Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Giving up is unforgivable.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Stand up, dammit!

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

You are here: Home / Justice / Racial Justice / Post-racial America / Fear and Self-Loathing

Fear and Self-Loathing

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Apparently, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s new portrait is out. I’ll let you judge it.

That’s exactly what I thought. His hair looks weird. I’ve decided to follow his lead, and have provided my official portrait:

idiocracy_camacho

I think it is spot on.

Reader Interactions

191Comments

  6. 6.

    Morzer

    John Cole is more handsome than I remembered. More athletic too. Clearly, laying off the sauce does a body good!

  12. 12.

    Tree With Water

    Louisiana doesn’t even need to hire a photographer for an ‘official photo’ of the governor. The state need only clip and paste Jindal’s sixth grade photo, and voila!

  14. 14.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Who the fuck painted that? Did they canvas all the local painting clubs and choose the worst one of the bunch?

    PS) wrt to the healthcare thread below can I tell you what pisses me off the most, the people who have a shitload of money touting Health Savings Accounts as an alternative to health insurance. cough Sean Hannity. People who work minimum wage jobs don’t have money to put into a health savings account to cover a $100K hospital bill when they get in a car wreck. Why the fuck are these people allowed to spout this utter nonsense without getting called out on it? Most people don’t have savings accounts let alone health saving accounts.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    If I were Jindal, I would have set fire to another oil rig in the Gulf just so I could burn this thing.

  23. 23.

    JPL

    I’m still confused. Do they keep the official portraits, so decades from now students can view the portraits and think this was a former Governor?

  31. 31.

    Villago Delenda Est

    What the hell happened? Did Jindal contract this out to the deserting coward or something?

    BTW, the photo makes him look like a cut-rate Alfred E. Neuman.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    @Violet:

    GW Bush! Indeed.

    Jindal has decided he’s more acceptable if he looks like one of the (Texas) Castro brothers.

  45. 45.

    JPL

    One day after human rights attorney Arsalan Iftikhar said on MSNBC that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA) was “trying to scrub some of the brown off his skin” with his claim of Muslim no-go zones, MSNBC has said they will be not have him back on their air. “We found this guest’s comments offensive and unacceptable and we don’t plan on inviting him back,” an MSNBC spokesperson told Mediaite.

    Maybe MSNBC acted to soon. just sayin

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @bemused:

    It’s like they literally found the worst professional artist working today for this job. I can only assume the painter is the relative of some big Jindal contributor.

  51. 51.

    Elizabelle

    @ranchandsyrup: Thank goodness.

    And that’s a good portrait, actually.

    LOL over portraitgate.

    ETA: tweet from Kyle Plotkin:

    that’s not the official portrait. Constituent loaned it.This 1’s official. Thx 4 ur race-baiting tweet

  56. 56.

    jl

    Haters here at this den of rabid hyenas (or is it jackals? I forget) gonna hate, I can’t stop that, but c’mon, Dub woulda done better.

    I saw a good Dub protrait of Jay Leno, but now can’t find it on the tubes. Actually it looked more like a good caricature, but still. At least most of them, you can tell who they are supposed to be.

    The Faces of Power, From the Portraitist in Chief
    nytimes.com/2014/04/07/arts/design/george-w-bushs-art-exhibition-at-presidential-center.html

  58. 58.

    MomSense

    I asked my 11 year old for his opinion and he looked at the portrait and the photo and said that they had the same cheekbones, dimples, and facial structure. Then he asked me if he [Jindal] felt a lot of peer pressure to be white. He wonders if Jindal is afraid of what people think of his appearance.

  59. 59.

    p.a.

    Maybe south of the Mason-Dixon paint tubes labeled ‘flesh’ only come in the one color that matters there.

  62. 62.

    beltane

    Next up, Chris Christie’s official portrait bearing an uncanny likeness to Benedict Cumberbatch.

  65. 65.

    jl

    @ranchandsyrup: Well hell, that one doesn’t look anything like Jindal either. Faint resemblance to Alfred E. Newman, maybe.

