I guess I shouldn\u2019t be publicizing another Louisiana periodical in this column. But, as we all know, the Times-Picayune has had a run of bad luck recently. It\u2019s finally gotten some good news with the positive press its new \u201cLouisiana Purchased\u201d feature has received.
\nTo make Louisiana Purchased, Times-Picayune staff compiled a database of the amounts of money donated to Louisiana politicians by 741,000 contributors. Now, I\u2019m guessing all this info could have been found somewhere on the Internet by anyone who searched hard enough. One of the ideas behind Louisiana Purchased is that with all the contribution info in a single place, it\u2019ll be easy to find out what politician got money from whom.
\nTo make your search as easy as possible, the Times-Picayune has set it up so that you don\u2019t have to know a politician\u2019s full name. A fragment of a name should do. You can also search by donor name, city and ZIP code.
\nThis means that, for example, you could type in \u201cJi\u201d and \u201c70601,\u201d and find out what contributions Gov. Bobby Jindal got from central Lake Charles. You should also be able to look up any donor who\u2019s contributed to a La. politico. Turns out Michael Bloomberg contributed to several BESE candidates.
\nNow why would that be? Politics is interesting. The theory behind Louisiana Purchased is that you can figure out things about politicians by knowing who\u2019s contributed to them. Once you\u2019ve figured something out, you can comment on Louisiana Purchased by using the hashtag #LApurchased on Twitter.
\nThe Times-Picayune benefitted by breaking some big stories in the course of undertaking this project. For one, the newspaper compiled a list of the biggest donors in Louisiana politics. The list is called the Top 400. These 400 big dogs account for a full third of all the political contributions made in the state.
\nThe newspaper also determined that people representing Alexandria construction magnate Bryan Bossier contributed $95,000 to Jindal in one day.
\nReaders can judge for themselves whether such practices are virtuous. But, as the Times-Picayune points out, the practice is not illegal. In all fairness, for politicians at the gubernatorial level (or higher), such contributions are more the rule than the exception. Now whether that\u2019s a desirable state of affairs is, again, a matter for readers to decide for themselves.
\nTo use the Louisiana Purchased database, get on The Google and search for the phrase \u201cDatabase: Search Louisiana campaign finance contributions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hollywood South<\/strong> The Louisiana Poetry News<\/strong> Promoting Punctuation<\/strong> LET\u2019S EAT GRANDMA. They Want To Do\u00a0What To The Halls?<\/strong> Adventures Of\u00a0The Defender\u00a0Of The Realm<\/strong> Tweet Of The Issue<\/strong> News Flash<\/strong> I Wrote Something Bad For\u00a0A Good Reason<\/strong> Person In The News<\/strong> I guess I shouldn\u2019t be publicizing another Louisiana periodical in this column. But, as we all know, the Times-Picayune has had a run of bad luck recently. It\u2019s finally gotten some good news with the positive press its new \u201cLouisiana Purchased\u201d feature has received. To make Louisiana Purchased, Times-Picayune staff compiled a database of the [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[38,37],"yoast_head":"\n
\nEvery time I read about Michael Caine starring in a movie, my first reaction is astonishment at the fact that he\u2019s still alive. But even though he\u2019s 80, he\u2019s not afraid of South Louisiana heat. He\u2019ll soon be participating in a film shooting in New Orleans. Since the shot won\u2019t begin until the Spring, you know it\u2019ll be hot.
\nIn fact, I learned, Caine\u2019s already been in one film shot in New Orleans \u2014 Now You See Me.
\nIn this new project, Caine will star with Samuel L. Jackson in the movie Harry and the Butler. Jackson is almost an old hand in New Orleans filmmaking, having already performed for Quentin Tarentino\u2019s Django Unchained and Spike Lee\u2019s Oldboy (the latter of which hasn\u2019t been released yet).
