The 2014 Louisiana circus legislative session has arrived which is always good for some lively entertainment.
During this session legislators will deal with at least a few bills dealing with Common Core. During the pre-filing period, at least six have been filed.
• H.B. 377 by Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Moss Bluff, which creates a commission to develop new state standards;
• H.B. 481 by Rep. Rob Shadoin, R-Ruston, calling for the development of curriculum guides prior to full implementation of Common Core in public and nonpublic schools that have chosen to use the standards;
• H.B. 554 by Rep. Henry Burns, R-Haughton, which calls for development of state content standards and assessments subject to legislative approval and allows local school systems to develop their own standards;
• H.B. 556 by Burns which prohibit implementing Common Core and reverts to prior standards;
• H.B. 557 by Burns which prohibits using Common Core and creates the Student Standards Task Force to study implementation; and
• H.B. 559 by Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Baton Rouge, which drops Common Core, implements Louisiana-based standards and prohibits using the assessment tools planned for use with Common Core.
Michael Deshotels at Louisiana Educator has a more comprehensive list of all of the education bills here and here.
In other bills, legislators will deal with the normal shenanigans with the budget, such as this shell game by Gov. Bobby Jindal:
Lawmakers are particularly irked by a budget maneuver that borrows $50 million in cash from the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to pay for state health care costs. The Jindal administration would replace the money with $75 million in bonds, so the deal is good for the New Orleans area. But it would also mean less for other state construction projects, like new highways and roads.
Jindal's proposed budget would also essentially wipe out a trust fund for elderly care, a financial resource that Louisiana expected to last for decades. The account, once flush with $800 million, has been drawn on so heavily to fill state budget gaps in recent years, it could be entirely depleted by the end of this fiscal cycle.
The governor is also using federal money given to the state for hurricane recovery to cover expenses not directly related to disasters, including state programs for people with disabilities. Some advocates are concerned the federal government might not approve such uses of the money, though the administration is confident their proposals will hold up to scrutiny.
The outnumbered Democrats this session will try to raise minimum wage, expand Medicaid, and enact statewide fairness laws.
So hang on to your hats and here we go. As lively as this session is likely to be, I doubt it will top this momentous event (actually, let's hope it doesn't):
I'm sure you've seen this video by now. Maybe not, if you live outside of Louisiana, but seriously people, this is our Louisiana legislature. It's only two minutes - take a quick look. I don't think you have to watch all of it.
The backstory on this is that this kid, rapper Hurricane Chris, is the godson of Barbara Norton (D-Shreveport) and this occurred on the last day before the session ended. She introduced him as a role model. Hmm. Here are some of the lyrics to the "song":
Well let's get ratchet Let's get ratchet Look at her prettier then Halle and thicker than Janet She say she like all of my club bangers I be jamming Told her to bust it open let me see what's really happnin She the ship and I'm the captain I'm tha captain Booty bigger than the pus
And I'm all the way in your city I'm from louisianna so you gotta show me how your City do it for that camera Make it drop and bring it back to the top You no amateur Girl you can give it to me it ain't nothing I can't handle She just got out of the shower smellin like a scented candle And I'm finna finna? Sliding off tha mattress No moving no acting baby this is real action Beat it up so bad You be scared to walk past me I know your halle berry Baby there's no acting I beat it up so bad You be scared to walk past me for real
It goes on from there for a while, and that's the clean version. The video of his legislative performance (the 9 minute version) has been on The Dead Pelican for days and has been spreading around the internet. Barbara Norton, for her part, is pretty proud of this. She said, "I'm excited to know that Louisiana is putting something on the internet that's positive because there are so many things on the internet and we're on the bottom," whatever that means.
She introduced him on the floor by saying, "I want to introduce to all to a young man who I think is doing great work throughout this country in the area of music." Great work? She goes on, "I'm very proud of Hurricane Chris who is my godson...I'm just sound proud of him...when he was 10 years old he was singin' and was probably singin' before then." "He's gonna come down for just a minute or two and give you all just a second or two of Halle Barry's record, She's Fine, and I know you all like that, mens know about fine because you do it all the time so anyways don't act like you ain't never heard of it."
Then she leads the young wordsmith to the podium, a Proclamation is read, and Chris speaks.
