La. Gov. Jindal Makes It Official: I'm Running for President

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced on Wednesday he was running for the U.S. presidency in 2016, giving himself a mountain to climb from the bottom of a full pack of Republican candidates.

"My name is Bobby Jindal and I am running for President of the United States of America," Jindal, who became the first person of Indian-American heritage to run for U.S. president, said on his website.

Jindal, 44, is scheduled to appear later on Wednesday in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner to formally announce his decision. His website featured videos of Jindal and his wife, Supriya, telling their three children that he was going to be a candidate and promising his daughter they would get a puppy if they moved to the White House.

Once seen as a rising Republican star, Jindal has struggled with a fiscal crisis and a slump in popularity in his home state and usually ranks near the bottom in polls of Republicans seeking the nomination for the November 2016 presidential election.

Jindal, a two-term governor who also represented Louisiana in the U.S. House of Representatives, joins 12 other Republicans in the race, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Others, including Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, are expected to join soon.

Jindal is popular with social conservatives and evangelical Christians, but his home state appeal faded as he tried to close a $1.6 billion shortfall in the state's budget, caused in part by falling oil prices, without breaking a promise not to raise taxes.

The MarblePort/Hayride poll in Louisiana released last week was especially embarrassing for Jindal, showing more Louisianans back Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton for president than Jindal by 44.5 percent to 42 percent.

Republicans in the state complain Jindal spent too much time trying to court national attention while his state floundered.

Jindal is in last place in a Reuters/Ipsos online poll of 15 Republicans, drawing less than 1 percent. It could be difficult for him to be among the top 10 Republican candidates in national polling who will join the party's first debate in Ohio in August.

Jindal, a Christian who converted from Hinduism as a teenager, jumped into a fight in May over religion and gay rights.

Via: Newsmax

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The University of California’s Insane Speech Police

Administrators of the UC system think referring to America as a ‘melting pot’ is somehow offensive—and want teachers to stop using that and many other innocuous phrases.

Fifty years after the birth of the free speech movement at the University of California, Berkeley, officials across the UC system are encouraging faculty and students to purge mundane, potentially offensive words and phrases from their vocabularies.

Administrators want members of campus to avoid the use of racist and sexist statements, though their notions about what kinds of statements qualify are completely bonkers. “America is a melting pot,” “Why are you so quiet?” and “I believe the most qualified person should get the job,” are all phrases that should raise red flags, according to the UC speech police.

Requests for faculty to quit perpetrating these teensiest of microaggressions are thankfully just that—requests—although the fact that they come straight from the desk of UC President Janet Napolitano lends them some muscle. On January 5, Napolitano dispatched letters to UC deans and department chairs inviting them to attend seminars “to foster informed conversation about the best way to build and nurture a productive academic climate.” That’s bureaucrat-speak for learn to keep your mouths shut.

Seminars were held on nine of the 10 UC campuses throughout the school year. A professor who opted not to attend recently shared some details with The College Fix, and educational materials from the seminar are available online. Of particular interest is this handout, “Recognizing Microaggressions and the Messages They Send,” which is adapted from a book by Columbia University Psychology Professor Derald Wing Sue. It lists dozens of examples of mundane statements and then explains why each could be racist.

Saying, “There is only one race, the human race,” is offensive because it denies “the significance of a person of color’s racial/ethnic experience and history.” 

“America is the land of opportunity,” implies that “People of color are lazy and/or incompetent and need to work harder.”

Asking an Asian, Latino, or Native American “why are you so quiet?” is tantamount to giving the order “assimilate to dominant culture.”

And stating the opinion, “Affirmative action is racist,” is a microaggression by default.

OiYan Poon, an assistant professor of higher education at Loyola University in Chicago, explained the rationale for that last example in an interview with Fox News.

“The statement that ‘affirmative action is racist’ completely ignores the history and purpose of affirmative action, which is to address inequalities resulting from the many ways our government and society have prevented people of color from accessing economic, educational and political opportunities and rights,” he said.

Via: The Daily Beast

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[VIDEO] Giuliani: Obama Just Invited ISIS to Make Money Off Kidnapping Americans with Shift in Hostage Policy - 'ISIS Says We Just Made $5-6 Million'

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: America`s hostage policy is about to change. Tomorrow, the White House is reportedly set to announced that it will no longer stop American families from paying ransoms to hostage takers.

That is something that America`s mayor, Rudy Giuliani, just told me he -- we shouldn`t be broadcasting to anyone, let alone the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK: I handled kidnappings when I was assistant U.S. attorney, one very famous one.

