we saw that...

mardi gras 2006

**UPDATE 04 july 2012** with the recent death of andy griffith, we've noticed that a lot of people are googling don knotts and because google does such a lousy job of indexing individual blogspot post pages, google is sending googlers to the link of the entire month of february 2006 archive posts instead of directly to the don knotts post page.

if you arrived here by googling don knotts then you know what we're on about. you may either scroll down to that post or click here to go directly to it.

2006 official mardi gras poster courtesy jazzystuff.com

farrar trying to axe the town talk again

the other day when we were researching for our post about moon griffon we came across a couple of interesting prefiled house bills and we blogged about the first one here. the other one is house bill 8 its funny because the guy rep farrar defeated carl gunter had a lot of problems with the town talk as well and whether or not carl would have filed a bill like this is something for speculation as he passed away in 1999 long before the internet grew to be the medium that it has. according to the guy that gave carls eulogy, claude "buddy" leach, gunter once threatened governor edwards if he didnt remove joe smith the then town talk publisher from the lsu board of supervisors.

note: farrar was narrowly defeated in 1995 51% to 49% by randy wiggins.
farrar rewon his seat in 1999 defeating pineville lawyer randy tannehill (the seat was open as wiggins ran unsuccessfully for the la senate)
farrar won reelection in 2003 (he beat the bug blaster guy pete ferrington and if he runs again will face a challenger in 2007

dennis weaver

darn we arent meaning to be an obituary service but dennis weaver was just too cool of a guy to pass up blogging.

weaver portrayed mccloud just right, a fish out of water as mccloud was supposed to be on loan or something to the nypd from the taos, new mexico police department. we remember how he always had to do battle with his boss who couldnt stand him being there especially his hick town ways.

now new mexico is considered very cosmopolitian. (it probably always was)

mccloud snip from the internet movie database:

Sam McCloud is a Deputy U.S. Marshal from Taos, New Mexico. He goes to New York to find an escaped criminal, and there falls for reporter Chris Coughlin, who is the cousin of the deputy police commisioner. After he tracks the criminal down, Chris convinces her cousin to request that Sam be assigned to temporary duty with the NYPD, to learn modern police methods. He is assigned to the detective bureau headed by Chief Peter B. Clifford, who is less than thrilled with having McCloud under his command and gives him nothing but menial duties, but Sam always winds up deep in homicides, drug busts and various other major crimes, often helped out by Sgt. Joe Broadhurst, and solves them using a combination of good police work and good old country know-how. read more.

mies bouwman with dennis weaver on the set of mccloud

dennis weaver memorial at find-a-grave
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"murphy browns dad" darrin gavin
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Schedler amazed

c b forgotston, shares an email conversation with senator tom schedler. according to the senator, c b wrote a "cheap shot" commentary here according to c b, sen schedler said that we louisianans "just dont understand" meaning that we are too ignorant to understand what the legislature has had to go through since katrina etc... in essence insulting our intelligence as well.

forgotston called schedler a "kool aide drinker" and other choice words.

Schedler said the public, riled up by radio talk shows and other less-than-informed sources, “doesn’t understand that compromise is a crucial part of lawmaking.”
schedler snip from the advocate.

I have been elected five (5) times in one of the most conservative districts in the State, twice with no opposition. Additionally, I was elected for two (2) terms to the State Republican Central Committee, and I was elected by my peers and have served six (6) years as the Senate Republican Chairman. Obviously, my constituents and my peers have accepted all these evils you claim I possess.

new political blog - Louisiana's Campaign Train

chris william's of "You Are A Sissy-Man" fame has started a new blog to track louisiana politics. william's blog promises to "...take you around Louisiana so you can get the current status on campaigns throughout the state..."

check it out here.

don knotts dead at 81

don knotts official website
(note: this link is now broken 16 september 2006)

don knotts memorial at find-a-grave

fools gold

we love it when crooked lawyers finally get theirs. let us hope that these lawsuits lead to the unseating of alexandria's two federal judges - judge f a little jr and judge dee drell because these two both came from the gold law firm. judge drell's son bradley drell is an attorney at the gold firm.

*to view the lawsuit case no. 223J39 "Gene Smart , Priscilla Babin v. Gold, Weems, Bruser, Sues and Rundell" in .pdf form click here.