\nIn Harry and the Butler, Jackson will play a former master jazz musician who\u2019s fallen on hard times and become homeless. After he gets a large inheritance, he decides to hire a struggling butler to serve him. Enter Caine.
\nIt\u2019s no surprise people are calling N.O. Hollywood South. The big hit Ender\u2019s Game was shot there. Stars who will show up to work in the city in coming months include Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum (for 22 Jump Street); Will Smith (for Focus); Ryan Reynolds (for Selfless); and Bruce Willis (for The Prince).<\/p>\n
\nA recent email from a Lafayette organization invites \u201call female-identified poets to compete in the 2014 Women of the World Poetry Slam qualifier to represent the Lafayette Poetry Committee in the Women of the World Poetry Slam in\u00a0Austin, TX!\u201d
\nThe invitation ended with the sentence \u201cThank you very much for you\u2019re support.\u201d (In the email, there was no period at the end. For this column, I added one for the hell of it.)
\nAn email from the very same sender arrived the very next day. In requesting that the recipient vote for a certain person for \u201cPoet of the Year,\u201d the sender wrote, \u201cWhen you have submitted you\u2019re vote Invite you\u2019re family & friends to do the same.\u201d I\u2019ve quoted that verbatim.
\nThese word\u2019s I\u2019ve quoted sound\u2019s like those line\u2019s in one of those love song\u2019s. That tells you right they\u2019re your dealing with reel poetry hear. I wonder what kind of poem\u2019s these female-identified poet\u2019s write and what their like. I also wonder which females identified them (the poet\u2019s, I mean). Reckon what it pay\u2019s to be a gindure identifier. May be you gotta be a poet to know that. Or at least you gotta serve on the committee.<\/p>\n
\nIt must be getting close to Christmas because yours truly has started getting a catalog a day in the mail. One titled Signals promoted a T-shirt that reads:<\/p>\n
\nLET\u2019S EAT, GRANDMA.
\nCOMMAS SAVE LIVES.<\/p>\n
\nWalk through Books-A-Million or Walgreens or, I guess, just about any big store in the Lake Area, and you\u2019ll wonder how anything more could possibly be done to market Duck Dynasty accessories and knock-offs.
\nBut more is being done. For instance, there will be a Duck Dynasty Christmas CD. I\u2019m not pulling your Polaroid about this. As cynical as I am, I never saw it coming.
\nIf you want to hear the Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas CD, you can do so \u2014 and right now. I read that one edition comes with a 64-page booklet. It\u2019s impressive that some group of people managed to cover the subject in 64 pages.
\n\u201cDuck the Halls.\u201d You\u2019ve got to admit that\u2019s witty. Maybe that explains why the show\u2019s so popular. I mean, you wouldn\u2019t really expect to find wit in rural north Louisiana, would you?
\nYou think this stuff is selling? A Nov. 4 Google search for the phrase \u201cDuck the Halls\u201d returned 11,100,000 hits.
\n\u201cCamouflage and Christmas Lights\u201d \u2014 the title of a song written by somebody named Reed Robinson \u2014 probably says about all there is to say about this CD, which appeared at just the right time to allow for two full months of marketing.<\/p>\n
\nLouisiana has no monopoly on kooky, vocal eccentrics. If there\u2019s any need to be reminded of that, the case of a Tennessee lawyer who\u2019s started calling himself \u201cCaptain Justice\u201d should do the trick. It just makes the story funnier to know the attorney\u2019s name is Drew Justice.
\nTennessee assistant D.A. Tammy Rettig filed a motion in an effort to stop Justice from calling prosecutors \u201cthe government\u201d in court.
\nWrote Rettig: \u201cThe State has noticed in the past few years that it has become commonplace during trials for attorneys for defendants, and especially Mr. Justice, to refer to State\u2019s attorneys as \u2018the Government.\u2019 The State believes that such a reference is used in a derogatory way and is meant to make the State\u2019s attorney seem oppressive and to inflame the jury.\u201d
\nJustice apparently saw the whole thing as an opportunity to act out and make some funnies in the process.
