">claims about</a><a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/david-miller-tom-mills/misinformed-expert-or-misinformation-network" target="blank" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Muslim ‘no-go zones’</a> (the likes of which ‘terrorism expert’ <a href="http://powerbase.info/index.php/Steven_Emerson" target="blank" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Steven Emerson</a> was widely ridiculed for, including by UK Prime Minister David Cameron). Its articles carry fear-mongering titles such as: ‘‘<a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3780/spain-muslims-kings" target="blank" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Spain: Soon the Muslims will be kings of the world’</a>, ‘<a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3735/britain-islamic-future" target="blank" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Britain’s Islamic future’, ’</a><a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4120/islamization-france" target="blank" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Islamization of France</a>’, ‘<a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4130/islamization-germany" target="blank" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Islamization of Germany’</a> and ‘<a href="http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4129/islamization-belgium-netherlands" target="blank" style="text-align: center; color: rgb(241, 96, 44); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Islamization of Belgium and the Netherlands’.</a>vs <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/20/boby-jindal-muslim-no-go-zones">http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/20/boby-jindal-muslim-no-go-zones</a><h1 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.2em; padding: 0px; line-height: 28.6000003814697px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ALEC-Inspired Education Bill Helps Fund Loch Ness Monster Truthers In Louisiana</h1><div class="post-pub-info" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">June 26, 2012 2:39 pm ET — Brian Powell</div><div class="post-summary-newformat" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="post-video center" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="clear" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both;"><div class="post-full" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both;">
It's not a myth — the Loch Ness Monster has turned up in, of all places, Louisiana. According to the New York Daily News, Louisiana's Eternity Christian Academy is using a textbook that asserts the monster is not only real, but that its existence disproves evolution. What's more, the school is eligible for taxpayer funded vouchers, thanks to a bill signed by Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal that strongly resembles model legislation drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).From the <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/loch-ness-monster-real-dinosaur-biology-books-taught-louisiana-school-article-1.1102340?print" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: bold;">NYDN</a> (emphasis added):<blockquote style="margin: 0px 20px 20px; padding: 10px 15px 10px 10px; border: 1px solid rgb(230, 236, 242); border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 253);">The Scottish legend of the Loch Ness Monster is suggested as truth in a biology book that a private Christian school in Louisiana is using in its curriculum.But that's only part of the outrage from critics: Students who are eligible for taxpayer-funded vouchers will be allowed to attend Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake for the 2012-13 school year, according to reports.The startling claim about Nessie's authenticity is made to bolster creationism within the textbook, the Scotsman newspaper reported Monday. The Loch Ness Monster is described as a type of dinosaur, and if dinosaurs and man co-exist, then presumably there would be holes in the scientific argument for evolution.[...]Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican, advocated for the voucher plan, telling Reuters, "We are letting parents decide what's best for their children, not government."</blockquote>According to Gannett Louisiana, the <a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20120603/NEWS01/206030342/ALEC-school-reform-La-plan-mirrors-think-tank-s-blueprint" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: bold;">voucher plan</a> was part of a Louisiana bill that allegedly mirrored model legislation written by ALEC, an influential conservative group that promotes model legislation favorable to its corporate funders through statehouses across the country. From Gannett (emphasis added):<blockquote style="margin: 0px 20px 20px; padding: 10px 15px 10px 10px; border: 1px solid rgb(230, 236, 242); border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 253);">The sweeping changes aimed at improving Louisiana's failing public schools are new to the state, but they are not new.The changes signed into law in April — on teacher effectiveness, tenure and accountability; on charter schools, vouchers and other school-choice tactics; and on systemic changes to early childhood learning — all reflect the strategic thinking of one of the nation's most active conservative public-policy organizations.Reading Gov. Bobby Jindal's education legislation — passed by the state Legislature in House Bills 974 and 976 and Senate Bill 581 — is akin to reading model bills drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council.[...]Whether ALEC, or any other such tax-exempt entity, does "too much lobbying" is a matter of annual scrutiny by the IRS.Either way, ALEC has plenty of influence. Some say Jindal likely based his education legislation on models drafted by ALEC, which in August 2011 awarded Jindal the Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award for public service.Kyle Plotkin, a spokesman for the governor, says that was not the case.</blockquote>Earlier this month, Reuters <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/01/us-education-vouchers-idUSL1E8H10AG20120601" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: bold;">described</a> the education plan as "the nation's boldest experiment in privatizing public education," and noted that the voucher program would cover "the full cost of tuition at more than 120 private schools across Louisiana, including small, Bible-based church schools."While one of those "Bible-based" schools is set to instruct students on the veracity of Loch Ness Monster sightings, another school — the Islamic School of Greater New Orleans — was forced to withdraw an application for government-paid vouchers after Louisiana lawmakers expressed concern about taxpayers funding "Islamic teaching." From the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/13/louisiana_n_1593995.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: bold;">Huffington Post</a>:<blockquote style="margin: 0px 20px 20px; padding: 10px 15px 10px 10px; border: 1px solid rgb(230, 236, 242); border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 253);">Stakes escalated last week when, to the frustration of some lawmakers, the Islamic School of Greater New Orleans applied for federal funds under the voucher program. Republican state Rep. Kenneth Havard objected to the Islamic School's request for 38 government-paid student vouchers, saying he opposed any bill that "will fund Islamic teaching," the Associated Press reports."I won't go back home and explain to my people that I supported this," he said."It'll be the Church of Scientology next year," Democratic state Rep. Sam Jones told AP.The Islamic School of Greater New Orleans withdrew its request for vouchers before the bill went to vote.</blockquote></div><div style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px; text-align: left;"></div><div style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><div class="posttitle" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; line-height: 19.4559993743897px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 style="text-align: left; padding: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0px; letter-spacing: 1px; font-weight: normal;">If you think Chance McNeely’s appointment to head DEQ compliance was an insult, just get a handle on his salary</h2><p class="post-info" style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 0px 12px; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; background-image: url(https://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/mistylook/img/underline1.jpg); background-attachment: initial; background-color: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 0% 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">January 13, 2015 by <a href="http://louisianavoice.com/author/tomaswell/" title="Posts by tomaswell" style="padding: 0px; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none;">tomaswell</a></div><div class="entry" style="padding: 0px 1em 0px 0px; margin: 1em 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 19.4559993743897px;">It took a while but we have an update on Chance McNeely, the 26-year-old who recently made the quantum leap from a policy analyst for the governor’s office to Assistant Secretary of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Office of Environmental Compliance.Before we get to that, however, let’s review a couple of items.What’s it been, five years now that state classified employees have gone without a pay raise?And didn’t the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) recently raise premiums and reduce benefits, all because Gov. Bobby Jindal manipulated premiums to help cover gaping holes in his state budget, thereby reducing the OGB reserve fund from more than $500 million to something like half that amount?And hasn’t Jindal issued two expenditure freezes and two hiring freezes within the past 12 months, even specifying that no agency could “use employee transfers, promotions, reallocations or the creation of new positions” in order to circumvent the freezes?So how is it that Chance McNeely, with a degree in agricultural business and all of four years’ experience (three of those as a legislative assistant for the U.S. House of Representatives. And just what does a legislative assistant do in Washington?), is deemed to be qualified to oversee something as critical as environmental compliance?As this is being written, there is a federal trial ongoing in Baton Rouge over leaks of toxic chemicals at a DuPont chemical plant in Ascension Parish. But it’s a whistleblower suit, not one initiated by any regulatory agency. And does anyone remember the 1978 death of a truck driver at Bayou Sorrel? That happened when the driver exited his truck and was overcome by lethal chemical fumes.Most of the state’s environmental issues are situated in South Louisiana, primarily along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans—the corridor that has been dubbed, deservedly so, as Cancer Alley.But North Louisiana is not immune. The most controversial issue in the state right now is that proposed open tray burn of 15 million pounds of M6 artillery shell propellant at Camp Minden. Experts say cancer-causing emissions could be spread from Shreveport to Monroe.We don’t know Chance McNeely, but it is the position of LouisianaVoice that given our track record in protecting Louisiana’s air and water, the job of environmental compliance should be entrusted to (a) someone with an environmental background and (b) someone with vastly more experience.And the position most certainly should not have been handed to someone who purportedly is planning to walk away come next September in favor of entering law school.But, adding insult to injury, McNeely’s salary, according to State Civil Service records, just increased by a whopping 57 percent—from $65,000 per year to $102,000.This for someone who has worked in the governor’s office as a policy analyst (we don’t know what that entails, either) for all of nine months when there are thousands of state employees who have been working for decades for much less than half that.And DEQ Secretary Peggy Hatch can stand on top of the State Capitol and proclaim (as she already has, but not from atop the Capitol) that McNeely was her first choice for the job, but we aren’t buying it for one nano-second. She hired McNeely at Jindal’s specific instructions and was given her talking points as well.If, as she claims, it was her idea to recruit someone with no experience for a position as important as environmental compliance for the entire State of Louisiana, then we contend she is no more qualified for her position than he.But again, we know whose decision it was to make this horribly ill-advised move. And if the citizens of Louisiana were not already aware of how Jindal has turned his back on this state in favor of his own self-promotion, then this move should underscore it.It’s the biggest slap in the face of the state’s four million citizens since, well, since 1996 when Gov. Mike Foster appointed a 24-year-old named Bobby Jindal as head of the Department of Health and Hospitals.