Vote for Judge Burchett Saturday

Saturday is a big day for voters in Bossier and Webster Parishes. Not only will congressional candidates be selected in closed primaries, but we will choose between Judge Dewey Burchett and Michael Craig for judge.
The closed primaries have confused some people. Since Judge Burchett and Mr. Craig are of opposite parties and are the only candidates, there is no need for a primary. You may vote across party lines in the judge's race, although in the congressional races, you can vote only for those candidates of your party.
This means that Saturday is your final vote for judge and that the person with the most votes will win outright. I have heard some confusion over this and hope that it is clarified for our readers.
Judge Dewey Burchett has served the people of Bossier and Webster Parishes for the last twenty years.
He currently teaches seminars on legal subjects to judges, lawyers and law enforcement officers. Judge Burchett has been married for 41 years to his wife Pat. The Burchetts have two sons and a granddaughter.
Judge Burchett understands public service for what it should be. He is an upstanding individual, an extremely capable Judge, and is deserving of our support to continue in that capacity.
Re-elect Judge Burchett.

No Deal!

67% of Republicans & 40% of Democrats say NO!

George Obama should not be ashamed: Barack should be

Shame on you, Barack Obama

Barack, you who speak so eloquently of education, why don't you help your 26 year old brother obtain an education?
He lives on $1 per month. If it would stretch your budget too far to send him $100 now and again, at least offer to subsidize his education so he can be productive.
Your brother is ashamed of his circumstances; when asked if he is related to you, he answers no. Oh, he is proud of you, he is just ashamed of himself for being destitute. Your father died when he was 6 months old and he has had no advantages in life, and he asks for none.
What kind of man offers no help to a brother who is in such circumstances?

The Italian edition of Vanity Fair said that it had found George Hussein Onyango Obama living in a hut in a ramshackle town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi.
Mr Obama, 26, the youngest of the presidential candidate's half-brothers, spoke for the first time about his life, which could not be more different than that of the Democratic contender.
"No-one knows who I am," he told the magazine, before claiming: "I live here on less than a dollar a month."
According to Italy's Vanity Fair his two metre by three metre shack is decorated with football posters of the Italian football giants AC Milan and Inter, as well as a calendar showing exotic beaches of the world.
Vanity Fair also noted that he had a front page newspaper picture of his famous brother - born of the same father as him, Barack Hussein Obama, but to a different mother, named only as Jael.
He told the magazine: "I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist."
Embarrassed by his penury, he said that he does not does not mention his famous half-brother in conversation.
"If anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed," he said.
For ten years George Obama lived rough. However he now hopes to try to sort his life out by starting a course at a local technical college.
He has only met his famous older brother twice - once when he was just five and the last time in 2006 when Senator Obama was on a tour of East Africa and visited Nairobi.
The Illinois senator mentions his brother in his autobiography, describing him in just one passing paragraph as a "beautiful boy with a rounded head".
Of their second meeting, George Obama said: "It was very brief, we spoke for just a few minutes. It was like meeting a complete stranger."
George added he was no longer in contact with his mother and said:"I have had to learn to live and take what I need.
"Huruma is a tough place, last January during the elections there was rioting and six people were hacked to death. The police don't even arrest you they just shoot you.
"I have seen two of my friends killed. I have scars from defending myself with my fists. I am good with my fists."

From The Telegraph

Bailout "compromise" reached

House Republicans balked at the $700 billion giveaway, insisting that the government not do the bailout, but that Wall Street itself come up with the money and that Treasury Secretary Paulson's powers be restrained.
The government wanted the taxpayers to foot the entire bill and for Paulson to have broad powers to implement the bailout.
Due to the hard work of the house conservatives, a compromise was reached. The taxpayers will foot the $700 billion dollar bailout and Paulson will have broad powers.

From The Washington Post:
Congressional leaders and the Bush administration this morning said they had struck an accord to insert the government deeply into the nation's financial markets, agreeing to spend up to $700 billion to relieve Wall Street of troubled assets backed by faltering home mortgages.
House and Senate negotiators from both parties emerged with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. at 12:30 a.m. from a marathon session in the Capitol to announce that they had reached a tentative agreement on a proposal to give Paulson broad authority to organize one of the biggest government interventions in the private sector since the Great Depression.

