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Like the proverbial frog in the water, π-yush may not yet feel the heat being turned up over his blatant coup d’etat at LSU

October 4, 2012 by tomaswell

Much like the proverbial frog in the pot, the heat is being turned up on Gov. Piyush Jindal and he may not even realize it until the water starts boiling.

First, two national publications, and now a Baton Rouge blogger have taken dead aim of the political mauling of the state’s flagship university at the hands of Jindal and his hand-picked Board of Supervisors and an outfit calling itself Louisiana’s Flagship Coalition.

That blogger just happens to be none other than Robert Mann who holds the Manship Chair at the Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU and who is director of the school’s Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs. He has written several critically acclaimed political histories of the U.S. civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and American wartime dissent. His most recent book, Daisy Petals and Mushroom Clouds: LBJ, Barry Goldwater and the Ad that Changed American Politics, was named by the Washington Post as one of the best political books of 2011.

He has worked for three U.S. senators (John Breaux, Bennett Johnston and Russell Long) and a Louisiana governor (Kathleen Blanco).

That said, when Mann takes on the governor, he is not to be taken lightly.

Given the fact that Jindal is in full control of his rubber stamp LSU Board of Supervisors and equally compliant university Interim President William Jenkins, Mann’s recent blog post raised more than a few eyebrows in and around Baton Rouge.

Jindal, after all, has already teagued former President John Lombardi, health system head Dr. Fred Cerise, Interim LDU Public Hospital CEO Dr. Roxanne Townsend and LSU System General Counsel Ray Lamonica.

And that’s just at LSU. Jindal has fired subordinates and demoted legislators for the simple act of disagreeing with him or thinking independently so one has to wonder if Mann’s scathing column is enough to provoke the little dictator into firing Mann, one of the most esteemed members of the Louisiana Fourth Estate.

Just the title of his post was provocative enough: So, Gov. Bobby Jindal is running LSU. Why should we care? In the column itself, Mann said, “Jindal doesn’t care much about putting LSU on stronger financial footing and he has made no effort to explain his cuts to students or faculty. Here is the link to Mann’s post:

http://bobmannblog.com/2012/09/18/so-gov-bobby-jindal-is-running-lsu-why-should-we-care/

“What he may care about is the LSU jobs available to his friends and campaign donors. His history of favoritism in other state departments (not to mention his intolerance of dissent) is well-known. Perhaps the only reason he hasn’t yet started stuffing LSU with friends and washed-up legislators is that he only recently acquired a strong majority of the LSU Board of Supervisors.”

It should be noted that one of the board members recently appointed by Jindal is campaign contributor Lee Mallett of Iowa, who attended less than a year of college at McNeese State University in Lake Charles. So, a member of the governing board of the state’s flagship university serves sans degree. Nice.

“With Just a few years left in office, it’s time to start finding well-paying jobs for his friends and campaign contributors. Jindal’s ‘Jobs Plan for Friends’ plan, however, assumes there’s a viable accredited university still in existence,” Mann said.

Accreditation was the thrust of Mann’s column. “Losing accreditation—or being deemed non-compliant in a major category—would be very harmful or even deadly for LSU and its budget,” he said. “If it lost federal student aid, the university would not survive.”

One of the major criteria for accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is governance and administration of institutions “free of undue political influence,” Mann said.

He cited Section 3.2.4 under Governance and Administration in the SACS Principles of Accreditation which requires that “The governing board is free from undue influence from political, religious, or other external bodies and protects the institution from such (external) influence.”

“Can anyone say with a straight face that LSU is in compliance with this standard?” he asked—perhaps rhetorically and perhaps not.

Mann provided internet links to two separate publications that address the problems of governors attempting to run state universities. One of those specifically cited the present political atmosphere at LSU.

The Pew Center on the States in August published a report entitled How Governors govern Higher Ed. While that report never mentioned LSU or Jindal, it did name Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, two of Jindal’s closest allies, for their interference in the affairs of Florida A&M and Texas A&M, respectively.

