Isaac Aims At New Orleans

The danger to the GOP convention has mostly ended as Isaac sets its sights on the Gulf coast. Wednesday, the day the storm is forecast to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, is the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina slamming into New Orleans.

Hurricane warnings have been issued for portions of the northern Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Isaac continues its west-northwestward march into the Gulf of Mexico. Isaac poses a potential serious threat to portions of the northern Gulf Coast Tuesday into Wednesday. All interests from Louisiana to Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle should watch the progress of Isaac closely and begin to make preparations. Even areas as far west as extreme southeast Texas should continue to monitor Isaac's progress in case a farther west track materializes. Hurricane warnings have been issued from just east of Morgan City, La. to Destin, Fla. This includes New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulf Shores, Pensacola Beach, and the Destin/Ft. Walton Beach area. Hurricane watches are now posted as far west to Morgan City, La.

LOUISIANA: House GOP Rep Calls For Ending College LGBT Studies Minor

Louisiana's University of LaFayette has begun offering a minor in LGBT Studies. And that makes wingnut GOP House Rep. Jeff Landry very unhappy.

In a letter addressed to UL's President, Dr. Joseph Savoie, Landry request that the university eliminate the new program. As a proud alumnus, Landry says he been so grateful of the education he received at UL, but he is concerned if future graduates will be able say the same. In the letter Landry ask the program be dropped because quote "it fails to provide an economic benefit to the participants or financial sense for the taxpayer" end quote. The University of Lafayette offers around 100 different minors such as African-American studies, Cajun and Creole studies, Latin American studies, and religious studies. According to President Savoie, the LGBT minor did not require budgetary allocations or divert resources from other areas.

Landry is a freshman member of House, part of the 2010 Tea Party wave. His Wikipedia entry notes that he is a member of the Knights of Columbus and the NRA.

LOUISIANA: Gay Man Brutally Beaten With Billiards Cue Stick In Hate Crime Attack

Yesterday a 52 year-old gay man suffered grievous facial injuries after a patron at a Shreveport, Louisiana bar attacked him with a billiards cue stick because he is gay. Witnesses say the two men hadn't even spoken before the attack.

Security personnel at the Sandbar held the alleged attacker, William Payne until police arrived. Payne was arrested and charged with attempted 2nd degree murder and the commission of a hate crime. "It was totally 100 percent a hate crime for this sexual orientation," said Sandbar manager Tim Huck. The bar provided police with video surveillance. Huck says it's disturbing, and shows Payne who is a large man, breaking the cue stick over victim John Skaggs' face with one powerful blow. "His hand was all the way back, and he's swinging like a baseball bat, after three aggressive steps in," said Huck. Shreveport police believe that the video will be powerful evidence of the alleged attack, and management at the Sandbar believes it will also help distinguish between a crime and a hate crime. "At no point in time had he talked to the man that attacked him, bumped him. After watching the video and from witnesses they hadn't even made any form of eye contact or anything," said Huck.

The bar manager says the victim was a regular patron who "never bothers anyone."

(Tipped by JMG reader Rick)

The Oil Spill After One Year?

A simulation by the University of Hawaii.

LOUISIANA: Gov. Bobby Jindal Signs Bill Allowing Guns In Church

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed a bill allowing people to bring firearms into church. Just in case somebody wants to go crazy during Jeebus-time.

[The] bill would authorize persons who qualified to carry concealed weapons having passed the training and background checks to bring them to churches, mosques, synagogues or other houses of worship as part of a security force. The pastor or head of the religious institution must announce verbally or in weekly newsletters or bulletins that there will be individuals armed on the property as members of he security force. Those chosen have to undergo eight hours of tactical training each year. Burns' original bill was killed by a Senate committee but he tacked its provisions onto a related bill that started out changing the period to have a concealed weapon permit from four years to five years at a cost of $25 a year. Burns contended that religious institutions in crime-ridden or "declining neighborhoods" need the added protection to ward off thieves and muggers.

Jindal also signed a bill requiring women to get an ultrasound before an abortion.

Hurricane Season May Worsen Oil Spill

Forecasters are predicting a bad hurricane season, which begins today. It's feared that the expected strong storms will exacerbate the Gulf oil spill.

Three to seven major hurricanes — involving winds of at least 178 km/h — are expected. Up to 14 hurricanes with winds of 119 km/h are also expected. Such winds could be disastrous for BP's latest attempt to contain the flow of oil gushing from a broken pipe above the Gulf's seabed. On Monday, underwater robots sawed through the pipe, preparing to cover it with a tightly sealed containment dome that will direct the oil to a tanker on the surface. But if the hurricane brings strong winds and high waves to the Gulf, "the [tanker] would not be able to remain there, which means there would be unabated flow," Carol Browner, the White House adviser on energy and climate change, said Tuesday. That, or failure of the new containment dome, would be the worst-case scenario and "deeply, deeply troubling," she said. "If it is not able to contain the oil, we would be in a situation where it is conceivable that there would be oil leaking at a rate of something on the order of [1.9 million to 3.2 million litres] a day until the relief wells are dug," Browner said.