DA has 'personal ax to grind'

There is coverage of the Bossier/Webster judge's race in The Times this morning.

excerpts:
The race ultimately boils down to a contest between Marvin and Burchett, said Elliot Stonecipher, a political and demographic analyst with Evets Management Services.
"You quite literally have the DA who has a personal ax to grind, well, let me restate that, an ax to grind at least as a DA to a judge, and that is not terribly unusual by the way; it happens in a lot of parishes," Stonecipher said.
"When the DA decides a judge needs to go, which is what happened in this case, someone like a Mike Craig ends up running."
..................
"The thing you have to understand about incumbent judges with a challenger is that there's usually something more going on than meets the eye," said Jeffery Sadow, an associate professor of political science at LSU-Shreveport. "It's very unusual for a sitting judge to be challenged because the incumbent very often wins. ... So, in this instance, it's largely because a certain set of people are unhappy with the incumbent for various reasons."

Stop the Bailout

Sign the petition here.

H/T to Central La Politics

Bossier/Webster Judge's Race: Burchett has double the contributions of Craig

Judge Dewey Burchett has raised twice as much money through contributions as Mike Craig, according to reports on the Louisiana Ethics Commission website.
Burchett has topped $100,000 in contributions, while Craig has not, at time of filing, reached $50,000. Craig does have loans topping $50,000, to even the playing field.
Both candidates have commissioned polls. Judge Burchett paid Evets $7,250, and Craig has paid McRei Inc more than $15,000 for polling.
It would be interesting to see the results made public.
As a side note, Craig paid $1,375 to The Inquisitor for advertising. The Inquistor came out last week with a picture of a local attorney who was arrested for DUI and had Judge Burchett's picture on the front page too. The Inquisitor said that 'reliable sources' told them that the attorney was Burchett's hatchet man.
Wonder who those 'reliable sources' were?
You can see the disclosure forms on the Ethics Board website.

Judge Burchett's:
http://www.ethics.state.la.us/cgi-bin/la98/forms/CAN991109/15175/102A-1

http://www.ethics.state.la.us/cgi-bin/la98/forms/CAN991109/15356/102A-1

Mike Craig's:
http://www.ethics.state.la.us/cgi-bin/laimg/?_804251+0

Thompson, Fleming attack Gorman

Article by Sam Hanna, Jr in The Ouachita Citizen. You can read the complete story there.

It's not often two congressional candidates get together and simultaneously issue news releases criticizing a third candidate. That's especially true when the candidates in question are all Republicans who are running against one another in a party primary election. But that's exactly what transpired this week in the 4th District congressional race in northwestern Louisiana where Congressman Jim McCrery, a Republican, opted not to run for re-election. McCrery's decision to bow off the elected scene in lieu of a more lucrative one as a lobbyist opened the door for a host of Republicans who desire to succeed him.
The possible successors include Dr. John Fleming of Minden, businessman Chris Gorman of Shreveport and Jeff Thompson, an attorney from Bossier City. It was Fleming and Thompson who jointly decided they were fed up with Gorman's campaign tactics, dispatching separate news releases on Monday in which they called out Gorman for running a negative, misleading campaign in the 4th District race. The party primary election is Oct. 4.
Armed with a family fortune, Gorman has spent a boat load of his daddy's money on campaign television advertisements and the like. He claims he's a Ronald Reagan Republican who's created some 500 jobs in the private sector. He also says he's pro-life and pro-gun, key talking points for any Republican candidate in the Deep South.
Yet, telephone calls and direct mail pieces 4th District Republicans received from Gorman's camp in recent weeks apparently angered Fleming and Thompson enough to prompt them to respond, questioning Gorman's integrity, or lack thereof. Of the two candidates—Fleming and Thompson—it was Thompson who was a bit more pointed in his criticism of Gorman, according to the news releases filtered to the media.