The strongest indictment of Jindal, however, was contained in Lombardi’s Firing at LSU Puts Spotlight on Governor’s Reach into University Affairs, a report published by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

That report accuses Jindal staff members into trying to “strong-arm Mr. Lombardi into firing people” and further describes the governor’s office as “intent on inserting itself into the day-to-day management of the university system, often in alignment with a group called the LSU Flagship Coalition.”

In alignment with LFC? Really?

LFC describes itself as “a group of business leaders and citizens from across the state supportive of maintaining and enhancing LSU as a flagship university. The Coalition’s focus is on a top-tier research university that continues to improve its performance through admission standards, faculty research and productivity and higher retention and graduation rates. We believe LSU should be a driving force in the state’s workforce objectives, economic development strategies and innovation opportunities.”

Sounds noble enough. But let’s take a closer look at the LFC makeup.

Of its 57 members 33 combined to contribute nearly half-a-million dollars ($496,000) to Jindal political campaigns.

That’s in addition to the nine members of the LSU Board of Supervisors who chipped in another $162,000 and seven members of the University Medical Center Management Corp. Board who gave an additional $203,800. Because a couple of contributors serve on more than one of the boards, we have to be fair and say the total comes to something in excess of $800,000 (not the $861,000 at first glance) for the privilege of a handful of political cronies to run the state’s flagship university.

The desire by Jindal to have Lombardi fire Mike Gargano, chief of staff and vice president for students and academic support, Lamonica and Charles Zewe, vice president of communications and external affairs was “reinforced” by Jindal staff members during two separate meetings with Lombardi.

Jindal wanted them gone because he considered them insufficiently responsive to directives from the governor’s office. When Lombardi refused, LFC member Sean Reilly called Alvin Kimble, then a member of the LSU Board of Supervisors. “Sean called me and said we need to get rid of John Lombardi,” Kimble said.

Lombardi was fired in April of this year and Lamonica was “reassigned” last month.

While the LFC touts its agenda as aimed at turning the Baton Rouge campus into a “top tier” research university, there are those who have their doubts.
Kevin Cope, chairperson of the LSU Faculty Senate, said there has not been “a single example of work-force development that is aimed at basic research or advanced research.”

Cope said he also is concerned about apparent conflicts of interest between the LSU provost and a company run by an LFC member.

Provost John Maxwell Hamilton is a member of the board of directors of Lamar Advertising where LFC member Sean Riley is chief executive.

Hamilton has averaged $130,856 per year as his annual compensation from Lamar, including cash and stock, according to the company’s proxy statements.

Hamilton said his board membership at Lamar presents no conflict of interest.

Here are the contributions to Jindal’s campaigns by LFC members, their family members, their businesses and business associates:

• Hank Anderson: $20,000;

• Brent Bankston: $1,000;

• Boysie Bollinger: $58,850;

• David Bondy: $24,000;

• Jeff Brooks: $21,150;

• Terrell Brown: $2,000 (Brown was head of United Companies in Baton Rouge when the company went bankrupt);

• Ron Cambre: $25,000;

• Jay Campbell: $1,500;

• Jim Flores: $5,000;

• Todd Graves: $31,000;

• Lane Grigsby: $33,000;

• Frank Harrison, Jr.: $5,000;

• Brian Haymon: $1,000;

• Gary Laborde: $6,000;

• Richard Lipsey: $28,000;

• Roy O. Martin: $24,000;

• James Maurin: $11,000 (Maurin and Roger Ogden were both officers with Stirling Properties which contributed $5,000. Stirling’s contribution is included with Maurin but not Ogden.);

• Henson Moore: $6,000;

• Ron Neal: $500;

• Jake Netterville: $7,000;

• Roger Ogden: $5,000;

• Will Pecue: $34,500 ($15,000 of that from Taylor Energy, which has been leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico for more than eight years);

• Michael Polito: $38,400;

• Sean Reilly: $11,000;

• William “Billy” Rucks, IV: $17,500;

• Rob Stuart: $16,000;

• Richard Sturlese: $3,500;

• Carol Suggs: $2,300;

• Cyril Vetter: $2,500;

• Charles Weems: $5,000;

• Michael Worley: $15,000;

• Gary Young: $16,000;

• Richard Zuschlag: $17,384.