Charles S. Weems, III, Esq.

flip-flop farrar aka the rickster

rep rick farrar

moon griffon gets one wrong

first off, for the most part, we like moon. so when we turned on his radio program at 9 (1500 gmt) this morning he was going on about house bill 23 by representative martiny.

moon was saying how this bill would make it a crime to threaten a public official with the intent of influencing his conduct in relation to his position, employment or official duty - in other words by talking negatively about a public official, publicly or broadcasting their voting records or even campaiging against a public official in effect could be interpreted as "threatning" in essence chilling free speech rights.

naturally we immediately went to the legislature's website to view this atrocity and we were surprised at what we found. it is already illegal to do those things moon was saying this bill would make illegal.

a cursory review of this bill shows that it removes the very provisions that moon was railing against.


we immediately sent an email off to representative martiny and then went a step farther and phoned his office at metairie and talked to a secretary there she said that they had several phone calls about it already she asked if we had the call in number to moon's show so we gave it to her (1800-259-1440). a few minutes later representative martiny called in to talk to moon, however, he didnt really do a very good job (in our opinion) of explaining his bill, he even said that it was drawn up by a lawyer in his office at the behest of "judge drew" a search of the louisiana state bar website only returns one judge drew - 2nd circuit court of appeal judge r harmon drew.

in our opinion house bill 23 should be supported and passed into law.

rep martiny call into moon griffons radio show is here.
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tags: moon griffon Daniel R. Martiny house bill 23 talk radio louisiana legislature

mitch landrieus kick off speech

**updated 3:30 pm cdt sunday 21 may 2006**
click here for mitch landrieu's 20 may 2006 mayoral concession speech.mp3

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**updated 8:24 am cdt monday 24 april 2006**
click here to listen to mitch landrieu's post (22 april) election speech.

****

today, louisiana weekly writer christopher tidmore gives us his take on mayor of orleans politics with mitch landrieu's announcement. tidmore attended and tells what went on and gives background as he plays clips from the speechs. jim brown is on the show with tidmore for a little while but he sounded pretty rough. brown said that he had just got out of the doctors office and he has a respitory ailment.

the .mp3 sound files are here - http://www.freewebs.com/lurgis/

supreme court ok's hoasca tea for religious purposes

source: The Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal

Isn't This Amazing?

we snatched this off of rense.com anyone have any ideas to the question at the end?

Isn't This Amazing?

From M Meza
2-22-6


Transforming a constitutional republic into a socialist democracy. Isn't this amazing?

TAXES

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
Capital Gains Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Court Fines (indirect taxes)
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel permit tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax Interest expense (tax on the money)
Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Local Income Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Septic Permit Tax
Service Charge Taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Road Toll Booth Taxes
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and
local surcharge taxes
Telephone mi nimum usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
Telephone state and local tax
Telephone usage charge tax
Toll Bridge Taxes
Toll Tunnel Taxes
Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)
Trailer Registration Tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

COMMENT

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most
prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What the hell happened ?

senator jay dardenne to run for secretary of state

sen jay dardenne

finally a town talk editorial that makes sense

**clarification** when this was first posted on the town talks website this morning it was listed under "our view" our view is where the town talk posts their editorials - now we see that it has been moved and attributed to the columnist bonnie erbe.

The time has come to impeach President Bush

Those blasphemously "liberal" media outlets have once again deprived the American public of widespread coverage of nothing less than startling poll results. The non-partisan polling firm Zogby International last month found that by a margin of 52 percent to 43 percent, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush "if he wiretapped American citizens without a judge's approval."

Well, there's no "if" about it anymore. The president approved warrantless wiretaps in 2002. Two years later, during a campaign appearance in Buffalo, N.Y. he volunteered he'd done nothing of the kind. That's called breaking the law and lying about it.

Yes, the poll results have been reported on a few Web sites. But they have not exactly been trumpeted by the Blow Hard Boys on the Fox News Channel, nor even "front-paged" on the New York Times. Nor have they appeared as the lead story on any of the evening newscasts. From the right to the left, this poll has been ignored -- as has a recent Gallup poll showing a majority of Americans consider the Bush presidency to be a failure. Why? Because it's seen as risky.
Media inattention to the growing American pro-impeachment sentiment is not a partisan issue. Reasonable, honest Republicans such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have criticized Bush's wiretapping "sans" court approval as a violation of the law and basic civil liberties.

Former Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., now a conservative TV commentator, also sees the president's actions as law-breaking. Conservative legal analyst Bruce Fein, who worked in the Reagan Justice Department, wrote in The Washington Times that Bush should face "possible impeachment" if the practice is not stopped.

Personally, I do not find illegal wiretapping to be the worst offense committed against our nation by this president. I'd rate purposefully destructive federal overspending as the most egregious transgression. Did you happen to notice last week Treasury Secretary John Snow "informed Congress that he would begin borrowing from the federal employees' retirement fund to avoid exceeding the nation's statutory debt limit of $8.184 trillion"? That, as reported by my Scripps Howard colleague, Dale McFeatters.

