Rep. Neil Abramson, an otherwise intelligent attorney, has proposed a House Rule allegedly to prevent intimidation of leges. See HR 46 here.

What Abramson proposes is really an effort to intimidate the public and overrule our First Amendment Rights.

Here’s the abstract from the proposed rule:

Provides procedures for the House of Representatives to censure or discipline
nonmembers for behavior which constitutes an attempt by the nonmember to compel,
coerce, or intimidate the member with the intent to influence the member’s conduct
in relation to his position or duty.

No rule needed

There are already laws on the books to deal with intimidation of public officials. See R.S. 14:122.2.

No definitions

There is no definition in Abramson’s proposed rule as to what constitutes “compelling,” “coercion” or “intimidation.” There’s a fine line between what a lege may consider compelling, coercion, intimidation and what others of us consider grass-roots lobbying.

It could easily be argued that any citizen, grass-roots lobbying group, blogger, talk radio host and certainly every paid lobbyists could be charged with trying to influence a member’s conduct. Even a newspaper editorial writer, columnist or reporter could be charged with trying to influence a lege.

Upon a written complaint by a lege, a citizen can be hauled before a lege committee, put under oath, questioned, and judged. If the citizen is found guilty by the leges, they can be prevented from appearing before the lege.

Guilty as charged

I hereby plead guilty of attempting to influence the leges by compelling them to vote against HR 46.

C.B.

At least he was being honest

“Please don’t ask me any questions; I don’t know what this bill does.” Sen. Danny Martiny, an attorney, presenting a House Bill on the Senate Floor.

There were no questions and the bill passed without a vote against it.

It’s how our laws are made, folks.

You can’t make this stuff up.

C.B.

He’s right; they’re wrong

Today, the Baton Rouge Advocate takes State Treasurer John Kennedy to task for pushing for fiscal responsibility and fiscal sanity in Louisiana. ( See editorial here.)

Reducing vacant positions

Kennedy wants to eliminate 5,000 vacant positions each year for 3 years. These are not warm bodies, but positions for which our tax dollars have been allocated.

The Advocate assumes that because the positions are funded that they are all needed. There is no evidence that every position in state government is needed. In fact, evidence is to the contrary.

The Advocate states: “[S]tate employment is now at its lowest level in 20 years,…”

So.

Impact on taxpayers

What the Advocate refers to is the number of jobs, not the payroll. Seventy percent of the cost of state government is payroll.

While the number of warm bodies drawing checks from the taxpayers has been reduced, (mostly due to the lack of recent disasters) the cost to the taxpayers, according to the Lege Auditor, since Jindal has been governor, has risen by over $600 Million.

The size of the payroll, not the body count is what affects we taxpayers’ wallets.

Based on the editorial writer’s thinking it would be good news if the state had only one employee even though the payroll increased.

He’s right

I could go on, but it would be useless since the Advocate buys ink by the barrel and paper by the ton; they can turn common sense into insanity if they choose.

Kennedy needs no defending. First, he is a highly-intelligent person who knows of what he speaks and can document it. Second, he’s right!

C.B.

He doesn’t have to lie

Dr. Loren Scott, not known as a critic of the “Huey P” Jindal administration, raises questions about some recent jobs figures put out by the state. ( Read story here.)

Many of us who live and work in Louisiana have been questioning the rosy employment and economic figures put out by the ethically-challenged head of economic development, Stephen Moret and other Jindal minions.

Scott says: “What they’re saying is we had 18,500 jobs gained in our rural areas. Well, I would challenge anybody to find where there’s 18,500 jobs in the rural areas of the state….” Advocate, March 14, 2012.

Scott says: “I think if someone in Baton Rouge, in our workforce commission had looked at these numbers they would never have put out data like this, I dont think…” Ibid.

It gets worse

On Saturday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics admits to a “glitch” in reporting LA’s employment stats.  The “glitch” calls into question all of their rosy reports about LA’s jobs situation.  See story here.

