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LSU’s football season cancelled in favor of virtual football & virtual tailgating for Piyush’s new virtual flagship university

August 25, 2012 by tomaswell

The 2012 football seasons for LSU and all other Louisiana colleges and universities have been cancelled by Gov. Piyush Jindal in favor of virtual tailgating and virtual football as the natural extension of his virtual school vision.

Jindal apparently has no regard for the ripple effect his virtual school policies will have on the Louisiana economy and the havoc those policies will wreak on campuses each fall across the state.

And if Mitt Romney is elected and he enacts the same platform on a national scale, the country will revert to the Dark Ages of collegiate football.

Oh, the humanity!

How will we cope as beer-gutted, brain-addled, maniacal football fans if our favorite college, i.e. LSU, Louisiana Tech, Grambling, ULL, Southern, Northwestern, Nichols and all the rest eventually succumb to the Republican/Koch Brothers/ALEC scheme to privatize all state universities?

We have seen in an incredibly short time how Piyush has gone from charter schools to vouchers and now to virtual, online schools and with a national push to “take the state out of state colleges,” it will be only a matter of time before we have virtual, online state universities—if indeed they can still be called “state” schools.

Think about it.

The marriage between virtual colleges and fantasy football will be a match made in sports hell.

First, the drastic drop in sales of barbeque grills, motor homes, ice chests and lawn chairs will be catastrophic to those particular industries. Massive layoffs will occur in not just those industries, but in the manufacturing and sale of stadium blankets, hip flasks, band uniforms and instruments, team jerseys and caps and sports equipment, including uniforms, pads, helmets and footballs.

And how many referees, trainers, sportswriters and ticket takers, will be thrown out of work in the process?

And just how do you think all those legislators are going to react to having to settle for virtual season tickets paid for with virtual campaign funds?

Think about the draconian loss of revenue to colleges in parking fees, ticket, concession and program sales. And how much is a virtual coach worth these days? Certainly nowhere the salaries of a Les Miles of Nick Saban. Those two alone account for the entire GNP of a half-dozen zip codes, not to mention their army of assistant coaches.

And what about the recent expansion to Tiger Stadium? Where will the money to pay for that little project come from? For that matter, what will they do with all those college stadia scattered across the state?

How much does a real Mike the Tiger fetch these days when there are virtual tigers all over the internet?

How many virtual ribs can you cook on a virtual grill in your den? Where are you going to park that virtual motor home for your virtual tailgate party, in your back yard? Nice.

And are you going to go bonkers when the virtual LSU band enters a virtual Tiger Stadium? What about when the virtual Les Miles leads his virtual team onto the field with his virtual white hat and his silly, but so enjoyable virtual hand clap? Will he eat virtual grass during the virtual game?

Can’t wait for the virtual awarding of the virtual Heisman. If only we’d had virtual football a little earlier, the virtual Honey Badger would have been a virtual shoo-in for the virtual award.

And segueing into basketball, a virtual LSU team will virtually crush all opposition, including the virtual championship-caliber teams of Kentucky and Florida.

And a virtual LSU baseball team will win the virtual College World Series every year at virtual Omaha.

And let’s not stop with college. Public schools, after all, are where the trend started so let’s return to our virtual origins.

West Monroe? Hah. A virtual Ruston Bearcat team can return to its 1980s glory days by teaching those virtual Rebs a virtual lesson in virtual fantasy football. Neville? Shoot, they’d just be virtual also-rans.

John Curtis, Evangel, Haynesville and Catholic High of Baton Rouge would continue, most likely in their roles as virtual perennial champions or, in the case of Catholic High, virtual contenders (always a virtual bridesmaid but never a virtual bride).

It just doesn’t get any better. No expensive concessions, no freezing cold, driving rain, horrendous traffic jams, obnoxious drunks, no staring into the sun during a day game if you sit in the east stands—just good, virtual football.

The downside of course, is no pretty cheerleaders and drum majorettes to gawk at, no tailgate parties with endless food and drink, no camaraderie with fellow fans. In short, no fun.