\nHe wrote that, in fact, he should be called \u201cCaptain Justice,\u201d \u201cDefender of the Innocent\u201d or \u201cGuardian of the Realm.\u201d Whatever client he has should be called either \u201cMister,\u201d \u201cthe Citizen Accused\u201d or \u201cthat innocent man.\u201d And he added that instead of \u201cthe defense,\u201d the term \u201cthe Resistance\u201d should be used.
\nAs you might expect, the state\u2019s prosecutors weren\u2019t overly pleased by Justice\u2019s response. In this unintentionally humorous bit of understatement, one said, \u201cWe\u2019re a little disappointed at the response that talked about \u2018Captain Justice, Defender of the Realm.\u2019 From my perspective, it seemed a little bit \u2014 I don\u2019t know what the right word would be.\u201d
\nProsecutor, I think the word you are groping for there is \u201ccuckoo.\u201d I also think, though, that the real problem might be you are trying to think of two words, and those would be \u201cclown shoes.\u201d
\nAs I read this story, I wondered whether Justice was at all concerned about job security. (In other words, did he feel the Bar might not exactly be crazy about the Defender of the Realm thing?) But the judge ruling on the prosecution\u2019s motion won\u2019t be troubling Justice. He ruled there was nothing illegal about calling the prosecution \u201cthe government.\u201d
\nAct loopy enough in public and you will get attention. When I read this story, it had managed to make its way to the No. 2 slot in Google\u2019s National news section.<\/p>\n
\nMichelle Goldberg @michelleinbklyn15m
\nYes, if we are sadists who hate the young. RT @BrookingsEd NYT Room for Debate: Should High School Last Six Years?<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAmerican Schools Are Failing Nonconformist Kids\u201d \u2014 headline in The New Republic, Nov. 6.<\/p>\n
\nSometimes I don\u2019t have room to get an item into an edition of Up Front, but the thing is so good I just can\u2019t let it go. That was the case with a recent quotation of Director of Intelligence James Clapper reported by NBC.
\nThe intro to the story read: \u201cIntelligence chief Clapper says U.S. doesn\u2019t spy on anyone \u2018except for valid foreign intelligence purposes\u2019 and doesn\u2019t break the law.\u201d
\nThat got me thinking. Eventually, I was inspired to make a few declarations of my own. Here they are:
\nIf at any time in the past I have done any cruel or unkind or hurtful thing to any person, I have not done this thing except for a really, really, really, REALLY good reason. I mean it. Also, if at any time in the past I have done anything to any person that broke the law I promise that whatever I did did not break the law.
\nIf you have any questions, direct them to the Office of Don\u2019t Look At Me.<\/p>\n
\nIn a recent press conference, Lagniappe magazine editor Brad Goins announced that he would resign from his position at the end of the year in order to join the Rat Pack.
\n\u201cI want to go hang with Frank and Dino and Sammy,\u201d said Goins. \u201cI want to chill with hep cats like Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford. I want to drink beer on ice and smoke cigarettes. I want to wear cardigans. I want to have dinner with mobsters. I want to be interviewed by Mike Douglas and sing duets with Vicki Lawrence on TV. I want to be introduced to Angie Dickinson by a craps dealer. It\u2019s time.
\n\u201cI figure some of the Rat Packers are getting a little older now and are cutting back on the number of their performances. I think I can take up the slack and inject some energy into the scene.
\n\u201cYou can help promote my venture into Vegas by telling your friends to \u2018Fly with Go-Go!\u2019 It\u2019s best the swingin\u2019 daddyos and laddyos in Vegas hear about my arrival before it takes place. I don\u2019t want to harsh the mellow of the scene by taking it by surprise.
\n\u201cWell, I think it\u2019s going to rain. I\u2019m scramsville, Charley. Time to hit the road to dreamland.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"