    Edit: if “a constituent loaned it”, maybe that one where Jindal is getting ready to piss on the capitol pillar is really of the constituent?

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    Evidently, the cost of burnt sienna was “too damn high.”

    Speaking of Rand Paul (close enough) this guy is a fundraiser and on his “finance team.”

    Last week, 24-year-old Elise Clougherty, a Stanford neuro-engineering graduate and former Ford print model, filed a lawsuit against Joseph Lonsdale, a powerful Silicon Valley entrepreneur who, along with Peter Thiel, co-founded the secretive data-mining company Palantir Technologies. The graphic suit alleges that from February 2012 to February 2013, Lonsdale took advantage of his position as Clougherty’s mentor in a Stanford mentorship program to physically, emotionally, and sexually abuse her.

  72. 72.

    Morzer

    My wife observed that the shadowing on the unofficial loaner official portrait makes it look as if Jindal is sinking into the pillar he is supposedly leaning on.

  77. 77.

    Morzer

    Good news for GOP presidential nominee candidates attempting to differentiate themselves:

    theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/04/even-cockroaches-have-different-personalities-scientists-fin…

    Cockroaches may be ugly, they may be among the most loathed creatures on the planet but at least, scientists say, they have personality.

    Researchers studying the behaviour of the insects have discovered that far from simply being a homogenous mass they have individual character traits.

    The discovery is unlikely to change perceptions of them from skittering vermin to desirable beasts but it could go some way to explaining their evolutionary success.

    Scientists observed the character traits as they studied the way the “gregarious insect” seeks shelter when they come out into the open.

    If they had the same personalities they would all behave exactly the same when in the open but observations have revealed clear differences.

  80. 80.

    rikyrah

    damn,

    don’t even want to be ‘colored’ in his official portrait.

    damn.

    pitiful.

    PITIFUL!

    and there are still those who will say changing his name and religion don’t matter.

    they, like this portrait, explain EVERYTHING.

  81. 81.

    bemused

    The official official portrait isn’t much better. There has to be many good portrait artists in Louisiana to choose.

  83. 83.

    Morzer

    I hear that Jindal is going to appear in a new, hard-hitting prison drama called:

    Orange-Cream is the New Black.

  87. 87.

    Felonius Monk

    I think the “official” Louisiana artist had a few too many mint juleps before doing the Jindal. Or perhaps not nearly enough considering the unpleasantness of the task.

  89. 89.

    gogol's wife

    @Steeplejack:

    FTW.

    OT, but I just turned on the TV to see Ronald Colman in A Tale of Two Cities at 8:00, but right now James Mason is on my teevee in North by Northwest. He is so damn cool I can’t take my eyes off him.

  94. 94.

    Elie

    LOL!!! that is the portrait of a white boy. Bobby aint white except in his head.

    This is just pitiful and dreadful… He was already a laughingstock…. how many more rungs are there below this?

    As a black person (and I know he is Asian/east Indian not black), it would be a mark of some horrible personal denial to allow a portrait of oneself as white — in this culture — and in the south. His skin is as black as that of many true black people. To allow himself to be represented as white…. well… that just says it all doesn’t it?

  97. 97.

    Morzer

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I still think it’ll come down to Walker versus Santorum for the nomination. Jeb seems to be on the wrong side of enough issues that the base won’t give him a chance to shake off the anchor of being That Guy’s brother. I don’t see Man Who Can’t Remember The Third Thing going anywhere. Rand Paul has kookified himself and was never more than the choice of the glibertarian white teenage fantasist faction, while Cruz has made himself look dumb enough and pissed off enough colleagues that he’s going to get whacked like a Canadian immigrant pinata, and the usual clown car of Newticles/Carson/Cain/Bachmann/S.U.M. Moron aren’t likely to matter. Santorum will be the Energizer Bunny Of Perpetual Grievance again, but Walker has enough of the White Victim Conservative With Results To Show For It magic that he’ll prevail fairly handily in raising money and getting the base all hot and horny.

  99. 99.