Haynesville Shale: Big signing bonuses thing of the past?

Chesapeake Energy has announced that they are cutting back on their natural gas production so the market can catch up with the supply. This could mean a lull in leasing in Northwest Louisiana for a period of time, and some of the larger bonuses that have been paid in the 'sweet spots' may be a thing of the past.

Aubrey K. McClendon, Chesapeake's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "During the past ten years, Chesapeake has led the E&P industry in production growth, and through our efforts and those of other leading independent producers, there are now abundant supplies of natural gas in the U.S. market. In fact, we believe there is now sufficient domestic natural gas supply growth to satisfy a growing percentage of the U.S. transportation fuel market through the use of CNG-fueled vehicles.
However, until the market has sufficient incentives for service station owners to build out CNG infrastructure, for auto manufacturers to offer new CNG vehicles in large quantities and for consumers to install home refueling devices, retrofit existing vehicles and purchase new CNG vehicles, insufficient natural gas demand exists to prevent periodic declines in wellhead natural gas prices below the industry's breakeven profitability levels.
"Therefore, we believe it is in the best interests of Chesapeake's shareholders to temporarily curtail a portion of our natural gas production, reduce the company's drilling capex and lower our production growth to provide time for rising natural gas demand to catch up with increasing natural gas supply. We have made these decisions even though Chesapeake is well hedged, has one of the lowest cost structures in the large-cap E&P industry and has a substantial portion of its capex budget during the next few years carried by other companies. We will monitor market conditions and bring curtailed natural gas production volumes back on stream as prices improve. We remain confident that natural gas is the single best solution to meeting America's energy, transportation and environmental challenges in the years ahead and we will continue our industry-leading efforts to increase both supply and demand for clean, affordable and abundant American natural gas.

Read the complete news release from Chesapeake

Dumbass of the Year Award

Maybe he should try snatching purses from old ladies . . . .
Caddo Sheriff Steve Prator found himself a victim of theft when a Shreveport man stole pipe from his farm.
Johnny Henderson Jr., 51, is charged with stealing more than $7,000 from Prator’s property on state Highway 3049 on Sunday, the sheriff said.
Prator was on his way to Shreveport when he passed by the farm and saw the gate was closed. A few minutes later, the sheriff passed a truck and trailer loaded with aluminum pipe that looked like property belonging to him. Prator drove ahead to check the gate again and this time found it open. He put out a broadcast for the truck and trailer, then stopped the vehicle himself south of the George Road. The driver had pulled over to tighten the rope around the pipe.

From The Times

Haynesville Shale Expo to be held in November

Friday, November 21, 2008
Open to the Public
FREE ADMISSION
(Free Parking in Convention Center Garage)
1:15 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
WEBSITE

• Haynesville Shale 101: How the shale was formed, how far it extends, how it compares to other natural gas plays in the United States, the ins and outs of drilling, and the economic impact in this region.
• Mineral Rights 101 and Taxing Royalties: How mineral rights are negotiated, legal responsibilities of energy companies and mineral and surface owners, tax consequences. Both sessions will be from 2 to 2:45 p.m. and from 3 to 3:45 p.m.
• Pipelines: How pipeline companies work with residents, including how to negotiate a better easement agreement, what equipment should be on site, how routes are determined, and safety considerations.
• Water usage: How technology is playing a key role in water conservation and what new applications are being tested; how the Department of Conservation regulates disposing wastewater.
• Both sessions will be from 4 to 4:45 p.m. and from 5 to 5:45 p.m.Energy companies will man vendor booths, and free consumer advice on mineral rights and royalty tax information will be available.
  

Dewey Burchett and the Good Old Boys

NOTE: I orginally posted a picture of Schuyler Marvin and Mike Craig at a Craig fundraiser. It seemed to upset some people that I posted the picture, so I took it down. I only posted it to prove a point, and I believe the objections prove that point more eloquently than the picture itself.

