First, a little Republican Party history in Louisiana. After you read this, wonder why we are now (dropped below Mississippi for first time) the poorest state in the country. This now after the Republican Party began running things in Louisiana with the election of its first Republican governor in history, Governor David Treen in 1979. Its been downhill ever since. Trickle down economy isn't so good after all, right fellas? The working man is getting screwed over like a boss.

No. 1 Poorest State in country: Louisiana

Median Household Income: $40,300

Unemployment Rate: 6.2%


The Republican Party of Louisiana was established as the "Friends of Universal Suffrage" on November 4, 1865, by a group of mixed whites, free blacks, and freedmen led by Benjamin Flanders.[1]

The party has shown in recent decades the resurgence characteristic of other southern Republican state parties. From the Reconstruction era to the early 1950s, no Republican won a single electoral vote in any Louisiana presidential election; however, the state went for Republican presidential candidate Dwight David Eisenhower in 1956, the first of nine Republican presidential victories in the state among the 14 presidential campaigns from 1956 to 2008 inclusive. Louisiana's U.S. House delegation has overall had a Republican tilt since the 1990s, and party membership has incrementally increased in both houses of the Louisiana legislature[2] as well as in other political offices around the state. Republicans have held the Louisiana governorship most of the time since election of David C. Treen to that office in 1979, no Republican having been elected governor prior to 1979 since William Pitt Kellogg during the Reconstruction era. Charlton Lyons had made the first serious Republican gubernatorial campaign in 1964 and drew a then record 37.5 percent of the general election vote.[3]

Another major breakthrough occurred in 2004 when David Vitter, a U.S. representative, became Louisiana's first Republican to be elected United States Senator since the Reconstruction era. As of 2010 the Republican Party holds all of the statewide elected offices which include Governor Bobby Jindal, Lieutenant Governor Jay Dardenne, Secretary of State Tom Schedler, State Treasurer John Neely Kennedy, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, Commissioner of Agriculture & Forestry Mike Strain, and Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon. A milestone of sorts was achieved in 2009 when election of Republican former U.S. Representative Clyde C. Holloway to the Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC), which regulates utility companies, gave that body its first-ever Republican majority. In 2010,Republicans gained majority of both houses of the Louisiama state legislature. Prior to 2010, Republicans had not controlled either Louisiana legislative house since Reconstruction.[4]

You should move to NY state. I hear the democrats are doing wonderful things there and the money is flowing in the streets.

Political heresy or are you possibly suggesting that people should be using the money that is already allocated in our national budget by United States Public Law 88-452, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, to expand educational opportunities or possibly even learn a trade to raise above the poverty and adding millions to the coffers in tax revenue.? That could save our economy millions if not billions in law enforcement, incarceration and “rehabilitation” instead of a cradle to grave expectation or what is viewed by many as an “entitlement” of public assistance?

I don’t think anyone views public assistance programs as a bad thing, bad things happen to good people and they might need temporary assistance to get thru a tough spot, that’s fine and is what these programs should be about. But when you have so many impoverished people with really no “skin in the game” that really don’t care that the house down the street from you just sold for $30,000 less than you owe on yours or that our aging infrastructure (roads, bridges, buildings) are crumbling and your “life savings” 401, investments are losing money hand over fist, something has to give.

Now I know not all Democrats are “Hippy left wing extremists” and not all Republicans are “Nazi right wing zealots” but we really need some political middle ground that's grounded in common sense and not tainted by party politics, social bias or our religious partialities. But alas we bicker and quote verses on forums about the evil of homosexuals, females, our eroding freedoms or vent vindictive assessments of our current administration. If it is a scape goat you really need, politically, socially or spiritually - look at the guy in the mirror first and look hard – he may not know the answer but he’s a good place to start.


No feelings where intentionally hurt by this post and it maybe construed as a wall of words or off topic – but hey it’s my take and not an internet regurgitation, besides there is no gun to anyone’s head that says you have to agree with or even read it.

Sent from my beeper

Damn strong post, Baron Von

Well Dean I have yet to look at how we compare to other states. I will say this when Jindal took office he had a 1billion dollar surplus and now in his last year he is facing a 1.6 billion deficit in the budget. Nearly a 3 billion swing in 8 years. I agree Jindal has dropped the ball. To be fair though Blanco lost money during her tenure as well.

