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Archive for March, 2015

Gov. Bobby’s ill-fated, self-serving decision to opt out of a Medicaid expansion for Louisiana is beginning to pay off in an ever-expanding crisis in medical care for the indigent population of Louisiana—on at least two fronts.

An occasional admission of error could go far in establishing a politician’s credibility but it is downright exasperating when this governor is so blind, so stubborn, so obnoxious, so obstinate, so pig-headed, and so disconnected that he cannot bring himself to cross Grover Norquist, the American Legislative Exchange Council, or the tea party—even when his decision endangers the health and even the lives of more than a quarter of a million of his constituents.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-more-evidence-medicaid-20141027-column.html

Of course it was only a matter of time before the chickens would come home to roost but Gov. Bobby, Timmy Teepell, Kristy Nichols, et al, figured they would long gone and on their way to the White House before the fecal matter hit the oscillating air circulation device.

They were wrong and now they’re covered with the metaphoric filth of their own making with no one to blame but themselves.

The details of the latest developments are so horrific as to defy logic but tragically, they are true.

When Gov. Bobby decided to privatize the state’s charity hospital system (which, by the way, accounts for most of the state employee cuts he loves to crow about on Faux News, in his op-ed pieces, and speeches to his right-wing zealot faithful), he closed Earl K. Long Medical Center (EKL) in Baton Rouge.

That, of course, forced many low-income residents in the northern part of East Baton Rouge Parish to go to Baton Rouge General’s Mid-City medical center for emergency room treatments.

The only problem with that was Gov. Bobby had entered into a cooperative endeavor agreement with Our Lady of the Lake (OLOL) in south Baton Rouge. Consequently, OLOL was—and is—one of only two facilities in East Baton Rouge Parish receiving payments from the state. The other is Woman’s Hospital. Neither of the Baton Rouge General facilities (Mid-City and Bluebonnet), Ochsner Medical Center, nor Lane Memorial in Zachary received a dime from the state.

Because of that, Baton Rouge General recently announced that its Mid-City facility would cease operating its emergency room, effective March 31, because of the financial strain placed on it by the overflow from EKL.

When Gov. Bobby announced the cooperative endeavor agreement with OLOL in January of 2010, he was quite specific in saying the agreement to pay OLOL something on the order of $34 million ($14 million as per the agreement, plus the $24 million already appropriated for the LSU Medical Center which previously had trained its residents at EKL; some estimates put the state’s payments as high as $100 million) would “improve and expand access to health care services for the poor and enhance graduate medical education for Louisiana’s doctors, nurses and health care professionals.” (Emphasis ours.) http://dhh.louisiana.gov/index.cfm/newsroom/detail/88

Moreover, the cooperative endeavor agreement with OLOL says on pages 7 and 8:

  • WHEREAS, LSU is obligated by Louisiana law to provide free or reduced cost care to certain patients who qualify for such care;
  • WHEREAS, the State’s purpose of this initiative, which is recognized by OLOL and LSU, is to provide Medicaid recipients with integrated, coordinated care, management of chronic disease, improvement in access to preventive and diagnostic services for children and adults, improve recipient satisfaction with access to care and the care experience and provide the State with improved budget predictability;
  • WHEREAS, in the interest of advancing the State’s goal of improving integration and coordination of health care services for the low-income populations, and recognizing the opportunity presented by the integration of outpatient and community-based services provided by LSU, inpatient and outpatient services provided by OLOL, and a payment mechanism being made available by DHH (Department of Health and Hospitals) that integrates all services through a prepaid model, the State, OLOL, and LSU intend to participate as a coordinated care network within Medicaid as proposed by DHH;
  • WHEREAS, in order to successfully meet their respective purposes, OLOL, LSU, and the State intend to enter into this public/private collaborative whereby certain residency positions in the LSU GME (Graduate Medical Education) programs and patient care services will be relocated to the OLOL campus. (Emphasis ours.)

Click here to read the CEA.

But wait. Could there be a loophole in that agreement?

