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Archive for February, 2010

Feb 28

4 Comments

A Special Thanks to the New Leaders Council

I just got back from Baton Rouge, where I gave a presentation on blogging to the first-ever class of the Louisiana Chapter of the New Leaders Council. See:

I had a great time, and I am really proud of the class we put together. They are an exceptional group of young leaders, and I have no doubt that they will continue to make a difference in Louisiana for many years to come.

A special thanks as well to those Louisiana bloggers who unknowingly contributed to the conversation: Oyster at Your Right Hand Thief, Jeffrey at Library Chronicles, Dambala at the American Zombie, and the stellar teams at both Humid Beings and the Lens. At the very least, I hope I scored you all a few more dedicated readers and maybe even some new contributors.

Feb 23

2 Comments

Autotuning Drew Brees and Bobby Jindal

Wait for it or skip to 2:14:

Feb 22

5 Comments

Seconds After

Seconds after Glenn Beck proclaimed that the folks at CPAC would “kill” him for misspelling a word on his chalkboard, he misspelled the word “evolution.”

It’s EVOTUTION, BABY!

Feb 18

HHDL and Obama

Pete Souza, White House photographer

Feb 17

2 Comments

I Was Mentioned on Local Talk Radio

What an honor.

You can hear it all here. (Thanks to Greg Aymond for uploading the audio clip).

I’ve got the transcript (and my commentary) after the jump:

Read more

Feb 15

6 Comments

Hysterics

Greg Aymond’s writing about me again. This time, he spelled my name correctly.

Read more

Feb 15

1 Comment

Alexandria Native Named Rex, King of Carnival

From The Times-Picayune:

For eight days, R. Hunter Pierson Jr. has watched as his Uptown neighbor, Saints quarterback Drew Brees, has reigned over New Orleans, drawing reverent attention from everyone from news crews to neighbors who have left Hubig’s pies and Abita beer on his doorstep.

But on Tuesday, it’ll be Pierson’s turn to rule.

He will be Rex, king of Carnival, and will take the throne for a 24-hour reign whose high point will be a ride through a city that is still giddy about the Saints’ 31-17 triumph in Super Bowl XLIV.

….

A native of Alexandria who was a frequent Mardi Gras visitor while he was growing up, Pierson and his wife, Cathy, moved to New Orleans in 1973, shortly after their marriage.

While Carnival was fascinating annual diversion, the couple didn’t expect to be in New Orleans very long.

“I had a job at the First National Bank of Commerce,” he said, “and I always thought I’d learn a trade and go back to Alexandria.”

But they realized that wasn’t going to happen when they were on a drive through rural Louisiana with their young son, R. Hunter Pierson III, en route to a family visit in Alexandria.

“As we drove down the road, there was a tractor on the side of the road,” Cathy Pierson said, “It was right after Mardi Gras. Our son looked at me and said, ‘Where’s the float?’”

“That was when I realized we were New Orleanians,” Hunter Pierson said.

They became New Orleanians with a vengeance, working on an array of committees and evolving into what Rex spokesman Christian “Christy” Brown called “a formidable team in accomplishing anything.”

Hunter Pierson, an LSU graduate who manages private investments in real estate, timberland and securities, is a new appointee to the Tulane University board. He also is a member of the boards of the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Louisiana Museum Foundation. He is a regional board member of Teach for America, which recruits recent college graduates and professionals to teach for two years in low-income communities around the country.

The Piersons also served as co-chairs of Promise and Distinction: The Campaign for Tulane, a fundraising drive that brought in $730 million — $130 million above its original goal.

Congrats to Mr. Pierson.

Feb 15

Overture

Step One: Admit that you are a politician.

Feb 15

Musical Interlude III

I’ve seen these guys three times, and they remain, by far, the best live musical act I have ever seen in my life.

Read more

Feb 13

Jobs: The Last Year of Bush Vs the First Year of Obama

Not, by any means, a rosy picture, but it does appear as if things are getting incrementally… umm… less terrible:

Feb 13

Billy Tauzin’s Surprise Resignation

Remember Billy Tauzin?

Before he took a $2 million a year job with PhRMA, he was a Congressman from Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District, the seat now held by Charlie Melancon. (In the grand tradition of Louisiana turncoats, Tauzin was a Democrat for most of his political career until he became a Republican in 1995, and in another grand tradition, after he announced he would not run for a 13th term, he attempted to prop up his son as his replacement. Oh and then he parlayed his experience as a Congressman in order to garner a seven-figure salary lobbying for the pharmaceutical industry).

Earlier this week, Tauzin’s sudden resignation from PhRMA seemed to catch many in the DC media off-guard. Maybe it shouldn’t have.

