First, he announced he would run against Bill Cassidy for Cassidy’s U.S. Senate seat. But then, State Sen. Blake Miguez (R-New Iberia) lowered his sights (a pun in reference to his proficiency as a marksman) and entered the crowded race to succeed 5^th District Rep. Julia Letlow who is running against Cassidy.

That’s his derogatory, as a former mayor of an area city once said to a critic at a city council meeting I was covering, even though he has been accurately described as a “carpetbagger” by an opponent in that House race because he lives far outside the 5^th District.

But his latest TV campaign ad almost made me hurl, toss my cookies, drive the porcelain bus, yawn the technicolor yawn. Puke, in other words.

Let it be made clear that I don’t have a dog in this hunt. He’s running in a Repugnantcan primary and not being Repugnantcan, I cannot vote for any of the candidates anyway. Still, there’s this TV ad…

A solemn Miguez turns to an American flag and recites the Pledge of Allegiance, proclaiming at the end that he is loyal both to the flag and is a patriotic American.

Well, who isn’t? I’m patriotic. His opponents, I’m certain, are patriotic. So what? That alone is no more a qualification to hold office than being an expert shot in a pistol competition.

But here’s the rub. He has the full endorsement of Donald Trump.

Now let’s connect the dots.

Gregory Crittendon Jr. was an officer with the D.C. police department when he arrived at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to help quell a riot, an insurrection, that occurred at the urging of one Donald Trump.

When he got to the Capitol, he was assaulted by rioters, thugs, who were there to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. They battered Crittendon with…the American flag. “I’m a police officer, I support the American flag and yet, there I was getting stuck with it,” he told The Washington Post.

And here’s the biggest insult: A bronze plaque honoring law enforcement officers who defended the seat of American democracy that day, intended to commemorate the service of Crittendon and other police officers who were beaten with flagpoles (like Samuel Mott), drenched in pepper spray (like Jesse Leasure) and beaten, yanked and bruised (like Carlton Wilhoit III), somehow managed to leave their names off. Nor was the name of Jeffrey Smith, who was beaten so badly with his own baton that he took his own life nine days after the riot, to be found on the plaque–which, by the way Repugnantcans fought successfully for years to keep if from being displayed for public viewing. Even now, it’s mounted on a basement wall, where the public is not allowed access. How’s that for honor?

And yet, Blake Miguez has the cajones to stand there all serious and full of good ol’ American pride as he recites the Pledge while accepting the endorsement of the very man who instigated the assault on the American seat of democracy, the man who told the mob to “march down to the Capitol,” the may who had the authority to call off the dogs but refused to do so for 187 minutes, choosing instead to watch the mob chant “Hang Mike Pence,” smear the Capitol walls with excrement and use the American flag as a weapon against peace officers, a man directly responsible for the six deaths that occurred during the riot or in its aftermath.

Sorry, Blake Miguez. You can’t have it both ways. You loyalty is to the flag or to Trump.

Not both.

When I wrote a few years back that Louisiana Tech University had delusions of grandeur and should not attempt to play with the big boys, I apparently was wrong.

It’s not the first time for me to miscalculate how the winds blow but as a Tech alumnus and a native of Ruston, a decidedly small city, it just didn’t seem to be within Tech’s reach to be able to compete with the Alabamas, Auburns or Floridas. Those, after all, are serious programs that pay serious money to big-time coaches to put their teams in positions to win national championships, or at least compete for titles.

Tech simply did not belong in that rarified air. Or so I thought.

But now Tech, much like big brothers Michigan, LSU and Texas A&M, among others, has become embroiled in a sticky mess of a lawsuit, this one involving conference affiliation. As usual, when the lawyers get involved, the lines get a little blurred—which makes Tech no different than any other school.

You see, Tech once was a member of the Sun Belt Conference (SBC). Then it joined the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), then Conference USA (CUSA) but now it wants to get back in the Sunbelt and that’s where it all gets a tad confusing.

Personally, I preferred it when Maxie Lambright’s Bulldogs, led by such players as Fred Dean, Terry Bradshaw, Kenny Lantrip, Denny Duron, Roger Carr and company were kicking butt in the old Southland Conference and competing for small college national titles (the 1984 playoff game with Archie “Gunslinger” Cooley’s Mississippi Valley Delta Devils, led by Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, was a classic).

But back to current events. It seems that both CUSA and the SBC are determined to have Tech as a member school for the 2026 football season. Each conference has released its respective football schedule for the coming year and (surprise!) Tech is included in both schedules.

