Louisiana
promoted to primary 6/16 on cancer, EJ, katrina, Jindal, AG
see la tag
see LA 2
Republican Jim Crow Homeless Bill Brings Back Convict Leasing
Brittany Page discusses Louisiana's HB 211, a new bill on its way to the Senate after passing the House, that criminalizes homelessness, creates internment camps, and authorizes mandated treatment that homeless individuals can pay for through unpaid forced labor. Brittany details how the Trump Administration and the Republican Party at large have been pushing bills like this across the country in an effort to criminalize poverty and homelessness, and what we can do collectively to fight the injustice.
Louisiana argues parts of Voting Rights Act are unconstitutional
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180 fix 7 23
https://www.rawstory.com/cancer-alley-louisiana-epa-grist/
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http://www.alternet.org/environment/intense-louisiana-rains-another-example-whats-store-global-warming-video
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Louisiana Attorney General’s office coordinates behind the scenes with Koch lobbyists Hunton & Williams o In January 2015, representatives of the Koch connected lobbying firm Hunton & Williams as well as George Mason Law & Economics Center independently emailed Louisiana Assistant Attorney General Trey Phillips to invite him to a briefing entitled “Clean Air Act: Clean Power or Power Play?” featuring presentations from Peter S. Glaser, Robert L. Glicksman, Jason S. Johnston, Roger R. Martella, and Richard O. Faulk about the Clean Power Plan. Glaser, Johnston, Martella, and Faulk do not believe the Clean Power Plan is on firm legal standing. George Mason University has also accepted millions of dollars in funding from Koch brothers foundations and Charles Koch is a member of the George Mason Mercatus Center’s Board of Directors.
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ONE OF THE FIRST FREE TOWNS FOUNDED BY FORMER SLAVES IS BEING TAKEN OVER BY BIG OIL see also here. 10/15.
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SPECIAL REPORT - Louisiana tribe renews fight for federal recognition in the face of sinking lands, environmental disasters
By Allie Yee
On the fifth anniversary of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the United Houma Nation (UHN) of southern Louisiana is taking yet another stand in its 30-year campaign to win recognition, launching a petition this week calling on the Obama administration to support the tribe's fight for federal recognition.
The UHN is an indigenous tribe with 17,000 members residing in a six-parish area along the Gulf Coast where the land is literally slipping away from under them. Due to coastal erosion, southern Louisiana is losing over 16 square miles of land per year, or the equivalent of one football field every hour.
"The United Houma Nation is severely affected by coastal erosion, sea-level rise, and the lack of corporate and government accountability around the pollution of their traditional lands and waters," the petition states. "A lack of federal recognition limits how the Houma people can protect the delicate marsh, swamp and bayou ecosystems to sustain their food subsistence, cultural practices and economic livelihood."
The Gulf Coast has been eroding for decades due to levee building, oil pipelines that cut through coastal marshland and sea-level rise, but the BP oil disaster of 2010 exacerbated the situation, tribal members say. When the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and released over 3 million barrels of crude into the Gulf, the oil flowed into coastal wetlands, hurting fisheries critical to the local economy and culture and further contributing to erosion.
"The Gulf drilling disaster is an absolute threat to who we are as Houma people and our way of life," Principal Chief Thomas Dardar said in a statement. "Our homeland and the health of our people are at risk as we deal with the long-term effects of this catastrophe."...
http://org2.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=QTsdtwKUQJ3eKyDlFB%2FWbRkCmveYE8TI
http://www.globalpossibilities.org/lousiana-has-a-crazy-plan-to-save-its-sinking-coastline/
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=14-P13-00024&segmentID=3
2nd in nat gas, 7th in oil?
green army sues 97 oil and gas co to restore wetlands; jindal veto?; head of gas reg owns gas co
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Two new developments have linked BP oil from the 2010 Gulf disaster to ongoing wildlife, habitat, and economic impacts in Louisiana.
First, a new peer-reviewed scientific study by a team of government, academic, and non-governmental researches was released linking BP oil from the 2010 Gulf oil disaster to dolphin deaths and illness in Barataria Bay, La. Seventeen percent of the dolphins sampled were classified as being in "poor or grave condition"--meaning they are not expected to survive.
Dr. Lori Schwacke, the study's lead author, stated, "I've never seen such a high prevalence of very sick animals--and with unusual conditions such as the adrenal hormone abnormalities."
The facts are that this year alone, more than three years after the BP disaster, more than 4.6 million more pounds of oily material have been recovered from Gulf of Mexico shorelines. There is no question that more oil is out there. BP saturates the market with its pricey PR onslaught, implying that the clean-up is over and the Gulf is better than ever. But this is simply not true. The Gulf is still waiting for BP to accept responsibility to ensure restoration that it deserves.
