Louisiana Voice

I know, I know, I’m supposed to be retired from this blog after almost 13 years – and I am – but I’m still writing other projects and I just wanted to let you know that I have another book out now. It’s a follow-up to Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption.

I decided to take a look at sheriffs in other states and found my suspicions confirmed: Louisiana is by no means unique. America’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption examines miscreants in sheriffs’ departments in all but three states (those three don’t have sheriffs).

I also updated the chapter on Louisiana to include the Dennis Perkins story that broke after publication of Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs.

America’s Rogue Sheriffs opens by listing the consensus list of the 10 worst sheriffs in America. Surprisingly, Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, did not make the list. Others gems plucked from America’s Rogue Sheriffs:

• One state allowed three convicted felons to not only run for sheriff, but they actually won.
• A meth addict was elected sheriff, serving only two days before he was arrested.
• A sheriff and members of a rogue Navy intelligence office in Arlington, Virginia, attempted to establish a secret military training center in west Texas.
• Sheriffs use asset seizure laws to seize property from innocent drivers who quickly find that the burden of proof is on them to prove their innocence, not for prosecutors to prove their guilt – all under the cover of law.
• Sheriffs are involved in drug and sex trafficking, embezzlement, excessive force, money laundering, extortion, racketeering, prostitution, the unauthorized use of military weaponry, and even murder.

To order your copy of this 502-page book, send a check for $40 (which includes mailing costs) to me, Tom Aswell, 107 North College Street West, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70726 or click on the yellow DONATE rectangular button to the upper right of this post to pay by credit card.

Now, for those who might miss the posts of LouisianaVoice (and face it, judging from some of your comments, whatever your motive, even those of you who hated it still read it), I wish to direct you to Bob Mann’s renewal of Something Like the Truth.

Mann, so infuriated Attorney General Jeff Landry that he tried to get Mann fired from his LSU teaching job and now that he’s poised to become governor, he will have the power to do just that. So, Mann beat him to the punch by announcing he is leaving LSU and resuming his political blog, which is certain to be a much bigger thorn in Landry’s side than had he just allowed him to continue his professorship.

Anyway, Mann has reopened for business through a paid subscription of $5 per month or $50 per year. His observations on the body politic are well-worth the investment and I highly recommend that you give him a look by going HERE and follow the “Subscribe” link.:

For samples of his thought-provoking commentary go HERE and HERE.

Read Full Post »

Obviously, lying about your job history, education and athletic prowess, theft, using campaign funds for personal expenses, including casino visits, Botox treatments and porn surfing give one unchallenged qualification to serve in the US House of Representatives.

That is, if you go by the vote of 114 members of the House who voted No on the measure to expel miscreant member George Santos.

And if you go by the votes of three of Louisiana’s six House members.

Louisiana’s six members split evenly on the vote with Garret Graves, Julia Letlow and Troy Carter voting to evict and Speaker Mike Johnson, Steve “KKK” Scalise and Clay “Law and Order but Can’t Keep a Job” Higgins voting to give the boy another chance.

Only Julia Letlow, a Trump supporter, was an unknown quantity going in but she came through with her vote in favor of the boot. Johnson, Scalise and Higgins dutifully carried the banner of the neo-fascist sentiment now so prevalent in the Republican Party by voting No in lock-step. They may as well have been holding their right arms straight out, in a palms-down salute.

They are members in good standing of the family values party but lying, cheating, thieving and porn watching are acceptable activities so long as they are “free” to dictate what is taught in schools, what you read at the local library, who can and cannot vote and what you may or may not do with your body – if you are unfortunate enough to be a Handmaid’s Tale woman.

Thankfully, the effort to rid itself of the ugly Santos growth succeeded by a 311-114 vote. It was a rare bipartisan exercise, with 206 Democrats being joined by 105 Republicans to vote to oust the New York Republican. Two Democrats voted no and two more simply voted Present while three Democrats and five Republicans did not vote.

Santos, who is facing 23 felony counts, had survived two previous attempts to show him the door but he has been an open, festering wound almost from the day he was elected when a local Long Island newspaper had the audacity to check his street creds and found him lacking in forthrightness and honesty about his background.

In other words, he lied through his teeth.

The outcome of the Friday – and final vote, as it turned out – was pretty much a given. A House Ethics Committee report was pretty much the death knell for his chances of remaining in the body which has managed to survive the likes of Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Matt Gaetz and Gym Jordan – but not Santos, if indeed, that is his real name.

The House has a pretty low bar of tolerance as evidenced by the likes of the aforementioned quartet, and Paul Gosar, Rashida Tlaib, Scott Perry, Clay Higgins, Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise and Andy Biggs, to name just a few of the more controversial members.

But Santos was just too much, even for a clown car being driven by the likes of the current House makeup. Of those named, only House lightning rod Rashida Tlaib voted for Santos’s ouster.

Read Full Post »