I'd rate "tricking" Americans into a costly, deadly, unwinnable war in Iraq and alienating most other nations as second. I'd rate wanton disregard for science and the promotion of so-called junk science -- to wit, global warming is a gossamer concept -- as an excuse for environmental destruction as third. Abramoff-related partisan corruption and the outing of CIA agent Plame would figure in there somewhere. And somewhere lower down the list would come warrantless wiretaps.

But grassroots passion for impeachment prompted by this president's circumvention of Congress and the Constitution is what's driving growing public support. And America's transition from "Bush fan" to "Bush foe" is being ignored by the mainstream media.

Surprisingly, the media did anything but ignore the Republican-led impeachment movement against former President Clinton, even when the public was decidedly more supportive of that president than it is of the current one

In December 1998, after the House voted to send articles of impeachment to the U.S. Senate, 59 percent of Americans told Washington Post/ABC News pollsters they disapproved of the House action. A minority of 40 percent said they favored it. And that followed months and months of nonstop, primetime, mainstream media coverage of Clinton's lie. If anything, the constant chorus of conservative calls for Clinton's ouster coupled with unending coverage of same should have pushed the public into a more solidly pro-impeachment stand. It did not. But the media did not relent. (For the record, I wrote at the time that Clinton should step down.)

Of course, U.S. leadership is rearranged now. Clinton, a Democrat, faced an opposition-led Congress. Even if congressional minority party Democrats could muster the backbone to make a unified call for impeachment hearings, they lack the votes to succeed in either chamber. At least Republicans succeeded in the Republican-controlled House against Clinton, although they ultimately lost in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Where are the oft-denounced "liberal" media on this issue? Truth is, the "liberal" media is and always was a figment of extreme (not mainstream) conservative rhetoric. The corporate media stays where it almost always has been -- to the right of center and shying away from risky topics.

Originally published February 22, 2006
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tags: george bush the town talk impeach bush

bushs national security values

we're not feeling very eloquent today forgive us, all we want to know is when are you people that still support this moron of a president going to wake up and see that all he is about is the destruction of this country, our constitution and way of life? we mean whats it going to take? what more proof do you need? wake up and stop living a lie.

Frist Calls for Halt to U.S. Ports Deal

911 dad: 'presidents gone insane'

well duh! anyone with a lick of sense can see that.

'President's gone insane' – 9/11 dad

BY JIMMY VIELKIND
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Peter Gadiel just doesn't get it.

How, asks Gadiel, whose son James died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, can a company owned by a terror-linked country get control of our nation's ports?

"I'm a lifelong Republican and I think the President's gone insane," said Gadiel, 58, who heads 9/11 Families for a Secure America.

Two of the 19 9/11 hijackers were citizens of Dubai, the Arab emirate whose bid to run ports in New York, New Jersey and four other cities was okayed by the White House even though investigators have found signs that money used to finance terrorism flowed through Dubai banks.

"How the hell could this happen?" fumed Bill Doyle, 58, a retired Staten Island stockbroker whose son Joseph also died when the Trade Center fell.

"We're not securing our country in any way by selling our ports to foreigners," he said.

Gadiel and Doyle stood with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) yesterday at the harbor to express their outrage.

Bruse DeCell, 55, whose son-in-law died in the attacks, said that homeland security should be the highest concern when approving the activities of foreign business interests.

"This administration is putting the selling of our country on a fast track," he said. "There are a lot of loose ends that caused 9/11 to happen. I'm trying to close them."

Only 5% of the cargo containers entering U.S. ports are inspected, said Schumer, who has called for upgrades in port security for years.

Originally published on February 20, 2006

bring nola back to life

in the days of hurricane katrina, nola.com came to the forefront of the best places to go for breaking news...we had been there before off and on over the years mostly to view bourbocam the oyster bar the river cams the karoke cam is good too...we came across the forums there first the volunteer forum then soundoff.


we posted on soundoff daily from around the 1st september up till the first special session that started at the 6th november 2005. watching that special session and the hijinks and shenanigans took away our zest for posting ~sigh~


we had such high hopes for our state at that first session and the legislature failed over and over time and time again on everything they did oh we never had reason to believe in our louisiana legislature before, its just that we thought that katrina's winds had blown in a new conscienceness a new way of thinking and doing business, we felt as a lot of others did too we had the perfect opportunity to start over, to do things right, and make up for past mistakes.

geeze were we ever wrong. if you're reading this and you're an american citizen please contact your congressional delegation and tell them no federal funds until the ballot box has sprung, down there in louisiana. we need to vote the whole lot of them out from the governor the entire legislature down to the parish level.

anyway, there is a regular on soundoff whos nick is carolina fats. he posted the following back at 13 october 2005 and its so good we saved it for posterity we dont know maybe a time capsule to see if what he suggested came to pass about the quarter, the port and algiers we had debated this a lot.

if you have a few minutes you may see soundoff by clicking here.

