31 October 2006
happy halloween 2006
note: might work better using internet explorer. EXTERNAL LINK
30 October 2006
firefox 2.0 released
as usual we are late again seeing as how firefox 2.0 was released 6 days ago. we are really surprised that we didnt know about this release before now. we would have thought that due to our hit counter that we would have noticed someone using the new version. *updated* naturally right after we posted this, the very next hit was a ff v 2.0 user.
====
more info:
Mozilla Firefox 2 Released
Tuesday October 24th, 2006
====The Mozilla Corporation has officially released Mozilla Firefox 2 for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Coming just days after the launch of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2 offers a refreshed user interface, anti-phishing protection, improvements to the built-in search feature, tabbed browsing changes, the ability to restore an interrupted session, better support for Web feeds, inline spell-checking, support for microsummaries and a number of other enhancements.
Upon starting Firefox 2 for the first time, most users will notice the updated default theme. This refines the design and usability of the theme used since Firefox 1.0 without making any jarring or radical alterations. Design proposals were solicited from three agencies: MetaDesign, Radiant Core and Raizlabs. Radiant Core's proposal was picked and developed for the finished product.
In addition to refining the look of the buttons and other visual elements, the new design tethers the Go button to the Location Bar and adds an equivalent action button to the Search Bar. Several clickable buttons (for example, the feed icon in the Location Bar and the search engine icon in the Search Bar) have been refined to make it more obvious that they are interactive.
Firefox 2's Phishing Protection feature was developed from the Google Safe Browsing feature of the Google Toolbar for Firefox using code donated by the search giant. By default, the Phishing Protection feature checks every page you visit against a local blacklist of known phishing sites and displays a warning if the site is fraudulent. This list is periodically updated by Firefox while the feature is enabled.
For more real-time protection, users can choose (from the Security panel of the Options/Preferences window) to send details of every site they visit to a remote service for checking (currently Google is the only service provider, though other phishing data providers can be supported). With this feature enabled, the URL of every page visited is sent to Google for checking over a secure connection. In addition, details of how users respond to phishing warnings are also sent. While real-time checking can offer greater protection, there are obvious privacy implications, which is why only the local list is enabled by default.
related posts
new cenla blog shesnoops.com
**updated** friday 22 december 2006 -- apparantly this blog has been deleted.
according to this bloggers bio:
I’m a snoop. I admit it. As someone who has spent over 10 years in the law enforcement field, snooping is second nature for me. In addition to investigating crime, I enjoy traveling (long and short trips), reading inspirational romance books and true crime novels, and writing. To date I’ve had two non-fiction books published.so click on over and check it out. dont forget to look in shesnoops cold cases section for several interesting write-ups including one on wst fave amanda gutweiler hypes.
related posts:
jindal the weasel's worm has turned
what a difference only eighty-eight days make. maybe its because we are eighty-eight days closer to a tight election hmm? could that possibly have anything to do with it? you see it was back on 03 august 2006 that jindal's spokesman trey williams was quoted in this times-picayune story "...Jindal continues to oppose setting a firm date for the withdrawal of U.S. troops..."
ol piyush is so transparent and quite frankly its disturbing that so many people are deceived, beguiled, spellbound by this fast talking bull-shit artists schtick. chances are that if ol piyush wasnt a politician that he would be ripping off your parents or grandparents, no, you in some real estate or stock swindle.
