Monthly Archives: June 2010

Melancon: BP Should Suspend Executive Bonuses Reply

by • Local Political News, National News

Louisiana Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Charlie Melancon is calling on BP to suspend paying executive bonuses and instead use that money to help Gulf Coast families reeling from the disaster. From the Associated Press:

U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon has asked the chairman of BP to suspend performance bonuses indefinitely for the company’s top executives and use those funds to assist Louisianians affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Carl-Henrik Svanberg, Melancon says BP chief executive Tony Hayward’s $3 million bonus he received last year would cover the salaries for 50 offshore workers who have lost jobs due to the offshore drilling moratorium imposed as a result of the company’s drilling disaster in the Gulf.

Melancon says suspending bonuses for top-ranking executives represents “a small first step in the long process of restoring some semblance of trust between the people of Louisiana and BP.”

From Melancon’s letter, via ThinkProgress:

I find it inexcusable for top BP executives to claim seven-figure bonuses while Louisianians suffer as a result of your company’s drilling disaster in the Gulf.In light of the persistent failures of BP’s top management, I am calling for all future bonuses to BP’s top executives to be suspended indefinitely.

These bonuses would be better applied toward meeting the company’s obligations to the thousands of Louisianians whose lives have been destroyed as a result of this disaster.

Executives who preside over a corporate culture that promotes cutting corners over safety, mislead the public, and stonewall Congress in their testimony do not deserve performance bonuses by any standard or measure. Suspending bonuses for top-ranking executives represents, in my view, a small first step in the long process of restoring some semblance of trust between the people of Louisiana and BP.

Agreed.

Vitter Aide (Who Worked on Women’s Issues) Resigns After ABC News Uncovers He Was Arrested for Attacking His Ex-Girlfriend (Among Other Things) Reply

by • Local Political News, Media Studies, National News

Can’t make this stuff up.

From ABC News:

A trusted aide to Louisiana Sen. David Vitter resigned Wednesday morning after ABC News reported that he had been arrested for attacking his ex-girlfriend with a knife, and had an open warrant for his arrest in Baton Rouge on a drunk driving charge.

The aide, Brent Furer, worked on the Republican senator’s last campaign, and has spent the last five years posted in his Washington office to handle, among other things, women’s issues.

“It says something terrible about Senator Vitter’s judgment that this is the kind of guy he wants to keep in his office,” said Sloan, who first alerted ABC News to the assault case. She said Furer’s resignation was “an obvioius attempt by the senator to save himself with women voters as heads into his reelection campaign this fall.”

“Senator Vitter knowingly kept this dangerous person on his staff through his drunk driving arrest in 2003 and his chilling domestic violence assault conviction in 2008,” said Sloan. “Why have him resign only now?”

Furer’s resignation was reported at 10:30 Wednesday morning by the Associated Press. Vitter spokesman Joel DiGrado told AP that Vitter’s office was aware of Furer’s arrest for attacking his ex-girlfriend two years ago, but said Vitter was unaware of any other legal issues until the ABC News report. “Senator Vitter accepted the employee’s resignation today after learning of the other incidents,” spokesman Joel DiGrado said.

Yet in 2003, after Furer pleaded guilty to driving drunk, a pastor who was Vitter’s regional director in Louisiana oversaw Furer’s court-ordered community service, and did so while Furer continued to work as a key paid staffer on Vitter’s first senate campaign.

This happened two years ago:

After drinking at a restaurant, the two returned to Furer’s Capitol Hill apartment, the report says. Furer “would not let her leave.” He “pulled on her coat, which caused it to rip,” then “pulled out a knife and stabbed [her] in the hand,” the police report says.

Charging documents allege that Furer became angry when he found phone numbers for other men in her blackberry. He smashed her phone when she tried to call 911, the records say, and he shoved her to the floor when she tried to leave, then held his hand over her mouth and threw her on a bed.