Cue the state politicians.

This is too important to leave to the school and the two conferences to work out. So, accordingly, the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System has filed a LAWSUIT on behalf of Tech against CUSA. On March 13 (yep, Friday the 13^th), that petition was amended because on Thursday, the 12^th, CUSA, from whom Tech is seeking a divorce, released its fall schedule that included Tech and less than 18 hours later the SBC released its schedule which also includes Tech.

So, on paper, Bulldog fans appear to be in for some bonus football for the upcoming football season, what with Tech competing in two conferences simultaneously.

But in reality, that can’t happen. It’s gonna have to be an either or for Tech—obviously not both.

So, after the two conferences each claimed Tech as a member, an AMENDED PETITION was filed by the Board of Supervisors in 3^rd District Court in Ruston. But CUSA filed its own motion to move the case into federal court. That’s right: CUSA is making a federal case of it all. But the state will likely argue to move it back to state court, all of which drags the whole mess out perpetually and produces lucrative billable hours for the attorneys on both sides.

Talk about big time football…

It’s so frustrating to even see a need to refresh our memories from our high school civics classes that it almost feels trite. Yet, here we are, apparently very much in need of a not-so-gentle reminder of Thomas Jefferson’s comment about the press:

“…The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

For the purposes of this post, I will substitute press as the generic word to encompass both the print and electronic media since Jefferson obviously did not foresee the influence of TV news..

For all its warts and shortcomings, were it not for the dogged pursuit of the truth by the press, the American people might never have learned about The Pentagon Papers, Watergate, Iran-Contra, Teapot Dome, The Whiskey Ring, McCarthyism, the bombing of Cambodia by Nixon and DOZENS of former and current POLITICAL SCANDALS.

So now we have an egomaniac for president who takes regular potshots at the press and while most elected officials at one time or another will butt heads with the media, Trump has taken the vitriol to a new level with quotes and actions like:

• “I would never kill them but I do hate them, and some of them are such lying, disgusting people.”
• In January 2017, right after taking office for the first time, he accused the press of being an “enemy of the American people.”
• Praised a physical attack on a reporter by Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte.
• Presided over a Department of Justice investigation in which years’ cache of email and phone records belonging to a New York Times reporter were seized in connection with a leak investigation.
• Threatened to strengthen libel laws to make it easier to sue organizations following the release of an unflattering book.
• Threatened to sue a journalist and publisher over a book that includes critical statements about him.
• Demanded the Washington Post fire a reporter over an inaccurate tweet about the crowd size at a Trump rally.
• Encouraged a lawsuit against ABC News over a retracted report, which Trump claimed caused the stock market to fall and investors to lose money.
• On the day that Russia imposed restrictions on foreign news outlets, tweeted: “CNN International is still a major source of (Fake) news, and they represent our Nation to the WORLD very poorly. The outside world does not see the truth from them!” He then promoted a contest between CNN and other outlets, apart from Fox, to see which has “the most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted in its political coverage of your favorite President (me).”
• Said it is “frankly disturbing the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write” during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
• Continues to threaten to revoke the broadcast licenses of media companies that offer negative coverage of him.
• Had the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, call on ESPN to fire Jemele Hill for critical coverage of Trump.
• Tweeted mocking images of him body slamming a CNN reporter in a wrestling match and of his campaign running over a CNN reporter with a train.
• Oversaw a Justice Department policy review for subpoenaing media organizations in an effort to crack down on both whistleblowers and journalists.
• Pledged to a Polish leader hostile to press freedom that he would fight fake news.
• Attacked reporters during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Said that his mission to “drain the swamp” begins “with the fake news.”
• Reportedly asked then-FBI Director James Comey to arrest reporters who publish classified information.
• Renewed efforts to tighten libel laws in a discussion with his former chief of staff.
• Explored the prosecution of WikiLeaks after it published CIA and State Department materials.
• Accused the media of lying about his “very nice” conversation with the Australian prime minister but a leaked transcript of the call showed it was Trump who was lying.
• Urged someone to buy the New York Times to “run it correctly or let it fold.”
• Called members of the “Fake News & totally dishonest Media” crazed lunatics who have given up on the TRUTH!”
• Threatened to pull credentials of reporters for writing “negative” stories about him while admitting he considers negative media coverage to be “Fake”: “91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?”
• Asked for a federal investigation of “Saturday Night Live” after watching a rerun of an episode parodying him.
• Wondered why “the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs” without consequences.
• Attempted (unsuccessfully) to rescind the press credentials of CNN journalist Jim Acosta.
• Said that he is “entitled” to have “great” stories published about him in the New York Times.
• Praised Brazil’s authoritarian president for denouncing the “fake news.”
• Announced plans that he would boycott presidential debates held by “Fake News Networks.”

