Louisiana Voice

For the nostalgia aficionados out there: remember when all a Republican had to do to get elected was to say he stood “four-square for Donald Trump and making America great again” or words to that effect?

Funny, but we don’t seem to hear that kind of support of the Pedo-in-Chief this election cycle.

Instead, we’re hearing candidates like Blake Miguez and Julia Letlow vow they are going to hold someone “accountable” when they get to the Beltway. Letlow’s TV ads in particular have taken on a special irony when she boasts she’s going to straighten FEMA out and ensure disaster aid for Louisiana even as Trump announces states are on their own in disaster relief.

To (again) paraphrase an earlier politician, this one Earl Long to Leander Perez, who fought civil rights until the bitter end: “Whatcha gonna do now, Leander, the feds got the A-bomb.”

“Whatcha gonna do now, Julia, Trump’s got the veto pen.”

American history is chock full of examples of political chicanery on the campaign trail but this election cycle has become one of the ugliest campaigns in history with no level too low to stoop for desperate candidates on the low rungs of polling data.

In the past, political tricks were little more than pranks like with Dick Tuck signaled to a train engineer that Richard Nixon was finished with his whistle-stop address and the train should disembark—even though Nixon in reality was barely into his speech.

Earl Long said his opponent, Sam Jones, fell into the mud with a bunch of pigs. Someone walking past, claimed Long, said, “’You can always judge someone by the company they keep,’ and the pigs got up and left.”

And then there was George Smathers when he challenged incumbent congressman Claude Pepper in the 1950 election. Without lying or slandering Pepper one time, he told a crowd that Pepper was a “shameless extrovert,” who “practiced celibacy before marriage,” practiced “nepotism” with his sister-in-law, “matriculated” with women in college, that his sister was “a thespian” and his brother “a practicing homo sapien.”

It’s not known for certain how that impacted the election, but Smathers defeated Pepper.

In the 76 years since that legendary declaration, things have taken a dramatic downward turn in terms of civility and decorum as evidenced in two political races in Texas and Ohio. What is occurring in those two states goes far beyond basic human decency. They also manage to paint the entire Republican Party with the broad brush of desperation.

In case you live under a rock, a brochure has been popping up in mailboxes in Texas which purports to be from a trans rights group—just two weeks before the Nov. 3 election for senate and governor–that just happens to have Democrats currently leading in each race.

That, folks, is not an “October surprise,” it’s an October hit-job and it has Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton’s fingerprints all over it—All. Over. It.

First of all, the leaflets which claim to be a resource guide for transgender and LGBTQ+ youth are the product of a Wyoming company named the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT) and even link to its website and features guidance on restrooms, pronouns, student clubs and legal emancipation from parents. TENT has denied any involvement, calling it a political attack meant to coincide with the beginning of early voting. The facts appear to be on TENT’s side.

That’s about as transparent as a window pane and anyone who knows anything at all about Paxton knows he’s about as straight an arrow as a barrel of chains. He’s never met an ethical violation he didn’t like and he sure as hell never met Will Rogers.

Second, the company that sent the brochures out was formed in Sheridan, Wyoming, according to The Sheridan Press, which said the address of the LLC filing is linked to nearly 300,000 limited liability companies according to a story in Wednesday’s online edition of THE CHRISTIAN POST. That alone should raise a few eyebrows.

Third, why would TENT shoot itself in the foot by sending out these mailers at this particular time, torpedoing the campaign of Democrat James Talarico who already leads in the polls?

There’s only one explanation: Paxton is desperate that he might finally have to actually find a job after the election and that desperation is forcing him to take drastic measures.

Then there is Ohio. Boy, is there Ohio.

That’s the state where Amy Acton, the Democrat, has been ambushed by Republican Vivek Ramaswamy who, at this point is more like Rama-smarmy.