Apparently OLOL thinks so.

LouisianaVoice has learned that OLOL is taking the position that its only obligation under terms of the now infamous cooperative endeavor agreement is for residency training of LSU medical students. Apparently care for the indigent is off the (examination) table.

That should come as no surprise. After all, OLOL had already dug in its heels and had begun refusing to take indigent transfers from Baton Rouge General Mid-City’s emergency room if they were not already in the LSU system—and some, apparently, who were.

Woman’s also is refusing to take indigent patients.

Of course, it was also to the state’s advantage that OLOL and Woman’s not treat indigent patients or accept indigent transfers from Baton Rouge General because as long as those patients never see the inside of the OLOL emergency room or Woman’s treatment center, the state does not have to pay for their treatment (as in the decision to lower health insurance premium rates for state employees—not so much to help the employees as to lower the state’s premium share which in the long run only resulted in the depletion of Group Benefit’s $500 million reserve fund. Are we seeing a pattern here?).

All of which raises the obvious question: could all this be by design?

Obviously, no one would admit to any conspiracy.

But how could OLOL refuse indigent patients if it is the only facility in East Baton Rouge Parish receiving payments from the state for treating indigent patients?

Good question and the answer to that goes a long way in the decision by Baton Rouge General to shut down its Mid-City emergency room, leaving indigent patients with no apparent place to go for emergency treatment—in flagrant violation of clause in the agreement that says the state is obligated by Louisiana law to provide free or reduced cost care to certain patients who qualify for such care.” (Emphasis ours.)

Sometimes those WHEREASes can come back to bite you.

LouisianaVoice also has learned that Gov. Bobby’s latest round of budget cuts may have figured in the decision by Children’s Hospital in New Orleans to delay taking over operations of the state’s new billion-dollar University Medical Center New Orleans (UMCNO) from May 15 to at least August. http://www.umcno.org/about-us

Gov. Bobby’s budget cuts, necessitated mainly by his squirrely fiscal policies, leaves all of the LSU hospitals across the state woefully short of the funding needed to keep them open under the various agreements the state has entered into with private hospitals for their management. http://theadvocate.com/news/11751470-123/state-hospital-operators-say-jindal

In the case of UMCNO, built to replace the old Big Charity that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, the state is coming up $88 million short of needed funding, according to Children’s CEO Gregory Feirn.

“If the state does not restore the funding, then the state is deciding not to allow for care for the people of New Orleans, deciding not to open their state-of-the-art facility that is nearly finished and striking a crippling blow to medical education in Louisiana,” he said in a prepared written statement.

Strong words indeed, but then Gov. Bobby long ago, with his decision to opt out of the Medicaid expansion, made that decision.

Rep. Walt Leger (D-New Orleans), House Speaker Pro Tem, was especially critical of Gov. Bobby. “The budget is in such a mess,” he said. “We keep hearing from (Commissioner of Administration) Kristy Nichols that they are in negotiations to work matters out.

“We expect to operate a world-class facility that we invested a billion dollars in but now we learn that the date for Children’s Hospital to take it over has been pushed back,” he said.

State Treasurer John Kennedy, appearing on a New Orleans radio talk show, said the news concerned him. “Feirn is a very able administrator and I think they’ll be able to manage that facility better than the state could. We’ve invested and we’ve got to make that facility work. We do not have a choice,” he said. http://www.wwl.com/Garland-Is-the-University-Medical-Center-ready-to-/10773584?pid=461170

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This is the only way I have of making good on a promise.

A reader emailed us to ask for some of our bumper stickers and I replied that they were on the way.

The only problem with that is I somehow deleted his email with his address.

So, if you are the one who asked, please re-send your name and mailing address to either:

LouisianaVoice@cox.net

or:

Louisianavoice@yahoo.com

(or both).