</div></div> world’s biggest and most profitable fossil fuel companies are receiving huge and rising subsidies from U.S. taxpayers, a practice slammed as absurd by a presidential candidate given the threat of climate change.
A Guardian investigation of three specific projects, run by Shell, ExxonMobil and Marathon Petroleum, has revealed that the subsidizes were all granted by politicians who received significant campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry.
The Guardian has found that:
A proposed Shell petrochemical refinery in Pennsylvania is in line for $1.6bn (£1bn) in state subsidy, according to a deal struck in 2012 when the company made an annual profit of $26.8bn.ExxonMobil’s upgrades to its Baton Rouge refinery in Louisiana are benefitting from $119m of state subsidy, with the support starting in 2011, when the company made a $41bn profit.A jobs subsidy scheme worth $78m to Marathon Petroleum in Ohio began in 2011, when the company made $2.4bn in profit.“At a time when scientists tell us we need to reduce carbon pollution to prevent catastrophic climate change, it is absurd to provide massive taxpayer subsidies that pad fossil-fuel companies’ already enormous profits,” said senator Bernie Sanders, who announced on 30 April he is running for president.
Sanders, with representative Keith Ellison, recently proposed an End Polluter Welfare Act, which they say would cut $135bn of US subsidies for fossil fuel companies over the next decade. “Between 2010 and 2014, the oil, coal, gas, utility, and natural resource extraction industries spent $1.8bn on lobbying, much of it in defense of these giveaways,” according to Sanders and Ellison.
In April, the president of the World Bank called for the subsidies to be scrapped immediately as poorer nations were feeling “the boot of climate change on their neck”. Globally in 2013, the most recent figures available,the coal, oil and gas industries benefited from subsidies of $550bn, four times those given to renewable energy.“Subsidies to fossil fuel companies are completely inappropriate in this day and age,” said Stephen Kretzmann, executive director of Oil Change International, an NGO that analyses the costs of fossil fuels. OCI found in 2014 that US taxpayers were subsidizing fossil fuel exploration and production alone by $21bn a year. In 2009, President Barack Obama called on the G20 to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies but since then UN federal subsidies have risen by 45%.“Climate science is clear that the vast majority of existing reserves will have to stay in the ground,” Kretzmann said. “Yet our government spends many tens of billions of our tax dollars – every year – making it more profitable for the fossil fuel industry to produce more.”Tax credits, defined as a subsidy by the World Trade Organization, are a key route of support for the fossil fuel industry. Using the subsidy tracker tool created by the Good Jobs First group, the Guardian examined some of the biggest subsidies for specific projects.Shell’s proposed $4bn plant in Pennsylvania is set to benefit from tax credits of $66m a year for 25 years. Shell has bought the site and has 10 supply contracts in place lasting up to 20 years, including from fracking companies extracting shale gas in the Marcellus shale field. The deal was struck by the then Republican governor, Tom Corbett, who received over $1m in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry. According to Guardian analysis of data compiled by Common Cause Pennsylvania, Shell have spent $1.2m on lobbying in Pennsylvania since 2011.A Shell spokesman said: “Shell supports and endorses incentive programs provided by state and local authorities that improve the business climate for capital investment, economic expansion and job growth. Shell would not have access to these incentive programs without the support and approval from the representative state and local jurisdictions.”ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge refinery is the second-largest in the US. Since 2011, it has been benefitting from exemptions from industrial taxes, worth $118.9m over 10 years, according to the Good Jobs First database. The Republican governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal has expressed his pride in attracting investment from ExxonMobil. In state election campaigns between 2003 and 2013, he received 231 contributions from oil and gas companies and executives totaling $1,019,777, according to a list compiled by environmental groups.A spokesman for ExxonMobil said: “ExxonMobil will not respond to Guardian inquiries because of its lack of objectivity on climate change reporting demonstrated by its campaign against companies that provide energy necessary for modern life, including newspapers.”The Guardian is running a campaign asking the world’s biggest health charities, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, to sell their fossil fuel investments on the basis that it is misguided to invest in companies dedicated to finding more oil, gas and coal when current reserves are already several times greater than can be safely burned. Many philanthropic organizations have already divested from fossil fuels, including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund whose wealth derives from Standard Oil, which went on to become ExxonMobil.In Ohio, Marathon Petroleum is benefitting from a 15-year tax credit for retaining 1,650 jobs and a 10-year tax credit for creating 100 new jobs. The subsidy is worth $78.5m, according to the Good Jobs First database. “I think Marathon always wanted to be here,” Republican governor John Kasich said in 2011. “All we’re doing is helping them.” In 2011,Kasich was named as the top recipient of oil and gas donations in Ohio, having received $213, 519. The same year Kasich appointed Marathon Petroleum’s CEO to the board of Jobs Ohio, a semi-private group “in charge of the economic growth in the state of Ohio”.A spokesman for Marathon Petroleum said: “The tax credit recognizes the enormous contribution we make to the Ohio economy through the taxes we pay and the well-paying jobs we maintain. We have more than doubled the 100 new jobs we committed to create.” The spokesman said the company paid billions of dollars in income and other taxes every year across the US.“Big oil, gas, and coal have huge influence on politicians and governments and they get that influence the old fashioned way – they buy it,” said Kretzmann. “Through campaign finance, lobbying, advertising and superpac spending, the industry has many ways to influence candidates and government officials seeking re-election.”He said fossil fuel subsidies were endemic in the US: “Every single well, pipeline, refinery, coal and gas plant in the country is heavily subsidized. Big Fossil’s lobbyists have done their jobs well for the last century.”Ben Schreiber, at Friends of the Earth US, said. “There is a vibrant discussion about the best way to keep fossil fuels in the ground – from carbon taxation to divestment – but ending state and federal corporate welfare for polluters is one of the easiest places to start.”
Schreiber also defended subsidies for renewable energy: “Fossil fuels are a mature technology while renewable energy is nascent and still developing. It makes sense to subsidize technologies that are going to help solve climate change, but not to do the same for those that are causing the problem.”Damian Carrington is the head of environment at the Guardian.Harry Davies is Special Projects Researcher at the Guardian.Facing a giant budget deficit, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal plans to borrow $750 million against future income from a landmark legal settlement with cigarette makers.<div class="yiv0138122607full-coverage" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1430148550522_466367" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px; text-align: left; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 15px;">More coverage: <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click.lists.propublica.net/?qs=19ea717c2c318e439d8c6d820f51fe52cecae397706bd5feeab667b0c6558dc5" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1430148550522_466373" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(13, 53, 118); outline: none; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Tobacco Debt: How Cash From Big Tobacco Went From Boon to Burden</a></div><a href="http://www.globalpossibilities.org/lousiana-has-a-crazy-plan-to-save-its-sinking-coastline/">http://www.globalpossibilities.org/lousiana-has-a-crazy-plan-to-save-its-sinking-coastline/</a>
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              <font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="field field-name-field-sources field-type-node-reference field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><a href="http://rawstory.com/">Raw Story</a> <span class="print-footnote">[1]</span></span></span></span>             /               <em>By</em> <em><a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/david-ferguson">David Ferguson</a> <span class="print-footnote">[2]</span></em>
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        <h1 class="node-title" style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Louisiana Gov. Jindal’s Prayer Rally Handouts Blame Gays and Abortion for Hurricane Katrina</font></h1>
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          <div class="story-date" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px; text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><em><span class="field field-name-field-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"><span class="field-items"><span class="field-item even"><span class="date-display-single" content="2014-12-13T09:44:00-08:00">December 13, 2014</span></span></span></span>