related posts:
29 October 2006
virus may be eating your brain
Viruses that cause a range of ills from the common cold to polio may be able to infect the brain and cause steady damage, a team at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota reports.[...]The viruses are called picornaviruses and infect more than 1 billion people worldwide each year. They include the virus that causes polio, as well as colds and diarrhoea. People contract an average of two or three such infections a year. [...] "Our findings suggest that picornavirus infections throughout the lifetime of an individual may chip away at the cognitive reserve, increasing the likelihood of detectable cognitive impairment as the individual ages," the researchers write. "We hypothesise that mild memory and cognitive impairments of unknown aetiology may, in fact, be due to accumulative loss of hippocampus function caused by repeated infection with common and widespread neurovirulent picornaviruses." Other viruses kill brain cells, including the herpes virus and HIV.click the link to read more EXTERNAL LINK
stats
for this post, we kind of stole the idea, correction, was inspired by this post from cenlamar. back at sunday 24 september 2006 we installed a new hit counter from statcounter. we had used site meter previously as one of our two hit counters the second one from liveblogstats.com we have had since around the first of the year. for the most part we were happy with sitemeter and the stats it provides. we noticed that from comparing the hit counters they both would consistently miss a lot of hits some the other hit counter caught and some not. it wasnt uncommon for one or the other to be off by 100 or more on really fast days. there was something about sitemeter that made us think that it was the one that missed more hits more often so thats why we decided sitemeter would be the one our experiment would replace.
the screen grabs below are statistics from sunday 24 septemter through tuesday 24 october 2006. we installed the statcounter code around 1:30 pm that sunday so that explains the difference between the counters total for that day.
the bottom line is that there is no way to know the real number of visitors that a site receives. but its fun trying to figure it out!
EXTERNAL LINK
video sen landrieu mocked on dem blog
good!
poor katrina mary landrieu snellings, she has done everything that george w. bush has told her to do, but they still wont cut her any slack. frankly, sen landrieu sucks. the blog vote the record wants people to download and send to certain democrats the sec'y of state .pdf party switch application - the thinking is that they should switch to the republican party.
in katrina mary's case, we should be downloading it and sending it to her requesting that she go ahead and switch to the republican party. senator landrieu. is not a democrat. her voting record shows that. she is like matt stoller writes a "bush sycophant" so yeah lets encourage katrina mary to "make that change to the republican party."
anyway a snip from mydd.com matt stoller in a piece called 'breaking down' via www.thedeadpelican.comyoutube
"Joe's bringing the stars into town, now isn't he? Yesterday it was the creepy ex-pol Bob Kerrey, and today Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu is in Hartford. Landrieu is probably the worst Democratic Senator in the caucus, with the possible exception of Max Baucus. She's an utter Bush sycophant, even going above and beyond the reddish tinge of Louisiana. If you're looking for a reason that New Orleans is still devastated today, you have to look to her utter failure of leadership in forcing Bush to do anything to deal with the situation. She's a moral ghost, someone who won't fight for her city or her state because she wants to be loved by insiders. Just watch her being destroyed by Anderson Cooper in the clip above. I suppose it's fitting she's in town stumping for Joe."
related posts:
paul smith to pundits put up or shut up
as usual we are a bit tardy, we just now picked up the latest edition of the northside journal, the wednesday 25 october 2006 issue. in the letters to the editor first up in a tersely worded letter to the editor, paul smith, alexandria's chief of the fire department [public safety] picks up on a theme that we first hit on here. smith called out the northside journal's editoral and really all of us that agree.
.
"i was just forwarded your piece regarding ms brewers news conference by a friend. let me admonish you like jacques roy did john sams on the issuse of "corruption associated with alexandria city hall." if you purport to represent the truth to your readers or if one aspires to represent the citizens of this community or for that matter if anyone considers himself to be a responsible neighbor and are/is aware of the "fact that sweetheart deals, nepotism, invoice padding, consultant family members, all slosh around in the cesspool that city hall has become" then you have an absolute moral obligation to share the details of that corruption with your readers and fellow citizens. what do you know? how long have you known it? what steps have you taken to bring these facts to the attention of authorities to rid our community of corruption. if you are willing to know these facts and take no action then perhaps you would at least share the details with your neighbors so that someone might bring them to the attention of appropriate authorities. to "know it and not name it" in the words of jacques roy is (in my words) to perpetuate it. it is the moral equivalent of seeing your neighbors house on fire and not calling the fire department."
related posts:
louisiana way forums: southeast louisiana skyrocketing murder rate
the louisiana way forum admin emailed us tonight letting us know about their new thread on the shocking murder rate in southeast louisiana. did you see the report about the guy who killed and cooked his girlfriend before he jumped to his death off the omni royal orleans hotel? heres what louisiana way forum thinks is going down.
