On Wednesday, the "Louisiana farce" opened up a new chapter.
If Louisiana ever thought that it would be lofting the gold standard of ethics, the legislature ended that notion.
Governor Bobby Jindal, who rode into office on that ethics white horse fell off yesterday right into the complicit hands of the legislature.
Jindal campaigned on transparency in government. Saying one thing during the campaign and putting it into practice during the administration has been another matter. Due to the legislative passing of Senate Bill 278, the Jindal administration is now able to hide and delete records that the public has the right to see.
How serious is this problem with the passing of this legislation?
Just imagine where New Orleans would be if the citizens were not able to see records of Mayor C. Ray Nagin? Just imagine where our country would be if the courts would not have allowed the public to have access to the Nixon tapes decades ago?
Senate Bill 278 by Sen. Jody Amedee, D-Gonzales (backed by the Jindal administration) was supposed to be a compromise bill on administration transparency but instead of allowing light on his administration it casts a cloud on our ability to see the administration’s actions.
Unfortunately, despite the urgings of the good government groups, the media, and others, the legislature has now allowed the Jindal administration to be able to stonewall, to hide, to evade information about which the public has a right to know.
For instance, recently, Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton has asked various justice officials to determine if a Jindal administration website is political advocacy or information. With the existing Senate Bill that just passed on Wednesday, the administration could argue that the public is not entitled to information critical to the website. Thus, we might not know the purpose of the website from the viewpoint of the Jindal administration, why it was set up and the processes and procedures that have been deployed in its operations.
Already, various newspapers have reported the significant amount of individuals who have received jobs or appointments and who gave to the Jindal campaign or transition team. The Governor said that practice was not to happen during his administration, but it has. The door to obtaining this type of information has just been closed tighter.
We have witnessed the Jindal campaign team violate the Louisiana ethics law. We have seen the governor take very hard positions on legislation and certain actions that strongly suggests that he has his eye on the presidency and not on the good fortunes of the Louisiana citizens.
Instead, we have received a political bait and switch on the issue of the Governor's own ethics. The legislature will rue the day that it decided to close the door of making the Jindal administration available to the public. For too many years, Louisiana has had governors who have embarrassed us. While Gov. Jindal has the potential of being a tremendous leader, the public will never really know who he is, what he really thinks, and why he acts the way he does Ironically, his real potential for greatness will never be able to shine through.We will be spoon-fed what the administration wants us to know.
Therefore, we should remind ourselves that we get the government that we elect. We knew during the election season when he refused to debate that the Governor would not be forthcoming and open but would be closed and political.
So now that the legislature has acted, let the farce continue and it will.
Interesting book I'm reading "America's Money Machine" - it's mainly about the creation of the Federal Reserve. What I find interesting is how the banks in this country went from lending most of their money to either manufacturers and individually-owned businesses to instead lend out the majority of their money to "speculative" ventures including lending money created out of thin air by the Fed to those who "invested" this money into stocks. It seems that a factory, farm or small business has more collateral than pieces of paper called "stocks." It seems as though when banks lend the majority of their money to speculative ventures and ... oh, say the stock market takes a downturn this creates more problems than when the majority of their borrowers have tangible assets to cover their loans. It seems - every so often - we run into trouble due to too much of our money in non-tangible speculative endeavors. Written by kpf
on 6/30/2009
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You have hit a bent nail right on the head there Kp….. Today is Bernie Madoff’s sentencing…. Not sure how much money Bernie Madeoff with, but he hurt quite a few folks…. Now I am not advocating anything here, but I would like to point out - - - - - If Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, AIG, etc., etc., etc. got bailed out,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, under the current tactics the government seems to be laboring under wouldn’t it be logical to assume that by doing so the government is also committed to restoring those investors their lost funds due to the fraudulent handling of their ‘investment accounts’??? You see, the government is saying ‘Corporate Business’ gets carte blanche and a security blanket but the common folks don’t count……. And all this Universal health care talk? It is only semantics, it is what our elected props espouse in an attempt to find out ‘what makes people happy’……. You cannot make people happy….. They have to be able to find and recognize the concept of ‘happy’ for their selves….. Take this Pilgrim’s Pride thing…………. Was it really to save jobs? We bought Pilgrim’s Pride’s ‘toxic investment assets’ that they acquired in the failed attempt to garner increased market share in the chicken business….. And we got saddled with their poor decision….. And you hear goofy ideas like “The state should buy ‘Hummer’……. Land Rover is the world’s most recognized off road brand……… All around the world from Nepal to the Serengeti planes, from Mongolia to Germany, from Australia to Columbia, the Land Rover is the most widely recognized ‘off-road vehicle’ followed by Toyota…………………. And I don’t see the world going into a ‘craze’ for Cajun cuisine, no matter how good it is, or how widely advertised it is via the “Louisiana economic development board” marketing attempts either….. Now I can see a whole lot of areas where state/government partially funded or sanctioned endeavors can do a lot of good, and each one should be assessed on a case by case basis for the validity or usefulness of their contributions to society at large, but this health care – higher education – Hummer/chicken farm approach currently being dabbled in is lunacy……. And so are a majority of the ‘bailouts and TARP’S………….. and NAFTA………… I see some very bad things on the horizon if we don’t at least try to turn this thing around…………….. Written by
on 6/29/2009
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The same way a government takeover of GM - with the promise of billions more in taxpayer money to allow them to continue to operate in the red - is called "bankruptcy." Not exactly the same thing if you or I go bankrupt, rest assured. Written by kpf
on 6/27/2009
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A lot of the regular buzzers will take offense at calling this the "Transparency Bill". But those same readers will claim to see no similarities when democrats name their union payoff bill the "Employee Free Choice Act". Written by
on 6/27/2009
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"Keep away from that masked d-d-d-desporad-d-d-d...... that masked stinker!"
Written by Porky Pig
on 6/26/2009
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The Governor and the Legislature took a step backward on transparency this year. There is a definite lack of leadership in Baton Rouge. Written by David Quidd
on 6/25/2009
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But collisions do happen, on this day in 1956 51 died in the collision of tbe "Andrea Doria" & the "Stockholm" off the coast of Cape Cod....
Written by
on 6/25/2009
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On this day in 1961 Iraq announced that Kuwait is a part of Iraq (Kuwait disagrees) I guess some 30 odd years later ethics came into play and today we are still on that hard banana? Written by
on 6/25/2009
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""""""""""""""...........lofting the gold standard of ethics""""""""""""""""" There's that quaint little saying again, and you believe it was possible all from a little guy that couldn't even rally more than 25% of the voting population to elect him to office? Please, quit flogging that dead horse Stevie..... I seem to remember some tryalogue about "What is a leader" or some other whiney muse such as that.... Well tell me Stevie, wut are 'ethics'? I suppose it depends on what cow is getting milked and how hard the teats are being grasped.... Do you think cows get 'put off' by cold hands???? Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh... quit your whining and get to work.................. Written by
on 6/25/2009
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The media can do no greater good than keeping a close watch on our politicians and informing the public of their shenanigans. Thanks and keep the pressure on. Hopefully people will get fed up with the status quo and start to elect candidates who are not affliated with either major political party who will place those who sent them to office ahead of party loyalty (or party intimidation). Written by kpf
on 6/25/2009
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On Wednesday, the "
