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Rep. “Dee” Richard

Finally, at least one lege gets it!

Two committees of the LA Lege are meeting clandestinely on Thursday and Friday in Alexandria.  The purpose of the meeting is to decide who will represent us in the lege and on other governmental bodies after the 2010 Census.

From Tuesday’s Baton Rouge Business Report’s Daily Report, Jeremy Alford reports the following:

Rep. Jerome “Dee” Richard of Thibodaux, who has no party affiliation, has decided to boycott the gathering and is the only committee member to announce such intentions so far. “I’m not going to attend the meeting because it isn’t open to the public and the state is going to be paying per diems,” Richard says. “I don’t think that’s right.

Senator Jack Donahue, R-Mandeville, has said he wasn’t attending the meetings, but apparently not because of any principle.

The EWE standard prevails

Governor Edwin W. Edwards set the current low standard for politicians in LA: If it is legal then it is okay to do it.

Despite all his talk about morality and transparency, the Rhodes Scholar-in-chief has shown no indication that he has any higher standards than EWE.

The Rhodes Scholar’s hand-picked Speaker of the House and chairs of the two committees that are meeting are the ones who decided to exclude the taxpayers and media despite the fact that the taxpayers are funding the leges attending the meeting.

To see if your lege is a principled person like Richard or just another of the “good old boys,” like mine, go here and here.

Do we really want unprincipled leges determining who will represent us in the future?

Kudos to Rep. Richard for taking stand on principle and for the people.

C.B.

1 CB 8:00 am

On October 1 and 2 certain privileged members of the LA House and Senate are holding a taxpayer-funded, meeting in Alexandria which us citizens (their bosses) and the media are not allowed to attend.

The purpose of the meeting is to plan who will represent us in the lege after the 2010 Census.   It is the height of arrogance to make us pay for a meeting to discuss who shall represent and then tell us we can’t attend.

To get a sense of our leges contempt for us, one of those the attendees is Sen. Jody Amedee who during the last Regular Session justified keeping public records from the public by saying the information would only confuse us mullets.

To see if your Senator is one of the privileged and arrogant go here: http://senate.legis.state.la.us/Senate&Government/Assignments.asp

To see if your Representative is one of the privileged and arrogant go here: http://house.louisiana.gov/H_Cmtes/H_CMTE_HG.asp

I suggested to my lege that he not attend as long as the citizens and media aren’t allow.  He responded that he was planning on attending because he needed educating.  I can’t argue with his need to be educated, but his parents should have taught him right from wrong and humility.

C.B.

1 CB 8:00 am

You choose which is the most important; children or computers?

According to knowledgeable public servants, LA is about to fall off of a financial “cliff.”  Apparently, the Rhodes Scholar-in-chief has been out in the hinterlands of our state regaling the masses with all that HE has accomplished, he either doesn’t know or doesn’t care what is going on right under his nose in Baton Rouge.

We have been told that the poor, the elderly and the children of our state will lose many of their existing healthcare benefits unless the state can come up with $700 Million plus in state dollars to match available Federal Medicaid dollars.

While The Rhodes Scholar is out campaigning (for whatever office he will next seek), State Treasurer John Kennedy has rolled up his sleeves and is working on the fiscal problems about to befall our state.

Computers vs. people

Friday, while making an appearance on the statewide Moon Griffon radio show, Kennedy proposed another common sense approach to addressing the alleged “cliff.”

Kennedy is proposing that the state cancel or freeze an existing $150 to $200 Million contract for a new computer accounting system (which shows no promise of any return on the investment) and use the savings to match Federal Medicaid dollars.  The savings combined with the Federal match could produce over $600 Million in healthcare services for our people.

Kennedy poses a very straight forward option: computer accounting upgrades or our citizens lives?

The Rhodes Scholar should answer the question.  It’s solely within his control.

Thus far, the response of the Jindal Administration to Kennedy’s solutions to problems has been either stony silence, to throw up barriers to solutions or to pose more problems for which Kennedy must find solutions.

It’s long past time for The Rhodes Scholar to stop grandstanding to the masses and start doing the heavy lifting necessary to benefit the masses.

He should lead, follow, or get the hell out of Kennedy’s way.

C.B.

1 CB 8:00 am