31 March 2006

do you know chris 404'd


...in a shocking case of internet censorship. wheres rogers?

in a breathless rant mere days ago about looming internet censorship dead pelican editor chad rogers urged his readers to "FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW" so why isnt he blaring this story with sirens and bells for that matter? where is the 12 inch bold headlines deriding the arrival of internet censorship? instead not a word from rogers not even a text link to the story.

someone had a website critical to a political candidate in winn parish. a candidate took offense and somehow (due to crappy reporting on the town talks part remain unclear) took the website to court. website's isp godaddy.com located in scottsdale, arizona 404'd the doyouknowchris.com site. of course the town talk doesnt bother to clear up whether godaddy.com 404'd the website or if the owner did it themselves.

further, notice how the town talk leaves out all the important information from the story. like on what legal grounds does someone have to order a scottsdale, arizona company into a louisiana court?

this should be stopped and deserves the entire internet communities castigation. if anything the legal manuevers create dangerous precedent.
so wheres rogers?


heres a screen grab of doyouknowchris.com taken from the google cache:

we have linked all the lawyers we could find to their info at the louisiana state bar...david roach does not appear to be a member of the la state bar.

Web site hit for critizing Winn DA candidate
By Jim Leggett
jleggett@thetowntalk.com
(318) 487-6346

The Winn Parish District Attorney's race took a different twist when the political consultant for one candidate went to court to find out who is responsible for a Web site critical of another candidate in the race.

David Roach of Baton Rouge, who represented candidate Herman Castete, went into 8th Judicial District Court (Winn Parish) to seek a temporary restraining order against a Scottsdale, Ariz., firm which he said operates the Web site, www.doyouknowchris.com. The site is critical of Herman Castete, another candidate in the race, Roach said.

"Neither I nor my client, Herman Castete, or any of his supporters, had anything whatsoever to do with this dirty political trick," Roach said.
In a special election, Castete and Neviles, along with John William Maloy and incumbent Marty Sanders, are seeking to fill the district attorney's seat left vacant when former District Attorney Terry Reeves died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in July.

Clerk of Court Donald Kelley issued a summons, which states the Web site must defend itself in 8th Judicial District Court on May 2. The primary election is Saturday, and a runoff, if necessary, is April 29.

Nevils did not wish to comment on the legal action.

Meanwhile, three of the four candidates are pushing their law experience as the top credential that makes them qualified for the seat.

Castete, who has served as chief criminal prosecutor and chief indigent defender and is now city attorney and city prosecutor for Winnfield, said he has "more legal (courtroom) experience in civil, criminal and family law matters than any of my opponents. In addition, I am the only candidate that has tried capital murder cases."

Maloy said the district attorney "should have a broader legal knowledge than just criminal law and procedure" since civil work is half his work.

"My legal knowledge and experience in representing state and local governmental entities has prepared me to address these issues and to provide competent legal advice to the citizens of Winn Parish."

Nevils said he "has more prosecuting experience than all of the other candidates combined because of his previous success in the Baton Rouge District Attorney's office." He added that he "is the only candidate to have successfully prosecuted misdemeanor and felony criminal cases and continued with their appeal through state, federal and U.S. Supreme courts."

He also represented the Police Jury in its lawsuit against the late District Attorney Terry Reeves.

Marty Sanders couldn't be reached for comment.

Originally published March 31, 2006
====
related posts
  • wacky winn parish
  • election results
  • ====

    EXTERNAL LINK

    29 March 2006

    the 29 march total eclipse of the sun


    total eclipse of the sun - starting at rio de janeiro, brazil at 5:58am wednesday morning, 29 march 2006. in louisiana our time will be 2:58am. some facts about today's total eclipse of the sun.

    the total eclipse of the sun ends at sunset 8:18pm (2018) in ulaanbaatar, mongolia which is 5:18pm (1718) here in louisiana or 00:18 at london.

    Side (Turkey), March 29 (PTI): Some facts regarding the total eclipse of the sun:

    * A total solar eclipse is not noticeable until the Sun is more than 90 percent covered by the Moon. At 99 per cent coverage, day time lighting resembles local twilight.

    * Eclipse shadows travel at 1,100 miles per hour at the equator and up to 5,000 miles per hour near the poles.

    * The width of the Moon's shadow is at most 170 miles wide.

    * The maximum number of solar eclipses (partial, annular, or total) is 5 per year.

    * There are at least 2 solar eclipses per year somewhere on the Earth.

    * A total eclipse can only happen during a new moon.

