Louisiana Voice

It’s that time again when like some shameless televangelist or politician, I come to you with my hand out.

I need to purchase a new Lear Jet to scoot me around the state and I need a bigger mansion with a swimming pool, hot and cold running sycophants to tell me how great I am (do you know the upkeep cost of a sycophant?). Or maybe I need the money for my legal battle to overturn a legitimate election.

Seriously, it’s been some time since I’ve sought your help. Last October, I asked instead that you contribute to your local food bank. But there are costs involved in trying to keep this service going. I have car expenses, copying expenses, legal expenses, and insurance costs to pay.

Right now, I’m working on what I deem to be a really significant story about the method of jury selection that, if there is any justice left in this land, could impact dozens of incorrectly obtained convictions. Much of the material for this story has been handed me on a platter, but there is still much to be done and the work will incur time and expenses, so I really do need your help.

You may contribute by clicking on the yellow DONATE button to the right of this post to pay by credit card, or you may mail a check to: LouisianaVoice, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727.

To those contributing $100 or more, I will send a signed copy of my latest book, It’s All TheIRS. It’s a novel about an individual who is wrongly assessed a penalty by the IRS and decides to fight back. Though the book is fiction, it does expose many actual IRS abuses, so if you’ve ever encountered problems with the agency, you will identify with the book.

As always, I appreciate the support of my readers for the past 11 years.

Both the House and Senate have now voted to override Gov. Edwards’s veto of the congressional redistricting proposal put forward by the legislature and now the matter moves on to the courts – unless a compromise being secretly offered by Republicans can keep the matter from being decided by the judiciary, according to details contained in this LouisianaVoice exclusive report.

The governor believes the state should have a second minority district, but ultimately, the dispute may have little to do with the shift in black-white population in the state.

While attention has been focused on redrawing congressional districts, an obscure constitutional loophole may allow a precedent-setting redistricting plan for Louisiana that could potentially be replicated by other states to throw the alignment of the US Senate into disarray and chaos.

The US Senate has always been exempted from the necessary redrawing of lines for the House of Representatives and for legislative districts every 10 years because each state, regardless of population, is allocated two senators.

That may be about to change, thanks to behind-the-scenes efforts of the Louisiana Republican Party, led by Attorney General Jeff Landry, which is on the cusp of formally presenting its proposal for restructuring the very makeup of the Senate.

Landry claims to have unearthed a provision of the Constitution that he said allows the shifting of senatorial alignments from state to state as long as each participating state is agreeable.

Under the proposal to be presented, Louisiana would lose one senator – Bill Cassidy in this case – and Florida would gain one, Ron “Never Say Gay” DeSantis, in a one-of-a-kind swap-out that proponents contend would be allowed under a nearly-hidden clause in the US Constitution: Section 3, Subsection iv, Paragraph 6 of the 17^th Amendment.

Subsection iv of that provision, an obscure clause never before invoked, would allow the senator whose election is nearest to the time of reapportionment to remain as the state’s incumbent senator while the senator whose reelection is furthest from the date of reapportionment would have his seat eliminated.

That means that Sen. John Kennedy, who is up for reelection this year, would remain as Louisiana’s only senator while Bill Cassidy would have his seat vacated in favor of an additional Florida senate seat to be created as part of the agreement between the two states.

Meanwhile, in an agreement already reportedly reached between the two states, Florida would pick up a senator, based on its population growth over the past decade. The governor of that state would appoint the new senator and he, “No-CRT” DeSantis, has already indicated that he would appoint himself.

“I have decided not to challenge Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, but to occupy the Senate seat until 2028, when I anticipate I would be the nominee for the presidency,” said “No-Mask” DeSantis in a prepared statement.

Texas was first considered for the unusual senate seat swap, but for reasons that were not immediately clear, that state was dropped in favor of Florida, but observers believe Walt Disney World may have figured in the final decision.

In exchange for giving up one of its senate seats, Louisiana would get first option for the relocation of Walt Disney World and Universal Studios to Punkin Center in Jackson Parish or Shongaloo in Webster Parish should the company ever part ways with Florida over that state’s anti-LGBTQ policies. Either location would provide a needed boost in the north Louisiana economy.

Kennedy, when asked to comment on the proposed arrangement, said, “You can hide in a turtle shell, but sometimes you have to stick your neck out to grab a frog.”