I predicted this months ago, BEFORE it began escalating and became obvious beyond denial or cover-up: www.louisianaway.com/forums/index.php?topic=491.0
July 26, 2006, 01:36:36 PM
Do not look for your state to ever be the same again.
I will predict Louisiana will become (further) similar in nature to a central or south American narco-terroristic state.
Here, please, BRIEFLY document murders which occur on Southeast Lousiana.
To begin with, peruse this list of 15 recent news stories:
www.forgotston.com/wp-content/misery.html c b forgotston
Boy, 14, wanted a rival killed nola.com
Man killed, woman shot in N.O. East nola.com
Police: 1 dead, another injured in nightclub shooting wwl
Woman files wrongful death lawsuit against Kenner PD
A woman whose son was fatally shot by police has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Kenner Police Department. wwl
Our leaders just cannot effectively nor competently deal with this problem, and it IS their responsibility which they are not fulfilling their DUTY to protect the public from these miserable events, and it is the responsibility of THE PEOPLE to ensure that the parties in positions of public trust whom are responsible for preventing these sad incidents are NOT allowed to remain in office unless they effect substantive change in these statistics.
you do have to register to post in the louisiana way forums but not to browse it. the registration is simple and non privacy intrusive - you register a display name and valid email address they send an email and you have to click on the link in it to activate your account. thats it. its a pretty neat forum set-up they have. the template is nice and it loads and navigates quickly.
gawker's
where are they now: fun-loving french quarter couple
edited 12:50pm cst sunday 29 october 2006
28 October 2006
unanswered
vote the record put out an appeal to its readers to email the la state treasurer and instructs you on how to make it easy for him to switch to the republican party by attaching the sec'y of state .pdf ....
dear sec'y kennedy,
personally, we hope that you dont switch over to the republican party. vote the record claims that you "dont have a democratic bone in your body." is this true?
the democratic party needs men and women who will stand up for traditional democratic principles. now is the time traditional democrats can take charge of the party again besides hi-tailing it over to the republicans...that trick wont work no more.
nola blogging kingfish oyster over @ yrht has a nice series of posts about sec'y kennedy.
"In the fall of 2007, the major candidates running for Governor include Incumbent Gov Kathleen Blanco, Rep. Bobby Jindal, and State Treasurer John Kennedy. Many Democratic voters support Kennedy over Kathleen Blanco and Rep. Bobby Jindal in the open primary, but Kennedy loses. These "Kennedy Dems" represent a crucial swing vote, and have an important decision to make between Blanco and Jindal.."
"Well.
With all due respect to Jindal and Vitter (do either of them believe in evolution, btw?) don't underestimate the smarts of YRHT favorite, State Treasurer John Kennedy. Even though he has a Ross Perot twang, the dude reads Kierkegaard. And is proud to say so."
more on yhrt...check out...
rodney alexander series:
*****
church politics
rodney alexander should resign
"big brother of the world"
rep rodney alexander's office sued for sexual harrassment
alexander others knew what we knew
very proud
jindal is not mark foley sympathizer
didnt alexanders office have
what about kerianna's claims
one of the stupidest politicians louisiana
not cautious at all
brent sanders charges conspiracy
oh yes!
world of difference
rep baker falsely claims hastert asked
vote your comments
perverts should be handled
*****
related posts:
subliminal messages
the other day in a post we captioned is cenla antics republican propaganda? we mentioned how the logo on the cenla gopac website banner looks like a pentagram. as a result of our post we were slammed on cenla antics blog:
At Thursday, October 26, 2006 12:57:04 PM, Anonymous said...
Cenla Antics has a link to a homosexual blog. Does that mean that either the owner of Cenla Antics or us posters are queer?
We Saw That is past being a conspiracy idiot. Now he is seeing hidden messages in the position of a star on a banner. There is credibility attached to this person?