So, I know what you go through with the family. And, of course, if it were my son or my daughter, I would want to pay the ransom. However, I have to point something out. We don`t have many kidnappings in the U.S. since the Lindbergh case, because we don`t pay ransom and because we do everything we can to catch the kidnapper.

And the death penalty used to exist for a long time for kidnapping. It still could if the Supreme Court would rule the right way. Mexico pays. That`s the rule in Mexico. You get paid for a kidnapping. They have thousands and thousands of kidnappings.

CAVUTO: Is that a government policy?

(CROSSTALK)

GIULIANI: That`s a government policy, hands off. Business -- you know that. Businesspeople get taken and they have got to pay $100,000, $200,000, $300,000.

Via: Fox News

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California Democrat Demands San Diego Change Name Of Robert E. Lee Elementary School In Response To Charleston Shooting…

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – School across the country are reacting to a recent racially motivated church shooting in South Carolina by distancing themselves from the Old South.

Police believe 21-year-old Dylann Roof attended a bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston June 17 before opening fire on a dozen people, killing a total of nine black men and women, and injuring one other, The Washington Post reports.

“Federal law enforcement officials said Roof, who is white, declared his hatred for black people before opening fire, and the U.S. Justice Department has said it is investigating the attack as a hate crime,” according to the Post.

Leading up to the attack, Roof posted pictures to social media of himself burning the American flag and holding a confederate flag – in one image also posing with a handgun, CNN reports.

n the wake of the deadliest racially motivated shooting in U.S. history, schools across the country are now attempting to do away with their connection to the confederacy, most recently in San Diego.

Tuesday, California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez called on officials in the San Diego Unified School District to change the name of Robert E. Lee Elementary in response to the attack, Fox 5 reports.

“The flag in particular, and anyone associated with this army, in general, have been associated with intolerance, racism and hate, none of which have a place in our schools,” Gonzalez wrote in a letter to SDUSD Superintendent City Marten.

“It is also important to note that the area in which the elementary school is located is truly representative of South San Diego – a vibrant, multi-ethnic community with a strong African-American presence that deserves a school named after someone we can all admire.

“Robert E. Lee is not that person.”

District officials did not respond to Fox 5’s request for comment, but instead issued a bland statement.

“We are sensitive to the concerns voiced by some members of the community that it may not be appropriate to have a school named after Robert E. Lee. We see this as a wonderful opportunity to have a larger community dialogue with students, staff and families about the school name and look at the history and research surrounding Lee in order to make a collectively informed decision about changing the name or retaining it,” the statement read.

Via: EAG News

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Alabama Governor Quietly Orders Removal of Confederate Flag from Capitol

Less than 24 hours after a flag company in Huntsville, Alabama said it would keep selling the much-debated Confederate flag, Gov. Robert Bentley ordered it be removed from the state Capitol grounds.

According to AL.com, two workers exited the Capitol building at 8:20 a.m. on Wednesday morning and removed the flag from the nearby Confederate memorial.

Not too long after that, Bentley himself departed the grounds for another meeting. When asked whether or not he’d ordered the flag to be taken down, the governor said yes. He then explained his reasoning:

Partially this is about [the church shootings in Charleston]. This is the right thing to do. We are facing some major issues in this state regarding the budget and other matters that we need to deal with. This had the potential to become a major distraction as we go forward. I have taxes to raise, we have work to do. And it was my decision that the flag needed to come down.

Bentley quickly noted that he and his staff had checked the law to determine whether or not any legal impediments barred him from simply ordering that the flag be taken down. None did, so he gave the order — not just for the lone Confederate flag at the memorial, but as reporters later witnessed, for the rest of the flags on display.

Wait, so the governor of a southern state just up and removed the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds? Just like that? And to make matters worse, he’s currently in the process of raising taxes? He’s affiliated with the GOP, but methinks the taxes may be his undoing.

Via: Mediaite.com

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Warner Bros. Halts Production Of ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ General Lee Car Toys

Now, the memorable 1969 red-orange Dodge Charger known as the “General Lee” from the CBS program “The Dukes of Hazzard” is getting the boot. The show, which ran from 1979 to 1985, revolved around two cousins, Bo and Luke Duke of Hazzard County, Georgia and their car.

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Warner Brothers announced Tuesday it would stop producing merchandise associated with the Confederate flag-adorned car from the show known for chase scenes and incredible jumps as the horn played the first few notes of “Dixie.”

What do you think?