Looking forward to the election coming up, I see 4 main candidates that could possibly be elected. 1 democrat an 3 republicans. At this point I could care less as to their political affiliation and just want someone in there that puts Louisiana on a better path. The cuts to higher Ed will not allow for a sustainable university system. Also the cuts made to saving the coast is another great concern of mine. Actually many topics with this state have me concerned and hope that we can elect a leader that has a better game plan then the past few administrations have implemented.

If you think Republicans are not upset you are a fool!

I would like to see stats on welfare (medicare, medicaid, food stamps, public housing, subsidies, etc.) versus the tax revenue.

Maybe that might give a much better picture of the situation as opposed to whether there is an (R) or a (D) after some clown's name.......

After Jindal's cuts in education we will probably have the most underfunded secondary education system in the country, too. It's as though he is out to punish his own state in some masochisic sense.

We pay more money per student than any nation in the world and yet we fall in world education standings every year.

Out schools do not need more money. They need discipline, to get rid of teachers unions, to get back to basics of education. Get rid of the sex education, the pro homosexual indoctrination, and all of the fluff.

My daughters attend a small private school where the teachers do not even get paid. They are volunteer. A couple years back, they had the highest ACT average in the state.

Look at where our education was in the 1950s, and see how high we were. Back then the local government, state government, and parents ran the school. Go back to what works.

RangerP: it's a complex topic. As I see it we are seeing the results of years of hide and seek with the local education tax dollar and the legacy of outright discrimination in education. I'll spare the details, but it's going to take at least another 100 years before we see true equality of education because in that time there will have been enough blending of our peoples socially and genetically that race won't much matter anymore. That, my friend will be a wonderful day.

At least your Tabasco sauce still kicks ass!!

Dean. If blanco were still the governor right now u would be taking up for her. Do everyone a favor and shut the fuck up.

I would love to see u with a genetically blended grandchild.

So it seems Guidry believes more money would fix the problem!?!

That sounds like typical politician talk and not seeing the real issue. As RangerP stated,,,"back in the day" we were much better off.

Question is, Dean,,,Do you think they have more money back then?

You seem all for Government rooting more deeply into all levels of education? Can you see how that has cause the issues that persist today?

Hell,,i can remember getting a good ass whooping at school when doing wrong! Now, a principal would go to jail for that, and you have kids in middle schools with "Ankle Bracelets" and pregnant at 14yr old.

Want another example - Georgia

Obama pussified our Air Force in 2011 by totally canceling the F-22 Raptor - built in Georgia - the same year Nathan Deal (Republican) a former Democrat who crossed over and held a US Rep seat for a decade was elected the new Governor of Georgia...

Oh yeah I said pussified our Air Force because the entire F-22 Raptor series including spare parts availability were scrapped by Obama personally in 2011. Since then Russia has fully surpassed our existing fleet with latest generation Migs that they are about to begin selling to our friends like Syria, Iran, Iraq, etc along with anti-aircraft batteries as effective as our Patriot batteries too - that can bring down the majority of our older fleet of fighters.....

The replacement F-35 JSF is still 2 years from delivery and has nowhere near the Raptors capability and was totally compromised when China hacked the plans out from under the Obama Pentagon anyway...

A short trip to the good old days of corporal punishment and public humiliation sounds like a good idea, but do we really need other people to discipline our children? We need to be providing a good base product for our schools in order for them to deliver a better finished result. Yes we can bury our heads in the sand, like in the good old days and pretend sex isn’t going to happen and subjects like birth control and sexually communicable diseases will no longer be applicable after we put a stop to any sex education, just like they did in the good old days? If we aren’t instilling self-disciple into our own children – a gym teacher sure as hell isn’t going to be able to beat it into them.

The idea of such an idealistic utopic humanity in only 100 years is very optimistic and puts more faith in humanity than I have. It is good to see some people still have confidence in the ability of humans to evolve and learn from past mistakes to make a better tomorrow. The vision you have of a harmonic and hopeful future could be one of the reasons you produced some highly academically, socially and professionally successful children – a fact that is conveniently overlooked by “pitchfork nation” and your comments and advice about the reality of butting heads and confrontation with male children seem to go unnoticed, but not by all.


