Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts

Monday, July 19, 2010

News and Comment--Monday, July 19, 2010

OUR TOP LOCAL STORY IN LAFAYETTE TODAY: The Rally for Economic Survival is still two days away, but it is already causing a stir in Lafayette. This morning, a sign promoting the event located at the corner of Coolidge and St. Mary was found to have been vandalized over the weekend. The vandals wrote in red spray paint "Fuck Big Oil!" and "Unfuck the Gulf." There are no reports of vandalism of other rally signs. The rally, which "hopes to send a message to the Obama Administration to lift the [deepwater drilling] moratorium immediately," will be held Wednesday from 10:30 A.M. until 1:00 P.M. at the Cajundome. Country musician and lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Sammy Kershaw will open and close the rally with a performance. Governor Bobby Jindal, Lieutenant Governor Scott Angelle, and Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser are all slated to speak at the event, as are representatives of Louisiana's seafood, restaurant, and energy industries. The full agenda can be found here. A counter-protest will be held outside of the Cajundome by those in support of the moratorium. I will be at both events and will have a full report later in the week.

COMMENTARY: I understand that the issues of deepwater drilling and the moratorium are the cause of a great deal of tension in Acadiana right now, but for Pete's sake, vandalizing signs and hurling obscenities at those that disagree with you are not routes to take in having a civil discourse about the issue. The people guilty of these acts (in particular, the vandalism of the Oil Center sign) are what's wrong with American political discourse--and, dare I say, with America--today. I hope that the people responsible for the destruction of the sign are caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

I will withhold comment about the rally itself until I see what happens on Wednesday. If you judge the event based on its cover (and some of its speakers), it has all of the makings of a Republican/Tea Party/"conservative business platform" rally. Furthermore, I heard rumors that the organizers of the event (which, based on the phone number listed on the rally's website, seem to be based in Baton Rouge) are busing in attendees from Texas. If this is true, it would destroy (for me, anyway) any feeling of a grass-roots protest that I thought this rally would have. We won't know for certain how it will all turn out until Wednesday, so I'll take everything at face value and report back to you on Wednesday.

I also must wonder why the organizers didn't hold the event in Baton Rouge or New Orleans--sites that would have offered a better opportunity for them to attract national media attention. Lafayette is a good fit based on the city's continuing ties to and dependence on the oil industry. Furthermore, I'm not going to complain about an event that attracts thousands of attendees and protesters because that means more tax revenue for the city and the parish. Out-of-towners will need to eat and buy gas, and they might even be tempted to purchase souvenirs from one of the many shops and stores in town. So, thank you to the rally's organizers for choosing Lafayette. We appreciate your business.

IN OTHER NEWS: KLFY-TV has hired two new reporters. Sean Maginnis and Alissa Reitmeier join Lafayette's oldest television station, replacing Robert Burns and Sarah Forgany. We at RAoA wish them the best of luck with their new endeavors.

FROM THE "SAME SHIT, DIFFERENT DAY" FILE: The Associated Press is reporting that the federal government is allowing BP to keep the oil well capped for another twenty-four hours. Yesterday, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen announced that a seep had been detected a distance away from the well.

AND FINALLY: Another Idiot of the Month nominee. Dateline: Aventura, Florida. 64-year old Armand M. Pacher was arrested after police received a tip from a veterinarian that the retired insurance executive was having sex with his dog--a great dane he had named "Christie Brinkley." That's right, folks. He named the dog after the famed supermodel and was have intercourse with it. So, I guess we can say that he really "screwed the pooch." The full story can be found here.