    * Total solar eclipses happen about once every year or two.

    * Nearly identical eclipses (total, annual, or partial) occur after 18 years and 11 days, or every 6,585.32 days (Saros Cycle).

    * From the Earth's surface, the Sun's corona ("crown") can only be seen during a total eclipse.

    * Every eclipse begins at sunrise at some point in its track and ends at sunset about half way around the world from the start point.

    28 March 2006

    why is this news?

    **updated** 1:29 pm cst friday 11 august 2006
    if you have arrived at this post looking for various cenla blogs please click here for a list.
    ====
    original post

    like everybody else we first saw this story out of the desmoinesregister.com linked from drudge monday. at first we thought it was going to be something great imagine how crestfallen we became reading how this guy only stayed in a wal-mart 41 hours. lmao! now if he had lived in walmart for a month that would have been news. he went in sometime on sunday after noon around 3 pm (2100 gmt) which would have put him coming out tuesday morning around 8am.

    the writer marc hansen has a very vivid imagination and the headline editor helped too captioning it: Spring break at Wal-Mart on what must have been a slow news day there in the heartland.

    oh yeah we wanted to add that mr bartels did not "live" at walmart as marc hansen disingenuously would have us to believe. bartels merely stood around for 41 hours.
    ====
    **updated 10:17 pm cdt saturday 24 june 2006**
    see also:
  • Hansen: The Wal-Mart kid procures an agent, a mention in People
  • ====

    EXTERNAL LINK

    louisiana's legislature in non? action

    according to this screen grab off the louisiana legislature's official website today the house met a grand total of 25 minutes and the senate a whole hour.

    EXTERNAL LINK

    HB644 increasing the homestead exemption




    we are shocked that this simple two page bill (constitutional amendment) hasnt received much (if any) play from louisiana's talking heads.

    this bill by representative john alario (d) westwego, doubles the homestead exemption from $7,500 (6,247 eur) to $15,000 (12,493 eur)
    relief sorely needed by homeowners everywhere in louisiana.

    when you think about it its ridiculous that we should be forced to pay a tax predicated on the fact that if you dont pay it the state will take your home and sell it off "at the courthouse square." imagine that. its a system prime for abuse and fraud because the good ol boys can simply set your tax so high that you are taxed right out of existence, the united states fourth supreme court chief justice john marshall warned of this when he said that "the power to tax is the power to destroy." of course they always have someone waiting behind the scenes to swoop in and buy your home and property for a song.

    instead we subscribe to carl gunter's view of property taxation here in louisiana. carl told us that he believed that everyones home regardless of price should be exempt from property taxes carl said that if you owned other property then that should be subject to property taxes. you people that voted against carl back in 1991 really messed up. but carl is in heaven today looking out for those of us that supported him and those who didnt.

    we came by this bill by way of professor sadow's louisiana legislature log. we have to add that we are a bit taken aback by the good (he holds himself out to be a conservative) professor's listing this bill in his "bad bill" column. here's how sadow dismisses this important piece of legislation:

    THE BAD: HB 644 by Rep. John Alario increases the homestead exemption to $150,000, further undermining local government finance.
    anyway, enough of that - please contact your state representive and senator and ask them to support and vote for representive alario's House Bill 644.

    EXTERNAL LINK

    louisiana house ways and means committee members

    this refers to our previous post about hb644 increasing the homestead exemption located here.

    since our post about house bill644 which gives us a tax break by increasing the homestead exemption we have learned that it has been referred to the house ways and means committee. please contact the committee and ask them to pass this important legislation.




    related post
  • HB644 increasing the homestead exemption

  • more on the house ways and means committee later...

    actual posting time and date: 9:47 pm cst tuesday 28 march 2006

    EXTERNAL LINK

    27 March 2006

    governor blanco's address to the joint session of the legislature

    updated 4:38 pm cst monday 27 march 2006

    the .mp3 opens with the a cappella rendition of the "battle hymn of the republic" by a ms. washington who it was said is a displaced citizen herself.

    the opening prayer was great, however, we missed recording it because the legislature's webmaster joined the ceremony in progress. we were also watching louisiana public broadcasting television coverage.

    perhaps the most significant statement made by the governor was when she was talking about how for sometime she has been "laying the groundwork to attract a major manufacturer into northeast louisiana...we have identified a 1,400 acre (567 hectare) tract in richland parish that we want to purchase for $4.6 million (3,829,144 eur) dollars and before you jump to conclusions let me quickly tell you that francis thompson does not own the land, but hes very supportive of what we are doing."

