Liberty and Justice for All!

Karen Carter is going to have a press conference today to respond to attacks made by “Believe In Louisiana“, Jindal’s own personal propaganda service All Children Matter. (Update from Cheron Brylski corrected who was paying for the ad. Believe in Louisiana is still a problem though).

Believe in Louisiana states:

All contributions and expenditures will be publicly disclosed. Believe in Louisiana knows that complete transparency is very important to us, just as it should be in government.

I wonder when that will happen. I won’t be holding my breath. Of course, the existence of Believe in Louisiana is to distort the actual record and make people believe that Jindal’s reforms are meaningful and will bring positive change to our state.  

When I can find audio of the ad that is being run against Carter I will post it here. I am sure it will be filled with half truths if Carter is actually doing things against the wishes of Republicans (especially Jindal). This would be a refreshing change for Carter, especially since she backed Jim Tucker for Speaker previously.

Ironically, I got this message from the “Krewe of Truth” mailing list by Cheron Brylski. Cheron is reported to have said:

“Bobby Jindal is striking a chord with Democrats. They’re saying, ‘I love Bobby Jindal and I am so glad he’s our governor’,”

She also calls Jindal “Louisiana’s last hope” and states “There is also an overwhelming pride about having a minority governor,”. Yet she is critical of Jindal’s home-schooled homeboy Timmy Teepell by stating, “The ads were supposedly ordered by Teepell to “punish” the Speaker Pro Tem for opposing the Administration’s voucher bill”.

I wonder if Brylski will continue to hold Jindal in such high esteem after his propaganda outlet attacked Karen Carter  even though his chief of staff is supposedly calling for retribution. Or will she just put the blame on Teepell only?

Update: I crossed out some of the information that was corrected on the Krewe Of Truth website. Even though it is a group from outside Louisiana pushing for the legislation and calling for Carter to support it, Krewe of Truth is still claiming that Teepell called for the ads as political retribution.

Update 2: Oyster followed the money and found some interesting information about “All Children Matter”. It is a must read.  

When its ajar! Now… when is a voucher not a voucher? When it’s a scholarship!

Jindal’s top budget adviser, Commissioner of Administration Angele Davis, said the program would offer scholarships to students in New Orleans that they could use to “go to any school of their choice.”

This falls under the same idea as the Tangipahoa School Board’s trying to use government as an arm to promote religion.

“Is it vouchers, or is it not vouchers,” [Karen Carter] Peterson said.

“No, it’s a scholarship program,” Davis replied.

Suuuuure it is. A “scholarship program” *wink wink, nudge nudge* that allows public funds to be spent by students to go to a religious school. It will be interesting to see, when they come out, the details of this “scholarship program” and how exactly it differs from a “voucher program”.

Earlier I was critical of Karen Carter and her actions in the Louisiana Legislature when she sold out her own party and supported a Republican for Speaker of the House. How did the Democratic voters in her district pay her back for her selfishness? They rewarded her with the most votes in her OPDEC election in District B.

This is why the Democratic Party is losing ground in this state. Selfish Democrats who are only concerned with their own personal power are rewarded with more seats. The state party does not even follow its own rules. Because of her actions, she should have been censured. The party should have stood up and said “We not tolerate people who allow the Republicans to gain more and more power for their own benefit”. She should be embarassed for her actions and the voters should have tossed her out.

We are supposed to be “progressives”, but we won’t make any progress by supporting people who support Republicans. Until we learn that, we will continue to fail in this state.

As one of my last acts of 2nd vice chair of the JPDEC (I have since moved to Orleans Parish) I wrote this on behalf of the committee.

The Jefferson Parish Democratic Executive Committee would like to voice its displeasure with those Democrats who have decided to abandon their party in the selection process for the next Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives. Representative Karen Carter and the other Democrats who have expressed their support for Representative Jim Tucker are doing their party a disservice.

With the upcoming census, it is likely that Louisiana will be forced to redistrict after losing a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. It is vital that Democrats have control over this process so we can protect ourselves from the tactics that were used by former U.S. Representative Tom Delay (R-TX) and other Republicans in Texas during their most recent redistricting. If those Democrats who are crossing party lines on this issue believe that such events will not take place in Louisiana, they are fooling themselves. With the founding of the LCRM, similar to Tom Delay’s TRMPAC and ARMPAC, we can clearly see what the Republicans are intent on doing. If the Republicans had won control of the LA House, are we to believe that they would act in a fair and bipartisan manner?

We would urge all elected Democrats to stand firm and support a Democrat for the position of Speaker of the House. Any Democrats who support Tucker for the top leadership position in the House will be remembered for their betrayal of their party. The JPDEC urges the State Democratic Party and all other Democratic Parish Executive Committees to censure Democrats who vote for Tucker, to remove those Democrats from any party leadership positions, and to actively recruit candidates to replace those traitors in the next election. With the losses sustained by the Democratic Party in the last election, we cannot afford to have Democrats who will sell out their party in order to gain powerful committee assignments.