During the show’s run, the car was the program’s main attraction for many viewers and even made a return in 2005, when “The Dukes of Hazzard” made it on to the big screen with actor Johnny Knoxville.

Fans of the car itself are also facing backlash. A New York Police Department cop who drives a replica of the show’s famous vehicle to work from time to time was told by supervisors to not park it at the Washington Heights precinct any longer, the local CBS affiliate reported.

What do you think?

“I would feel uncomfortable driving that,” one resident told CBS. “If I was a cop, I would feel very uncomfortable.”

What do you think?

“It doesn’t bother me either way, it really doesn’t,” a woman said.

What do you think?

NASCAR banned the use of the General Lee at events three years ago citing concerns over the car’s Confederate flag painted roof.

What do you think?

“Dukes of Hazzard” TV star and former Georgia Democratic Rep. Ben Jones, who played “Cooter” on the show told Fox News at the time, “It’s political correctness run amuck and I’m outraged.” He added, “It’s an insult to the heartland of America. (NASCAR) did this to please some board member who had some pressure put on him by some political group somewhere.”

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Via: Daily Caller

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Keep the Confederate Flag Flying

See also: Take down the Confederate flag

“Take it down! That symbol must go!” We hear these cries in the wake of the Charleston church shooting in reference to the Confederate flag, which still flies above the South Carolina Capitol. As you know, one criminal who committed a heinous act had sometimes sported the symbol, so, the thinking… er, feeling… goes, it should be sent to cultural Siberia. But the flag should remain --  especially right now.

This is precisely the opposite of the fashionable view, of course. It holds that especially right now, in this time of pain, sorrow and efforts at reconciliation (by some), it’s an ideal time to dispense with the flag. I say otherwise, but not mainly because the flag is viewed by millions as a symbol of Southern heritage, of state’s rights or of defiance against an increasingly despotic federal government. The real reason is simple. Is removing the flag really a good idea?

If so, it’ll also be a good idea a year from now.

What currently exists is an emotionally charged environment, and, as a rule, that’s the worst possible time to make decisions. A fit of emotion caused the ancient Athenians to condemn philosopher Socrates and force him to drink the hemlock; they regretted the decision almost immediately afterwards and erected a statue in his honor. But that’s the way of the mob — it’s an emotional entity whose feelings change with the wind.

And make no mistake about it, the current drumbeat to hang the flag is the mob’s handiwork. Yes, as in ancient Athens, it’s a glorified mob, lathered in the lipstick of the pig of democracy (we’re a constitutional republic for a reason). And this is why we see the mob mentality, with even Southern Republicans chiming in with hard-core leftists in calling for the Confederate flag’s removal. This includes Lindsey Graham and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley (sorry, but I’m always suspicious of politicians with cutesy first names; I’m waiting for the first president named “Buffy”). In this, these “conservatives” side with Barack Obama, who said that the flag “belongs in a museum.” This is hardly convincing from a man who also apparently believes the American Constitution belongs in a museum.

Via: American Thinker

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[VIDEO] Taxpayers slapped with $866,615 jet fuel bill for Obama's Earth Day speech

President Obama's decision to take his Earth Day speech attacking climate change "deniers" to Florida, home of two GOP presidential candidates, cost taxpayers $866,615.40 just for the flight of Air Force One.

Taxpayer watchdog Judicial Watch revealed Wednesday that the Air Force provided documents showing the flight expenses of flying the jumbo jet 4.2 hours to Miami. He was then helicoptered 20 minutes to the Florida Everglades for his speech.

RELATED: $100,000 a day for Michelle O's Italy, England trip

Other costs, such as security, communications and staff were not provided, but would put the speech price at way over $1 million.

During his address, the president did not directly attack former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush or current Sen. Marco Rubio, two presidential candidates, but he did slap those who question climate change and cited earlier efforts by Republican Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, and George H.W. Bush to improve the environment.

RELATED: White House balks at cost, mother's agenda for Michelle's Italy, London trip

"Climate change can no longer be denied," Obama said a tour of the Everglades. "It can't be edited out. It can't be omitted from the conversation. And action can no longer be delayed."

According to the New York Times, aides hoped the setting would put pressure on Bush and Rubio. The paper's reporters wrote, "White House officials believe that using the muggy backdrop of the Everglades to demand action will help put pressure on Mr. Bush, who is likely to run for president, and Mr. Rubio, who has declared his candidacy, to address the issue."

Via: Washington Examiner

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New Pentagon manual declares journalists can be enemy combatants

The Pentagon’s new thick book of instructions for waging war the legal way says that terrorists also can be journalists.