    representative francis thompson as everyone knows is the rogue thats involved in stealing peoples land so that he and his cronies can build reservoirs and expensive real estate developments thereon. see our post captioned: Louisiana Reservoir of Corruption and Washington Parish Reservoir Movie as well as the Oak Grove community blog.

    speaking to gambling legislation the governor said this "i've noticed that a number of bills have been filed to expand gambling, i want to reiterate my position on that - no - and if iam not clear - veto."

    in closing the governor said that "louisiana is fighting for our fair share of revenues from off shore oil and gas drilling...i have threatened to block the sale of off shore oil and gas leases that come up for renewal this august if we do not see progress. make no mistake. this is not an idle threat. for the first time in more than a decade we are seeing signs of movement on this issue...perhaps the federal government will finally see the wisdom of giving us the revenues that we deserve...i will not give an inch until we bring home this victory."

    we have posted the .mp3 audio file of governor blanco's just concluded address.

    note: there is a 4 or 5 minute gap at the nine (9:00) minute mark due to network problems.

    ====
    The Joke of Louisiana Political Profiteering
    By Christopher Tidmore

    As she opened the regular legislative session, Governor Blanco went off the official text--released to the press and originally published here on Bayoubuzz.com.
    When discussing the state purchase of land in North Louisiana, Blanco added, "Before you jump to a conclusion, let me assure you Francis Thompson does not own the land."

    That line, as columnist Charlie Davis has observed, “brought down the house“. It did so with good reason. Rep. Francis Thompson has created a multimillion dollar business regarding state purchases of rural land--and converting that land into artificial lakes. From profiting on property sales on land that the State Representative owns and converting into new lakes to collecting large consulting fees for the construction of the artificial reservoirs, his family has financially benefited off this state program.

    For example as the Monroe News Star pointed out, Rep. Thompson’s brother Michael receives a consulting fee of $100,000 per year per lake for the construction of the artificial reservoirs in rural areas--paid for by the state.

    According to news sources, Mike Thompson is the Reservoir governmental consultant for Allen, Washington, Morehouse, Caldwell, and LaSalle parishes, and proposed Reservoir projects in western Ouachita, Jackson, and Lincoln parishes. Thanks mainly to the intervention of his legislator brother, the state approved $41,975,000 approved for 12 new reservoirs in 2004.

    Moreover, Francis Thompson seems to be helping his brother and close political ally Terry Denmon of Denmon Engineering by creating Reservoirs in Richland, Ouachita, Allen, Caldwell, Morehouse, promoting them in Washington, and other Parishes.

    Currently, there are thirty lakes, fourteen of them artificial, supported in the legislature by Thompson, as economic development projects. They certainly have helped the Thompson family.

    As the News Star and talkshow host Moon Griffon have pointed out, the most famous Poverty Point Reservoir, created in 1992 by Rep. Francis Thompson, was built by political ally Terry Denmon with Michael Thompson as project Director, and now as the well paid director of the Golf Course. The keyed gate entry began by Legislator Developers as private enterprise has cost taxpayers $40 Million approved for 2005.

    An Audit in 2002, reported by the newspaper, shows Taxpayers paid $1.2 million to develop the island lots at Poverty Point Reservoir sold for $621,200 dollars to Thompson´s neighbor. Audit also shows Taxpayers paid $2.2 Million for keyed gate entry private road to the lots, and $.3 million for an office protection system or burglar alarm. Legislator Developer Thompson’s CYPRESS COVE AT POVERTY POINT-LLC, and his next-door neighbor are realizing personal gain selling Lakefront lots.

    (Interestingly, Rep. Thompson passed House Bill 1136 in 2001 allowing sale of land taken by Eminent Domain to Third Party without first offering to sell back to original owner, a matter in part under debate in this current session.)

    Desire to protect his profitable side venture may have led Thompson to a quid pro quo with Francis Heitmeier over the maneuvers to kill the unified Levee Board, in fact.

    In the closing days of the Special Session, Senator Francis Heitmeier attempted countless parliamentary procedures to amend, undermine, and even kill Senator Walter Boasso’s unified regional levee board. While a two board solution did emerge, thanks in large part to the West Bank Democrat, attempts to undermine the required appointment of qualified engineers and hydrologists to the panels was not as successful.

    Heitmeier’s hostility to the single levee board surprised few in the media. Members of the Senator’s own family received multi-million dollar contracts from the Orleans Levee District, not to mention the largess enjoyed Heitmeier’s friends and political allies.

