Snitchin is Bitchin

Adrastos has another witness to Jindal's "outside agitators" remark on Shreveport television last week. Also, Oyster's original commenter has returned to this thread to explain herself a bit more.

The fact remains that without video evidence, there isn't a whole lot more that can be done with this. And even then, I can't imagine it would be likely to hurt Jindal very much if it were out in the open. Jindal wants to appeal to the cracker base in N. Louisiana and is not above employing this kind of hateful codespeak to do so. It can only help him politically in that "part of the world". His election seems like a fait-accompli at this point in what has got to be the most boring Governor's race ever.

What is frustrating is the way the Dragon Slayer Squad (the New Orleans press and the Yuppie Left) treat Jindal with such fawning teenage lust rarely... if ever pointing out how nakedly phony his slogan-driven campaign has been to this point. I say rarely in case anyone out there happened to catch Stephanie Grace's column yesterday.

Jindal also has gone so far as to hurl the term (corruption) at his opponents, even if their supposed offenses fall way short of dishonesty, evil or whichever definition you choose -- or if it's unclear just what the alleged transgressions are supposed to be.

It's almost as if anybody who aggressively campaigns against Jindal deserves the label

And here you have it. Jindal isn't running against his opponents. He won't even debate them. In fact, it's hard to say he's even running for Governor of Louisiana since he talks so little about the unique problems Louisiana faces with regard to insurance, or storm protection, or coastal restoration, or our crushing poverty. No, Jindal is running to "slay the dragon". Like Buddy Roemer before him, he's running against "corruption".

And why not? As Republicans have demonstrated for the better part of a decade now, it's much easier to run against a word than it is to run against your opponent... or much less run for anything at all. Running against "corruption" is particularly good coin in Louisiana right now because it's such a versatile word. It's a catch-all for the widespread discontent that now characterizes our political atmosphere.

In the suburbs surrounding New Orleans, to run against "corruption" means running against the Bill Jefferson machine, and against Marc Morial, and the Landrieus and all the rest of "those people" who the suburbanites voted against with their feet a generation ago. To the degree that "corruption" gets conflated with "incompetence" it allows Jindal to run against the retiring Governor Meemaw and the perpetually troubled Road Home program without having to provide a reasonable answer as to how it can be saved. In North Louisiana, running against "corruption" means running against New Orleans altogether which is always a winner in those parts regardless of the context.

It's a wonderful strategy so long as one is allowed to get away with it. And to this point, Jindal has been allowed to dragonslay the entire race away. In such an important election, one would hope for more substance. But that's your local press for you. And this brings us back to Jindal's supposed Jena remark. Should someone out there manage to dig up a recording of this quote, it likely won't hurt Jindal very much at all. But that's not why I want to see it. I want to see it come to the surface so I get to read Clancy Dubos's column about why Jindal's callous race baiting is really just a hip form of X-treme marketing that appeals to the new "Gen-X" electoral demographic. What a quote like this will do is demonstrate clearly just what kind of politics the Yuppie Left and New Orleans media will rush in to endorse all in the interest of slaying dragons. As it is, we have to rely on the conservative press to ask the interesting questions... and that's just plain icky.

Note

This supposed Jindal quote I mentioned this morning may or may not be real. It originated from an anonymous commenter on YRHT who cited a Shreveport television station. I mentioned it here in the hope that someone out there in intertubesland might know if there is a video or audio record of it somewhere.

If this quote is real, it is massively shameful. If it is false, then I regret even mentioning it. I still would like to see the persons seeking the highest political office in the state speak out more clearly and boldly against institutional racism in Louisiana. None of them... including Jindal... has done so.

Update: The commenter responds here. There's still no source on this. It still sounds plausible, but is useless without a record.

I believe this is why there are "Darwin Awards"

Freaking idiots

ALEXANDRIA, Louisiana (CNN) -- Authorities in Alexandria, Louisiana, arrested two people after nooses were seen hanging from the back of a red pickup Thursday night, the city's mayor told CNN.

Alexandria is less than an hour away from Jena, Louisiana, and was a staging area Thursday for protesters who went to the smaller town to demonstrate against the treatment of six black teens known as the "Jena 6" in racially charged incidents.

Police say the 18-year-old driver of the truck was charged with driving while intoxicated and inciting to riot and also may be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor -- the 16-year-old passenger.

As police were questioning the driver, he said he had an unloaded rifle in the back, which police found. They also found a set of brass knuckles in the cup holder on the dashboard, according to the police report.

The passenger told police he and his family are in the Ku Klux Klan, the police report said. He also said he had tied the nooses and that the brass knuckles belonged to him, the report said

via: Varg, who writes

Also, I know there was some debate about the necessity of the march on Jena going on on local radio stations yesterday. I hope this puts that to rest. But, knowing what I know about racist white folks, they will never give an inch to the other side. Even when overwhelming evidence is presented against them.

The funny thing is if you call them a racist, they will deny it! That’s because our great country has done an excellent job communicating to its masses that racism is wicked. But we have poorly executed the tutelage of what racism actually is.

Exactly. I have been trying to point out in comments here and elsewhere that the Jena march is against Racism with a capital R because the incident involves racial bigotry forcibly backed up by an institution of the state.... in this case the District Attorney's office. Regardless of your feelings about which of the principals is or is not a nice guy or what the school should or shouldn't have done, racially motivated intimidation carried out by a powerful arm of the state should not be tolerated.

Any politician who tries to take your eye off of that point by praising the "Louisiana court system" and decrying "outside agitators" is really speaking in favor of brutal institutionalized Racism.

Maybe Alberto Gonzales has declared him an enemy combatant

LAKE CHARLES, La. -- A state appeals court has ordered a hearing on why one of the "Jena Six" defendants is still in jail, even though his conviction has been overturned.

Maybe this wouldn't happen if our political leadership took our constitutional rights more seriously.

"Outside Agitators"

Please please tell me that there is audio of this remark.

Note: It's obviously still YRHT week here at the Yellow Blog

Your Louisiana Political Leadership

Utterly spineless

Also... my further comments on this issue appear... where else... but in the above-linked YRHT comment thread.

Gonna shut down the blog any day now

Since I continue to spill all my best stuff in Oyster's comment threads.

See here where we establish that Clancy Dubos pretty much sucks.

And here, where I hi-jack what is actually a must-read post about the Jena 6 just to be an asshole.