President Obama's visit to New Orleans

I have a whole bunch of really fuzzy pictures from my increasingly useless digital camera right here on the flickr. I took pictures of political people I recognized. From the New Orleans City Council, I spotted Shelley Midura, Cynthia Hedge Morrell, Arnie Fielkow, and Jackie Clarkson. From our Baton Rouge delegation, I noticed Jim Tucker, Walk Leger, Ed Murray, and Karen Carter Peterson. Of course I also spotted Mayor Nagin, Governor Jindal, State AG Buddy Caldwell, as well as Representatives Cao, Scalise, and Melancon. As far as aspirant candidates are concerned, I saw Murray and John Georges but wasn't able to pick Badon or Perry out of the crowd. They may have been there; this is certainly not an exhaustive list.

I had a great time and came away satisfied with the experience. Seeing a Presidential speech in person is not a bad way to spend a Thursday afternoon. Being close enough to shake Mr. Obama's hand was also very exciting, as I've obviously been an admirer of his for some time.

More substantively, I found his comments to be largely uncontroversial, and therefore, somewhat unsatisfying. Some have criticized the President for what he did and did not say during his junket here. I don't necessarily disagree with many of the critiques I've read, but I'm going to take a different approach and discuss what I think are some significant signs of progress specific to our region during the administration's first nine months.

1.Housing

To me, this is the area in which the administration has been most proactive. Before HUD's Shaun Donnovan can even begin to evaluate housing policy here, he has to at least have people on the ground with the credibility to tell him what's happening. I'm encouraged by Donnovan's decision to send in an entire team to gut and rebuild HANO after Alphonso Jackson's pathetic receivership of the agency. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever heard of such an intervention before.

2. Coastal Restoration

The Obama administration has created the Gulf Coast Interagency Working Group to deal with environmental issues and coastal restoration. In part, this move seems to be designed to force the Army Corps out of isolation and into a collaboration with local agencies in Louisiana and Mississippi.

3. Criminal Justice

The Department of Justice and FBI have opened up a series of investigations into the NOPD's conduct during and after Hurricane Katrina. I've speculated that this could result in the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division possibly pursuing a consent decree with the city of New Orleans.

4. FEMA/DHS

President Obama has cleaned out the local FEMA office, appointed a new director who everyone seems fired up about, and established an arbitration system that will resolve ongoing reimbursement pursuits in less time than the traditional appeals process that local agencies had previously been muddling through.

5. Schools, healthcare, infrastructure

The stimulus bill has allowed Louisiana to compete for lots and lots of money - to accelerate school construction, to fix roads and build new train lines, and to keep clinics open. It is unfortunate that our Governor has decided we shouldn't try for some of this money but that's not the administration's fault. It's also unfortunate that our Congressional delegation - especially since Congressman Cao was not prepared to be effective when he was first sworn in - wasn't able to do more to push important Louisiana-specific infrastructure projects in the stimulus bill.


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To me, that's an okay first nine months considering everything the country faces right now while also keeping in mind that President Obama is not the Mayor of New Orleans or the Governor of Louisiana. It's not fantastic, but it ain't bad.

The biggest problem is that our local officials are really poor advocates for the needs of the city.

The most common critiques I've seen from others and the biggest complaints that I have myself, revolve around the perception that the federal government isn't really serious about coastal restoration or levee protection, the sense the the administration doesn't care about punishing those who abused their power during Hurricane Katrina, and the idea that the administration isn't resolved to invest in infrastructure and opportunity here on the Gulf Coast.

Are our Congressional Delegation and our Governor all on the same page when it comes to proposing and advocating for the grander initiatives we need to move forward?

Is anyone from our local delegation calling for investigations into post-Katrina racism? John Conyers is, but he's from Michigan.

Is our local delegation united on an independent commission to look into the army corps and the federal levee failures? As far as I can tell, there isn't a significant lobbying effort by our Congressional delegation or our Governor for such a commission.

Are our local elected officials making a case for expanded federal funding of our infrastructure needs? Absolutely they are not. In fact, Governor Jindal seems to be consciously working against federal funding of infrastructure projects. When the stimulus was being negotiated, was the really city prepared ahead of time with a list of projects that need additional federal support? Were state agencies on the same page with the Congressional delegation about the needs of the region?

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I don't mean to absolve the President of any criticism. It does seem like the President isn't interested in a transformational platform to make Southern Louisiana sustainable or to extend opportunity to its residents. It does seem like he's only taking President Bush's programs and making them work a little bit better.

That's not enough.

Nonetheless, it is the job of our local officials to work toward a consensus vision for rebuilding this region, not the President's. Until our local leadership can articulate that vision and mobilize New Orleanians to support it, this President and future Presidents are not going to risk political capital on big ideas for Southeast Louisiana or New Orleans.

