From the Advocate:
Every appointment that Gov. Bobby Jindal has made since he took office in January is in jeopardy because he has not forwarded their names for Senate confirmation.
The appointments by Jindal for 437 jobs — including his top aides — will no longer be valid and they will have to stop working as of June 23, when the legislative session adjourns, according to the state law governing the confirmation process.
That's our Rhodes scholar governor for you. People say he is smart, a whiz. Show me, guvna.
Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman state Sen. Bob Kostelka, R-Monroe, asked Jimmy Faircloth, the governor’s executive counsel, Wednesday to send the official list.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, the list still had not arrived.
The Senate cannot confirm Jindal’s appointees until the list arrives, Kostelka said.
....
The panel conducts background checks on the appointees to make sure there are no criminal, tax or other problems in their personal histories. In addition, the names are circulated among senators to see if the senators have a problem with any of the appointees. Senators can blackball an appointee.
Jindal did not respond to four requests for an interview placed through his press secretary, Melissa Sellers.
Is there a plan here? Does the Jindal administration know something that the chairman of the committee doesn't know? Will he send the whole list at the last minute in the hope that the committee will rush the appointees through? Many questions, few answers. And Melissa Sellers is no help at all. Circle the wagons, and hunker down is the order of the day, every day. It appears that the defensive posture is not only for the press, but for the Senate, too. What if a humble citizen wanted information? One can only imagine the horror with which that would be viewed within the administration.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Computer Trouble
I was having trouble with my computer. So I called Eric, the 11 year old next door, whose bedroom looks like Mission Control and asked him to come over. Eric clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.
As he was walking away, I called after him, "So, what was wrong?" He replied, "It was an ID ten T error."
I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, "An, ID ten T error? What's that? In case I need to fix it again."
Eric grinned.... "Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?"
"No," I replied.
"Write it down," he said, "and I think you'll figure it out."
So I wrote down: I D 1 0 T
I used to like Eric...
I know. I make those errors all the time. Would this joke be better with the last two lines omitted?
Doug again. Is he trying to tell me something?
As he was walking away, I called after him, "So, what was wrong?" He replied, "It was an ID ten T error."
I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, "An, ID ten T error? What's that? In case I need to fix it again."
Eric grinned.... "Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?"
"No," I replied.
"Write it down," he said, "and I think you'll figure it out."
So I wrote down: I D 1 0 T
I used to like Eric...
I know. I make those errors all the time. Would this joke be better with the last two lines omitted?
Doug again. Is he trying to tell me something?
Friday, June 6, 2008
Sazerac Gets Another Chance
For those of you who have followed the saga of the Sazerac cocktail, here's the latest on the Louisiana Legislature's most recent activity.
From the Times-Picayune:
BATON ROUGE -- The Sazerac, a drink invented in New Orleans in the 1830s, was put back on track Thursday to being designated the state's official cocktail by a legislative panel that also nixed designating an official Cajun Christmas story.
The House Judiciary Committee voted 8-3 for Senate Bill 6 by Sen. Edwin Murray, D-New Orleans, to make the drink the state's official cocktail after it bogged down for weeks in the Senate. To keep the bill alive, Murray amended it to designate the Sazerac as the official cocktail of the city of New Orleans, but the House panel re-instated its statewide designation.
Then the legislators balked, and drew the line in the sand.
Along those lines, the committee unanimously rejected Senate Bill 434 by Sen. Dale Erdey, R-Livingston, that would have made "The Legend of Papa Noel, a Cajun Christmas Story," the state's official Cajun Christmas story.
When the legislators are engaged in this sort of foolishness, they create the least mischief.
If you're interested, the other posts are here and here.
Now You know - Or Do You?
From the New York Times:
WASHINGTON — A top adviser to Senator John McCain says Mr. McCain believes that President Bush’s program of wiretapping without warrants was lawful, a position that appears to bring him into closer alignment with the sweeping theories of executive authority pushed by the Bush administration legal team.
Skip to next paragraph
In a letter posted online by National Review this week, the adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said Mr. McCain believed that the Constitution gave Mr. Bush the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and e-mail without warrants, despite a 1978 federal statute that required court oversight of surveillance.
How can the Constitution give the president the power to break the law? Here's McCain six months ago:
Mr. McCain was asked whether he believed that the president had constitutional power to conduct surveillance on American soil for national security purposes without a warrant, regardless of federal statutes.
He replied: “There are some areas where the statutes don’t apply, such as in the surveillance of overseas communications. Where they do apply, however, I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is.”
Following up, the interviewer asked whether Mr. McCain was saying a statute trumped a president’s powers as commander in chief when it came to a surveillance law. “I don’t think the president has the right to disobey any law,” Mr. McCain replied.
Which is it Senator McCain? Why the flip-flop? The Straight-Talk Express is off the rails. Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for McCain's campaign, says the senator's position has not changed.
I report; you decide.
WASHINGTON — A top adviser to Senator John McCain says Mr. McCain believes that President Bush’s program of wiretapping without warrants was lawful, a position that appears to bring him into closer alignment with the sweeping theories of executive authority pushed by the Bush administration legal team.
