In the interest of keeping y'all informed, the Kingfish and some champions of working class Louisianans have compiled a list of the town halls that our Republican elected officials are hosting throughout Louisiana over the next week. If you know of any that are not on this list, or you have the details of one that we know of, but haven't been able to nail down, please let me know in the comments, or you can email me at ryan at dailykingfish dot com.
Fri Aug 14, 2009
Host: Rep. Alexander Where: Monroe City Hall, Council Chamber; 400 Lea Joyner Expressway; Monroe,La. 71210 Time: 2 PM - 3 PM
Mon Aug 17, 2009
Host: Sinning Senator David Vitter Where: St. James Parish Courthouse;
5800 La 44; Convent, LA 70723 Time: 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
Host: Sinning Senator David Vitter Where: Lafayette South Regional Branch Library; 6101 Johnston St.; Lafayette, LA 70503 Time: 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Host: Rep. Cassidy Where: Ascension Parish; Dutchtown High School; 13165 Highway 73; Geismar, LA Time: 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Tue Aug 18, 2009
Host: Rep. Scalise - Washington Parish Town Hall Where: Bogalusa City Hall, 202 Arkansas Ave. Bogalusa Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Host: Sinning Senator Vitter - Monroe Town Hall Where: ULM Student Union Field House 700 University Ave. Time: 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Host: Sinning Senator Vitter - Bienville Parish Town Hall
Where: Arcadia City Hall
Time: 4 PM - 5 PM
Host: Rep. Cao - Westwego Town Hall Where: Jefferson Performing Arts Center
177 Sala Ave.
Westwego, LA 70094
Time: 6 PM - 7 PM
Wed Aug 19, 2009
Host: Sinning Senator Vitter - DeSot Parish Town Hall Where: DeSoto Chamber of Commerce; Mansfield, LA Time: UNKNOWN
Host: Sinning Senator Vitter - Marksville Town Hall
LOCATION AND TIME UNKNOWN
Host: Rep. Scalise - Jefferson Parish Town Hall Where: Jefferson Parish Council Chambers, 1221 Elmwood Park Blvd; Harahan, LA Time: 7 PM - 8 PM
Thu Aug 20, 2009
Host: Rep. Scalise - Orleans Parish Town Hall Where: St. Dominic's Knight's of Columbus Hall, 6254 Vicksburg St.; New Orleans, LA Time: 2 PM - 3 PM
Host: Rep. Cao - Algiers Town Hall Where:
Delgado Community College West Bank Campus, 2600 General Meyer Avenue;
Building #1; Room 130;
New Orleans, LA 70114 Time: 6 PM - 7:30 PM
Fri Aug 21, 2009
Host: Rep. Scalise - Tangipahoa Parish Town Hall Where: Ponchatoula City Hall Council Chambers, 125 W. Hickory St.; Ponchatoula, LA Time: 11 AM - 12 PM
What I'm wondering is if the Sinning Senator and his Republican friends will allow the following:
Anyone to enter the Town Hall
UNSCREENED questions from the floor
Supporters of President Obama's health care reform plan to speak without being shouted down or derided
"We're not going to cry emergency every time we have a Katrina ..."
Notwithstanding the fact that crying emergency was how the Bush Administration funded the war in Iraq for much of the past 8 years, this asinine Republican Congresswoman from Tennessee is saying that she's against emergency disaster relief spending for another Federal Flood or natural disaster? Talk about an empathy deficit.
Congressman Charlie Melancon's press flack put out the following statement:
"Congressman Melancon is very disappointed. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were two of the most devastating disasters in the history of our country, and the people of Louisiana have been fighting for the past four years to recover from the damage. Ms. Blackburn's dismissive comment makes light of their courageous struggle to rebuild what was destroyed by the storms."
And Lord knows it's been a long, hard slog for many Louisianans and their communities. That brings me to the title of this post:
Where are the statements condemning that idiotic belief held by Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee from our Republican Congressmen?
Anything from Rep. John Fleming? NOPE.
Anything from Rep. Charles Boustany? NOPE.
Anything from Rep. Steve Scalise? NOPE.
Anything from Rep. Anh "Joe" Cao? NOPE.
Nice going there, fellas. So good to know you're going to stand up and defend Louisiana.
The Employee Free Choice Act has been introduced in the House as H.R. 1409 and in the Senate as S. 560.
The corporate lobbies of America are prepared to spend $200 MILLION to defeat EFCA. I've had many conservative friends (they hate being identified as Republicans these days), and some Democratic friends express concern that EFCA will "do away with the secret ballot" with respect to the choice of deciding whether to join a union.
