The Lieutenant Governor's race might be a lot more interesting than we thought.
John Georges is calling around and has been assembling a team of operatives for a run for Lieutenant Governor.
Signs point to a run as either an independent or as a Republican, although a run as a Democrat (as he is currently registered) is not completely out of the question. If he switched party registration again, this would be his third switch in 10 years.
Cross-posted from Facing South, article by Bill Quigley
Eight young people, who the Fire Department said were "trying to stay warm," perished in a raging fire early Tuesday morning in New Orleans. The young people were squatting in an abandoned wood framed tin walled warehouse in a Ninth Ward neighborhood bordering a large train yard. The young people apparently had a barrel with wood burning in it for heat. Officials said this was the city's most deadly fire in 25 years.
The eight young people, estimated to be in their late teens and early twenties, remain unidentified. "We don't know their IDs," said the Fire Department, "they were so burned we cannot even tell their genders."
Even as President Barack Obama agrees to keep Bush-era tax cuts, a consensus is still lacking on an extension of tax credits needed to rebuild New Orleans' Big Four housing developments, as well as other Gulf Coast complexes.
Tucked away in the massive tax bill Obama is trying to pass in the last days of the current session of Congress -- before a new Republican majority takes over the U.S. House of Representatives -- are several affordable-housing incentives critical to the Gulf Coast and in particular New Orleans. But while Obama has conceded to Republicans by agreeing to extend tax cuts for the wealthy if they agree to, among other things, extend emergency unemployment benefits, there is no word on whether the final bill will include the critical affordable housing incentives written into earlier versions.
A federal jury last night convicted three current or former New Orleans police officers in connection with the death of Henry Glover, a 31-year old man who was shot by a police officer and died in custody shortly after Hurricane Katrina tore through Louisiana in 2005.
Artist Colin Miller, a Lafayette native, will be having an opening of some of his latest work at The Darkroom in New Orleans with an opening this Saturday from 6-9pm.
I think first since this is a political blog we have to comment on his recent focus on Political items.In this show much of his political work of the last year will be front and center, perhaps most notably “Candidate” (featured here).Miller has an amazing way of looking at current events and making a statement about them.It seems to me, and I am no profession art critic, that each and every one of his works all have the initial “GRAB” that pulls you in but in each and every one there is so much to see, so much to consider and so much to realize as you spend time with the work that it never ages.
From Miller’s Artist Statement:
“I think of my current work as a species of activism. It is my way of processing and venting my frustrations about American politics and mass media as our culture descends into the deafening chatter of reality television, celebrity icons, and junk food politics. I seek to report on the gulf between our unrealistic perception of ourselves and the realities of social injustice, war, and economic collapse – and the role that mass media plays in widening this gap. As mass media turns our politics into entertainment, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish reality from fiction. Years of experience as an actor and my lifelong interest in politics feed my work as a visual artist. In my work, I create scenes, using photographic portraiture, often self-portraiture, to elicit the idea of news as spectacle. Drawing on historical materials, I synthesize the real and the imagined to encourage new insight.”
As someone who works a great deal with the technical aspects of what Miller does I can tell you his is nothing short of inspiring in the way he can accomplish his work in what seems like an effortless and simple way – trust me it is neither.The attention to detail Mr. Miller has to pay to his work and the amount of skill he employs is nothing short of Masterful (not to mention enviable).
I strongly encourage all Daily Kingfish reader to rush to this showing.The show opens this Saturday and runs through January at The Darkroom (1927 Sophie Wright Place, New Orleans).Run, don’t walk.
"An Inconvenient Truth" director Davis Guggenheim's latest documentary, "Waiting for 'Superman,'" opened this month in theaters nationwide. An examination of the state of U.S. public education, the film has sparked controversy for its criticism of teachers' unions and promotion of charter schools. But are breaking teachers' unions and establishing charter schools really the formula for educational success? We look at some numbers from New Orleans, where an experiment launched in the wake of Hurricane Katrina decimated the teachers' union and made it the U.S. city with the greatest portion of public schools that are charters -- with mixed results.
The disciplinary file on the New Orleans Police Department's Dwayne Scheuermann is inches thick -- as thick as any on the police force.
The lieutenant has weathered more than 50 separate complaints, ranging from accusations of brutality, to rape, to improper searches and seizures. But none of the allegations has ever stuck, although two complaints are still pending. Every time, Scheuermann was cleared and sent back onto the streets.