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Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) plans to kick off his

presidential candidacy in January with a stadium-sized prayer rally in

Baton Rouge.<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bobby-jindals-prayer-rally-materials-blame-gays-legal-abortion-hurricane-katrina">Right Wing Watch reported</a> [3]

that materials being distributed ahead of the rally blame LGBT

acceptance and legal abortion for natural disasters like Hurricane

Katrina and the devastating tornado system that leveled the town of

Joplin, Missouri.The prayer rally — titled “The

Response-Louisiana: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis” — is

scheduled for Jan. 24 and is closely modeled on a similar rally that

kicked off Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R)’s own unsuccessful bid for the

presidency.As RWW’s Miranda Blue noted, Jindal’s rally features

many of the same far-right evangelical luminaries as Perry’s rally, and

even seems to be recycling some of the publicity and advanced

promotional materials from Perry’s rally.Among the re-used documents is a <a href="http://theresponsela.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Prayer-Guide.pdf">“prayer guide”</a> [4] for Christians who are attending the rally that tells them how to pray in the seven days leading up to the rally.The Day Two tells believers to meditate on God’s vengeance, beginning with the plagues God sent to Egypt for enslaving the Jews.“The

reason these plagues came was because of the peopleʼs negligence to

worship and serve God with their whole heart. Because the people grew

cold and eventually departed from God, they experienced incredible

hardships. The result of their inner departure was multiple external

crises,” the guide reads.“We have watched sin escalate to a

proportion the nation has never seen before. We live in the first

generation in which the wholesale murder of infants through abortion is

not only accepted but protected by law. Homosexuality has been embraced

as an alternative lifestyle. Same-sex marriage is legal in six states

and Washington, D.C. Pornography is available on demand through the

Internet,” it continues.“This year we have seen a dramatic

increase in tornadoes that have taken the lives of many and crippled

entire cities, such as Tuscaloosa, AL & Joplin, MO,” the document

says. “And let us not forget that we are only six years from the tragic

events of hurricane Katrina, which rendered the entire Gulf Coast

powerless.”For Christian evangelicals, blaming gays and women for

catastrophes is nothing new. Even as the Twin Towers in New York City

burned on Sep. 11, 2001, the late evangelist Jerry Falwell said the

attacks were the result of the U.S. “throwing God out of the public

square.”“The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this

because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little

innocent babies, we make God mad,” Falwell said of the attacks, which

claimed thousands of lives.“[T]he pagans and the abortionists and

the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to

make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American

Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America,” Falwell told

fellow evangelical pastor Pat Robertson, “I point the finger in their

face and say ‘you helped this happen.’”<div style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">
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      <font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/religion-0">religion</a> <span class="print-footnote">[6]</span>,     </font></div>      <div class="field-item odd" style="text-align: left;">
      <font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/christianity">christianity</a> <span class="print-footnote">[7]</span>,     </font></div>      <div class="field-item even" style="text-align: left;">
      <font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/god">god</a> <span class="print-footnote">[8]</span>,     </font></div>      <div class="field-item odd" style="text-align: left;">
      <font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/bobby-jindal-0">bobby jindal</a> <span class="print-footnote">[9]</span>    </font></div>  </div>

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    <div class="print-source_url" style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Source URL:</strong> <a href="http://www.alternet.org/louisiana-gov-jindals-prayer-rally-handouts-blame-gays-and-abortion-hurricane-katrina">http://www.alternet.org/louisiana-gov-jindals-prayer-rally-handouts-blame-gays-and-abortion-hurricane-katrina</a></font></div>
    <font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;" /><div style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><strong style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">Links:</strong></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[1] http://rawstory.com/</font></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/david-ferguson</font></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[3] http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bobby-jindals-prayer-rally-materials-blame-gays-legal-abortion-hurricane-katrina</font></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[4] http://theresponsela.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Prayer-Guide.pdf</font></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Louisiana Gov.

