As Edwards' power ebbs, his sniveling increases

Let’s just say Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards isn’t taking very well his precipitous and still increasing loss of power well before the end of his term next year.

Signs began last year that a Republican-led Legislature would defy Edwards’ leftist elite cultural views as well as attenuating his agenda to grow government. It sent several bills to his desk, most prominently one that would require that biological females only compete in scholastic and college athletic events restricted to females, that curtailed leftist cultural inroads, as well as held back some debt-fueled federal dollars rained on the state by Democrat-led Washington.

Edwards accepted the slimmer budget but vetoed several measures. However, Republicans triggered the first veto session in state history and nearly overturned the veto of the fairness bill. Then they took the next step earlier this year when they forced reapportionment packages onto Edwards, who felt he had enough power only to veto that for Congress because it included just one majority-minority district instead of two, only to have another veto session called where legislators overrode this, the first such success ever.

Fairness bill shows whether LA politics changed

It’s not often that we have a shot at a natural experiment in the study of politics, but Louisiana will cue up one with a replay of a bill to protect fairness in women’s sports.

SB 44, essentially word for word the same as last year’s SB 156, passed the Senate this week, sending it to the House of Representatives. Both offered by Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell, SB 44 would mandate that biological males at the scholastic or collegiate level couldn’t compete in sporting events designated for biological females. In other words, unless a male had completed the entire process to change physically his sex into female, that person couldn’t compete in sports where only females were allowed.

Last year, SB 156 passed both chambers with a smattering of non-Republican support only to suffer a veto at the hands of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards. Then at a historic first-ever veto session, in the House enough Democrats and non-party members defected from their previous vote to sustain the veto.

Unsustainable pay hikes foolish, hypocritical

If you’re going to spend money you won’t have, at least don’t be a hypocrite about it.

The entire membership of the Louisiana House Appropriations Committee, mainly comprised of Republicans who should know better, voted Monday to advance HB 1. The entire chamber later this week will take up the bill that will fund most of the state’s operating expenses.

Like most states, Louisiana is flush with borrowed money sent from Washington courtesy of Democrats who just make a majority in Congress that has helped trigger the country’s worst price inflation since Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards started courting wife Donna in high school. Significant other tabs await payment, although the bill appears to take care of big-ticket items such as another installment on flood protection and replenishing its unemployment trust fund that would secure lower levels of payments to employers (although three other bills poised to move through the legislative process would raise permanently payment levels to the unemployed, wiping out part of this rescue).

Little room for LA schools to encourage religion

There’s not much Ouachita Parish school officials can do to counter charges of unconstitutional school-led prayer at West Monroe’s Riverbend Elementary, except to make the ground as fertile as possible for students to engage in prayer on their own.

Last week, news reports surfaced that the school had allowed at commencement of the school day student-led prayer through its intercom system in conjunction with recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, with officials overseeing a system where a student volunteer would recite it. A complaint worked its way to a special interest group that notified the school that it saw this as an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion, and so the practice has been discontinued.

Unfortunately, there exists a decades-long string of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that backs the group’s opinion. If a government entity facilitates with any of its own resources any activity that would appear to grant religious exercise preference, the Court has ruled this to be an unconstitutional state endorsement of religion.

Easter Sunday, 2022

This column publishes five days weekly after noon U.S. Central Time (maybe even after sundown on busy days, or maybe before noon if things work out, or even sometimes on the weekend if there's big news) except whenever a significant national holiday falls on the Monday through Friday associated with the otherwise-usual publication on the previous day (unless it is Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, Christmas, or New Year's Day when it is the day on which the holiday is observed by the U.S. government). In my opinion, in addition to these are also Easter Sunday, Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.

With Sunday, Apr. 17 being Easter, I invite you to explore this link.

Climate alarmism ready to gouge LA taxpayers

If you think climate realism of Louisiana’s Republican legislative majorities will keep the climate alarmism of Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards from hurting Louisianans, think again.

Earlier this year, Edwards’ task force designed to produce recommendations to force the state into hitting the alarmists’ goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and halfway there by 2035 issued its report. The most drastic measures are dead in the water without cooperation by the Legislature and GOP-majority Public Service Commission, but it outlined plenty of mischief available for perpetration onto the state in the remainder of his term.

Last week, he gave some insight into that by acting on one of the pieces of advice rendered in the report. Upon receipt of the first tranche of funding from the Democrat Pres. Joe Biden Administration (assisted into law by Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy) for electric vehicle (EV) charging station rollout, he announced plans to transitioning the state’s public fleet to low- and zero-emission vehicles by a rolling replacement of state vehicles across all agencies.