WITHOUT A DOUBT

YES TO HIGH SPEED RAIL

Good luck with Governor Waaaambulance, Congressman Cao.

His administration was working toward high speed rail before he had a child-like reaction to being made fun of for previously opposing it publicly to score a one-off political point.

From Worst To Worster

Wahmbulance.

Just to deprive President Obama of credit for a forward-thinking stimulus package that funds rail expansion, we get deprived of a no-brainer high speed rail project.

Maybe the feds should offer to name the railway the Jindal High Speed Line to smooth things over.

But that sounds like something that would be built to connect Jefferson Parish to Washington D.C. only to veer off about a fifth of the way there and crash into the ocean.

Thanks for effing over the whole state because Keith Olbermann said something true about you.

Jindal Declares GOP Problems Solved

This is some combination of hilarious and pathetic.

From his speech tonight at a fundraiser for House Republicans, according to CNN:

"Let’s agree on this tonight, the time for talking about the past is now over," Jindal told 1,200 people attending a House GOP fundraiser here in Washington. "It has been healthy for Republicans to look in the mirror. It has been healthy for us to realize and admit the mistakes of the past. We have done that quite a bit. I personally have done that quite a bit since the election last fall. It’s now been close to five months since the last election.

It seems to me that acknowledging the disconnect with the American people that precipitated two straight electoral blowouts is precisely the thing that Republicans are incapable of coming together to do.

But I guess just saying that the Party has already changed is pretty much the same as actually thinking about what those changes . . . um . . . would have needed to have been?

Save New Orleans Adolescent Hospital

WWL:

Cecile Tebo is the first to admit that vast improvements have been made to the mental health system in New Orleans in the last year.

But a recent call by the state to shut down the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital, or NOAH, and merge its services with Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Hammond is not one of them.

"The closure of NOAH is one huge dangerous step back," she said.

Tebo is with the New Orleans Police Crisis Unit. She said they receive more than 200 mental health calls a month, and she picks up about 250 adults regularly because of their severe mental illness. NOAH is often where she takes them.

"They have to have some place they can go for stabilization," Tebo said. "If not, it can become a very dangerous situation to others and to that individual and that's what scares me the most."

"The argument that closing one facility and merging it with Hammond is going to make New Orleans less safe is something I just flat disagree with," said Alan Levine, Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary.

Levine is tasked with making cuts within DHH to meet severe state budget reductions. He tackled questions and concerns during a forum with mental health advocates Wednesday night in Jefferson Parish.

"Does he realize how much it costs for us not to treat people? The number of people who would be homeless in New Orleans, as opposed to in a hospital in New Orleans," asked Sylvia Pearson, Executive Director of The Extra Mile, Southeast Louisiana, Inc.

"Looking at cuts to community-based services on top of that puts people's lives and their families in real jeopardy," she said.

Governor Jindal and Alan Levine are being absolutely reckless with the lives of people from Orleans Parish. It's bad health policy and it's bad fiscal policy.

It is unforgivable.

We can't stand for it.

ACORN and SEIU are holding a press conference outside of NOAH (210 State) at 2pm, to chide the governor and also to pressure Senator Landrieu to support the Obama budget. Two very worthy causes if you ask me.

Rescuing Bobby Jindal From Media Floodwaters

As I'm sure you've heard, read, or seen by now, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal delivered a disastrous nationally televised speech in response to President Obama's first address to Congress. In what has become a media feeding frenzy, different aspects of Governor Jindal's speech have been picked apart and for additional comedic value or because it appears as though Jindal made various misleading distortions over the course of his speech. Meanwhile, Jindal's crack communications squad has reacted poorly to the various controversies by struggling to provide basic and consistent explanations to fairly fundamental media queries.

While I believe that there are more consequential lies within the speech delivered on Tuesday, the mainstream media has been particularly nosy about the story Jindal told about his presence in Sheriff Harry Lee's office during Katrina because it appears that the Governor made up the whole thing. His office basically admitted as much but has since changed their story several times since Wednesday. What could have been spun as an inconsequential exaggeration and immediately buried with little egg on the face has instead morphed into a week-long controversy that continues to undermine the governor's basic credibility as a professional.

I became extremely frustrated yesterday by the media's fixation on the Harry Lee lie, especially since I thought that his ridiculous distortion of the state of education in New Orleans, his inexplicable condemnation of volcano monitoring funds, and his hypocritical invocation of the nonexistent funding for a train from Las Vegas to Anaheim were several times more outrageous than the fibs used to embellish a largely tangential story.