Acton’s mother, whom she has had no contact with for nearly half-a-century, suddenly is qualified to speak of her daughter’s qualifications in a worse-than-disgusting TV ad–approved by Rama-smarmy, no less.

In the ad, mom calls daughter a liar but the records say otherwise. She claims her daughter is lying about having been raped at age 12 by her stepfather or that the family lived in a tent for a year. The records show beyond doubt that both are true and that mom was little more than a pedophile protector, a trait she has in common the Republican members of Congress, the Department of Justice and a majority of the Supreme Court.

Of course, it comes as no surprise to anyone that the Pedo-President has endorsed Rama-Smarmy.

Only a bottom-feeding guttersnipe would choose to launch such a personal and reprehensible attack ad two weeks before an election. Moreover, it smacks of the desperation Republicans must be feeling in the knowledge that many of them are on extremely thin ice for the sin of unquestioned loyalty to a tyrant, a demagogue, a traitor. The Republicans who have blindly supported Trump are, by extension, just as guilty as he. And that includes all but two of Louisiana’s congressional delegation, Troy Carter and Cleo Felds being the only exceptions. Not one of the remaining six (four House members and both senators) can wash the stench of Trump off themselves with a gallon of bleach.

To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, “He who sacrifices [honor] for security deserves neither.”

There are a number of truisms out there we should all be aware of and adhere to:

• Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned;
• Never get between a mama bear and her cub;
• Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed;
• A mother’s love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible;
• A fiercely protective mother channels her strength into every challenge she faces;
• When it comes to her children, a mother will move mountains and face storms;
• In the eyes of a mother lies a fire that rivals the fiercest warrior.

If you don’t believe every single one of the above statements are true, you’ve never met Katherine Ragland.

Ragland has had virtually every conceivable order of Baton Rouge Family Court thrown against her and she keeps coming back.

Why? It’s simple. Not only has she been on the receiving end of fines, court costs, exorbitant costs for purchases of court documents necessary to support her case, even jail time, but most of all, she keeps fighting because as of today (Tuesday, Oct.20), it has been 529 days since she has been allowed to see her children.

It’s not because she has a drug problem (she doesn’t) or that she has been arrested for some crime (she hasn’t) or that she has abused her children physically, psychologically or sexually (she hasn’t). It’s because family court judges have a built-in bias against certain people who come before their court simply because of which attorneys are representing whom.

This is a problem LouisianaVoice has addressed in previous posts yet nothing gets done.

Did a family court judge award full custody to an abusive father? Mom says yes, that judge refused to view photos

If you’ve never experienced EBR Family Court version of ‘justice,’ consider yourself lucky, but nonetheless beware

St. Tammany court neglects to inform father of his visitation rights even as he continued to pay child support for 11 years

Ragland knows how each of these people feel. She’s borne the brunt of a dizzying array of decisions by Baton Rouge Family Court that have kept her and her children separated.

But she hasn’t stopped fighting despite the impossible burden of fines, paying $200 per hour for court-ordered supervision and a series of vague answers from judges who refuse to examine evidence, hear testimony or consider all the facts.

But despite defeat after defeat, she has not given up.

She has most recently taken the bold step of taking her case to Gov. Jeff Landry, Attorney General Liz Murrill, advocacy organizations, the press, the state’s congressional delegation and every member of the Louisiana Legislature in the form of the following letter and illustration and court transcript excerpt and accompanying illustration:

As of October 20, 2026, I have not seen my children for 529 days. I am asking you to review the attached illustrated transcript excerpt and take action concerning the treatment of children and parents in East Baton Rouge Family Court and Family Courts throughout the state of Louisiana that I allege are maximizing Family Court litigation for extreme profit.

For more than six years, court-imposed restrictions have controlled whether I can see my children. Those restrictions were imposed based on my ex-husband’s false allegations of abuse. The alleged abuse was never reported or investigated, and no one ever interviewed my children or myself. One period without an in-person visit lasted almost three years in spite of my efforts. After limited supervised visits resumed, the supervisor’s extraordinary rate of $200 per hour became unaffordable. My requests for an affordable replacement have been followed by prolonged proceedings while my children and I remain separated.