Unfortunately, they are all repeating the lies from the corporate propaganda machine. Right now, if you were to try to unionize your workplace ... your employer has the right to decide which process you use to decide whether y'all unionize or not - you sign a card or you have a secret ballot. Not surprisingly, companies often choose to force their workers to endure a secret ballot. Labor lawyer Gordon Lafer explains why:
When employees want to form a union, they have to go through a process that looks more like the discredited practices of rogue regimes abroad than like anything we would call American.
For an election to be "free and fair," both sides must have equal access to media and the voters. But not under labor law. Anti-union managers are free to campaign to every employee, every day, throughout the day; but pro-union employees can campaign only on break time. Furthermore, management can post anti-union propaganda on bulletin boards and walls - while prohibiting pro-union employees from doing the same.
By law, employers can force workers to attend mass anti-union propaganda events. Not only are pro-union employees not given equal time, but they can be forced to attend on condition that they not ask any questions. Recent data show that workers are forced to attend between five and 10 such one-sided meetings."
And yet you never hear about that part of union organizing from the corporate interests. All you hear is that the secret ballot will go away. Again, it's NOT TRUE. With respect to elections, the bill simply puts the choice of HOW TO VOTE ON WHETHER TO UNIONIZE where it belongs ... with the workers.
"Funny how the free-traders and deregulators suddenly want the government in everyone's face again when it comes to whether or not regular people should be able to decide for themselves how they want to tell their friends and coworkers that they'd maybe like to get together and cooperate on some stuff.
If I want into a union and feel like saying so, get the hell out of my way, boss. Nobody asked you. It shouldn't be up to you how I get to express that any more than you get to decide how I invite people out for beers after work."
Now ... we've got nine representatives up in Washington. Six of 'em are going to vote "NO" no matter what - Vitter, Scalise, Fleming, Alexander, Cassidy and Boustany.
The other three ... Representative Cao, Representative Melancon and Senator Landrieu are going to be slammed with phone calls from nervous folks here in Louisiana telling them NOT to vote for EFCA. So ... call them, and tell them to stand up for Louisiana's working families by voting for EFCA:
In the wake of the brou-haha over RNC Chairman Michael Steele's apology to Rush Limbaugh over his comments about him:
"So let's put it into context here. Let's put it into context here. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh, his whole thing is entertainment. Yes, it's incendiary. Yes, it's ugly."
Then not even 48 hours goes by before we get this from Mr. Steele:
""My intent was not to go after Rush - I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh. I was maybe a little bit inarticulate ... There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership."
So what did the Lousiana GOP have to say about this? Here's Governor PBJ on CNN's Larry King Live:
King: All right, governor, here was Rush Limbaugh at this weekend's CPAC Conference. Watch.
Rush Limbaugh: What is so strange about being honest and saying I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed?
King: Governor, do you think people are thinking about capitalism now or are they thinking about problems?
Jindal: Look, clearly, the American people are worried about paying their mortgages, keeping their jobs and paying their health care bills. I think Rush is a great leader for conservatives. I think he articulates what a lot of people are concerned about.
King: Do you want him [Obama] to fail?
Jindal: I don't want those policies to be adopted. I want my country to succeed, but I don't want policies to be adopted.
King: What if the policies work?
Jindal: Well, again...
King: What if they work?
Jindal: This is where we have a fundamental disagreement. I don't think it's going work ... to spend in excess of our revenues.
And just for the sake of comparison, here's what Joseph "Holy" Cao's Chief of Staff told Big Red Cotton:
Cao's chief of staff Clayton Hall says on the record:
"No... the problems in this country are too big. Rush Limbaugh can say whatever he wants to say. Congressman Cao does not want the president to fail."
So I asked him does Cao want the stimulus package, which he voted against, to fail. Hall gave a curt "No".
Heh. There's a schism within the LA GOP regarding the power of Rush. Obviously, Governor PBJ is a wimp. Cao, like Oyster notes, knows kung fu.
What about the rest of Louisiana's GOP delegation?
This is a new feature that I plan to do on a regular basis; hopefully, a weekly basis, once I purchase a new computer. For the first month of the 111th Congress, there were 46 roll call votes in the House,and there are 6 votes I am focusing on in the House:
There are some surprises here. The Presidential Records Act was to deny President Bush the power to seal his records forever, and allow the House to investigate the Bush Administration's malfeasance. So it was surprising to see Reps. Scalise and Alexander vote for it. Perhaps they were voting to ensure that the Clinton records would stay open or something.