But that's how it works. And besides, I've got some major news to break. I have obtained a copy of an alternative speech that Governor Jindal wrote instead of the now infamous McBreyer address. This version was ultimately rejected by Chief of Staff Timmy Teepell and Communications Director Melissa Sellers at the 11th hour. My highly trained show falcons retrieved the speech from dumpsters outside the governor's mansion in Baton Rouge. Much of the speech - congratulating Obama while highlighting his own biography - is the same. The middle part of the speech, however, is drastically different. I've provided the relevant clip from the original transcript and the rejected alternative follows below:

Republicans are ready to work with the new President to provide those solutions. Here in my state of Louisiana, we don't care what party you belong to if you have good ideas to make life better for our people. We need more of that attitude from both Democrats and Republicans in our nation's capital. All of us want our economy to recover and our nation to prosper. So where we agree, Republicans must be the President's strongest partners. And where we disagree, Republicans have a responsibility to be candid and offer better ideas for a path forward.

Today in Washington, some are promising that government will rescue us from the economic storms raging all around us.

Those of us who lived through Hurricane Katrina, we have our doubts.

Let me tell you a story.

During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: 'Well, I'm the Sheriff and if you don't like it you can come and arrest me!' I asked him: 'Sheriff, what's got you so mad?' He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, 'Sheriff, that's ridiculous.' And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: 'Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!' Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

There is a lesson in this experience: The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and enterprising spirit of our citizens. We are grateful for the support we have received from across the nation for the ongoing recovery efforts. This spirit got Louisiana through the hurricanes - and this spirit will get our nation through the storms we face today.

To solve our current problems, Washington must lead. But the way to lead is not to raise taxes and put more money and power in hands of Washington politicians. The way to lead is by empowering you - the American people. Because we believe that Americans can do anything.

And here is the alternative that got tossed just hours before the cameras went live:

Today in Washington, some are promising that government will rescue us from the economic storms raging all around us. Because of how poorly the last Republican administration went about the business of governing, Americans are intelligently looking to the Obama administration and the federal government for a different approach.

In reality, however, Americans aren't asking for that much. They're asking for a sleek, well-defined government capable of delivering basic services in an efficient, cost-conscious way. Conservatives like me believe that the best way to stimulate the economy is to streamline bloated federal bureaucracies and immediately pass the savings on to small businesses and individual Americans.

But we conservatives also understand why the Republican Party doesn't have your trust and I might have the best understanding of all.

You see, my state, Louisiana, was a tragic casualty of the last Republican administration's failed governance. I voted for the last President because I thought that he and his Congressional partners would halt self-perpetuating federal bureaucracies, cut spending, and pass the savings onto you. Instead, in attempting to untie the constraints of big government, the knot only got bigger and tighter. Instead of small government, what we got was bad government.

My fellow conservatives and I still believe in the strength of the individual and in the ideal of small government but what we must prove is that not only do we believe in effective government but we have a plan for delivering just that.

Let me tell you a story to illustrate my point.

During Hurricane Katrina, the federal government was no where to be found. Local and state bureaucracies were incapable of handling the fallout from the levee failures and the communicative disconnect between local and federal officials contributed to property loss, unnecessary suffering, and even the deaths of patriotic American citizens.

When push came to shove, it was the individual that saved the day. I look at the story of Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her family, the subjects of an academy award nominated documentary. When the flood waters were rising in her neighborhood, she looked after her neighbors as her husband Scott delivered them to high ground on nothing more than an old punching bag that was floating by. Then, she did what so many other patriots from Louisiana have done, she returned home with her family to help rebuild the community.

When you drive through New Orleans or around the areas most badly damaged by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike, it isn't the government that has come in to rebuild those areas. The real work has been done by individual citizens.

This underscores my commitment to conservative ideals. It is the strength of the American citizen that makes this country great not the size of our government.

But the story also offers a lesson that conservatives around the country must learn as I have - that we must have an efficient federal government and it must effectively deliver on what little it promises.

I opposed the stimulus bill not because I don't believe that the federal government has a role to play in rescuing us from these choppy financial waters. Rather, I opposed the stimulus bill because I believe that the borrow and spend policy is not the most effective way to reinvigorate the marketplace. Instead, by prudently cutting the bloated bureaucracies that contributed to the ineffective response to Hurricane Katrina, we can cut taxes to put money back in the pockets of working families.

I know that it may take time for the Republican party to earn credibility in the eyes of the American public. I know this because my home state and my home district were victimized by our own party's inability to resist the temptations of power. Governors and young congressmen have learned this lesson the hard way. That is why the Republican party is proud to present a new generation of leadership that understands the difference between small government and ineffective government. We will work to keep the Democratic majority honest by standing up for true conservative principles. If we succeed in helping Barack Obama streamline bloated bureaucracies we will have the credibility to argue for the savings to be passed onto you, the individual, instead of spend once more on creating yet another bloated bureaucracy.

...

Wouldn't that have been a way better argument for conservative ideals? Wouldn't that have been a better way to avoid substantive issues? Wouldn't that have avoided days and days of relentless ridicule?