    Less well observed was the alliance of Heitmeier’s friend in the House, Rep. Francis Thompson, in every corresponding parliamentary maneuver to kill the single board. The North Louisiana legislator had seemingly little to gain from the change in Levee construction oversight.

    However, Thompson was almost as vigilant as Heitmeier at times. Insiders, who asked not to be named, tell Bayoubuzz.com that the reason was simple. They say the North Louisianan owed the West Bank Orleanian for the latter’s aid in building artificial lakes across rural Louisiana
    christopher tidmore article from bayou buzz added 8:58 pm cdt sunday 02 april 2006

    EXTERNAL LINK

    God Help Us the Louisiana Legislature is in Session


    ====
    related post:
  • praise god the louisiana legislature is adjourned sine die
  • EXTERNAL LINK

    25 March 2006

    'Hee Haw' country star Buck Owens dies at 76

    another great entertainer has passed. our experience with buck owens was from hee haw. a wonderful program one of the last television programs that the whole family could watch and not worry about raunchy jokes and gratituous sexual references and imagery. we miss those carefree saturday evenings watching the hee haw cast of regulars with their guests like barbara mandrell, charlie daniels, merle haggard and conway twitty.

  • buck owens official website
  • buck owens wikipedia entry
  • hee haw official website
  • hee haw wikipedia entry

  • Buck Owens Memorial at Find-A-Grave


  • photo courtesy boweevil

    statement from buck owens official website:

    BUCK OWENS PASSES AWAY
    03-25-2006 KUZZ Radio owner and Country Music Hall of Fame musician Alvis E. "Buck" Owens died early Saturday morning at his Bakersfield, CA home. His family says Buck died in his sleep and the cause of death is not yet known. Buck was born on August 12, 1929 in Sherman, Texas. The son of a sharecropper, Buck traveled with his family to the Phoenix, Arizona area in 1937 as they searched for a better life. Eventually, they traveled to California's San Joaquin Valley, doing farm work. At a young age Buck vowed that when he grew up, he would not be poor. He found a way out of his family's poverty through his musical talent.

    That talent blossomed after Buck moved to Bakersfield in 1951. Within months he was a member of the hottest honky-tonk band in town, Bill Woods & The Orange Blossom Playboys, who held forth at the legendary Blackboard night club. He began playing a Fender Telecaster guitar, which provided a unique new sound in country music. Soon he was playing for recording sessions at Capitol Records. His first session as a leader came in 1957, but the session produced no hits

    Shortly thereafter, Buck began his other career, as a broadcaster. He moved to the Tacoma, Washington suburb of Puyallup and bought part-interest in a radio station, where he worked as a DJ and ad salesman as well as playing gigs in the area. He also had a live TV show in Tacoma.

    Buck's first Top 10 record, "Under Your Spell Again," was released in 1959. In 1960, he sold his interests in Washington state and returned to Bakersfield, which was his home until he died. From 1962 to 1968 Buck released a series of #1 records that established him as one of the greatest country entertainers of all time.
    ====
    related post:
  • Buck Owens Funeral Service
  • added 12:32 pm cdt sunday 02 april 2006
    ====

    EXTERNAL LINK

    24 March 2006

    ohhh chad is pissed

    saw this post over on the dead pelican right on chad!


    SPECIAL STATEMENT ON GOVERNMENT'S ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY THE INTERNET

    I’m enraged folks, at a single quote from this column that was forwarded to me today. The column starts by saying that “The Internet continues to confound Congress and the courts when it comes to free speech.”

    Uh, excuse me? What right does the congress and the courts have to be thinking about it AT ALL?

    The only thing they are allowed to do is PROTECT the current freedoms we have that already exist.

    Freedom of speech is a simple prospect: either you have it, or you don’t. I own this domain name and this web page, and as long as the company who hosts it on their server doesn’t have a problem with what I write, then I can get paid however I want by whomever I want and post anything I want.

    THAT IS FREEDOM.

    Screwing with that in any way whatsoever is government coercion, pure and simple.

    I don’t give a damn what the government says- we’ve sacrificed enough of our freedoms in this country over the years and I’ve had it.

    I will continue to operate this web site in the exact manner in which I do today, regardless of whatever laws are passed. I am willing to engage in willful civil disobedience if they screw with our right to unregulated internet free speech.

    Men have gone to jail and/or died for lesser causes and I’m willing to do both if necessary because I’ve had it with government coercion!

    If you agree with me, then get on the phone to your local congressman, senator, mayor, household pet, anyone and everyone who is interested and also those who aren’t.