The description appears in a 1,176-page, richly footnoted “Department of Defense Law of War Manual” that tells commanders the right and wrong way to kill the enemy. It says it’s OK to shoot, explode, bomb, stab or cut the enemy. Surprise attacks and killing retreating troops also are permitted. But a U.S. warrior may not use poison or asphyxiating gases.

Going back decades, this is the Pentagon’s first comprehensive, all-in-one legal guide for the four military branches, who over the years had issued their own law of war pamphlets for air, sea and ground warfare.

The manual pushes aside the George W. Bush-era label of “unlawful enemy combatant” for al Qaeda and the like. The new term of choice: “unprivileged belligerent.”

An eye-catching section deals with a definition of journalists and how they are expected to stay out of the fight.

The manual defines them this way: “In general, journalists are civilians. However, journalists may be members of the armed forces, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces, or unprivileged belligerents.”

Lumping terrorist writers with bona fide scribes prompted one officer to call the paragraph “odd.” A civilian lawyer who opines on war crime cases called the wording “an odd and provocative thing for them to write.”

Michael Rubin, a Middle East expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said the manual reflects today’s muddled world of journalism.

“It’s a realization that not everyone abides by the same standards we do,” said Mr. Rubin. “Just as Hamas uses United Nations schools as weapons depots and Iran uses charity workers for surveillance, many terrorist groups use journalists as cover.”

Mr. Rubin recalled that two al Qaeda terrorists posed as journalists to assassinate anti-Taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. Chechen Islamists went on missions with camera crews.

“Journalists are the new consultant. Anyone can claim to be one,” he said. “No American serviceman should ever be killed because a politician told them they had to take a foreign journalist at his or her word.”

Army Lt. Col. Joseph R. Sowers, a Pentagon spokesman, explained the reasoning behind the inclusion of “unprivileged belligerents” as journalists.

“We do not think that there is any legal significance to the manual listing unprivileged belligerents as sometimes being journalists because the manual does not, itself, create new law,” Col. Sowers said.

“That last sentence simply reflects that, in certain cases, persons who act as journalists may be members of the armed forces, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces or unprivileged belligerents rather than civilians. The fact that a person is a journalist does not prevent that person from becoming an unprivileged belligerent.”

Via: Washington Times

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Senators Unveil 6-Year Transportation Bill

Inhofe chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee. (Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee have unveiled a new six-year surface transportation reauthorization costing more than a quarter-trillion dollars, but it’s still unclear how the Senate would pay for it.

The bill would place a new priority on funding streams for off-system bridges as well as a new grant program for projects of strategic and national significance. According to summary materials obtained by CQ Roll Call, it would provide for increased focus on backlogs related to the Interstate Highway System and the National Highway System.

The measure also would set up a formula-based program for funding for freight corridors, in an effort to fund projects that improve the movement of goods.

“This bipartisan bill … contains the hallmark accomplishment of a new freight program to prioritize federal spending on the facilities that will most directly benefit our economy, in addition to prioritizing federal dollars towards bridge safety and the interstate system,” said Chairman James M. Inhofe, R-Okla.

Overall, the measure, which this year has been dubbed the DRIVE Act, would provide for a 3-percent annual growth average over the years from the funding levels in the MAP-21 bill. That equates to roughly $260-270 billion over the six years.

But as is customary, those are not total figures because the bill does not address funding issues within the jurisdiction of the Finance Committee or other provisions belonging to the Commerce and Banking panels. None of those panels have released legislation, and getting the funding has been the sticking point; it’s always easier to dole out the money than decide who you are going to squeeze to get it.

That was a point highlighted in the statement released of a news conference to unveil the bill by the EPW panel’s ranking Democrat, Barbara Boxer of California.

“The clock is ticking, and action in the EPW is a major first step — the other committees also need to act,” Boxer said.

The EPW portion of the bill is scheduled to be marked up Wednesday.

Via: Roll Call

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[VIDEO] Dreams Demolished: 10 Years After the Government Took Their Homes, All That’s Left Is an Empty Field

NEW LONDON, Conn.—All Susette Kelo wanted was to live with a view of the water.

In 1997, Kelo achieved her dream with the purchase of a 900-square foot Victorian home located in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood of New London, Conn.

The home enveloped her when she walked through the front door for the first time, like she had lived there her entire life. And when Kelo bought the home, she painted it pink—Odessa Rose from Benjamin Moore’s historic collection, Kelo specifically remembers.