It still distorts history and glosses inconvenient truths but sentences that come from the mouths of Republicans tend to do that - I'm just trying to stay true to the template.

How sad is it that someone who rejects conservative principles can write a better argument in favor of them than Melissa Sellers or Timmy Teepell?


--UPDATE--

Just obtained this email from Timmy Teepell to Ben Smith of Politico:

BS (as in Ben Smith),

Teeps here. You misinterpreted previous emails and phone calls from me and my colleague, the Selldawg. Please disregard and instead check out this liberal blogger BS (as in ?) from WCBF which explains exactly what the governor meant on Tuesday.

X's and O's,

T squared

Good times...

"Liberal Blogger B.S."

A day of lies from the Jindal administration. Must be humiliating for them to have to deal with skeptical media. And the chess game continues.

This is stupid. I'm done talking about this.

Question

If Governor Bobby Jindal believes that New Orleans schools have been "reinvented" post-Katrina sufficiently enough that he considers federal stimulus money for education in Louisiana to be wasteful spending but Congressman Joe Cao voted against the stimulus because apparently he believed it didn't include enough for schools, then what are we supposed to believe?

How Many Times Did Jindal Lie?

Yesterday at the bottom of my post recapping Bobby Jindal's national weird-out, I described how the Governor totally distorted his record on education.

Now, TPM Muckraker's Zachary Roth has been looking into whether or not Bobby Jindal's account of meeting with Sheriff Harry Lee during Katrina is a fabrication.

Here is what Jindal said:

During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: 'Well, I'm the Sheriff and if you don't like it you can come and arrest me!' I asked him: 'Sheriff, what's got you so mad?' He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, 'Sheriff, that's ridiculous.' And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: 'Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!' Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

Did Governor Jindal fabricate this story? TPM is has collected evidence indicating that he may have.

Maybe us locals can help figure it out.

Update:

The shellfish tracks another lie from Jindal's speech, the one about what a waste it apparently is to keep an eye on active volcanoes in populated areas.

Perry on the loose!

But wait! There's more!

James Perry also posted a video in which he tells Bobby Jindal exactly what we think about his treasonous decision to reject $98 million in federal unemployment help for Louisiana residents.




Boom!

It's sad that this is a novelty for a New Orleans public figure.

It has already been picked up by super blog Jack and Jill politics.

Jindal distorts own record in order to offer nothing to nation

After spending the day celebrating Mardi Gras, I took a peek at Obama's address to Congress and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's response for the GOP.

Obama's speech was incredible, especially toward the end. Weaving the 'quitters' thing in from the story about the girl from South Carolina? Just beautiful.



Jindal's speech?

Ouch. He's getting put through the paces in the media for his creepy body language and pipsqueak delivery - and rightly so. He was horrendous. Absolutely awful.

To a certain extent you have to put it in context. I mean, what's the GOP response supposed to be after a 52 minute operatic masterpiece by a popular, pro-active commander-in-chief? No Republican in the nation would have been capable of saying anything remotely inspiring in that situation. Not one. That is a function several things - the GOP personality vacuum, the deserved unpopularity of the GOP brand for their 95% culpability in fostering our current dire circumstances, and the overall GOP strategic vision of opposing every good idea of the new President while offering no alternatives - but certainly you'd expect that the great last hope of the conservative fundamentalists would be able to offer something to the American people. He didn't because he couldn't - he has nothing to offer. Nor does the rest of his party. And it must begin crystallizing for conservatives of all stripes that they're going to have to radically alter their political priorities and target coalitions if they're ever to be seen as fit for national power ever again.

Here is a video of Governor Jindal's speech:




Conservative pundit David Brooks gets this:




But let's truly evaluate the lack of substance by looking at the transcript of the speech itself. It wasn't just the meek voice with which Jindal delivered them, it was the words themselves - and what they mean in juxtaposition to Obama's ambitious plans to make America a greater nation.

Jindal's speech lasts just over 2000 words. He doesn't discuss a single substantive policy until he's about 800 words in. He spends the beginning part of the speech introducing his own personal story as the son of immigrants from India. He makes some feint acknowledgment of the need for bipartisanship. And he inexplicably highlights a generic disposition against "government" by telling the story of the time that Republican President George W. Bush's pathetic administration failed to respond to Hurricane Katrina.

All anecdotes and platitudes that rang hollow.

Then he finally gets into a real-world issue by railing against the recently passed stimulus bill - the one that promises to invest in communities, create jobs, and lower taxes in the midst of an economic crisis. Calling the President's do-something approach "irresponsible," Jindal highlights his "different approach" in Louisiana and tosses out his ideas for repairing our economy.

Since I became governor, we cut more than 250 earmarks from our state budget. And to create jobs for our citizens, we cut taxes six times - including the largest income tax cut in the history of our state. We passed those tax cuts with bipartisan majorities. Republicans and Democrats put aside their differences, and worked together to make sure our people could keep more of what they earn. If it can be done in Baton Rouge, surely it can be done in Washington, DC.

