Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for September, 2017

‘American Made,’ the fictional story of Barry Seal, is only about 5% ‘based on a true story’ (if that), but mostly hype

Posted in Uncategorized on September 29, 2017| 24 Comments »

Spoiler alert:

It’s 9:30 p.m. Friday and I just returned from watching American Made, the Tom Cruise movie about Baton Rouge drug smuggler Barry Seal.

In brief: more plot holes than a meerkat colony.

If you want to catch the movie for yourself and don’t want to know in advance about the movie’s adherence to or deviation from the facts, stop here because I intend to go into more detail than you normally find in a movie review.

To cut to the chase, if you just want to be entertained, the story line is passable, if implausible. If you want historical facts, stay home and read retired FBI agent Del Hahn’s book Smuggler’s End. Hahn is the one who eventually nailed seal and yours truly edited the manuscript for his book, so I know a little about the story of Barry Seal and Del Hahn knows even more—a lot more.

After watching American Made, I now understand why they start the movie with the graphics “Based on a true story” instead of “True story.” I can state unequivocally that it’s not based on Hahn’s book.

The true parts of this movie are;

  • The main character was indeed named Barry Seal.
  • He was the youngest pilot in TWA history.
  • He did smuggle drugs.
  • He did live in Baton Rouge.
  • He was, in fact, assassinated at the Baton Rouge Salvation Army headquarters.

The rest of the “true” part is pure garbage. Some examples:

  • Seal was fired from TWA, he did not quit as the movie depicts it.
  • Seal and his family never moved to Mena, Arkansas, as they did in the movie.
  • Seal was never prosecuted by the Arkansas attorney general; he was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney in Baton Rouge.
  • It was not an Arkansas judge who sentenced Seal to 1,000 hours of community service—in Baton Rouge; it was a Baton Rouge federal judge who sentenced him to spend nights at the Baton Rouge Salvation Army headquarters. Even screenwriters should know an Arkansas state judge would not be able to cross jurisdictional lines to sentence someone to community service in another state.
  • Following his fictional arrest by DEA, Arkansas state police, ATF, and sheriff’s deputies as all four agencies conducted improbable simultaneous raids on his Mena airport (in fact, he was never arrested in Arkansas), the Arkansas attorney general was ordered by “Governor Clinton” to let him go, another absurd only-in-Hollywood scenario of a state governor ordering the FBI to stand down.
  • Seal never “owned” the Mena Airport and the adjoining several thousand acres. He only parked his planes there (I just don’t know how that was concocted by the script writers).
  • Contras were not smuggled into Mena to train at a paramilitary base to return to Nicaragua to fight the Sandinistas. No such paramilitary base ever existed at or around Mena.
  • Seal never had a brother-in-law who stole from him and was subsequently killed in a car bombing. It just didn’t happen—except in the movie. I call that filler material thrown in to lengthen the movie.
  • He was never drafted to photograph the Medellin cartel unloading drugs for the Sandinista by the CIA, the DEA, The National Security Administration, or any other federal agency; he offered himself up to Vice President George H.W. Bush’s South Florida Drug Task Force in a plea bargain to stay out of jail after his indictment for smuggling barbiturates and that plan to photograph the cartel was the end result.
  • That mission was part of the complex Iran-Contra drugs-for-arms deal hatched by Col. Oliver North. The movie barely mentions Iran-Contra and does so as a plot pitched after Seal was killed, which is chronologically skewed.
  • He was not prosecuted in Baton Rouge for his part in the Iran-Contra drugs for arms deal; he was prosecuted in Baton Rouge because he resumed smuggling drugs into Louisiana and was caught.
  • He was married to Debbie Seal, his third wife, at the time of his death, not “Lucy.”

I suppose 5 percent fact and 95 percent fiction can pass as “based on a true story” to suit the purposes of Hollywood screenwriters but I would much prefer at least a 50-50 balance before I would concede that it was, in fact, “based on a true story.”

 

Read Full Post »

LouisianaVoice fundraiser continues; help us make you mad

Posted in Uncategorized on September 29, 2017| 2 Comments »

LouisianaVoice is still conducting its fall fundraiser and we need your help to keep these stories coming.

We know you get tired of organizations coming around with their hand out. It’s enough to induce fundraiser fatigue.

And we get just as tired of begging for contributions like some down and out preacher promising a blessing if you just open up your wallet.

We can’t—and won’t—promise a blessing. Chances are, if we are able to continue doing what we’ve done for the past six-plus years, we’ll make you mad at some point. Maybe it’ll be the legislature you get mad at. Or maybe it’ll be some scam artist conning the elderly who we reveal. It could even be the plight of some small town city council member who those in power are trying to shut up by suing him. We don’t know who will be the object of your anger, but if we don’t make you mad, we’re not doing our job.

Help us do our job to make you mad!