He has also fired his gun in at least 15 different incidents, wounding at least four people. Experts on police practices say the number is unusual -- most officers never fire their weapons.
Look, I get it.Your candidate didn’t win the primary.You are upset.But you need to realize what is truly at stake in this election.
The results of LA-02 could very well determine if John Boehner holds the Speaker’s gavel or not – that is no joke.Heck, Fox News is already taking a victory lap each and every day that they have defeated the President.While I do not for one second believe that we are going to see this WAVE that the talking heads are predicting – wiping away all democrats with it… I do think we are going to have much closer margins in each house of congress.And LA-02 could very well decide it.
This race is perhaps one of only a handful of districts that could actually flip from R to D and they are needed if the President and Congress can continue to dig us out of the ditch that resulted from Republican control all those years.But now is NOT the time to reverse course.
Congressman Cao has done his level best to thwart and water down each and everything that the President has tried to do in order to bring our country back from the brink.Sure he has voted just a few times with the Democrats but the party he supports, the party that time and time again he has shown his loyalty to is promising to remove all of the progress we have made.
So respectfully – GET OVER IT.
And look, the people who are pushing you… who are bringing up all these rumors attacking Representative Richmond – I think you should ask yourself – What is fueling them?Could it be cold hard cash?
Cheron Brylski started the group – “Democrats for Cao” and all of their sub groups.She has constantly been throwing random rumors and attacks around like crazy in her daily blast emails.She would have you believe that she is just so indignant against Representative Richmond that it pushed her over to Congressman Cao.Make no mistake – she is a gun for hire, and little more.
FACT – Brylski was on the payroll for Cao almost a year before the Democratic Primary not to mention MONTHS before she even KNEW who would be running for this important job.Insert YOUR candidates name into this because make no mistake she would be attacking YOUR candidate if they would have won the Primary – She was ALREADY on Cao’s Payroll!
FACT – Brylski in the last year has made over $33,727 from Cao.Good work if you can get it, eh?You can see a list of the disbursements we found in just several minutes of searching, there is likely more.
In what is rumored to be a sign of things to come, the field director from the Cao campaign, Brandt Lewis, has resigned effective Tuesday, 10/5/10. The word on the street is that there are serious and growing problems with the campaign's top leadership. Here's his letter of resignation:
Subject: Letter of Resignation
To whom it may concern:
It has been an honor to serve on this reelection campaign for A.J. Cao, there are many friends I have met and many people who I have grown to respect for their craft and profession. Needless to say there have been many days of agony and desperation on my part and on the part of the folks who are working to this effort. Moving New Orleans and the people of the 2nd Congressional district forward, we must proceed with a certain sense of intelligence and dignity for the people and their best interest. It is my belief that this campaign embodies a vision for the future that can help in the revitalization of this city heritage now and for so many years to come. Unfortunately my style and work ethic is not best suited for this campaign or the decision makers who control it. It is with deep regret that I offer my resignation to the Cao campaign effective Wednesday October 5, 2010 at 3:30 P.M. I would like to wish Congressman Cao and his wife Kate and his 2 daughters all the best going forward. I would like to especially thank Rosalind Peychaud for her teachings and lessons over the course of this campaign. I would like to thank Cheron Brylski, my idol, role model and teacher for her ever lasting confidence and respect for as long as I have known her. I would like to thank David Hugeuenel, my dear friend, for his leadership and wisdom, which has sustained even the darkest days of this campaign. David's optimism and "Don't Give Up" attitude will sustain the Cao campaign moving forward, my best wishes to he and his wife Jodie for their commitment to this very important cause. I would like to thank Steve and Andrea for there drive and their ability to get the important work of this campaign done. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank Congressman Cao for this opportunity, he is a man of great wisdom and understanding, he will make a great Congressman for the next two years in our cities history.
Thank You and may Gods blessings be with all of you moving forward.
President Obama's very first ad aimed at boosting Dems' chances in the mid-terms is airing today during the Saints game for New Orleans' own Cedric Richmond:
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu also feels like a rising national star to me. He won his election in February with an outpouring of biracial support. He's a compact dynamo who radiates resourceful passion to clean up the towering mess left by Hurricane Katrina, Bush and Brownie, and the corruption that only grew under Landrieu’s City Hall predecessor, the incompetent showboat Ray Nagin. In his first 100 days, Landrieu worked to "reorganize the dysfunction of the city government," revamping the police department, and staunching the city’s bleeding out of a $67.5 million budget shortfall. That’s a schedule more ambitious than the first six days of Genesis.
