Who's Going?

Clear your schedules ladies and gents!

There's going to be a group tea-bagging in Metairie.









What kind of tea-bagging party would it be without a special guest tea-bagging from Steve the Sleaze?

Someone really should go. If State Rep. John LaBruzzo shows up someone should ask him if he's gotten paid yet for getting his tea bags tied.

It's pretty hard to believe tea-bagger in chief David Vitter isn't going to be getting in on that action.

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I've read a lot of bloggers comparing this inarticulate and target-less action to the inarticulate and target-less action that the Left perfected from the '80's until now. I think there's some merit to that if you're just talking short term tactic. I think the comparison becomes less useful as you take the long view. The Left and Right have tended to organize in ways influenced by generally different orientations toward various authority structures.


UPDATE: Jeez MSNBC is having too much fun with this.

How Many Times Did Jindal Lie?

Yesterday at the bottom of my post recapping Bobby Jindal's national weird-out, I described how the Governor totally distorted his record on education.

Now, TPM Muckraker's Zachary Roth has been looking into whether or not Bobby Jindal's account of meeting with Sheriff Harry Lee during Katrina is a fabrication.

Here is what Jindal said:

During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: 'Well, I'm the Sheriff and if you don't like it you can come and arrest me!' I asked him: 'Sheriff, what's got you so mad?' He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, 'Sheriff, that's ridiculous.' And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: 'Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!' Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

Did Governor Jindal fabricate this story? TPM is has collected evidence indicating that he may have.

Maybe us locals can help figure it out.

Update:

The shellfish tracks another lie from Jindal's speech, the one about what a waste it apparently is to keep an eye on active volcanoes in populated areas.

Police Abuse Endemic Throughout Region

Jeffrey and Varg both blogged today about the case of Randy Bibb, a tour guide arrested and abused by an NOPD office for no reason.

What about the case of James Williams?



He was arrested and assaulted by a Jefferson Parish cop, seemingly for being a black man in a car with a white woman. I don't believe the Times-Picayune has covered the Williams case.


Oh and let me also offer kudos to Councilman James Carter for his work creating an independent police monitor along with Robert Cerasoli. That position could be staffed within a few months. (If I'm not mistaken)

On Third Thought

Let's look at some numbers:

Orleans Parish, December 9th 2006:

Jefferson: 23,218 51.30%
Not Jefferson: 22,044 48.70%

Orleans Parish, December 6th 2008:

Jefferson: 23,197 50.74%
Not Jefferson: 22,523 49.26%

Hmm. Remarkably similar. New Orleans has more full time residents now than in December, 2006 but maybe this indicates something about the upper bounds of Jefferson's post Katrina electoral base. Not buying the 'African Americans were confused' thing. If that were the case, Orleans would have gone by a much higher percentage to the Not Jefferson candidate, no?

Of the households that have returned to New Orleans in between the end of 2006 and the end of 2008, what percentage are African American and what percentage are white? An accurate estimation of that breakdown might help us establish some sort of test hypothesis for the vote totals to be expected from an off-day December runoff. I do find it curious that the anti-Jefferson vote was more or less the same as 2006, in terms of total cast and as a percentage.

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Jefferson Parish, December 9th 2006:

Jefferson: 11,935 70.61%
Not Jefferson: 4,967 29.39%

Jefferson Parish, December 6th 2008:

Jefferson: 8,099 38.34%
Not Jefferson: 13,027 61.66%

Sickening. The bosses over there have way too much power.

Also remarkable because it would seem that Jefferson Parish voters changed their mind between 2006 and 2008. Unless... maybe Bill Jefferson's supporters in Jefferson Parish were 'confused' about the election this year.

Update: Schroeder's got a more nuanced table of stats.

Get into the Details?

I don't want to dwell on LaBruzzo for ever and ever. His shocking and abhorrent proposal is not something I want to continue to talk about. It discriminates based on race, class, and sex both in theory and in practice. It is hateful in every respect. It is also impractical and stupid from the get-go. As the Times-Picayune pointed out today, welfare expenditures actually represent an almost insignificant portion of the budget. LaBruzzo's proposal is a typical racist's attempt to deflect criticism of the excesses of the wealthy onto minorities.

Eugenics is pure evil. Period. LaBruzzo can never recover from this ever. He's finished in my book. Finished!

The controversy does remain of critical relevance.

Why?

Because look who else has exposed themselves to be racist:

(Excerpted from today's T-P)

Some of LaBruzzo's political backers, meanwhile, responded cautiously to his controversial pronouncements.

"It definitely caught me by surprise," said lawyer James Garvey, a member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. He has given $1,000 to LaBruzzo's campaign treasury. "I guess I would say that Johnny is a really good guy and really bright guy and that he comes up with ideas that have not been thought of by many other people. Some are good. Some are bad."

Garvey said he had not given LaBruzzo's sterilization idea enough thought to take a position on it. "This might turn out to be a horrible idea," he said, "but you can't get his good ideas without getting some of his off-the-wall ideas."

Real estate developer Henry Shane, who has given LaBruzzo $2,000, also was noncommittal, saying he has not digested the proposal or talked to LaBruzzo about it.

"I'd have to know what he is actually proposing," Shane said. "It sounds like it might be unusual, but when you get into the details of it, it may make sense."

WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? There is no due diligence here. When someone proposes genocide through sterilization you condemn it automatically. There's no 'oh well he's a great guy, there might be something good in here' or 'yeah you know I'm not ready to take a position until I see the proposal.' THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST RACIST BILLS ANYONE COULD EVER PROPOSE. EVER.

James Garvey is on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and may soon rubber stamp a proposal that closes New Orleans public schools. Do you think he cares about the public education of the poor minority children of Orleans? Sounds to me like he wants them to have never been born. If James Garvey is the type of guy to take a pro-eugenics bill 'under advisement,' he has no business being in government, let alone on a board with jurisdiction over the lives of children.

This petition prevents the BESE board from rubber stamping the master plan until Orleans Parish voters get their say through a new school board. You should probably sign it, unless you're a soulless fool that thinks eugenics bills should be entertained.

This other guy, Henry Shane, whoever he is (a big Vitter-booster), also appears to be a flaming racist. He's suggesting that LaBruzzo's eugenics proposal might "make sense" if us crazies only took the time to look at the details.

Beyond that, we see that Congressman Steve Scalise continues to tout the endorsement he got from LaHitler on his website. I'd love to know what Mr. "the Sleaze" has to say about his friend's proposal. Until he repudiates it publicly, rejects and denounces LaHitler's endorsement, and returns any and all money LaHitler helped raise, I'll just have to go ahead an assume that Scalise is a white supremacist too. We're 48 hours and counting. Anything to say Scasleaze?

Perhaps Mr. Scalise is worried about alienating his base, the racists of Jefferson Parish. He has a difficult political calculation to make because he needs strong racist turnout if he's to retain his seat against the surging Jim Harlan, who not only rejects and denounces 19th century white supremacist philosophies like eugenics, but has a bold plan to move forward on coastal restoration. I fully expect that Mr. Harlan will have no problem pointing out this key difference with his opponent.

Mr. Harlan is closing the gap toward single digits! Prove reasonable people wrong, Jefferson Parish. Vote against politicians like Steve Scalise and his white supremacist friend, Eugenicsathan LaGenocide.

Ashamed

I don't even know where to begin on State Rep. John LaBruzzo, Republican from Metairie. If you think you can stomach some really 19th century craziness, go take a look at the filth Jeffrey has brought to our attention.

Eugenics? In 2008?

LaBruzzo is basically trying to come up with a "solution" to the "problem" that "nobody's talking about," which is that there won't be a white majority forever and ever.

Now, as of 1:16 AM on Wednesday morning, Rep. Steve Scalise is still touting State Rep. LaBruzzo's endorsement on his website, which is indicative of why I'm endorsing Jim Harlan for Steve the Sleaze's seat in US Congress.

Look, we all know that Jefferson Parish is one of the most racist places in America and that the Republican Party there is spawn of white supremicist social networks. State Rep. Labruzzo is merely carrying the mantle that David Duke once did when he represented that very same district in the Louisiana legislature. It's disturbing to think about but it's 100% true.

It's hard to believe that this disgusting creature holds a leadership position. Way to stay in the news there, guy. I'm ashamed to live in the same galaxy as you.

UPDATE: It's 5pm Wednesday evening and Steve Scalise still touts Rep. LaRacist's endorsement.