    Morzer

    @Elie:

    The white space in Jindal’s head is starting to affect his skin. It’s what the technically-minded call the Inverse Boehner Effect.

  105. 105.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Morzer: There’s never been a Republican primary that the establishment candidate didn’t win except for perhaps Reagan in ’80 and I’m not sure there was an establishment candidate running that cycle.

    That means John E. Bush has the inside track, regardless of what the polling looks like now. But I still haven’t ruled out Mitt riding in on his white horse to save the day.

  106. 106.

    Arclite

    @Morzer: So it’s Walker then. No way Santorum gets the nod. Too many people will throw up in their mouths when they google him.

  108. 108.

    mainmati

    Um, this is Louisiana, remember? Probably state regulations do not permit portraits of governors to be anything but white-skinned. Seriously. The painter clearly is a paint-by-numbers amateur. One of the worst such portraits I have ever seen.

  110. 110.

    Morzer

    @Arclite:

    Right – but I would be very surprised if Santorum didn’t fight hard this time. He was the second-placer last time around, which ought to give him the inside track.

    I think Jeb’s been out of the game too long as well as being That Guy’s brother for him to really be the establishment candidate. It probably doesn’t help that he converted to Catholicism rather than Fundie Jeebusness like That Guy.

  113. 113.

    Morzer

    In “News Likely To Make Charlie Pierce Stroke Out”:

    abcnews.go.com/Politics/national-republicans-dick-cheney-fashion-icon/story?id=28675841

    After raising a reported $3 million selling signature George H W Bush socks, the Republican National Committee is now looking to cash in on another famous Republican’s apparel. This time it’s former Vice President Dick Cheney’s cowboy hat.

    On Monday, the RNC sent out an e-mail fundraising solicitation offering donors “The Official Cheney Cowboy Hat” in exchange for a donation of $72.

    The email, signed by Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus, reads, “By nature, America is a nation of leaders, pioneers and trailblazers. We’re not a nation that leads from behind, blurs the lines or backs down from our principles.” Priebus continued, “That’s why we’re bringing back the Official Cheney Cowboy Hat.”

  114. 114.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Morzer: FWIW, this time in the 2008 election cycle, Guiliani was the polling favorite. This time in the 2012 election cycle, Huckabee was the polling favorite.

  118. 118.

    Morzer

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Yes, but, if you look at the latest polling out of Cornfedhickistanwa,Jeb is in 6th place in the second choice category as well as going nowhere in the first choice category. It’s not as if he doesn’t have name recognition, after all, which means he’s unlikely to be able to win enough people over to change the game. That suggests to me that he’ll limp through the early states and (to general media surprise) bow out after going pretty much nowhere.

  119. 119.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Culture of Truth: Please. Vulcans and Commander Data are known for their devotion to logic.

    Jindal is anything but devoted to logic. Even Sarah Palin knew better than to scoff at volcano monitoring.

  120. 120.

    Bobby Thomson

    Speaking of shitty governors, we dodged a bullet when Tom Wolf got into the race. Rob McCord is pleading guilty to extortion charges from strong arming people during the primary. I can just imagine what kind of governor he would have been if he had managed to beat Corbett.

  122. 122.

    Elizabelle

    @gogol’s wife: I heart James Mason too, and caught the end of North by Northwest too. Right up to the train in the tunnel. Wink wink.

    However, I see Humbert Humbert in most Mason performances. He was just too good in Lolita.

  125. 125.

    Bystander

    Little known fact: Bobby Jindal’s favorite movie is “Imitation of Life”. He’s a devoted fan of actress Susan Kohner.

  127. 127.

    Corner Stone

    @Morzer: So, a point about polling around this time in 2008, and polling around this time in 2012 pointing to abso fucking lutely nothing relevant to actual outcomes. And then your refudiation is that, yes but, look at how candidate Jeb is currently polling around this time in 2016 cycle in Iowa! That’s instructive!

  128. 128.

    Elizabelle

    @gogol’s wife: PS: caught a bit of Ronald Colman in Random Harvest yesterday. Preposterous plot, and who wants to wait that long, but he and Greer Garson were quite appealing.