But let’s not stop there. After virtual schools and virtual colleges, the natural procession will be to virtual legislatures, virtual regulatory agencies and of course, virtual health care, virtual police and fire protection and virtual sewer services and virtual garbage pickup.

That, sadly, is the virtual reality of Piyush Jindal’s virtual world: a make believe society receiving virtual services in every sector of life with no camaraderie, no interaction—only obscene profits for the virtual providers.

But that’s the disconnected world in which our virtual governor now resides.

Posted in Politics | 11 Comments »

Notable quotables (in their own words)

August 24, 2012 by tomaswell

“I was notified yesterday by Dr. William Jenkins that I will no longer lead the the LSU Health System.”

–Dr. Fred Cerise, on his firing by Gov. Piyush Jindal through his proxy, the LSU Board of Supervisors.

“That’s a decision for the board and the LSU System president. LSU’s health system needs a leader who can implement reforms that deliver services more efficiently.”

–Jindal mouthpiece Kyle Plotkin, parroting his boss in commenting on the firing of Dr. Cerise.

Posted in Governor's Office, Health Care, LSU, Notable Quotables | 4 Comments »

Piyush purge continues; head of LSU medical system is latest to be teagued for unpardonable sin of thinking for himself

August 24, 2012 by tomaswell

Add another name to the growing list of state employees teagued by Gov. Piyush Jindal.

This time it was Dr. Fred Cerise, head of the LSU health care system who was canned by this egomaniacal little man who simply cannot tolerate any subordinate who thinks or acts for himself.

It’s not as if LSU’s statewide system of hospitals and clinics which served the dual purpose of providing of healthcare for the poor and as teaching hospitals for medical students had not already been dealt crushing blows from devastating cutbacks.

And it’s not as if Jindal hasn’t gained complete control of the LSU Board of Supervisors, appointing all but one of its members and firing President John Lombardi earlier this year.

This egocentric governor must lie awake at night thinking of new ways he can consolidate absolute power in the name of all that’s good and wholesome. He must salivate when he thinks of another employee he can fire and the higher position his latest victim holds, the more titillating it must be for Piyush.

So, of course, when Cerise criticized Piyush budget cuts which gutted the LSU medical system of hundreds of millions of dollars, he had to go.

It was not a matter of whether or not he or Lombardi, or Office of Group Benefits former director Tommy Teague or anyone else was doing a good job; it was a question of blind, unquestioning subservience to sanctimonious Pope Piyush the Perfect. Fail that test, and you’re history.

Not even members of the legislature are immune to his wrath. Two crossed him and promptly were removed from their committee assignments.

Speaking of the legislature, isn’t it about time those 144 representatives and senators grew a collective spine and stood up to this Huey Long reincarnate? Wouldn’t there be some merit to being a member of a House or Senate that could truly call itself independent as opposed to simply existing to serve the whims of a power-mad, self-righteous narcissist?

It wasn’t enough that Jindal purged his administration of yet another person capable of being something more than just another pathetic, fawning sycophant in Piyush’s inner circle (with the exception of one who this week admitted that his boss was “delusional”), but he had the unmitigated gall to play the “who me?” card when asked about the firing.

True to form, Jindal did not give an interview about the latest dismissal. He rarely holds press conferences in other than tightly controlled settings and he never takes questions, preferring instead to stick to the stock prepared statement which neither takes questions nor answers them.

In just such a prepared statement, this man of action (when there is a TV camera to record his image at an oil spill or in a hurricane command center, that is) said through his imported press secretary: “That’s a decision for the board and the LSU System President. With the changing environment in healthcare today, LSU’s health system needs a leader who can implement reforms that deliver services more efficiently.”

Please, Piyush, can’t you be a little more original—and honest—than that?

Sen. Fred Mills (R-St. Martinville), a member of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, expressed concern over the firing of Cerise, who also served a stint as Secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals under former Gov. Kathleen Blanco.

“Where else in the state do you have a gentleman that’s worked in the health care system (as a physician at Earl K. Long Hospital in Baton Rouge), been secretary of the Department of Health and Hospitals, and leader in the LSU Health System?” Mills asked. “Where are you going to get a resumé to replace this type of gentleman?”