Politico offers some back story:

The Democratic takeover of Washington in 2008 left Tauzin, a Republican with few longstanding relationships with the power players in Congress and the incoming Obama administration, prompting the PhRMA board members as early as last summer to contemplate a change.

….

Finally, some board members were frustrated by Tauzin’s management style, which reflected that of a former politician used to delegating the day-to-day work to staff. They pressed him to hire a chief operation officer, but that didn’t resolve all issues. And, increasingly during the fall debate over health care, the trade group’s top lobbyists with ties to the Democrats became the primary sources of the legislative intelligence critical to the industry, PhRMA insiders said.

….

PhRMA’s board began laying the groundwork last fall for finding Tauzin’s successor. News of the search, according to several insiders, was unlikely to stay quiet much longer since the PhRMA job is one of the most coveted private sector jobs in Washington. Tauzin’s salary is $2 million, and he oversees the drug industry’s vast political and lobbying budgets.

But Tauzin on Friday took fate into his own hands and abruptly announced his decision to step down this summer.

In an interview with POLITICO, Tauzin called reports that his board was unhappy with his leadership “bullcrap” and said his decision was “not at all connected to health care reform. The companies have never been more committed to their strategy. They are united as I’ve ever seen them.”

….

In the end, Tauzin’s announcement took on bigger meaning in large measure because it represents an end to a career filled with enough reincarnations to turn the Louisiana native into one of Washington’s biggest players.

When Tauzin was named president of PhRMA in January 2005, Republicans still ran the White House and Congress and the pharmaceutical industry’s trade association was counted among their staunchest allies.

While his decision to take the job in the middle of his term was decried by good-government groups as the ultimate example of political cashing in, his big salary also made him the envy of his old House colleagues.

A nimble politician who’d survived his own party switch in 1995, Tauzin oversaw a dramatic makeover of PhRMA’s public image. He gave a bipartisan hue to its political giving, brought on Democratic lobbyists and launched a program to provide free or discounted drugs to low-income communities.

Feb 13

2 Comments

Another Musical Interlude

February makes me shiver.

My father, Lamar White, Sr., died nine years ago this month. He was 41 years old when he passed away.

He was the most intense and the most passionate person I have ever encountered. Seriously.

One day, maybe I’ll be able to tell the whole story. Or, at the very least, the story about the cava bowl.

Some of my late father’s favorite songs:

Feb 11

Yet Another Case where Anti-Obama Rhetoric is Discredited within Seconds

From Language Log:

Fox News…has decided to count first-person pronouns in every speech Obama gives. Thus “The I’s Have It: Obama Hits 34 I’s in Washington D.C.”, FOXNews.com, 2/7/2010:

Much attention has been given to President Obama’s persistent use of “I” when giving speeches to sell his administration’s agenda. Is he taking responsibility — or, as his critics say, is he still in campaign mode? FoxNews.com is tracking the president’s speeches all this month and will report back after each to see whether The “I’s” Have It.

The article goes on to show that Fox News and their Anti-Obama cohorts left one little nugget of info out of their “analysis”:

Obama’s use of ‘I’ is far lower than Palin, Boehner, and a whole slew of Republicans; And, his use of ‘We’ is far higher than theirs.

Read the entire article.

Feb 10

4 Comments

This is Awesome

In other, completely unrelated news, since I’m having difficulty updating the previous post, the update will have to go here:

This afternoon, Greg Aymond “attacked” me for (apparently) “attacking” Steve Coco for, I guess, “attacking” the Mayor, who must’ve also somehow “attacked” Steve Coco. So, I guess any response to Greg would be an “attack.” For the record, I don’t think I’m attacking anyone; I thought the post about Mr. Coco was snarky, for sure, but not an “attack.”

Anyway, I’m only mentioning this because Greg wrote something unintentionally hilarious. No, no, not his line about how I don’t understand journalism because I didn’t link to one of his posts a few weeks ago. Here Greg, a LINK! And no, I’m not talking about how, despite his criticism of the way I write, he STILL managed to misspell my name in the freakin’ headline (Larmar?). Haha.

I’m referring to this gem:

So go back to work Lamar, and write some more to appease the hippy finger snapping liberal beatnik society of young people who mostly live out of town, and leave the real stuff to those that have a clue as to what real life is all about, like Steve Coco.

Maybe I should take him up on his advice:

Lamar: Put out your Lucky Strikes everyone!

Sunshine and Dharma, put some clothes on.

It’s time for a poetry reading.

Dim the lights, Bhagavan Das.

Before we get started, does anyone need a refill? There’s still half a bottle of grain whiskey over here.

Our featured poet is the one and only Gary Synder. Far-out, huh?

Take it away, Gary.

Gary: This is far-out, Lamar. Without further adieu:

Smokey the Bear Sutra

Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago,
the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite
Void gave a Discourse to all the assembled elements
and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings,
the flying beings, and the sitting beings — even grasses,
to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a
seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning
Enlightenment on the planet Earth.

“In some future time, there will be a continent called
America. It will have great centers of power called
such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur,
Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels
such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon
The human race in that era will get into troubles all over
its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of
its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature.”

“The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings
of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth.
My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and
granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that
future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure
the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger:
and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it.”

And he showed himself in his true form of

SMOKEY THE BEAR

  • A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he is aroused and
    watchful.
  • Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless
    attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;
  • His left paw in the Mudra of Comradely Display — indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;
  • Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the countless men oppressed by a
    civilization that claims to save but often destroys;
  • Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the West, symbolic of the forces that guard the Wilderness, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the True Path of man on earth: all true paths lead through mountains –
  • With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali-yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of
    those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind;
  • Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;
  • Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs; smashing the worms of capitalism and
    totalitarianism;
  • Indicating the Task: his followers, becoming free of cars, houses, canned foods, universities, and shoes;
    master the Three Mysteries of their own Body, Speech, and Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten
    trees and prune out the sick limbs of this country America and then burn the leftover trash.

Wrathful but Calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will
Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or
slander him,

HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.

Thus his great Mantra:

Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana
Sphataya hum traka ham nam

“I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND
BE THIS RAGING FURY DESTROYED”

And he will protect those who love woods and rivers,
Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick
people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children:

And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television,
or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR’S WAR SPELL:

DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS

And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out
with his vajra-shovel.

  • Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice will accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.
  • Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.
  • Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.
  • Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.
  • Will always have ripe blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at.

AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT.

thus have we heard.

Lamar: Wow, that was crazy, Gary, a poem about Smokey the Bear!

Gary: It’s more than a poem, man. It’s a sutra.

Lamar: Well, I know all of us hippy, finger-snapping beatniks are so thankful for you coming here. What a blessing.

Just some housekeeping notes before we break up. Next week, we’ll be doing our annual reading of Big Sur and then the week after next, we’ll be welcoming another special guest, Harvard professor Richard Alpert, who I hear recently changed his name.

Feb 10

How Am I Not Myself?

Earlier today, on Steve Coco’s blog, Steve Coco wrote about how, during Steve Coco’s morning radio show, the Mayor showed up to chat with Steve Coco. Quoting Steve Coco on Steve Coco’s blog:

Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy rushed to the KSYL Radio studio Tuesday morning, apparently in “damage control” mode. Some Alexandria utility customers have been calling about late bills, no bills or no cut-off notice. I have mentioned my bill was high, $432, the highest bill ever.

The mayor said he pulled my records showing my consumption was up and fuel surcharge percentage actually lower than a year ago. That is correct. As a matter of fact, I NEVER said at any time that my bill was WRONG or bogus, I just don’t like paying a high utility bill. The mayor also said that I am NEVER right about ANYTHING I say about the City of Alexandria. I consider that statement from Mayor Roy to be an EXTREMELY high compliment. The mayor believes I’m always wrong and he’s always right quoting statements out of context and omitting pertinent details. Well, it doesn’t matter what Mayor Roy or I think. It matters what the public thinks. It’s a matter of credibility and credibility is ascertained by public opinion. What’s your opinion?

You can hear the mayor’s comments on the podcast replay on KSYLdotcom about 45 minutes into the program.

And I also recommend you listen to the Mayor’s comment.

The Mayor didn’t “rush” in. That’s ridiculous. Steve Coco had previously requested a review / “re-read” of Steve Coco’s utility bill, so it’s disingenuous and dishonest for anyone to imply Steve Coco was singled out. He asked for his bill and usage to be scrutinized, and he aired his concerns on the radio.

The Mayor lives three or four blocks away from the radio studio, and after one caller directly requested the Mayor answer questions and after Steve Coco spoke about his own impressions regarding utility bills, the Mayor showed up to answer questions.

Steve Coco, for those of you who don’t know, was a long-time news anchor on KALB-TV, and today, he is an elected official, a Rapides Parish Police Juror, having been elected by the slimmest of margins, and a talk radio “pundit” turned blogger.

Steve Coco is a politician.

Which leads me to this:


Does KSYL pay an elected official to be their early morning radio host? Or don’t they?

(For what it is worth, I don’t get paid a dime to run this blog; if anything, it costs money).
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