Our good friend Lamar of CenLamar blog had the opportunity last week to join the Coast Guard on a flyover of the Deepwater Horizon site, and he posted a great article along with pictures. Here's a brief excerpt:
I'm not sure exactly why I was invited to do this, but a little over three weeks ago at about seven at night, I received a phone call from someone at the White House, inviting me to participate in a flyover of the former site of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the current location of a cluster of clean-up crews.
I haven't covered the Deepwater Horizon disaster with nearly the same passion and insight and detail as other bloggers in the State, but believe me, it's not for lack of care; it's because I've found myself so frustrated, disappointed, and angered about the whole thing that I simply haven't been able to write coherently about the subject.
In 1985, then Governor Edwin Edwards was indicted and tried on federal charges that he was selling hospital certificates of need to his allies in exchange for money. A hung jury led to a new trial in 1986 in which Edwards and four co-defendants were acquitted.
Suffice it to say that if the thought would have even entered Edwin Edwards' mind to do what Bobby Jindal is doing in New Orleans now with the still-to-be-built Teaching Hospital in New Orleans, grand juries would have already been impaneled and Judge Frank Polozola would be clawing his way back to the bench in anticipation of the indictments and trial.
What is Jindal doing? He's taking more than $1.2 billion in public money and giving it to a private corporation that will be beyond the control or supervision of the Legislature and the public. The first $800 million or so of the funds were either appropriated by the Legislature or awarded to the state by the federal government through FEMA to replace the former Big Charity Hospital in New Orleans that was flooded in the wake of the federal levee collapse after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
You might remember reading our article on June 17th discussing Jindal's plan to build sand berms to stop the flow of oil into Louisiana's coastal wetlands. The response from the Obama administration and scientific community was a collective, "huh?" The idea seemed to be more about sticking it to the feds and less about addressing the situation in a logical way.
Read on to learn about Bobby Jindal's most recent grand idea.
As you read in our earlier post, Daily Kingfish has signed on to the "BP Makes Me Sick Coalition" to encourage BP and federal officials to allow the use of respirators and other safety gear for the oil spill clean-up workers. So far, the attention and the response to this push has been great, with coverage in the New York Times, the Baton Rouge Advocate, and over 66,000 signatures and many more elected officials, organizations and candidates.
There's just no reason why the more than 47,000 oil spill clean-up workers shouldn't be able to wear proper protective gear while they are doing this difficult work to clean up our shores and wetlands. Have you signed the petition?
As the horrific event in the Gulf continues, a website called LogoMyWay.com is hosting a contest to see who can come up with the best redesign of BP's logo - and in doing so, express the anger and frustration felt by so many surrounding this ongoing tragedy.
There are already lots of great entries for the $200 prize - check them out here.
Readers - are you outraged over this spill? If so, leave a comment and share how you are dealing with it, expressing yourself, and tell us your story.
Hundreds of New Orleanians gathered in Washington Artillery Park adjacent to the French Quarter on Sunday afternoon to express their outrage over the response to the ongoing ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The target of most of their frustration was BP, the oil giant that had said that morning the oil volcano under the Gulf of Mexico may not be capped until August - but there was also plenty of invective directed against the federal government, which many of the speakers felt was bowing to the demands of BP rather than taking charge of the situation and telling BP what to do. The protest was staged by Murdered Gulf, an ad hoc group which sprang up to organize the event and has compiled a list of demands - and ways citizens can help - on its website.
(Thanks to Humid Beings for great coverage and video links.)
Baton Rouge (FNS)-Facing both a massive oil slick from a sunken offshore drilling platform and a second year of declining tourism revenues along the Louisiana Gulf Coast caused by high gas prices, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal today introduced a new tourism promotion that he reports is going to "...make lemons into lemonade".
Jindal, flanked by British Petroleum's Director of Marketing Dick Timoneous and the Executive Director of the Louisiana State Tourism Board, Jenna Talia, announced that the "All The Oil You Can Carry Festival" would officially commence today just east of New Orleans, and last at least through the month of May.
The Lieutenant Governor's race might be a lot more interesting than we thought.
Cheron Brylski started the group – “Democrats for Cao” and all of their sub groups.
attacking YOUR candidate if they would have won the Primary – She was ALREADY on Cao’s Payroll!
