Posts filed under ‘Uncategorized’
Louisiana Transparency – Smoke and Mirrors
by CB Forgotston
This morning as I was checking the lege website, it dawned on me how fortunate we are in Louisiana to have such transparency in the Legislative Branch of state government.
There is not a better, more user-friendly, governmental website in Louisiana and probably not in the nation. It does everything, but ring one’s phone to announce a bill one is tracking is being debated. They will probably add that soon.
If you haven’t used it yet, check it out here. You will get your money’s worth for your tax dollars spent on it.
Contrast with Executive
The lege site should be an embarrassment to the Jindal Administration which has gone backwards in the last 5 years in terms of transparency on every website in the Executive Branch. On many of their websites one cannot (more…)
Add comment April 22, 2013 9:16 am
Did He Really Write That?
By C..B. Forgotston
A member of the Crack Mullet Research Team was busy putting in some overtime this morning when he received an email from Bobby Jindal.
Among other things in Bobby’s message to his “friends” was this startling statement: “The folks in Washington could take a page out of our playbook in Louisiana and make government live within its means instead of taking money out of the private sector economy to grow government.”
In other words, Bobby is suggesting that the people at the U.S. Capitol emulate, fiscally, what he has done at the Louisiana Capitol.
Here’s what Jindal has (more…)
Add comment March 2, 2013 5:19 pm
Muscle in 3132 Venue Decision – How Heavy is G?
by Elliott Stonecipher
Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover
If attorneys representing Mayor Cedric Glover, the Northwest Louisiana Council of Governments (NLCOG) and Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development (LDOTD) succeed, the court action into the termination of the Hwy. 3132 Extension to the Port of Caddo-Bossier will be moved away from Shreveport to the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge.
Where can we go eat?
Glover’s attorney Ron Lattier, NLCOG’s attorney Jerry Jones, and LDOTD’s attorney, Jimmy Faircloth, have filed a long list of lawsuit “Exceptions,” including the request for change of “venue,” the location of any court proceedings. The subject WKHS and Coalition lawsuit asks the Caddo Parish court in Shreveport to stop any further development in a possible new route for the 3132 Extension until so-called “feasibility” studies are completed according to the requirements of all state and federal law.
Documents obtained over the past 18 months by the Coalition – and presented (more…)
Add comment October 16, 2012 6:06 pm
Louisiana Poverty Rate increases 9+% in One Year!
When the poverty rate increases from 18.7% to 20.4% of the population you better start watching which side of the 20.4% line you live. Hearing Mitt Romney discuss the 47% we consider where we fall in terms of relying on public benefits to “get by.” However, there are many more than the 20.4% who rely on the public services just to be in the 47%.
The full story of the 9% increase in Louisiana’s poverty rate in one year is only the tip of the problem. These numbers are actually rather old – ONE YEAR OLD! See the full story here
Full Story: Share of Louisianans with health insurance remains steady, median income continues to fall
By Steve Spires
Add comment September 20, 2012 4:20 pm
Winding Down 2012 Legislative Session – The Golden Rule!
by CB Forgotston
We constantly hear the leges whining about how much power the governor of Louisiana has and how little they have.
The myth
First, that belief is a myth and is not based on our state constitution. The only power in our constitution that all governors in America don’t have is the power of line-item veto of “money bills.”
The rest of our governor’s power comes from abdication by the leges of their power over the purse.
The primary thing that the governor has by which to lord over the leges is money. Not money to run the state, but (more…)
Add comment June 2, 2012 4:22 pm
It’s Not LIP (Legacy In Progress) for Jindal
When Huey Long was campaigning for governor of Louisiana, he wrote some clever slogans and songs. He was a more radical populist at the time than FDR (Franklin D Roosevelt). Nationally, Huey captured the public’s imagination and controlled every facet of Louisiana life in the 1930s. He fostered and expanded public education and public demonstrations of Louisiana success such as the LSU Golden Band from Tiger Land. Huey knew the value of public demonstrations.
Huey P Jindal – Leader of the Band!