To strengthen our economy, we need urgent action to keep energy prices down. All of us remember what it felt like to pay $4 at the pump - and unless we act now, those prices will return. To stop that from happening, we need to increase conservation ... increase energy efficiency ... increase the use of alternative and renewable fuels ... increase our use of nuclear power - and increase drilling for oil and gas here at home. We believe that Americans can do anything - and if we unleash the innovative spirit of our citizens, we can achieve energy independence.

To strengthen our economy, we also need to address the crisis in health care. Republicans believe in a simple principle: No American should have to worry about losing their health coverage - period. We stand for universal access to affordable health care coverage. We oppose universal government-run health care. Health care decisions should be made by doctors and patients - not by government bureaucrats. We believe Americans can do anything - and if we put aside partisan politics and work together, we can make our system of private medicine affordable and accessible for every one of our citizens.

To strengthen our economy, we also need to make sure every child in America gets the best possible education. After Katrina, we reinvented the New Orleans school system - opening dozens of new charter schools, and creating a new scholarship program that is giving parents the chance to send their children to private or parochial schools of their choice. We believe that, with the proper education, the children of America can do anything. And it should not take a devastating storm to bring this kind of innovation to education in our country.

To strengthen our economy, we must promote confidence in America by ensuring ours is the most ethical and transparent system in the world. In my home state, there used to be saying: At any given time, half of Louisiana is under water - and the other half is under indictment. No one says that anymore. Last year, we passed some of the strongest ethics laws in the nation - and today, Louisiana has turned her back on the corruption of the past. We need to bring transparency to Washington, DC - so we can rid our Capitol of corruption ... and ensure we never see the passage of another trillion dollar spending bill that Congress has not even read and the American people haven't even seen.

First, he highlights some cursory reductions in earmark spending and his deficit-fanning tax cuts. That's fine.

Then he prioritizes an interesting plan to cut energy costs. Whereas Obama wants to invest in weatherization, renewable and alternative energy, and conservation, Bobby Jindal also indicates a willingness to invest in energy independence. The difference is that Barack Obama just passed a stimulus bill - the one that Jindal vehemently opposes - that would specifically invest in renewable energy research and home weatherization programs. Jindal cites the high gas prices that no longer exist due to this crippling recession as evidence that we need to provide more giveaways to oil and gas companies for more offshore drilling.

Next, Jindal addresses healthcare accessibility. This was a big part of Obama's speech. The President has promised that healthcare reform will be a priority for this year, because access to healthcare is a human right and because the rising cost of care is kneecapping small businesses. Jindal is light on the details himself, saying only that he opposes a single-payer state system. While I believe in single-payer myself, it is seemingly certain that the Obama plan for universal healthcare will be a public-private partnership. So not much substance from the GOP here.

Then he highlights his record on education policy - I'll get to this later.

Jindal closes the policy portion of the speech by calling for ethics and transparency in Washington, which is kind of silly given the strident standards that President Obama imposed immediately upon taking office and absolutely dumbfounding given the unabashed corruption epidemic within Bush's Republican administration and the GOP Congress.

The rest of the speech is a half-assed mea culpa for the GOP in which he pledges that his party will regain the trust of the nation.

How about some actual policies and ideas?

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Here is what Jindal said about education:

To strengthen our economy, we also need to make sure every child in America gets the best possible education. After Katrina, we reinvented the New Orleans school system - opening dozens of new charter schools, and creating a new scholarship program that is giving parents the chance to send their children to private or parochial schools of their choice. We believe that, with the proper education, the children of America can do anything. And it should not take a devastating storm to bring this kind of innovation to education in our country.

This is, simply put, a total distortion of not just of what is going on in New Orleans schools but also his own role in implementing the policies he highlights. He does this all in once sentence somehow.

"We reinvented the New Orleans school system..."

By this I believe he's referring to the effective dissolution of the Orleans Parish School Board and the creation of the state-run Recovery School District to take temporary receivership of public school management in New Orleans after Katrina. For one, the decision was made and implemented before Jindal was governor. In fact, it was former governor Kathleen Blanco who created the RSD, hired Paul Pastorek to head the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and brought in Paul Vallas to manage the RSD itself. For two, nobody aside from the cheerleaders from within the system's administration is anywhere close to declaring any kind of victory in what is an ongoing and contentious experiment.

"...opening up dozens of new charter schools..."

It is true that the RSD has outsourced the management of many schools to charter organizations (also under Governor Blanco, not Jindal). But the sentence might be misinterpreted in indicate that the school system in New Orleans is back online. In fact, the long-term RSD plan is to shutter schools.