So where does this leave all of us who are stuck with the reality that is our public schools? The idea of pouring more money into our public schools is also optimistic, we want to believe the money will be used to attract the new breed of talented, dynamic and professional public servant someone who will prepare our children for a better life, a teacher. But if we don’t have good managers and administrators in place this is also destined to fail. I cannot even answer the question I led this paragraph off with, but I’m not going to stop trying.

....3 children not 2.

.

I can only talk about our local schools and what has happened. Within a 25 mile radius there are seven very large Catholic schools and several independent private schools, denominational and non denominational. Two parishes (we call counties parishes here in Louisiana) in Louisiana, Jeffereson and Pointe Coupee are in the top 10 of all parishes in the country on a list of percentages of student who attend private schools: almost 40%. Louisiana is third overall behind number 1 Hawaii and no 2 Delaware, but in total numbers we are no 1. So to beggin with most of the brightest and good students attend private schools because of the strong Catholic tradition to do so. However, many send their students the these schools for other reasons. The public schools languish in what remains having to deal with the baddest and academically ill prepared. White fight has degraded the tac bases so much here that some schools rot while others, predominantly white get better facilities. Until this last superintendent in Lafayette Parish was canned for suspect reasons, Northside Highschool, the predominantly black school in the district had been severely neglected. It took the superintendent's resolve and threats of Federal intervention to correct the disparity. This was only 3 years ago. How can a public school system foster good learning environments when they can't even allocate money fairly within their own district. It's a total embarrassment. The superintendent hired a swat team of professional educators for Northside to improve its scores and discipline. It worked for a while until she resigned because the improvements was causing some to become uncomfortable with the control she had been given and pulled in the reins. She resigned.

In the end it had everything to do with race and nothing to do with education.

Dean writes "In the end it had everything to do with race and nothing to do with education."

Well no sh*t! It's like that here in SC. The low life scum here that doesn't want to get an education destroys the expensive schools we build and then, the overpaid, Mercedes driving, mostly black district supervisors scream racism because their schools are wrecked and no one can read, etc. One district supervisor here makes $180,000 and it is the lowest ranking district in the state. I watched a school board meeting on the news in this district and it looked like a Tarzan movie.
Deano, you nailed it. "...everything to do with race and nothing to do with education".

Unfortunately all subjects that we discuss or are covered by the media have to have a racial component to get any coverage – real or perceived. It has gone as far as not releasing the description of suspects because it may cause racial bias. My word have we not even progressed to the point that we cannot be trusted to make our own rational conclusions that not all black folks are criminals and all white folks are not racists?

Meaning only apply a little common sense once in a while, maybe the best man for a particular job is a woman and what is good for white folks isn’t always good for black folks and vis versa? How about what is best for ALL folks, some give a little here and some give a little there without hurting anyone’s feelings?

I guess race is it what sells nowadays so we’re stuck with it, the good, the bad and the ugly.

BLJosh nailed it! We throw money at the schools and they tear them up with no accountability and cri for more. The funds should be allocated equally and if the school squanders it or gets run down the director should be fired! Problem is the unions don’t want accountability because then there would be no reason for the unions. Like the old America, if you don’t produce you’re fired works. What we have now does not. Somebody has to teach the kids respect before they will learn anything academically. Throwing money at the system does nothing without discipline!
If we are going to let our kids run around like little monkeys and destroy things they will grow up to be big monkeys. Race has nothing to do with discipline, without it any race can/will be a monkey!

Also stop handing out money and people will go to work. Poor is a perception! If you don't work and strive to be better you are poor and should be. That's ok if that what you want, this is America. But if you want to work and improve you'll never be poor, cause this is America

That's right...

Couple days ago I passed a tent on the side the road with a "Free Phone" sign!!! Had at least 40 people gathered around like animals!

Do you think if that tent would have said "Phones for small jobs" would they still be pulled up like that???? Hell no!! They want the phone of course!!! But refuse and will not work for it! They will go without before working for it!!

Let me tell ya'll something: Unleash any Junior League of Women to take charge of a school system and the problems will be solved. That organization of women is so efficient and effective at what they do it would solve lots of problems in our school system if they were in charge.

Objection, your Honor. The last post is incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial

Hillary Clinton is a POS and probably did nothing unless it paid or furthered her agenda. As for the rest of DC they're not much better and could all go to hell except a few. Obama is right there with her, I wouldn't piss on either if they were on fire. Happy Friday