Other than that, the only other surprise is Representative Cao. He did vote for the Presidential Records Act as well as the Paycheck Fairness Act, which posits that workers, regardless of gender, should be paid equally for the same work. But he didn't vote for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which supplied the remedy for when an employer pays a woman (or a man) less than his job counterparts. Rep. Cao also voted to reauthorize the Children's Health Insurance Program, and expand it to include an additional 10 million children.
Other than Rep. Cao, the rest of the Louisiana Republican delegation - Rep. Scalise, Rep. Fleming, Rep. Alexander, Rep. Cassidy and Rep. Boustany - voted against equal pay for women, and against ensuring that Louisiana's children have health insurance.
The entire Louisiana Republican delegation in the House voted against the shelling out the rest of the TARP funds to the nation's banks. Interestingly, Reps. Alexander and Scalise flipped their votes ... perhaps because they trusted President Bush more than they trust President Obama? It seems that the Louisiana Republican delegation is in the same boat as Rush Limbaugh - they want to see the economy fail.
Editor's Note: CenLamar has some background info on the activities of the Draft Stormy folks at DC Mardi Gras.
Washington Mardi Gras is being held this week, so the folks behind the Draft Stormy movement decided to make Draft Stormy beads to hand out amongst the political elite attending the event.
For those unaware of what Washington Mardi Gras is, here's The Advertiser's take on it:
For many of the more than 2,000 Louisianians who've come to Washington to participate in a swirl of parties and receptions, this Mardi Gras is all about business.
It's not known how many deals are cut over hors d'oeuvres at the hospitality suites that Louisiana cities like Lafayette and Shreveport operate in the Washington Hilton - the main site of the Mardi Gras.
Former Sen. Russell Long firmly established a tradition in 1957 by forming the Mystick Krewe.
During one of the festivities, presumably at the Washington Hilton, there were many, many beads handed out and worn quite proudly by patrons. Amongst the revelers in a Draft Stormy effort are:
Rep. Steve Scalise, R-LA-01: (although admittedly, he seems confused)
Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-LA-06:
Who knew even the Republican Members of the Louisiana House delegation are as eager to insert some good ol entertainment into next year's Republican primary?!
On Friday, Congress took up the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which seeks to ensure that women have a remedy when their right to equal pay for equal work has been denied by their employer. Seems fair, no?
Well, the Supreme Court, in Ledbetter v. Goodyear, applied a strict constructionist view of the statutes governing pay in the workplace, and denied women the right to sue their employer over sex discrimination in pay if they didn't bring such a suit within 180 days of a corporation deciding to discriminate against the worker. What the Supreme Court majority failed to understand in this case was that most businesses do not publish their pay scale for all workers to see, so it is not likely that anyone will know that they are being paid less than their colleague within a 180 day period.
According to the entire Republican delegation representing Louisiana in Congress, it is not fair to make businesses that pay women who perform the same work as their male counterparts accountable to the legal system unless such a suit is brought with 6 months of receiving less pay as their male counterpart for the same work. In fact, to the Louisiana Republican delegation - Steve Scalise, Joseph Cao, John Fleming, Rodney Alexander, Bill Cassidy and Charles Boustany - it is downright discriminatory to those businesses, who ought to be able to discriminate against women in the workplace at will, and never face repercussions for doing so.
As Jeffrey at Library Chronicles notes, the vote made by Congressman Gao is not one that Congressman Jefferson would have made. I would add that Congressman Cazayoux would have voted differently than Congressman Cassidy as well.
I should note that the bill passed overwhelmingly, thanks to the new Democratic majority in the U.S. House, 247 to 171, with 15 Members not voting.
A couple of observations ... LA-01 needs to be redrawn before we can consider it being competitive.
LA-07 ... Cravins did a great job for a first time candidate that started LATE. If he decides to run in 2010, he's got to start in January with the fundraising, and make sure he has $1 million to drop, if not more.
LA-06 ... Congratulations, Mr. Cassidy. You can thank Michael Jackson and L. Lane Grigsby for your victory. If you add Jackson and Cazayoux's total, you get 11,623 votes more than Cassidy, and I'm sure that 90% of Jackson's total would have gone to Cazayoux.
Oy. I knew Steve "Mistake on the Lake" Scalise was an opportunistic politician, but I never knew that he'd lie to his constituents and be mis-informed about Corps of Engineer projects in his district.