From her front porch, the mother of five boys could see the mouth of the Thames River. On a clear day, she could see all the way to Montauk Point on New York’s Long Island.

But less than one year after moving to her piece of paradise, Kelo found out the city of New London wanted to take her waterfront property and others belonging to her Fort Trumbull neighbors.

The city used its power of eminent domain.

And so she, along with six other families who owned 15 properties in Fort Trumbull, fought back.

“When I first started this battle, it was about me and this little pink house,” Kelo told The Daily Signal. “But it grew into something much bigger than that. It turned into a nationwide battle to save the Fort Trumbull neighborhood.”

Kelo and her fellow plaintiffs—Thelma Brelesky, Pasquale Cristofaro, Wilhelmina and Charles Dery, James and Laura Guretsky, Richard Beyer and Bill von Winkle—fought the city of New London to keep their homes. The city wanted to transfer the property to a private nonprofit organization, which would facilitate its development.

Via: Daily Signal

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[COMMENTARY] The White House’s Latest ObamaCare Lie

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was pitched and eventually sold to the American public on a foundation of lies. Many of the most egregious examples of the calculated mendacity of ObamaCare’s designers were exposed by the law’s very implementation, but a few of its more subtle deceptions and the duplicity of the law’s authors was revealed in a series of videos featuring the refreshingly honest Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist and health care policy advisor Jonathan Gruber. It is fitting that, just days before the Supreme Court issues what might be its most far-reaching verdict regarding the ACA’s fraudulence, Gruber is again in the news.

As soon as the Affordable Care Act was implemented and revealed its hideous, multifarious visage to the public, the lies at the heart of the law became apparent even to observers committed to ensuring its success.

Premiums rose both for those on and off Affordable Care Act-related plans. Patients began losing their cherished and long-patronized doctors. The Supreme Court virtually rewrote the law when it ignored the administration and the solicitor general when it determined that the government had no right to penalize the public for failing to purchase health insurance. None of this would have come as a surprise to anyone who attended one of Gruber’s many lectures.

“This bill was written in a tortured way to make sure CBO did not score the mandate as taxes,” the health care policy advisor conceded, because “if CBO scored the mandate as taxes, the bill dies.”

As for the substance of the case the Court will rule on before the end of the month in King v. Burwell, Gruber appeared to validate the claims of those who believe the law was intentionally crafted to deny states the subsidies they presently enjoy if they did not set up a state-run insurance exchange. “There’s a lot of responsibilities on the states to set up these exchanges, like we did in Massachusetts, to regulate them and run them,” Gruber insisted in 2011. “Will people understand that, gee, if your governor doesn’t set up an exchange, you’re losing hundreds of millions of dollars of tax credits to be delivered to your citizens?”

Via: Commentary Magazine

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$4.2 Million DOJ Grant to Help Young Ex-Cons Be Better Fathers

An inmate at Rikers Island juvenile detention facility carries a plastic fork behind his back as he walks with other inmates. A recent report found that juvenile detainees are subjected to routine violence, both by other inmates and by correction officers. (Julie Jacobson/AP)

(CNSNews.com) – The Justice Department through its Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention is spending up to $4,200,000 in taxpayer dollars to help young fathers who have been incarcerated be better fathers.

The goals of the grant are to “reduce recidivism among young fathers; improve outcomes for young fathers, their children, and family members; and promote responsible fatherhood.”

As many as 10 non-profit groups will be awarded up to $420,000 each for a grant total of $4.2 million. The closing date for applications for the grant, titled “Second Chance Act Strengthening Relationships Between Young Fathers and Their Children: A Reentry Mentoring Project, was March 2, 2015.

“Section 211 of the Second Chance Act authorizes grants to nonprofit groups to provide mentoring and other transitional services, family programming, and employment assistance to help juvenile ex-offenders transition successfully from out-of-home placement and incarceration to the community,” the grant stated.

The target population for the grant is medium-to-high risk offenders. Young fathers must be confined in secure confinement facilities like a juvenile detention center, juvenile correctional facility, staff-secure facility, jail, or prison of a local or state juvenile or adult correctional agency.

Fathers must be admitted to the program before their 25th birthday, although they may continue to take part in the program beyond their 25th birthday. There is no set timeline for terminating services, the grant said, so fathers can continue with the program “as long as is deemed therapeutically necessary.”

According to the grant solicitation, programs should focus on increasing positive parenting behaviors like helping with homework, offering words of encouragement, setting limits, affection and praise, and family activities.

Via: CNS News
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