Jindal’s Prayer Rally Handouts Blame Gays and Abortion for Hurricane

Katrina</div><div style="text-align: left;">[6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/religion-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[7] http://www.alternet.org/tags/christianity</div><div style="text-align: left;">[8] http://www.alternet.org/tags/god</div><div style="text-align: left;">[9] http://www.alternet.org/tags/bobby-jindal-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[10] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B</div>
<p style="text-align: left; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/11/bobby_jindals_political_appoin.html#incart_maj-story-1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; color: rgb(34, 98, 204); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;"><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; background: transparent;">Bobby Jindal's Political Appointees Have Showered His Campaign with Cash</a><strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; background: transparent;">, The Times-Picayune and Fox 8 News, November 2013<p style="text-align: left; line-height: 1.4; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">On March 3, 2011, a Louisiana river pilot named Robert Heitmeier wrote a $1,400 check to Gov. Bobby Jindal's campaign. Less than three weeks later, Jindal appointed Heitmeier to chair a state board that investigates misconduct by river pilots. The donation was one of 317 made by Jindal appointees, their families and their companies identified by the Times-Picayune and Fox 8 News as part of their <a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/11/louisiana_purchased_series_del.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; color: rgb(34, 98, 204); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">"Louisiana Purchased"</a>series. The donations totaled more than $1.8 million — a substantial sum in state politics.8/14<p style="text-align: left; line-height: 21px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">First he <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/29/bobby-jindal-lawsuit_n_5631416.html" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 136, 195); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">sued</a> his own school board. Now he's <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/27/www.gov.state.la.us/assets/docs/Jindal%20Final%20Complaint.pdf" target="hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 136, 195); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">suing</a> the federal government.<p style="text-align: left; line-height: 21px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Buffeted by a state judge who initially struck down his suspension of Common Core testing and said his actions <a href="http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2014/08/judge_rules_against_jindal_in.html" target="_hplink" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 136, 195); text-decoration: none; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">hurt the state's parents,</a> Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) is now turning to the federal courts in the crusade against the Common Core, a cause he once backed wholeheartedly.<p style="text-align: left; line-height: 21px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The federal government has hijacked and destroyed the Common Core initiative. Common Core is the latest effort by big government disciples to strip away state rights and put Washington, D.C. in control of everything," Jindal, widely considered a 2016 presidential contender, said in a statement. "What started out as an innovative idea to create a set of base-line standards that could be ‘voluntarily’ used by the states has turned into a scheme by the federal government to nationalize curriculum."....=http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=14-P13-00024&segmentID=3green army sues 97 oil and gas co to restore wetlands; jindal veto?; head of gas reg owns gas cotrmsLt. Gen. Russel Honore, (ret.) talks with Rachel Maddow about how Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and state legislators protected the oil and gas industry from being held accountable for pollution that has destroyed vital protective coastal wetlands.

<h1 class="node-title" style="text-align: left;">Hippies Demonized in Louisiana Voucher School Textbook</h1>

</div>

<div class="story-date" style="text-align: left;">March 7, 2013  |  </div>

If Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) gets his way Louisiana taxpayers will continue funding private school curricula rife with right-wing revisionism and biblical pseudoscience.

Jindal’s voucher program spends tens of millions of dollars in state funds to send low-income students to <a href="http://www.fox8live.com/story/21190166/more-schools-planned-for-louisiana-voucher-program" target="_blank">one of 134</a> [3] approved private schools. But the Louisiana Supreme Court will rule this month whether it’s constitutional to divert public funds to private institutions. Also of concern is the misinformation peddled in several approved voucher schools, many institutions espousing a right wing, Christian bastardization of social studies and science.

Most recently, AmericaBlog discovered a rather cartoonish depiction of one of the largest counter-culture movements in American history printed in a Louisiana voucher textbook. The 8th grade history book, titled America: Land I love, gives this lesson on hippies:

Many young people turned to drugs and immoral lifestyles; these youth became known as hippies. They went without bathing, wore dirty, ragged, unconventional clothing, and deliberately broke all codes of politeness or manners. Rock music played an important part in the hippie movement and had great influence over the hippies. Many of the rock musicians they followed belonged to Eastern religious cults or practiced Satan worship.

</blockquote>

Of course, the devil’s influence extends beyond America’s “immoral” youth. Reads another textbook: “It is no wonder that Satan hates the family and has hurled his venom against it in the form of Communism.”

Last year, Mother Jones listed some of the most egregious falsities found in Louisiana voucher school textbooks. Apparently, “Dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the earth at the same time” and “The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well.” A reminder: Just last November, Governor Jindal, who supports this curriculum, urged his fellow GOPers to “<a href="http://canindia.com/2013/02/bobby-jindal-tells-republicans-to-stop-being-the-stupid-party/" target="_blank">stop being the stupid party</a> [4].”

It'd be easier to take the governor seriously if he stopped spreading stupidity in his own backyard.

</div>

</div>

</div>

<div class="tags" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><div style="text-align: left;">See more stories tagged with:</div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden">

<div class="field-item even" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/bobby-jindal-0">bobby jindal</a> [5],</div>

<div class="field-item odd" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/misinformation">misinformation</a> [6],</div>

<div class="field-item even" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/education-0">education</a> [7],</div>

<div class="field-item odd" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/vouchers">vouchers</a> [8],</div>

<div class="field-item even" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/hippies-0">hippies</a> [9]</div>

</div>

<div class="print-source_url" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px; text-align: left;">Source URL: <a href="http://www.alternet.org/education/hippies-demonized-louisiana-voucher-school-textbook">http://www.alternet.org/education/hippies-demonized-louisiana-voucher-school-textbook</a></div>

<div style="text-align: left;">Links:</div><div style="text-align: left;">[1] http://www.alternet.org</div><div style="text-align: left;">[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-hsieh</div><div style="text-align: left;">[3] http://www.fox8live.com/story/21190166/more-schools-planned-for-louisiana-voucher-program</div><div style="text-align: left;">[4] http://canindia.com/2013/02/bobby-jindal-tells-republicans-to-stop-being-the-stupid-party/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[5] http://www.alternet.org/tags/bobby-jindal-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/misinformation</div><div style="text-align: left;">[7] http://www.alternet.org/tags/education-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[8] http://www.alternet.org/tags/vouchers</div><div style="text-align: left;">[9] http://www.alternet.org/tags/hippies-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[10] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B</div>

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trms: wants to elim income tax, w/ kansas 1/13

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14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in Louisiana's Voucher Schools

Slave masters were nice, the KKK is A-OK, and the Great Depression is a liberal fantasy. Thanks, Gov. Jindal!

By Deanna Pan | Tue Aug. 7, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

Thanks to a new law [1] privatizing public education in Louisiana, Bible-based curriculum can now indoctrinate young, pliant minds with the good news of the Lord—all on the state taxpayers' dime.

Under Gov. Bobby Jindal's voucher program, considered the most sweeping [2] in the country, Louisiana is poised to spend tens of millions of dollars to help poor and middle-class students from the state's notoriously terrible public schools [3] receive a private education. While the governor's plan sounds great in the glittery parlance [4] of the state's PR machine, the program is rife with accountability problems [5] that actually haven't been solved [6] by the new standards [7] the Louisiana Department of Education adopted two weeks ago.

