It's Turds-day! Volume #1, Of Perkins, Principals, and (former) Policemen.

This post will be the inaugural post of what I hope will be a weekly feature on Liberal Louisiana. This feature will attempt to showcase the heights of the lows in humanity for the week leading up to each Thursday. This feature is not meant to insult, but merely to draw attention to those special cases where the subject has caused great injury to society as a whole and has detracted from the progress that we strive so hard to make. It is fitting then that such people be held accountable in public for their crimes against the common good, and ridiculed as the silly faces that they are. And so it is with great pleasure that I offer my services in service of that goal. Now, without further ado, here are the top turds of the week for July 23-30, 2009.

The bronze medal this week goes to Perkins Rowe. Who could have foreseen that no one would in the Baton Rouge area would be interested in dropping 250k for a condo with terrible parking and no view? Well, everyone is who. The lack of foresight in the Perkins Rowe planning is probably the root cause of the development going under, and for that, the developers deserve the first ever bronze turd award.

The silver medal for this week is awarded to Kevin Lemoine, former principal of Zachary High School. Mr. Lemoine showed his brilliant understanding of the law earlier in the week when he filed suit against the Zachary Community School Board for wrongful termination. Only he wasn't terminated. In a sworn statement, Lemoine asserted that he voluntarily stepped down from his post as principal because of pressure to pressure Zachary's head football coach to lobby for the Superintendent's son's selection to the all-district team. What really happened though was that Lemoine was being pressured to fire a football coach who was breaking school board rules. Lemoine refused and was therefore informed that his contract would not be renewed at the end of term. Perhaps taking a page from the Sarah Palin playbook, Lemoine is claiming that other people are responsible for things that he's done wrong. Now you may want to check this out on your own as you could make the argument that I'm biased, Lemoine, after all served as my principal while I was at ZHS. I didn't like him that much, but that was only because he violated my Fifth Amendment rights by performing an illegal search of my school bag. But I promise, he deserves the silver turd independently of my dislike of him.

And finally, the first ever Great Golden Turd goes to (former) Officer Justin Barrett (formerly) of the Boston Police. In a recent e-mail, Barrett described Harvard Professor Louis Gates as a "banana eating jungle-monkey". The e-mail continues:

"I am not a racist, but I am prejudiced towards stupid people... He [Gates] has indeed transcended back to a bumbling jungle monkey."

According to sources this disgusting diatribe was laced with numerous grammatical and spelling errors.

It is one thing, one very stupid thing, to suggest that a tenured professor at one of America's most prestigious colleges is stupid. It is quite another to demonstrate that you are not only a racist, but an idiot racist, and then pretend not to be. Just because one prefaces a statement with claims not to be a racist doesn't mean anything. One does not get to redefine racism simply to paint themselves as something other than the monster that they actually are. The fact that one would feel the need to preface a statement in such a way speaks volumes about that person's image of themselves in relation to what society views as acceptable. In this case, if it looks like a duck and quacks like an ass hole, it probably is. Barrett absolutely looks and sounds like an ass hole, and that is a perception that appears to be well-deserved. This is all without mentioning the objections I have as an amateur philosopher to the use of the word transcend. This idiot doesn't realize that people don't transcend. Transcendent things transcend, people are finite and thus are inherently non-transcendent. I would also point out that Gates has never ever been a "jungle monkey" so for him to "transcend back" to being one is nonsensical. If anyone in this whole ridiculous story has proven to be an animal it is Barrett, as this e-mail shows him for what he truly is, an ape.

Senator Landrieu launches new e-mail newsletter, and other news.

News Item #1:

Louisiana's senior senator has decided to launch her new e-mail newsletter today. Quoting the e-mail:

I am excited to announce that my office is launching new e-newsletters to keep you updated on what I am working on here in Washington D.C. This new initiative will not only enable me to communicate my legislative priorities to you, but it will also allow you to tell me about which issues you find most important.

Wondering if those priorities include co-sponsoring a bill with once presidential hopeful Sam Brownback (R-KS) that bans human-animal hybrids. Thank goodness we have Sen. Landrieu to protect us from minotaurs! I plan to write more about the philosophical implications of this in a future post. I hope to discuss questions about at what point someone becomes a "hybrid", and identity as a human.

News Item #2:

Democrats are calling for a nationwide ban texting and driving. I guess I'll have to think of another way not to focus on the most deadly thing we do on a daily basis. Sen. Landrieu also co-sponsored this bill. Showing that she's been pretty busy as the end of the session draws more near, signaling the beginning of the first fundraising trip home since November.

News Item #3:

Can you eat solely Louisiana grown food products for a week? WBRZ attempted to find out. Video here. This reminds me of a time when I tried to survive on only a dollar a day for a month. I got sick, and my mom made me quit. Sadness.

News Item #4:

Prosecutors have alleged in the ongoing case against former Representative William "Cash Bricks" Jefferson, that the congressman was concurrently running several schemes to grift people out of their cold hard cash. And when I say cold hard, I obviously mean that literally. File this story under Democrats policing themselves. Something Repugs aren't really keen on doing.

News Item #5:

In something disappointing to me personally, the Perkins Rowe commercial zone is hemorrhaging money, and banks are attempting to foreclose on the property. I had my first real job here, and I love the atmosphere. I hope they can get their affairs in order and preserve one of the more unique and fun locations in Baton Rouge.