That's the news. I'm Ian Auzenne. Make it a great day, everybody.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

MELANCON KICKS OF CAMPAIGN IN HUB CITY

United States Representative Charles Melancon (D-Napoleonville) began his United States Senate campaign today in Lafayette. Melancon was greeted by a crowd of supporters and media at 11:55 this morning at Country Cuisine Restaurant on University Avenue, just a couple of hours after qualifying for the race

After meeting and speaking with those in the restaurant for almost thirty minutes, Melancon was formally introduced to the patrons by Lafayette City-Parish Councilman Kenneth Boudreaux. Flanked by his wife, Peachy, Melancon told the crowd that he "felt at home in Lafayette" before joking about his years as an undergraduate at what was then the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Melancon also mentioned his pride for the region and its culture, as his father was a native of St. Martinville. Melancon then told his audience that his decision to run was a difficult one, but that he is running to give the state a senator that puts the state's matters before party politics. "This race is not about ambition," Melancon told his supporters. "This is about Louisiana."

Melancon also critiqued his opponent, Senator David Vitter, saying that the incumbent "put politics first" during his term. "David Vitter does not know how to work with people," Melancon stated. Melancon pledged to work "twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week" to meet with people, to work with his fellow senators, and to work across party lines in order to "put Louisiana first" during his term. He said that he would work towards building relationships with fellow lawmakers, citing Russell Long, J. Bennett Johnston, John Breaux, and Mary Landrieu as examples of effective alliance builders that worked in favor of the state.

When asked if he would spend money to attack Vitter's message or remind voters of Vitter's prostitution scandal, Melancon said that he has "no need to spend money" to combat the "lies" Vitter has put forth--such as that Melancon supported health care reform or the moratorium on deep-water offshore drilling--because he "is on the offensive" in this campaign. Melancon urges voters to look at his record, as they will learn what his platform truly is.

Susannah Malbreaux, chairman of the Lafayette Parish Democratic Executive Committee, was in charge of bringing Melancon to Acadiana. "It gives people the opportunity to talk one-on-one with [Melancon] and to ask him questions," Malbreaux said. Malbreaux also expects Melancon to make further visits to Lafayette during the campaign season.

Several local politicians and community activists were in attendance at today's meet-and-greet. Former city-parish councilman Chris Williams, congressional candidate Mike Stagg, and former Lafayette NAACP president Joe Dennis, among others, attended today's event. Former United States Attorney Mike Skinner was also there to support Melancon. "Charlie is a good friend of mine, and he would make a great senator," said Skinner, who is also a former chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party.

Melancon's campaign tour continues through the remainder of the week, as he travels to Shreveport and Monroe on Thursday and to Lake Charles and New Orleans on Friday.

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OTHER ELECTION NEWS

David Vitter also visited the Hub City today after qualifying. He met with his supporters at Lafayette Regional Airport shortly before noon today. However, this reporter could not get comment from him as the gathering had ended by the time he arrived at the airport. A security guard informed me that I had missed the event by a few minutes. This was confirmed by several of Vitter's staffers walking out of the building with signs and flyers that had not been distributed.

Lafayette's INDEPENDENT WEEKLY is reporting that Cajundome director Greg Davis has qualified to run for the District 2 seat on the Lafayette Parish School Board that is being vacated by longtime board member Carl LaCombe.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Louisiana and the Oil Spill: Living on a Prayer?

Louisiana politics is not for the faint of heart. The shenanigans that go on inside of the house that Huey built would make even New Jersey lawmakers laugh. However, the recent actions (or lack thereof) by Louisiana's elected officials have those of us that normally would chuckle shaking our heads in disbelief. Instead of asking for help from the federal government in cleaning up the state's beaches, the state Seante is asking for help from God to end this disaster.

The Louisiana State Senate designated yesterday a statewide day of prayer. The resolution was introduced by Senator Robert Adley (R-Benton), who said in a press release that, "It is clearly time for a miracle for us." Adley is correct. The Gulf Coast region needs an act of God by God himself to fix this mess. However, Adley is incorrect in his assertion that "the efforts made by mortals to try to solve this crisis have been to no avail." At best, the efforts of those mortals to prevent the initial blow-out and clean up the resulting mess have been half-hearted. TransOcean and BP's gross negligence was the result of their desire to save money. The two companies, the leasee and the owner, respectively, failed to implement safety devices and shut-off valves on the Deepwater Horizon because it was not mandated by federal law. BP's use of booms, junk shot, top hats, top kills, and dispersant are no more effective today than they were thirty-one years ago. State officials have not been any more effective in their clean-up efforts. Governor Bobby Jindal has failed to declare a state of emergency and ask President Obama for federal assistance to help clean Louisiana's shores. Instead, Governor Jindal (pardon the pun) drags his feet in the sand and complains about the lack of federal involvement in an attempt to discredit President Obama's administration and to drum up support for the GOP and himself in this Congressional election year (which is also one year away from Louisiana's statewide elections). Simply put, British Petroleum and Bobby Jindal are protecting their bottom lines--BP, its pocketbooks; Jindal, his and his party's chances during the upcoming election seasons.

If a miracle is needed to fix the problem in the Gulf of Mexico, why would God want to give us a "Get out of Jail Free" card? After all, Transocean, Halliburton, and BP could have invested a few hundred thousand dollars in safety mechanisms that, theoretically, could have prevented this disaster from happening. BP could have used some of the millions of dollars it spent on its public relations campaign to speed up the clean-up process and to develop new technologies to clean up oil spills like this one. The Good Lord gave the human race the intelligence and the resources it needs to prevent disasters like this one from happening. Those responsible for disasters like this shouldn't be pleading to a higher power for a bailout when their own laziness results in a tragedy like this.

Senator Adley's resolution and the day of prayer itself were wonderful gestures, as they showed the world that Louisianians are holding out hope for a miracle that will end this disaster. However, the prayers of the faithful do not take oil out of the water or off of the beaches of Louisiana and the rest of the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico. Only BP and the workers on the ground have the ability to do this. Asking God to clean this mess is impractical and irresponsible. To quote Freddie Mercury, "If there is a god in the sky looking down, what can He think of what we've done to the world that He created?"

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

POLITICAL NEWS: Cynthia McKinney is Green Party Presidential Candidate

According to several sources, Cynthia McKinney, the former U. S. Representative from the Atlanta metropolitan area has locked up the Green Party presidential nomination. I'm sure she's going to gain the support of Capitol Hill Police are going to support her bid for the nation's highest office.

McKinney joins Ralph Nader (Independent), Bob Barr (Libertarian), and John McCain (Republican) on the short list of presumptive and/or definite candidates for the presidency. More news about this as it comes along.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Katrina Commentary

I know I'm two days late with this, but here it is my commentary regarding the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As heard on the August 31, 2007, edition of WPRB NEWS PRESENTS THE WEEK IN REVIEW.

Many of you already know that this past Wednesday was the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. If you got a chance to watch the television news or picked up a newspaper, it’s almost guaranteed that you saw the images of the destruction the storm caused. As I sat in front of a television set that morning, I saw President Bush hold a news conference at a school in the Lower Ninth Ward. At some point during his speech, he said something to effect of, “I understand what you are going through. The people in Washington not from Louisiana understand what you are going through.” I nearly lost it at that point, but I bit my tongue and put my thoughts in this commentary.

President Bush and the bureaucrats in the District of Columbia have no idea how bad the situations the people of New Orleans have had to endure. If he did, he never would have told “Brownie” (for the uninitiated, former FEMA director Michael Brown) that he was “doing a heck of a job.” If Bush really knew what New Orleans was suffering through in those first few days, he would have sent aid to those stuck in shelters of last resort and more troops than he did to New Orleans to restore law and order. If the other people running the nation in Washington knew what the people of New Orleans needed, they would have put pork-barrel projects aside to make sure that the levees that protected the nation’s second-largest port—the fourth-largest in the world—were strong enough to hold the storm surge that eventually caused the flooding of eighty percent of the city. Unfortunately, the politicians that have represented the State of Louisiana in Washington for the past fifty or so years failed their constituencies and allowed their personal gains to trump the needs of the state.

Despite all that needs to be fixed in New Orleans, there are other place often ignored the mainstream media that also need repair. Before I saw coverage from Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian, Mississippi, I thought the big boys of news forgot that Mississippi took the brunt of Katrina’s wrath. (Remember that it wasn’t the wind and rain that messed up New Orleans. It was the break in the levees.) These two towns, as well as others along the Mississippi Gulf Coast were obliterated and are in the process of rebuilding. Because these towns don’t have tales of high murder rates and looting, their stories get pushed by the wayside in favor of the juicy details of the goings-on in New Orleans. These towns need help as well. These towns need their former residents to come back and to rebuild if they haven’t done so already, but FEMA or some other federal government agency should help out as well. If the government can afford to give subsidies to farmers, it can certain help pay for rebuilding efforts of those living in Mississippi and Louisiana two years ago and want to return home.

A week or so after Katrina hit, President Bush stood in a darkened Jackson square and said of New Orleans, “This great city shall rise again.” He also said this past Wednesday during his speech that better days are ahead of New Orleans. If this is the case, the federal government and those that represent us in that government need to wake up and recognize the problems that plagued New Orleans before Katrina and fix them immediate—the levees, in particular. If the government fails to do this, then this great city, the State of Louisiana, and possibly this nation may suffer a fate no American could possibly imagine.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

BUSH USES FOUR-SYLLABLE WORD IN NEW ORLEANS

I haven't been awake for five minutes, and I've already heard Dubya use a four-syllable word. I'm not sure if he used it in the right context (I missed how he used it), but he rattled off "disaggregate," which he described as "a fancy word."

Additionally, Bush says he and the other people in government not from Louisiana understand what the Gulf Coast (New Orleans in particular) is going through. What a load of crap! Hell, the politicos representing Louisiana in Washington don't know what's going on down here half of the time. If they did, the money that was allocated to strengthen the levees would have been used for that purpose instead of being used to fund PORK PROJECTS. Brownie sure as hell didn't do a heck of a job, and our governments--local, state, and federal--aren't doing much better.

More on this later today as we observe the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Alberto Gonzales Resigns; Michael Vick Pleads Guilty

Only Ten Hours in, and It's Already a Big News Day! Michael Vick entered his guilty plea in federal court about an hour ago. For those of you that missed it, Vick agreed to plead guilty to interstate trafficking of a dogfighting operation but will maintain his innocence in actually betting on fights or killing the dogs despite being present for fights and killings.

In other news, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has announced his resignation. Some reports are confirming that President Bush has accepted the resignation. A press conference will be held later this afternoon confirming Gonzales's quitting.

These stories and more will be featured this Friday on WPRB's TIMEOUT (5:00 P.M EDT) and THE WEEK IN REVIEW (5:30 P.M. EDT) on 103.3 WPRB-FM and at wprb.com.

UPDATE NUMBER 1: Vick to speak to reporters at 11:30 EDT (10:30 CDT, 5:30 Hawaiian). Falcons owner Arthur Blank will hold a press conference at 12:30 EDT (11:30 CDT, 6:30 HST).

Sunday, August 5, 2007

This Morning's Republican Debate

I caught some of this morning's debate between the Republican Party's presidential candidates, and I must say I am really unimpressed with what I saw. Can't these guys be a little more original? I'm tired of hearing about these guys spew the same crap all other members of the GOP throw out. Don't talk about family values and all of this other warm, fuzzy crap. Although I'm sure you have good intentions for this nation with your imposing your values upon the everyone (David Vitter, anyone?), cut to the chase and tell me something that is relevant and/or true about this country and why you can run this country better than the people currently in office. As far as I'm concerned, the only two people that managed to do this today were Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. Rudy, McCain, Romney, and the rest of the hopefuls could take a page from these two gentlemen.