    Let them know you’re mad as hell!

    In plain English, here it is: THE INTERNET MUST REMAIN FREE FROM THE KIND OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION ALLUDED TO IN THIS ARTICLE.

    If you agree with me, then contact your local officials, national officials, and elected officials that you don’t even know and aren't in your district.

    If you disagree with me don’t bother emailing me because you won’t change my mind and frankly I don’t care!

    The internet is the last free place on earth and if the government gets its slimy scaly wretched hands on it, IT’S ALL OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    --Chad E. Rogers.

    FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW
    ----------------------

    ====

    EXTERNAL LINK

    Louisiana's Campaign Train: Not A Politician, But You Are Running For Office

    big, mike francis v jay dardenne secretary of state race debate over on the campaign train.

    check it out and weigh in with your comment.

    Louisiana's Campaign Train: Not A Politician, But You Are Running For Office

    EXTERNAL LINK

    Myspace is evil

    the only reason we set up a myspace was to take up prison planets' challenge per our post here. so imagine our surprise over the past few days in logging in on our account and being subject to the following heavily sexualized advertisements. its our understanding that myspace is marketed primarily to teens and young adults, so whats the deal with the practically pornographic imagery for a website called true.com and thinly shrouded as advertisements?

    as everyone probably knows myspace is owned by rupert murdoch who also owns the fox television network think the simpsons and married with children and the fox news channel. fox news channel is the goebbelesque marketing and propaganda arm of the republican party think red, white and blue, mom, apple, blah, blah, blah you get the picture.

    so while mom and dad are sitting in the tv room zoning to the latest "no spin" by the falafal guy little sister is up in her room checking out the latest simpsons program, junior is over in the computer room getting a date with a prostitute or watching a webcam girl or at the least jacking off to the sexy advertisements on his myspace. all courtesy of rupert murdoch and newscorp.

    america what a country.









    EXTERNAL LINK

    another waste of money bill HB477

    la state representative sydnie mae durand (d) parks

    wow, talk about a waste of money, representive durand's 15 page manifesto (this must be her life's work) seeks to change the name of the department of health and hospitals to the department of health.

    here in louisiana we can always count on our legislators to squander our tax money like a bunch of drunken sailors, actually thats an insult to drunken sailors everywhere. think for a minute all the money to be spent on changing dhh stationary, business cards, signage, decals for the state cars, the dhh website, email addresses and so on and so forth.

    oh and dont forget the burecrats can't forget them. representative durand's bill charges the "louisiana state law institute to review all statutes which contain phrases being changed by this act."

    EXTERNAL LINK

    23 March 2006

    slow news day on drudge

    must be a slow news day for matt drudge. hes currently trumpeting an email thats a year and a half old - well 1 year, 5 months, 23 days to be exact. just for the record bush makes us want to puke too.

    EXTERNAL LINK

    22 March 2006

    DynCorp May Replace Cops in St. Bernard Parish

    **updated** 2:55 pm cst tuesday 28 march 2006

    we saw this story from cbs news about "katrina looters" chad has linked from dp right now. towards the bottom of the story it mentions st bernard sheriff "proposed hiring 100 private security guards from DynCorp..."



    Katrina Survivors Combat Looting

    ===

    we just came across this article published on 14 march. sounds scary.

    snip:
    It’s a good thing I don’t live in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. If I did, I’d refuse to accept the authority of DynCorp, the renta-cop and mercenary corporation that may soon replace the police in the storm-ravaged parish.

    In the first paragraph of the Washington Post article announcing the possibility of DynCorp renta-cops (or in the case of Bosnia, renta-whore-mongers) patrolling St. Bernard Parish, we are told this is necessary because “hundreds of stark white trailers soon to be inhabited by Hurricane Katrina evacuees” will “hide criminals and become an incubator for crime” and pose “another test” for the “cash-strapped sheriff’s department” of the parish.

    EXTERNAL LINK

    katherine harris crazy as a loon

    florida moonbat and bush crime family shill and enabler katherine harris has pledged to sell off all her personal assets reportedly worth $10 million (8,276,639 eur)to finance her run for the united states senate.

    harris also has the gall to compare herself to a biblical figure namely the poor widow of widow's mite fame and compares the united states senate to the kingdom of heaven, i.e. the pearl of great price.

    geeze.

    we really wonder if harris runs around shouting "my life for you" for the bushies like the character "trashcan man" did for randall flagg in the stephen king novel "the stand?"