Worse Than Exxon Valdez

The Gulf oil spill is shaping up to be the worst environmental disaster in American history. Fumes are now overwhelming the residents of New Orleans as the leading edge of the spill reaches the fragile marshes of the Mississippi delta. Compounding the disaster, poor weather has forced the Coast Guard to suspend their containment attempts. National agencies are mobilizing across the Gulf Coast.

Calling it “a spill of national significance” that could threaten coastline in several states, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced the creation of a second command post in Mobile, Ala., in addition to the one in Louisiana, to manage potential coastal impact in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar ordered an immediate review of the 30 offshore drilling rigs and 47 production platforms operating in the deepwater Gulf, and is sending teams to conduct on-site inspections. Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana declared a state of emergency and to request the participation of the National Guard in response efforts.

A coastal flood warning was issued for Hancock County, the furthest county west in Mississippi, while coastal flood watches were set up in nearby Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes in Louisiana since tides were expected to be two to three feet higher than normal. About 40,000 feet of boom had been placed around Pass-a-Loutre, the area of the Mississippi River Delta where the oil was expected to touch first, a spokesman for Mr. Jindal said. The Navy provided 50 contractors, 7 skimming systems and 66,000 feet of inflatable containment boom, a spokesman said. About 210,000 feet of boom had been laid down to protect the shoreline in several places along the Gulf Coast, though experts said that marshlands presented a far more daunting cleaning challenge than sandy beaches.

The still-uncapped well continues to spew more than 200,000 gallons of crude oil each day. The surface slick is now bigger than the island of Jamaica.

VIDEO: President Obama says "BP is ultimately responsible, under the law, for paying the cost of response and clean-up operations."

Gay Adoption Bill Fails In Louisana

A bill that would have expanded adoption laws to allow joint adoption by unmarried couples was defeated by a 3-1 vote in the Louisiana Senate yesterday. The bill was fiercely opposed by religious groups.

Senate Bill 129, which ended up as a combination of two measures by Sens. Ed Murray and J.P. Morrell, would have allowed unmarried couples to jointly adopt and allow an existing parent to petition a court to add a second adult as a legal parent. The bill would have applied regardless of the adoptive parents' sexual orientation, but the debate centered on the rights of gay parents and their children. Louisiana law restricts adoption to married couples or single individuals, meaning gay couples or unmarried heterosexual couples can adopt but must choose which adult has parental rights. The debate pitted the Forum for Equality, a gay rights advocacy group, the American Civil Liberties Union and other adoptive parents, including New Orleans City Council President Arnie Fielkow, against a long list of primarily religious interests: the Louisiana Family Forum, the Conference of Catholic Bishops and representatives of Louisiana Southern Baptists.

The bill was also opposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Photo Of The Day: Hater 1 - Protesters 500

Protesters outnumbered an anti-gay hater by 500-1 at a scheduled Westboro picket of a high school performance of the Laramie Project in Louisiana. Westboro didn't show.

UPDATE: Here's an amusing clip of the protesters getting ready for Westboro.

But Interracial Prostitution Is OK!

Sen. David "Diaper Boy" Vitter (R-LA) is the only senior elected official from Louisiana who has not denounced the local justice of the peace who refused to marry an interracial couple. And he won't do it here, either.

Little Boy Asks President Obama: Why Do People Hate You?

A little boy got right to it during Obama's press conference in New Orleans.

"Why do people hate you?", a fourth-grade boy asked Obama at a town hall event in New Orleans today. "They're supposed to love you. And God is love." "That's what I'm talking about," replied the President. "First of all, I did get elected president, so not everybody hates me," Obama noted, before adding, "What is true is if you were watching TV lately, it seems like everybody's just getting mad all the time. And I -- you know, I think that you've got to take it with a grain of salt. Some of it is just what's called politics where, you know, once one party wins, then the other party kind of gets -- feels like it needs to poke you a little bit to keep you on your toes."

"And so you shouldn't take it too seriously," Obama told the boy. "And then, sometimes, as I said before, people just -- I think they're worried about their own lives. A lot of people are losing their jobs right now. A lot of people are losing their health care or they've lost their homes to foreclosure, and they're feeling frustrated. And when you're president of the United States, you know, you've got to deal with all of that." You get some of the credit when things go good. And when things are going tough, then, you know, you're going to get some of the blame, and that's part of the job," he continued. "But, you know, I'm a pretty tough guy. You've just got to keep on going, even when folks are criticizing you, because -- as long as you know that you're doing it for other people, all right?" Obama concluded.

(Via - Pam's House Blend)

Louisiana Judge Denies Marriage License To Interracial Couple

Saying that such unions "don't last long" and that he was worried about their potential children, yesterday Tangipahoa Parish Judge Keith Bardwell denied a marriage license to an interracial couple.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else." Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said. Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said. "There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage," Bardwell said. "I think those children suffer and I won't help put them through it." If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said. "I try to treat everyone equally," he said. Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career, all in the past 2 1/2 years.