  130. 130.

    Morzer

    @Corner Stone:

    Your horse didn’t even make it to the starting gate, despite your many assurances that it was a surefire winner. You’ll understand if I treat your analysis and insight as having as much value as Donald Trump’s latest prediction.

  132. 132.

    Violet

    @Elizabelle:

    that’s not the official portrait. Constituent loaned it.

    I want to know what “Constituent loaned it” means. A constituent actually has that painting in their collection? Seriously? Where do they display it? And if it’s hanging behind the receptionist’s desk in Jindal’s office, first of all Why? And second, if it’s on loan from a constituent, where’s the plaque saying that? Why display it so prominently. The photo was apparently taken in 2011. It’s been on loan for 4 years? That’s some loan.

  134. 134.

    raven

    @JPL: Yea, we watched the last three last night not realizing the last one was 90 minutes! It was ok but too many stupid things at the end I thought.

  136. 136.

    JPL

    @raven: They left open the corruption aspect but I think that was a lead in, if there’s a third season. The tie in with Jimmie was stupid but the entire series was too intense for my taste.

  137. 137.

    Corner Stone

    @Morzer: Ah, I see now. Poor ability to read closely, piled on to your tedious habit of constantly trying to funny-up someone else’s comment.
    Ok, friend. You’re going to take Walker v Santorum. Santorum, for fuck’s sake. Versus a guy who looks like if he were any where other than WI he’d be third shift manager of a 2nd rate fish fry fast food chain. Dude hasn’t even graduated a four year university. All the Koch billions aren’t going to change who he is.

  140. 140.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Corner Stone: I’m not sure there isn’t some hinky shit going on with the voting machines in Wisconsin. Somehow that piece of shit keeps beating the polling.

  141. 141.

    Elizabelle

    @Violet: Constituent’s wife was threatening to throw it out, so it’s in Jindal’s office instead?

    Brought back memories of a Stallone/Rocky portrait a friend rescued from the trash many years ago.

    The full frontal Jindal (gag) seemed kind of graphic novel like.

    Linky:www.mediaite.com/online/bobby-jindals-official-painting-looks-nothing-like-bobby-jindal/

    Reminds me of a paper doll.

  144. 144.

    Corner Stone

    @Morzer: Listen, you’re the one who likes Walker v Santorum. Don’t try and hang your pathetic insecurity issues on me.

  156. 156.

    Morzer

    @Corner Stone:

    I see you’ve got stuck on the “You are NOT funny and I am going to tell your mom!” meme. I’ll take that as your concession speech and go back to enjoying a fine cup of coffee.

    Y’all have fun now, bless your corny little heart.

  157. 157.

    Corner Stone

    @Morzer: Oh, the “bless your heart” attempt.
    Sorry, Morzy. Just as much of a worn out and pathetic attempt as everything else you try on here.

  164. 164.

    Sad_Dem

    @Baud:

    It’s like they literally found the worst professional artist working today for this job. I can only assume the painter is the relative of some big Jindal contributor.

    That sounds like a viable theory. What would be the payoff for hiring the worst painter at the local high school? Does it have the “side mirror” warning? (Dork in painting may be darker than he appears.)

  171. 171.

    David in NY

    @JPL:

    Well that’s not Jindal, so who is it?

    Michael Jackson?

    Wait. Gravenstone beat me to this (com’t 4) but only with a late edit (at least I though his said Dorian Gray at first).

  172. 172.

    trollhattan

    @Elizabelle:
    How about: we’ve heard of too big to fail, now it’s too big to shut off. Evidently the nasty, dirty, destructive Canada tar sands oil projects are so expensive and time-consuming to build they have to keep them running even while losing money. So there’s your Keystone pipeline Raison d’être. Nice.

    While production may keep humming along, the big question is whether oil-sands producers can break even at current prices.

    An oil-sands project takes five to 10 years to design and build, and they have a life span of 25 to 50 years. Fort Hills, a project now under construction in a partnership led by Suncor, has a budget of 13.5 billion Canadian dollars.