For one, of the 119 (mostly Christian) participating schools, Zack Kopplin, a gutsy college sophomore who's taken to Change.org [8] to stonewall the program, has identified at least 19 [9] that teach or champion creationist nonscience and will rake in nearly $4 million in public funding [10] from the initial round of voucher designations.

Read about Bobby Jindal's exorcism problem [11].

Many of these schools, Kopplin notes, rely on Pensacola-based A Beka Book [12] curriculum or Bob Jones University Press [13] textbooks to teach their pupils Bible-based "facts," such as the existence of Nessie the Loch Ness Monster [14] and all sorts of pseudoscience that researcher Rachel Tabachnick and writer Thomas Vinciguerra have thankfully pored [15] over [16] so the rest of world doesn't have to.

Here are some of my favorite lessons:

1. Dinosaurs and humans probably hung out: "Bible-believing Christians cannot accept any evolutionary interpretation. Dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the earth at the same time and may have even lived side by side within the past few thousand years."—Life Science [17], 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2007

2. Dragons were totally real: "[Is] it possible that a fire-breathing animal really existed? Today some scientists are saying yes. They have found large chambers in certain dinosaur skulls…The large skull chambers could have contained special chemical-producing glands. When the animal forced the chemicals out of its mouth or nose, these substances may have combined and produced fire and smoke."—Life Science [17], 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2007

3. "God used the Trail of Tears to bring many Indians to Christ."—America: Land That I Love [19], Teacher ed., A Beka Book, 1994

4. Africa needs religion: "Africa is a continent with many needs. It is still in need of the gospel…Only about ten percent of Africans can read and write. In some areas the mission schools have been shut down by Communists who have taken over the government."—Old World History and Geography in Christian Perspective [20], 3rd ed., A Beka Book, 2004

The literacy rate in Africa is "only about 10 percent"--give or take a few dozen percentage points. residentevil_stars2001/FlickrThe literacy rate in Africa is "only about 10 percent"…give or take a few dozen percentage points [21]. residentevil_stars2001 [22]/Flickr

5. Slave masters were nice guys: "A few slave holders were undeniably cruel. Examples of slaves beaten to death were not common, neither were they unknown. The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well."—United States History for Christian Schools [23], 2nd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 1991

Slaves and their masters: BFF 4lyfe! Edward Williams Clay/Library of CongressDoesn't everyone look happy?! Edward Williams Clay/Library of Congress

6. The KKK was A-OK: "[The Ku Klux] Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross. Klan targets were bootleggers, wife-beaters, and immoral movies. In some communities it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians."—United States History for Christian Schools [24], 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2001

Just your friendly neighborhood Imperial Wizard! Unknown/Library of CongressJust your friendly neighborhood Imperial Wizard Unknown/Library of Congress

7. The Great Depression wasn't as bad as the liberals made it sound: "Perhaps the best known work of propaganda to come from the Depression was John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath…Other forms of propaganda included rumors of mortgage foreclosures, mass evictions, and hunger riots and exaggerated statistics representing the number of unemployed and homeless people in America."—United States History: Heritage of Freedom [25], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1996

Definitely Photoshopped. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration/WikipediaDefinitely Photoshopped. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration/Wikipedia

8. SCOTUS enslaved fetuses: "Ignoring 3,500 years of Judeo-Christian civilization, religion, morality, and law, the Burger Court held that an unborn child was not a living person but rather the "property" of the mother (much like slaves were considered property in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford)."—American Government in Christian Perspective [26], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1997

9. The Red Scare isn't over yet: "It is no wonder that Satan hates the family and has hurled his venom against it in the form of Communism."— American Government in Christian Perspective [26], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1997

Meanwhile, God sneezes glitter snot in the form of Capitalism. Catechetical Guild/Wikipedia Catechetical Guild/Wikipedia

10. Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson were a couple of hacks: "[Mark] Twain's outlook was both self-centered and ultimately hopeless…Twain's skepticism was clearly not the honest questioning of a seeker of truth but the deliberate defiance of a confessed rebel."—Elements of Literature for Christian Schools [27], Bob Jones University, 2001

"Several of [Emily Dickinson's] poems show a presumptuous attitude concerning her eternal destiny and a veiled disrespect for authority in general. Throughout her life she viewed salvation as a gamble, not a certainty. Although she did view the Bible as a source of poetic inspiration, she never accepted it as an inerrant guide to life."—Elements of Literature for Christian Schools [27], Bob Jones University, 2001

And her grammar was just despicable! Ugh! Todd-Bingham picture collection, 1837-1966 (inclusive)/ Manuscripts & Archives, Yale UniversityTo say nothing of her poetry's Syntax and Punctuation—how odious it is.Todd-Bingham picture collection, 1837-1966 (inclusive)/ Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University

11. Abstract algebra is too dang complicated: "Unlike the 'modern math' theorists, who believe that mathematics is a creation of man and thus arbitrary and relative, A Beka Book teaches that the laws of mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute…A Beka Book provides attractive, legible, and workable traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory."—ABeka.com [28]

Maths is hard! Screenshot: MittRomney.comMATHS: Y U SO HARD? Screenshot: MittRomney.com [29]

12. Gay people "have no more claims to special rights than child molesters or rapists."—Teacher's Resource Guide to Current Events for Christian Schools, 1998-1999, Bob Jones University Press, 1998

13. "Global environmentalists have said and written enough to leave no doubt that their goal is to destroy the prosperous economies of the world's richest nations."—Economics: Work and Prosperity in Christian Perspective [30], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1999

Plotting world destruction, BRB. Lynn Freeny, Department of Energy/FlickrPlotting economic apocalypse, BRB Lynn Freeny, Department of Energy [31]/Flickr

14. Globalization is a precursor to rapture: "But instead of this world unification ushering in an age of prosperity and peace, as most globalists believe it will, it will be a time of unimaginable human suffering as recorded in God's Word. The Anti-christ will tightly regulate who may buy and sell."—Economics: Work and Prosperity in Christian Perspective [30], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1999

He'll probably be in cahoots with the global environmentalists. Luca Signorelli/WikipediaSwapping insider-trading secrets is the devil's favorite pastime. Luca Signorelli/WikipediaWhew! Seems extreme. But perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised. Gov. Jindal, you remember, once tried to perform an exorcism on a college gal pal. [11]

Source URL: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/07/photos-evangelical-curricula-louisiana-tax-dollars

Links:

[1] http://www.louisianaschools.net/topics/act2_choice_law.html

[2] http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/01/us-education-vouchers-idUSL1E8H10AG20120601

[3] http://www.wafb.com/story/15623744/new-scores-44-of-louisiana-public-schools-failing

[4] http://gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&catID=2&articleID=3377&navID=12

[5] http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/louisiana-gives-us-taste-mitt-romneys-education-policy

[6] http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/lousiana_school_voucher_standards_criticized.php

