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Whenever the idea that LA’s public officials are corrupt is raised, publicly, in response we get righteous indignation from our elected officials. We are dutifully informed that it is merely a perception based on ancient history in LA. Well, the reason that our public officials are perceived as corrupt is because they are. And it is NOT ancient history.

In his Sunday column in the Daily Monopoly, James Gill’s exposes present day corruption. (See column here.) Not only is the official corrupt, but he is the person who is supposed to be a paid, public, “watchdog” on behalf of the taxpayers.

This is the guy that we told Congress would be looking over every penny of disaster relief money that they sent us to make sure that none was spent in violation of the law. If any of the Congressman who were skeptical about our ability to safeguard the taxpayers money are reading this column, they must be rolling on the floor laughing.

There’s only one reason that public officials in LA are perceived as corrupt. It is because they prove it every day.

One of the things that we hear from the “Heh, Heh, Heh,” Ethics Board is they are in existence to prevent conflicts of interest amongst our public officials. Wonder how they missed this one?

There is only one way to restore public confidence in the Office of Legislative Auditor. Steve Theriot needs to resign his position as Legislative Auditor. If not, he should be removed by a two-thirds vote of the leges. They can do so in the upcoming Special Session.

Kudos to James Gill for shining the light of day on current corruption in LA.

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am

According to the story in Monday’s Daily Monopoly some folks are proposing the building of a drag strip in the marshy area of eastern New Orleans. While it may seem silly on the surface particularly in this Post-Katrina era, it is truly a brilliant idea. In addition to the drag racing, the developers propose having boat drag racing later.

Actually, the boat drag racing is the only thing that makes sense. That way when the next flood comes to the East, the auto drag racing stops and the boat drag racing begins.

I’m not making this up. Only in New Orleans!

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am

Yesterday, with great fanfare, Governor Blanco announced a $100 Million expansion of the Formosa Plastics Plant in Baton Rouge.

It is interesting how little attention a $3 BILLION expansion of the Marathon Refinery in Garyville (See story here.) has gotten from our top elected and appointed officials in LA. Where are the politicians and bureaucrats helping Marathon get approval for its proposed expansion?

All the recent attention from our public officials has gone to a couple of maybe, perhaps, pie-in-the-sky, media attention-grabbing, long-shots. They are focused on Kuwait building a refinery in LA someday and a German steel mill that economic development guru Mike Olivier has already all but written-off and blamed the loss on a newspaper report. The Marathon project is the same size or larger than these two long-shots.

Why are existing businesses in LA ignored and those businesses not even here wooed? Apparently, the politicians and bureaucrats aren’t excited about traveling to places in LA like Garyville. They’d rather travel to the Far East and Europe.

Perhaps if the media would stop writing about the long-shots and the self-congratulatory staged media events by the politicians and focused on the reality of what IS happening, the politicians and bureaucrats might start actually accomplishing something and thus help those businesses that are already here.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. In other words, most of the growth in our economy is going to come from those of us who are already here. The Formosa and Marathon expansions are proof. Where’s the attention on the rest of the local businesses?

C.B.

Uncategorized CB 8:00 am