Knowing that “Huey P” will fire anyone in state government who goes against his wishes, who are you going to believe; a person who serves at the pleasure of Jindal or Dr. Scott?

I’m going with Scott.

C.B.

Moving day in Louisiana

One would think that Bobby Jindal and Stephen Moret would have figured out how to keep this existing IP plant in Minden from closing by making Louisiana more business-friendly.  Details of plant closing here.

But where’s the headlines in that. Better to bribe a company from out of state to come to Louisiana.

Perhaps the 60 souls that worked at the Minden plant can go to work at the GM plant in Shreveport, that is, if Moret can find anyone to keep the GM plant open. Or maybe they can work at the Avondale plant in Jefferson Parish, that is, if Moret can find anyone to keep the Avondale plant open.

C.B.

House Fiscal Hawks

It is no secret that the House Fiscal Hawks don’t have 53 votes to pass or kill legislation in the House of Representatives. Thus, like all underdogs they must make up for their lack of numbers by skill and cunning.

The Hawks have a solid 36 votes in the House. That is enough to stop any legislation that requires a 2/3’s vote.

Thursday, the Hawks skillfully attack another larger prey – the State’s Capital Outlay Budget.

House Bill 2 is the State Capital Outlay Bill. It only required a majority vote to pass the House. Lacking numbers to attack that “elephant” (billions of dollars) the Hawks held back and waited their chance.

Latest prey

House Bill 3 is the funding mechanism for 90% of the Capital Outlay Budget. HB 3 authorizes the issuance of state bonds to fund the “bond portion” of the Capital Outlay Budget. A very small portion of the budget is funded with cash.

Issuing state debt (bonds) requires a 2/3’s vote of both houses of the lege. That is mandated by the state constitution. Without HB 3 passing, only the cash portion of HB 2 will be funded.

In order to release HB 3, the Hawks want concessions from the Senate. They want the Capital Outlay Budget stripped of all non-state projects. It’s just common sense; STATE fund should only be used for STATE projects.

Among those non-state projects is the renovation of the Junior League of New Orleans’ headquarters. There are hundreds of similar, non-state, non-governmental projects in HB 2, but the Junior League’s project is so outrageous that it deserves special recognition.

Skill and cunning

The Fiscal Hawks are skilled hunters. They cannot slay the “elephant,” but they have removed the food and water from it. Without sustenance, the “elephant” dies.

Well-done, Hawks! Keep circling!

C.B.

Paul Rainwater

Yesterday the House Fiscal Hawks released a statement about their efforts to support the constitution and be fiscally responsible.  See release here.

The facts cut the legs out from under Bobby Jindal’s lackey, Paul Rainwater.

The budget problems couldn’t be too bad because Jindal left for an out-of-state conference for the rest of the week.

Help spread the word; Rainwater is just a scarecrow and he’s made of straw just like all of his threats.

C.B.

R.I.P. June 30, 2012 Killed by Bobby Jindal

Bobby Jindal has stood by quietly while his henchmen in the lege have terminated the office of State Inspector General (“IG”).

The IG was created in 1988 and made permanent by Jindal in 2008. The purpose of the office is to ferret out waste, fraud and corruption in the Executive Branch of government.

It is the only such office in state government where we mere citizens have to go to report waste, fraud and corruption.

When the IG’s funding ends at Midnight on June 30, we will have nowhere to go.

What to do

Numerous people have asked what they can do to restore the funding to the IG’s office. Technically, it merely requires an amendment to the State Budget (HB 1) adopted in the Senate Finance Committee.

However, in the world of political reality at our state capitol, the only way the IG’s funding can be restored is if Jindal tells the leges to put the funding back.

It’s more than ironic that a man who ran on a reform platform is now standing by watching one of his only reforms be destroyed without lifting a finger to stop it.

Please pass this message on to other LA citizens who mourn the loss of our IG.

C.B.

The bully

This past Friday the fiscal conservatives in the House passed a common sense amendment to remove from the state budget all the one-time funds.  After the vote, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Jim Fannin, had what can only be described as an emotional breakdown.