(The woman) told police Furer “uttered the words to her, ‘Do you want to get serious.’” Then, the arrest warrant states, Furer “grabbed an unknown object and held it under her neck. The suspect asked the complainant, ‘Do you want to die?’ The complainant replies and she stated, ‘No, I don’t want to die.’”

After a 90 minute standoff, Furer made her promise not to call police, and then allowed her to leave. She fled to a friend’s house, and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. A slash on her chin took eight stitches to close, the police report says.

Furer eventually pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor charges, including threatening harm and destruction of property. The assault and weapons charges were dismissed. He was sentenced to 180 days confinement, two years of supervised probation, 40 hours of community service, and treatment for drug and alcohol dependency. After getting a harsh warning from Superior Court Judge Lee Satterfield, his jail term was suspended.

And then there is this:

The dates of Furer’s community service (for his 2003 DWI arrest) also coincide with the dates he was on the payroll of Vitter’s senate campaign. On Aug. 2, 2004, for instance, Furer reported doing eight hours of community service at a Salem United Church of Christ camp in New Orleans, under the stewardship of Rev. Richard. Campaign finance records show that on the same date, Furer received $1,500 in payments for “campaign management.”

And that’s not all. The guy’s been arrested for cocaine possession; he has at least three DWIs; and he allegedly hit a motorcyclist and broke the man’s femur during a fit of road rage.

Another Coco Puff 5

by • Humor, Local Political News

This is a great video. Three cheers.

Police Juror Steve Coco claims to be the “most qualified, experienced news source” in all of Central Louisiana. This will most assuredly help his candidacy for Mayor of Alexandria. If you are running for Mayor and you also believe yourself to be the “most qualified, experienced news source,” then you can literally endorse your own candidacy and criticize your opponents as a “news source.” No, no, it wouldn’t be Steve Coco the Candidate reporting; it’d be Steve Coco the Source of News in Central Louisiana. It’s ingenious.

Maybe I’ve had it all wrong. During the last four years, I’ve written a personal blog on my own time, and I haven’t earned a penny doing so. But somehow, I’ve been maligned by Mr. Coco as some sort of paid propagandist. If I had only labeled myself as Central Louisiana’s Most Trusted Name in News or something to that effect, maybe Xeroxed a couple of PRESS badges, then I could have claimed journalistic immunity, which is like political kevlar, and earned an income through the Police Jury or SSI instead.

In all seriousness:

For real?

Farewell Bishop Mangun 1

by • Self-referential drivel, Today's News

Pentecostal Bishop G.A. Mangun passed away yesterday at the age of 91. Mr. Mangun, who was born and raised in Indiana, moved to Alexandria in 1950 and became the pastor of a small church near Bayou Rapides. Sixty years later, that church is one of the most well-known Pentecostal churches in the nation, representing one of the largest congregations in the State of Louisiana.

When Bill Clinton was President, he attended worship services at the church on a number of occasions; he seemed to be a fan of their truly incredible theatrical passion play, Messiah, which was a state-of-the-art performance that included a laser light show, pyrotechnics, and a menagerie of live animals. President Clinton recently called Bishop Mangun, after he suffered a stroke less than a month ago.

Even though my family and I are not and have never been members of the Pentecostal church, we, like many others in Central Louisiana, attended Messiah every year (I hope they revive it soon). Peter Jennings even filed a national news report on the performance on ABC; seriously, it was that good. It warranted national attention and acclaim.

On a personal note, when my father died nine years ago, the Mangun family drove over to our home the very next day (I had only arrived from Houston hours before) to offer their personal sympathy and support. We weren’t members of their church, but it didn’t matter to them. They simply wanted to provide us with comfort and prayer in the raw aftermath of a tragic death in our family. I have no doubt that the Manguns have done the same thing for countless other families in our community, quietly and without any desire for praise, attention, or commendation. To me, it wasn’t merely an ecumenical gesture; it was an indication of a real compassion for their neighbors, a compassion that extends to people regardless of religion, race, or political ideologies.

I have a degree in Religious Studies, perhaps the only academic discourse in which the more you learn, the less you know.