 

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45c96527937424446fd8bf73eee361cb[1]

STILL LOTS OF TIME

THE JOB I WANT

(CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE)

As the days of his administration dwindle and the certainty of the numbers sets in, Gov. Bobby finally must come to the undeniable realization that his quest for the Republican nomination is a vanishing dream (actually, it was over long ago), he and his disciples of delusion must now turn their attention to their respective futures.

Many political observers believe Gov. Bobby may be already jockeying for a cabinet post in lieu of his non-existent chances of becoming POTUS. Others think he might hook up with some conservative think tank to continue spewing his archaic talking points.

We coaxed our mystery cartoonist to come up with an appropriate strip for this post—and we even included a couple from the cartoon archives for good measure.

Then we asked a few of our readers to offer suggestions as to what Gov. Bobby and some of his top appointees might look forward to now that their meal ticket is about all used up.

We asked them to consider the following questions:

  • What will post-term Bobby be doing? Think tank writer, Faux News commentator/host, cabinet slot, join the Duck Dynasty family, replace Rush Limbaugh, etc.
  • When he will finally admit he’s no longer considering a run for POTUS?
  • Will he resign early a la Sarah Palin?
  • What will his top appointees—Kyle Plotkin, Kristy Nichols, Stephen Moret, Timmy Teepell, Jimmy Faircloth—be doing post-Bobby?

Some of the answers we got were funny and some serious. Some were anonymous for obvious reasons. All were interesting.

Stephen Winham, former State Budget Officer, said Gov. Bobby will abandon his quest for the White House only “when his handlers finally let him come out of the delusional fantasy world in which he obviously exists—or when he is offered and accepts whatever it is he really has his eye on.”

Winham, who earlier half-jokingly said Gov. Bobby “could have aspirations to replace Pat Robertson on the 700 Club. There’s a lot of money to be made on religion and the faithful will buy into what’s being told them rather than attempt to find the truth on their own.” He said many powerful figures, including Adolph Hitler, “have used the human proclivity for escaping from personal freedom and responsibility to their advantages. Some use it to promote evil, like Hitler. Others use it to promote good, like Billy Graham uses religion.” Gov. Bobby, he said, “will use it to promote Bobby.”

Earthmother said Gov. Bobby would not concede until 2045, “when he is 75,” but she added that even then he would “still think he can be a contendah, limping around the country with a cane and dragging a huge belt buckle (and) still spouting hatred and irrelevance.”

As to the prospects that Gov. Bobby would step down before his term expires, she pointed out that “he’s already resigned as governor, performing no duties or even remaining in the state but is too greedy and craven to do the honest thing and forego his salary and perks, like living free in the governor’s mansion. So much for the fool’s gold standard of ethics.”

Earthmother suggested an appropriate vocation for post-Gov. Bobby would be slopping pigs. But she was quick to apologize for insulting pigs and went on to say he has no job skills. “I cannot think of any way he could actually earn a living,” she said. “Perhaps some conservative gazillionaire will feel sorry for his family and give him a handout as a flight attendant on one of those private jets he is so fond of.”

C.B. Forgotston believes Gov. Bobby will start a think tank in the Washington, D.C. area “funded by the out-of-state contractors he hired for hundreds of millions of dollars to accomplish zero.”

He said Gov. Bobby will probably move his family to a state in the D.C. area and after his children finish high school he will get Louisiana legislators to give them scholarships to Tulane “because the tuition costs will be too high at all the public universities in Louisiana.”

John Sachs was less charitable. “He will remain governor because he knows his crazy ideas and policies have alienated so many that he must keep his state police entourage around him. And it’s free.”

Sachs said he does not believe Gov. Bobby will land a cabinet or even a department head position “because he can’t keep his mouth shut and no president is going to stand being upstaged by a subordinate. He will probably become a pitch man for a speed reading and speaking enterprise so that his followers can read the Bible and misinterpret it in a rapid-fire manner.”

He said Gov. Bobby “has no sense of loyalty. His relationships are all, without exception, based on what someone can do for him. All human life is expendable to Bobby.”