Adding to the absurdity of the entire situation is the fact that Cerise’s contract runs through 2015, so he will be kept on the payroll in another capacity.

His replacement, Dr. Frank Opelka, vice chancellor for clinical affairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, was named to replace Cerise—in the newly-created position (an increasingly familiar scenario for Jindal appointees) of executive vice president for health care and medical education redesign.

Posted in Boards, Governor's Office, Health Care, House, Senate, Layoffs, Legislature, Legislators, LSU | 16 Comments »

Layoff notices going out to OGB in anticipation of Piyush privatization putsch: eager nation awaits his GOP speech

August 24, 2012 by tomaswell

The procedure for laying off up to 121 employees of the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) has been initiated by the Jindal administration in the aftermath of the privatization of the OGB Preferred Provider Organization (PPO).

A memorandum dated Aug. 23 has been circulated to OGB employees by Steven Procopio of the Office of Human Resources in the Division of Administration setting the effective date of the staff reductions as Jan. 2, 2013.

The layoffs must be approved by the State Civil Service Board but the board on Aug. 1 approved the awarding of the contract for the PPO to Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BCBS) of Louisiana, so the consideration of the layoff proposal should be little more than a formality by the board which has demonstrated a propensity to roll over and play dead for the administration.

BCBS already is the TPA for the state’s HMO.

Positions affected by the termination notice are in Internal Audit, Administration, Quality Assurance, Fiscal, Flexible Benefits/Imaging Services, Legal and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) Compliance, Customer Service, Information Technology, Claims and Provider Services.

Employees of these offices are domiciled in the parishes of East Baton Rouge, Jefferson, Lafayette, Ouachita, Caddo, Calcasieu and Rapides.

The BCBS assumption of the third party administrator (TPA) duties for the PPO is scheduled to take effect with the beginning of the new calendar year in January.

Gov. Piyush Jindal and Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater have consistently insisted that the state should not be in the insurance business and that a private entity can administer insurance claims on behalf of state employees more cheaply and more efficiently than the state—despite OGB’s having built reserves of $500 million over the past half-dozen years.

Several independent studies have intimated that premiums are likely to increase after the first year because a private TPA will face the double whammy of the need to show a profit and the requirement to pay taxes on profits—factors the state never had to consider when it administered the claims.

Jindal, who made a point of voicing his concern and respect for state employees when he ran for governor has shown little, if any, of either sentiment since becoming governor. In fact, he has consistently attacked state employees at every turn including the orchestration of failed attempts to dismantle Civil Service and to gut the state employee retirement system—both to the detriment of state workers.

Jindal, after failing to sell state prison facilities, simply closed two of them and then announced the closure of Southeast Louisiana Hospital in Mandeville without notifying the legislative delegation in that part of the state—a delegation which until then had been fiercely loyal to him.

The closure of the Mandeville facility will adversely affect more than 500 employees and up to 170 inpatient recipients of mental health care. Moreover, with its closure, there will be no state facility offering mental health care for an entire section of the state that includes the parishes of Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, Washington, Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines and Jefferson.

Other state medical facilities and LSU teaching hospitals also are threatened by the lost of some $800 million in Medicaid funding and higher education also has taken a major hit with near catastrophic budgetary cutbacks.

Yet, as all this economic train wreck careens out of control down the tracks, Jindal continues to travel the country—initially auditioning for the vice presidential nomination on Mitt Romney’s ticket and when that failed, soldiering on as the dutiful lap dog in support of the Republic Party that has relegated him to a minor speaking role at next week’s GOP convention.

Hardly an appropriate token of appreciation, considering all he has done on behalf of his second choice for the nomination while ignoring a state falling apart back home.

The leadership vacuum experienced by Louisiana during this administration is not what one would expect to read of in Jindal’s book Leadership and Crisis, now is it?

The real of the crisis, after all, is his abysmal lack of leadership.

If, as New Orleans’ Gambit so succinctly pointed out, he truly has the job he loves, he should return to Louisiana to address the myriad of problems facing the state and in so doing, put his money (read: efforts) where only his mouth has been.