Judge Dewey Burchett is no stranger to attacks from the good old boys. When he was City Attorney of Bossier City he was instrumental in uncovering and correcting problems in the Police Department.
When it came out that some in the department were using interrogation tactics that were nothing short of torture, the good old boys tried to cover it up. You know the syndrome, pretend it’s not there and maybe it will go away. What the people don’t know won’t hurt them.
Dewey Burchett enlisted the aid of the FBI and cleaned up the problem. This did not endear him to the good old boys and the machine politicians.
He was not elected judge with the help of a political machine. He has never been a part of that sort of thing, but has instead held office by virtue of his character on and off the bench.
Now the good old boys are back. The District Attorney, born into a politically influential family, is supporting Judge Burchett’s opponent, an assistant DA. The boys are on the attack.
Let them bring it on. Judge Burchett told me not long ago “I was a fighter pilot, I’m not afraid of anything.”
I believe him.
Give this long consideration, forget all the political rhetoric and look at the facts:
Degree in Government from LSU.
Served as a fighter pilot in the US Air Force from 1962 – 1967.
After service, got his law degree from LSU.
Served as City Attorney of Bossier City.
Served as District Judge for the last 20 years.
Give it your consideration and then give your continued support to Dewey Burchett.

Fleming 32%, Gorman 30%, Thompson 15%

Today, the Gorman For Congress Campaign released the results of the most recent public opinion survey in the race for the Republican primary in Louisiana's Fourth Congressional District.
The survey was conducted of 300 likely Republican primary voters by Public Opinion Strategies over September 9-11. The margin of error is 5.66 percent.
The survey shows a dead heat between Chris Gorman and John Fleming with 30 and 32 percent of the vote, respectively. Meanwhile, Jeff Thompson trails with 15% of the vote. Twenty-three percent are undecided going into the final days of the extended GOP primary.
According to pollster Gene Ulm of POS, "Chris Gorman is the front runner in several parishes, including Bossier Parish, which comprises nearly one quarter of all GOP voters in the district. Furthermore, he continues to have the best name recognition and favorability of any candidate in the race."

From The Dead Pelican

Meanwhile, Jeff Thompson picked up an endorsement from Jerry Jones, former Shreveport City Attorney and candidate for mayor.
Running with the McCrery endorsement has him at 15%. This one should drop him to about 12% or 13%

The Best Food in Town

There is a great article over at T Wong's Gazette entitled Another Thing I Like about Shreveport. This time it's the food. Kent Payne, transplanted here from Baton Rouge, is spot on in his analysis of the restaurants he mentions.
I have about two brain cells left, and one of them shorts in and out, but they both kicked in when I read his blog on Shreveport restaurants.
I went on a trip down memory lane. We have a lot of good local restaurants, but a lot have just faded away.
How about Sansone's for Sunday Lunch?
Or the Revana in Bossier for wonderful Italian food and steaks?
Don's Seafood recently closed, but who remembers back in the 50's when it was the Mirror Steak House?
Ernest's on Commerce Street before they built up on the hill?
How many of you ended a night of partying at Kickapoo at 2 in the morning with steak and eggs? Everyone was there, the Bossier Strip was hot.
The Studio Steak House was just across the street.
Remember Picadilly Italian Restaurant on Louisiana (no longer there) next to the Train Station (no longer there)?
Want a greasy spoon? Remember the Chat N' Chew at Curtis Lane and Greenwood Road? Great hamburgers and a huge plate of fried peach and apple pies on the counter. If I remember, they were 15 cents each, but well worth it!
The best hamburger in town was at the Tic Toc Grill on Line Avenue across from P & S Hospital. Hamburger, hash browns and a piece of pie put you in a sublime state.
Kent, thanks for sending me on this rant!

Go Haynesville Shale reaches 7,000 members

I’ve written before about Go Haynesville Shale, the website that is open to all things Haynesville Shale and a lot more. The site has reached 7,000 members, and has a number of discussion boards.
The main board, of course, covers all questions about the lastest goings-on in the Haynesville Shale. In addition, there are numerous boards where you can ‘spout off’, talk about hunting, football, or anything else that strikes your fancy. There are also groups for each parish and for landowner organizations.
Some of the shalers have even organized a get-together at the end of the month.
Check this site out if you haven’t already. You’ll find it to be very informative and entertaining. You can access it by the link above, and I have a permanent icon on the right sidebar.