Sow a republican organization has a link to this blog site. Big deal.
then yesterday the delores brewer for mayor campaign released a television commercial in which the camera points to a brown piglet when the name of a local african american attorney (bridgett brown) is mentioned. (you may view the commercial on kalb.com's video blog by clicking here.) this was immediately picked up on by another anonymous commentator over on cenla antics:
At Friday, October 27, 2006 8:33:24 PM, Anonymous said...
When Bridgett is mentioned in the commercial, a brown pig flashes on the screen.
When the two lawyers from BR are mentioned, two white pigs appear.
Seems like obvious race-baiting.
KALB should not have agreed to run the commercial because it tells a LIE.
EMS is not getting 50%, and Delores KNOWS THIS. She's LYING AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. On television, on radio, here on the Internet, and door-to-door.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
see also
cenlamar new brewer campaign commercial compares cleco case to pigs at a trough
and also
cenlamar delores brewer's new television commercial ('rape' ad)
27 October 2006
louisiana's blog revolution?
the part of the story that we take issue with is the insinuation that bloggers are making a difference in state politics. as an example mr duncan goes on to trumpet governor blanco's veto of hb 1028. hb 1028 would have allowed "state legislators who have served more than 10 years to be part of the state retirement system. If signed the bill would mean that taxpayers would pay for 75, percent of a legislator's retirement for the rest of their lives."
governor blanco ostensibly vetoed hb1028 after a strong outcry by some talk radio hosts and bloggers, however, to our point of view it looks like vetoing this bill from the governor's perspective was a no brainer. in other words it would appear that this veto was simply a carrot on a stick designed to give the blogosphere the idea that our musings, observations and postings really do make a difference when in actuality we bloggers arent making one whit of difference in state politics and policies.
consider for example the fact that some talk radio hosts and bloggers outcry and outrage over hb685 the mandatory ethanol bill. governor blanco signed that into law over bloggers objections and despite the fact that agriculture commissioner bob odom admitted in a television interview with kalb-tv's michele godard that a beneficiary of the legislation is blanco crony the shaw group.. another example is hb658 joe salter's waste of money bill which transferred hodges gardens ownership over to the state. signed into law. cha ching.
another example is the recent sec'y of state race. talk radio and bloggers railed against state senator jay dardenne's candidacy yet he came in first in the open primary of 30 september. while talk radio and bloggers choice in mike francis came in third LOL. note: we didnt support jay dardenne because our own research of his voting record plus observing his antics in the state senate brought us to the conclusion that dardenne is a liar, fake republican and a RINO and as such shouldnt hold any statewide office or any position in state government. we didnt support mike francis either we voted for the libertarian candidate for sec'y of state.
so why isnt louisiana's blogosophere making a difference? one theory of ours is that louisiana doesnt have a true blogosophere. the few prominent bloggers that get the publicity are really nothing more than propaganda agents for the criminal network errr the republican party. citizens can read the writings of oh say jeff sadow, emily metzgar, read and listen to jeff crouere, moon griffon and others and deduce that they are merely propaganda and it makes the rest of the blogosphere look bad. common sense tells us that if any of these and others were truly concerned about louisiana, conservative values and the republican party then they would be speaking out against the bush regime. they wouldnt be promoting vermin like piyush"bobby" jindal and david vitter. every tuesday jeff crouere has on his radio show neocon thug frank gaffney from the center for security policy. all gaffney is there for (on crouere's show) is to promote the illegal and immoral iraq war and to promote the bush regimes turning america into a police state. what does your average louisianaian give a damn about frank gaffney?
at least c b forgotston stays focused on the state legislature and the state government and for that we thank him.
25 October 2006
is cenla antics republican propaganda?
tonight we noticed that someone arrived on our blog searching for "cenla antics" through the aol search engine. well we know that not many netizens use aol to search and being the ever curious bloggers that we are we decided to see what kind of search for cenla antics that aol returned. we noticed that towards the bottom of the page was an entry for related links: cenla gopac. you can click here to see the aol results for yourself. cenla gopac is the local republican party website.
lo and behold cenla antics blog is linked at the very top of their links list:
one other thing that we have to point out is the positioning of that star in their logo - if you look closely you cant help but notice that its a star of baphomet also called a witches pentagram. click here for some more examples. click here for more information on subliminal messages from wikipedia.