Jeanie Rhea said she believes Gov. Bobby could keep the flame of hope alive as he plots his next move from within a command center in his D.C. fortress home—because he’s too good to live down here on the plantation—“with Mike Edmonson providing private security and black Tahoes.” She said his best bet is as the leader of a mega-church/cult of some sort while continuing to remain “on-message” and keep his coffers filled with sermons and white papers about Christian bigotry, hatred, and disdain for the poor. “And yes, even as his popularity sinks, there are still enough nuts out there to keep him in business by dropping something into the plate (Rolfe still loves him).”

Gov. Bobby’s experience with exorcising demons while a student at Brown University “would also work well with his divine leadership role,” she said. “Folks love a good spit-spraying, demon rassler.”

One writer who wishes to remain anonymous said Gov. Bobby’s “very high level of narcissism,” will keep him in the race until mathematically eliminated and then perhaps he will jockey for the vice president consolation prize. But he doesn’t see that happening because he has too much baggage to help the party. He thinks if a Republican wins the presidency, Gov. Bobby may be offered a cabinet position to appease the tea partiers. “I would not be surprised to see him refuse a cabinet position because his bully pulpit would be limited by his boss,” he said.

Our unnamed reader said he does not expect Gov. Bobby to resign because quitting would “adversely impact his image.” He did, however suggest that he might concentrate his efforts toward becoming chairman of the National Republican Party, which he would perceive “as giving him a national base of power.

“To paraphrase the character Dr. Thackery in the current Cinemax series The Knick, ‘You can’t run away and join the circus unless the circus wants you.’”

Shifting to Gov. Bobby’s supporting cast, our anonymous contributor predicted there would be a “stream of departures starting shortly after the 2015 legislature adjourns up through (Gov. Bobby’s) final days. Some will join lobbying firms,” he said. “I could easily see Kristy Nichols and LABI in bed with each other. Her political career is essentially done in Louisiana.”

He said Timmy Teepell might follow Gov. Bobby wherever he goes. “It just depends upon the direction (Gov. Bobby) takes.”

Forgotston said Teepell will teach a course at Gov. Bobby’s think tank “on the Machiavellian approach to political campaigns. It will include lessons in how to launder campaign funds and how to avoid being found in campaign disclosure statements.”

Jimmy Faircloth, Forgotston said, will “return to law school to re-take the courses about winning lawsuits.” Moret, who is pulling down $350,000 per year while pursuing his Ph.D. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, “will become a pitch man for a new baldness cure,” and Kyle Plotkin “will remain Bobby’s manservant. He will be Bobby’s driver and carry his bags when Bobby attends important meetings to explain the ‘Louisiana Miracle.’”

Another reader, who also asked that we not use his name, said he believes Plotkin “should be a Wal-Mart greeter because he’s such a charming a**hole,” and that he sees Commissioner of Administration as “Cleopatra, Queen of Denial.”

Forgotston, however, said he believes Nichols “will start a beauty shop in the Capitol basement.”

Rhea, Winham and Earthmother chose to lump all of Gov. Bobby’s top appointees into one group with Rhea calling them “Jindalspawn,” and saying they “are well suited to be pseudo-ministers of propaganda, finance, legal affairs, education, etc., as they have consistently proven that they can suck the chrome off a trailer hitch.”

“Kristy Nichols will get a job promoting another politician via distortion of reality,” Winham said. “A lot of politicians look for people with that talent and, largely unchallenged, she has used it well in this administration.”

“I don’t know enough about Plotkin to speculate other than his possession of the same talent as Ms. Nichols. Stephen Moret, the smartest person working for (the administration), will be a success no matter what he does.

“Timmy Teepell will hang on to (Gov. Bobby) as long as he is able to use his home-schooled education to make a lot of money off him. When that dries up, he will find another right-wing religious figure to support him and his family.

“Jimmy Faircloth will continue to be among the ranks of high-profile, but incompetent attorneys who somehow make it in the world because of their perceived connections, real or imagined.”

