You’ve probably heard that the Great Acadian Awakening Music Fest is coming to town Oct. 2-4. The big event will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the arrival of Acadians (later called “Cajuns”) in Louisiana. There’ll be lots of music, food, movies and other attractions.
If you’re interested in signing up to volunteer for the festival or any of its events or features, go to visitlakecharles.org/awakening/volunteer. You can find more info about the event at the same place.
This will, by the way, be a regional celebration. So if you’re at any location in central or Southwest Louisiana, you’ll be able to celebrate wherever you are. There won’t be another chance for 250 years.
On The Campaign Trail
— Aug. 31: Jindal, quoted in his daily campaign email: “When did it become politically incorrect to say immigrants should want to be Americans? You either want to become an American and be all in, or you don’t. Let’s insist on being the melting pot.”
— Sept. 1: The governor continues to hit the very hottest spots in Iowa. Since we last visited, Jindal’s been hanging at such jet set watering holes as Danny’s Sports Spot in Cherokee, the Pizza Ranch in Sheldon (a SRO appearance!), Cronk’s Restaurant in Denison and the metropolis of Holstein.
— Sept. 2: In his daily email, Jindal waxes hip — ‘80s style: “Cue Tom Petty because Gov. Jindal won’t back down after President Obama decided to sue him over his decision to defund Planned Parenthood.” Tom, don’t worry too much. It’s not exactly as if Jindal is one of the ones who’s going to have to be showing up in court.
— Sept. 4: As the Kentucky clerk of court heads to jail for refusing to issue wedding licenses to gay couples, Jindal says she would be “protected” in Louisiana. Jindal spokesman Mike Reed said the clerk would be “protected” by the “Louisiana Constitution, Louisiana’s Preservation of Religious Freedom Act, as well as our Executive Order.”
From the get-go, I suspected that this is probably not true; that Jindal is as powerless to “protect” someone from a federal judge’s jail sentence as he is to arrest the mayors in sanctuary cities or “fire the EPA.”
Turns out The Baton Rouge Advocate agreed with me. The paper quoted Douglas Laycock, who’s a professor of law at the University of Virginia, as well a “national expert on religious liberty.” I don’t know what a person has to do to get to be a national expert on religious liberty, but whatever it is, this guy’s done it.
Anyway, Laycock said Jindal was blowing smoke. “State law, including Gov. Jindal’s executive order, is no defense … It is irrelevant.”
Any time anybody who knows about the law uses the word “irrelevant,” you know that’s trouble.
So, it turns out this is something else Jindal has neither the power or authority to do. But of course, he does have the power to say he can do it. Likewise, I could say I have the power to pull the moon down out of the sky and put it in my pocket. And there was a time when I would have thought that if I’d said that, nobody would believe me.
— Sept. 7: Britain’s big newspaper The Guardian asks all 22 candidates in the U.S. presidential race to explain their policy toward the refugees of the Middle Eastern wars. Jindal is one of a handful to respond. (Clinton is one of the large number who couldn’t be bothered.)
In his response, Jindal actually wrote out 130 words — a lengthy answer. I could quote it verbatim. But that sounds a little boring. Hey, I tell you what. Since Jindal is so big on immigrants learning English, why don’t I just quote the parts of the statement in which he mangled the English language? That sounds more fun, doesn’t it? It does to me.
“We [the U.S.] are already the most compassionate and generous country in the world and it is not even close.” OK, what does “it” refer to? And what is it that “it” is “not even close” to?
“No other country provides anywhere near the amount of assistance for hurting people around the world as we do.” In this sentence, “near” requires “that,” not “as.”
I know the J-man is short on funds. But somebody on the campaign trail has just got to cough up a few ducats for an editor.
Oh, Yeah. Judges Do Have Power.
If you want to have a good idea of just how much power a judge can exercise, check out this New Orleans story (which you have already have heard a bit about).
A judge has just held the entire city government of New Orleans in contempt. Yep, yep. And he’s also stated he’s going to put Mayor Mitch Landrieu under house arrest. And this isn’t even a federal judge. This is a civil district judge (Kern Reese).
It may surprise you to learn that Landrieu is not “going Jindal” on this judge. He’s not claiming he’s going to arrest the judge or rescind his order or anything else.
Instead, Landrieu’s stated that he’s willing to spend two years in house arrest if necessary. In all fairness, let it be noted that Landrieu’s response is every bit as immature as Jindal’s claim that he can overrule federal judges. Perhaps a man can govern New Orleans from his house for two years. I have my doubts.