The reality is that school facilities in New Orleans are in horrible disrepair. While the RSD's facilities master plan will bring some new schools and renovations online within the next few years, GOP opposition to the stimulus actually killed school building money that would have accelerated school facilities construction in New Orleans in a real and measurable way.

The students at George Washington Carver High School in the 9th Ward still attend class in temporary FEMA-issued portable units behind chain-link fences in bright orange uniforms.

Meanwhile, this is the state of the Morris FX Jeff school in Mid City:



This picture is from over a year ago when neighbors organized to get this school repaired by the RSD, but I can assure you that the building looked the same or worse when I walked past it on Saturday on my way to the Endymion parade. This is precisely the type of building that could have been renovated had Jindal and other GOP "leaders" not been so petulant in reaction to a stimulus bill that promised to actually help people and communities around the country. And this wild post-disaster public education experiment is Bobby Jindal's crowning achievement in education policy?

"...new scholarship program..."

This part is true. Some local Democratic legislators sold out and capitulated on a school voucher program that diverts public resources away from needy public schools. But he can this one if he wants.

The bottom line is that I don't think Bobby Jindal wants to spend too much time touting his record on education. I haven't even mentioned his enthusiastic endorsement of teaching creationism in science classes.

--

I've noticed how the GOP stars have been aligning for Bobby Jindal's ascendancy to a roll as a national leader of the Party. But all that was predicated on their belief that he was capable of showing Americans that Republicans had some sort of practical vision, some policy ideas that could maybe resonate down the road when political conditions improve. Looks like they could be heading back to the drawing board on that one.

Back of the line Bobby!

Happy Mardi Gras indeed. What a day!

In other news, Governor Bobby Jindal BOMBED.

And he lied, more on that soon.

Jindal Tip-Toes Around Hospital Plans

It's been a pretty interesting 48 hours or so in the ongoing debate over whether to build a new LSU/VA super complex or to rehabilitate Charity. Let's review, shall we?

We shall.

On Wednesday, and Adrastros has a good political take on this, righty pundit John Maginnis wrote a column taking Governor Bobby Jindal to task for his poor leadership, citing a pattern of political cowardice. He sneaks in the LSU/VA controversy as exhibit C toward the bottom of the article:

Jindal also supports LSU's plan for a new teaching hospital in New Orleans, but you wouldn't know it from his silence while preservationists accuse state health-care officials of plotting to destroy a neighborhood alleged to be historic.

Maybe I'm nitpicking, but the neighborhood is not "alleged to be historic." It's a nationally registered historic district as part of the Mid City Historic District. This isn't something that preservationists are just making up or alleging to suit the needs to their argument; the Mid City Historic District was designated way back in 1993. The hospital proposal threatens 145 historic buildings. It's a fact. But either way, it rhetorically reduces the argument against the LSU/VA complex to the aesthetic complaints of those nerdy historians when, in actuality, the opponents of the LSU plan center their arguments on things like fiscal responsibility, transparency, and the city's public health emergency.

Coincidentally or not, Jindal turned around and within 24 hours, was on the tv 'reaffirming his support' for the LSU/VA.

But where some saw certainty, there's actually some surprising equivocation:

He said that renovating Charity is out of the picture.

“My commitment hasn’t changed. Our support hasn’t changed,” Jindal said, adding the only way they'd renovate is “if LSU were all of a sudden to come back and say, ‘you know what, we’ve talked to engineers, we’ve talked to architects, we think we can build a great, modern hospital within the old footprint.’”

“My point is this: I continue to support the fact that we need a modern hospital that is connected to the VA, that’s a home for not only patient care – which is absolutely critical – but graduate medical education and cutting-edge research,” Jindal said.

How very interesting. Jindal reaffirms his support for a robust biomedical district anchored by a modern teaching hospital and pledges his support for the LSU plan. But he does not explicitly rule out the rebuilding of a hospital in Charity. He just says that the decision is up to LSU.

Now why would he say something like that? Why would he even create that daylight?

In fact, world-renown architects and engineers have already evaluated the Charity footprint. RMJM Hillier, the world's 6th largest architecture and design firm, found that the old limestone shell of Charity remains not just structurally sound, but ideal for a "great, modern hospital."

In fact, an objective side-by-side comparison of the LSU proposal and the RMJM Hillier proposal yields a clear conclusion.

New Orleans can have a state-of-the-art biomedical development corridor faster, cheaper, and better based on the Hillier model. By building a state of the art facility in the Charity shell, New Orleans can attract economic development, restore public health infrastructure, and make the Central Business District more robust, all while avoiding the demolition of a historic residential neighborhood.

-

LSU has argued that their teaching hospital needs to be connected to the VA. Why? Why do the hospitals need to be connected? Are they sharing facilities?

Not really. In fact, there is no compelling reason why these hospitals need to be directly adjacent instead of two blocks away.