Earthmother simply said they all should get jail time “for malfeasance, fiduciary irresponsibility and general crimes against humanity and especially the citizens of Louisiana.”

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Well, there is bad news and there is worse news and thrown into the mix is an incredulous ethics ruling about lobbyists, hookers, and legislators in, of all places, North Carolina. We’ll get to that last one later but first, the bad news:

Gov. Bobby thinks he is qualified to run for President of the U.S. and continues to bob up anywhere there are Bible totin’, flag wavin’ patriotic crowds of more than three people—mainly in Iowa but more recently (as in just this past week) in Washington, D.C.

The worse news is that with each passing day, he appears as qualified as any of the other Ignoranuses (candidates who are both stupid and a–holes) seeking the Republican nomination.

The Washington Post offered up ignoranus as one of the winning entries from its annual Mensa Invitational in which readers are invited to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting or changing one letter to supply a new word and definition. Perhaps it was mere coincidence that the winners were announced around the same time as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was being held in the nation’s capital.

But perhaps not. After all, several prominent Republican wannabe candidates made their cases at the event and came away looking not so much foolish as downright scary at the prospect one of them may be chosen to lead the free world in 2016.

The CPAC event gave us the opportunity to employ a few more of the Mensa Invitational entries:

Bozone (n.)—the substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The Bozone layer showed no signs of breaking down at CPAC.

Dopeler Effect (n.)—The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly (see any Gov. Bobby speech).

Glibido (n.)—All talk and no action.

Of course there were a couple applicable to the early odds-on favorite to be Louisiana’s next governor: Osteopornosis (a degenerate disease) and Foreploy (any misrepresentation about oneself for the purpose of getting laid).

But that’s another story for another day.

Let us return to the subject at hand which is to present some of the highlights (or lowlights, as the case may be) from the CPAC and a Saturday’s Club for Growth event in Palm Beach, Florida.

Just to get him out of the way early, we’ll take our own Gov. Bobby, who once again failed to even register in the straw poll following the CPAC meeting.

Gov. Bobby stood (on a chair, no less) and told the crowd that his dad came to this country 40 years ago “in search of freedom and an opportunity,” and then he told the whopper of all whoppers when he said his father told him and his brother to “get on your knees and thank God almighty that you were blessed to be born in the greatest country in the history of the world.”

The only problem with that little story, as our mystery cartoonist accurately noted in the strip below this story, is that Jindal’s dad (and his mother) are Hindu.

Writing for The Blaze, Mike Opelka said Gov. Bobby, who was speaking Wednesday night before the CPAC event actually got underway, “had a room filled with young conservatives cheering and applauding his brief presentation.” Opelka also described Gov. Bobby as “surrounded by cheering supporters.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/02/25/bobby-jindal-fires-up-young-conservatives-in-this-200-preview-of-his-upcoming-cpac-speech/

For sheer stupidity and audacity, though, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker probably eclipses the other candidates.

It was enough that he had no clue as to whether the Dodd-Frank financial reform law should be amended or repealed, but in giving his qualifications to deal with foreign policy, he was downright astonishing.

Walker said he was equipped to deal with complicated foreign policy issues because he once had breakfast with Henry Kissinger.

http://crooksandliars.com/2015/02/walker-performs-poorly-big-money-base?utm_source=Crooks+and+Liars+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d022c9ad94-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d4904be7bc-d022c9ad94-330138269

We’re not joking. He actually said that. Well, I once caught a pass from Terry Bradshaw in a gym on a rainy day when there was no one else to throw to but that hardly makes me a threat to break Jerry Rice’s NFL pass reception records. (For the record, the pass was thrown behind me and I did make a spectacular one-handed catch that nearly dislocated my shoulder from the sheer force of Terry’s throw. Actually, the ball was thrown so hard it simply stuck to my palm and had to be peeled off.)

But if you think that comment was pretty amazing, consider what came next. Walker said he was thoroughly prepared to deal with ISIS and other radical Islamic terrorists because “If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.”