LFC Executive Board members include Bollinger, Flores, Grigsby, Haymon, Martin, Maurin, Ogden, Reilly and Young.

Those nine combined to contribute more than $166,200, or an average of $18,470 each.

Posted in Boards, Budget, Campaign Contributions, Ethics, Governor's Office, Higher Education, Legislature, Legislators, LSU, Politicians, Teague | 1 Comment »

Notable Quotables (in their own words)

October 1, 2012 by tomaswell

“I know she will continue our mission to make state government less expensive and more effective for the people of Louisiana.”

–Gov. Piyush Jindal, commenting on the appointment of Kristy Nichols as his third commissioner of administration. He left unsaid whether the “less expensive” part referred to administrative salaries paid to his top appointees. (Nah, probably not.)

Posted in Budget, Governor's Office, Notable Quotables | 2 Comments »

Musical chairs game continues in π-yush administration; we need a program to keep up with the players’ newest positions

October 1, 2012 by tomaswell

The ongoing game of musical chairs in the administration of Gov. Piyush Jindal continues with the naming of his third commissioner of administration and at least his third chief of staff in less than five years.

Yet, just like major league baseball managers, the same old retreads keep getting moved around to different teams.

Another analogy could be that appointees are trying to emulate their boss by not staying in one job long enough to learn the names of their subordinates—not that Piyush, with his glowing personality, ever really cared to.

Current Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater has been named Jindal’s chief of staff to succeed Stephen Waguespack who is returning to the private sector.

But the real bombshell was not that Deputy Chief of Staff Kristy Nichols would not be elevated to Waguespack’s position but that she would make the quantum leap to Rainwater’s job.

The commissioner of administration is the governor’s chief budget officer.

Announcement of the appointments, which become effective on Oct. 15, caught the Division of Administration flat-footed and may have some headed for the exits as soon as job interviews can be arranged.

Rainwater will be paid $204,000 per year, the same as he now makes and Nichols will get a $4,000 raise to $167,000, the amount paid Waguespack.

Nichols, like Superintendent of Education John White, appears to possess a certain personality that tends to rub people the wrong way. In White’s case, it simply appears that he is in way over his head in his job. With Nichols, it’s a habit of being both condescending and abrasive in her relationship with others, including her testimony before legislative committees.

Moreover, she was the one who attempted unsuccessfully to steer Jindal’s retirement package through the legislature this year—something state employees probably will not easily forget.

She will become the third commissioner of administration. Angelé Davis, who served as deputy commissioner under former Gov. Mike Foster, was appointed as Jindal’s first commissioner of administration before leaving two years to join Arkel International, a Baton Rouge-based company. She was succeeded by Rainwater.

Rainwater, despite frequent confrontations between LouisianaVoice and the Division of Administration (DOA), has done an admirable job of carrying the water for a governor who more often than not is consumed with either firing people, taking control of the state’s flagship university, traveling out of state or alienating state workers, teachers, legislators and the higher education community in general.

Timmy Teepell, Jindal’s first chief of staff, resigned last October and was replaced by Waguespack. No official reason was given for Waguespack’s departure other than that he was taking advantage of an opportunity in the private sector.

There is some speculation, however, that he may be named as the new general counsel to the LSU System, replacing Ray Lamonica who resigned under pressure last month.

This year alone, Jindal has fired LSU President John Lombardi, LSU Health Care System head Dr. Fred Cerise and the head of the Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs, reassigned Interim LSU Public Hospital CEO Dr. Roxanne Townsend and demoted, in addition to Lamonica, two legislators from their committee assignments.

Last month Scott Angelle, secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, resigned to run for the Public Service Commission in the midst of the crisis of the growing sinkhole at Bayou Corne and continued bubbling in Lake Peigneur, both in Assumption Parish.

It didn’t help Jindal, PR-wise, when he named former executive counsel Tim Barfield as Secretary of the Department of Revenue at a salary of $250,000, more than twice the salary of his predecessor, Cynthia Bridges, who was also fired by Jindal.

In July, Legislative Fiscal Officer H. Gordon Monk, saying the pressures of dealing with infighting among legislative factions, retired after 33 years on the job.