“Just Thrown Away?” shows me repeatedly asking whether I will get to see my children if the court does not appoint another supervisor. The exchange illustrates how a request to make existing visitation possible can leave a parent without an answer while the separation continues. (September 26, 2025 transcript, pp. 48–49.)

The illustration is satire. The quoted dialogue comes from the court transcript, with page references provided. This is one example from a much larger record of proceedings, financial demands, prolonged separation, and unsuccessful efforts to obtain meaningful accountability.

I am requesting legislative oversight and enforceable safeguards, independent review of the reported misconduct, assistance securing substantive federal review of the civil-rights concerns, and investigative reporting. I ask Louisiana Family Forum and the other recipients to help bring this record before people who will act to protect children and parents.

Please acknowledge receipt and identify who will review these materials and what action your office, organization, or newsroom will take. I can provide the underlying transcripts, minutes, orders, correspondence, and complaints.

My children’s childhood is passing while this remains unresolved. Every additional day of separation is time we can never recover.

For lagniappe, let’s also thrown in this illustration from one of Ragland’s earlier hearings. In this one, the judge had other things on her mind than the administration of justice.

You won’t read this in The Hayride, but it turns out there’s quite a bit more to the story of Tommy Teepell than just his lame—and amateurishly foolhardy—effort to engage Abdul El-Sayed in a DEBATE on the candidate’s home turf earlier this month.

Social media has been rather active on the subject and now we learn that Tommy, son of political consultant Timmy Teepell and his political consulting firm which was on the payroll of one Bobby Jindal—to the tune of $250,000—to, among other things, to provide hecklers in El-Sayed rallies like some variant of Dick Tuck, the erstwhile pain in the butt Richard Nixon in his earlier campaigns.

Yep, that’s correct. Bobby Jindal, who took Louisiana to the brink of disaster by closing mental health treatment centers, escalating the costs of college tuition so as to be out of reach for many Louisianans and lavishing tax breaks on corporations and the wealthy, is back as a black-ops political operative.

Tommy’s daddy, Timmy Teepell, architect of Jindal’s successful gubernatorial campaigns and his not-so-successful 2016 eye-blinkingly brief campaign for the Republican presidential nomination (as in less than 1 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses), is list as the principal in BREAKTHROUGH LLC.

Strangely enough, Breakthrough LLC shares the same address (5800 One Perkins Place Drive, Suite 8B) as AMERICA NEXT, which just happens to be Jindal’s very own DARK MONEY PAC.

This month alone, America Next paid Breakthrough $250,000 for influencer marketing in opposition to El-Sayed.

It also paid for services recently in the Kansas governor’s race on behalf of Philip Sarnacki who lost the Republican primary to Ty Masterson. Coincidentally, Tommy Teepell was Sarnacki’s campaign’s political director.

Breakthrough also served in Josh Hawley’s campaigns in Missouri but the real eyebrow-raiser after Iman Dashti, a Republican influencer who had heckled El-Sayed at a town hall meeting, was stupid enough to post on social media that Jindal’s dark money group, America Next, was offering to pay young Republicans $200 to harass El-Sayed at events.

The results of the confrontation between young Teepell and El-Sayed at that town hall meeting earlier this month might give Jindal pause to wonder if Tommy gave him his full $200 worth before meekly exiting the event to the jeers of the pro-El-Sayed crowd.

The entire episode should serve as a gentle reminder that old Repugnantcans don’t die—and they don’t necessarily fade away. And they sure as hell aren’t above dirty tricks and underhanded tactics.

Both political parties are fully capable of misdirection and subterfuge but it is the Repugnantcans who would have us believe they are the party of purity, family values (despite more than ample evidence of sexual chicanery), and wholesomeness.