EXTERNAL LINK
gop women outraged!
dont expect any help from louisiana republican party chairman roger villere though. hes useless. in fact we suspect that he is really a RINO.
click the link to read chad's story.
related posts:
lester v levy
long story short is that dr. levy pulled the correct tooth and it healed up perfectly with no complications whatsoever and both dr. levy and his assistant were very kind and gentle - so if you're researching him or whatever, you shouldnt fear going to see him or let this suit influence your decision but just be advised to bring plenty of money cos he's expensive.
the more we try to figure out the 3rd circuit's reasoning the more we decide that we would have better luck figuring out why some people believe the 911 scam or why some people think that george w. bush and his minions are good people. oh well, all in good time.
in this case alexandria city court judge richard starling (we dont know if judge starling is any good but we know that his predecessor eddie roberts was terrible) issued a judgement in favor of the defendant dr. robert levy a local dentist. judge starling dismissed the plaintiff alicia lester medical malpractice suit with prejudice mind you.
from what we can gather is that ms. lester first went to a dentist dr. gauthier who referred her to dr. levy. (dr. levy is an oral surgeon) dr. levy pulled some of her teeth and that was uneventful. ms. lester returned to dr. gauthier who again referred her to dr. levy to have 3 more teeth pulled. at this visit ms. lester didnt bring "a referral slip identifying the teeth to be extracted" so what happened is that dr. levy pulled the wrong teeth.
next the 3rd circuit in their opinion goes off into some goobly gook citing case law etc. then incredibly 3rd circuit judges elizabeth a. pickett, john d. saunders and james t. genovese go off scale and side with the theory:
All three members of the medical review panel agreed that if one believed Ms.Lester’s version of what happened in Dr. Levy’s office on the morning of October 20, 2003, then the actions by Dr. Levy fell below the standard of care. If, on the other hand, one believed the testimony of Dr. Levy and of Ms. Heidner, then, there was no breach of the standard of care. The members of the panel described the standard of care for an oral surgeon to extract a tooth (or teeth) as follows: first, having an x-ray of the patient’s mouth which was less than one year old—Dr. Levy had an x-ray of Ms. Lester’s mouth which was six months old. Next, examining the patient—which both Dr. Levy and Ms. Heidner stated he did. The plaintiff argued that upon examing a patient, the oral surgeon had a duty to inform the patient if, in his opinion, he thought a tooth, which was to be extracted ,was salvageable.ms. lester isnt a dentist she didnt know which teeth were to be pulled. its silly to use the excuse that since ms. lester pointed to the teeth to be pulled that it was ok. why didnt dr. levy simply fone dr. gauthier and have him fax over the referral slip so that dr. levy would know exactly which teeth to pull? good grief ms. lester was supposed to have teeth numbered: 5, 12 and 13 pulled and dr. levy was batting zero because he pulled teeth numbered 3, 15 and 16. this is why we avoid dentists. lawyers too for that matter. EXTERNAL LINK
The panel agreed that such was the standard of care if the patient was a “walk-in” off the street, but stated that such was NOT the case with a referred patient, such as Ms. Lester. In the case of a referred patient, the question of whether a tooth was salvageable was between the patient and his/her general dentist. Oral surgeons were not to “second-guess” a patient’s general dentist. The last duty the oral surgeon had, to meet the standard of care, was to know which tooth/teeth to extract. Ms. Lester claims that Dr. Levy could not have known which teeth to extract because she forgot her referral slip, and he did not call Dr. Gauthier to obtain this information.