"I 'preciate y'all for bringin' me out today, I wanna gi' y'all a taste of one of my new songs just in case y'all ain't familiar wit' me, I'm gonna getcha familiar wit me." Then he speaks to the legislature about categorizing women, about beautiful women, and about having confidence, which he does not lack.
I'd have paid good money to see the camera pan out to the faces of the legislators as this went on.
Look, I know it takes all kinds. I get it. I know some people like this music - the song is No. 5 right now, so somebody likes it. But I can't help but feel like it's words and lyrics like this that are dragging our culture down today and have helped lead us to the total Godless, amoral, self-centered culture we live in today. I have a teenager that loves this mess
Pundette wrote yesterday about being disgusted. I totally feel her pain. She wrote about Beyonce and how Michelle Obama said she was a great role model for young girls. I don't know a whole lot about Beyonce, and I can't really say if she's a role model or not. My feeling is that she's not as bad as some others but how relative is that? How bad do you have to be to be bad. And hey, now, "bad" means "good." It's a good thing to be "Bad!" As in, "I'm BAD, man." That's good.
*Sigh*
Our celebrity worship culture has led us to this (which is another point Pundette makes). We elected a cool, celebrity president who is in turn leading us into ruin. I'm not being hyperbolic here, I don't think. It's clear to me that he's ramming health care reform, climate reform, financial reform, etc. etc., through as fast as he can because he figures by 2010 the Kool Aid might have worn off and it will be more difficult to do after the mid-term elections. I'm sure immigration reform is next on the agenda.
But hey, he's cool, suave, young and hip. He has a dog and two kids and looks debonairre in a suit (so they say). Like many young liberals, he thinks America needs to be apologized for and we need to be like the Europeans, who are cool. And he was so much better than the old, white guy.
I don't want to insult people - I know some liberals voted for him because they think his policies are valid. Not everyone voted on the cool factor. I was reminded during the campaign when I railed against him daily that some voters have done their research and sincerely believe that his policies are the best. I'm obviously not one of them.
Back to Hurricane Chris. We're down here celebrating a young man who sings about "gettin' ratchet" and ... well, I can't even print the lyrics he sings. I know parents have been protesting the idols of their teenagers since time began (the Beatles and Elvis were going to be the ruination of society, remember?) but seriously, how much lower can we go? How much longer before Hurricane Chris is president?
Our country is in serious trouble. People that read this blog already know that or you wouldn't be here. I'm preaching to the choir. I get the occassional liberal commenter who disagrees with me, but I've given up on changing their views. They are dead set that global warming is ruining the planet, that Obama IS cool, that inviting dictators to tea IS the path to world peace and that we need to be buying bottled water for Africans and stop worrying about about ourselves so much because we are just arrogant and egocentric.
I'm going to quote Bride of Rove here, because she had a great post that summed up how I felt right after the Cap ' n Tax vote.
You think Republicans lie? This guy is the king of all liars. Did you hear his speech the other day on how he was a great believer in Capitalism and a free market system? I damn near wrecked the car I was laughing so hard. He had just taken over two car manufacturers and refused to allow several banks to pay off the TARP money so they could get out from under the Govt’s thumb and announces a pay czar to decide how much everyone will be allowed to earn. It was beautiful....
If I did not have kids or any responsibilities I would be loving every minute of this. I would enjoy what I know is coming down the road because whether you voted for him or not, you’re not escaping this horror. Every idiot who thought he was going to pay their mortgage and buy their gas and they would not have to work and their taxes would not go up - they are in for the shock of their lives. What kind of moron believes a politician’s promises like that? Hey. That Iranian President at least gave everyone a potato - before he shot them.
Enough doom and gloom. Hurricane Chris and all the others can just go rot for all I care. And sitting here in this funk is not going to do anything to turn this train wreck around. I just hope that there's enough of this country left to save after we vote Obama out. The changes he's making are irreversable. It'll be very difficult to undo Obamacare.
Chin up. Remember the words of John Paul Jones who would not accept the British demands for surrender and said, "I have not yet begun to fight!" We've got to keep protesting, contacting legislators, finding strong candidates to put out there, talking about the things that made this country great, and remind people what it could be before we have to remind them about what it was.
Here is my anti-Hurricane Chris song to cheer you up:
