Round Robineer

The Chosen One: John Roberts

2005-07-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

Bush annoints 50-year-old youngin John Roberts to the Supreme Court. His politics tells you where he stands on most issues. The only question I have is where does he come down on "enemy combatants" being held down in Gitmo? Security in the face of terrorism will be the most significant issue in the next 25 years. It all comes down to private rights vs. public rights. That's the only questions Democrats might be able to fight this appointment on since Senate Republicans have a majority of votes.

21 St. Charles Parish officials didn't get the Hawaii memo: Don't go

2005-07-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

Across the country and right here in Looweezieanna, polticians and their co-horts took a hint from the negative newspaper articles about National Whatever Conference in Hawaii: Don't go. It's a waste of taxpayer dollars. Even corrupt New Olreans had sense enough to only send one person. 21 St. Charles Parish officials, however, must not have read the paper this year. Everybody in government went, it seems. Even the parish Director of the Retired Services Volunteer Program went. Which brings up another question. Why is there a director for this program? Shouldn't it be a volunteer by definition?

Gov. Blanco vetos

2005-07-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

I see the Queen Bee vetoed several spending bills, such as a $60,000 per year Oil City museum director's job. Only the vetos didn't go far enough. What about the health care payments to legislators like Joe McPhearson and Mike Michot, who both own health-care related companies. Chew the fat governor, then spit it out.

Hurricane "Stephanie"

2005-07-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

You gotta love animated Weather Channel anchor/meterologist Stephanie Abrams, waving her hands and giving War-like commentary about Hurricane Dennis. "Someone is going to take it on the chin" and "Someone is going to get nailed" she says just before going to commercials. Of course, Hurricane Dennis is serious. Two people in Pensacola have already been killed. One woman had a heart attack in a shelter and a boy was killed in a car accident as his family was evacuating, according to the Pensacola News Journal.

Jefferson Parish evacuation; Wrong call Aaron Broussard

2005-07-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

On Friday, as Hurricane Dennis struck Cuba, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard wrongly called for an evacuation of the WHOLE parish. Why not just the lower part of the parish, i.e., Grand Isle and Lafitte. No wonder people don't know who to listen to prior to a major hurricane coming. Rightly, people go with their gut feelings on these things, and not officials. The prediction is when the next big one comes and Aaron calls for an evacuation, people won't bother to listen to him. He says he wanted the hords of people to avoid traffic nightmares of Hurricane Ivan last year. He might have been a bit gun shy given the mess created by state police for Ivan. Of course, most people listened to Jim Cantori predict correctly that Dennis was headed to the Florida Panhandle.

Social Security quick fix

2005-06-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

Here's an e-mail floating around the Internet that made it into my in-box. I don't know who the author is. Do we ever know who the author is of these kinds of e-mails. Sounds like a good idea, though.

"SOCIAL SECURITY:
(This is worth reading. It is short and to the point.)

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years.
Our Senators and Congresswomen do not pay into Social Security and, of course, they do not collect from it.
You see, Social Security benefits were not suitable for persons of their rare elevation in society. They felt they should have a special plan for themselves. So, many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan.
In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. After all, it is a great plan.
For all practical purposes their plan works like this:
When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die.
Except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments..
This is calculated on an average life span for each of those two Dignitaries. For example, Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives.
Younger Dignitaries who retire at an early age, will receive much more during the rest of their lives.
Their cost for this excellent plan is $0.00. NADA....ZILCH....
This little perk they voted for themselves is free to them. You and I pick up the tab for this plan. The funds for this fine retirement plan come directly from the General Funds;
"OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK"!
From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into,-every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer)-we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.
Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years and one (1) month to equal Senator! Bill Bradley's benefits!
Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made.
That change would be to:
Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us.
then sit back.....
and watch how fast they would fix it."

CAFTA: Sugar bust

2005-06-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

The Senate approved CAFTA, which benefits rice farmers in Louweezieanna because our friends south of the border don't grow rice, but hurts the many family run sugar cane farms because there's a lot of sweet gold in Central America. Both Landrieu and Vitter voted against CAFTA. Now it goes to the House in August, where our Reps will vote against it also, and where it has a slim chance of getting defeated. But in the end, cheaper imports ultimately means better prices for consumers, but the eventual loss of family farms in the Pelican State. Seems like the sugar lobby ain't what it use to be. Maybe we should put tolls up in Lake Charles to collect a fee on all of the imports that will be flowing east on I-10 to Yankee land.

"We're making progress," Bush says

2005-06-28T18:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, President Bush, we know we're making progress in building schools, health clinics, supplying water and electricity to homes and all of the other infrastructure things that can happen if taxpayer money is poured onto a dirt road. The troops coming home tell us this is happening.
But if we are making progress in stopping the insurgency, which is what you implied over and over again in your speech tonight, stop lying. As of this moment in history, the insurgency is killing more people than ever, though not Americans but Iraqis.
We (Americans) believe in your call for freedom for Iraqis, Mr. President, but don't lie to us. That's how we got into this in the first place. Because the lies are building up, the trust by Americans in your call to action is falling.