    ====

    EXTERNAL LINK

    21 March 2006

    "come back to louisiana" hurricane katrina and rita song

    in a time when our state was struck by what some call the worst natural disaster in american history, a major american city practically wiped off the map. hurricane rita destroying a great portion of south west louisiana - the best our senators and representatives can do is offer house bill 796 that "provides for the official state song for hurricane katrina and hurricane rita recovery efforts."

    it doesnt give us any comfort either that all these legislators: representatives: martiny, ansardi and thompson and senators: lentini and mcpherson, mispelt the person's name that wrote and performed the song. its jay chevalier not jay chevalie.

    so we have to ask yet again - this is the best that our legislators have to offer?

    EXTERNAL LINK

    20 March 2006

    HB240 more funeral expenses

    just when we thought we had seen it all - thanks to senator sharon weston broome and representive hunter greene we have a new reason to pick our jaw up off the floor.

    it seems that not even funeral processions escape the scrutiny of our overseers at baton rouge. broome and greene through house bill 240 want to make it mandatory that

    "no person shall operate a vehicle in a funeral procession unless...the vehicle is equipped with a purple and white pennant displayed in such a manner as to be clearly visible to traffic approaching from any direction."
    these two twerps even attach a one hundred dollar ($100.00 [82.30 eur]) fine to anyone who dare not display this pennant.

    now the questions that should be asked is: who is behind this bill? the funeral home directors? the embroidery industry? who? and does senator broome and representative greene have any family and/or friends or more importantly campaign contributors in those industries?

    will the funeral home's have to hire an extra person to issue these pennants? and just how do they plan on collecting them all after a funeral? and how much will this add to the already excessive cost of a funeral? and does anyone care?

    we didnt know there was a problem with funeral processions seeing as how we have participated (unfortunately) in many many over the years.

    if this is the best legislation these two can think up then its no wonder this state is in the shape its in.
    ====
    related post:
  • HB96 to Drive Up Funeral Costs
  • EXTERNAL LINK

    HB111 more stupid laws courtesy rep lafonta

    apparantly, representative lafonta doesnt have anything better to do than sit around and think up ridiculous bills to file. now do we really need to criminalize roofers? representative lafonta wants to make it a state law that roofers will have to go around, with a magnet mind you, to pick up any stray roofing tacks. pardon our naivete but isnt that part of the negotiation process between you and your roofer? besides have you seen any roofers lately? do you really want these people walking around your property peering into your windows under the guise of picking up tacks? or more importantly do you really want to pay extra because it will mean more man-hours for someone to do this?
    ====
    **updated friday 23 june 2006 1:26 pm**
    ah ha! see what we mean:

    Criminals Turn Up On Metro Area Construction Sites


    Travers Mackel
    June 23, 2006, 12:36 p.m. CDT 46 minutes ago

    U.S. marshals say criminals are turning up on construction sites around the sites around southeast Louisiana.

    Since January, U.S. marshals in New Orleans have arrested dozens of construction workers wanted for crimes in other states.

    In fact, on Thursday afternoon a man was picked up in Metairie for a burglary and kidnapping.

    Neighbors who live in the area shouldn't be happening and they want the workers to be properly screened.

    James Chatelain has a long way to go before he can move back into his Metairie home.

    In the next few weeks, construction workers will be in and out of his house and he wants his contractor to properly screen anyone going inside.

    "He needs to check people's records before he hires them," said Chatelain.

    Chatelain's concern comes after U.S. marshals picked up a suspect who was working with a construction crew just one block from his house.

    "That really bothers me in a way," said Chatelain.

    The problem is growing.

    Marshal Brian Fair said his office and other agencies pick up about a dozen suspects every month. They're men who are working in New Orleans but wanted for crimes elsewhere.

    "There was a guy we picked up of a rooftop in Metairie who was part of a Texas prison gang and wanted for two murders," said Fair.

    Fair said the construction market is the lure for anyone on the run.

    "It's ripe for that kind of activity with all the cash flowing through here. People are coming to work and hide out that way," said Fair.

    Metairie construction worker Kendal Durban said he had no idea that one of the guys working next to him was wanted.

    "I see two police come up and take one guy away that's very stupid because they're going to get caught and it makes it hard for us to get work," said Durban.

    Even harder, according to some homeowners, is gaining the trust of people they?re working for.

    "There's no way the police department can check on everyone here," said Chatelain.

    Fair said most of the suspects the marshals have picked up haven't committed any crimes in this area. He said in almost every case, they're just hiding out, and trying to avoid prosecution in other states.