Contribute what you feel you can by clicking on the yellow “DONATE” button to the right and contribute by credit card or mail your contribution to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, LA. 70727

As always, thank you for your support (with apologies to Bartles & Jaymes)

Read Full Post »

Is DOE guilty of bureaucratic overreach in demanding private records of childcare centers? CCAL argues yes

Posted in Education, Ethics, Public Records on September 29, 2017| 3 Comments »

What childcare facility records are state inspectors legally entitled to examine during their inspections?

That is the question that currently has the Childcare Association of Louisiana (CCAL) and the Louisiana Department of Education (LDOE) at loggerheads.

LDOE maintains it has a right under law to examine all records of childcare centers. CCAL counters that LDOE is guilty of bureaucratic overreach.

The dispute has reached such a point of contention that CCAL has asked Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry for a legal opinion on whether or not childcare centers must surrender video footage and such things as financial, personnel, tax, private emails, and medical information to state inspectors on demand.

The issue promises to be an interesting one for Landry to address.

State inspectors have invoked Louisiana R.S. 44.1 as the applicable law that gives them license to demand—and receive—all video surveillance data, as well as all other personal records of childcare centers.

The only problem is R.S. 44.1 pertains to records of public agencies and childcare centers are, well, ….private businesses. And if public agencies can drag their feet in compliance as they have done—and are continuing to do—why should a private entity not even covered by that statute be threatened with penalties for non-compliance?

One might think that representatives of LDOE, who are presumed to be mighty smart, could discern the subtle difference between public and private. Here is the wording of R.S. 44.1:

General definitions:

  1. (1) As used in this Chapter, the phrase “public body” means any branch, department, office, agency, board, commission, district, governing authority, political subdivision, or any committee, subcommittee, advisory board, or task force thereof, any other instrumentality of state, parish, or municipal government, including a public or quasi-public nonprofit corporation designated as an entity to perform a governmental or proprietary function, or an affiliate of a housing authority.

Childcare facilities wouldn’t appear to qualify as public bodies as defined by R.S. 44.1.

But that hasn’t stopped LDOE inspectors, perhaps taking their cue from the State Dental Board or the Auctioneer Licensing Board, from flexing their muscles.

Recently, inspectors with the childcare licensing division have been coming into privately-owned centers and demanding that if security camera systems are utilized, inspectors should be allowed access to view footage of recordings upon demand.

“Cameras are not a requirement in child care centers, and we feel a host of privacy issues come into play by allowing them such access.” Says Jonathan Pearce of Lafayette, president of CCAL.

“My center received a deficiency write-up in January of this year because I did not allow a specialist to view my private recordings when she asked for them. The violation was given to us because I did not allow her access to my center’s records,” Pearce said, adding that inspectors also have forced owners to disclose email correspondence from owners’ private email accounts on occasions when inspectors investigate individual complaints.

He said inspectors are using regulations contained in Bulletin 137, which says an early learning center “shall allow the Licensing Division staff access to the center, the children, and all files and records at any time during any hours of operation or any time a child is present.”

“The way that is written,” Pearce said, “I would be forced to provide a copy of my tax returns to a specialist if she demanded it.”

He said that rather than remove the deficiency he was issued, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) Academic Goals and Instructional Improvement Committee met on Aug. 15 of this year and approved amended Bulletin 137 to read “…all files, records and recordings upon request…” (emphasis added)

Pearce said that State Superintendent of Education John White told BESE members that the insertion of “and recordings upon request” was simply a clarification of the current regulation which gives LDOE authority to access digital records.

“The Child Care Association of Louisiana, said CCAL lobbyist Cindy Bishop, “strongly believes that the Louisiana Department of Education does not have the statutory authority to request recordings from video cameras installed in early learning centers. CCAL believes that this is a violation of their members’ privacy rights.  Below is the rationale for our three arguments:

  • The Department of Education should absolutely have immediate access to the center, grounds, staff members for questioning, and any records that are a requirement of the department regarding the health & safety of children. However, access to recordings such as camera systems is not a requirement of the department and those centers who choose to have them installed for the purpose of security should not be forced access of viewing if requested by a specialist. Without some type of subpoena or warrant from a commissioned agent would be an infringement of our rights.
  • The public records act applies to public bodies, agencies and entities. Licensed childcare centers are private entities, or businesses and do not fall under the purview of the Louisiana Public Records Act.
  • Secondly, because the cameras do not provide a 360-degree panoramic view of a classroom, the recordings do not show the activities in an entire classroom and thereby, can be misleading. In our view, it is negligent to judge daily functions in the classroom with such a subjective view.
  • The Childcare Association of Louisiana has been made aware of several instances where an LDOE licensing inspector cited a childcare center for lack of supervision of children based on footage from a video recording. Because there is no audio on many of our childcare centers video recordings and because the surveillance is not 360 degrees, licensed facilities who opt to install video cameras are subject to misinterpretations of their cameras’ footage.
  • If a center chooses to utilize security cameras, it is to protect the owner of the childcare center from liability. There are instances when a parent or an employee, or a former employee makes an accusatory statement about something that happened or did not happen in a childcare center. Having a camera allows the owner of an early learning center to review the video footage to ascertain the situation with greater clarity. It should not be used as a weapon against them giving the department a tool to use to place sanctions against the owner of that system.