He was referring, of course, to those ever-dangerous public employee unions who protested to his successful right to work legislation. Quite a stretch there, Scotty, boy. It’s hardly a valid comparison to lump public employees in with the likes of ISIS but hey, when you’re trying to appeal to rabid, shallow thinking conservatism, anything goes, right? http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/cpac-speech-scott-walker-isis/story?id=29257020

Even The Donald was on hand to tout his pseudo-candidacy by calling for boots on the ground for an all-out war on everything Islamic.

http://crooksandliars.com/2015/02/donald-trump-my-superior-negotiating?utm_source=Crooks+and+Liars+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d022c9ad94-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d4904be7bc-d022c9ad94-330138269

Sen. Ted Cruz didn’t perform like the others at CPAC but he did send out a tweet about the recently “Net Neutrality” regulations passed by the FCC, a move interpreted by everyone but Cruz as being good for the consumer and bad news for internet providers who wanted to charge premium prices for fast broadband internet. He subsequently got his come-uppance from a barrage of comments to his tweet.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/13/1344716/-After-nonsensical-comments-on-Net-Neutrality-conservatives-rage-against-Ted-Cruz?detail=email

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky won the CPAC straw poll for the third year in a row but may have some problems surviving an earlier interview with Rachel Maddow.

Maddow attempted to interview a dodging, bobbing and weaving Rand Paul on his views about civil rights and businesses’ right to discriminate.

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/rachel-maddow-corners-rand-paul-his-e

And, as if the comedy of the absurd at CPAC was not sufficiently nonsensical, along comes Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame to pour just a bit more humiliation over the State of Louisiana.

That’s right. The guy who quit the Louisiana Tech football team because Bradshaw was going to get his starting job actually shared his vast knowledge of the world with the good folks at CPAC, telling them that hippies were responsible for 110 million Americans having sexually transmitted diseases (STD). http://deadline.com/2015/02/duck-dynasty-phil-robertson-video-cpac-speech-hippies-stds-1201383630/

“Sex, drugs and rock& roll have come back to haunt us!” he said. Just where all this fits into the scheme of things for the Republican Party is uncertain. The hippies have been gone from the scene for a few decades now and the ones I knew back in the day were peaceful kids who wanted us out of an ill-advised war that cost the lives of 58,000 Americans as well as millions of Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians—all to no discernable purpose.

And just what were Phil Robertson’s qualifications to speak of the other topics he touched upon—Nazis, Shintoists, communists, ISIS, President Obama, the EPA, the IRS, the Department of Education?

We’re glad you asked. He was on hand to accept the 2015 Andrew Breitbart Defender of the First Amendment Award, named for a conservative writer who died in 2012.

And after all that, we’ve saved the best until last.

Apparently, in North Carolina at least, consensual sexual relationships have no monetary value and thus are not reportable as gifts or “reportable expenditures made for lobbying” for purposes of the state’s lobbying law’s expenditure reporting provisions. TAR HEEL HOOKERS

In other words, politicians don’t have to report the services of a hooker provided by a lobbyist. But the downside, for lobbyists, at least, is that they cannot claim the cost of a hooker for the politician as a legitimate business expense. http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/02/27/gifts-for-politicians/

Can it possibly get any weirder?

Well, yes. The North Carolina Ethics Commission, in an opinion described as “almost romantic,” said that fostering sexual relationships with a government official does not qualify as a form of “goodwill lobbying,” which the Raleigh News & Observer described as “an indirect attempt to influence legislation or executive action, such as the building of relationships.”

So what we have here is hookers having relationships with politicians with lobbyists serving as the pimps—and the taxpayers getting screwed.

Some things never change.

(Note: an earlier version incorrectly identified The Blaze writer Mike Opelka as a member of Gov. Bobby’s staff. That Opelka is Frank Opelka who serves as an advisor to Gov. Bobby on health care policy. He is the son of Dr. Frank Opelka, who spearheaded the giveaway of the state’s charity hospital system and is not relation to the writer.)

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