AlterNet [1] / By Steven Rosenfeld [2]
Non-Violent Offenders Fill Jails in Prison Nation’s Worst State: Louisiana
October 30, 2013 |
The United States is the world’s foremost prison nation—with the highest percentage of people behind [3] bars—and Louisiana is its capital, with the most senseless mix of lengthy sentences for non-violent crimes, skyrocketing prison costs, and little evidence that its “lock ‘em up and forget ‘em” policies have reduced violence.
That’s the conclusion by a coalition of libertarian groups seeking [4] sentencing reform in the state with highest incarceration rate—especially for non-violent drug offenses—who, along with Louisiana’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter, have launched a joint campaign to try to unwind one of America’s nastiest prison systems.
“When thePelican Institute and the ACLUcombine on a topic, comedians may lick their chops,” wrote [5] James Varney, a New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist. “Or folks could conclude, ‘It’s time…’
Time is a curious word to use when describing how terrible Louisiana’s court system is. Despite some recent attempts to give judges some discretion in sentencing non-violent offenders, decades of mandatory sentencing laws—overwhelmingly snaring [6] the state’s African-American population—add up to years in jail. According to a Mother Jones analysis [6], Blacks make up 33 percent of the population, but 76 percent of prisoners.
ACLU Executive Director Marjorie Esman told a recent sentencing forum that one-in-86 Louisiana adults are in prison—double the national average, Louisiana Weekly reported [7]. “Esman said that one out of three black men in Louisiana are under some kind of correctional control… and the fact that Black men are more likely to go to jail for pot than white men.”
“As of December 31, 2012, there were approximately 242 inmates serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for non-violent drug and property crimes,” the “Smart on Sentencing, Smart on Crime” report [4] from theReason Foundation, Pelican Institute and Texas Public Policy Foundation said. “These laws have been disproportionately applied to non-violent crimes, nonviolent offenders now account for the majority of inmates and admissions to prison in the state.”
Elsewhere in the country, the Reason Foundation has promoted [8] privatizing prisons. But their latest report emphasized that Louisiana was wasting tax dollars and not stopping the most serious crimes.
This has produced a number of unfortunate consequences, such as an increase in the state’s prison population from 21,007 in 1992 to 39,709 in 2011 and a $315 million increase in correction expenditures during the same time period, from $442.3 million (in 2011 dollars) in 1992 to $757.4 million in 2011. Meanwhile, there is little evidence that the laws have done anything to reduce Louisiana’s violent crime rate, which remains considerably above both the national average and the rates in its neighboring states. Today, Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the country, with 868 of every 100,000 of its citizens in prison.
What’s particularly eyebrow-raising is that “numerous violent crimes, such as negligent homocide, manslaughter, aggravated assault with a firearm, aggravated battery, simple rape and simple kidnapping carry no mandatory minimum at all,” Reason reported. In contrast, Louisiana law—especially drug laws—draw “essentially trivial lines between degrees of criminal activity that can result in dramatic differences in punishment.”
The report offers glaring examples. Possessing 199.9 grams of cocaine has a mandatory minimum sentence of five year of hard labor plus a $50,000 fine, while possessing 200 gram doubles the time at hard labor sentence and fine. Five years of hard labor and a $50,000 fine is also the penalty for “offenders convicted of growing or selling any amount of marijuana,” it notes.
The analysis goes on to describe how repeat offenders face complex sentencing formulas that add up to years, if not decades, spent in jail—often at hard labor.
“To see how this works, consider a defendant who is convicted of distributing or cultivating any amount of marijuana as a first offense. She will then be subject to serve a mandatory minimum sentence of five years of hard labor in prison. If within 10 years of release, she is convicted for the same offense, she will then be required to serve a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 15 years, which is one-half the maximum sentence prescribed for a first conviction. If within 10 years of release for this second conviction, she is again convicted of distributing or cultivating any amount of marijuana a third time as a habitual offender, she will be subject to serve a mandatory minimum sentence of 22.5 years of hard labor in prison, which is two-thirds the maximum sentence prescribed for a first conviction.”
Many of Louisiana’s drug laws date back to the early 1970s when then President Richard Nixon declared [9] “war on drugs” and states responded by enacting harsh sentences, Reason noted. In Louisiana, the result of this legacy is predictable—jails filled with people who did not commit violent crimes but are treated as harshly as rapists and murderers.