“It appears that the Jindal administration is beginning to implode,” said a Lafayette attorney on Monday.

Posted in Budget, Governor's Office | 8 Comments »

On the eve of the 45th anniversary of Woody Guthries’s death, we reflect on the words of the greatest folk song

September 28, 2012 by tomaswell

Half-a-century ago, in the late fifties, a wave of popular music swept across America that captured the imagination of a nation that was just beginning to morph from national innocence to prolonged skepticism and disillusionment. The catalyst of that transformation was, of course, the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The subsequent murders of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and John Lennon only fueled that growing undercurrent of national distrust and resentment that permeates our society even today.

You couldn’t dance to that music, so far removed was it from the histrionics of Chuck Berry, Elvis, Gene Vincent and Little Richard, so it was never showcased on American Bandstand but the movement gave birth to some of the most memorable song lyrics ever recorded and it would eventually help fuel the groundswell of protests to the Vietnam War in the ensuing decades of the sixties and seventies and launched the careers of a new crop of singers who would contribute admirably to the genre.

We’re talking about American folk music and the popular but short-lived ABC musical variety show, Hootenanny.

The movement began inconspicuously enough around 1958 with the number-one, Grammy winning Tom Dooley by the Kingston Trio. In short order we had Harry Belafonte with The Banana Boat Song (Day-O), the Brothers Four with Darling Sporting Jenny, and the Highwaymen with Cotton Fields.

Remember the Kingston Trio in their follow up hit, The MTA, quoting Thomas Paine with the opening (spoken) line, “These are the times that try men’s souls”?

How prophetic.

Those performers and those songs opened the door for Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, the New Christy Minstrels, the Chad Mitchell Trio, Barry McGuire, Melanie, John Denver, Neil Young, Peter, Paul and Mary, Buffalo Springfield, and Arlo Guthrie, son of arguably the most famous folk singer of them all, Woody Guthrie. Even Shreveport’s Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly, considered himself a folk singer even though record executives tried to market him as blues. He wrote such folk classics as Goodnight Irene, The Rock Island Line, and House of the Rising Sun (Yes, the Animals’ hit was originally a folk song).

Just as the movement was on the wan, the Vietnam War spawned a whole new generation of songs: One Tin Soldier, For What It’s Worth, Eve of Destruction, Running Through the Jungle, Fortunate Son, War (What is it Good For?), Barry’s Boys, and others. One man, Pete Seeger, spanned both eras and performed well into his nineties.

But let us return to the greatest of them all and perhaps the best folk song ever written, one that resonates louder and more clearly and with more tragic irony today than ever. Let us etch the lyrics of Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land into our consciousness, grasp the words’ meaning in their totality and never allow the song’s message to wander far from our lips:

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

The last line tells us everything we need to know about this country and a national feeling of shared pride that was somehow lost along the way: This land was made for you and me.

This land does not belong to the James River Corp., the Chesapeake Energy Co. or to the Koch Brothers. It belongs to you and me—to preserve, to hold and to nurture. Not to pillage, rape and squander her bounty. To that end, we could learn a valuable lesson from the Native Americans.

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me

Politicians and their campaign contributors should not control this land. This land is not owned by Big Pharma or ExxonMobil or Archer Daniels Midland, though you’d never know it by walking the halls of Congress or by strolling down K Street in Washington, D.C., or by examining laws and regulations that were written so as to contribute to the richest one percent or to benefit corporate America at the expense of you and me.

In the squares of the city – In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office – I see my people
And some are grumblin’ and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me.

How is it that corporations like General Electric can ship jobs overseas where they can exploit cheap labor, rake in record profits, yet pay no corporate income taxes? How is it that this once great land has become a debtor nation with China holding most of the IOU chits? Is this the land we inherited? Is this what politicians and Tea Partiers gush about when they become so misty-eyed while referring longingly to “the American Way?”

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

I’ve roamed and rambled and I’ve followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

As I was walkin’ – I saw a sign there
And that sign said – no tress passin’
But on the other side …. it didn’t say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me.