One song Huey is credited with writing began: “Every man a king, for you can be a millionaire…” Back in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the word “millionaire” meant that a person was rich beyond the dreams of mere mortals. Long used it to suggest that everyone could and (more…)
Add comment May 14, 2012 8:00 am
PUBLIC EDUCATION “TOWN HALL”
A HEART-RENDING EVENING
AT FAIR PARK HIGH SCHOOL
by Elliott Stonecipher
At 9:30 last night, I walked to my car from Fair Park High School’s front door. Greenwood Road was nearly deserted, and my drive home was just as quiet. Caddo Parish School Board member Curtis Hooks’ education “town hall” had begun three hours earlier, and I, along with the several dozen citizens who attended, I’d bet, were emotionally drained.
A panelist at Curtis’ invitation, I watched and listened in rapt attention, and no small amount of sadness, as speaker after speaker shook fist after fist at the gods of cultural and political change. Their remonstrations did not fall on deaf ears; I agreed with them far more than I agree with Louisiana’s new education dictators.
Governor Bobby Jindal has drawn a line in Louisiana’s public education dirt, and on the other side is a boiling cauldron of dumped-on traditional public education supporters. (more…)
Add comment April 20, 2012 2:05 pm
IS BOSSIER ABOUT TO VOTE AWAY THEIR LONG-STANDING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE?
NEW PARISH POPULATION GROWTH / DECLINE DATA by Elliott Stonecipher
Ten parish area data
Latest U. S. Census Bureau annual population estimates show more of the same for Northwest Louisiana parishes: Bossier Parish with largest population gains, DeSoto and Webster Parishes growing very little, and Caddo not much better.
Between July 1, 2010 and July 1, 2011, Census Bureau data show Bossier’s population grew by 2,189, +1.9%, and Caddo Parish added 1,438 people, +0.6%. Population growth in Webster Parish was 45 new residents, a +0.1% gain, and DeSoto Parish added 80 people, +0.3%.
“Official population estimates” from the Census Bureau are derived from a mix of data sources, key among which are actual birth and death data gathered by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), and for the population migration component of the Estimates, from the Bureau’s American Community Survey data.
For those who care to know more about the (more…)
Add comment April 11, 2012 9:13 am
Mudslinging in South Louisinana Hurts
St. Bernard Parish in need of image overhaul
By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch
Hurricane Katrina-ravaged St. Bernard Parish recently wrapped up a long negative media blitz that bombarded markets from Gonzales to Biloxi, Miss., with cutting depictions of the community’s political landscape, portraying back-room dealing, general cronyism, corruption — even adultery, kidnapping and candidate-induced death.
YouTube screen grabOne campaign advertisement showed the current St. Bernard president bedecked in a Napoleon costume and riding a pig.Still down about half its pre-Katrina population and trying desperately to attract new residents and businesses, many say the aftermath of this fall’s elections has left St. Bernard with a bruised image that needs tending. The past few months, Louisiana and Mississippi residents watched, at times amused, at times confused, and often shocked, as a barrage of televisions spots jutted between their favorite shows.
One campaign advertisement showed the current St. Bernard president bedecked in a Napoleon costume and riding a pig as money fell from the sky and a narrator (more…)
Add comment November 27, 2011 2:04 pm
Coastline Slowly Suffocates from BP Oil Spill
Storms were predicted for soggy, marshy Plaquemines Parish, La., this weekend, which means the odds are good that another layer of oil will be swept up out of the Gulf of Mexico and deposited onto another 10 feet or so of the parish’s grassy marshes.
In about a week, the thick, globby oil will have started suffocating the grass, transforming it to a sickly and dead glistening brown, just as it has been transforming hundreds of feet of marsh following the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which loosed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf.
Everything living in the doomed marsh grass, of course, will suffer the same fate as the grass itself, unless someone acts quickly to clean the gelatinous mess from the hapless birds and beasts. If not quickly cleansed, a spot of oil on the breast of a pelican in short order becomes a death sentence, breaking down the bird’s natural protective oils coating (more…)
Add comment November 27, 2011 1:45 pm
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