Posted in Civil Service, Governor's Office, Layoffs, OGB, Office of Group Benefits, Politicians, Prison, Privatization, Retirement, State Agencies, Transparency | 7 Comments »

Grading a ‘delusional’ governor: can we get a charter/virtual governor for ‘D’ or ‘F’ grade? How about a governor voucher?

August 23, 2012 by tomaswell

BATON ROUGE (CNS)—From Shreveport to New Orleans, from Amite to Alexandria, they’re beginning to catch on to the smoke and mirrors act of snake oil salesman Piyush Jindal, masquerading as governor of Louisiana and wannabe shining star—but now a fading star—of the national Republican Party.

And the picture isn’t a pretty one, at least from Piyush’s perspective—if, that is, he is even aware of the growing tide of resentment over his failed programs. Those failures run the gamut: from the $250 million wash-away berms in the Gulf of Mexico to the rejection of more than $800 million in federal grants for broadband internet, early childhood development and a high-speed rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans to nightmarish cuts to higher education, state hospitals and Medicaid.

The question of his understanding of the depth and breadth of the problems is a matter of open speculation. One of his handlers recently described Jindal as “delusional.”

Definitions of the term vary somewhat in their wording but all say essentially the same thing:

• “A fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact;”

• “A false personal belief that is not subject to reason or contradictory evidence…”

• “A false belief or opinion;”

• “A false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence…”

If Jindal doesn’t see and appreciate the looming consequences of his programs, i.e. school vouchers, budget cutbacks, privatization, hospital closures, then at least the readers of the Shreveport Times appear to understand and to come to grips with the dilemma of a disconnected governor.

A poll of Times readers this week asked one simple question: “How would you grade Jindal’s performance as governor?”

The term “grade” is significant here when one considers Jindal’s own penchant for “grading” Louisiana’s public schools in an apparent effort to categorize as many as possible as “D” and “F” schools to clear the way for new, mostly for-profit charter and online virtual schools and for his ill-conceived voucher/scholarship program, all of which rip money from local public school districts, leaving them in a deeper fiscal chasm than before.

The results of that poll late Friday afternoon showed, out of 866 votes cast, 593 (68.5 percent gave Jindal an F. Another 138 (15.0 percent) gave him a D. So, 83.5 percent of respondents gave him either a D or and F. Only 70 (8.1 percent) gave him an A while 33 (3.8 percent said he warranted a B and 32 (3.7 percent) gave him a C.

Jindal’s grading method for schools says that any school with a C, D, or F grade is considered failing and eligible for parents to move their kids out to a voucher school. Accordingly, 87.3 of respondents say he simply doesn’t measure up.

(Of course the poll is unscientific, but it certainly is interesting to know that he was re-elected with 66 percent of the vote of 20 percent of voters who went to the polls and now 68.5 percent see him as an utter failure.

Just to make sure there was no stuffing of the ballot box, we attempted to vote twice to see if we could. We could not, so the results, though unscientific, are significant because north Louisiana, along with the Florida parishes, is considered one of the areas of the state where he is strongest.

Taking the results of that poll into account, perhaps we should consider the implementation of a “charter” or “virtual” governor or perhaps vouchers could be issued for Louisiana’s citizens to select another governor if we are unhappy with the one we have.

Of course, like school vouchers, that would not preclude one over the other.

In other words, we would still have Jindal as the public governor, but we also would have a private governor of our choosing who would be accountable to no one.

Wait. We already have that.

The Monroe News-Star also has challenged the governor and his superintendent of education John White on the matter of what is and what is not public record. That publication has filed a lawsuit over records White has claimed are part of the “deliberative process,” a term that never existed before Jindal took office.

Gambit, a New Orleans publication, recently published a column with the headline: “Jindal’s got the job he wants? Prove it, Governor.”

The article asked the not-so-rhetorical question of why, if he truly had the “best job in the world,” would he spend so much time away from Louisiana?