    Fair also urge all construction foremen to properly screen and conduct backup checks on all workers.

    The U.S. Marshals Service said it only focuses on suspects and fugitives from the United States.

    EXTERNAL LINK

    quezaire is no belizaire

    la state rep r j quezaire jr (d) donaldsonville

    along comes representative quezaire with a bill to reduce the number of persons required to make an estimate to the department of transportation when expropriating property for right of way.

    simply put quezaire wants to reduce the number of people making "quick take" property value estimates from two to one. this is in order to streamline the states property seizing protocols.

    so now the state only has to pay off one guy instead of two in shafting you on your property's value when they come to steal it.

    you still think that these people who cavalierly call themselves "representatives" are representing you?

    EXTERNAL LINK

    18 March 2006

    more fees

    more of the same from louisiana's speaker of the house joe salter (d) florien

    in a time that the legislature should be removing ridiculous fee's and regulations here comes representive salter's brilliant answer in the form of House Bill 259 in which he seeks regulation and feeing [read: fleecing] state "automotive glass repair technicians." at least he got the politically correct term of "technicians" right in his bill eh?

    is the state really in need of hiring more people (ah theres the key) to oversee yet another bureaucracy? just read over salters eight page bill and marvel at all the terms and conditions one will have to learn and conform to and obey in order to have the privledge to pay the state either $150 [123 eur] or $100 [82 eur] depending on if you want to call yourself an "automotive glass technician" or an "automotive glass repair technician."

    we used to know a young guy that lived not far from us he worked fulltime in the construction industry and installed automotive windshields in his spare time - salter seeks to make a young kid like that a criminal when the right thing to do would be to assist and encourage.

    salter obviously has nothing in common with a working man anymore and everything in common with the bureaucrat. salter and his relentless litany of rules and regulations (and dont forget the fees) designed to control us and pick our pocket - oh yeah ever notice that on the one hand government takes our money only to turn around and beat us over the head with the other hand. we finance our own prison.

    salter and his ilk their time must come to an end at baton rouge they are killing the people of our state.

    its time for us to come together and elect men and women who will represent the citizens of this state and not these spiders who only exist and delight in weaving their webs of rules, regulations, fees and taxes to trap us in.

    EXTERNAL LINK

    HB194 establishes a statewide minimum wage

    on 01 october 2006 this bill would establish a minimum wage of $5.40 [4.43 eur] per hour and reaching $6.15 per hour [5.04 eur] on 01 july 2007.

    EXTERNAL LINK

    HB177 i love my louisiana


    representative mert smiley (r) port vincent has introduced the official state poem of louisiana.

    EXTERNAL LINK

    HB85 playing crab-ass with the governor

    la st rep tank powell (r) ponchatoula

    first off, we have to wonder why we even need a 20 member crab task force "to advise the department of wildlife and fisheries regarding the crab industry." 20 bag men for the politicians is more likely..

    what caught our eye is that rep tank powell is stripping away the crab task force appointment power from the governor and transferring it to the secretary of wildlife and fisheries. theres over 1100 prefiled house bills now and we havent been able to see every one but we have to wonder how many other similar bills are there stripping the governors power away?

    EXTERNAL LINK

    16 March 2006

    taking prison planet up on their myspace challenge

    we came across this interesting article on prison planet..com today about the myspace website, captioned "MySpace Is The Trojan Horse Of Internet Censorship" oh we totally agree with the article's authors' paul joseph watson and alex jones that "myspace isn't cool, it isn't hip and it isn't trendy."

    myspace is just annoying and appears to be the domain of choice for arrested development children, teens and college students everywhere. when you view a myspace webpage the layout doesnt make any sense whatsoever. watson writes: "...it looks like a 5-year-old's picture scrap and scribble book." lmao!

    another thing that annoys us about myspace is it seems that everyone on there has a song file that starts to play when you log onto their, um, myspace. ugh. needless to say we very rarely log onto a myspace.

    we dont know of any serious bloggers that blog from myspace and we wish that search engines wouldnt list them either as they only clutter up search results.

    anyway, if you read that article at the bottom it says "...we do encourage everyone to set up a MySpace account, but only if you're going to use it to bash MySpace, Rupert Murdoch and copy and paste this article right at the top of the page! See how long it is before your account is terminated."

    so we set up our own myspace account


    and copied and pasted the complete article here:
    or
    http://blog.myspace.com/wesawthat

    oh and by the way the part about being from beverly hills, california and 36 years old isnt true, we made that up.
    ====
  • Myspace Is Evil
  • ====
    stay tuned...
    ====
    updated at 6:53 pm cst thursday 16 march 2006
    ====

    EXTERNAL LINK

    15 March 2006

    HB295 or cedric the sell out

    la rep cedric richmond (d) baton rouge

    incredulous, is one word that comes to mind upon reading representative richmond's two page bill to do away with each parish's elected assessor(s) to replace them with one statewide assessor to be appointed by the governor.

    lets see where do we start. ok, for one thing its a good thing to have elected assessors because this at least keeps them halfway honest in making fair assessments parishwide they can always be voted out of office (which is what needs to be done to representative richmond by the way). whats to stop a non elected statewide assessor from targeting poor neighborhoods (or rich ones for that matter) by simply increasing that areas property tax beyond a level that the residents can afford in order to take their property so that another party waiting in the wings may swoop in and buy it? whats to stop a statewide non elected assessor from doing that and much more? use your imagination. obviously a crooked assessor cant be voted out of office as is now the case.

    representative richmond is not representing his constituents or any citizen of this state. representitive richmond is seeking to create a hell on earth for louisiana home and property owners. we urge everyone to contact their legislators and demand that HB295 be killed outright.

    we also urge those living in house district 101 to come together on election day and vote this turkey out of the louisiana legislature.

    related news article from nola.com

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    EXTERNAL LINK

    14 March 2006

    the smiling negroes


    we came across this scathing article by black commentator editor, bruce dixon, about how andrew young "...decisively spat upon the movement for human rights and economic justice that he spent his early career helping to build." particularly unnerving to black commentator is young's recent announcement that he would chair "working families for wal-mart" an organization that BC calls a "[wal-mart] media sock puppet" making young a "corporate whore."

    by the way, we agree, wal-mart is an evil empire.

    meanwhile, guest columnist leutisha stills, asks "why is tavis smiling and why are we watching?" in which she points out that "every year, radio/tv commentator tavis smiley holds a forum [State of the Black Union] that brings together "the best and the brightest" African-Americans..." while ms stills admits that she has her doubts about smiley's sincerity she reluctantly gives him the benefit of the doubt:

    "Many think that Smiley holds these forums because of personal gain, as well as more media exposure, and they could well be right. But, I must give him the benefit of the doubt when he says that he loves Black people..."
    this years SOBU was held in houston and ms stills who attended decided to ask the attendees "What do we hope to get out of the SOBU? and Why do we attend?"

    click here to read for yourself what ms stills learned and her suggestions to make the forum even better.

    these are great articles (and website) for anyone interested in what black america is really thinking.
    ====
    updated at 2:53 pm cst wed 15 march 2006
    ====

    EXTERNAL LINK

    insidious phishing email

    we received this phishing email this morning and its about the best phishing work we have seen.

    tips off included
    1) we dont have an account at capital one;
    2) banks never send offers by email.

    here is the original email.

    click on any picture to enlarge

    if you hover your mouse over where it says "apply now" you will see the true url in your status bar in the lower left hand corner of your screen: capitalonesafecard.com/creditcard.html

    we know that most large companies such as capital one instead of using third party hosting have their own servers.

    a whois lookup of the capitalonesafecard.com domain reveals that sure enough its hosted by comcast.

    the whois lookup of the capitalone.com domain shows that as we suspected they have their own servers:

    if you receive these types of emails and you would like to help by reporting them then please copy and put in your address book this address: reportphishing@antiphishing.org and also the federal trade commission has an email address that we can send besides phishing spam, any spam to and its: spam@uce.gov

    its important that when you send on spams that you include the complete unaltered email headers, antiphishing.org instructions are here.

    our complaint regarding the above phishing email (shown for example purposes)

    From:edited@msn.com
    To: abuse@comcast.net,reportphishing@antiphishing.org
    Cc: spam@uce.gov
    Subject: Fw: Few tips for online shopping from Capital One
    Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 10:50:41 -0600
    MIME-Version: 1.0
    Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
    boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0006_01C64755.2386B1E0"
    X-Priority: 3
    X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
    X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1506
    X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1506

    This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

    ------=_NextPart_000_0006_01C64755.2386B1E0
    Content-Type: text/plain;
    charset="iso-8859-1"
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

    Capital One - Credit Cards - Respond to an invitation

    COMCAST.NET: this phising spam was sent to advertise a website that you host please would you terminate service to:

    www.capitalonesafecard.com

    *original email body here*

    EXTERNAL LINK