But without a doubt, I believe that empathy- that is, the capacity to understand both the pains and the joys of others- is the most important and powerful human emotion. Bishop Mangun, I believe, actively practiced empathy.

My deepest condolences to the entire Mangun family.

Security! 5

by • Downtown Alexandria, Local Political News • Tags: , , ,

Yesterday morning in Downtown Alexandria, several people witnessed a middle-aged man walking around and subsequently entering a government building clutching a handheld video camera. Apparently, the man was exclusively interested in documenting security features of the building, including the locations of access card entry points, a metal detector (which was turned off at the time), and the sign-in desk for visitors.

Although the man was not breaking any law, his behavior was obviously suspicious, particularly given his focus on the government building’s security. The man showed up unannounced and by himself, and he did not attempt or request to meet personally with anyone who works in the building.

Here’s the kicker: Today, the man posted the video, which he edited down to two and a half minutes, on YouTube. (And no, I’m not linking to it).

….

Okay, actually, here’s the real kicker: The man’s name is Steve Coco, and he was filming at Alexandria City Hall. Mr. Coco is an elected member of the Rapides Parish Police Jury, and he says he is interested in running for Mayor of Alexandria. The purpose of his rogue “journalism,” if you can call it that, was to illustrate the “fortress” of City Hall. (I suppose we should pay no attention to the fact that he walked right into the building without any incident).

Frankly, I don’t understand what Juror Coco was trying to prove, and as someone who works in that building, I find his flippant dismissal of basic security at a government office building – sign-in sheets and access cards- to be supremely naive and reckless.

Incidentally, if you want to address Mr. Coco at a Police Jury meeting, you’ll have to pass through a metal detector.

But that is beside the point, right?

Dozens of people work in City Hall every day. It is not a fortress, but it’s not a public park or a television studio either.

City Hall is an office building, a place in which people conduct business.

Does this really need to be explained? Is it really too much to ask people to sign-in and identify themselves before they are allowed to roam the halls of government offices? I mean, seriously?

Three years ago, a former City employee entered a downtown law office, apparently angry and distraught over his retirement benefits, murdered two people and injured three others, before he was killed after a protracted stand-off.  A few months later, someone threatened to “pull out a gun” on a secretary at City Hall; the person claimed that it was only a joke, but the secretary, rightfully, didn’t find any humor in the threat.

So now, you have to identify yourself before you can roam the halls of Alexandria City Hall, something you have to do in nearly every major city in Louisiana.

There is a huge difference between government transparency and ensuring government employees are secure and safe in their workplace, and it is unfortunate, ignorant, and offensive that Juror Coco is incapable of understanding this.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the nearly 900 City employees and their family members understand and appreciate this difference.

It is truly incredible that an elected official would attempt to mock these basic efforts to ensure for their workplace security; it is a direct insult on the integrity, the courage, and the commitment of those who make their living in service to their community.

It is a purely theatrical spectacle, ostensibly intended for political gain, which, I believe, illustrates a lack of seriousness and a disrespect for those who deserve and require a safe and secure workplace.

I’ve criticized Mr. Coco numerous times in the past, but, to me, this takes the cake: Purposely posting the security features of a government building in order to imply some sort of cowardice and mock public employees is reckless and threatening, particularly if the intention was to exploit and expose the building’s security for political purposes.

Juror Coco may think he is being clever and provocative. He’s not. At all.

He owes the employees of the City of Alexandria a personal apology, and he owes the people of Rapides Parish an explanation about why he refused to acknowledge or disclose that he enjoys the same if not greater security protection in the chambers of the Police Jury.

Capitalism 1

by • Downtown Alexandria

For more than 25 years, the City of Alexandria has been directly invested in the hotel business. In the early 1980s, with the assistance of an Urban Development Action Grant,  the City helped construct a 170+  room hotel and convention center, originally flagged as a Hilton. In the mid-1990s, the State and the City spent nearly $20 million taxpayer dollars on the adjacent Alexandria Riverfront Center. In the meantime, the City provided a ground lease to a third-party operator/manager of the hotel. Both of these publicly-owned properties were tied to the privately-owned historic Hotel Bentley, and, obviously, at no time were all three assets ever managed or controlled by a single entity. Indeed, during the last decade and a half, both hotels have changed management/ownership at least three times.