The couple plans to files a discrimination complaint with the Justice Department.

Porn Star Stormy Daniels May Run Against Sen. David "Diaper Boy" Vitter (R-LA)

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), the hateful gay rights opponent whose name was in the little black book of the DC Madam, may have a challenger in porn star Stormy Daniels.

Stormy Daniels strode onstage at a downtown Baton Rouge restaurant in a tight black blouse with a plunging neckline and a knee-length skirt in the popular purple of Louisiana State University. She introduced herself with a warning. "For those of you who don't know who I am," she told the lunch crowd at The Roux House, "I'd suggest that you don't Google that until you get home from work." She's a Louisiana-born porn star who says she is considering a 2010 run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican David Vitter, whose family-values reputation was marred in 2007 when his name was linked to a Washington prostitution ring.

According to hookers in the employ of the now-suicided DC Madam, Vitter enjoys adult baby roleplaying including wearing diapers. He also enjoys railing against the expansion of LGBT rights.

Gustav At Category 4, Mayor Orders Tourists Out, Southern Decadence Says "Business As Usual"

The mandatory evacuation of New Orleans proper is scheduled to begin at 8am Sunday, the airport has announced that the final departures will be tomorrow afternoon, and in telling the hotels to close, the Mayor just said, "Tourists, it's time to leave the city. Do not wait."

And yet the latest update (embiggen above) of the official Southern Decadence site proclaims: "Southern Decadence is still on! (It has not been canceled.)" What are these people thinking? Even if this all turns into a big close call (and let's hope it does), at this stage of the game it feels quite irresponsible of the organizers not to have made the call to end the party by now. No hotels, no flights out, a mandatory evacuation, all with 24 hours. These people are cutting things dangerously close.

UPDATE: The organizers of Southern Decadence have finally called it.

Christianists Win, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal To End LGBT Job Protections

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is allowing to a 2004 law that protects LGBT people from job discrimination to lapse, claiming (lying) that state and federal laws already protect people from being fired for being gay.

Calling the executive order unnecessary, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Wednesday he would not reissue a ban on discriminating against gays and lesbians in the workplace.

“We are not going to renew it and that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody,” Jindal said about the executive order signed by then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco in December 2004. The order, which some church groups and Jindal have criticized over the years, is set to expire Friday.

“The reason for allowing the order to lapse is that I don’t think it is necessary to create additional special categories or special rights,” Jindal said. State and federal law already prohibits discrimination, he said. “We are firmly and strongly committed to fair treatment of all of our people and certainly don’t condone discrimination in any form,” Jindal said in an interview Wednesday. Blanco’s order also caused concern about the ability of religious groups to work with state government, he said.

Jindal’s decision means “it is perfectly legal to fire anyone based on their sexual orientation even if they are a perfect employee,” said Randy Evans, a New Orleans lawyer who is co-political director of Forum for Equality, a New Orleans-based political action committee for the lesbian and gay community in Louisiana.

After tomorrow, it will again be legal in Louisiana to fire somebody because they are gay. Another example of our desperate need for ENDA.

A Chorus Line

Damn. What IS it with these wacky Republicans? They are doing so much toe-tapping, we've got us a kick-line from one end of the Mississippi to the other. Joey DiFatta, 53, running for the Louisiana state senate, was revealed last yesterday to have been detained twice for suspicion of Craigian conduct. Once for peeking at a man through a stall in a Mervyn's bathroom, once for toe-tapping in a Dillards.

In the second incident, Jefferson Parish deputies working an undercover detail in a men's bathroom at Dillard's at Lakeside Shopping Center in March 2000 stopped DiFatta after he indicated a desire to engage in sex with an undercover deputy in an adjoining bathroom stall, according to an interoffice memorandum written by Sgt. Keith Conley, one of the deputies involved in the investigation.

The report said DiFatta slid his foot into the deputy's stall and tapped the deputy's foot. In the report, Conley noted that such activity is common among men to indicate a willingness to participate in sex.

The deputy inside the stall, Detective Wayne Couvillion, responded by tapping his foot, and DiFatta reached under the partition and began to rub the deputy's leg, the report states.

The detective asked DiFatta, "What do you want?" according to the report, and he replied, "I want to play with you."

DiFatta also used a hand signal to indicate that he wanted to engage in sex and used language that indicated the same, according to the report. Conley, who is now the Kenner city attorney, confirmed the report's authenticity Thursday.

Neither mall-stall incident resulted in an arrest and early yesterday DiFatta called reporters to say that he was calling off his state senate campaign because he'd been having chest pains and his doctor wanted him to "slow down". (On those blowjobs.)

DiFatta is unmarried, with two grown sons and four grandchildren. One of his campaign promises is to "Protect our convervative values from attacks by extreme liberal groups."