Study underscores Edwards pandemic missteps

As other jurisdictions begin to fall prey to repeating folly associated with the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, Louisiana and specifically Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards should learn from his mistakes as highlighted by a new study.

The Committee to Unleash Prosperity recently released a report on the efficacy of measures taken in the pandemic by U.S. states and the District of Columbia. It reviewed both health and economic statistics to rank order states in their responses, where higher grades went to states that endured less economic destruction, reduced educational disruption, and whose citizens suffered fewer deaths (either from the virus or in excess deaths triggered by restrictions). To refine further the explanatory power of policy, the economic indicators were adjusted by composition of state economies (such as Louisiana being more vulnerable due to its reliance on tourism) and by overall state health (such as Louisiana being more vulnerable due to worse lifestyle factors). The authors noted that of these mortality likely was the least likely least affected by policy.

All in all, Louisiana — and by extension Edwards’ policies, since statute permitted little legislative input — didn’t fare badly on the index. It ranked not far below average at 29th, although only Virginia scored worse among southern states. Also of note, of the 28 states ahead of it, only eight didn’t have unified Republican governance and just one didn’t have the GOP in control of at least one branch. By contrast, of the 22 behind, only four had unified Republican control and split control in three, leaving the other 15 under complete dominance of Democrats.

One poll does better in assessing LA officials

I’m not sure what to make of a survey by my alma mater concerning Louisiana’s major statewide elected officials that stood in great contrast with another recent poll of the same figures, or even whether it can tell much meaningfully at all given the characteristics of that effort.

Recently, JMC Analytics completed a poll of 600 statewide likely voters in the period Mar. 21-23, apparently by random interactive voice with about three-quarters coming from cell phones, without a response rate listed. A week later, from Mar. 28-Apr. 1, the University of New Orleans Survey Research Center did the same of 325 statewide registered voters through live interviewing asking for a particular respondent with an unknown distribution of cell phones involved that triggered a response rate of seven percent. Both adjusted sample composition to reflect race, sex, and geography, while JMC also balanced its by partisanship and UNO by age.

The JMC effort asked many more questions and differently, using a five-category Likert ordering by creating “very” and “somewhat” vessels for approval or disapproval to go along with “no opinion.” UNO asked about only those three figures using just response categories of “approve,” “disapprove,” and “don’t know.” (Survey research literature generally considers “don’t know” and “no opinion” as interchangeable methods of preventing neutral answers, which may disguise themselves as actually a respondent not caring, or at least not caring enough about the question to spend the cognitive effort to form and relate an opinion.)

Woke EPA prepares to bully LA processors

Here comes the punch to Louisiana telegraphed a couple of months ago, by an Environmental Protection Agency clearly captured by woke special interests against which the people and their elected officials must fight back.

Last week, the EPA announced it would investigate alleged state agency discrimination against black residents of an area with a large concentration of chemical manufacturers. Like a puppet, the agency parroted flimsy claims made a couple of months ago by a special interest group in the area that the state too cavalierly allowed permits for some facilities (one existing, one planned, and a proposed grain elevator) which provoked an “environmental justice” violation, or an example of an institution by its systemic nature discriminating against racial minorities in its allowing greater pollution where they disproportionately live.

Of course, the “environmental racism” behind this is a notion is a myth, dispelled beginning a quarter-century ago yet which continues in discourse only because its advocates redefine it not as a produce of intent, but of outcome that makes the concept lose its discerning power. More specifically to the case at hand, concerning permit decisions for the existing and planned producers in St. John the Baptist Parish, through a series of dishonest claims beginning with the oft-refuted assertion that people living in so-called “Cancer Alley” have significantly higher rates of cancer, it rears its ugly head. In reality, the best recent study, of plant employees where it contains a proxy for exposure as opposed to others that measure cancer incidence and distance from emission only crudely, confirms no elevated cancer rates.

Peterson bails while left embraces her style

My doctorate isn’t medical, but Democrat former state Sen. Karen Peterson finally took my advice, ironically as the party in which she served in a senior position increasingly has adopted the unhinged style that she practiced in her legislating.

Last week, on the Louisiana Senate floor, Peterson called quits to her 23-year legislative career about 20 months early, citing a decision to focus on her personal life. She publicly has battled gambling addiction, which she attributes to depression.

Some specific incidents in recent years hinted at her personal struggles. In 2016, Peterson went ballistic over a colleague’s birthday cake she called sexist and profanely chewed out its creators and recipient. In 2019, she also became vituperative over her exclusion to admission to a casino, even though being barred being was her idea.