[7] http://www.louisianaschools.net/offices/publicaffairs/press_release.aspx?PR=1664

[8] http://www.change.org/petitions/the-governor-of-la-halt-the-implementation-of-louisiana-s-creationist-voucher-program

[9] http://www.repealcreationism.com/697/stop-governor-jindals-creationist-voucher-program-before-governor-romney-takes-it-nationwide/

[10] http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20120731/NEWS01/207310330/Some-voucher-schools-teaching-creationism

[11] http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/05/bobby-jindal-exorcised-his-college-girlfriend

[12] http://www.abeka.com/

[13] http://www.bjupress.com/page/Home

[14] http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-06-26/news/32412766_1_voucher-plan-voucher-students-voucher-program

[15] http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/5/25/84149/9275

[16] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/weekinreview/27vinciguerra.ART.html?pagewanted=all

[17] http://www.bjupress.com/product/228163?path=94384&spot=1

[18] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY7gsUL9Xkk

[19] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=109088

[20] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=135275

[21] http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=201

[22] http://www.flickr.com/photos/23360760@N04/2231862471/

[23] http://www.amazon.com/History-Christian-Schools-Timothy-Keesee/dp/0890845794/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

[24] http://www.bjupress.com/product/222141

[25] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=103462

[26] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=38733

[27] http://www.amazon.com/ELEMENTS-LITERATURE-FOR-CHRISTIAN-SCHOOLS/dp/1579246362

[28] http://www.abeka.com/Distinctives.aspx

[29] http://www.mittromney.com/forms/middle-class-promise-gap-health-care-petition?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=20120702_lb_healthcare_facebook

[30] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=61263

[31] http://www.flickr.com/photos/doe-oakridge/6945040384/

==

opposed science on berm

----

Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is a former <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Republican_Party" title="Republican Party" class="mw-redirect">Republican</a> member of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=U.S.House_of_Representatives" title="U. S. House of Representatives" class="mw-redirect">U. S. House of Representatives</a> representing <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:Members_of_the_U.S._Congress_from_Louisiana" title="Category:Members of the U.S. Congress from Louisiana">Louisiana's</a> First Congressional District since 2005. The first district is based in the suburbs of New Orleans. (<a href="http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/la01_109.gif" class="external text" title="http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/la01_109.gif" rel="nofollow">map</a>). In 2007, he won the election to become Louisiana's Governor.

<h2 style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px; text-align: left;">Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council</h2>

In August 2011, Governor Jindal spoke at a Plenary Luncheon at the 2011 <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Legislative_Exchange_Council" title="American Legislative Exchange Council">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> (ALEC) Annual Meeting, a luncheon sponsored by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Corporations" title="ALEC Corporations">ALEC corporate member</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=PhRMA" title="PhRMA" class="mw-redirect">PhRMA</a>. During the same annual meeting, he was also awarded ALEC's <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC_Award_Winners" title="ALEC Award Winners">2011 Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award</a>.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bobby_Jindal#cite_note-0" title="">[1]</a>

About ALEC

</th></tr><tr><td style=" color: #000000;">

<div style="padding: 2px 5px;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=ALEC" title="ALEC" class="mw-redirect">ALEC</a> is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's <a href="http://alecexposed.org/" class="external text" title="http://alecexposed.org/" rel="nofollow">ALECexposed.org</a>, and check out breaking news on our <a href="http://www.PRWatch.org" class="external text" title="http://www.PRWatch.org" rel="nofollow">PRWatch.org site</a>.</div>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2 style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">Record and controversies</h2>

<div style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px; margin: 0.5em 0.75em; border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid rgb(92, 121, 181); border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; padding: 0.25em; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(220, 232, 248); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">General information about important bills and votes for can be found in Congresspedia's <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Category:U.S._legislation" title="Category:U.S. legislation">articles on legislation</a>. You can add information you find on how Bobby Jindal voted by clicking the "[edit]" link to the right and typing it in. Remember to <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Help:References" title="Help:References">cite your sources</a>!</div>

<div style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px; margin: 0.5em 0.75em; border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid rgb(92, 121, 181); border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; padding: 0.25em; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-color: rgb(220, 232, 248); background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">For more information see the chart of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=U.S._House_of_Representatives_votes_on_the_Iraq_War" title="U.S. House of Representatives votes on the Iraq War">U.S. House of Representatives votes on the Iraq War</a>.</div>

<h3 style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">Environmental record</h3>

For more information on environmental legislation, see the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Portal:Energy_and_Environment_Policy_%28U.S.%29" title="Portal:Energy and Environment Policy (U.S.)">Energy and Environment Policy Portal</a>

Jindal was born June 10, 1971 in Baton Rouge to Indian immigrants. He converted to Catholicism from Hinduism while at Brown University where he graduated with honors in biology and public policy. Afterwards, he received a master's degree in politics from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He is the only Indian-American currently serving in Congress, and is only the second in Congressional history.<a href="http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=54233&d=9&m=11&y=2004&pix=world.jpg&category=World" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=54233&d=9&m=11&y=2004&pix=world.jpg&category=World" rel="nofollow">[1]</a>

His previous public service includes time as the Louisiana Secretary of Department of Health & Hospitals, Executive Director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare, and Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He was also the youngest ever president of the University of Louisiana System.

Jindal won the 2003 open primary for Governor of Louisiana, but lost in the runoff election to then-Lt. Governor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Kathleen_Blanco&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Kathleen Blanco (page does not exist)">Kathleen Blanco</a>

A few weeks after the gubernatorial runoff, Jindal decided to run for Louisiana's 1st Congressional District . The incumbent, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_Vitter" title="David Vitter">David Vitter</a>, was running for the Senate seat being vacated by <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Breaux" title="John Breaux">John Breaux</a>. Jindal had lived in Baton Rouge for many years, but moved to Kenner to run for the congressional seat. Effective fundraising and the endorsement of the Republican Party led to victory.

Jindal, a social conservative, supports a policy of "no abortions, no exceptions". His definition of abortion only includes procedures that target the embryo or fetus. Procedures, such as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/salpingectomy" class="extiw" title="w:salpingectomy">salpingectomy</a>, that do not target the embryo would not be considered an abortion by Jindal (because of the double effect). <a href="http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Bobby_Jindal" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Bobby_Jindal" rel="nofollow">[2]</a>

<h3 style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">2006 elections</h3>

Jindal won reelection without significant opposition.