“Between 1994 and 2011, violent offenders made up an average of only 17.3 percent of prison admissions in Louisiana; 37 percent of prison admissions were for drug offenses, and 33.6 percent for property offenses,” their report states. “Between 1994 and 1996, during which time the state experienced some of its highest violent crime rates, the average percentage for inmates admitted for violent crimes was 23 percent lower than those admitted for drug crimes, 18.4 percent lower than those admistted for property crimes, and 0.6 percent lower than inmates admitted for all other crimes.”
These statistics mean that Lousiana’s drug and property offenders keep getting caught and throw back into the prison system’s jaws. Reason interprets the state’s high rate of recidivism as a waste of taxpayer dollars—especially for non-violent drug crimes.
“With 50 percent of inmates returning to prison after five years, a violent crime rate well above its neighboring states, high corrections expenditures, and a majority of inmates incarcerated after nonviolent offenses, it makes one wonder whether Louisiana is effectively prioritizing its criminal justice expenditures,” they conclude.
Reason said it was “beyond the scope of this study” to analyze why Louisiana’s violent crime rates have risen and fallen. Beyond their high cost to taxpayers, its report never mentions race or poverty as factors in the state’s court system—although it has appeared at forums with the ACLU where those factors have been raised and discussed.
But it is not unreasonable to suggest that many of the state’s drug offenders are railroaded into jail, where they should never be in the first place, and then, after exiting with prison records, can’t find a decent job. Thus, they revert to dealing drugs—or theft, what the report calls property crime—to survive. There was anecdotal evidence of that pattern in Times-Picayune column [10].
The Pelican Insititute President Kevin Kane and ACLU’s Esman have been holding [7] forums across the state to call for sentencing reforms. Last week, they were joined by Judge Fredericka Wicker, who heads a non-partisan Louisiana Sentencing Commission. In one sessions, the Times-Picayune reported [5] that Esman asked “the audience who among them knew someone who at one time in their life possessed marijuana. Every hand in the room went up. When she extended her question to three times, the yes answer was again 100 percent.”
At that meeting, an ex-sheriff’s office employee, Republican state Representative Joseph Lopinto, told the paper’s columnist, “It’s not as if Louisiana’s jails are stuffed with guys who got pulled over three times and happened to have dime bags on the passenger seat. More common… is the burglar who got probation twice and, the third time arrested, also had marijuana and winds up getting multiple billed and facing a 30-year term.”
The Reason report noted that Louisiana’s Legislature has passed and their Republican governor has signed piecemeal sentencing reforms, reducing some mandatory terms and turning to probation and parole, but only under very strident conditions. What it has not done is repeal mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenses, reform its Habitual Offender Law that compounds jail terms, and also reform parole rules.
“Either of these changes would ensure that violent criminals continue to be punished for their crimes, while nonviolent offenders face sentences that are more proportionate,” they conclude. But those obvious steps will be difficult, the Times-Picayune notes, because “housing prisoners has become a key source of cash for politically powerful sheriffs, and elected officials fear the vulnerability attached to a soft on crime label.”
Indeed, the estimated 2013-2014 budget for Louisiana’s Department of Corrections (DOC) is [7] $390,625,856. That nearly doubles [4] when including all the police, prosecutors and public defenders. As the Pelican Institute’s Kane noted, the DOC pays $24.39 per diem to sheriffs to warehouse prisoners, compared to $11.25 a day for the DOC’s transitional work programs, or $15.39 for locally run transitional programs.
In other words, crime and punishment pays in Louisiana—not for prisoners, but for the jailers who keep them behind bars.
See more stories tagged with:
Reason Foundation [11],
Louisiana ACLU [12],
prison nation [13],
race and incarceration [14],
U.S. prison nation [15],
Louisiana prison system [16],
Louisiana incarceration rate [17]
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/liberals-and-libertarians-try-lower-louisiana-prison-rates
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ALEC Bills: From Model to Reality
The "Environmental Literacy Improvement Act," or at minimum, the crucial language found within it, has been proposed in seven states, and passed in three states, Louisiana in 2008, Texas in 2009 and South Dakota in 2010.
Louisiana
In 2008, the Louisiana state legislature introduced and eventually passed S.B. 733, the Louisiana Science and Education Act. The bill was originally sponsored by four members of the Senate, three of whom are current dues paying members of ALEC: Sen. Ben Wayne Nevers, Sr. (D-12); Sen. Neil Riser (R-32); and Sen. Francis Thompson (D-34).
The three ALEC members received a total of $9,514 from the oil and gas industry in the 2008 and 2010 election cycles in campaign money combined, and the four of them together received $13,814 in campaign cash from the oil and gas industry, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics' FollowTheMoney.org.
