Louisiana Voice

It’s that time of year again and this time the need is greater than usual.

LouisianaVoice holds two fundraisers per year – in October and April. Keeping this blog going is not free, though the cost is not a deal breaker. We’ve managed to keep the lights on, even in the aftermath of the 2016 flood and last year’s Hurricane Ida.

We try to keep up with our members of Congress because the mainstream media seem to ignore the little things that we never see or hear about. When they cast votes that are detrimental to the interests of their constituents, the people of Louisiana need to know that.

That’s why we told you when John Kennedy voted to deprive military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits in Iraq critical medical benefits.

That’s why we told you about Rep. Clay Higgins’s bogus “investigation” into the “real story” of Jan. 5, 2021.

That’s why we told you about the entire Louisiana House Republican delegation voting no on the Presidential Elections Reform Act.

It’s why we explained the history of the state’s $101 million class action lawsuit over the Tangipahoa flooding – that occurred 39 years ago, a case that had grown to some $330 million with judicial interest before the reduced settlement was negotiated.

And it’s why we reported that Orleans Parish had the highest percentage of wrongful convictions in the U.S. (Jefferson Parish was fourth highest in the nation) due in large part to the concealment of exculpatory evidence by prosecutors.

Right now, LouisianaVoice is pursuing information about the selection of juries in Louisiana (and the manner in which some are exempted from jury duty) and one clerk of court has informed us that the records we seek will cost at least $1,000. Other clerks also are demanding payment for their records. At the same time, efforts to obtain what are clearly public records from the Louisiana Clerks of Court Association appear to be headed to litigation.

All that costs money, considerably more money that we normally are required to spend on public records.

Because of those added expenses, we are coming to you to ask that you continue to support our efforts financially as you have in the past. Your past support is appreciated more than you know. Now we ask that you click on the yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this post and pay by credit card or you may mail your checks to Tom Aswell, P.O. Box 922, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727.

Again, we thank you for your support.

I have consistently written here that Congress long ago lost touch with the average Americans as its decisions are heavily influenced by money – money from corporate lobbyists, many of whom are themselves former members of Congress.

The 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United decision literally opened up the gusher flow of cash into political campaigns, obliterating any chance the average citizen had to be heard in the halls of Congress.

A prime example of the death of even the pretense of representation would be the story of former U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin of the metropolis of Chackbay in Lafourche Parish.

Tauzin, first elected in 1980 as a Democrat, suddenly switched to Republican in 1995. He retired from the House at the end of his 12^th term in January 2005. Before doing so, however, he pushed through Congress as he headed for the door a provision that prohibited the federal government from importing cheaper prescription drugs from Canada and elsewhere or from negotiating the price of prescription drugs for Medicare/Medicaid patients – a gift for the pharmaceutical industry that was not removed until this year.

The very day after his retirement, he began work for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) at $2 million per year.

As I write this, a bill that was initially ballyhooed as a sweeping ban on members of Congress, their families and staff members from TRADING STOCK while Congress is in session is currently dying a quiet death and one of the most active traders shoulders most of the blame.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, insisted for a month that the House would pass the bill but now the prospects look increasingly unlikely.

It’s long been a sticking point that members of Congress have access to inside information that allows them to interpret the nuances of the stock market in advance and to act accordingly with their trading.

Take our own senior senator, Dr. Bill Cassidy, for example. His wife sold CVS Health stock while the company was being targeted in a bipartisan INVESTIGATION into surprise medical billing. Cassidy, as a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, was in a unique position to anticipate fluctuations of CVS stock.

Pelosi has drawn scrutiny for years over her husband’s TRADING ACTIVITY, much of it suspiciously timely, considering the insider information readily available to the Speaker.

The bill in question is SENATE BILL 3631 by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts). Many of the more popular bills may have up to 200 – or more – co-sponsors, because everyone wants the folks back home to know he/she was in on the legislation. Warren’s bill, however, has only five co-sponsors – three Republicans and two Democrats – which is a pretty good barometer of its chances of passage (It’s given a 2 percent chance of becoming law).

Three of the co-sponsors, Warren, Sens. Steve Daines (R-Montana) and Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia), are members of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and the Finance Committees and a fourth, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan), is a member of the Senate Finance Committee.