Five and a half years ago, less than a decade after taxpayers built the Riverfront Center, the Hotel Bentley closed for business, and a couple of years later, the City-owned hotel, which began as a Hilton and subsequently became a Holiday Inn, lost its flag (In simple terms, Holiday Inn pulled out).

It rebranded itself as the Alexander Fulton, management declared bankruptcy, and the Fulton, shortly thereafter, became the responsibility of its landlord, which is, of course, the City of Alexandria. (Yes, I’m making a long story short, and I can elaborate if necessary).

Yesterday, Hospitality Initiatives Partnership signed an agreement to purchase the Hotel Bentley and an agreement to take over the Alexander Fulton Hotel and assume management over the Alexandria Riverfront Center. If this comes to fruition as planned and as exhaustively outlined and explained, the City of Alexandria would no longer be in the hotel business. Both the Fulton and the Bentley, for the first time ever, would both exclusively belong to the private-sector, and the management of both properties would be directly unified with the Riverfront Center.

The project represents an initial private-sector investment of between $50M to $60M; it is expected to create and retain nearly 150 jobs, in addition to dozens of indirect jobs. Perhaps most importantly, it gets the City out of the hotel business, while, at the same time, returning the Bentley into commerce.

So, I have to object to anyone who would make the audacious and unsubstantiated claim that this project is an exercise in socialism.

Quite the opposite, actually.

(It is funny, though, to hear a conservative or libertarian attempt to argue that New Markets and historic tax credits are socialistic. How dare the government allow anyone to commodotize tax burdens in support of private-sector investment!).

Levees (Part Duh 2.0) 1

by • Downtown Alexandria, Local Political News

Today, the Rapides Parish Police Jury voted to assign federal disaster recovery funds (which were subsequently defined as “drainage” funds, though this allocation was never specifically assigned to drainage projects by the Louisiana Recovery Authority) to repair deficiencies along the Red River levees- which is, arguably, the most significant and critical “drainage” project in all of Central Louisiana.

Kudos to the Rapides Parish Police Jury.

If these deficiencies are not properly addressed, 95% of Alexandrians and tens of thousands of Central Louisianans would likely face massive, skyrocketing flood insurance premiums, creating an unbearable burden in a region in which the median household income is nearly half of the national average.

Although the failure to address these issues would disproportionately affect Alexandria, the most densely populated city in our region, all of the deficiencies along federal levees are outside of the Alexandria city limits. Considering the current Republican-endorsed one-year moratorium on earmarks, which was endorsed by our sitting Congressman, and given the timeline of decertification process, I believe it was right and wise to use immediately available federal funds to correct a federal government problem, and I commend those on the Jury who understood the real and pressing need to take action.

Despite what has been reported on other blogs, correcting the deficiencies on federal levees is the most important step we can take, and it is appropriate that we use federal dollars, instead of requiring that the local taxpayers exclusively shoulder the entire burden in order to correct engineering flaws on federal levees.

The alleged deficiencies along non-federal levees within the city limits are not and have never been the real issue. Indeed, there is significant disagreement and debate about whether or not these deficiencies actually exist or if they are merely a symptom of deficiencies on the Red River.

So, again, kudos to the six members of the Police Jury who voted to use federal funds to correct a federal problem. A small victory for common sense.

Levees (Part Duh) 7

by • Leftovers, Local Political News, Social Activism

“I dare Jacques to show us one single document from the federal government, since the letter from FEMA of December 30, 2009 that tells of sand-boils being the cause of our levee certification.”

- Gregory Aymond, blogger at CentralLaPolitics

“The levee does not meet the geotechnical design criteria because of sand boils and sink holes at or near the toe of the levee.”

