Showing posts with label Daily Comet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daily Comet. Show all posts

Saturday, August 25, 2012

TRUTH NOT TRUTHINESS, GOVERNOR JINDAL


Yesterday's issue of the Daily Comet carries an opinion piece and Republican commercial by Governor Bobby Jindal sent out before he left for the Republican convention in Tampa Florida.  I assume that's where the governor is, although we never know for sure until he's left the state and landed wherever he's headed, because he doesn't tell. 

Jindal was passed over as Romney's choice for vice-president, and he is not the keynote speaker at the convention, although he will give a speech sometime during the gathering, thus he may not have been in the best mood when he wrote "A Peek Behind the Curtain".   He speaks of gaffes and spin by Obama and Biden, but Jindal has his own collection of gaffes and spins.  You can read the entire propaganda piece with its varying assortment of truth and truthiness, but I want to focus on the one untruth that is spreading wildly in Republican commercials and speeches.

Romney says it, Ryan says it, the commercials say it, and now Jindal says it.  Although it has been pointed out time and again that that Obama did not remove the work requirement from the welfare reform law, the Republicans continue to push the lie.  Apparently, Republicans care not at all about the truth.  What a surprise!  An article in the Los Angeles Times explains the waivers to various states well.  I thought I should answer Jindal's false statement with the truth, so I left the following comment to the article in the Daily Comet online site.
Governor Jindal says:

"Even with rising unemployment, the President has moved to dismantle the historic reform of 1996 that instituted work requirements for welfare. Despite the fact that the welfare caseload fell by half after those historic reforms, the President is telling states that his administration will waive established work requirements for welfare assistance."
  
Either Governor Jindal is ignorant about what the waivers to the 5 states that requested them do, or he is less than candid about what he knows.  Why not ask his fellow Republican governors in the States of Utah and Nevada why they requested the waivers and how the waivers work?  The waivers do not eliminate the work requirement.  Any state that fails to meet the 20% employment requirement loses the waiver.

Republicans call for more power to be returned to the states, but when the president does just that, they slam him.  Gov. Jindal suggests that the American people don't need spin from the president and vice-president, but the governor seems to have learned a bit about spin himself, as he's spinning like a top with his charges that the work requirement for welfare has been eliminated.
There you have it.  I also gave a contribution to the Obama campaign, my first and probably only contribution of this election season, because the thought of the Romney-Ryan team running the country scares me to death.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

OUR VERY OWN GRAMMY WINNER


From the Daily Comet:
CHOUPIC — Randy Ellis, holding a sweating can of Dr. Pepper, was watching the happenings of his quiet north-Lafourche neighborhood from the confines of his porch swing Tuesday.

His screen door was open, flooding his house with mid-afternoon light and the first mild spring breeze of the year.

“I’ve never been a good story teller,” he insisted. “I’m just a road guy.”

But only three days ago, Ellis was on the red carpet at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, making his way to the award ceremony where he and his bandmates learned they had won a Grammy.

Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band won a Grammy for the best zydeco or Cajun music album. The group received the award for their most recent album, Zydeco Junkie. Ellis, 41, is the band’s guitar player.

The small community of Choupic, where Randy lives when he's not on tour, is a few miles down the road from Thibodaux, and I can tell you, it's in the swamp.

The video shows our boy Randy singing with the group.




Chubby and the Bayou Swamp Band with their Grammys.



The CD of Zydeco Junkie may be purchased at their website, and the Mp3 is available at Amazon or at the iTunes Store.



My favorite song on the album is "Jalapeno Lena". I gave Madpriest the Mp3 version of the album. If we're lucky, he may post a podcast of some of the songs, maybe even "Jalapeno Lena".