What is it about the Charity building that makes it incongruous with a modern facility?

Nothing. In fact, the RMJM Hillier plan does not plan to preserve Charity's interior or anything about the outdated ward layout. They propose preserving the solid limestone exterior while building an entirely brand-new facility inside.

LSU has never taken the time to properly evaluate the structure of Charity. One of their major claims by LSU is that Charity is unsound structurally because of rusted connectors in the limestone shell of the building.

In fact, RMJM Hillier took a thermal image of the building and found that the building wasn't even constructed with connectors.

And so on and so forth.

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The LSU/VA project will not go forward as currently proposed.

Residents, public health advocates, smart growth planners, preservationists, and civil rights activists will fight this every single step of the way.

LSU does not have the money, LSU does not have the argument, and LSU does not have the right.

And our city doesn't have the time. We can't afford for them to cling to their disproved model when everybody else is willing to compromise with this alternative proposal. We could start building next year instead of next century.

If LSU would just take an honest look at RMJM Hillier's plan or even bother to show up at one of the countless public forums that have been held on the matter to defend their plan, they might have some credibility. But they haven't and they don't.

We can have a state-of-the-art hospital district sometime before the end of next decade if LSU would just reevaluate Charity and admit that rebuilding on that site is the smarter, better, cheaper, and faster way to bring back medical care to New Orleans.

And to me, it looks like Bobby Jindal is willing to support that compromise as soon as LSU gets its own head out of the sand.

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So you tell me who's the obstructionist here?

Is it the diverse partnerships that have already rallied around a compromise proposal?

Or is it really just LSU that can't get its sh*t together?

Fitting Room

National mainstream tries 2012 storyline on for size. Stupidly predictable.

Infratructure and You: City v. State

Following up from earlier...

Bobby Jindal was early proponent of a possible infrastructure stimulus package. Here's what he had in mind in December:

At a news conference before leaving for the Philadelphia meeting, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said he would like to see more federal investment in coastal restoration projects, barrier island recovery efforts and the project to close the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet. He also listed hurricane protection and levee projects in Jean Lafitte and the restoration of a Charity Hospital medical complex in New Orleans as priorities.

"There are literally billions of dollars that can be pushed through the pipeline that have already been allocated by Congress that have yet to come to our communities, that have yet to come to our state, " Jindal said, before leaving for the summit with Obama.

"I think it's unprecedented for a newly elected president to sit down with Democratic and Republican governors, " Jindal said. "We're going to have the opportunity to share with him what's going on in our states and make some recommendations to his administration so they can hit the ground running."

The Times-Picayune made it seem as if Jindal would be making hurricane protection and coastal restoration the centerpiece of Louisiana's ask. We also know that the funding shortfall for the LSU/VA hospital development is a big priority.

Jindal has remained in control of the state's stimulus strategy. He held a press conference announcing the state's priorities last weekend. The article only briefly summarizes what might be in Louisiana's request but there are some interesting things to infer. For one, many of the things that Jindal has put on the table are not actual infrastructure projects. In no order, some examples of that from the article include:

- aid to farmers who experiences losses from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike

- "removal of red tape for local governments negotiating with [FEMA]"

- "changes to the Medicaid financing formula for states affected by disasters"

For flood protection, the article alludes to the Governor's desire to address the issue but the only concrete measure that gets fleshed out is the long-requested rule change that would mandate the Army Corps to use materials collected from dredging for existing coastal restoration projects.

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So what is actually concrete?

Highways. We can build highways.

"I'll make the case that projects like I-49 north should be a priority for his administration.

I will personally be advocating to President-elect Obama that this project be included in the stimulus package that the federal government is hoping to get done by Jan. 20 at the latest next year."

In fact, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has been hard at work in anticipation of a federal infrastructure bill since summer.

DOTD started compiling a list in August - three months before the presidential election - because "I assumed that whoever was elected president was going to have to do something like this," Ankner said. "But I didn't think it was going to be this big."

Because of DOTD's planning, it was one of the first states to submit a proposal and one of only three states that included a separate plan for improving ports and airports, too.

The list of projects comes out to a price tag of $1.314 billion. But Secretary Ankner is setting lower expectations:

“I think $400 million is a good number for us to think about,” Ankner said.

We know that finishing the I-49 project around Shreveport and renovating I-12 and I-10 around Baton Rouge are major state priorities. In the metro area, we know that there are projects already underway on I-10 in Jefferson Parish that have made it on the list. What's going to be left over for New Orleans?

If you browse the actual DODT list, next to nothing. Though measures improving highways in Jefferson Parish will have a direct impact on Orleans Parish, the absence of money for New Orleans is striking. There's $7 million proposed for improving an access road at Louis Armstrong International and $10 million proposed for improving the Crescent City Connection ferry terminals. The DOTD also proposes spending $30 million to help the RTA do "preventative maintenance."

