January 14, 2016::End of the day round-up

I have mixed feelings concerning whether Cruz is eligible to be President. On the one hand, I look at the "birther movement" against President Obama, and think tit-for-tat. On the other, it is for the legal eagles to figure out.

Ted Cruz produces mother’s birth certificate after both parents found on Canadian voter list

But most constitutional scholars argue that anyone with at least one parent who was a U.S. citizen at the time of birth automatically inherits that parent's citizenship. Cruz has said that because his mother was a U.S. citizen when he was born, he is a natural-born citizen.

But Grayson says there is disagreement over the issue, according to U.S. News & World Report. And because the courts have never ruled on the matter of presidential candidates who were born outside the U.S., a lawsuit could pose a serious problem for the Cruz campaign.

A curious case to say the least. Without full details - such as the employers policy concerning "lunch breaks" (ie paid versus unpaid), salaried vs hourly employment, and the like - it's hard to determine if a line was crossed by the employer.

Fired park employee sues over lunchtime baptism

A lawsuit has been filed by a former maintenance worker at Maritime National Historic Park in San Francisco for being fired after performing a baptism for a park visitor during his lunch break.

The case has been documented by Courthouse News, which said Roger Holly’s complaint against the Department of the Interior and his supervisors appeared this week in federal court.

Court documents say Holly, a Baptist minister, reported he baptized a park visitor in the ocean during his lunch break in November 2013. He reported he was out of uniform and simply “helped dunk the visitor into the ocean.”
“The religious ‘ceremony’ Holly performed did not include any outward, objective display of religion, such as reading sacred texts, public prayer, sermonizing or the like. It simply appeared that two persons were swimming in the ocean, much like other park visitors,” CN quoted from the complaint.

He then was interrogated by his supervisor, Robert Kier, who is named as defendant.

Holly reported he assured Kier he would not baptize someone while he was supposed to be working, or in his National Park Service uniform.

But he was terminated shortly after.

300,000 Low-Income Louisianians Gained Healthcare Today As Bobby Jindal Is Replaced By Democratic Governor

Acknowledging the huge problems facing the state of Louisiana, Edwards then laid out a progressive agenda to begin uplifting his citizens out of the rut that the Jindal administration had forced them to wallow in. One of his first actions will be to accept funding for the Medicaid expansion, giving healthcare to 300,000 of his citizens who desperately need it. He has promised to issue an executive order to begin expansion preparation within 24 hours, aiming to have the process complete by July 1st.

Kentucky bill looks to extend summer vacation to promote creationism

Kentucky senators have introduced a new bill, SB-50 that would “require schools to schedule the first student attendance day no earlier than the Monday closest to August 26, unless a school has adopted a year-round calendar.”

As I reported back in August of 2015, Kentucky Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, and Sen. Chris Girdler, R-Somerset had proposed such a bill to help extend the vacation season to bring more attention to the forthcoming Ark Encounter.

“Grant County is set to become a major tourist destination due to the presence of the Ark,” Thayer said. “But there won’t be many families from Kentucky visiting in August if we continue with the current calendar.”

A 2008 Tennessee study estimated that if summer was extended through Labor Day, an additional $189 million would be generated in tourist spending.

ADDENDUM::What Eye Thynk - Politics: University to Pre-School, the Republican Disdain for Education

Last week I posted concerning Booby Jindal slashing university budget figures, from $3,500 per undergraduate to $660 per undergraduate.  In the course of that post, mention was made of Kansas, Texas and Wisconsin. 

What Eye Thynk has put together a good overview of of Republican disdain for education, with a comment adding this to the discussion:

It's all part of the republican plan-- keep people stupid, which makes them easier to manipulate with fear and hatred. That accounts for their bizarre position of being anti abortion AND anti sex ed/birth control. More single moms = more low wage workers, more kids brought up in poverty. They want to eliminate the middle class (fickle voters) and raise a society of proles.