I’ve never seen a lege throw a childlike tantrum at the House podium. Fannin, in effect, said that he was taking his budget and going home.

The Fiscal Hawks removed less than $300 Million in one-time funds from a $25 Billion budget. Fannin said that as a result he was unable to explain any of the figures in the state budget. For the rest of the debate Fannin pouted and sulked like a child.

Prior to the amendment passing Fannin, in his best bullying fashion, had taken to the podium to threaten any lege who voted for the amendment. It was a shocking display of disrespect for his colleagues.

The back story

What Fannin seems to not understand is that the leges finally had enough of his condescending, overbearing, threatening, tactics.

Until Friday, Fannin has managed to restrain himself in public and thus has given the media and thus many in the public the erroneous impression that he is a gentleman. He’s anything but in private.

Even the meekest of us after being beaten up enough by a bully will eventually fight back regardless of the consequences. Friday, was last straw for many leges who had just been publicly threatened.

On Friday, the people of Louisiana got what they wanted – fiscally-responsible government and Fannin got what the deserved — his butt kicked.

Keep up the good work Hawks! The people are behind you.

C.B.

“Huey P” Jindal

It’s not too early to begin writing the legacy of Bobby Jindal.

A lot of conservatives in the national media are touting Jindal for Vice President of the United States. Either these conservatives are not fiscal conservatives or they are ignorant of who Jindal is.

While I would like to rid Louisiana of Jindal as soon as possible, I don’t wish to inflict him on my fellow Americans. So, I will begin the process of introducing the facts into the Jindal myth.

Jindal vs. Long

Bobby Jindal is doing his best to live up to and exceed the worst traits of the late Huey P. Long. Long was a ruthless, tyrant who ran our state in the 1930s who punished his “enemies” (anyone who didn’t do things his way) in every way but physical torture or at least we think he didn’t.

“Huey P” Jindal (his latest moniker) is following in Long’s footsteps. However, where Long merely used the poor people of our state to remain in power, he didn’t punish them.

Jindal, on the other hand, punishes the poor people of our state and merely ignores his “enemies” (anyone who doesn’t do his bidding without question).

Unlike Huey, Jindal lacks the guts to even face his enemies. Jindal orders his lackeys to threaten, intimidate and coerce his enemies.

The lackeys also lack the guts to address the enemies, so the lackeys take Jindal’s ire out on the little people of Louisiana. There two very recent examples of Jindal’s tactics.

Jindal punishes the people

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee stripped all of the funding from the governor’s office for the State’s Inspector General’s Office. The job of the IG is to ferret out waste, fraud and corruption in LA.

Jindal stood by and did nothing.  Friday, Jindal helped defeat an amendment to the State Budget to restore the funding for the IG.

The people punished by eliminating the IG effective July 1 was not the leges, it was you and me. The IG is the only place that we ordinary citizens have in state government to report waste, fraud and corruption.

Jindal is thus condoning corruption in our state.

Friday, a group of fiscally-conservative, Republican, leges tried to meet with Jindal to discuss alternatives to violating the state constitution by using one-time funds in the State Operating Budget. Jindal refused to meet with them.

Not only did Jindal refuse to meet with the leges, he ran out of the Capitol to avoid seeing them. Jindal went to New Orleans to dedicate two industrial cranes at the Port of New Orleans.

The fiscally-conservative leges ultimately prevailed and removed the illegal funds from the state budget.

Jindal’s reaction was to send out a threatening letter in retaliation for the leges removing to the illegal funds. Jindal will now cut healthcare for poor, elderly and children. He will also cut funding for Higher Education which only hurts our young people who we would like to see remain in our state after graduation.

These actions are of tyrant who is afraid of the leges so he takes out his wrath on those who can’t fight back. That is a true definition of a coward.

A work in progress

What you just read is the real Bobby Jindal. There’s more to come as the real Jindal continues to unfold and his legacy is written by us.

If anyone has direct contact with the national media conservatives, please pass this on to them in an effort to save America from Bobby Jindal.

Thank you.

C.B.