27 October 2006

louisiana's blog revolution?

www.thedeadpelican.com

yesterday, chad over at the dead pelican linked to this story posted from louisiana state university the daily reveille. ryan duncan writes about how some bloggers are influencing state politics such as c b forgotston who posts legislators voting records online and also mr forgotston in our opinion provides some excellent commentary in his posts check him out at www.forgotston.com.

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.

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