Trump said, “He (DeSantis) knows better than to challenge me. I won in 2020 bigly. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. I was the greatest president this country ever had – better than Washington and Lincoln combined. I won by a landslide.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham released a statement saying, “I love Donald Trump to pieces.”

Sen. Ted Cruz was in Cancun, or perhaps still stranded in Montana trying to get American Airlines officials to recognize him – no one in his office seemed to actually know where he was – and unavailable for comment.

Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville was quoted as saying, “Ron DeSantis will make a fine Supreme Court justice.”

Rep. Madison Cawthon (R-N.C.) was at a cocaine-stoked orgy and unavailable for comment.

Rep. Clay Higgins said, “If anybody doesn’t like this, they can meet me anywhere, any time. I’ll let my guns do my talking. You millennial leftists who never lived one day under nuclear threat can now reflect upon your woke sky. You made quite a non-binary fuss to save the world from intercontinental ballistic tweets.”

Rep. Steve Scalise was at a KKK Family Forum meeting and unavailable for comment.

Cassidy, asked to comment on how the move might affect his Senate tenure, said, “Ralph Abraham, John Fleming, and I have been discussing opening a joint medical practice for some time. I guess the time would be right to make the move. I might even consider running for governor.”

The only opposition came from Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who said he would prefer to have a high school co-ed appointed to the new Florida senatorial seat. He said he would be happy to show her the ropes. That drew a sharp rebuke from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia who said Gaetz needed to be more dignified and project an image of Republican maturity.

The one overriding, indisputable fact that keeps surfacing in the ongoing testimony in that House committee investigating the death of Ronald Greene is this: someone is lying.

I don’t mean some innocent, “that’s not what I meant” kind of white lie or simple omission of fact; I’m talking about bald-face, through-the-teeth lies uttered by members of what is supposed to be the shining light on the hill of Louisiana law enforcement: Louisiana State Police (LSP).

The lies are so obvious that one observer suggested that perhaps the committee would have been wise to sequester the witnesses so that they would not be able to hear – and subsequently support – their co-workers’ prevarications in their own testimony.

There also can be no mistake that the wagons have been circled by LSP and that no effort will be spared to lay the blame for the death of Ronald Greene and the subsequent cover-up at the feet of the one trooper unable to defend himself and a group of LSP investigators and former investigators who attempted to do their jobs by conducting a real investigation.

Sgt. Albert Paxton, who has since resigned in disgust, testified last week that, “Any time I raised any concerns (about what happened on the night of May 10, 2019), they got mad.” He said he was told that he needed “to shut up [and] don’t talk about it anymore.”

He said he was warned by fellow investigator Det. Scott Brown of the potential fallout from the investigation. “Scott told me, ‘You know what rolls downhill …and they’re gonna want somebody to blame and they’re gonna blame us.’”

Paxton said he disagreed with former LSP Superintendent Kevin Reeves’s assessment of Greene’s death as “awful, but lawful.” He said what happened to Greene was instead “torture and murder.”

So, just who was it that told him to forget about investigating the circumstances surrounding Greene’s death? Capt. John Peters (the commander of Troop F in Monroe) told Paxton and another detective, Scott Brown, “If the investigation led to any arrests, there’d be trouble with BOI (Bureau of Investigation) and patrol,” Paxton told the committee.

He added that Peters said, “We don’t turn these videos over and we don’t tell the DA (District Attorney John Belton) about it.”

That is obstruction of justice, any way you slice it.

Paxton said he is convinced that if he’d complied with Peters’ directive, “we’d all be in jail today.”

Committee Chairman Rep. Tanner Magee (R-Houma) later returned to that issue when he asked Brown, “Did anyone ask you to conceal evidence?”

“Yessir,” Brown replied.

“Did you tell Col. Reeves?”

“Yessir.”

“Was this in a meeting that Albert Paxton referred to.”

“Who asked you to conceal evidence?” asked committee member Edmond Jordan (D-Brusly).

“John Peters,” Brown replied.

He added that when Reeves was told about investigators being asked not to provide evidence to the district attorney, “He (Reeves) was upset because his son (also a state trooper) was in the room.”

Paxton noted that Maj. Chavez Cammon and Maj. Kenny Van Buren were present during the discussion of the surfacing of the John Clary video and both were subsequently promoted to lieutenant colonel rank by current State Police Superintendent Lamar Davis.

Rep. Debbie Villio, a former prosecuting attorney, noted that she felt like the committee “finally heard from a witness today who is wholly credible.”

