Why I Haven't Written Lately

I doubt that many people have noticed my extended absence on LL, but for those who have, I think I owe an explanation. While congress is in recess we've all become very familiar with the prevailing stories in the news this summer. Healthcare town halls and the screamers and other manner of wackos that attend them with hopes of derailing healthcare reform are dominating all political conversation. It's the same old tired tactics that attempted to stop desegregation in the south, and it's the same tactics that we'll see for years to come whenever there is hope for progressive reform, and it should be reported as such. So, I'm not going to give extra time and attention to groups that don't deserve it. They're old news, and they're enemies of progress. It would be pointless for me to keep beating a dead horse. Thus, until at least congress is back in session, or something worth reporting happens, or regular season New Orleans Saints football begins, I refuse to be boring.

My Weekend Plans!

Sorry for missing Turds Day, Glen Beck would have won the golden turd, for those who care to know. I'll be away most of this weekend, catching the Pennington Balloon Championships and the New Orleans Saints Black and Gold Scrimmage. I'm highly excited about both of these, I'll post pictures when I get back.

Are You Kidding Me, Mr. President?!

President Obama is going out of his way this week derail his own plan for real health care reform. The president told reporters this week that "he didn't like to see 'left wing' groups attacking fellow Democrats.'"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?

All we're doing Mr. President, is fighting for the real reform that you campaigned on! You asked me to vote for you because a vote for you would be a vote for healthcare, and now that we're calling out Blue Dogs for dragging their feet, you stand up for them? If real meaningful healthcare reform fails this year, it will not be because of liberal progressives asking The President and Congress to keep to their word when it comes to the most important issues facing our country. Forget blaming birthers, screamers, and the GOP, It will be because conservative democrats in name only either aren't sticking to their guns or weren't serious about reform in the first place. All we're asking for is for you to keep your promises. ~46,000,000 Americans cannot wait for diplomacy on this issue. We need real reform now. I don't understand why the President is asking all the people who voted for real reform to calm down and sit the bench at this crucial stage in the debate. The radical right is sending the dogs on every front, and our leader is telling us to hold steady. Mr. President, I hope you haven't forgotten that you found success in the primaries on the backs of liberals who didn't just wait for the issue to come to them, they attacked and won. You owe us.

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.