So, why am I dredging up old news? Because of this headline:

FCC chief threatens broadcasters as Trump criticizes coverage of Iran war

Trump on Sunday announced his support for his Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr who threatened (like Trump before him) to revoke broadcast licenses over what he (and Trump, of course) perceives as “negative” news coverage of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran. In doing so, Trump accused media organizations of being “corrupt and highly unpatriotic.”

The really sad thing about all this is that both CBS and ABC have cratered under Trump’s threats to one of the main pillars of democracy.

The high priest of Mar-A-Lardo did not specify how reporting news as it actually occurs defines if one is unpatriotic but his words more or less echo the first inkling we at LouisianaVoice had of the willingness of certain officials to try to control the press. That was when a Louisiana legislator, Rep. Ray Garofalo Jr., in 2021 said LESSONS ABOUT SLAVERY should include “the good, the bad, the ugly.” At the time he wanted to teach all the “good” that came from slavery, Garofalo was serving as chairman of the House Education Committee.

Likewise, Texas Gov. GREG ABBOTT also spearheaded a drive in that state to direct state authorities to develop statewide “standards” against “pornography” in Texas public schools. The question that was left hanging was just who’s “standards” were going to be employed for enforcement?

Carr warned on Saturday he would deny or revoke licenses if broadcasters run what the agency deems “fake news.” He said, “Broadcasters that are running hoaxes and news distortions — also known as the fake news — have a chance now to correct course before their license renewals come up,” adding, “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will lose their licenses if they do not.”

Again, who decides what the “public interest” is? I’m really not comfortable leaving that decision in the hands of a power-mad despot.

It was a headline that could only occur in Louisiana.

Two fighting roosters are ON THE LAM from the St. Landry Parish animal shelter, according to Sheriff Bobby Guidroz.

It’s not known who egged the boids on or what may have spurred them to fly the coop but sheriff’s deputies, their feathers ruffled from the whole affair, will probably comb the parish to force them to abandon their new roost. Nor was it determined whether or not there were any chicks involved as accomplices in hatching the escape plan.

The birds were among 70 fighting roosters seized in a recent raid by officials, the first such raid in the parish since cockfighting was finally outlawed in Louisiana. Early reports that a man identified only as Col. Sanders was initially involved but ultimately chickened out were denied by Guidroz.

But now, two of the roosters have been stolen from the animal shelter and no one seems to know just how the thieves managed to pull the heist off without leaving a trace. Fowl play was not immediately suspected, though it was not completely ruled out. “This is nothing to crow about,” said a disgusted Guidroz. “We’re scrambling for answers.”

That’s a bit of a reversal from the attitude taken by state officials back in the 1970s when controversy erupted over staged cockfights in St. Landry Parish.

At that time, William Guste was the cock of the walk, number one in the attorney general’s office’s pecking order, and he was charged with looking into bringing animal cruelty charges against those who held the cockfights in St. Landry.

Instead, Guste cackled that chickens weren’t animals, they were fowl, and thus did not fall under the state’s cruelty to animals statute.

And so, the sadistic “sport” went on unabated in the gret stet of Loozeraner.

Until 2008, that is, when the legislature made the practice illegal, making us the last state in the U.S. to ban the practice. Again, another legacy of which we can be so proud.

The 70 birds, seized from John Eddie Lachapelle of Opelousas, were scheduled to be euthanized but authorities are trying to ensure that Lachapelle bears the cost of housing and caring for them until the death sentences are carried out.

Naturally, everything is not as cut and dried as it might be. Earlier this year, the Parish Council took up a proposal to SEEK AN EXEMPTION to the state’s cockfighting ban, providing a beakon of hope for advocates, so to speak. The council meeting attracted a packed crowd of supporters who insisted that the practice is part of Cajun and Creole heritage, not to mention the economic development cockfighting events could bring to rural areas like Sunset, once home to a well-known cockfighting pit. The money exchanged in the betting ain’t chickenfeed, after all.

Guidroz said he was “disappointed” that parish leaders even raised the possibility of repealing the ban when cockfighting cannot be legalized at the local level.

Meanwhile, authorities are searching for any nugget of information that might lead to the whereabouts of the fugitive roosters.

Yes it is; it’s precisely what you voted for…