What Eye Thynk - Politics: University to Pre-School, the Republican Disdain for Education

LSU drafting 'academic bankruptcy' plan in response to state budget crisis | NOLA.com

In January I wrote this, ",,,the Reich wants people under-educated or even uneducated and unable to think for themselves; just follow the party line. Consider the debacles that are Texas (formerly under the control of Rick Perry and his crew) and Kansas (still under Brownback's control)."

We can now add Louisiana to the list (remember that Walker's Wisconsin is also playing Jenga with education as well):

LSU and many other public colleges in Louisiana might be forced to file for financial exigency, essentially academic bankruptcy, if state higher education funding doesn't soon take a turn for the better.

Louisiana's flagship university began putting together the paperwork for declaring financial exigency this week when the Legislature appeared to make little progress on finding a state budget solution, according to F. King Alexander, president and chancellor of LSU.

"We don't say that to scare people," he said. "Basically, it is how we are going to survive."
,,,
The Louisiana Legislature is closing out its meetings this week without having made much progress in finding more funding for universities, colleges and others. Louisiana's higher education community is facing an 82 percent funding cut if no extra state money is found.

The change would bring state funding for LSU from around $3,500 per undergraduate student to $660 per undergraduate student next year.

"States around the country spend more than that on their community colleges," Alexander said.

So when will this experiment with conservative economics end?  When will willful ignorance stop being a source of pride?

__

A good education opens the mind to differing world views allowing for solutions to problems through the use of analytical thinking. It provides a flexibility in thought that allows one to adapt and change. Ignorant people have an easier time judging others and perpetuating hate. The more ignorant a population the easier it is for a demagogue to rise to power.

Mike Papantonio - Ring of Fire (paraphrased)

 LSU drafting 'academic bankruptcy' plan in response to state budget crisis | NOLA.com

HRC Takes a Red Pen to Gov. Jindal’s Discriminatory Op-Ed | Human Rights Campaign

As you read the "corrections", keep in mind this is a man who wants to be President but yet has NO original thoughts of his own.  Do "we" really want another puppet (of the Reich) dictating their policy, running our country: 

"I hold the view that has been the consensus in our country for over two centuries: that marriage is between one man and one woman. Polls indicate that the American consensus is changing — but like many other believers, I will not change my faith-driven view on this matter, even if it becomes a minority opinion."

For those that have been following SCOTUS and the Obergefell oral arguments. This is the millenia argument that Ruth Bader Ginsburg annihilated.  It is part of the Reich's legal and policy agenda driven to the forefront by the so-called RFRAs.

Yesterday, HRC decided to take out our red pen and make some minor edits to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s op-ed in The New York Times about his avid stance against marriage equality and support for discriminatory religious freedom laws.

Now titled, “I’m Losing the Fight Against Marriage Equality,” the op-ed takes a look at the rapidly changing marriage equality landscape and the growing support for LGBT rights nationwide.

What is more disconcerting, Jindal is clueless as to the type of puppet he will become.

HRC Takes a Red Pen to Gov. Jindal’s Discriminatory Op-Ed | Human Rights Campaign

See also:  Bobby Jindal Threatens Businesses To Not 'Bully' Him Over Anti-Gay Marriage Bill For 'Christians'

UPDATED (all three have dropped out): Fox News anchor, Coors exec, 'Forrest Gump' actor headline summit of anti-gay Catholic org. - Good As You:: Gay and Lesbian Activism With a Sense of Humor

It started innocently enough. Of all people,Gary Sinise? But before I could finish my background search concerning Legatus or get too pissed off, Sinise had already withdrawn:

For me, faith has been a catalyst for my mission to honor the men and women who serve in our nation’s military. When I accepted the invitation to speak at the Legatus conference on Veterans issues and share my story, I was unaware of the controversy surrounding some of the participants, and their views on personal matters. I don’t want my mission—which is designed to be unifying—to be disrupted by these, or any controversies, and therefore have decided to withdraw.

Then yesterday, Brett Baier withdrew:

“Bret Baier has withdrawn his participation as a speaker at the upcoming Legatus Summit due to the controversy surrounding some editorial stances in the organization’s magazine,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement to TVNewser. “Bret accepted the invitation to speak about his book, his faith, and his son’s congenital heart disease. He was unaware of these articles or the controversy surrounding them.”