That's all the news that mattered to me today. Anything else beeping on your radar today? Thread is open for discussion.

Keeping Them Honest, or Trying To

Look, I'm as much a fan of President Obama as any one who worked so tirelessly to get him elected. I have enough Obama T-shirts (and not tacky ones either) to wear every day for a week and a half and not have to repeat any of them. Hell, I even wept tears of joy on election night, and the inauguration. The reason I reacted so emotionally is because I was sure that this was the guy who was seriously going to change the world, and our nation radically. But now, in the cold light of day, almost a full seven months since his inauguration, (and yes, I really am about to criticize the President, take note!) he seems to be governing timidly. For me, this is one of the worst possible ways to govern. For all his soaring talk about real change, we haven't gotten what we paid for. Of course I realize it's better than any of the other options, but we hold the best to a higher standard. Never have we had a man so intelligent, and so appreciative of our country's diversity in a position where they could use these traits to effect real good on America. And now that we do, President Obama seems to be shying away from exercising his real potential. He's dragging his feet on gay rights and the environment. He's shown no desire to fight for meaningful gun laws and he supports the death penalty. On the healthcare front, his plan doesn't go far enough in ensuring that insurance companies aren't still in control when we get "reform".

My point is that from the standpoint of a hardline Liberal, President Obama is a step in the right direction, with the potential but maybe not desire to be our "messiah". At this point if someone like a Howard Dean or someone more liberal were to challenge the President in the primaries in 2012 I would certainly pause for thought about voting for them, and it's going to take some work on the President's end to change my mind.

Gov. Jindal to appear on Face The Nation

Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA) will be on CBS' Face the Nation tomorrow according to the governor's twitter page. Hopefully the moderator will hold him accountable for our educational budget cuts, and his hypocrisy in reference to the stimulus money he's been doling out recently, taking credit for something he was against. Be sure to tune in tomorrow.

Healthcare debate turns obnoxious as birthers ambush rally

The Baton Rouge advocate reported today on the Organizing For America healthcare rally at the Baton Rouge Courthouse. The paper tells us that tea party protesters showed up about fifteen minutes into the press conference to crash the pro-reform party with a series of smears and unfounded accusations. Those against the healthcare plan proposed by the President soon realized that they didn't have a leg to stand on when it came to the issues, so they reacted in a way that reveals their underlying racism and neo-conservatism. What followed was a torrent of ridiculous conspiracy theories accusing President Obama of not being an American citizen. These wingnuts seem to be absolutely impervious to facts and evidence, which is understandable from their point of view given that recognizing the facts would mean recognizing their own stupidity and racism, recognizing that conservatism is dying out, and their kind are dwindling in numbers.

The bright side of this whole scene is that these birthers continue to play right into the President's hand when it comes to the healthcare debate. By focusing on Obama, the far right is losing more and more ground every day in the discussion on reform. President Obama said himself Wednesday night that this is not about him, and he's absolutely right. It's about real people who are struggling to make health insurance payments, seeing the cost of their premiums grow at three times the rate of wages while insurance companies pocket record profits even in the deepest parts of the recession. The story here should be about people like my friend who is 24 and is excluded from health insurance because of a preexisting condition, not about right wing wackos and their idiotic conspiracy theories, which have been roundly debunked at every turn.

On a side note: The Advocate again failed in my opinion to point out the baselessness of the birther claims, even going as far as to provide an out for any of these ridiculous claims in their article.

Welcome and First Post!

Good evening everyone and welcome to Liberal Louisiana. Since this is the first post on this blog, I think it’s appropriate to give a little background about myself and my objectives for this blog. My name is Joseph Stern. I’ve lived in Louisiana all my life and I’m twenty-one years old. I’m currently a senior at LSU and I’ll graduate in May with a B.A. in History. I am an active member of the LSU College Democrats and since the spring of 2009, I have served as this organization’s vice president. I am also a justice on our university court, having been duly elected by our student body in the fall of 2008. My interests range from legal studies, to political science, to New Orleans Saints football, to art films and indie music. I consider myself to be well read and well informed on these and a number of other topics, which I hope will come in handy in the course of writing on this blog.

The purpose of this blog is to provide both Louisiana residents and non-residents a chance to look at the world through the eyes of one of the few dedicated liberals in our great state, and to provide a place for open discussion of issues facing both our state and our country. To accomplish this, myself and hopefully other writers will regularly cover stories that are of consequence to this blog’s readership, giving both an unbiased approach to the facts of a story combined with the unique perspective of a Louisiana Liberal.

So with that said, on to the real reason for this post.

It’s no secret that among conservative politicians there is an idea that the only thing that matters is the moment that one is currently in. No matter what you’ve done or said in the past, nothing can preclude you from taking full advantage of any situation that happens to arise at any time. From Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, to Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, the past means nothing in the GOP. This is why our own Governor Bobby Jindal had no problems at all with contradicting his past remarks about the stimulus package passed earlier in the year by traveling the state on a hypocritical credit grabbing tour. The audacity of the Jindal’s sharpshooter fallacy is shocking on it’s own, but what upsets and worries me the most is that none of our local papers stood up for their readers and called the governor out on his hypocrisy, not a single one. This is in essence why a blog such as this one is necessary. If the sources that we trust to provide us with good information fail to do so, then where do we turn? I hope that we can be at least a part of that answer here at LL. And I hope you’ll join us as we continue to search for the answers to that question.

Joseph Stern