Day: February 27, 2009

Jindal Admits Statement in GOP Response to President’s Speech Was False

Jon Ponder

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s performance delivering the Republicans’ response to Pres. Obama’s address to Congress last week was widely panned, even in his own party. Now he has revealed that an anecdote he used to illustrate his party’s belief that government regulation is deadly was false:

Remember that story Bobby Jindal told in his big speech Tuesday night — about how during Katrina, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a local sheriff who was battling government red tape to try to rescue stranded victims?

Turns out it wasn’t actually, you know, true…

Jindal had described being in the office of Sheriff Harry Lee “during Katrina,” and hearing him yelling into the phone at a government bureaucrat who was refusing to let him send volunteer boats out to rescue stranded storm victims, because they didn’t have the necessary permits. Jindal said he told Lee, “that’s ridiculous,” prompting Lee to tell the bureaucrat that the rescue effort would go ahead and he or she could arrest both Lee and Jindal.

But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone “days later.” The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.

Jindal’s story was meant to illustrate the premise that government regulation causes deadly problems — and to make himself appear to have been a hero during the crisis. As it happens, neither assertion was true.

Another unusual aspect to Jindal’s story was that at the time of the disaster, all three branches of the government were under control of his party, including the Congress, where Jindal served in the House of Representatives.

Study: Utah Leads Nation in Online Porn Purchases, Sales Higher Nationwide in Religious Areas

Jon Ponder

A study of the online porn purchases nationwide by Harvard Business School uncovered something surprising (or maybe not). Residents of right-wing religious areas purchase more porn than those in liberal areas:

States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage,” bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed.

Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

“Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by,” [Benjamin Edelman of Harvard Business School] says.

For example, the study found that porn purchases in churchgoing areas declined dramatically on Sundays. And guess which religion appears to be the most porn-obsessed? Yup, Mormons:

The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000. “The differences here are not so stark,” Edelman says.

Number 10 on the list was West Virginia at 2.94 subscriptions per 1000, while number 41, Michigan, averaged 2.32.

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year’s presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.

Wait, there’s more:

Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11 percent more porn subscribers than states that don’t explicitly restrict gay marriage.

To get a better handle on other associations between social attitudes and pornography consumption, Edelman melded his data with a previous study on public attitudes toward religion.

States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage,” bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behavior.”

The study was based on analysis of the ZIP codes of customers of a large online porn emporium.

Bearden Found Guilty in Murder of Ryan Skipper

Jon Ponder

Joe “Smiley” Bearden, one of two men accused of killing Ryan Skipper, a gay student, was found guilty of second degree murder today in a courtroom in Bartow, Florida. After deliberating for two days, the jury also found him guilty of grand theft of an automobille, tampering with evidence, receiving stolen property and accessory to robbery after the fact.

The second defendant, William “Bill Bill” Brown, faces trial on similar charges. His trial is expected to take place in the fall of 2009.

Coverage of the verdict:

  • Lakeland Ledger: Bearden Sentenced to Life in Prison
  • Towleroad: Killer of Florida Gay Man Ryan Skipper Found Guilty on All Counts
  • Equality Florida: Ryan Skipper’s Killer Found Guilty
  • 365 GAy: Life Sentence for murder of Ryan Skipper

Five States Whose GOP Govs May Refuse Stimulus Are Among Most Dependent on Federal Dole

Jon Ponder

In the annals of political hypocrisy, it’s hard to imagine examples more egregious than the sight these days of Republicans in Congress racing to the cameras to kvetch about government spending. Now they’re for fiscal responsibility? Now?

Interestingly, the five state that pay the most in taxes while receiving the least in federal spending are more dominated by Democrats than the bottom feeders.

It’s true that Americans have famously short memories, but these Republicans are crazy if they think we’ve all forgotten that they rubber-stamped George Bush’s reckless spending and the other failed Bush policies that led to the current calamity.

GOP political hypocrisy on spending is not confined to Washington, however. It is also on full display in the states, where a handful of GOP governors — many of whom are said to have presidential ambitions — have been hinting that they might refuse their states’ shares of the $787 billion stimulus package. While they purport to be making principled stands to demonstrate their conservative ideological purity, a more cynical view is that they’re putting their political ambitions above the health and well-being of their constituents.

The hypocrisy here is that these moralizing pols — governors Rick Perry of Texas, Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Sarah Palin of Alaska, Mark Sanford of South Carolina and C.L. “Butch” Otter of Idaho — represent states whose citizens are among the neediest in the nation. In fact, of these six states, five are among the states that take in more federal revenue than they pay into the Treasury, according to the Tax Foundation, and based on fiscal year 2004 figures, which appear to be the most recent numbers available online:

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