The judge says the city of New Orleans owes its firefighters $75 million in back pay and must make good. Landrieu says a pay-out of that amount would break the city. For what it’s worth, I’ll just interject that to me, this sounds like a picture-perfect case for mediation, and I think that’s exactly where it will end up after all the chest-beating is over.
The Budget Blues
It’s said that wise guys in Baton Rouge call the budget the Legislator passed a “six-month budget.” What these smart alecks are all saying is that they mean the budget was designed to last just long enough to get Bobby Jindal out of office — and dump subsequent financial ills squarely on the shoulders of his successors.
But these days, you don’t have to be a cynic to declare that the “six-month” budget may not make it through Jindal’s tenure. Associated Press reporter Melinda Deslatte says Louisiana has already cut $4.6 million due to faulty revenue estimates in the budget. She adds the TOPS college tuition program is $19 million under budget.
And we ain’t done yet. The Legislative Fiscal Office claims the six-month budget doesn’t account for $335 million in increased spending in the state’s health department, and particularly in Medicaid. If this huge figure is correct, the state can either find a way to get the money or cut $335 million dollars’ worth of services.
Back On Top
In recent months, the Up Fronter has been bemoaning the fact that Louisiana has not been finishing on top of the wrong lists. But this issue, I can proudly report that we’re back on top and back in business.
Recent stats show that Louisiana has placed two cities among the Top 10 list of the U.S. metro areas with the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates. They are Baton Rouge, which finished at No. 4, and New Orleans, which weighed in way up at No. 2. This is part of an overall STD rate that puts Louisiana far above the national average.
And the news just got better. The New York Times reported that Louisiana as a whole ranks No. 1 in the country in gonorrhea, No. 2 in chlamydia and No. 3 in both syphilis and HIV.
How to account for it? Well, Andrea Gallo with the Advocate thinks she came up with an explanation. Her answers — and this is going to surprise you — are “lack of education” and “lack of medical care options.”
Surprising as that answer is, what’s downright bizarre is that DeAnn Gruber, the STD/HIV program director for the state Dept. of Health, came up with a very similar explanation. She said, “we need to always continue to emphasize the importance of education and getting tested and getting into care.”
Not to worry, though. You can be sure that the state’s rejection of the expansion of Medicaid to 225,000 Louisiana adults and its fight against the funding of Planned Parenthood clinics in Baton Rouge and New Orleans will drive Louisiana’s incidence of STDs way, way down. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Baton Rouge dropped all the way to No. 5 on the nation’s HIV/AIDS list in a couple of years.
Conspiracy Theorists’ Delight
Louisiana doesn’t have nearly as many conventions for conspiracy theory buffs as places like Rosswell, N.M. But it’s hosting one soon, and it’s a big one.
“Oswald’s Summer of Secrets: New Orleans and the JFK Assassination” will focus on one of the most popular conspiracy theories of all. It revolves around the question of what Lee Harvey Oswald was doing mucking around in the middle of the N.O. intelligence community the summer before John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
The event will be held on Oct. 16-18 in the New Orleans area at the Crowne Plaza Hotel-Airport, 2829 Williams Blvd., in Kenner.
Names of speakers at the event range from the famous to the obscure. Jim Marrs, who’s possibly the best-known conspiracy theorist in the country, will be on hand. (I learned in the press release for this event that Marrs had been chief consultant for Oliver Stone when the latter made the movie JFK. When I was a kid, Marss was well-known for having written what was at the time the best-selling book on the Kennedy conspiracy theory.)
Also on the roster is Robert Groden, who was once well-known for arranging to have the Zapruder film of the assassination broadcast on national TV in 1975.
Then there’s Judyth Baker, who was a girlfriend of Oswald. She wrote a book titled Me and Lee and David Ferrie.
Another interesting figure is St. John Hunt, son of CIA agent E. Howard Hunt, who was one of President Richard Nixon’s “plumbers” and who worked with G. Gordon Liddy to plan the Watergate break-in (and did time for his efforts).
Hunt’s son alleges that his late father was involved in the JFK assassination; Hunt hinted at same, but many deem his statements as inconclusive (which wouldn’t be real shocking for a CIA agent).
I don’t know who speaker Ed Haslam is, but the name of his book, Dr. Mary’s Monkey, is certainly fascinating.
Another half dozen authors of books on Oswald or the JFK assassination will be speakers.
As you might expect, seating is limited. Register now if you want to go. Email Kris Millegan at trineday@icloud.com or David Denton at dentond@iecc.edu or go to oswaldconference.com.
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