LSP command appears to be trying to shift blame for the entire matter onto former Trooper Chris Hollingsworth who was fired for his role and a few days later died from injuries suffered in a single-vehicle accident that some have said was a case of suicide.

The time-honored tradition of shooting the messenger is also in play as those charged with investigating Greene’s death have themselves become targets of an inter-agency investigation.

That, more than any other factor, is the reason Paxton has since retired from LSP. Responding to charges that his was simply a case of a disgruntled employee, he admitted he was bitter. “I was coming forward. I raised concerns about the incident. They went through my emails and wanted to know why I emailed my wife copies of my reports.

“She’s an attorney and an accountant. She proofs all my reports. She’s done that for 14 years. They harassed her and wanted to play word games with her. Then they wanted to pay word games with me. I’m very upset at the way my wife was treated. I’m retired now. The videos are still there. You tell the people who’re saying this about me to take the case over. Tell them to watch the videos and explain to you how they think they’re okay.”

“Don’t blame my detectives,” he said. “My detectives did what they thought they should have been doing – which they’ve done countless times. They asked for all the video.” Then, referring to LSP command, he said, “Shame on you if we can’t trust you.”

Paxton also said it appeared suspicious to him that state police cell phones were turned in during an investigation. “I wouldn’t want to do it,” he said.

Faye Morrison, formerly the general counsel for LSP, denied that she was ever advised that phones issued to her, Reeves, his one-time chief of staff Mike Noel, and Lt. Col. Doug Cain were being “sanitized.”

Reeves and Noel had retired, but Cain and Morrison are still with state police, raising questions as to why their phones would need to be erased. And Reeves claims his private cell phone was “crushed,” destroying any data it contained. C’mon, seriously?

Noel testified that he was unaware that texts on his phone might be considered evidence.

That would seem to raise immediate questions about his qualifications to serve as a state trooper. All officers have to know that cell phone data is evidence. If that does not raise questions, it certainly should raise doubts as to the veracity of his testimony.

And how could Morrison not have knowledge of the sanitization of the phones when her own phone was erased just about the time litigation was being filed over Greene’s death?

It should be noted that like Reeves, most LSP personnel used their personal cell phones for texting, which in turn raises two more questions: why is this practice allowed (see Hillary Clinton)? And why haven’t those private phone messages been subpoenaed?

A third question that has been answered to no one’s satisfaction is this: if, as Faye Morrison testified, all such data (texts, emails, etc.) are backed up on a document management and storage system such as SharePoint, why has there been no effort to retrieve said data?

And a fourth question: Where the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association figure in all of this mess?

There’s just something about this blue wall of protection that doesn’t pass the smell test.

It’s a strange feeling to look up one day and realize that you’re no longer the young, carefree guy whose main interests in life were cars, girls, and sports, that you’ve become not just your dad, but your granddad.

As many of you know by now, I was raised by my paternal grandparents. We didn’t have much, but three things that were never lacking were food, shelter, and love. Abandoned by my mother when I was 18 months old, I was rescued by these wonderful people. While because of their own limited educations, they were unable to contribute much in the way of help with homework, they were able to instill a few values that have proven to be far superior to a formal education.

I have never known a man who could work harder than my grandfather, whether it was growing vegetables which me managed to give away to friends rather than sell or the backbreaking work of concrete finishing.

If you’ve never tried your hand at concrete finishing, you cannot begin to appreciate the hard labor involved. I’ve seen my granddad construct concrete walls, driveways and other structures that still exist in Ruston. I, on the other hand, once dug out, formed up, poured and finished a simple sidewalk about 20 feet in length and I thought it was going to kill me.

He was also a pretty fair butcher. Every fall, he’d butcher hogs and make some of the best damn sausage you ever tasted. He had no license to do so and today, the health department would probably shut him down. Back then, his customers included the mayor and the chief of police.

A teetotaler, he nevertheless found it necessary to do a little bootlegging during the Great Depression in order to support his family. But if he thought a man couldn’t afford the booze and was depriving his family, he wouldn’t sell to him. Once, he was brought before a city judge in Ruston and fined $10 for his bootlegging activities. Stubborn as always, he refused to pay the fine. The judge paid the fine out of his own pocket.