<h4 style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">2007 gubernatorial election</h4>

Jindal won the Louisiana governorship on October 20, 2007, becoming the nation’s first Indian American governor. He outpolled 11 rivals in the Louisiana gubernatorial election and drew enough votes to avoid a runoff.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bobby_Jindal#cite_note-1" title="">[2]</a>

With about 90 percent of Louisiana’s nearly 4,000 precincts reporting, Jindal won 53 percent of the vote. His nearest competitor, State Sen. Walter J. Boasso (D), had 18 percent. Louisiana holds an open gubernatorial election with candidates of all parties competing. With at least 50 percent of the vote, Jindall avoided a Nov. 17 runoff race with Boasso. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bobby_Jindal#cite_note-2" title="">[3]</a>

<h2 style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">Money in politics</h2>

This section contains links to – and feeds from – money in politics databases. <crpcontribdata>cid=N00026786&cycle=2006</crpcontribdata>

<table class="prettytable" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><tbody><tr><th colspan="3">Links to more campaign contribution information for Bobby Jindal

from the Center for Responsive Politics' <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org" rel="nofollow">OpenSecrets.org</a> site.</th></tr><tr><td>Fundraising profile:</td><td><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00026786" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00026786" rel="nofollow">2006 election cycle</a></td><td><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allsummary.asp?cid=N00026786" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allsummary.asp?cid=N00026786" rel="nofollow">Career totals</a></td></tr><tr><td>Top contributors by organization/corporation:</td><td><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00026786" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00026786" rel="nofollow">2006 election cycle</a></td><td><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allcontrib.asp?cid=N00026786" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allcontrib.asp?cid=N00026786" rel="nofollow">Career totals</a></td></tr><tr><td>Top contributors by industry:</td><td><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/indus.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00026786" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/indus.asp?cycle=2006&cid=N00026786" rel="nofollow">2006 election cycle</a></td><td><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allindus.asp?cid=N00026786" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/allindus.asp?cid=N00026786" rel="nofollow">Career totals</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

<li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/search_result.asp?mem=Jindal%2C+Bobby" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/revolving/search_result.asp?mem=Jindal%2C+Bobby" rel="nofollow">Revolving door profile for Bobby Jindal</a> from the Center for Responsive Politics' <a href="http://www.OpenSecrets.org" class="external text" title="http://www.OpenSecrets.org" rel="nofollow">OpenSecrets.org</a> website.</li>

<li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/travel.asp?CID=N00026786" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/travel.asp?CID=N00026786" rel="nofollow">2006 privately funded travel profile for Bobby Jindal</a> from the Center for Responsive Politics' <a href="http://www.OpenSecrets.org" class="external text" title="http://www.OpenSecrets.org" rel="nofollow">OpenSecrets.org</a> website.</li>

<li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/candlook.php?CID=N00026786" class="external text" title="http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/candlook.php?CID=N00026786" rel="nofollow">Personal finance profile for Bobby Jindal</a> from the Center for Responsive Politics' <a href="http://www.OpenSecrets.org" class="external text" title="http://www.OpenSecrets.org" rel="nofollow">OpenSecrets.org</a> website.</li>

</ul>

<h2 style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">Committees and Affiliations</h2>

<h3 style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">Committees</h3>

<li><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=House_Committee_on_Homeland_Security" title="House Committee on Homeland Security" style="line-height: 16.003px;">House Committee on Homeland Security</a></div><ul>

<li style="text-align: left;">Subcommittee on Border, Maritime, and Global Counterterrorism</li>

<li style="text-align: left;">Subcommittee on Emergency Communications, Preparedness, and Response</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=House_Committee_on_Natural_Resources" title="House Committee on Natural Resources" style="line-height: 16.003px;">House Committee on Natural Resources</a></div><ul>

<li style="text-align: left;">Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources</li>

<li style="text-align: left;">Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans</li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

<h4 style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)</h4>

<li><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=House_Committee_on_Education_and_the_Workforce" title="House Committee on Education and the Workforce" class="mw-redirect" style="line-height: 16.003px;">House Committee on Education and the Workforce</a></div><ul>

<li style="text-align: left;">Subcommittee on Employer-Employee Relations</li>

<li style="text-align: left;">Subcommittee on Education Reform</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li style="text-align: left;">Subcommittee on Economic Security Infrastructure Protection and Cybersecurity</li>

<li style="text-align: left;">Subcommittee on Intelligence Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment</li>

<li style="text-align: left;">Subcommittee on Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack</li>

</ul>

</li>

<li><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=House_Committee_on_Resources" title="House Committee on Resources" class="mw-redirect" style="line-height: 16.003px;">House Committee on Resources</a></div><ul>

<li style="text-align: left;">Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources</li>

<li style="text-align: left;">Subcommittee on Fisheries Conservation Wildlife and Oceans</li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

<h2 style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">More Background Data</h2>

<li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=MLA55695" class="external text" title="http://www.vote-smart.org/bio.php?can_id=MLA55695" rel="nofollow">Background information on Bobby Jindal from Project Vote Smart</a></li>

</ul>

<li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=MLA55695" class="external text" title="http://www.vote-smart.org/issue_rating_category.php?can_id=MLA55695" rel="nofollow">Interest group scorecard ratings for Bobby Jindal from Project Vote Smart</a></li>

</ul>

<li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/j000287" class="external text" title="http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/j000287" rel="nofollow">Voting record for Bobby Jindal from the Washington Post database</a></li>

</ul>

<li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/cgi-bin/newmemberbio.cgi?lang=&member=LA01&site=congressmerge" class="external text" title="http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/cgi-bin/newmemberbio.cgi?lang=&member=LA01&site=congressmerge" rel="nofollow">Information on Bobby Jindal from Congress Merge</a></li>

</ul>

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Wikipedia" title="Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a> also has an article on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Jindal" class="external text" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Jindal" rel="nofollow">Bobby Jindal</a>. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GFDL" class="external text" title="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GFDL" rel="nofollow">GFDL</a>.

<li style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://whereistand.com/BobbyJindal/wizard" class="external text" title="http://whereistand.com/BobbyJindal/wizard" rel="nofollow">See how you compare to Bobby Jindal</a></li>

</ul>

===

<h2 style="text-align: left;">Top 5 Contributors, 2004 - 2012</h2>

</div>

<table id="topContrib" class="datadisplay"><thead><tr><th>Contributor</th><th>Total</th><th>Indivs</th><th>PACs</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr class="rowTint"><td>Club for Growth</td><td class="number">$49,600</td><td class="number">$49,600</td><td class="number">$0</td></tr><tr><td>Powell Group</td><td class="number">$26,000</td><td class="number">$26,000</td><td class="number">$0</td></tr><tr class="rowTint"><td>Shaw Group</td><td class="number">$23,100</td><td class="number">$9,500</td><td class="number">$13,600</td></tr><tr><td>National Beer Wholesalers Assn</td><td class="number">$20,000</td><td class="number">$0</td><td class="number">$20,000</td></tr><tr class="rowTint"><td>Crescent Technology</td><td class="number">$18,150</td><td class="number">$18,150</td><td class="number">$0</td></tr></tbody></table>