Part of the issue, I suppose, is that only a small percentage of the projects in the city are "shovel-ready." The Obama administration apparently favors projects where construction can begin immediately and be completed within the next 2-3 years. This, they say, will maximize the extent to which federal spending stimulates economic growth over the short term.

I've argued that those strings shouldn't be attached when it comes to allocating resources to New Orleans because of the last administration's broken promises and our city's sobering list of imminent needs. Given the political opportunity, it makes sense to approach the infrastructure stimulus as an opportunity to secure money that might not be available at any other time. Whatever limits the Congress or the President want to attach to how that money is allocated by local officials are more than fine with me. The important thing is getting the money through Congress, especially since it isn't at all clear when or if New Orleans might get its own turn at the top of the docket or if there will be any political will to allocate resources when or if that time comes.

In fact, I have recently learned that New Orleans, the Regional Planning Commission, and the RTA are indeed drafting their own list of smart-growth transportation infrastructure projects totalling a very large number. It will be very interesting to see how the Louisiana Congressional delegation reconciles competing lists.

Other state agencies will be submitting their own recommendations for stimulus dollars. We should be careful to monitor those also.

I don't like this process at all. There is very little information in the public domain and it doesn't seem like the local professional media is particularly curious.

Am I overstating the local implications of the stimulus? Why isn't all of this a much bigger deal in the papers?

Spoils

Jindal rewards a Bollinger with an appointment to the Board of Regents.

Charlotte Bollinger had been working for the family shipyard business. What is Charlotte's interest in higher education?

Jordan Blum of the Advocate puts it like this:

She is the sister of Bollinger Shipyards CEO and Chairman Donald “Boysie” Bollinger, who is a strong advocate of expanding technical college training.

Sounds about right.

Jindal begins to court Texas elite

You don't get to be the Republican nominee for President until you kiss the ring of the Texas GOP elite. If they're not bankrolling your campaign, they're bankrolling one of your rivals. There's some evidence that the wealthiest GOPers in Texas were not and are not particularly enthused about Sarah Palin. They could be looking to stunt her 2012 aspirations early. A good way to do that would be to kiss on the wonderboy from Louisiana and help him build up a massive "reelection" bank account.

The Governor is heading to Houston and San Antonio.

One of the things that's going on here is that the GOP masses love Sarah Palin but the GOP money does not, or at least a significant proportion of GOP elders recognize her various liabilities. During the primary, I thought that the early Huckaboom in Iowa reflected an insurgent streak amongst younger GOP activists. At the time, I thought that it would be powerful enough to drive candidate Huckabee a little bit further that it ultimately did, but the phenomenon is still important to remember. Palin will have better name recognition, more money, and more volunteers than Huckabee did when he started out. I do believe that his success had a lot to do with his policy menu and ability to articulate a vision, things Palin does not have, but the point stands.

The guards and inmates are battling it out for control of the asylum. Political operatives are doing their damnest to dissipate Palin's popularity without burying her or alienating her loyal supporters. Bobby Jindal is uniquely positioned because the establishment will support him and because he passes the evangelical litmus tests needed to be palatable to the a critical mass of the disaffected grassroots.

Media, Public Barred From Public Meeting at Charity

I'll say more later. Until then, watch WWL's report. In spite of LSU's attempt to restrict the proliferation of opposition opinion, it doesn't seem like legislators are particularly convinced that Charity is irreparable.

LSU stooge Charles Zewe, a WWL anchor in the '70s and a CNN Headline News anchor in the '90s, claims that Rep. Fannin, chairman of the appropriations committee, made the decision to bar the media and the public.

He derisively answers a WWL question:

"Representative Fannin and his committee made the decision that it was limited to the committee members only, Dennis."

But Rep. Jim Fannin says LSU told him it was unsafe for anyone to enter Charity other than legislators. Fannin goes on to say that as a former contractor, he couldn't see any structural problems with Charity.

So someone is lying.

I think it was Zewe.

WWL caught up with Bobby Jindal later in print form (emphasis mine):

After returning from Tuesday's meeting in Philadelphia with President-elect Barack Obama, Gov. Bobby Jindal told reporters he had not heard about the problems but would encourage LSU to let the media and others into the facility. Jindal said he believes having others see the building's condition would bolster the state's arguments that Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage to the facility.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Jindal Running for President Forever

From WaPo:

She walked back to Jindal, because something had just occurred to her. "So the campaign has begun, huh?" she affably said to him. "2012 has begun."

He smiled. "Oh, no, no, not yet," he replied. No, not yet.

Can't wait!

He's Republicans' "own version of Obama."

Jindal v. Palin I

Jindal's overarching ambition is to get on the GOP ticket one day.

Palin's overarching ambition is to get out of Alaska one day.

Jindal will one day run for President.

Palin will one day have a talk show.