Dr. Levy and Ms. Heidner testified that Ms. Lester was offered a later appointment so she could return with her referral slip, but that Ms. Lester declined, stating that she knew which teeth had to be extracted. Also, Dr. Levy and Ms. Heidner both testified that Ms. Lester pointed at the teeth she wanted extracted and confirmed her choices to Dr. Levy when he pointed to the corresponding teeth on her x-ray. Ms. Lester denies pointing to any specific tooth(teeth), claiming it would have impossible for her to do so.
the zimmerman - leggett media conspiracy?
local blogger and attorney at law greg aymond proposes some very serious questions in his latest blog entry. babs zimmerman is a high up executive at kalb tv, her husband jim leggett is an executive at the alexandria daily town talk. the town talk and newschannel 5 control nearly 100% of central louisiana's local news. central louisiana is a small media market for sure and for this reason it makes it all the more important for the people to know just exactly how this husband and wife team work together to shape our news in whats reported, what isnt reported and how its presented and in what way, if any, that it all works together. doesnt it seem just a little questionable that central louisiana has a husband and wife in high places in both of the local media outlets? both the town talk and newschannel five need to come clean and let the public know just exactly what is going on here. actually its way past time for ms. zimmerman or mr. leggett or both of them to retire.
click the link to read more
24 October 2006
gloria hearn: god told me to run
is the town talk promoting prostitution?
the other night we went over on the town talks website to check the obituaries. we know, we know, some of you will be disappointed to learn that our name wasnt listed. then the advertisement for mate1.com intimate dating service caught our eye. now every web savvy person out there knows that most if not all of these so called dating websites are merely thinly veiled fronts that organized crime rings use to promote prostitution and pornography. the prostitution bit should be easy to figure out. the pornography part works like this: girls on webcams doing sexual acts are the pornography.
dont believe us? well heres an advertisement we came across from the same company mate1.com that they are running over on the washington parish hard copy message board. now if mate1 was a legitimate company then why do they have to use soft core porn imagery to sell their product?
heres who is behind mate1.com. its some canadians.
pelican swallows pigeon whole
via drudge we learn about this pelican that swallowed a pigeon whole. there must be something said about the symbology about this seeing as how the pelican is our state bird.
23 October 2006
art bell threatens lawsuit over weblog comments
art b.s. bell has threatened to sue rogers cadenhead over comments posted by readers on cadenhead's workbench weblog:
At first I thought it was a hoax, but the emails check out. Writing from the Philippines with an email address at KNYE, the radio station he founded while living in Pahrump, Nev., Bell suggested several times he'd pursue a lawsuit in an email exchange that began Wednesday (full transcript)
[...]
Though I give readers wide latitude in the comments they post, I remove libelous comments when they're called to my attention, as I told him in our email exchange. But I'm under no legal obligation to do so, thanks to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act:
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.I'd prefer not to get sued, but if he wants to test Section 230 in court, I think it's a principle worth fighting for. The blogging medium thrives on its receptivity to reader feedback. I've taken 13,000 comments on Workbench and more than 300,000 on my other sites. If a blogger was treated as the author of every statement made by a reader, there would be no way to accept comments without reviewing each one prior to publication, turning a medium for boisterous public discussion into something as controversy-averse and excessively careful as a newspaper's letters to the editor section.
latest brent sanders news
brent sanders is the libertarian party candidate for louisiana's fith congressional district congressman. please vote for brent sanders on tuesday 07 november 2006. thanks.
3 minutes pre-scripted spot on KALB-NBC Alexandria
Jambalaya morning show on KALB-NBC Alexandria,
8 minute video blog on KALB blog site
invite to KALB Halloween party.
Speech at Alexandria Optimist Club...
all coming up this week.
also have 28 commercial spots booked on KLAX-ABC in Alexandria
and 20 commercial spots on KAQY-ABC in Monroe.
may have some campaign signs coming in also...
so plenty more to come!!!!
I won't go down in the election without a fight!
Brent
have any more events you would like me attend please email me at this address brentsanders@hotmail.com
recent news articles
Alexandria native one of several taking on Alexander for Congress
youtube link for Brent Sanders "like you" commercial
youtube link for new coverage on monroe debate:
5th District candidates debate Iraq, immigration
Fifth District contenders to face off
Louisiana Congressional candidates hold debate
'We didn't ask to be the Big Brother of the world, but we are.'