The second issue raised, the mis-informed charge, is much, much, more serious. The "Pump To The River" drainage project is vital for Lakeview and Metairie residents, as it will help keep flooding during major rain storms, and assuming the levees hold, hurricanes. The Corps of Engineers held a community meeting on October 22nd, and Mr. Scalise was nowhere to be found. It's unfortunate that he decided doing something else was more worthwhile, as he would have learned that the Corps had cancelled the "Pump To The River" project.
Because he didn't even send a staffer to the event, he didn't know that the Corps cancelled the event, as evidenced by this interview on New Orleans' CW channel 38 news the very next day:
Lord. The First District can't afford two years of Steve Scalise's lies or incompetence. Vote for Jim Harlan.
The difference in this race that all of Jim's debt is to himself. The Mistake's debt, on the other hand, is to his campaign staff, as well as political consultants, and a printing company.
On top of that, Scalise is running one of the sleaziest ads ever seen in politics ... against the Democratic Presidential nominee, Barack Obama. Why doesn't he simply stick to the issues that matter to the people of LA-01, which includes hurricane protection? You wouldn't know it by visiting Scalise's website.
The DCCC has named Democratic contender Jim Harlan to their Red to Blue list with 21 days left in the election!
The DCCC Chairman, Rep. Van Hollen, (D-MD) had this to say about Jim's campaign:
"Jim Harlan is running a powerful campaign and is committed to fighting for the critical needs of the people in his district such as hurricane protection and better energy policies. With less than 21 days to make his case for change to voters, the Red to Blue program will give Jim Harlan the financial and structural edge to be even more competitive in November."
Folks ... if you live in LA-01, this is it. Less than 21 days before the election. If you wanna party hearty the night of November 4th, then you've got to leave it all on the field. That means, if you've got some spare change, donate! If you've got some time to spare, volunteer!
Talk to your neighbors. Talk to your friends. Talk to your co-workers. Tell them that this is literally the best chance y'all have in LA-01 to elect a Representative that will fight for y'all, rather than use it to springboard to another elective office.
There has been lots of Louisiana blogosphere discussion today about the fact that the "Mistake on the Lake", err, Steve Scalise and John "Wanna Be" Kennedy are busy attacking the Democratic nominee for President in their ad campaigns.
Jeffrey says it's not wise to claim it's a stupid move because it may work. He's right. But so are E and Oyster, who state that it reeks of desperation. For the Mistake to run ads trying to link Democratic contender Jim Harlan to Barack Obama in a district that gave Bush 70% of the vote against Kerry in 2004 is a move that reeks of desperation.
I've finally got the video of the "forum" attended by both Steve Scalise and Jim Harlan. I find it interesting that Scalise directs his campaign to go on the attack, but is afraid to debate his opponent in a real debate that goes for longer than 20 minutes!
This spring, once the Mistake On the Lake, errrr, Steve Scalise secured the Republican nomination, he decided he didn't need to face the voters for the general election. So he skipped a scheduled League of Women Voters (LWV) debate with Democratic nominee Gilda Reed in May.
It seems that he's at it again, as the League of Women Voters of St. Tammany Parish plans to host a debate between Steve Scalise and Democratic nominee Jim Harlan later this month. Mr. Harlan has agreed to debate, but the LWV hasn't set a date yet, thanks to the failure of Steve Scalise to respond to several phone call requests from the LWV.
Mr. Harlan has also accepted a Press Club of New Orleans invitation to debate. The question remains whether Mr. Scalise will even bother to face his opponent or the voters. It'd be nice to see if Mr. Scalise believes that the people have a right to hear the views of candidates for public office. But I'm betting he'd rather go to Alaska to hunt some moose and learn how to field-dress one from the Barracuda herself.
So, the Good Lord granted my wish of a picture of the Mistake On The Lake, pardon, Steve Scalise, with Vice-President Dick Cheney. At a time when we are facing a economic meltdown, thanks to the Dow slipping below 10,000 for the first time since 2004, and our state is rebuilding yet again from 2 hurricanes in one hurricane season, our Congressman from LA-01 is sharing a laugh with the Vice-President of an Administration that engineered our current malaise.
This is already over, folks. Harlan's gonna win this in a walk. With 478 of 506 precincts reporting, it's official ... Jim Harlan has received more votes than Steve Scalise did in the May general election:
The Advocate reports that Vice-President Dick Cheney will be leaving his unidentified bunker to raise money at fundraisers for Republican candidates Steve Scalise and Bill Cassidy on Monday.