Pointing out as others have recently that there are plenty of problems to occupy Jindal’s attention, Gambit submitted a “Bobby-do” list of tasks for the governor to tackle now that he has been officially eliminated from Mitt Romney’s vice presidential veepstakes:

• Keep Southeast Louisiana Hospital (SLH) open. In 2009, Jindal shut down the New Orleans Adolescent Hospital (NOAH), justifying the move by pointing out that its patients could receive the care they needed at SLH in Mandeville. Gambit asked where can those patients turn to now for treatment, Mississippi? With the closure of SLH scheduled for October, an entire region of the state—the most populous region of the state, it might be pointed out—will have no public mental health hospital.

• Address the catastrophic cuts to higher education with something more than your rhetorical “do more with less” mantra.

• Put real accountability into the public school voucher program. This program, passed by Jindal and now administered by his hand-picked superintendent of education (we’ll get to him presently), is an unmitigated disaster worthy of a Three Stooges or Marx Brothers comedy.

Except that this scenario is not funny.

Which brings us to White and his traveling dog and pony show which has played to less than enthusiastic reviews thus far.

First of all, White should have the good sense not to stroll late into a meeting with a parish school board (already a hostile audience) in open shirt with sleeves rolled up, dressed, in the words of one observer, “like he was attending a corn husking party,” complete with half-unzipped pants.

Is this really the image the leader of the state’s educational system wishes to convey in a public meeting of local elected officials? Apparently so.

Kevin Crovetto, a Ponchatoula High School teacher, got in what was possibly the best zinger of the night when he said if White and his staff were judged by the same standards proposed for teachers, they would be rated “ineffective.”

The Tangipahoa Parish School Board was, predictably, equally unimpressed.

Board member Al Link said that under the new teacher evaluation system, teachers will be held accountable for the academic progress of their students while the responsibilities of the student and parents are not addressed.

The state continues to put mandates on teachers, jumping from one mandate to another, to the point that teachers are finding it impossible to do their jobs, Link said, adding that the state now is saying some teachers are not meeting expectations so now their jobs are being given to persons who are not certified.

White responded by saying that he is “not keen” on certification and that anyone who is a college graduate and who is “proficient” should be allowed to teach.

Yet florists, plumbers and auctioneers are required to be licensed in Louisiana.

And just who is in charge of determining proficiency?

When Crovetto and others questioned White about the new voucher program that allows students who qualify to attend private schools and charter schools—at the expense of public school systems, White, incredibly, responded by indicating he cared little about the financial drain on public schools so long as voucher students get an education.

Let that sink in, folks. The head of Louisiana’s public education system says he is unconcerned about the financial hardships imposed on local school systems so long as voucher students get an education—at places like:

• Delhi Charter where, until public pressure forced a change in policy, a girl even suspected of being pregnant could be forced to submit to a physical by a doctor of the school’s choosing;

• Light City Christian Academy in New Orleans where the founder of the school calls himself “Apostle” and “Prophet;”

• New Living Word School in Ruston, which does not even have books, teachers, or classroom space and where the state recently circumvented the local building inspector to issue a building permit for a construction project to expand the facility (remember Willie Stark in All the King’s Men and the collapse of the school fire escape?);

• Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake that teaches that the Loch Ness Monster is real as a means of supporting the fundamentalist theory that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. It also uses textbooks that teach that American slave owners were benevolent, kind-hearted overlords, that the Ku Klux Klan was a “reform” organization that protected women and children, that the “Trail of Tears” was responsible for the conversion of many American Indians to Christianity;

• BeauVer Christian School in DeRidder that couldn’t grasp the proper spelling of “Scholarship” on its sign advertising free vouchers.

And, let us not forget, Rep. Valarie Hodges (R-Denham Springs), who says she is all about teaching the Christian beliefs of our forefathers in charter schools and vouchers for Christian schools but was opposed to vouchers for an Islamic school in New Orleans.

All these factors are part and parcel of the administration of a governor who more and more, exhibits signs of a growing disconnect with reality.

• Delusional: a false belief based upon a misinterpretation of reality.

Posted in BESE, Broadband, Internet, Charters, Computers, Contract, Contracts, Education, Governor's Office, Politicians, Privatization, Revenue, Vouchers | 21 Comments »

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