He was stubborn and he bootlegged, but he also had a side that few ever saw. Once, when I was a kid, I was riding with him in downtown Ruston. He spotted a black couple pushing a child in a wheelchair across the street. He abruptly stopped, got out of his truck, walked across the street and handed the child $5 that I know he couldn’t afford. This was the fifties, after all, and five dollars wasn’t chump change. He didn’t see a black child or a white child – he saw a little girl in a wheelchair. He never said a word as he got back into the truck.

He also never said a word another time but he taught me a lesson that has stayed with me. He had purchased a candy bar for me and as we rode down the street, I tore the wrapper off, and tossed it out the window. I felt a pop on the back of my head and I saw Jesus waving me to the light. Like I said, he never uttered a word. But to this day, I will not throw so much as a gum wrapper out of my vehicle nor will I allow any passenger in my vehicle to do so.

I’ve not mentioned my dad much and there’s a reason for that which I won’t go into. But he was a pretty fair boxer, I’m told. Once, while he was still in high school, a carnival came to town. One of the attractions was a boxer and the promoters were offering $100 to anyone who could stay with him three rounds.

My dad decided it was worth a shot for $100, so he paid the fee and entered. He knocked out the carnival boxer in the first round and the promoter refused payment because he didn’t stay three rounds. My dad went home and got my granddad, a man not to be trifled with. They returned to the carnival and got the hundred bucks.

Once, during my own high school days, there was a girl whose family was even poorer than mine. She was quiet and shy and I walked into study hall as several boys were playing keep-away with her purse. As I entered the room, they assumed (incorrectly) that I wanted to play their game, so they passed the purse to me. I walked over and gave it to her. I took a lot of grief from those guys for that but my little gesture meant something to her. The school football coach, L.J. “Hoss” Garrett, called my granddad and told him about the incident. It was the only time I ever saw him cry.

He lost a leg to diabetes at age 75 and died a year later, in 1971. My dad died in 1993.

I’m 78 and when I look in the mirror today, I see an out-of-shape old man with sagging skin, gray hair, failing eyesight and hearing, no muscle tone, and no physical stamina. I am forced to sit and rest after any simple, strenuous exercise as time has robbed me of what little strength and endurance I once had.

Where my granddad worked full-bore right up until the doctors took his leg, my contribution consisted of performing paperwork such as billing for concrete work for him. I now find I have to call on my sons-in-law and my grandsons to perform tasks that I should be able to do for myself while I am reduced to pecking away at a keyboard.

I suppose it’s called the life cycle. Someday, my grandchildren will be looking at their own grandchildren in the same manner while wondering, as I do, why we are robbed of our physical and mental skills as we age.

It is now my cherished dream that they can one day look back on their relationships with me with the same affection and fond memories as I now reflect in a like manner on my relationship with my own grandfather.

I first began paying close attention to Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees with the Clarence Thomas debacle back in September 1991. Fast forward to March 2017 when I was again drawn to the soap opera of confirmation hearings for Donald Trump’s nominatee, Neil Gorsuch.

If you will remember, Mitch McConnell invoked the so-called “Biden Rule” in blocking Barack Obama’s efforts to fill the vacancy created by the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia in March 2016 because it was “too near” the 2016 presidential election.

Not quite two years later, in September 2018, there were the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings and things started to really get nasty.

Then, less than two months before the 2020 election, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and even though the vacancy created by her death was five months closer to the election date than Scalia’s death had been, McConnell nevertheless saw fit to ram Trump’s nominee Amy Coney Barrett through before she could even be fitted for her robe – perhaps because even the Sleeping Turtle could see that Trump’s reelection campaign was in deep trouble.

And now, we are again treated to the drama of confirmation hearings for yet another similar spectacle, this time Joe Biden’s nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson to succeed retiring Associate Justice Stephen Breyer.

All of which leads me to three major points:

1. Hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee serve only as a national stage on which pontificating peacocks from both parties are given the opportunity to strut and to appear sage and important while accomplishing nothing more than making complete idiots of themselves. (Did I say both parties? I meant both parties.)
2. If we vetted members of Congress as thoroughly and as savagely as we do Supreme Court justices, probably fewer than 10 percent of its 535 combined membership could qualify for their positions (and I’m being generous at 10 percent). If we vetted members of Congress as thoroughly and as savagely as we do Supreme Court Justices, then maybe – just maybe – two members of Louisiana’s eight combined House and Senate members would qualify (at 25 percent, that could be a tad on the high side).
3. Perhaps we should give serious consideration to a constitutional amendment that would allow Supreme Court justices to confirm the nominations of members of Congress. Seriously, could they do any worse?