Skip to next paragraph
In a letter posted online by National Review this week, the adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, said Mr. McCain believed that the Constitution gave Mr. Bush the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor Americans’ international phone calls and e-mail without warrants, despite a 1978 federal statute that required court oversight of surveillance.
How can the Constitution give the president the power to break the law? Here's McCain six months ago:
Mr. McCain was asked whether he believed that the president had constitutional power to conduct surveillance on American soil for national security purposes without a warrant, regardless of federal statutes.
He replied: “There are some areas where the statutes don’t apply, such as in the surveillance of overseas communications. Where they do apply, however, I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is.”
Following up, the interviewer asked whether Mr. McCain was saying a statute trumped a president’s powers as commander in chief when it came to a surveillance law. “I don’t think the president has the right to disobey any law,” Mr. McCain replied.
Which is it Senator McCain? Why the flip-flop? The Straight-Talk Express is off the rails. Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for McCain's campaign, says the senator's position has not changed.
I report; you decide.
Catholic Parrots
A lady goes to her priest one day and tells him, 'Father, I have a problem. I have two female parrots,
But they only know how to say one thing.'
'What do they say?' the priest inquired.
They say, 'Hi, we're hookers! Do you want to have some fun?'
'That's obscene!' the priest exclaimed. Then he thought for a moment. 'You know,' he said, 'I may have a solution to your problem. I have two male talking parrots, which I have taught to pray and read the Bible. Bring your two parrots over to my house, and we'll put them in the cage with Frank and Peter. My parrots can teach your parrots to praise and worship, And your parrots are sure to stop saying...that phrase...in no time.'
'Thank you,' the woman responded, 'this may very well be the solution.'
The next day, She brought her female parrots to the priest's house. As he ushered her in, she saw that his two male parrots were inside their cage holding rosary beads and praying. Impressed, She walked over and placed her parrots in with them. After a few minutes, the female parrots cried out in unison:
'Hi, we're hookers! Do you want to have some fun?'
There was stunned silence. Shocked, one male parrot looked over at the other male parrot and exclaimed, 'Put the beads away, Frank. Our prayers have been answered!'
Thursday, June 5, 2008
From Grandpère's Garden
Missing from the picture are bell peppers and corn. We forgot the bell peppers, and we had eaten all the ripe corn. He picks the tomatoes when they are just short of being fully ripened, because a mocking bird is after them. He tries leaving those she/he has already pecked a hole in on the plants, but she goes after tomatoes she has not touched. It's a battle between them.
Squirrels were taking whole ears of ripened corn off the stalks - and they knew the ripe ones. Grandpère set the squirrel trap (they do not harm the squirrels) and caught two and carried them into the woods near us to release them. No more problems with the corn. I wouldn't have thought the small squirrels could carry off a whole ear of corn.
We feed birds in our yard, but squirrels get their share of the bird food, and sometimes we are overrun with too many of the little critters. The fresh produce is delicious, out of this world. There's nothing like it.
Toilet Trouble On The Space Station
From Yahoo News:
HOUSTON - The international space station's toilet trouble appeared to be taken care of Wednesday after a Russian cosmonaut replaced a malfunctioning pump.
The space station's toilet broke two weeks ago. The problem — confined to the urine side of the commode — forced the orbiting outpost's crew of an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts to flush manually with extra water several times a day.
Better the urine side than the other side. The Discovery delivered a replacement pump which Oleg Kononenko installed and tested.
The toilet worked normally. It transports urine via air flow to the pump, which separates the gas and liquid.
"Let's start using it," Russian Mission Control told Kononenko, one of the two Russians living aboard the space station. "We'll keep our fingers crossed."
Kononenko was asked to give periodic reports on how the toilet was working.
Please report. We need to know. I'm sure that the inhabitants of the station are relieved.
HOUSTON - The international space station's toilet trouble appeared to be taken care of Wednesday after a Russian cosmonaut replaced a malfunctioning pump.
The space station's toilet broke two weeks ago. The problem — confined to the urine side of the commode — forced the orbiting outpost's crew of an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts to flush manually with extra water several times a day.
Better the urine side than the other side. The Discovery delivered a replacement pump which Oleg Kononenko installed and tested.
The toilet worked normally. It transports urine via air flow to the pump, which separates the gas and liquid.
"Let's start using it," Russian Mission Control told Kononenko, one of the two Russians living aboard the space station. "We'll keep our fingers crossed."
Kononenko was asked to give periodic reports on how the toilet was working.
Please report. We need to know. I'm sure that the inhabitants of the station are relieved.
My Friend Trudy
Yesterday, my friend Trudy was featured in the "Adventures in Reading" series in the "Living" (as opposed to the dead?) section of the Times-Picayune:
TRUDY McFARLAND
Co-owner of The Pearl Restaurant and retired librarian
Yes, another librarian. As Lisa at My Manner of Life observes, we librarians are all hotties. Katrina and the federal flood drowned two of Trudy's houses in Lakeview in New Orleans, her own and a rental house across the street. She had a rough time of it afterwards, and somehow we lost touch. I had no phone number nor email address. I had her home address, but I never got around to writing. Shame on me. It never occurred to me to call her at the restaurant. How silly of me.