</div>

<h2 style="text-align: left;">Top 5 Industries, 2004 - 2012</h2>

</div>

<table id="topIndus" class="datadisplay"><thead><tr><th>Industry</th><th>Total</th><th>Indivs</th><th>PACs</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr class="rowTint"><td>Health Professionals</td><td class="number">$321,294</td><td class="number">$222,329</td><td class="number">$98,965</td></tr><tr><td>Oil & Gas</td><td class="number">$234,700</td><td class="number">$154,200</td><td class="number">$80,500</td></tr><tr class="rowTint"><td>Lawyers/Law Firms</td><td class="number">$225,050</td><td class="number">$194,243</td><td class="number">$30,807</td></tr><tr><td>Retired</td><td class="number">$196,385</td><td class="number">$196,385</td><td class="number">$0</td></tr><tr class="rowTint"><td>Real Estate</td><td class="number">$168,613</td><td class="number">$156,613</td><td class="number">$12,000</td></tr></tbody></table>

</div>

<h2 style="text-align: left;"><a id="funds" name="funds"> </a>Source of Funds</h2>

</div>

<div class="crpItem" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><img src="/033e4ad3-05a9-5c40-8ef4-39e54ebf5350.gif"/></td><td>Individual Contributions</td><td>$3,486,685</td><td>(76%)</td></tr><tr class="rowTint"><td><img src="/74802963-de9c-5873-8522-579e01e28779.gif"/></td><td>PAC Contributions</td><td>$1,080,838</td><td>(23%)</td></tr><tr><td><img src="/ab9e4318-b0f5-538f-8a4e-bfcc1461d603.gif"/></td><td>Candidate self-financing</td><td>$0</td><td>(0%)</td></tr><tr class="rowTint"><td><img src="/de774fef-29d2-54e6-ba91-45bb314c9f92.gif"/></td><td>Other</td><td>$41,411</td><td>(1%)</td></tr></tbody></table>

</div>

===

on climte:

<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203458604577265413033342028.html">Bobby Jindal</a>, governor of Louisiana

<div style="text-align: left;">“President Obama claims to be focusing this election year on the American economy. To make that pledge true, he must make wholesale changes to his energy policy and put energy prices and energy independence ahead of zealous adherence to left-wing environmental theory.”</div><div style="text-align: left;">(He didn’t say the word “climate,” but we can read between the lines.)</div>

<a href="http://grist.org/election-2012/romney-choosing-climate-skeptic-as-running-mate/">http://grist.org/election-2012/romney-choosing-climate-skeptic-as-running-mate/</a>

---

<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/08/bobby-jindal-school-voucher_n_1755449.html?view=print&comm_ref=false">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/08/bobby-jindal-school-voucher_n_1755449.html?view=print&comm_ref=false</a>

<h1 class="title-news" style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">Bobby Jindal School Voucher System Blasted As 'Destruction Of Education' By Religious Group</h1>

<div class="comments_datetime_new border_none relative v05" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><div style="text-align: left;">The Huffington Post  |  By <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicholas-wing" rel="author" style="line-height: 16.003px;">Nick Wing</a></div> Posted: 08/08/2012 10:08 am Updated: 08/08/2012 10:08 am</div>

The leader of a national multi-faith religious group blasted Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's school voucher program this week, charging that it was an effort to mount a "ruthless attack on public education" and violate the separation of church and state.

In a letter to the governor, C. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister and President of the Interfaith Alliance, accused Jindal of initiating a program that “is bad for religious freedom and bad for public education as well as a blatant attack on the religious freedom clauses in the United States Constitution.”

Gaddy says Louisiana's sweeping new voucher system, ushered in by Jindal, is problematic because it uses state taxpayer dollars to offer vouchers to more than half of Louisiana’s public school students. These students can then use these vouchers to attend a number of religious learning institutions, some of which have been shown to teach extreme <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/07/photos-evangelical-curricula-louisiana-tax-dollars" target="_hplink">anti-science and anti-history curriculums</a>.

“Let me be clear: I am not appalled that a Christian school is teaching its students that God created the Earth ... Children in my church learn that every Sunday," Gaddy said. “I am appalled that these schools are teaching theology as science, and they’re doing so with government money, my tax dollars."

"Teaching the theology of Creationism is part of the mission of religious schools, and religious education more broadly – I defend with my life’s work their right to teach future generations about their faith. But they should not receive financial support from our government to do so.”...

</div>

===

<div style="text-align: left;">alec ed bill nessie <a href="http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201206260002" style="line-height: 16.003px;">http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201206260002</a></div><div style="text-align: left;">--</div>

alec conf;

On the Trail of Public Policy on Bourbon Street

The hypocrisy of ALEC's media policy is astonishing. Not only are vast majority of news organizations owned by major media corporations (perhaps with the exception of Al Jazeera), but the majority of ALEC's conference events and even speaker are sponsored by Fortune 500 firms and trade associations. Governor Bobby Jindal was sponsored by big PhRMA. Dick Armey by Visa. I am not kidding.

</div>

--

<div style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px; text-align: left;">Also, NYT reporter Eric Lipton wrote an article on Louisiana charity the</div><div style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px; text-align: left;">Jindal Foundation, to which Dow contributed $100,000. The paragraph on Dow</div><div style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px; text-align: left;">noted neither it nor UCC have been fined for a December 2009 chemical</div><div style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px; text-align: left;">spill in St. Charles parish, despite the state proposing a fine for the</div><div style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px; text-align: left;">companies. The article as a whole questions whether companies are</div><div style="text-align: left;">influencing Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal through the charitable</div><div style="text-align: left;">foundation, which is run under his wife's name.</div>

<div style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/us/politics/03jindal.html?partner=rss&emc=rss" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;" /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/us/politics/03jindal.html?partner=rss&emc=rss" style="line-height: 16.0030002593994px;">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/us/politics/03jindal.html?partner=rss&emc=rss</a></div>

<a href="http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/389297_bhopal-update-03-03-11-.html">http://wikileaks.org/gifiles/docs/389297_bhopal-update-03-03-11-.html</a>

----

<h1 class="pagetitle" style="text-align: left; line-height: 16.0030002593994px;"><a href="http://fosterfriess.com/blog/2012/06/04/jindal-leads-a-school-voucher-revolution-in-louisiana/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Jindal Leads a School Voucher Revolution in Louisiana">Jindal Leads a School Voucher Revolution in Louisiana</a></h1>

<div class="post-byline" style="text-align: left;">by Joe Lindsley</div>

</div>

‘Changing the way we deliver education’

“We are letting parents decide what’s best for their children, not government,” says Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, announcing a new program expanding school voucher availability throughout the Pelican State. In what Reuters call the “nation’s boldest experiment in privatizing public education,” the state government is preparing to make tens of millions of taxpayer dollars available to parents for them to choose what schools they think are best for their kids.

The initiative is inspired in part by post-Katrina New Orleans, where vouchers have allowed innovative school models to flourish, freeing students from the stagnation of terrible and often unsafe public schools.

It’s about freedom:  Parents can choose where and how they want their kids to be educated. And students can supplement their education and increase their chances of gainful employment by entering vocational programs and apprenticeships. Despite what critics say, the program also includes accountability measures and basic guidelines. Students on vouchers will have to take state tests, which are not required of private school students otherwise.

Teachers unions, working to maintain their education monopoly, are crying out against Louisiana’s innovations. They don’t seem to like merit and achievement. Maybe they’re in the wrong business.....

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