- The United States Army Corps of Engineers

“Despite Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy’s Levee Alliance telling the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) that the damages to our levees were caused by sand-boils on our levees, which could be said to have been caused by the hurricanes supposedly, Jacques fails to mention that the federal government has written and said that our levee problems are caused by cuts in the Bayou Rapides levee by private businesses for their own private parking lots, electrical utilities place upon the levee by the City of Alexandria, and the water and sewer lines ran in the Red River levee by the City of Pineville.”

- Gregory Aymond

“The levee does not meet the geotechnical design criteria because of sand boils and sink holes at or near the toe of the levee.”

- The United States Army Corps of Engineers

“What then could possibly be the reason that Mr. Budd would lie to us about the sand boils?”

- Gregory Aymond

“The levee does not meet the geotechnical design criteria because of sand boils and sink holes at or near the toe of the levee.”

- The United States Army Corps of Engineers

The truth is, of course, that sand boils have been discussed and mentioned at great length for the last six months, while Mr. Aymond has continually and myopically insisted that everyone is lying to the public, implying some sort of grand Machiavellian conspiracy dating back nearly two decades, and that the real issues are with non-federal levee deficiencies inside the City of Alexandria. No one has denied that there are some disputes about deficiencies on non-federal levees in Alexandria, but it should be obvious to a fourth grader: If you don’t address the big, overarching problems on the Red River, everything else is moot. DUH.

I don’t believe Mr. Aymond is or has ever been a fearless crusader for the truth, and I have very little respect for anyone who engages in such blatant and rampant hate-mongering, name-calling, and ad hominem attacks. It takes a special kind of perverted hatred for someone to make this claim in response to one of my posts on the levees:

Fred (that’s me) is perhaps suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome or some other genetic mental defect.

For those of you who don’t know, I have a disability, cerebral palsy. Somehow, Greg Aymond, a man who is licensed to practice law in the State of Louisiana, believed it was appropriate and professional for him to post an incendiary, ignorant, and flat-out hateful lie about me, my disability, and, implicitly, my mother– all within the context of a response on levee certification.

Folks, to me, this sums up the quality and caliber of Greg Aymond’s character and the depth of his intellectual honesty.

Some may continue to be entertained by his half-witted attempts at humor, his love affair with the Confederacy, and his condemnation of gays, lesbians, and African-Americans (anyone remember his recent line about African-Americans lacking “ethics”?); I think it’s just sad.

Developing: US Army Corps Issues Memo Specifically Citing Sandboils As Major Deficiency in Red River Levees 1

by • Humor, Leftovers, Local Political News
Matthews Magic Stew
Ingredients
20-24 crow breast pieces (10-12 crows)
1 bag of celery
2 onions
2 pounds of baby carrots
2 cans of beef consume
1 cup flour
Preparation
Chop up celery and onions. In a crock pot, place two alternating layers of meat -onions -celery -and carrots. Pour both cans of consume into pot. Let cook for 6-10 hours. A half hour before you are ready to serve, remove about 5-6 cups of liquid and mix with 1 cup of flour for a thickener. Mix all contents (stew & thickener) well. Let stand for half an hour, season with salt & pepper to taste, and enjoy. This recipe works well with almost all game (and non-game) animals. Some that I have tried are Deer, Squirrel, Rabbit, Pigeon, Duck, Goose, Bear, and Beaver.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit at Spirits This Friday Reply

by • Music

A plug for my friends at Spirits in Alexandria:

On Friday night, they will be hosting Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, whose latest record has received rave reviews from Spin, Rolling Stone, and the Austin-American Statesman. Suffice it to say, this will be a great opportunity to hear an acclaimed, up-and-coming band in little ol’ Alexandria (Sort of “up-and-coming,” I suppose, considering Mr. Isbell is a member of the Drive-By Truckers). From Spin:

Southern rock is a minefield of rebel flags, drinking songs, and dudes yelling “Free Bird!” With Drive-By Truckers, singer-guitarist Jason Isbell learned to embrace some of those clichés; on his gritty, vibrant second solo album, he begins to transcend them. “However Long” personalizes working-class disaffection into a defiant anthem; stormy rocker “Soldiers Get Strange” is almost certainly the best tune ever written about post-traumatic stress disorder; and multiple tales of warm, lonely barrooms and the warm, lonely relationships they breed uncover new truths while traversing well-trod emotional terrain.