    Once such projects are up and running, the expenses are significant, given the process needed to get the oil-laden bitumen from the ground. It must either be dug up or blasted from under the ground using steam. Two energy-hungry steps are then needed to separate the bitumen from the sand and to turn it into usable oil known as synthetic crude.

    A frequently cited study prepared for the U.S. State Department’s review of the Keystone XL pipeline estimated that many oil-sands projects become unprofitable at prices of $65 to $75 a barrel. Prices are now below $50.

    But the State Department review, which was released in January 2014, doesn’t necessarily account for the changing environment.

    Andrew Leach, an economist and professor of energy policy at the University of Alberta, said the U.S. figure inflated the break-even point by including a 12 percent profit margin for oil producers. The drop in the Canadian dollar has also provided an added cushion for domestic oil companies that are paid for their products in the now more valuable U.S. currency.

    When those factors are combined, Leach said, “you’re looking at a reduction of the growth rate at current prices, a stall.” He estimates that the production cost for synthetic crude from the major open-pit mine projects is $31 to $39 a barrel, at current exchange rates. He added, though, that a few projects with production problems had much higher costs.

    The industry thinking, he said, is, “I’m willing to burn through cash on this project because in the long term it will be worth it.”

    As a result, most oil sands operators are reviewing future projects rather than considering production cuts or stopping projects already under construction. They are also looking to cut costs as swiftly as possible.

    “Nobody in the oil industry feels very secure,” said Ken Smith, president of the Unifor union local that represents about 3,600 Suncor employees who operate the giant dump trucks and excavators. “We’re kind of at the mercy of these big players like the Saudis and Russia.”

  175. 175.

    Zinsky

    I wish liberals would ignore all these silly nicknames that conservatives give themselves and call them by their real names. The man’s name is Payush Jindal. There. And it isn’t “Mitt” Romney, it’s Willard Romney. I couldn’t believe they allowed Willard to be on a national presidential ballot as “Mitt”! Maybe Deocrats should start giving themselves masculine nicknames like “Rocko” Biden or “Tank” Kerry. Sheesh! Start calling these vermin by their real names!

  178. 178.

    David in NY

    @Zinsky:

    Start calling these vermin by their real names!

    Well, you’ve got to blame “Jimmy” (James Earl) Carter and “Bill” (William Jefferson) Clinton for a lot of this. I know that at least Clinton signed stuff with his full name, but I’m not sure about Carter. What would Mitt have done?

  180. 180.

    jl

    @David in NY: If HRC wins the nomination, she’ll have lots of nicknames. GOP will probably try to work them into their outreach program, though I am not sure how successful that will be.

  181. 181.

    ruemara

    Yikes. Was it done by his cousin? A blind wombat? Ms. Carchardontis’ 5th grade fine arts class? Hopefully, it was free. Mind you, the picture is probably smarter than the subject.

    Hmm. Do we know if the artist is a Democrat?

  186. 186.

    Amir Khalid

    I’m kind of late to this thread. But I found myself wondering if former commenter T&H had somehow scored the biggest commission of his artistic career.

  187. 187.

    Bruce Webb

    @David in NY:
    “Well, you’ve got to blame “Jimmy” (James Earl) Carter and “Bill” (William Jefferson) Clinton for a lot of this. I know that at least Clinton signed stuff with his full name, but I’m not sure about Carter. What would Mitt have done?”

    Yes thank God that ‘Jerry’ Ford, ‘Dick’ Nixon, ‘Ike’ Eisenhower never stooped so low. Nor ‘Dubya’ Bush or ‘Dutch’ Reagan. And you can only give ‘Jack’ Kennedy so much of a pass. And then you have ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt back in the day. Of them all the only one that I know of who insisted on signing his name other than his birth name was James Earl (who signed it either Jimmy or Jimmie) but it is not like 20th century presidents insisted on their names as seen on their birth certificates.

  190. 190.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    What is Republicans and the artists they chose for their portraits? That horrible.

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