But here’s the kicker. Cassidy is a member of the Finance Committee and Sen. John N. Kennedy is a member of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. You’d think they would jump on board, but neither has seen fit to sign on as a co-sponsor.

There’s another bill pending before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs that will be interesting to watch.

S.B. 3990, by Sen. Jack Reed (R-Rhode Island) would ban insider trading outright by members of Congress. Kennedy is a member of that committee, so it will be interesting to track his vote on the bill.

Reed’s bill has exactly one co-sponsor, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) which, I suppose, makes it a bipartisan bill but something of a lonely one considering the yawning absence of more co-sponsors.

Here’s another interesting fact about Congress. The 25 RICHEST MEMBERS range from the $20.7 million of South Carolina Republican Ralph Norman to the eye-popping $200 million of Florida Republican Rick Scott. In between the two extremes are Pelosi at $46 million and Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah transplant Republican, at $85.3 million.

And it’s worth mentioning that the 25 richest members of Congress were almost evenly divided by party: 13 Republicans and 12 Democrats, yet another indication that our elected officials, no matter their party affiliation, no longer answer to us. They have their ear trained on those who keep the dollars flowing into campaign coffers.

I won’t speculate how Scott amassed his fortune other than to point out that he once was CEO of Columbia/HCA that came under investigation for MEDICARE FRAUD. In his 2000 deposition, Scott invoked his Fifth Amendment rights 75 times and the company eventually reached a settlement with the Justice Department of $1.7 billion.

But on reflection, it’s probably fair to ask why John Neely Kennedy needs nearly $28.3 MILLION in his campaign fund to run for re-election in Louisiana.

Why, indeed, would anyone need that much cash to run a campaign in Louisiana?

For that matter, it seems pretty obvious why Warren’s and Reed’s bills may be dead on arrival. After all, why would members of Congress want to kill their personal golden goose?

Louisiana’s entire congressional delegation – two U.S. senators and six representatives – all give lip service to supporting our military (including veterans), mental health, and law and order.

But it’s where the rubber meets the road that we learn just how solid that support really is. In other words, how do they vote when they’re called upon to put up or shut up?

Those votes are not generally publicized and lawmakers often cast their votes secure in the knowledge that the folks back home will never learn their true commitment – or lack thereof – or to whom they’re indebted on important issues.

We’ve already seen how Sen. John Neely Kennedy, aka Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie, along with all five Republican House members VOTED NO on a bill to help veterans who had been exposed to toxic burn pits in Iraq.

Kennedy, of course, reversed course and voted yes when the bill was brought up for reconsideration but his original negative vote was a disgrace in that it was part of political gamesmanship in which Louisiana’s junior senator was sending a message to Democrats who had out-maneuvered the Repugs to win passage of a bill that (gasp!) increased taxes on the wealthy.

It was Kennedy’s version of revenge sex (Lord, it makes my skin crawl to use the words Kennedy and sex in the same sentence). In other words, he was putting partisan politics ahead of helping veterans.

You think that was bad? Get a load of this crap. In his latest TV ad, Col. Kornpone declares that he “stood up to China.” Holy Trade War, Batman, he’s perfected the art (as first described by the late Earl Long) of “talking out both sides of his mouth and whistling in the middle.”

Let’s play the tape on his China claim: HR 4346, aka the CHIPS Act, was enacted to put the US on better footing in competing with China in the manufacture of computer chips.

The bill, which enjoyed the support of 13 Senate Republicans, including our own Bill Cassidy, as well as Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, and Lindsey “Little Lap Dog” Graham, easily passed the Senate by a 64-33 vote.

But guess which senator who is currently pontificating about how he “stood up to China” VOTED AGAINST THE BILL?

You got it. John Neely Kennedy. But he wasn’t alone. All five of Louisiana’s Republican House members – Steve Scalise, Garret Graves, Clay Higgins, Mike Johnson, and Julia Letlow – also voted no on the House version, which nevertheless passed in that chamber by a 243-187 vote.

Stay with me. It gets better.

On President Biden’s nomination of Arianna Freeman of Pennsylvania as a U.S. District Judge, both Kennedy and Cassidy voted no. Freeman was confirmed, despite their opposition, by a 50-47 vote.