63231. nola is dead, long live nola
by carolinafats, 10/13/05 15:09 ET
This is so harsh. It is not meant to hurt anyone's feelings but rather as some kind of focus. its just my opinion.
All these ideas for this and for that in the future of nola, like casinos, Fortune 500, school improvement, police improvement, etc. are worth talking about in the abstract but lets take a look at the facts.

In the Pic today, there are articles about businesses that are finding it peachy in Houston and that arent coming back til Cat 5 protection is in place. We know that can't happen for years and years. Read: the businesses are in Houston for good.

Another article says that the school population has been reduced by as much as 70% and that at least half of school buildings are no longer needed.

Another article says that there was a high percentage of renters in devastated areas and they aren't coming back.

We already know the city has terminated half of its employees and more are likely to follow.

Its going to take a long time just to bulldoze the tens of thousands of ruined houses. How much more time for the individual processes to rebuild by individual homeowners?

Pple with children have been told to stay away. If you are mom or dad, you are going to leave your kids, for how long?

The new Casinorleans has been declared DOA by the Governor.

Face these facts: for the old nola, city of 450,000 pple, it is taps, over, finito.

A lot of the plans, etc dont take any of this into account. They seem to assume away all these facts in the calculation.

This is like arguing about how to dress up the corpse in the funeral parlor. Its fun but it is not going to bring nola back to life. Its a totally new nola, not the old,that is the future.

NOLa's new role, at least for the near future, is going to be greatly diminished. Baton Rouge is the new queen city of La. Respectfully, focus on how to start from a base of the quarter, the port and Algiers. We know that works, we know it will survive a very nasty hurricane, and go from there.

shaw group guy

we just saw one of those shaw group television advertisements mr jim bernhard has been running lately, he closes the commercial with a eerily similar sounding mantra just like the governor sounds when she repeats her mantra better, stronger, smarter, safer...creepy.

look at all the work bernard testified back in november 2005 the shaw group had done and is doing since katrina, to the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina.

coulter flaunts floridas voter laws

know-it-all ann coulter registered to vote using an address her realtor says she never lived at. suzanne frisbie is her realtor and friend she says she knows why coulter did it but shes not gonna say. ms frisbie just might have to say because florida statutes make it a third-degree felony to vote knowingly in the wrong precinct. lying on a voter's registration card can cost up to $5,000 [4,208.84 eur] and five years behind bars.

libby dole half right

cheney statement on fox news

"ultimately iam the guy who pulled the trigger...that fired the round that hit harry you can talk about all the conditions that existed at the time but thats the bottom line...it was not harrys fault... iam the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend"

msnbc caught scrubbing beer quote from cheney shooting article

the raw story has an article complete with before and after screen shots check it out here.

snip from the raw story

The following paragraph was removed for unexplained reasons from the article sometime after it first was published on the Internet:
#

Armstrong also told NBC News that she does not believe alcohol was involved in the accident. She says she believes no one that day was drinking, although she says there may have been beer available during a picnic lunch that preceded the incident. "There may be a beer or two in there," she said, "but remember not everyone in the party was shooting."
#

5.2 earthquake off coast of louisiana

this is from thursday the 09th february 2006:
Earthquake Details
Magnitude 5.2
# Date-Time Friday, February 10, 2006 at 04:14:17 (UTC)
= Coordinated Universal Time
# Thursday, February 9, 2006 at 10:14:17 PM
= local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 27.586°N, 90.183°W
Depth 5 km (3.1 miles) set by location program
Region GULF OF MEXICO
# Distances 183 km (114 miles) S (185°) from Grand Isle, LA
# 201 km (125 miles) S (178°) from Golden Meadow, LA
# 206 km (128 miles) SSE (166°) from Dulac, LA
# 266 km (165 miles) S (183°) from New Orleans, LA
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 10.6 km (6.6 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters Nst= 21, Nph= 21, Dmin=610.4 km, Rmss=1.29 sec, Gp=122°,
M-type=surface wave magnitude (Ms), Version=Q
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usizan

Heh, Heh, Heh, Ethics Law