“CCAL also feels that the wording that would allow licensing access to all records opens up an area that would force us to provide records unnecessary to the scope of practice of the licensing specialist,” Bishop said. “All records in the center could include financial records of a private business, tax documents, personal records that are on the premises of the owner’s property, and medical records protected by federal HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) laws.

“We believe that this is a privacy issue and that the recordings and records not required by LDOE for the health and safety regulations listed in Bulletin 137 are the exclusive property of the owner of the early learning center,” Bishop said.

Read Full Post »

A witch hunt and a psychic arson investigator at the Fire Marshal’s Office; it just doesn’t get any better than this

Posted in Corruption, Ethics, State Fire Marshal on September 28, 2017| 12 Comments »

The top brass at the Office of State Fire Marshal (OSFM) are doing what bureaucrats always do when they come under criticism from the media—especially when they think subordinates might be feeding information to reporters:

They initiate a witch hunt to ferret out those who might be leaking information.

But unconfirmed reports filtering out of OSFM headquarters reveal an even stranger tactic undertaken in the office’s investigation of a suspected arson in St. Tammany in which the body of Fire District 12 Chief Stephen Krentel’s wife was found with a gunshot wound to her head.

Sources tell LouisianaVoice that OSFM, with all its available arson investigators at its disposal, hired a psychic to solve the suspected arson case. We have to wonder if the psychic was certified by the National Association of Fire Investigators (NAFI) or if he/she was simply certified by OSFM and then allowed carry a weapon.

And all this time, we have been told by State Fire Marshal Butch Browning and Deputy Fire Marshal, Fire Chief, or whatever his title is, Brant Thompson that OSFM had the best-trained, most efficient investigators in the nation. So, why a psychic then?

But back to our original story.

Word relayed to LouisianaVoice is that a meeting room on the second floor of OSFM has had its windows papered over and a sign taped to the door warning unauthorized personnel to stay out while IT workers comb through employees’ state email accounts and cell phone records in an effort to find the mole.

Well, happy hunting, Thompson and Browning. Yes, you have subordinates talking to LouisianaVoice—and a hint: it’s more than one—but they’re not stupid enough to use their state cell phones or state email accounts.

Perhaps the psychic can tell you who’s talking to LouisianaVoice.

As our late friend C.B. Forgotston would say: you can’t make this stuff up.

Read Full Post »

Fall fundraiser continues: we need your support

Posted in Uncategorized on September 28, 2017| 3 Comments »

It brings me no pleasure to chronicle topics like the two stories below this post.

But if I don’t do it, there is little indication that the mainstream media will do so on a consistent basis.

Oh, when a story pops up, they’ll jump on it and then quickly move on to the next hot button issue.

LouisianaVoice covered the less than ethical approach to management at Louisiana State Police for more than three years before the MSM jumped in at the last moment to claim credit for breaking the story about the ill-advised San Diego trip that led to the resignation of LSP Superintendent Mike Edmonson.

Likewise, the MSM jumped on board when we broke the story about Superintendent of Education John White’s agreeing to provide Rupert Murdoch and his companies with sensitive information about Louisiana public school students.

But for the large part, they have ignored our stories about efforts to sell water from Toledo Bend to Texas businessmen, the raping of the a 17-year-old girl in a Union Parish jail cell more than 17 months ago—an investigation of which the attorney general’s office still hasn’t managed to conclude, the comical but unsuccessful attempt by the Jindal administration to silence those with differing opinions by firing them or reassigning legislators to other committees, the influence of campaign contributions on legislative decisions, and the list goes on.

That’s why LouisianaVoice exists: to give you a peek at the ugly underbelly of politics so that you may know what your elected officials and their appointees are really up to.

But we cannot continue to do this without your support.

That’s the only reason we hold two fundraisers per year—one in the fall and one in the spring. We have to have income to underwrite our work. It doesn’t take much, but it does take money in addition to the time we invest on research tips, some of which lead to stories and many that turn out to be dead-ends. But even the dead-end stories sometimes are resurrected when additional information becomes known.

That’s why I am asking for your financial support, no matter how large or small. Every bit helps us keep the stories coming.

Please click on the yellow “DONATE” icon at the right and give what you feel you can by credit card or by sending a check to:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

Thank you for your consideration.

Tom Aswell, publisher

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »