State Sen. Troy Hebert of Jeanerette, is no longer a Democrat.He is now an independent.His switch represents a growing number of politicians and average citizens who believe that no political party has the answers to the problems besetting the nation and the state.Some politicos believe that Hebert’s change is political.They feel the Democratic Party is toxic right now due to the health care bill and other legislation that has come out of Congress and the Obama administration since January 2009.
Louisiana Weigh
How bad is the Louisiana budget?For starts, the state is expected to lose $200 million this year in federal health-care funding for charity and rural hospitals and mental health services. Also, Louisiana could lose $500 million a year in Medicaid funding.The submitted budget for the upcoming year has an 18-percent reduction which means a lot of fat has been cut and now the budget is beginning to hurt the public.Also, if revenues continue to drop, it is possible there could be mid-year adjustments as there have been this year.To make matters worse, Louisiana could be facing a $400 million loss over the next few months due to dramatically decreased revenues.Governor Bobby Jindal has been going on a speaking tour throughout the state promoting the Louisiana Way and contrasting the state’s approach to that of Washington which he calls, the “Washington Way”.
Parish Pariah
Being a politician in Jefferson Parish has its perks but lately it also has its residents wondering who will be the next to fall and be publically embarrassed.According to various news accounts, it appears that former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard appointed a number of political allies and friends to positions for which they were not qualified or which they were not doing the job.Jefferson Parish has been marked by scandal that political insiders believe could bring down a significant number of government officials.The investigation is ongoing and already the two top leaders, Broussard and CAO Tim Whitmer are no longer employed due to resignations that appear to be related to the scandal.The talk around town is that a number of elected officials are very scared since the two top former parish officials appear to be under law enforcement scrutiny..
Health Care and Tea
Various members of the Baton Rouge Tea Party protested at the Louisiana Democratic Party headquarters.Two who were targets of their protest were democrats, Senator Mary Landrieu and Rep. Charlie Melancon.The latter is running against republican Senator David Vitter.Recently, Vitter, Tea Party and the Republican Party have been criticizing Melancon for stepping down from his position on the Budget Committee.The allegation against Melancon has been that he did not want to vote on health care legislation that has been in front of that committee.
The Big Race
Ironically, as the health care legislation is headed for a House vote in Washington, Senator Vitter has been on a healthy attack against his main opponent Charlie Melancon regarding the very issue although Melancon has opposed--the health care bill.Vitter is attacking Melancon on his relationship to the Democratic Party leaders and because Melancon left the budget committee. Melancon claims he quit the committee to focus on energy matters in the House Energy Committee.In contrast, Melancon is targeting Vitter about the senator’s vote against the jobs bill that passed the upper body yesterday.In a twitter tweet, Melancon said on Wednesday “Vitter votes against small business tax cuts for the 4th time in one month - Louisiana can't afford Vitter's hypocrisy”.
Holy Cao
One of the local elected officials on the hot seat is New Orleans Congressman, Joseph Cao.There is growing pressure from both the republicans and democrats hoping to convince the first-term congressman to vote their respective ways on the health care bill in Washington.The latest comes from Louisiana Senator Karen Carter Peterson, a popular political figure in New Orleans. \
Here is a email press release from Peterson’s public relations person, Cheron Brylski“NEW ORLEANS, LA - As significant as when Congress enacted Medicare and Social Security in 1900s, the vote undertaken by the US House of Representative and the United States Senate in the next few days will answer the call of the millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans across America and the thousands in the New Orleans metro area.
“On behalf of the more than 800,000 uninsured Louisianans and underinsured, I urge Congressman Cao to put the people of the Second Congressional District first and vote “yes” on final passage,” said Senator Karen Carter Peterson, a member of the White House Taskforce on Health Care Reform.
The health care reform package will dramatically change health care for millions of Americans by making health insurance affordable and accessible for Americans. The bill will prevent insurance companies from dropping coverage for pre-existing conditions and finally end discrimination for pre-existing medical conditions. The new legislation will also install a cap for the amount of money individuals have to pay and force insurance companies to end caps on what they must pay while driving down premiums for many Americans.
“For nearly six decades, Americans have waited. They waited for the insurance companies to make decisions on their health. They waited for Congress to act on reforming the nation’s broken health system. They waited for premiums to decrease. The wait can finally end this week with Congressman Cao’s support of the current health care legislation,” said Sen. Karen Carter Peterson.
Congressman Cao is in a majority black and democratic district formerly represented by William “Bill” Jefferson.Carter has run against Jefferson for that same congressional seat.Cao is a devout Catholic who has been asking for the removal of language involving abortion that exist in the Senate bill.
Legislative Stimulus
Republican Sen. Robert Adley of Bentonhas proposed to ban the sale of energy drinks to anyone under 16 years of age minors.
The pertinent language of the bill states:
Section 1. R.S. 51:1427 is hereby enacted to read as follows:
6 §1427. Unfair trade practices; sale of energy drinks to consumers under the age
7 of sixteen
8 A. It shall be an unfair trade practice for any retail business to
9 knowingly sell an energy drink to a consumer under the age of sixteen.
10 B. For the purpose of this Section, "energy drink" means any drink,
11 except coffee, that contains at least five milligrams of caffeine per fluid ounce.
12 C. Any violation of this Section shall be deemed an unfair trade practice
13 and shall subject the violator to any and all actions and penalties provided for
14 in this Chapter.
It will be interesting to see which organizations and companies support the legislation. Last year, there was a move to raise the price of cigarettes which effort came to a smoking halt.
When I last sent Cao some money ... I added a note that although we disagree on some things, I know he is a principled man and will support him NO MATTER how he may vote on any given piece of legislation. He is not an opportunist, nor a party-line lock-step simpleton. His principled stances may confuse some of you on both the left and right. You just don't know an honest principled politician when you see one ... that's okay ... you haven't had much practice with that. Written by kpf
on 3/19/2010
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Private ownership suffers as a result of unreasonable taxation/regulation, and when private ownership suffers, so to does the society as a whole. The thing to do is to figure out who the schmucks that are rigging the game against us are. Written by
on 3/19/2010
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Lot's of you dummies don't even understand why things go on sale at stores. Well, it is because they are linked to a machine..... X amount is produced, it has Y amount of days to sell, or it goes Z........... and somewhere in that Z..... is the 'sale price'.... Why is everyone walking around in cloned saints T-shirts? Sure, they are a nifty fad, and because of this fad a % of sales for other kind of shirts has declined... Is that bad? no it isn't.. Because only a miniscule portion of the population would be caught wearing one of those... So the econmy is not harmed, unless of course those Saint T-shirts are being made in China, or Malaysia, or wutever (and you thought you were supporting the home team by wearing one of those, wut a bunch of dumazzes) But there are limits to the needs for mass production.. And in some instances there is an absolute need for mass production and effective/efficient instituition. Written by
on 3/19/2010
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In other words, to hell with a small group of hoity toities ideas of what constitutes or makes "Unfair Trade Practices"... We could, right now, be building transcontinental high speed rail systems. Building 40 other kinds of cars with 40 more car companies comming into existence instead of just the cars that the governement will allow to be built and put to use on OUR roads. Folks could raise their own food with the excess put out to sale at a 'farmer's market' lot's and lot's of things can be done. And rich people can still be rich, but at least poor people and people that are dependent upon the whims and fancies of corporate rich don't have to suffer, they can still earn a living, prosper, spend time with their families, pursue the American Dream..... Written by
on 3/19/2010
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Hey Teacher - Leave those kids alone - - - - - - Right now we are in the Generation X mode…. Can’t say that I am too impressed with those born after ’69, but the ones born before ’61, well I suppose they would be known as Generation W……….. Anyways… We have at this point in history, achieved almost pivotal climax as a product of civilization. We have more luxuries and commodities and conveniences and capabilities at our collective fingertips than could ever have scarcely been dreamed of by folks 200 years ago. It wasn’t that many years ago that H.G. Wells and Jules Verne‘invented’ “science fiction” and it has only been within the last 100 some odd years since both passed away… In 1905 the basics of physics was lain out and published, and Albert Einstein compounded on those works, and later still Stephen Hawkins is taking his works even a step further. One foot marches in front of another… Right now we have all sorts of stupid laws and they are using children as the shield or the reason for them. This tax thing is retarded. Not even going to get into it, the good senator needs to just simply slink back to the back of the bus…. Kids these days have enough problems to contend with. There has never been any time in history that there are so many potential Mentors in existence for the youth. You look at kids and most of them are clueless as to what is going to be. Our society is turning them into neurotics before they reach the age of 10. We are scaring the sh^t out of them, but they are too young to fully grapple with what that really means. It is their future that the old farts that blog on, publish, or read this Bayou Buzzy Buzz are contributing to the dismantling of… The politicians we elect, the policies we institute, the economy we destroy… It is time for all you old f^ks to put your greed aside and get positive. Come up with some ideas and approaches instead of sitting around on your sanctimonious office chairs and wrecking ruination on the masses or trying to figure out how to manipulate and control people so that you won’t have to do without at their expense if push comes to shove. Our courts are skewed, our laws are biased and often unbased, our philosophies are counterproductive, our approaches are fruitless and only compound problem upon problem with no realistic improvement realized in the end aside from the enrichment and self gratification of the few. We have roads to repair, bridges to repair, entire infrastructure to repair/maintain. Everyone is capable of producing something. It is time to find out how we are going to allow that to happen… Our system of stopgaps and firewalls that have advented as a result of political discourse or discord here on our home turf is at the root of the problem, as well as money to fuel the economy… ‘Lever’ notes….. How to close the ‘loop’….. I have heard folks talk about Keynesian economics, and blah-blah-blah about taxes, etc. I have looked at Tobin Tax theory, and it has its place I am sure. If you worship Gold instead of God… But back to the ‘closed loop’… ‘Lever’ notes would have exactly what it is supposed to have being as in reality all our ‘Reserve’ notes are is ‘checks’ with an ‘affixed’ monetary value assigned to th3m….. And that thing is an expiration date…. 1,2,3 year ‘lever’ note life cycles. Ahhh, but who is going to be left holding the bag of worthless/valueless ‘notes’ once the time frame has expired? Well there you go folks, that’s the tax…. But instead of a tax, it is something of value… Unlike George Orwell’s 1984 scenario where warships were built to be sent off to an imaginary war and sunk only to be replaced and sunk replaced and sunk time after time after time you have to consider the scenario that ‘Reserve’ notes, or in some instances 30% of certified payroll is intended for retirement purposes. You put them in the bank. Or you buy a home, whatever, RETIREMENT. The “expired” ‘Lever’ notes are accounted for, and if we want we can impose import duties on other countries products, and then we can extend the life of those notes another 6 months, send those notes as a percentage of gross export value from another country to us and that will pay a percentage of their ‘port’ fees or duties or tax. Or they can be extended for 6 months, or a year, and we can send them to other countries as ‘aid’…. We are only limited by how much we can produce and our people’s productivity. Perhaps we can even revert back to some of the good old ways where folks can hand craft furniture or other items and ‘compete’ with mass production. Value put back into products. We cannot supply the material consumables needs of the world. What we need to be focused on is allowing our citizens to be employed/find employment in sectors and billets they like. Folks would make paychecks, receive their pay, and removal of restraints such as taxes and other crazy things like that. We are too corporate orientated. Individuality is being sacraficed. Written by
on 3/19/2010
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The Large Hadron Collider - The most powerful atom-smasher ever built has been in operation for a few months now.. Some time ago, David Francis, a physicist on the Large Hadron Collider collider's ATLAS particle detector, smiled when asked whether he worried about black holes and hypothetical killer particles known as stranglets. "If I thought that this was going to happen, I would be well away from here," he said. I myself sort of wondered where it is he thought ‘well away from here’ is…. There were fears on some folks part that somehow an errant and minuscule black hole particle could somehow become trapped at our earth’s core due to the magnetic field and it in turn would ‘swallow’ the earth perhaps from the inside out…. The prize the scientists seek after the collider starts operating are hopefully evidence of extra dimensions that are puzzled over by physicists in pursuit of unknown answers to what is commonly known as string theory . String theory requires about 10 dimensions which is more than the three spatial dimensions our senses experience. Sort of like you being able to look at a picture of an apple on your monitor, and you can reach into it and pull the apple back out in your hand. Of course to do so would mean that matter has been transported from one ‘spacial’ dimension and placed into another. And subsequently, there would be a warp or a vacuum where the apple used to be if it was ever anything more than a picture in the first place, and something has to fill its ‘space’… Would that be, air? Who knows? Maybe something is sucked from our dimension to fill its place? I don’t know… And I often wonder about the law of physics that says to items cannot occupy the same place at the same time. So would the apple displace ‘space’ in our dimension? Perhaps…. And what would the effect be? An explosion? The apple getting ‘fused’ between someone’s eyes or to their hand? I don’t know, I can only theorize….. Anyways…. The safety of the collider, which generates energies seven times higher than its most powerful rival, at Fermilab near Chicago, has been debated for years. At the same time, a physicist named Martin Rees figured the chance of an accelerator producing a global catastrophe at one in 50 million… One in fifty million… By contrast, a CERN team issued a report concluding that there is "no conceivable danger" of a cataclysmic event. The report essentially confirmed the findings of a 2003 CERN safety report, and a panel of five prominent scientists not affiliated with CERN, including one Nobel laureate, endorsed its conclusions. Of course when the term ‘Nobel Laureate’ is tossed around like some kind of ‘Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval’ for some strange reason the names Barak Obama, and Al Gore pop into mind.. Soooooo, I guess pardon me if I am not overly impressed. I sort of wonder what folks would say if it weren’t a global catastrophe, but instead 50 million people died as a result of an experiment gone wrong? When the Trinity tests first occurred on that Nevada Test Site in the ‘40’s the scientists involved didn’t have the slightest idea if the project would go out of control and consume the earth after detonation. We are now at the point where the basic understandings of those pioneering atomic physicists is obsolete. The only thing they knew of at that time was electrons and neutrons circling around an atom. Now there are sorts of new theories pursued. The latest, ‘String Theory’… This is something that is going out of control.. We need to amend international treaties and allow for nuclear explosions in space… These of course could serve as rocket drive components from an orbital position. The moon needs base camps constructed, and future experiments along the lines of hadron colliders or even quark containment models should be conducted on a planetary station preferably outside of our solar system… It would appear that space technology is not advancing as rapidly as nuclear technology or physics at all… Nuclear fueled/powered space craft are the only thing that would be capable within the realms of current technological achievability to achieve the speeds necessary to make inner stellar space travel a viable pursuit. One of these days, we are just simply going to go ‘bang’ if we do not wake up and smell the coffee….. To achieve those goals we have to reexamine our monetary policies, our values, our pursuits, why we are doing things the way we are doing them now.. “The United States has become the showcase of how democracy can be managed without appearing to be suppressed,” Written by
on 3/19/2010
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Cao can't win the GOP nomination if he votes for Health Care Reform. He can't win re-election if he votes against Health Care Reform. His only option is to become a Democrat and vote for Health Care Reform. Written by David Quidd
on 3/19/2010
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Robert Adley is aself serving party switching politician who needs to go back inot the real world, vote this moron out of office Written by CN
on 3/18/2010
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Once again we have a politician telling us that they know more about what is good or bad for us than we do. If I want my 15 year ok son drinking an energy drink then that is my business and not the business of the Louisiana Legislature. We need to tell the Politicians to get out of our personal lives. Written by James
on 3/18/2010
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Fact is insurance premiums will go up with this bill. Taxes will increase under this bill. Washington is working toward a single payer system such as Canada and Europe. We do not have the money for our entitlements now. Where is this money going to come from? How high can taxes on workers go before they too decide it is better to go on the "government entitlement programs". See that is what happens with Socialism/Marxism where the government collects high taxes and the redistributes the money as it sees fit. Sooner or later you run out of other people's money. Margaret Thatcher saw this coming and warned Europe against it. This Collective style of government has failed everywher it has been tried. When the government can no longer give the people all they promised we have what is happening in Greece. No one really benefits in the end. Written by Sharon
on 3/18/2010
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11 except coffee, that contains at least five milligrams of caffeine per fluid ounce....... I can see it now, the piss police.... O.K. sun, pull that bicycle over, whip it out and pee in this cup, I want to know if you are RWC (riding while caffinated).... Wait... first you have to take a field caffene test... O.K. quickly, repeat... Peter Piper Picked A Peck of Pickled Peppers.... What!!!! Were you stuttering??????? Too much caffene ehhhhh school boy?? O.K., hold your arms out palms extended upwards. O.K. I am going to place this ball in the palm of your hand, quickly turn your hand over and catch the ball before it hits the ground.... Oh, jittery iz ya kid? Couldn't catch the little bally? You must be some litte smart ass sassy paint pants hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm? Common, we're going to Juve...... I bet you get at least 6 months, maybe a year. Tell me kid, do you know anything your parents has done wrong lately...??? Perhaps we can cut you a deal... You swear to tell the court that your dad was looking at little girl panties at walmart and we will cut you a deal.. What you have a sister? He was buying them because they are on a shopping list your mommy gave him? Keep that quiet and there might even be some energy drinks thrown into the deal for you... That'll keep they hooked and comming back for more.... Written by
on 3/18/2010
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-----Republican Sen. Robert Adley of Benton has proposed to ban the sale of energy drinks to anyone under 16 years of age minors....--- More Gawd da^ned laws and problems and control mechanisms and fines and punishments and folks looking over their shoulders and blah-blah-blah and more blah-blah-blah... Just what we need... Ooooohhhhh its for the kids! It's for the kids!!!! STFU and get to the back of the bus there Senator, you are a pain in the arse and probably a NAZI.... Written by
on 3/18/2010
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Independent Thinker