ALEC Model vs. S.B. 733
The Louisiana bill calls for, "an environment within public elementary and secondary schools that promotes critical thinking skills, logical analysis, and open and objective discussion of scientific theories being studied including…global warming…" The bill also calls for "instructional materials to help students understand, analyze, critique, and review scientific theories in an objective manner."
This bill mirrors the provisions of the ALEC bill which say that teachers should "provide instruction in critical thinking so that students will be able to fairly and objectively evaluate scientific…controversies," and mandates that "balanced and objective environmental education materials and programs will…be used."
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Hippies Demonized in Louisiana Voucher School Textbook
March 7, 2013 |
If Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) gets his way Louisiana taxpayers will continue funding private school curricula rife with right-wing revisionism and biblical pseudoscience.
Jindal’s voucher program spends tens of millions of dollars in state funds to send low-income students to one of 134 [3] approved private schools. But the Louisiana Supreme Court will rule this month whether it’s constitutional to divert public funds to private institutions. Also of concern is the misinformation peddled in several approved voucher schools, many institutions espousing a right wing, Christian bastardization of social studies and science.
Most recently, AmericaBlog discovered a rather cartoonish depiction of one of the largest counter-culture movements in American history printed in a Louisiana voucher textbook. The 8th grade history book, titled America: Land I love, gives this lesson on hippies:
Many young people turned to drugs and immoral lifestyles; these youth became known as hippies. They went without bathing, wore dirty, ragged, unconventional clothing, and deliberately broke all codes of politeness or manners. Rock music played an important part in the hippie movement and had great influence over the hippies. Many of the rock musicians they followed belonged to Eastern religious cults or practiced Satan worship.
Of course, the devil’s influence extends beyond America’s “immoral” youth. Reads another textbook: “It is no wonder that Satan hates the family and has hurled his venom against it in the form of Communism.”
Last year, Mother Jones listed some of the most egregious falsities found in Louisiana voucher school textbooks. Apparently, “Dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the earth at the same time” and “The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well.” A reminder: Just last November, Governor Jindal, who supports this curriculum, urged his fellow GOPers to “stop being the stupid party [4].”
It'd be easier to take the governor seriously if he stopped spreading stupidity in his own backyard.
See more stories tagged with:
bobby jindal [5],
misinformation [6],
education [7],
vouchers [8],
hippies [9]
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/education/hippies-demonized-louisiana-voucher-school-textbook
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/steven-hsieh
[3] http://www.fox8live.com/story/21190166/more-schools-planned-for-louisiana-voucher-program
[4] http://canindia.com/2013/02/bobby-jindal-tells-republicans-to-stop-being-the-stupid-party/
[5] http://www.alternet.org/tags/bobby-jindal-0
[6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/misinformation
[7] http://www.alternet.org/tags/education-0
[8] http://www.alternet.org/tags/vouchers
[9] http://www.alternet.org/tags/hippies-0
[10] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Ooh, so close. Louisiana was about to become the 47th state to help electricity customers buy efficient appliances and make other energy-saving investments.
The Louisiana Public Service Commission had voted 3-2 to in December to approve an energy-efficiency program. Money raised from a new fee on electricity sales would be funneled back to customers in the form of energy-saving subsidies. But then longtime board member Jimmy Field, a supporter of the program, retired from the commission. He was replaced by Scott Angelle, Gov. Bobby Jindal's former natural resources secretary.
crappy schools destroyed give beachhead for educ reform
14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in Louisiana's Voucher Schools
Slave masters were nice, the KKK is A-OK, and the Great Depression is a liberal fantasy. Thanks, Gov. Jindal!
By Deanna Pan | Tue Aug. 7, 2012 3:00 AM PDT
Thanks to a new law [1] privatizing public education in Louisiana, Bible-based curriculum can now indoctrinate young, pliant minds with the good news of the Lord—all on the state taxpayers' dime.
Under Gov. Bobby Jindal's voucher program, considered the most sweeping [2] in the country, Louisiana is poised to spend tens of millions of dollars to help poor and middle-class students from the state's notoriously terrible public schools [3] receive a private education. While the governor's plan sounds great in the glittery parlance [4] of the state's PR machine, the program is rife with accountability problems [5] that actually haven't been solved [6] by the new standards [7] the Louisiana Department of Education adopted two weeks ago.
For one, of the 119 (mostly Christian) participating schools, Zack Kopplin, a gutsy college sophomore who's taken to Change.org [8] to stonewall the program, has identified at least 19 [9] that teach or champion creationist nonscience and will rake in nearly $4 million in public funding [10] from the initial round of voucher designations.
Read about Bobby Jindal's exorcism problem [11].
Many of these schools, Kopplin notes, rely on Pensacola-based A Beka Book [12] curriculum or Bob Jones University Press [13] textbooks to teach their pupils Bible-based "facts," such as the existence of Nessie the Loch Ness Monster [14] and all sorts of pseudoscience that researcher Rachel Tabachnick and writer Thomas Vinciguerra have thankfully pored [15] over [16] so the rest of world doesn't have to.
Here are some of my favorite lessons:
- Dinosaurs and humans probably hung out: "Bible-believing Christians cannot accept any evolutionary interpretation. Dinosaurs and humans were definitely on the earth at the same time and may have even lived side by side within the past few thousand years."—Life Science [17], 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2007
Much like Whoopi and Teddy in the cinematic classic Theodore Rex. Screenshot: YouTubeMuch like tough cop Katie Coltrane and Teddy the T-rex in the direct-to-video hit Theodore Rex [18] Screenshot: YouTube
- Dragons were totally real: "[Is] it possible that a fire-breathing animal really existed? Today some scientists are saying yes. They have found large chambers in certain dinosaur skulls…The large skull chambers could have contained special chemical-producing glands. When the animal forced the chemicals out of its mouth or nose, these substances may have combined and produced fire and smoke."—Life Science [17], 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2007
- "God used the Trail of Tears to bring many Indians to Christ."—America: Land That I Love [19], Teacher ed., A Beka Book, 1994
- Africa needs religion: "Africa is a continent with many needs. It is still in need of the gospel…Only about ten percent of Africans can read and write. In some areas the mission schools have been shut down by Communists who have taken over the government."—Old World History and Geography in Christian Perspective [20], 3rd ed., A Beka Book, 2004
The literacy rate in Africa is "only about 10 percent"--give or take a few dozen percentage points. residentevil_stars2001/FlickrThe literacy rate in Africa is "only about 10 percent"…give or take a few dozen percentage points [21]. residentevil_stars2001 [22]/Flickr
- Slave masters were nice guys: "A few slave holders were undeniably cruel. Examples of slaves beaten to death were not common, neither were they unknown. The majority of slave holders treated their slaves well."—United States History for Christian Schools [23], 2nd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 1991
Slaves and their masters: BFF 4lyfe! Edward Williams Clay/Library of CongressDoesn't everyone look happy?! Edward Williams Clay/Library of Congress
- The KKK was A-OK: "[The Ku Klux] Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross. Klan targets were bootleggers, wife-beaters, and immoral movies. In some communities it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians."—United States History for Christian Schools [24], 3rd ed., Bob Jones University Press, 2001
Just your friendly neighborhood Imperial Wizard! Unknown/Library of CongressJust your friendly neighborhood Imperial Wizard Unknown/Library of Congress
- The Great Depression wasn't as bad as the liberals made it sound: "Perhaps the best known work of propaganda to come from the Depression was John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath…Other forms of propaganda included rumors of mortgage foreclosures, mass evictions, and hunger riots and exaggerated statistics representing the number of unemployed and homeless people in America."—United States History: Heritage of Freedom [25], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1996
Definitely Photoshopped. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration/WikipediaDefinitely Photoshopped. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration/Wikipedia
- SCOTUS enslaved fetuses: "Ignoring 3,500 years of Judeo-Christian civilization, religion, morality, and law, the Burger Court held that an unborn child was not a living person but rather the "property" of the mother (much like slaves were considered property in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford)."—American Government in Christian Perspective [26], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1997
- The Red Scare isn't over yet: "It is no wonder that Satan hates the family and has hurled his venom against it in the form of Communism."— American Government in Christian Perspective [26], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1997
Meanwhile, God sneezes glitter snot in the form of Capitalism. Catechetical Guild/Wikipedia Catechetical Guild/Wikipedia
- Mark Twain and Emily Dickinson were a couple of hacks: "[Mark] Twain's outlook was both self-centered and ultimately hopeless…Twain's skepticism was clearly not the honest questioning of a seeker of truth but the deliberate defiance of a confessed rebel."—Elements of Literature for Christian Schools [27], Bob Jones University, 2001
"Several of [Emily Dickinson's] poems show a presumptuous attitude concerning her eternal destiny and a veiled disrespect for authority in general. Throughout her life she viewed salvation as a gamble, not a certainty. Although she did view the Bible as a source of poetic inspiration, she never accepted it as an inerrant guide to life."—Elements of Literature for Christian Schools [27], Bob Jones University, 2001
And her grammar was just despicable! Ugh! Todd-Bingham picture collection, 1837-1966 (inclusive)/ Manuscripts & Archives, Yale UniversityTo say nothing of her poetry's Syntax and Punctuation—how odious it is.Todd-Bingham picture collection, 1837-1966 (inclusive)/ Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University
- Abstract algebra is too dang complicated: "Unlike the 'modern math' theorists, who believe that mathematics is a creation of man and thus arbitrary and relative, A Beka Book teaches that the laws of mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute…A Beka Book provides attractive, legible, and workable traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory."—ABeka.com [28]
Maths is hard! Screenshot: MittRomney.comMATHS: Y U SO HARD? Screenshot: MittRomney.com [29]
- Gay people "have no more claims to special rights than child molesters or rapists."—Teacher's Resource Guide to Current Events for Christian Schools, 1998-1999, Bob Jones University Press, 1998
- "Global environmentalists have said and written enough to leave no doubt that their goal is to destroy the prosperous economies of the world's richest nations."—Economics: Work and Prosperity in Christian Perspective [30], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1999
Plotting world destruction, BRB. Lynn Freeny, Department of Energy/FlickrPlotting economic apocalypse, BRB Lynn Freeny, Department of Energy [31]/Flickr
- Globalization is a precursor to rapture: "But instead of this world unification ushering in an age of prosperity and peace, as most globalists believe it will, it will be a time of unimaginable human suffering as recorded in God's Word. The Anti-christ will tightly regulate who may buy and sell."—Economics: Work and Prosperity in Christian Perspective [30], 2nd ed., A Beka Book, 1999
He'll probably be in cahoots with the global environmentalists. Luca Signorelli/WikipediaSwapping insider-trading secrets is the devil's favorite pastime. Luca Signorelli/WikipediaWhew! Seems extreme. But perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised. Gov. Jindal, you remember, once tried to perform an exorcism on a college gal pal. [11]
Source URL: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/07/photos-evangelical-curricula-louisiana-tax-dollars
Links:
[1] http://www.louisianaschools.net/topics/act2_choice_law.html
[2] http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/01/us-education-vouchers-idUSL1E8H10AG20120601
[3] http://www.wafb.com/story/15623744/new-scores-44-of-louisiana-public-schools-failing
[4] http://gov.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&catID=2&articleID=3377&navID=12
[5] http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/louisiana-gives-us-taste-mitt-romneys-education-policy
[6] http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/07/lousiana_school_voucher_standards_criticized.php
[7] http://www.louisianaschools.net/offices/publicaffairs/press_release.aspx?PR=1664
[8] http://www.change.org/petitions/the-governor-of-la-halt-the-implementation-of-louisiana-s-creationist-voucher-program
[9] http://www.repealcreationism.com/697/stop-governor-jindals-creationist-voucher-program-before-governor-romney-takes-it-nationwide/
[10] http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20120731/NEWS01/207310330/Some-voucher-schools-teaching-creationism
[11] http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/05/bobby-jindal-exorcised-his-college-girlfriend
[12] http://www.abeka.com/
[13] http://www.bjupress.com/page/Home
[14] http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-06-26/news/32412766_1_voucher-plan-voucher-students-voucher-program
[15] http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/5/25/84149/9275
[16] http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/weekinreview/27vinciguerra.ART.html?pagewanted=all
[17] http://www.bjupress.com/product/228163?path=94384&spot=1
[18] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY7gsUL9Xkk
[19] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=109088
[20] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=135275
[21] http://stats.uis.unesco.org/unesco/TableViewer/tableView.aspx?ReportId=201
[22] http://www.flickr.com/photos/23360760@N04/2231862471/
[23] http://www.amazon.com/History-Christian-Schools-Timothy-Keesee/dp/0890845794/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
[24] http://www.bjupress.com/product/222141
[25] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=103462
[26] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=38733
[27] http://www.amazon.com/ELEMENTS-LITERATURE-FOR-CHRISTIAN-SCHOOLS/dp/1579246362
[28] http://www.abeka.com/Distinctives.aspx
[29] http://www.mittromney.com/forms/middle-class-promise-gap-health-care-petition?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=20120702_lb_healthcare_facebook
[30] http://www.abeka.com/ABekaOnline/BookDescription.aspx?sbn=61263
[31] http://www.flickr.com/photos/doe-oakridge/6945040384/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_Louisiana
prisons big biz
The growth of the private detention industry has long been a subject of scrutiny. A recent eight-part series in the New Orleans Times-Picayune chronicled how more than half of Louisiana’s 40,000 inmates are housed in prisons run by sheriffs or private companies as part of a broader financial incentive scheme. The detention business goes beyond just criminal prisoners.
As a Huffington Post investigation pointed out last month, nearly half of all immigrant detainees are now held in privately run detention facilities. Just this week, the New York Times delved into lax oversight at industrial-sized but privately run halfway houses in New Jersey.
http://www.propublica.org/article/by-the-numbers-the-u.s.s-growing-for-profit-detention-industry
pvc 2 towns not protected, EJ
In 1987 some residents in the tiny community of St. Gabriel, Louisiana, called Jacobs Drive, the street on which they lived, "cancer alley" because there were fifteen cancer victims in a two-block stretch. Half a mile away, there were seven cancer victims living on one block. The eighty-five-mile stretch of the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to New Orleans was formerly referred to as the "petrochemical corridor" but after reports of numerous cases of cancer occurring in the small rural communities on both sides of the river, the entire area became known as cancer alley.
In 2002 Louisiana had the second-highest death rate from cancer in the United States. Although the national average is 206 deaths per 100,000, Louisiana's rate is 237.3 deaths per 100,000.
In 2000 Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data showed that Louisiana ranked second throughout the nation for total onsite releases, third for total releases within the state, and fourth for total on- and offsite releases. Louisiana, which has a population of 4,469,970 people, produced 9,416,598,055 pounds of waste in 2000. Seven of the ten plants in the state with the largest combined on- and offsite releases are located in cancer alley, and four of the ten plants with the largest onsite releases in the state are located there.
Industrial accidents and accidental releases are common occurrences in cancer alley. For instance, in 1994 Condea Vista (Conoco) located in Lake Charles reported thirty-nine chemical accidents that released 129,500 pounds of chemicals. The following year, Condea Vista reported ninety accidental chemical releases. In 1997 the company was charged with contaminating local groundwater supplies by discharging between 19 to 47 million pounds of ethylene dichloride (EDC), a suspected human carcinogen, into a local stream. In 1999 hundreds of unskilled laborers filed suit against Condea Vista, claiming they were exposed to EDC while cleaning up a spill from a leaking underground pipeline.
The population of cancer alley is primarily African-American and low-income. Despite the large number of industrial facilities—more than 136—unemployment is high in many communities and most residents do not have a college education. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of cancer alley have been organizing to limit the siting of noxious facilities in their neighborhoods. The most famous case of community resistance occurred in Convent, where, in 1996, Shintech announced plans to build a $700 million chlor-alkali vinyl complex that would be permitted to emit 611,700 pounds of contaminants into the air. The battle between Shintech and Covent garnered international attention. Finally, in 1998 Shintech decided to abandon its plans to build a plant in Convent.
Bibliography
Centers for Disease Control. (2002). Cancer Prevention and Control "Cancer Burden Data Fact Sheets, Louisiana." Atlanta, GA.
Coyle, Marcia. (1992). "Company Will Not Build Plant: Lawyers Hail Victory." The National Law Journal, October 19, p. 3.
REGULATING THE REGULATORS
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and Georgia Pacific say that all water quality standards are being met, but residents and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, which assisted Brave New Films in making the film, aren't convinced.
Cheryl Slavant, president of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, has claimed that Georgia-Pacific is dumping what's known as black liquor, a viscous stew of chemicals that is supposed to be purified in biological treatment plants, into nearby watercourses. "What's going on here is a crime," Slavant says in the video.
James Malone, a spokesman for Georgia-Pacific, called Slavant's claims "sensationalized" and "politically motivated." He said that the footage of the channel behind Penn Road, as shown in the video, was in fact footage of Georgia-Pacific's permit wastewater treatment process, filmed at a stage long before it enters the river, an assertion he's made before.
Further, Malone said that the total incidence of cancer in Ashley County, Ark., where Crossett is located, is lower compared to the national average and to the state's. Cancer mortality rates in Ashley County have generally been at or above the state rate, except for the latest period for which there is data (2002-2004), when rates were slightly lower, according to state government health statistics. "We're not aware of and have never been provided any data or any study that has validated those claims," said Malone when asked if the plant's emissions were making residents ill.
As for whether Crossett's location might make it especially vulnerable? "If you look at the neighborhood that's featured, it's more than a quarter-mile away from our treatment system," he said.
Georgia-Pacific is, as Malone noted, in full compliance with a federal and state water and air permits, though that's little comfort to environmentalists.
Internet Resource
Sierra Club Web site. "Toxics." Available from http://www.sierraclub.org/toxics.
Dorceta E. Taylor
O'Keefe's three alleged accomplices: Conservative activists Dai, Basel and Flanagan
Blog››› January 26, 2010 6:48 PM EST ››› ERIC HANANOKI
Yesterday, conservative activist James O'Keefe was arrested for allegedly plotting "to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in downtown New Orleans." O'Keefe was arrested along with Stan Dai, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan. Here's a look at who O'Keefe's alleged accomplices appear to be:
Joseph Basel
College conservative. CampusReform.org's Adam Weinberg wrote that "O'Keefe became the founding editor of *The Centurion* at Rutgers. Around the same time, frustrated conservative student Joe Basel started *The Counterweight* at the University of Minnesota-Morris. Both papers were started with assistance from the Leadership Institute 'Balance in Media' grant, which is still available for students starting conservative and libertarian campus publications today."
Basel was interviewed with O'Keefe for the January 14 article. Weinberg writes of O'Keefe and Basel: "To protect their ongoing investigations, I can't say exactly when or where the interview was conducted."
In the interview, Basel states of the origin of his conservative activism: "Once I got to that liberal of a university they basically pushed me to it. It was more in response to their hegemony on campus." Basel also describes his style of journalism:
Basel: I guess I wouldn't call it activist journalism either. I think the only real agenda with what I did at the University of Minnesota was to pursue truth and to hold the administrators and hold the professors' feet to the fire. To hold them accountable for what they were getting away with, what they were doing in the classroom and out of the classroom, in the community.
So, I think if you just make your agenda the truth or a fair chance at the truth on campus, you'd be surprised what falls in your lap if you work hard and keep doing it.
A Twitter account ("JEBasel") for "Joseph E Basel" lists just two tweets (last made on December 18) and shows JEBasel following Andrew Breitbart and James O'Keefe.
Robert Flanagan
According to several media outlets, Robert Flanagan is "the son of William Flanagan, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana." The Times-Picayune reported that "Robert Flanagan's attorney, J. Garrison Jordan, said he believes his client works for the Pelican Institute."
Robert Flanagan is a frequent blogger for The Pelican Post, where he has written about Landrieu. The Pelican Post is the blog of The Pelican Institute for Public Policy, "a non-profit research and education institution that conducts scholarly research and analysis of Louisiana public policy. The Institute's mission is to advance sound policies based on the principles of free enterprise, individual liberty, and limited government."
Stan Dai
A "Stan Dai" is based in the Washington D.C. area and has frequently been involved in conservative causes.
College conservative. In 2005, The Phillips Foundation awarded Dai a $5,000 scholarship under its Ronald Reagan Future Leaders Scholarship Program and cited his work on conservative causes. From the foundation's 2005 biography of Dai:
STAN DAI, Lisle, Ill., attends The George Washington University majoring in Political Science. He is editor-in-chief of The GW Patriot, an alternative conservative student newspaper, a Club 100 Activist of Young America's Foundation, and an Undergraduate Fellow on Terrorism of the Foundation for the Defense of the Democracies. He is co-founder of GW's Students Defending Democracy, a volunteer on several political campaigns, and active in the GW College Republicans and GW Colonials for Life. He was a 2003 Honorable Mention in the U.S. Institute of Peace Essay Contest.
Freelance consultant, former assistant director for intelligence center. According to a packet provided for the Junior Statesmen Summer School speakers program, Dai is currently a "Freelance consultant" after previously serving as "the first Assistant Director of the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence at Trinity in D.C."
The Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence states that it "prepares students for careers in intelligence. Its curriculum develops the skills relevant to intelligence community careers, while also allowing students to pursue the major of their choice." In 2008, the Junior State of America podcast wrote of Dai's background:
Stan Dai is the Assistant Director of Trinity's Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence in DC. He was formerly the Assistant Operations Officer at a Department of Defense irregular warfare fellowship program and a Fellow on Terrorism at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Stan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the George Washington University.
Stan's main interest is the intersection of political mass movements, culture, and violence. He has discussed these topics as a guest lecturer at the George Washington University and on media outlets including C-SPAN's Washington Journal and Voice of America.
Stan has been involved in JSA since 2001: after attending summer school at Yale, he founded the JSA chapter at Naperville North, served in various Midwest region positions, and was a resident assistant at Georgetown.
Majikthise blogger Lindsay Beyerstein further wrote of Dai:
In college, Stan Dai co-wrote a satirical work entitled The Penis Monologues, apparently a takeoff on the Vagina Monologues. Here's a taste:
My Angry Penis
MY PENIS IS ANGRY!!!!!!! You want to know what happened to my penis? Joan happened to my penis! There I was, sleeping peacefully when Joan stormed in and dragged me out for "an educational program." I thought was going to see Mr. Rogers! But nooooooo! It turned out to be the "Whine-gina Monologues!"
Correction: This post originally misattributed the source of Basel's interview; Basel was interviewed by Adam Weinberg for CampusReform.org.