forgotston.com

Spinmeister n. Slang A spin doctor. A public relations person who tries to forestall negative publicity by publicizing a favorable interpretation of the words or actions of a company or political party or famous person. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009.

Louisiana’s Rhodes Scholar-in-chief is a spinmeister. Here is his latest effort:

The good news

On Wednesday, the spinmeister sent out an email blast ( see here) to his loyal followers. On the subject line was listed: “More New Jobs.”

The positive sounding message reports:

[It has been] an historic year for job creation in our state, and in Northeast Louisiana in particular where in the past year we have announced economic development wins that will create more than 10,000 jobs.

The Scholar offers no documentation of these 10,000 jobs. Nor does The Scholar say how much of the taxpayers’ money he expended to secure these jobs that may come to be at some unknown date in the future.

The rest of the story

Also, on Wednesday, we learned that Louisiana has lost 44,000 jobs (documented by Bobby’s own people) during the most recent 12 months that The Scholar has been our governor. (See story here.)

Perhaps it will be of some comfort during the holidays for the 44,000 who previously were employed that somewhere in Louisiana at sometime in the future there may be a job for one in four of them.

Otherwise, it appears to be just political spin to focus our attention from the real problems (a massive looming deficit, a bloated state budget, a poor public education system, high insurance rates, a high poverty rate, etc., etc.) facing the citizens of our state which The Scholar simply ignores as flies around the country raising money for and promoting himself.

Those of us who live in Louisiana would be better served if we got more steak with that sizzle.

C.B.

1 CB 8:00 am

Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court “Kitty” Kimball attempts to defend the integrity of judges in the New Orleans area against comments made by some U.S. Congressmen. ( Story here.) These “outsiders” seem to think that there is corruption in the New Orleans area. Imagine that!

Perhaps that perception is a result of the fact that the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Orleans has, in recent years, been putting away corrupt public officials, including a disproportionate number of judges, in record numbers.

Some of the Chief Justice’s points are not comforting to me as a citizen and lawyer in Louisiana.

Her point:

“Let me assure you that New Orleans state judges, as well as judges throughout the entire state of Louisiana, operate under a very strict Code of Judicial Conduct and are subject to some of the most stringent financial disclosure rules in the country,” …. Ibid.

My discomfort:

As anyone who keeps up with Louisiana knows, ethics and financial disclosure laws per se are not exactly scaring our public officials into going straight. This is especially a problem in our state since those charged with enforcing the laws are loathed to do so or in the case of the ethics laws enforcement has been gutted by the lawmakers themselves.

To quote Aristotle: “Good laws, if they are not obeyed, do not constitute good government.”

Her point:

[W]hile “it is true that, as with any profession, there are a few incidents of alleged misconduct,” the vast majority of Louisiana judges work hard and do their jobs well. Ibid.

My discomfort:

It’s good to hear that a substantial majority of our judges are working hard and doing their jobs well. It begs the question of how many aren’t?

“Alleged” misconduct? I’m certainly no legal scholar like the Justice, but Judges that have been found guilty of crimes and those removed from the bench were not based on “alleged” misconduct.

She compares crooked judges to other crooked professionals.  However, the difference between judges and members of other professions citizens have a choice of professionals. If we don’t think a person is ethical, honest, capable or hardworking, we are free to get another lawyer, CPA or physician.

However, with judges, we don’t have that option. Whether it is a civil case or a criminal case, we are assigned a judge and for the most part, we are stuck with them.

Perception is reality

To quote the late writer and philosopher Elbert Hubbard: “No explanation ever explains the necessity of making one.”

Perhaps we should pay attention to the “outsiders.” How others view us is very important when it comes to the reputation of our state and our ability to grow and prosper economically.

I’d much rather have heard from the Chief Justice that we have a problem and that we are working to correct it. That would be much more comforting to me.

C.B.

1 CB 8:00 am

We keep hearing that state government in Louisiana is on the brink of going off of a financial “cliff.”  Yet, The Rhodes Scholar-in-chief remains disengaged from the efforts to address what we are being told is looming budgetary revenue shortfall of $1 Billion for the fiscal year beginning next July.

The crux of the financial problem is a result of an increase in the state match for Federal Medicaid money.  The problem for next fiscal year is near $1 Billion and will increase in future years as costs and numbers of people on Medicaid grow.

The only public official who seems to be the least concerned about such a huge problem is State Treasurer John Kennedy.

Recently, we got a clue of what some suspected — the fiscal problem is not as immediate as we were led to believe.    In a story ( here) in Wednesday’s Baton Rouge paper are these comments:

[Charles Castille, undersecretary of the state Department of Health and Hospitals] said the federal government may come through with a two-year reprieve on increased state costs in the Medicaid program.

Based on reports from D.C. the “reprieve” will be a part of the deal to secure the favorable votes of Congressman Joseph Cao and Senator Mary Landrieu on the national healthcare legislation.

The Scholar is not concerned because a “two-year reprieve” will get him through the final two budget years of his administration.   Apparently, that is the only thing that matters to The Scholar.  Kennedy, on the other hand, is looking at our state’s future beyond The Scholar’s administration.

Now, we know why The Scholar is not worried.

C.B.

1 CB 8:00 am