Fake Outrage

Posted on 02/25/2009 at 8:07 am by Bob Cesca

Bobby Jindal was so terrible last night and his Katrina story was so inexplicable that it successfully disguised the lying.

While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government, $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a “magnetic levitation” line from Las Vegas to Disneyland, and $140 million for something called “volcano monitoring.” Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.

First, as we all know, the Disneyland train doesn’t exist anywhere in the recovery bill so that was a big fat lie.

Second, the “new cars” are fuel efficient cars that will reduce government spending. Why is Jindal against reducing spending?

Third, what the hell is wrong with making sure people know when a volcano is going to explode and wipe out their homes? I would think that someone who lived through Katrina would understand the benefits of an effective early warning system.

When the Republicans aren’t fabricating items out of thin air, they use this rhetorical trick in which they make serious programs sound ridiculous just by using an outraged tone of voice. The government is spending your money on magnetic levitation?! Is that crazy magic of some sort? What’s next? The government is going to saw your wallet in half?! Tee-hee!

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  • GIthePotato

    We don’t need to monitor volcanoes because they are the signs of the second coming of Jesus. I have heard many preachers describe it as the Earth having birth pains before the son of god returns.You can not reason with crazy and if an entire political party is infected with crazy they must go.

  • trustno1

    And also (too), the top diary on Kos seems to have some evidence that the Katrina story lacks veracity.

  • steve b

    Jindal is a dumb dumb (to quote Kazoo), bringing up you(R) great president Dubyadon’t forget that he also warned of the governments response to the gathering economic storm saying that… ‘for those of us that lived through Katrina, we have our doubts’?wtf

  • eve

    I watched Jindal to see the guy that had buzz for 2012. Oh my. If he hadn’t been such a boldfaced liar I would have felt sorry for him. What an awful delivery and a terrible speech.

  • eve

    Why would a Goper bring up Katrina? I couldn’t believe it.I also wonder how these Gopers who have GOVERNMENT jobs can keep a straight face when they tell us people in government are incompetent.

  • Terry4505

    I thought the same thing about the volcano line.It sounded completely reasonable to me.I am absolutely thrilled that Token is their great hope along with the other Token Palin. Obama will shred these two.

  • http://www.gravesdig.blogspot.com David

    Bob,I felt the same… when he talked about the non-existent railway, I almost fell out of my chair and then about the cars, I knew that they were fuel efficient. He’s definately going to run in 2012 though, starting off with his “immigrants dream” life story. Also, in regards to your post about him being a caricature – Obama talked about hope and the struggles we face – the official Republican response was “America Can Do Anything”. That’s the way you would explain it to a 5 year old!

  • http://www.intoxination.net Jamie

    There is $8 billion for high speed rail in the bill, but not for this fantasy train they are making up. But I been thinking about this. When Eisenhower announced the interstate system he also coined it for national defense. Wouldn’t an eventual high speed rail throughout our country, much like the Eurail, also be a boost to national defense? Think of how fast aide could have been sent to New Orleans after Katrina?Oh and cars. Fuel efficient cars will help take us off foreign oil. Again national security.Natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions deplete our resources, including those from the military as the long recovery process happens.So we should also ask why the Republicans are so against national security.

  • Jim

    Well, maybe they figure that those Americans who have doubts about Obama or who outright oppose him aren’t going to fact-check any of what they spew. They figure they’ll hear it and go running off screaming about “That goddamn mooslum sumbitch Obama wants to build a magic train with taxpayer money!” That, or the Repigs figure that if they close their eyes tightly reality can’t see them. Take your pick.

  • Francis Zuccarello

    Did anyone else’s mendacimeter go off when he told the story of the sheirff and the boats and the indemnification certificates?

  • http://annette-justmylittlepieceoftheworld.blogspot.com/ Annette

    Jim, you are exactly right.. MSNBC has a fact check of Pres. Obama’s speech on their site.. BUT NOTHING of Jindal’s..

  • http://www.broadwaycarl.blogspot.com Broadway Carl

    I was laughing and crying at the incredulity of it all. Besides the lies, no one seemed to mention the fact that $140 million for volcano monitoring is 0.00018% of the package. And this is exactly what President Obama was talking about when he was addressing the nation’s governors and what he warned about during the Fiscal Responsibility Summit.But of course, if the situation were reversed and the Republicans were in power when a town was wiped out in Hawaii or Washington state to Pompeii status, their standard, textbook response would be, “Well, no one could have foreseen the eruption of the volcano.”

  • trustno1

    Why can’t the Republicans see that all this “pork” they bitch about creates jobs? Some group was crying about money for fish hatcheries.Where the F— do they think the fish come from for the bass tournaments they love so much? Money to fish hatcheries = money for those who work there, plus money to the people who sell bait, tackle, food for the fishermen, I mean, how obtuse ARE these people???

  • http://jennydemilo.blogspot.com jenny demilo

    Yeah Jindal is going to run and so will Palin, (it will be hilarious) but Newt will watch them eat each other up and then come in and try to save the day. Thats who O has to watch out for.