And now it seems, according to Joe.My.God., Peter Coors has dropped out as well.

Still planning on attending, Gov. Jindal of Louisianna, no shock there.

UPDATED (all three have dropped out): Fox News anchor, Coors exec, 'Forrest Gump' actor headline summit of anti-gay Catholic org. - Good As You:: Gay and Lesbian Activism With a Sense of Humor

Bobby Jindal Is Predictably Partnering With Anti-Gay Radicals For His Prayer Rally | Right Wing Watch

When Texas Governor Rick Perry was gearing up to run for president the last time around, he decided to kick things off by headlining a large right-wing prayer rally organized by the American Family Association, an anti-gay hate group, and David Lane, a secretive Religious Right organizer and Christian nationalist, called The Response. But rather than propelling him into the White House, the event became infamous mostly for the scores of radical figures with whom Perry had chosen to align himself.

This time around, the AFA and Lane are organizing another Response prayer rally to be headlined by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and it seems to be operating from exactly the same playbook.

Over the weekend, organizers posted videos featuring several Religious Right activists urging conservative Christians to attend the event, including invitations from folks like Tamara Scott, Jennifer LeClaire, Jim Garlow, E.W. Jackson, and Cindy Jacobs:

Bobby Jindal Is Predictably Partnering With Anti-Gay Radicals For His Prayer Rally | Right Wing Watch

Bobby Jindal's Prayer Rally Materials Blame Gays & Legal Abortion For Hurricane Katrina | Right Wing Watch

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is following in the footsteps of Texas Gov. Rick Perry and kicking off his possible presidential campaign next month with a stadium prayer rally organized by radical religious right activists. As Brian reported on Monday, the virulently anti-gay Christian nationalist American Family Association, influential Religious Right leader David Lane and Doug Stringer, a self-proclaimed “apostle” from Texas who has blamed America’s rejection of God for the September 11 attacks, are spearheading Jindal’s Baton Rouge rally.

These activists are the perfect ambassadors for the Christian nationalists that Jindal appears to be courting. In a letter introducing the rally — printed on official governor’s mansion stationary — Jindal warns of “a new world order of chaos…being driven by militant Islam seeking to impose Sharia Law worldwide” and domestic epidemics of “fatherless homes,” “drugs and crime in our inner cities” and “a saturation of pornography, abortion, racism,” problems for which Jesus Christ “is America’s only hope.”

Jindal’s prayer rally appears to be so closely modeled after Perry’s that its organizers are even reusing materials from the 2011 Texas event, including a prayer guide contending that natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the tornado in Joplin, Missouri, were the result of God’s displeasure with the “alternative lifestyle” of homosexuality, marriage equality, legal abortion, and Internet pornography.

[,,,]
Both “Response” rallies are modeled after the “Call” rallies organized by Religious Right leader Lou Engle. The leadership team of Perry’s rally included a number of officials from the International House of Prayer, a ministry closely associated with Engle that promotes the dominionist theology that calls for evangelical Christians to gain control of all parts American culture and government.


Bobby Jindal's Prayer Rally Materials Blame Gays & Legal Abortion For Hurricane Katrina | Right Wing Watch

14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in Louisiana's Voucher Schools | Mother Jones

Scary!!

Thanks to a new law privatizing public education in Louisiana, Bible-based curriculum can now indoctrinate young, pliant minds with the good news of the Lord—all on the state taxpayers' dime.

Under Gov. Bobby Jindal's voucher program, considered the most sweeping in the country, Louisiana is poised to spend tens of millions of dollars to help poor and middle-class students from the state's notoriously terrible public schools receive a private education. While the governor's plan sounds great in the glittery parlance of the state's PR machine, the program is rife with accountability problems that actually haven't been solved by the new standards the Louisiana Department of Education adopted two weeks ago.

14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in Louisiana's Voucher Schools | Mother Jones