5th Congressional District candidates debate tonight
Never too late for a good debate
Congressional candidates converge Thursday
related posts:
20 October 2006
local blogs cenlamar and wesawthat... featured in nola.com metablogging
see this is why we pay attention to our referral logs. lol.
anyway, local blog cenlamar was picked up because of its coverage of the brewer 'rape' campaign commercial styled: a transcript of delores brewer's newest television ad and wesawthat... because of our post: 3rd circuit doesnt care about elections integrity
thanks to nola.com and meta blogging editor patrick strange. EXTERNAL LINK
3rd circuit doesnt care about elections integrity
in this opinion released yesterday (19 october 2006) we find typical louisiana lawyer-judges in justices oswald a. decuir, jimmie c. peters and elizabeth a. pickett who wrote in part:
"Franklin alleged that multiple voting irregularities altered the results of the election, resulting in his loss to the winner by four votes. The trial court held that substantial irregularities were not established and dismissed the election suit. We do not reach the merits of this appeal. We dismiss the appeal, recognizing that this court has not gained jurisdiction to hear this matter due to the failure of the plaintiff-appellant to file an appeal bond..."
both the town talk and kalb-tv reported on alledged voting irregularities here in rapides parish and here is the 3rd circuit dismissing an appeal from yet another parish (calcasieu) on some silly technicality because the appellant j.l. franklin, didnt file his appeal bond just right. clownish lawyers are more interested in getting paid than in investigating something far worse which is that our right to vote is being conducted fairly and honestly. we have to wonder how any of these three "judges" will feel if they are defeated in their reelection bids due to voting irregularities.
just another day in the banana republic of louisiana. EXTERNAL LINK
19 October 2006
deductbox.com founder john copes dies
we didnt get online until the summer of 2000 and sometime shortly after that we read a town talk editorial which mentioned the deductbox website. ever curious we checked it out and became immediate fans. in fact it was the deductbox that turned us on to mr. c b forgotston's website. it seems like it was only a short time later that word came out that mr. john copes the deductbox founder had cancer and the posts there grew fewer and fewer and finally the site was taken offline. we've often thought about mr. copes in the years since then, wondering what happened to him. we didnt know if he had passed away or not. its shocking to learn that he was only 49 years old when he died. we always imagined mr. copes as being older. mr. copes family and friends have our deepest sympathy and we too mourn the loss of great man.
below are a few screen grabs of the deductbox taken from the archive.org way back machine. you can click here or on the link below and view many editions of the deductbox and remember a part of louisiana that wont likely pass this way again.
La. political Web site pioneer John Copes dies
By John Hill
jhillbr@gannett.com
(225) 342-7333
John Copes, the founder of Louisiana’s first political Web site with widespread influence in Louisiana politics and journalism, died this morning in Destin, Fla. He was 49.
Copes in 1999 founded deductbox.com, which quickly grew in popularity with thousands of daily hits from Louisiana, Washington and round the world from displaced Louisianans.
Copes assembled and critiqued coverage of Louisiana politics, sparing neither politician nor pundit from his acerbic brand of humor. The nicknames — Edwin Edwards as "geezer" and editorial writers as "navel gazers" — stuck.
A graduate of Louisiana Tech University’s journalism school and a veteran of the defunct Shreveport Journal, Copes provided links to Web sites of all the state’s major newspapers, including The Times, television stations, college publications - such as Tech Talk — government and public interest groups, such as the Public Affairs Research Council — and regional newspapers from Mobile to Houston.
The "deductbox" name came from the so-called deduct box that legendary Louisiana Gov. Huey Long kept. All state employees had to deduct part of their salary — on a sliding scale of 5 percent to 10 percent — and put it in Long’s deduct box.
Copes continued producing deductbox.com after he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2000, but gave it up a couple of years later because he decided to devote his remaining strength to fighting the disease and being a father to his young son.