  • Christie

    What the hell color is the sun where these wingnuts live? Jebus!

  • exoevolution

    Palin – Jindal OR Jindal – Palin in 2012!!!Truly the Limbaugh “Corporatist” Republican’s wet dream!!!!The Limbaugh Wing of the Republican Party are destined to be HALL OF FAME characters on SNL!!!

  • Jim

    You guys should be hearing Barney Frank and Bernanke go back and forth. Frank fed him an opening about failed mortgages being responsible for this nightmare. Bernanke, to his credit, said it was rather a broad based credit problem- the influx of large amounts of foreign money into our economy and easy credit which precipitated this crisis. These mortgages were but ONE trigger. Thank you. I mean, we know this, but as Bob wrote, Repigs are still laying this on the backs of the poor (read: minorities). Most citizens who buy into this lie, if they heard Frank and Bernanke discuss this they probably wouldn’t understand it. It’s easier to let Hannity or Limbaugh parse it for them and tell them what to think.

  • Tim in Charlotte

    My mouth was agape during Jindals’ entire speech. Recalling the story of some local bureaucrat who wanted proof of insurance to make the point that government should not invest in domestic infrastructure?His whole point about government being bad is, for Republicans, really a self-fulfilling prophecy. They come into power, they screw it up, they say, “See! We told you government is bad!”Again, the only solution they offer is tax cuts. Bush passed two different trillion dollar plus tax cuts and got rid of many regulations and look where we are. In the words of GOB Bluth, “COME ON!”

  • Kyle W.

    “…for something called volcanic monitoring…”What does he mean by that? Can he not figure out what the phrase means? Gee, let’s see. Volcanic monitoring, what in the hell could it be? Does it have something to do with Spock? Shit, I don’t know, I’ll just ridicule it.And a reminder that since 1700, more than 260,000 people have been killed by volcanic eruptions.

  • Francis Zuccarello

    A friend in Boston said the NBC affiliate suddenly cut the feed of the Jindal response. My friend and his wife spontaneously applauded the choice.

  • Alan4s

    A friend in Boston said the NBC affiliate suddenly cut the feed of the Jindal response. My friend and his wife spontaneously applauded the choice.

    Yes, they did. They cut to a comercial for their 11:00 news team, then a blank screen for probably 30 seconds, before returning to Mr. Jindal denouncing the Disneyland train.

  • Sierradrinker

    I don’t really understand the objtection to the volcanic monitoring. Although I was only 5 years old, I seem to remember something about a mountain blowing up in Washington and killing 90 or so people. How about Ranier? Anyone want to keep an eye on that little hill outside of Seattle?As far as $300 million for government cars, not only does it modernize the fleet, it also pumps $300 million back into the economy! Where does he think that money goes? It goes to the struggling automakers. Those cars are built by Americans using American autoparts constructed with American steel.

  • Kyle W.

    I actually do understand the objection to volcanic monitoring: Pepublicans are anti-science.

  • 24hourjack

    gov. jindal sounded as though he was giving his response to a classroom full of first graders.or as though he just wandered over from sesame street.i expected at any moment to see a dancing number 6 appear behind him.or to be told that along with the republican party,this response was brought to us by the letter K.

  • thespacecowboy

    Saw this article on the front page of yahoo…http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/govjindalfollowupwhatisvolcanomonitoringAppears to be a quiet rebuttal. Also has a nice part at the end about the anti-science Bush adminstration.

  • ElMystico

    @ Sierradrinker- Those cars are also made by unions…Unions bad!@ Kyle- I was totally gonna write the same thing. “Something called” volcano monitoring? They always say shit like that to be like, see liberals use crazy science words that don’t mean anything!Also when did the made up train become magnetic? Damn liberals always…doing stuff with…magnets!Seriously though. It’s just like that Bachmann interview or any number of other times. They just plain make shit up as they go along. Oh, high speed doesn’t sound wasteful enough. Magnets!

  • Lyle

    Piyush Jindal’s Disneyland train, Sarah Palin’s natural gas pipeline, and leprechauns all share an important characteristic.

  • Alan4s

    Are Nobel prize winners allowed to have a sense of humor?

    Krugman: So what did Bobby Jindal choose to ridicule in this response to Obama last night? Volcano monitoring, of course….The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.

  • Jim

    I’m looking forward to stem cell research. At that instant, there are going to be a massive number of conservatives exploding in their tracks. It’ll be like the day of rapture, except they won’t be going to a better place. They’ll just explode.

  • SillyGit

    I think we should shut down that socialist something they call the National Hurricane Center. I don’t want my money spent trying to predict where Hurricanes are going to land. If God wanted us to know what city he wants to punish he will send us a sign.Republitards everywhere. He’s the first retarded Indian-American I’ve ever seen.

  • woww

    The GOP has now officially Jumped the Shark.They are complete bozos.

  • D. C.

    Hurricanes mostly hit red states, let them pay for their own hurricane warnings if they want it. All hail the Invisible Hand(TM)!