Kennedy also opposed the nomination of Arati Prabhaker of California to be Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Prabhaker, was more easily confirmed than Freeman, by a vote of 56-40.

So, just what is it that rankles Kennedy so much over Biden’s nominees when he fell all over himself in confirming Frump’s controversial Supreme Court nominees? It couldn’t have been something like petty party politics, could it? Nah, couldn’t be.

Let’s turn our attention to Louisiana’s six House members. All but Mike Johnson of the state’s 4^th District are opposed for reelection in November.

Keep that in mind for such incumbents as Steve KKK Scalise and feet of Clay Higgins. Actually, that latter description is inaccurate. Higgins considers himself as something akin to Louisiana’s answer to John Wayne. I see him more in the mold of PAT BUTTRAM, aka Gene Autry’s sidekick in those Saturday matinee westerns and later as Mr. Haney of Green Acres.

HR 8888, to establish in the Department of Veterans Affairs an Office of Food Security:

• In favor: Democrat Troy Carter
• Opposed: Republicans Scalise, Higgins, Johnson, Letlow, and Graves
• Passed, 376-49.

Remember following each time there was a mass shooting by someone with an AR-15, the Republicans, in unison, would deny there was a gun problem, that instead, it was a mental health issue? Remember that?

Well, there was this HR 7780 voted on in the House yesterday. It was also known as the Mental Health Matters Act, and was written “to support the behavioral needs of students and youth, invest in a school-based behavioral health workforce, and ensure access to mental health and substance use disorder benefits.

It passed by the narrowest of margins, 220-205, with exactly one – repeat, ONE – Republican vote. Louisiana’s five Republican House members each voted nay while our lone Democrat voted yea. So much for concerns about mental health on the part of the Repugs.

Oh, and then there was HR 8542, the Mental Health Justice Act of 2022, to “authorize grants to states, Indian tribes, tribal organizations, urban Indian organizations, and political subdivisions thereof to hire, train, and dispatch mental health professionals to respond in lieu of law enforcement officers in emergencies involving one or more persons with mental illness or an intellectual or developmental disability.”

That bill also squeaked by with a 223-206 margin, receiving only three Republican votes, none of which were cast by Louisiana House members. In fact, Scalise didn’t vote at all. Carter, as usual, voted in favor.

Nor did Scalise vote on HR 5768, the Victim Act of 2022, introduced to “direct the attorney general to establish a grant program to establish, implement, and administer the violent incident clearance and technology investigative method” – in other words, to provide assistance in solving violent crimes. As with HR 8542, Carter voted in favor while Republicans Higgins, Johnson, Letlow, and Graves voted no. The bill nonetheless passed by a 250-178 vote.

So, where was all that Republican support for law and order and for mental health programs?

Finally, there was HR 8873, the Presidential Election Reform Act, “to reform the process for the counting of electoral votes” – in other words, to enact legislation designed to prevent a repeat of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection.

You might think this would be a no-brainer because after all, who would want a repeat of that ugly stain on American democracy? Apparently 203 Republicans would, including all five of the aforementioned Republican delegation from Louisiana. Only nine Republicans – again, none from the gret stet of Loozeaner – joined 220 Democrats in voting to strengthen the vote counting process, which passed the House by a 229-203 vote.

There you have it folks. The voting records don’t lie. The only missing element – a painfully obvious one, at that – is motive. Why would these people consistently vote en bloc other than for the sake of worshiping at the sacred altar of party unity – at the expense of their constituents?

They’ve sent us the message that their first loyalty is not to us. Perhaps it’s time we sent them a message.

In John Neely Kennedy’s latest TV ad, he proudly, if somewhat over-dramatically, boasts that he “stood up to Chia’-na,” eerily pronouncing the country’s name like another buffoon.

We’re not entirely clear on just how he stood up to the country that now owns much of our own country’s debt (north of $1 trillion) or which accounts for huge chunks of sales for companies like Apple, Intel, Boeing, Procter & Gamble, Starbucks, Nike, Abbott Laboratories, and a dozen or so more.

But those claims notwithstanding, we have yet to hear a plausible explanation from Louisiana’s junior senator of why he traveled to RUSSIA with a group of other Republican lawmakers over the July 4, 2018, holiday. Oh, he says he told Russian officials to “stop screwing with our election,” but we have only his word for that. And it remains unclear why the seven senators and one House member needed to travel there to deliver the message.