Check out their website and listen to their music here.

Cuckoo for Coco Puffs (Part Duh) 1

by • Humor, Leftovers, Local Political News, Self-referential drivel, Social Activism

Today, both in The Town Talk and on his website, CenlaNews, Rapides Parish Police Juror Steve Coco is taking aim at Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy for allegedly not fulfilling a promise to use City capital funds and SPARC bond money to repair deficiencies along the Red River levees. Apparently, Coco is upset that disaster recovery funds may be used instead- funds that were initially assigned to Rapides Parish a few months after Hurricane Gustav.

To me, this speaks directly to Mr. Coco’s intellectual honesty and seriousness of purpose. Go ahead: Call me an attack dog, but the levee situation is the most critical issue facing Central Louisiana. The facts need to be laid bare.

First, as evidenced by numerous news reports and public statements, Mayor Roy has always remained adamant that the City could be a funder of last resort– that is, unless and until all other options have been exhausted. He and others have also made it abundantly clear that funding would first be sought from the Louisiana Recovery Authority, and they did just that. The L.R.A. granted Rapides Parish a waiver in order to allow for Gustav-related recovery funds to be used for levee repairs. It may surprise Juror Coco, but the L.R.A. recognized that spending money repairing our levees is directly related to disaster recovery and prevention.

A couple of subpoints:

a) Our regional Gustav allocation was based, in large part, on Community Development Block Grant criteria- which is a complicated way of saying that the main reason we were even given these funds is because of damage that occurred within the City of Alexandria. Ask the good people at the L.R.A.

b) Where was Juror Coco when City and Parish officials testified before the Louisiana Recovery Authority? For some reason, I can’t find him on the video or on the transcript.

But perhaps more importantly, despite what some expert “investigative” bloggers have published, our primary deficiencies are all outside of the city limits of Alexandria. Coco’s good friend Greg Aymond, for example, continues to myopically insist that the real problems are all on non-federal levees- those within the city’s system of bayous and canals, miraculously avoiding the fact that the federal levee deficiencies- those along the Red River and outside of the city limits- would define the way in which our flood plain map is redrawn.

It is such an obvious point that I still cannot believe anyone of sound mind could find disagreement.

Moreover, there is significant disagreement about the scale and the extent of those alleged deficiencies within the city; it is possible, if not probable, that correcting deficiencies on our federal levees would render everything else moot. Though if you believe in Coco or Aymond, I suppose, you may also be led to believe that this is all some grand conspiracy, first concocted when Jacques Roy was a teenager, and that anyone who says otherwise is a lying propagandist.

The Daily World: Vitter’s BP Proposal “Puzzling.” 2

by • National News

Quoting:

Vitter proposes increasing the liability limit for oil spills to the offending company’s profits for the last four quarters, or double the current — and laughable — $75 million limit, whichever is greater.

But if the intent is to hold BP to its admission of responsibility, why impose an arbitrary limit at all? Up to 800,000 barrels of oil a day continue to leak into the Gulf of Mexico. The dome, the siphon, the junk shot, the top kill and the underwater robots have, so far, failed. Commercial fishing, recreational fishing and tourism, all big-money industries along the coast, are at risk. The cleanup, if anyone can figure out how to clean oil from a coastal marsh, will surely exceed the current liability limit. And what dollar value can be placed on a fragile ecosystem, a seafood hatchery, a hurricane buffer or a cultural heritage?

Superficially, Vitter’s proposal seems to be a kind of tort reform. But the goal of real tort reform isn’t to save a corporation’s bacon. It’s to prevent the blameless from being victimized in the civil court system. You do that by limiting punitive damages or by establishing rules to keep frivolous claims out of court.