Trudy and I met in Santa Fe at a Jane Austen conference a good many years ago. (Note: there are quite a few crazies who attend these conferences, along with the nominally sane. We classed ourselves with the nominally sane and stayed together.) She and another Jane fan from New Orleans and I hung out during the conference, and they took me along on a ride in a rental car to Taos and to visit the Native Ameircan Pueblos nearby.
As I told Paul, the BB, who loves his desert home, I believe that, like a swamp plant, I would die if I had to move to the desert. My apologies to all those who love the desert, Santa Fe, and Taos. The magic didn't happen for me, nor for my two new friends from New Orleans. We were wilting in the desert.
As for the Pueblos, the buildings were amazing, but it was one of the most depressing places I have ever been. Perhaps the sadness of generations of Native Americans hovers over them. I know a little of how strong the sense of place is to Native Americans and of the sacredness of the burial places of their ancestors, so many of which have been destroyed by the European newcomers who preyed upon them. It seemed a little obscene to visit as tourist and gawk.
But I digress. Back to the Trudy in the newspaper:
Have you ever had a romantic encounter that was generated by a book? Once, on a first date, the man walked in and I had a beautiful dog and he said, "What's her name?" I said, "Glencora." And he reached down to pet her and he said, "Glencora, have you found your Burgo Fitzgerald yet?"
And I thought 'Hmmm,' a successful businessman who reads Trollope. I was extremely impressed. We dated for about a year.
I would have been impressed, too, but for that to have happened to me, I would have had to name a pet after a character in a Trollope novel. My pet names turn out to be pretty pedestrian. We had one cat named "Boy", I suppose simply because he was a male.
Is there a writer who has shaped your way of seeing the world? Jane Austen has. But I've been reading her through so many years of my life -- from age 12 or 13 -- that sometimes I have trouble separating her sensibilities from mine.
Yes, absolutely. I'd say the same.
Jane's characters move me. I understand them. I understand their lives, their motivations. And then on top of that, she makes me laugh. I have a weakness for people who make me laugh.
Again, in that we are soul sisters. If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know that I have a weakness for people who make me laugh.
And now, I am going to call my friend.
TRUDY McFARLAND
Co-owner of The Pearl Restaurant and retired librarian
Yes, another librarian. As Lisa at My Manner of Life observes, we librarians are all hotties. Katrina and the federal flood drowned two of Trudy's houses in Lakeview in New Orleans, her own and a rental house across the street. She had a rough time of it afterwards, and somehow we lost touch. I had no phone number nor email address. I had her home address, but I never got around to writing. Shame on me. It never occurred to me to call her at the restaurant. How silly of me.
Trudy and I met in Santa Fe at a Jane Austen conference a good many years ago. (Note: there are quite a few crazies who attend these conferences, along with the nominally sane. We classed ourselves with the nominally sane and stayed together.) She and another Jane fan from New Orleans and I hung out during the conference, and they took me along on a ride in a rental car to Taos and to visit the Native Ameircan Pueblos nearby.
As I told Paul, the BB, who loves his desert home, I believe that, like a swamp plant, I would die if I had to move to the desert. My apologies to all those who love the desert, Santa Fe, and Taos. The magic didn't happen for me, nor for my two new friends from New Orleans. We were wilting in the desert.
As for the Pueblos, the buildings were amazing, but it was one of the most depressing places I have ever been. Perhaps the sadness of generations of Native Americans hovers over them. I know a little of how strong the sense of place is to Native Americans and of the sacredness of the burial places of their ancestors, so many of which have been destroyed by the European newcomers who preyed upon them. It seemed a little obscene to visit as tourist and gawk.
But I digress. Back to the Trudy in the newspaper:
Have you ever had a romantic encounter that was generated by a book? Once, on a first date, the man walked in and I had a beautiful dog and he said, "What's her name?" I said, "Glencora." And he reached down to pet her and he said, "Glencora, have you found your Burgo Fitzgerald yet?"
And I thought 'Hmmm,' a successful businessman who reads Trollope. I was extremely impressed. We dated for about a year.
I would have been impressed, too, but for that to have happened to me, I would have had to name a pet after a character in a Trollope novel. My pet names turn out to be pretty pedestrian. We had one cat named "Boy", I suppose simply because he was a male.
Is there a writer who has shaped your way of seeing the world? Jane Austen has. But I've been reading her through so many years of my life -- from age 12 or 13 -- that sometimes I have trouble separating her sensibilities from mine.
Yes, absolutely. I'd say the same.
Jane's characters move me. I understand them. I understand their lives, their motivations. And then on top of that, she makes me laugh. I have a weakness for people who make me laugh.
Again, in that we are soul sisters. If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know that I have a weakness for people who make me laugh.
And now, I am going to call my friend.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
"Being There"
If you are not regularly reading Barkings of an Old Dog, you are missing very good to brilliant posts. I recommend especially his recent posts, Being There, a conversation between KJS and Rowan, the Gardner, and "Lambeth Calling", a song. It happens that my name is mentioned in one of them, but that has nothing to do with the recommendation.
Clumber is an amazingly clever old dog.
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