Just being mean on purpose

The majority of your legislators are just mean people who are motivated entirely by a politics of being mean. 

All but one of the Republican members present on a House committee voted Tuesday to end the “Raise the Age” law that keep 17-year-old arrestees from being imprisoned with adult convicts.

On a 6-5 vote, the House Committee for the Administration of Criminal Justice advanced for a full House vote Senate Bill 418, which the state Senate already has passed. “Raise the Age” law was approved with great fanfare allowing Louisiana to join 47 states that put most 17-year-old offenders in the juvenile justice system.

Article goes on to report that Rep. Marcus Bryant pointed out that this means throwing minors who have merely been arrested into cells with adults who have been convicted of serious crimes.  That may sound bad to normal people, but it is absolutely a thing these jerks are doing on purpose. 

Similarly,

For the second consecutive year the Louisiana Legislature on Monday approved and sent to the governor a bill that would bar transgender athletes from competing in girls and women's sports.

The Senate voted 32-6 to go along with minor changes made in the House last week after the Senate endorsed it in April 19.

There was no debate Monday.

The House approved the measure last week 72-21.

The proposal, by Senate President Pro Tem Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, is Senate Bill 44.

John Bel vetoed that same bill last year calling it "a solution in search of a problem that does not exist in Louisiana."  There were no transgender students attempting to participate in girls' sports teams at the time.  I don't know if there are any such cases this year. Regardless, our legislators are determined to be mean to them. And that's really the "problem" they are trying to "solve."  They need an excuse to be mean and this gives them one. 

There are material reasons this sort of politics gains ascendancy. But the immediate goal of this politics is to be mean.

Woke Billy's bad ideas

Billy Nungesser spoke to the Baton Rouge press club this week.  Times-Picayune reporter Julia O'Donoghue was there and got a couple of  articles out of it. The first is mildly positive.. if you don't think about it too much.

Republican Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser said Louisiana should avoid approving laws that restrict the LGBTQ community because it would damage Louisiana’s ability to host major sporting events, such as the Super Bowl and Sugar Bowl, and deter tourists from coming to the state.

“It’s something we should absolutely steer clear of for the greater good of Louisiana,” said Nungesser in response to a question from a reporter at the Baton Rouge Press Club Monday (Jan. 14). The lieutenant governor, who identifies as a conservative, oversees public tourism and marketing funding for Louisiana.

On the one hand, Billy is right.  Louisiana definitely should not enact laws that antagonize, restrict the rights, or impugn the decency of LGBTQ people. That isn't hard to agree with.  On the other hand, Billy seems to have had at least some difficulty getting there since he needs to predicate his moral judgement upon the imperative to make sure tourism magnates don't lose any money. None of this is a question of fundamental justice for Billy. It's just business. Luckily The Market happens to favor the good in this case.

In other cases, though, it does not.

Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser doesn’t think New Orleans hotel tax revenue should be redirected from state marketing, tourism and sports-related organizations to deal with the city’s drainage issues.

His perspective, which he shared with the Baton Rouge Press Club on Monday (Jan. 14), puts him at odds with Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who is seeking more revenue to make sure the city doesn’t flood as often, but in line with several state level officials, including Gov. John Bel Edwards and Senate President John Alario, the state’s most powerful legislator.

“I don’t think the answer is taking tourism money,” said Nungesser, a Republican whose oversees Louisiana’s public marketing and tourism funding. “I don’t think taking their money solves anything.”

We think "taking their money" to use Billy's less than accurate phrasing, is one way to begin solving the mounting infrastructure crisis that affects all of us. But Billy's big social conscience deflates real fast when it looks like some wealthy hoteliers might not suck up quite as much money quite so quickly.  I mean he's literally worried about not being able to fund a marketing campaign instead of, say, clean water.

Nungesser said other areas have experienced problems after they cut state support for tourism. He specifically mentioned Denver, which he said saw a drop in visitors when it cut down on the money it pumped into advertising and other programs meant to attract tourists.

