8.5% unemployment is bad, yes. human tragedy? not so much so. it's been worse before in the US. much worse. and it is currently worse in many parts of the world already. there are places out there with 50% unemployment. that's a tragedy.

i'm curious where you get the amount $25,000 for a store just from expanded food stamps. that's a lot of money. and i have to take exception to the idea that food stamps generate employment. unless you intend for those food stamps to always be occuring, they are not really generating anything.

this is what I really disagree with about your point of view. as far as i am concerned, every dollar that the government taxes is a dollar lost out of the economy. every dollar that the government spends outside of it's core duties is a dollar that could be better spent. what does the government produce? nothing. if it doesn't produce anything, how can it create jobs?

and i would just like to point out that many conservatives and republicans have been pointing out for months that the so called stimpulus package had too much money that wouldn't be spent til after the recession would likely be over. glad to see that you are now seeing that too.

the government can normalize the economy by getting out of it and letting businesses that make mistakes pay the consequences of those decisions. that's what happens in a free market.

and yes, good governors do try to help their citizens. but the money that Jindal, and others are refusing have strings attached that they think are bad for those same citizens in the long term. hey, there's a novel idea, let's look at the long term consequences of our actions. failure to do so is a big part of what has lead us to the point we are today.

Friday's report of 8.5% unemployment is a human tragedy.

And it is unthinkable that some like Louisiana's Republican governor will refuse to accept the federal funds to extend unemployment benefits while his state has a poverty problem where one out of five persons lives below the poverty line.

Yeah, for Republican governors "feeding the hungry" has waaaaaay too many strings -- and just isn't as important as support Rush Limbaugh's efforts to keep the nation in a recession until the 2010 elections.

Its been known for weeks that some governors were unwilling to accept the stimulus with strings. The Federal government could provide the stimulus for the states to use as they choose, so I guess its really the federal government that is unwilling to feed the hungry. Why paint it so blatantly wrong when the states would accept the funds with the aid without additional infrastructure cost commitments (added emphasis in excerpt below)

State Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said the two federal stimulus program provisions would require additional state funding at a time when the state is facing a $1.3 billion downturn in revenue to fuel the state budget.

"There's a logical argument for not doing expansion while at the same time we are cutting so much and facing an $800 million cliff" when other federal stimulus dollars for health care go away, Levine said.

The two program expansions could cost the state in excess of $20 million in extra health-care funding over the next two years, Levine estimated.

It is the second time the Jindal administration has opted not to take advantage of special federal authority in the stimulus bill. Earlier, Jindal rejected $98 million in federal unemployment funds that would have allowed more people to get benefits.

The governor has said accepting the unemployment money would lock the state into continuing the expanded aid and result in higher costs for businesses.

There's no reason to ascert that Jindal doesn't want to feed his own states hungry, except to blindly follow along with all the socialist Ozombies crying Obam-ho-tep... Obam-ho-tep... Obam-ho-tep.... You shouldn't post or support such propaganda without getting the facts straight.

Next from the Obama Administration... Healthcare will fully fund Liver, Heart, lung, etc... transplants, but only for those that donate a kidney.

It would be easy for the Federal Government to care for feeding these hungry, if Obama really cared more about them than in establishing a socialist agenda.

The facts are that Democratic governors are finding ways ot accept the aid and put hat money to work for working Americans but Jindal the Jerk is only intersted in furthering his political career.

And that's a fact.

He apparently cares more about the national GOP future than he does the Louisiana voters who put him into office.

That's a fact.

And it's now hurting him:

Jindal-backed candidate loses state Senate race

BATON ROUGE - Businessman Lee Domingue had Gov. Bobby Jindal's first endorsement in a state legislative contest but lost his Senate race by a wide margin, leading some to question the length of Jindal's political coattails.

Although he had the governor's backing, Domingue took a drubbing, getting handily defeated by Republican lawyer Dan Claitor in the weekend runoff for the Baton Rouge-based state Senate seat. Claitor received 66 percent of the vote while Domingue got only 34 percent, according to complete but unofficial returns from the Secretary of State's Office.

It was the first legislative race in which the Republican Jindal endorsed one GOP candidate over another. Some observers questioned why Jindal got involved in a race between members of his own party.

Jeffrey Sadow, an associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University-Shreveport, called the election "an embarrassing political setback" for Jindal.

"Jindal had little to gain politically by favoring one Republican over another and, with Claitor's victory, now has created a legislator who will be somewhat less than gung-ho about his agenda even if they largely share policy preferences," Sadow wrote in his conservative political blog.

Jindal recorded automated phone calls in support of Domingue that blanketed the district in the days before Saturday's election. The governor also attended a Domingue fundraiser to support him. Jindal should know the district well: He grew up there.

"Lee Domingue is a friend, and I was happy to support him in his campaign for state Senate," Jindal said in a statement Monday, when asked about Domingue's loss.

After the results rolled in, political analysts said Domingue's overwhelming defeat wasted Jindal's political capital and raised questions about his judgment. The endorsement attracted attention well outside Baton Rouge.

Clancy DuBos, a New Orleans political analyst and editor of the newspaper Gambit Weekly, said the support was a blow to Jindal's reputation.

"The governor's political foes are crowing at this development, saying it exposes a major chink in his armor. At a minimum, it shows Jindal to have limited coattails and flawed political judgment," DuBos wrote.

But the FACT is that Jindal doesn't give a damn about his place in Louisiana politics. He's gone rogue and is only interested in his national career at this stage.

Too bad - he may not even make it to the national stage at this rate - he just hates working Americans too much - he's happy to steal food from their mouths in order to make the GOP Politik like him more.

Palin did the same thing - just wrote off the State of Alaska as she set her sights higher, and has paid a similarly dear price for it.

These Republicans only think of themselves...

sorry - here's the link to the blockquote above

http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20090407/NEWS01/904070322/1002/NEWS01

The facts are that Democratic governors are finding ways ot accept the aid and put hat money to work for working Americans

Your blockquote is not Germaine to the topic of the post, and doesn't show that Jindal is uncaring for his constituents in his actions concerning the stimulus. The facts still support my ascertions, that Jindal has legitimate reasons to deny the stimulus, and that the Federal gov't and the Obama administrations is insensitive to the needs of the people of Lousiana and other states.

I really don't give a rats ass whether Jindals actions hurt him politically or not, the stands up for doing the right thing even when it hurts. Too bad that we don't have a President capable of doing the same.

The blockquote is germaine in that it shows that Jindal has abandoned his political power platform in Louisiana. His motive is clear - national prominence. He's Sarah Palin in trousers - a political animal who seeks not to serve his constituency, but to serve himself by serving the national party.

...the stands up for doing the right thing even when it hurts

If you believe returning he GOP to power is "the right thing" and feeding your state's poor is the "wrong thing" you have a point.

The portion of the post I addressed that referred to Jindal is as follows:

And it is unthinkable that some like Louisiana's Republican governor will refuse to accept the federal funds to extend unemployment benefits while his state has a poverty problem where one out of five persons lives below the poverty line.

Speaks to his decisions on the stimulus. Your views on Jindal, his motives, or his being a cross dresser,

He's Sarah Palin in trousers

(as you outline above), are still not Germaine to this discussion, at least not in any rational sense.

If you believe returning he GOP to power is "the right thing" and feeding your state's poor is the "wrong thing" you have a point.

On the other hand by providing the money without strings, Obama could help the "hungry" instead he is truly hurting the poor in Lousiana. Pres'ent 'Bama, as I affectionately like to call him, is the jerk in this instance.

a political animal who seeks not to serve his constituency, but to serve himself by serving the national party.