Cheney's first stop will be in Metairie to help out at a Scalise fundraiser. The Scalise campaign that continues to insist it's not a close race. Then why do they have Vice-President Dick Cheney coming in to raise some money for them?
"His comments are going to be on behalf of our campaign," Cassidy said. "It is not a public event."
If you're running for Congress, don't we deserve to know who you're associating with, and what folks speaking on your campaign's behalf are saying?
Now, since Cheney has been one of the most secretive Vice Presidents we've ever had, one would normally assume that he wanted the events closed to the public. Apparently, that's not the case:
"Cheney will be speaking at both events, but they are closed to the media and public at the request of the campaigns," [Cheney spokeswomen Megan] Mitchell said.
Guess they don't want to see pictures of Cheney and them plastered all over the news.
The bill included tax break extensions for folks suffering from Hurricane Ike. In case y'all didn't know, LA-01 suffered from some pretty bad flooding during Ike. But the bill didn't include one parish from LA-01 as being eligible for those tax breaks.
Yet Mr. Scalise chose to get political attention for himself by railing against Wall Street, and voting Nay on the bailout. He even took the time to call into WWL on Thursday and talk with constituents about his opposition to the bailout.
Had he been doing his job as an advocate for LA-01, he would have fought to get LA-01 parishes included in the Hurricane Ike tax breaks. Some of y'all might say that he was opposed to the bill, so why would he include things in it? Folks, while on WWL on Thursday, he stated that he knew the bill would pass. If he knew it would pass, you would think he'd try to help out his own constituents, no? That is what we sent him there to do, right?
A tax break for rum produced in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands may trigger a hangover for proponents of Congress' huge bailout bill after the U.S. Senate tacked on tax reductions for the islands' liquor.
In its current form, the estimated cost of the U.S. Caribbean rum tax proposal, which provides payment to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for rum imported into the mainland, is US$192 million over 10 years.
Normally, this tax break would be extended with little fanfare, but the Senate screwed the pooch on this one, y'all. Something tells me that we're going to be revisiting this mess under the next Administration come January.
Anyhow, here's the breakdown of the Louisiana delegation in the House vote:
Ayes:
LA-03: Charlie Melancon (D)
LA-04: Jim McCrery (R)
LA-05: Rodney Alexander (R)
LA-07: Charles Boustany (R)
Nays:
LA-01: Steve Scalise (R)
LA-02: Bill Jefferson (D)
LA-06: Don Cazayoux (D)
Steve's in the fight of his life in LA-01; and so is Bill over in LA-02; and Don is facing a tough re-election battle against Bill Cassidy. Still, Don sent out this statement about his vote: (emphasis added)
""Today, I cast my vote against Senate version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. This was decidedly one of the toughest votes I have taken during my career in elected office, but I am confident that I cast the right vote. It is my firm belief that giving Wall Street $700 billion in taxpayer money is not the right way to solve the fundamental challenges facing our economy and financial markets. I was hopeful that the new compromise bill would have a smaller pricetag with less taxpayer liability, but it did not."
Late last week, after we learned that Harlan had closed a 53 point gap to 11 points, the National Republican Congressional Committee hid the news that their Chairman, Tom Cole (R-Ok), would be making a visit to stump with the Mistake by the Lake, er, Steve Scalise, in this competitive district.
Now we find out from Mr. Cole's spinmeister, Brendan Buck, that Cole is coming to Louisiana primarily because of the LA-06 race because "that race is tight." But the fact remains that Cole is making a visit to shore up Scalise's support.
I finally find the Scalise campaign response to the Harlan poll ... in LaPolitics Weekly, a subscription-only newsletter written by Republican apologist John Maginnis. Scalise spokesman Jason Hebert doesn't even respond to the poll's findings, but rather goes on the attack:
"I think this poll lacks credibility because Jim Harlan, a Barack Obama delegate, already lied about Steve Scalise's record and his background in a desperate attempt to fool voters and give Barack Obama another supporter in Congress."
Nice to know that the Scalise campaign has already ceded the Presidency to Barack Obama! If the Scalise campaign had the money to conduct a poll, they would have released contrary findings by now. Since they haven't done so, coupled with the fact that the spokesman just gave us spin when asked about the poll, means they know the race is "competitive."
So, if you've got time over the next five weeks, go to the Harlan campaign website, and sign up to volunteer!
Washington Mardi Gras is being held this week, so the folks behind the 