Pretty sure people will still want to visit New Orleans even after we stop paying the Stephen Perrys of the world half a million dollars to sit around coming up with #FollowYourNOLA hashtags. In Billy's estimation, though, this is a far better use of public funds than... public parks and museums.

He says he wants to get to a point where no tax dollars are used to support state parks and museums. #lalege #lagov https://t.co/OLPD5PeYP4

— Julia O'Donoghue (@JSODonoghue) January 14, 2019

At least we're pretty sure that even after we privatize our state parks for development as luxury resorts or whatever, those resort properties will not have discriminatory bathroom policies.... unless that ends up being better for business, of course.

Governor Landry's crusade against teh gays

Did anyone ask John Kennedy if this litigation was a good use of the state's time and money? Seems like we could buy a lot of art for the cost of Landry's pursuit of making people miserable. 

A Baton Rouge judge has thrown out Gov. John Bel Edwards' executive order protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in state government, declaring it unlawful.

"The effect of [the executive order's] adoption and implementation, creates new and/or expands upon existing Louisiana law as opposed to directing the faithful execution of the existing law of this state," wrote Judge Todd Hernandez in his ruling Wednesday (Dec. 14).

The ruling also has larger implications for the balance of power between the governor and attorney general moving forward in Louisiana. The judge's decision is expected to be appealed to a higher court almost immediately.

Both Edwards and Attorney General Jeff Landry had sued each other this fall over the governor's protections for LGBT state workers and contractors. The attorney general had asked the court to throw out all the LGBT protections, though he then narrowed his request to target mostly the transgender protections last week.

Maybe we can charge it all back to Landry's campaign fund when he runs for Governor. 

Jeff Landry is only freaked out about this one thing

Weird, huh.

It is also not clear how broad Landry's complaint about the LGBT protections might be. In court Tuesday, his legal team said he only has concerns about the provisions that apply to transgender people, not the protections for gay people and same-sex couples.

At one point, they implied that if the governor's protections had been limited to gay, lesbian and bisexual people, the two might not have landed in court. "This whole case is about gender identity, not sexual orientation," said Chester Cedars, a lawyer for the Department of Justice who spoke for Landry Tuesday.

The governor's team was skeptical of that claim however. They said Landry filed the lawsuit against the governor to get the entire LGBT executive order thrown out, not just the part that applied to transgender people. Landry has also resisted including protections for the gay community in his own agency and state contracts, signaling he isn't interested in a more restricted policy.

"If you read over their pleadings, they want the whole thing dismissed," said Matthew Block, general counsel for the governor's office.

Governor Landry wins a round

The judge says, actually,  Governor Landry can overrule Governor Edwards if he wants to.  

Attorney General Jeff Landry can reject dozens of state legal contracts because they include language preventing discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people -- among other reasons, according to a Baton Rouge state court ruling Monday (Oct. 17).

Judge Donald Johnson, of the 19th Judicial District Court, determined Gov. John Bel Edwards does not have the right to sue Landry and force the attorney general to approve legal contracts with a LGBT nondiscrimination provision Landry finds objectionable.

The judge said state law is hazy about whether Landry or Edwards has the final word over legal contracts, which made granting the governor's wishes for forcing the Landry's hand on the contracts difficult.

"I believe that the law is uncertain -- and it does not provide the court with a clear path," Johnson said from the bench, adding: "The court denies the request of our governor."

The governor's office said they will either appeal the court's decision or file a new lawsuit that might use a different type of legal angle to get the contracts past the attorney general. Either way, they don't plan to take LGBT workplace protections out of legal contracts until other avenues have been exhausted first. But the process could take months, bringing some areas of state government to a grinding halt.

A "grinding halt." Just because Governor Landry and friends feel like being mean to teh gayszz.  Earlier today, Governor Landry's pals signed a letter attesting to their own status as deplorable basketcases themselves. There's a list of them here. It includes two of the highest ranking Republicans in the legislature.

Two of them are members of the House Republican leadership. State Rep. Lance Harris, R-Alexandria, is head of the House Republican caucus and Rep. Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.