Last Call For Bobby's World

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal made a national embarrassment out of himself yet again at the National Governor's Association meeting at the White House today.  At a bipartisan meeting of the nation's governors, Jindal threw all pretense of giving a damn about protocol out the window and displayed his Obama Derangement Syndrome, full force.

A group of governors emerged midday Monday from a meeting with President Barack Obama that stressed bipartisan cooperation — but that sentiment didn’t last as far as the White House driveway, as a Republican who’s had bigger political aspirations offered a tough assessment of what he’d heard.

“This president and the White House seems to be waving the white flag of surrender” by focusing on a limited set of executive actions, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told reporters outside the White House, breaking from the comity of the first dozen minutes of a press conference led by National Governors Association chair Mary Fallin (R-Okla.) and vice-chair John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) — and from typically more innocuous readouts describing nearly all meetings as “productive.”

The president spoke repeatedly about raising the minimum wage during his meetings with more than 40 of the nation’s governors, Jindal said — but, argued the Louisiana governor, that’s the wrong place for the White House to be focusing its energies. “The Obama economy is now the minimum wage economy. I think we can do better than that, I think America can do better than that,” said the potential 2016 presidential candidate, suggesting that the president approve the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, rein in regulations and expand drilling on federal lands to boost economic growth.

Of course Jindal has his own problems, as the guys at Public Policy Polling can attest to.

Bobby Jindal continues to be one of the most unpopular Governors in the country, with only 35% of voters approving of him to 53% who disapprove. Even among Republican primary voters in his home state only 37% want him to run for President, compared to 51%  who think he should sit it out. Mike Huckabee is the top choice of GOP primary voters in the state at 20% to 13% for Jindal, 12% for Ted Cruz, 10% for Rand Paul, 9% for Jeb Bush, 8% each for Chris Christie and Paul Ryan, 7% for Marco Rubio, and 2% for Scott Walker.

Gosh, that 35% approval rating would put him, you know, in a worse spot than President Obama.  Even Rasmussen has the President above the 50% mark here for several days in February 2014.

Perhaps Jindal should keep his mouth shut, since he's no longer relevant by his own logic.

The Dean Of The House Retires

After a staggering 58 years in the House of Representatives, an amazing 29 terms in office, Michigan Democrat John Dingell is retiring at the age of 88 and will not seek a 30th term.

Rep. John Dingell is leaving the Congress he’s served for longer than anyone else in United States history.

At a luncheon Monday in his beloved Downriver, the Dearborn representative says he will announce he won’t seek re-election this fall to the seat he’s held since 1955.

“I’m not going to be carried out feet first,” says Dingell, who will be 88 in July. “I don’t want people to say I stayed too long.”

Dingell says his health “is good enough that I could have done it again. My doctor says I’m OK. And I’m still as smart and capable as anyone on the Hill.

“But I’m not certain I would have been able to serve out the two-year term.”

More than health concerns, Dingell says a disillusionment with the institution drove his decision to retire.

“I find serving in the House to be obnoxious,” he says. “It’s become very hard because of the acrimony and bitterness, both in Congress and in the streets.”

The Tea Party is too much even for the "Dean of the House" Dingell.  Here's your fact of the day:

The question now becomes who will succeed Dingell. He won the seat at age 29 after the death of his father, a Depression-era New Dealer who served the district for 20 years.

So the Dingell family has represented the Dearborn, Michigan region in the House since the 30's.  Some 78 years.  That will never happen again in US history.

I'm frankly not sure that it should, either.  Dingell is certainly the last piece of a bygone era, with the passing of Sens. Robert Byrd and Daniel Akaka, and Ted Kennedy.  Dingell's House colleague and fellow Democrat Henry Waxman is also retiring this year.  The old Democrats are soon to be gone.

In their place, the House That Boehner Built.  Do nothing, blame Obama.  Four years from now it will be Do nothing, blame Hillary.  A government that doesn't work.  And increasingly, we're okay with that.

Wishing Hard For The Second Civil War

With bloody protests against the governments of Ukraine, Venezuela, and Thailand happening this month, it was only a matter of time before the sad Tea Party kids started complaining there's not enough revolution here stateside to overthrow Emperor LeBarack Shabazz The Blackness XIV, and our old buddy Instadoofus wonders out loud in USA Today if the "American Spring" is already here.

Meanwhile, in Connecticut a massive new gun-registration scheme is also facing civil disobedience. As J.D. Tuccille reports: "Three years ago, the Connecticut legislature estimated there were 372,000 rifles in the state of the sort that might be classified as 'assault weapons,' and 2 million plus high-capacity magazines. ... But by the close of registration at the end of 2013, state officials received around 50,000 applications for 'assault weapon' registrations, and 38,000 applications for magazines."

This is more "Irish Democracy," passive resistance to government overreach. The Hartford (Conn.) Courant is demanding that the state use background-check records to prosecute those who haven't registered, but the state doesn't have the resources and it's doubtful juries would convict ordinary, law-abiding people for failure to file some paperwork.

Though people have taken to the streets from Egypt, to Ukraine, to Venezuela toThailand, many have wondered whether Americans would ever resist the increasing encroachments on their freedom. I think they've begun.

Now you're probably thinking "Self, Glenn Reynolds comparing A) sharing license plate data across state computer systems, B) the FCC asking newsroom reporters about how news decisions are made, and C) Connecticut's assault rifle registration law all seems really moronic even for him as these events are not anywhere close to the revolutions in Ukraine this last week" and you, well, you'd be right on the money.  But that's where the law professor turned blogger turned USA Today columnist is, that all of this is in fact prima facie evidence that America is on the verge of rising up against our government.

Reynolds is at least mildly subtle about this fever dream.  Donald Douglas over at American Power is not, as he drops the pretense and calls for open, armed insurrection against the US government.

This is our world in America today, a grim totalitarian world of Democrat Party repression and inhuman leftist indifference and demonization. God willing the people will rise up against the Obama tyranny soon enough, at the ballot box in November, and by the bullet if that's what it takes in the end. A free people will not long tolerate the jackboot of dictatorship. Americans proved that to the world once over 200 years ago. Perhaps will see the Spirit of '76 rekindled here again soon, not unlike the protesters in Venezuela and Ukraine are doing at this very moment.

Yes, because it's so unreasonable to think the guys calling for a Second American Civil War might not be such awesome people.  That's "demonization", apparently.  Heaven forbid we share license plate data, that's so much worse.

And yes, these assholes hate Obama and the Democrats enough to all but call for their murder of them and their supporters.

StupidiNews!

• Maria von Trapp, the last of the singing von Trapp family siblings made famous by the movie "The Sound of Music", has passed away at age 99.
• Veteran "Star Trek" actor George Takei has stepped into Arizona's battle over legalizing business's refusal of services to LGBTQ patrons based on "religious beliefs" with a letter directed to lawmakers.
• Seventeen are dead and dozens injured after an outbreak of violence in Iraq Sunday, with a car bomb killing five and several shootouts with Iraqi police injuring many more.
• Netflix will agree to a multi-year deal with Comcast in order for the cable and internet giant to deliver Netflix's streaming video more efficiently.
• Web developer Mozilla will be bringing its Firefox OS to a line of $25 smartphones, designed to conquer the low-cost market in developing nations.