He claims that he passed more legislation than any other freshman Louisiana senator. But again, we have only his dubious word for that assertion. We do know, however that he was “among the Republican legislators who participated in the months-long, multifarious attempted coup following the 2020 presidential election,” according to GovTrack.us an online service designed to make Congress more open and accessible to Americans.

But to be fair, we did find a couple of bills that he actively pushed (others were simply amended or incorporated into other bills). He authored and passed the National Flood Insurance Program Extension Act of 2019 and the Rural Business Investment Companies Advisers Relief Act

Another that he SPONSORED called for the Department of Veterans Affairs to have physical locations for the disposal of controlled substances medications – appropriately called the DUMP Opioids Act. (It’s somehow difficult to fathom how it took an act of Congress to get the VA to provide a disposal system for opioids.)

Another simply AMENDED California into the Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003.

Leave it to a Louisiana senator to attack the nutria problem head-on.

Don’t know how he managed to avoid those controversial bills being filibustered to death.

His latest ad also tells us that he “worked my butt off” en route to being NAMED among the “top 10 most effective Senate Republicans.”

Which, we must admit, tells us all we need to know about the Republican Party as a group and John N. Kennedy as an individual.

Interesting that NEWT GINGRICH would criticize anyone for anything considering the fact that he insisted that his first wife discuss terms of their divorce and sign legal papers – while she was in the hospital recovering from surgery for uterine cancer.

It’s also puzzling why he would single anyone out for criticism after nearly being caught by his daughters getting a BJ in his car in 1984. Only a quick-thinking aide who turned the girls away prevented their seeing something they could never unsee.

One would think that after being forced to resign from Congress in 1999 following the lodging of 84 ETHICS COMPLAINTS against him and a $300,000 sanction.

But despite glaring lapses in his own moral conduct, like his attempting to seduce a friend under the guise of comforting her following the death of a family member, he has found sufficient indignation to criticize John Fetterman’s tattoos.

Tattoos.

Fetterman is the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania. He is pitted against Dr. Mehmet Oz in this November’s election.

The controversial Pennsylvania lieutenant governor has SEVERAL TATTOOS, including nine which are dates of a violent death while he was mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania. The first one, he has explained was “01.16.06.”

“That’s the date on which Christopher Williams was shot dead while delivering pizzas,” Fetterman said. “This was a man about my age at the time. He had a 12-year-old daughter. I just couldn’t get over the fact that he was never going home to her.”

But it wasn’t the nine dates that had the Grinch tied up in knots. It was Nine-Inch Nails. “Why would Pennsylvania Democratic senate candidate John Fetterman have a tattoo saying, ‘I will make you hurt’?” the former U.S. House Speaker tweeted, apparently oblivious to the 1994 song Nine Inch Nails made famous in 2002 by country singer Johnny Cash shortly before his death.

Rather than recognizing the tattoo as a tribute to Cash, Grinch absurdly TWEETED on Monday, “Is Pennsylvania Democrat Fetterman’s tattoo ‘I will make you hurt’ based on his ties to the crips (sic) gang as reported by the Free Beacon or a reference to the nine-inch nails song ‘Hurt.’ Fetterman won’t answer questions.”

My gawd, that sounds like Trump in an echo chamber.

But here’s my point of all this nonsense: Gingrich first ran for Congress in 1978 as a family values candidate (pardon my snickering at the irony).

So, I can’t help but wonder how he feels about that tattoo of Richard Nixon on Trump devotee and Jan. 6 insurrectionist Roger Stone’s back or the tattoo of Tony Perkins, president of Family Forum. Perkins’s is the basic Marine Corps insignia from his days as a U.S. Marine – we think. But hey, drawing on Gingrich’s logic, who’s to say they’re both not based on Stone’s or Perkins’s ties to some subversive gang[s]?

Preposterous? Hell yes. Unfortunately, that’s what we’ve come to expect from some creepy internet troll sitting in his parents’ basement. But damnit, Gingrich knows better and he still perpetuates such garbage. He, of all people, should never sit in judgment of anyone.