That battle ended at the Destin, Fla., this morning, with his wife, Diane Hollenshead Copes, an assistant U.S. Attorney in New Orleans, and son Jack, 8, by his side. Close friends Bill Windham of Shreveport and David Jones of Bossier City were also at the Florida home where the Copes family had gone to vacation for a couple of weeks.
"He was a great writer, a great journalist, a great dad and a great husband of 22 years," Diane Hollenshead Copes said.
His survivors include his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John C. Copes III of Baton Rouge, three sisters and six nieces and nephews.
Copes was a Louisiana Tech graduate and native of Baton Rouge, but had been living in Mandeville for the past decade. After college, he and Diane went to the Shreveport Journal, covering everything from cops to politics.
From 1987-89, he was the now-defunct newspapers’ Washington correspondent. He then wrote fiction and did freelance writing before founding deductbox.com.
Copes rose every morning before dawn and began assembling the top stories from all the state’s daily newspapers and television stations, listing links to each with witty commentary on both the subject — and sometimes the writer.
"You could look at the deductbox and see all the events that were going on all over the state in a short period of time," said Ed Renwick, president of the Loyola Institute of Politics. "I looked at it every day."
New Orleans magazine editor and publisher Errol Laborde noted that deductbox.com became extremely popular during the 2000 trial of former Gov. Edwin Edwards.
"His daily coverage of the trial was not to be missed," Laborde said. "He had a great sense of humor that could be wicked. I remember the day after Edwards was convicted that his Web site opened with the lyrics of ‘Jailhouse Rock.’"
Deductbox.com introduced Louisiana "to the developing world of Web reporting and showed us its flexibility as well as its ability to chronicle articles from other publications and its freedom to say what it wanted. Almost a decade before "blog" and "Google" became part of the language, Copes was pioneering an explosive new form of communication," Laborde said.
Friend Jim Nickel, a lobbyist and former Democratic Party director, called Copes "a pioneer" in political Web sites. "John’s wit and political insight has been copied by hundreds of political bloggers but never matched. He was the first and still the best," Nickel said.
"He was determined to live long enough to know, enjoy and love his new son, and he did it," Nickel said.
Former Gov. Mike Foster was among his readers — and targets. "I didn’t always like what he said," Foster said. "But I saw the truth on the wall and knew what was coming. He started a trend that I had thought would happen sooner or later."
New Orleans lawyer Tony Gelderman, former first assistant state treasurer, said the success of deductbox.com was more than just that it was the first. "He had a keen eye for the ridiculous in the theatre of politics and he knew how to point it out with maximum impact," Gelderman said.
Conservative Web site publisher C.B. Forgotston said Cope’s combination of great intellect and keen sense of humor infused deductbox.com. "He would read a news story and find points that were hidden from those of us not blessed with his abilities. He could point out a missed point or an error with sharp wit. The deductbox.com was particularly influential on the traditional media because he came from them."
"John left a legacy on politics and government in our state by showing us how and encouraging others to take advantage of the power of the Internet to exercise our First Amendment rights," Forgotston said.
Former U.S. attorney Ray Lamonica, now an LSU law professor and the university’s general counsel, said Copes’ Web site provided a central location for links to news of statewide interest.
"John’s perceptive insights into and exploration of political culture and corruption in Louisiana served this state well — for which we should all be grateful. That he could do so in a popular and entertaining manner in what was then a new media format demonstrated rare capability and creativity," Lamonica said.
Copes also counseled with other cancer patients and their families.
"Even though he had his own problems, John graciously took the time to help others cope with this disease, whether he knew you well or barely at all. I will always remember his kindness and the time he gave me when I learned my daughter had breast cancer," said Shelia McCant, public information officer for the Louisiana House of Representatives.
A memorial service is being planned for next week at Christ Episcopal Church in Covington.
see also
c b forgotston Deductbox.com founder loses battle with cancer
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and also
a w griffin remembering john copes
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and also
teddy allen john copes was a moveable human feast
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babs zimmerman john carson copes iv