Attached here are several YouTube videos of various artists performing the song. Perhaps the most poignant is that of the New Christy Minstrels http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hSjIDBj5pI&feature=related because it contains disturbing video clips of what this country has become as opposed to what we would wish it to be.

Others include Bruce Springsteen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yuc4BI5NWU&feature=related not because we necessarily prefer his version but because of his spoken observations while introducing the song during one of his concerts.

We include a link to Harry Belafonte’s version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqAyiKaS5uQ simply because he has such a pleasant voice, not laced with anger or outrage.

The Kingston Trio is included http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07spb387Opc because we feel it is the most rousing version and does the best job of capturing the true spirit of the song.

But no compilation would be complete without two very special versions of the song. The first, by Woody’s son Arlo, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqZ3oNsMVr0&feature=related as he performs (in a tuxedo, if you can believe that) with, of all things, the Boston Pops and finally, by Woody himself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiMrvDbq3s&feature=related

Next Wednesday, October 3, will mark the 45th anniversary of Woody Guthrie’s death.

Posted in Politics | 13 Comments »

The π-yush nullification whirlwind tour: is Florida next on his judicial revenge itinerary? LouisianaVoice will follow

September 27, 2012 by tomaswell

Piyush Jindal is still on his whirlwind tour of New Hampshire to attend a Republican breakfast and Iowa to campaign against a state supreme court judge who had the audacity to help make unanimous a ruling that the state’s one man-one woman marriage law was unconstitutional but now Jindal may already be planning another jaunt—this time to Florida to take on three more state supreme court judges.

Apparently there are simply no more problems in Louisiana that demand his attention so he is free to look elsewhere. Nice to know everything is under control here.

Though nothing official has come from Jindal’s office, the atmosphere appears favorable for him to charge into the state on his noble steed in concert with David Koch to rescue the state and Gov. Rick Scott from the evil judges who were part of a 5-2 majority that blocked an unconstitutional ballot initiative seeking to nullify the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare).

The Tea Party group Americans for Prosperity, chaired by David Koch of Koch Industries, the driving force behind the American Legislative Exchange Council, joined the Florida Republican Party’s effort to remove the three judges, which would give Gov. Scott, a Tea Party member, control over nearly half the court.

“Many states, like Ohio, gave their citizens the right to vote against the Affordable Care Act,” sniffed the Americans for Prosperity, sounding like a true victim, “but not Florida. Our own supreme court denied our right to choose for ourselves. Shouldn’t our courts protect our rights to choose?”

First of all, the Florida Supreme Court’s decision had nothing to do with denying anyone’s “right to choose.” The decision was to remove the unconstitutional ballot initiative after the initiative’s own defenders admitted that the ballot language was misleading so the court’s decision simply said that voters should be able to understand what they are voting for before they cast ballots.

Even more important, however, is that the Koch group, by supporting the ballot initiative, is also endorsing a questionable constitutional theory known as “nullification.” Because the Constitution provides that duly enacted federal laws “shall be the supreme law of the land,” states do not have the authority to block or supersede an Act of Congress such as the Affordable Care Act, whether through a ballot initiative or otherwise.

Nullification was last in vogue with the nineteenth century slaveholders and Civil Rights era segregationists. But the Tea Partiers have revived the concept and the Florida judges apparently hurt their feelings.

Tea Party self-appointed historian Tom Woods has published a book defending nullification. Of course he also once published an article describing the Confederacy as “Christendom’s Last Stand.”

So now Americans for Prosperity and Koch desire to punish three judges for putting the law above conservative ideology. They are hellbent on turning over Florida’s highest court to the Tea Party governor. If successful, this campaign will send a chilling message to every elected judge in the country (Louisiana’s judges are elected) that they can adhere to the Constitution at their own peril.

Sounds like a perfect opportunity for Piyush. After all, his most recent trips just happen to be in the states where the nation’s first presidential primary and first presidential caucuses are held. And Florida is almost certain to be a swing state in future elections.

Too bad Piyush doesn’t realize that his political fortunes are sinking faster than that big hole in Assumption Parish.

Posted in ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, Campaign Contributions, Governor's Office, Legislature, Legislators, Lobbyist, Politicians | 7 Comments »

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