War on terrorism

2005-06-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Where are these bombs coming from that the terrorist use in Iraq and Afganistan? Seems to me that we are trying to fight individual insurgents instead of the source of the insurgency, which is the maker and suppliers of the bombs. Are these bombs from Syria, Iran, Palestine? And who is getting rich from making these bomb parts. American forces, in our declaration of war against terrorism anywhere in the world, should follow the money and go after the makers of the bombs.

Second woman found dead

2005-06-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

In Jefferson Davis Parish, a second woman has been found dead in or near a body of water south of Jennings in the past month, the Lake Charles American Press reports. The first woman, Lynn Chaisson Lewis, 29, of Jennings, was found May 20. There are no suggestions of physical injuries to her. But the second woman, found partially nude early Saturday morning, had obvious physical injuries, Sheriff Ricky Edwards said. This is interesting, but if I had family and friends in Jennings, I wouldn't be worried just yet. Now, if a third body is found in the next month or two without any clues, I'm gonna start to worry.

Hurricane contraflow plan out of Big Easy isn't the problem

2005-06-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

Both the Advocate and the Times-Pic report on the new hurricane evaucation plan with a new map available. The new plan, I'm sure is good, but I don't think the plan, or lack of one, during Hurricane Ivan was the problem. Everybody knows you've got to get people out of the saucer cup of New Orleans by opening all lanes of traffic to flow out, not into the city. For Hurricane Ivan, N.O. area officials begged state police to start the contraflow plan, but state police waited and waited to make the call, then had to play catch up in getting troopers in position. The plan was not the problem, it was the execution. Sort of like the Saints for most of the past 39 years. It was the small problems that made the plan worse. Red lights were turned green up and down Highway 90, but small town cops along the way gave tickets to people trying to get out of town. Then once people were on the highway, there was no place to go, except the parking lot of Wal-Marts along the way.
In the Advocate article, officials lay blame on the people getting out of town for slow traffic: "Problems that slowed traffic during Ivan included breakdowns and signs that were too hard to read, forcing drivers to slow excessively" The solution: Put tow trucks on the highways to drag people's cars away. Give me a break.
Fine, you have a new map, a new plan. Now execute the darn thing state police.
Go to the Times-Pic Web site to find out where to get the map and plan: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1119076097174710.xml

Candy busted by small town cops

2005-06-18T07:13:00.000-07:00

This would have never happened back in the day. The Daily Advertiser reports that Candy Edwards, former wife of former Gov. Edwin Edwards, was pulled over in Port Barre Friday night for speeding and driving with a suspended license. She was arrested and booked into jail after telling the officer she would not be arrested, that she would have the officer's job, walking away from the officer while being handcuffed, and trying to make a call on a cell phone while in the back seat of the cruiser, though the article doesn't exactly explain how that was attempted. Driving on Highway 190 west through the speed traps of Port Barre, she had to be headed to visit Mr. Innocence himself in the federal pen in Oakdale, less than an hour up the same highway.
The Port Barre police chief threw down the gauntlet, but saying he is going to back his officer on this arrest.
We'll find out now how much stroke the ex-governor still has left in him after he finds out about this. I'm sure Edwins friend, attorney Mike Fawer will come to her aide. But at some point, you gotta believe a legislator, a councilman or some state bureaucrat is going to try to withhold funding from the police department, or misplace a grant application. The officer might not get fired, but remember this is Louisiana, the town police department is going to suffer somehow.
Look for the Free Candy bumper stickers now alongside the Free Edwin stickers.

Feds pecking away at Morial

2005-06-17T06:26:00.000-07:00

The Times-Picayune report's today on corruption at City-Hall, in which several low level Morial supporters are indicted for inflating bills to Johnson Controls in the name of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The interesting part here, because corruption in New Orleans is almost taken for granted now, is that U.S. Attorney Jim Letten didn't let Marc Morial off the hook. Letten is quoted, "I simply have to say that I am not in a position to speculate about that or provide any information other than to say that we have no preconceived notions about where any case goes." There's a trial in Cleveland in which the feds are going after Morial's top housing aide and manager of political campaigns. The tell-tale sign here is that the feds are pecking away at Morial, and even if they don't get him on corruption, they'll get his reputation. Check out the story for yourself, www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1118987996223610.xml

No talking behind the curtain

2005-06-16T07:09:00.000-07:00

Who you gonna call? Seems a bill is about the pass that would prevent you from using a cell phone or other electronic device (blackberry) in a voting booth. The Advocate quotes the sponsor of the bill as saying he doesn't want people in the booth getting calls on how to vote. What's he afraid of?

Double talk

2005-06-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

Are they with us or against us? Many of the state Republicans who said they would have voted agaist the cigarette tax for teachers because, well, they are against more taxes, voted for the 1.5 percent tax increase for public and private hospitals. How you explain that to the teachers. Apparently, the hospital tax works much like the Minimum Foundation Program for local school district funding. The more you tax yourself, the more reimbursement money you get from Big Brother. In the MFP case, the more parish voters tax themselves for education, the more local school districts get from the state Department of Education. In the hospital tax case, the more the state taxes hospitals, the more they get in Medicaid reimbursement to pay for poor people's health care.

Worth quoting

2005-06-15T20:11:00.000-07:00

"We are dropping like flies," said Evangline Parish Police Jury Secretary-Treasurer Doug Deville.
Mitchell Ardoin became the second police juror to be indicted for malfeasance in office and public payroll charges. Marc E. Guillory plead guilty to malfeasance and public payroll fraud charges this week. Apparently, Ardoin was paying a friend with taxpayer money for work that wasn't done. Guillory admitted using an inmate to do private work. Seems District Attorney Brent Coreil is willing to take on public corruption in a good ole boy parish where they take a day off from school for the opening of hunting season. Coreil must not be running for reelection.

Taxpayers in bondage

2005-06-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

I heard on Jeff's radio show this morning, 1240 A.M., that the state bond commission is meeting this week to consider approving the refinancing of $330,000 or so in debt for a hospital in New Iberia. Somebody explain to me why I and other taxpayers are going to extend the debt of a hospital? Why doesn't the hospital go to a mortgage broker or bank like the rest of the private sector to finance or refinance projects. Hospitals get state backed money all of the time. What makes them different from a restaurant or architect's firm or a Web-based company, for that matter?

Cigarette tax down in flames

2005-06-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

Her people are trying to soften the blow as much as possible, but the fact that Gov. Kathleen Blanco couldn't get the votes to pass the cigarette tax is a major defeat. It shows she doesn't have the stroke of Gov. Foster or Edwards.

Gimme and my friends another year, Peppi says

2005-06-12T16:05:00.000-07:00

State Rep. Peppi Bruneau of New Orleans wants to give every politician in the state another year in office under a bill that passed the House to combine state and federal elections in the same year. The states constitutional amendment on three terms for legislators would be extended one last time by another year to coinside the presidential election with state and local elections. The arguement is an election on the same day for your sheriff, city councilman, governor, secretary of state, treasurer, and other state offices, along with president and congress would save taxpayers $6.3 million out of a $19 billion state budget. The bill awaits approval or rejection from the Senate. The same bill failed miserably last year in the Senate. Here's why, according to Jeff David, publisher of the Livingston Parish News:
"Presidential campaigns eat up political contributions like a hungry Pac Man. United States Senate and congressional races also occur on presidential election dates, further soaking up what political money is available. If all statewide races and all parish races in Louisiana are placed on the same ballot, those seeking offices at the bottom of that ballot will find most of the fruit picked by the time they get to the orchard.
"Having Louisiana elections in the years preceding presidential ballots helps local and state politicians raise the money they need to run a campaign. Political money is not a huge factor for veteran urban legislators like Peppi Bruneau who are blessed with districts where voters are much more focused on city issues than on state problems. But in other more competitive legislative districts, incumbent legislators can easily see how the proposed change could make fundraising much more difficult. Everyone will be clamoring for political contributions at the same time, including presidential candidates who, in this modern era, spend more than $100 million to run.
"That's why Peppi Bruneau's bill got beat 27-9 in the Senate last year after passing the House with more than 70 votes. And that's why it's likely to meet a similar fate this year."

Cigarette tax

2005-06-12T14:57:00.000-07:00

How ironic. The state Senate wants to snuff out smoking in public places, and the governor is encouraging people to smoke to give teachers a raise. What a joke.

Coach pays recruit

2005-06-12T14:39:00.000-07:00

We'll, it's nothing we haven't heard before in the college ranks. Anybody remember Lester Earl from LSU. The Lafayette paper drops a bombshell Sunday on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette by reporting that Coach Lee gave money to a recruit. The story allows the recruit to make all kinds of accusations, and sets up the AD to be a liar based on the recruits statements. Only thing is, we don't know why the recruit is making the accusations now, and Lee is never given the opportunity to respond in the story. Take a look yourself, http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050612/NEWS01/506120377/1002

Getting started

2005-06-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

I created this blog on June 12, 2005, because after the loss of Deduct Box and Timshel, I can't find a good Louisiana political commentary blog. The name Round Robin stems from the orginal 15 men who bailed Huey Long out of impeachment and subsquently became more wealthy from the good ole politics of the day. The Web site address, La Louisiane, is named after that famous News Orleans restaurant where deals often were made politicians in hearing distance of federal wiretaps, which helped shape our great state. All of this is done to offer political commentary and views on other aspects of Louisiana. What do I know about Louisiana? Nothing more than living here and reading the newspaper. We'll have fun.
Round Robin