Bossier/Webster Judge's Race: A Political Analysis

Video: Some Rain, Some Wind

Tropical Storm Ike in Bossier Parish.

Experience Counts: Re-elect Judge Burchett

Click to Enlarge

Gretna baby sitter arrested for murder; put 5 month old in dryer

A baby sitter has been arrested after she allegedly put a five-month-old infant inside a clothes dryer, killing him. Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputies on Thursday booked 19-year-old Ariel Smith, of Harvey, with one count of first-degree murder.
Investigators say Smith was babysitting Andre Jenkins and his 18-month-old brother and said she admitted placing the infant in the dryer because she was frustrated with him.

Complete story in The Times

Ike coming to visit Northwest Louisiana, East Texas

From the looks of it, Hurricane Ike will be affecting the Ark-La-Tex in much the same way that Rita did. We can expect thunderstorms beginning late tonight or early tomorrow, with east winds 20 to 30 mph gusting to 45 mph.
On Saturday night the winds will switch and come from the south at 35 to 45 mph gusting to 65 mph.
This means that most likely some trees will fall and electricity will be out in some areas. Flooding could also occur in places.
Ike is still a category 2 storm, but has strengthed during the night and could possibly be a category 3 by landfall. Unlike some storms, Ike is expected to be increasing, rather than decreasing in strength at landfall. This is not a good sign.
I will update this throughout the day and evening hours.
Here are some links to information about the storm:

Tropical Storm Wind Warning

Ike’s Impact on the area

Hurricane Local Statement

Haynesville Shale: warning from a friend

Central Louisiana has some great bloggers that I really enjoy.
The newest of those is Alexcenla’s Rants and Ravings. This blogger has been keeping an eye on the Haynesville Shale and emailed me about some of his experience with Oil & Gas companies. I asked him to do a guest blog sharing that experience, and he agreed to do so.

From Alexcenla:
I have noticed with great interest the excitement with the Haynesville Shale. I feel I have to warn some of the people that are benefitting from this. I own a considerable amount of land in New Roads, La. along with a number of other family members. When oil and gas was discovered in the Moore-Sams field there in the early 80's everyone in that area was (in their opinion) overnight millionaires.
Lease money and royalty monies flowed like beer out of an unending tap at first. Then mistakes were discovered in disbursement. I went to my mail box one afternoon to find a $40,000 check. Afterwards I received others not as large. Then payments settled down to around $500 or so a month. The company that was involved in the site then sent me a registered letter demanding repayment of over $50,000 in overpayments.
This happened to a large number of people. I did not pay it back, thank goodness by law I did not have to and they were not going to sue that many people for their mistake.
Long story short, this is a common occurrence. These fields can come on strong but get lost in the oil company's shuffling and bookkeeping. The sad part is you can’t prove their "mismanagement".
A lot of people in the New Roads area went deeply into debt and were unable to meet their obligations; the obvious happened. So to those newly rich, use extreme caution. Those gas and oil companies can bite you later on. My royalty checks today average $100 to $175 per month, sometimes less.
I notice that the Companies up there are already discovering mistakes they have made.
Beware.

Take your eyes off the skies, the answer lies under our feet

The Boondoggle
With the future of Cyber Command under review, and in an effort to find out where we stand, some local officials took a trip to Washington recently in an effort to find out if this thing is salvagable.

"We decided to come up here after last week, come on up and talk to some people," said Bossier Parish Administrator Bill Altimus, who was joined Monday by Bossier Parish Attorney Patrick Jackson and Bossier City Councilmen David Jones and David Montgomery.
Bossier officials declined to offer many details except to say they met with staffers of federal officials from Louisiana, such as those from the offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu and Congressman Rodney Alexander, as well as nearly two dozen private companies, according to Jackson.
Altimus and Jackson declined to name the companies but Jackson said the meetings were "very productive" and the nature of the discussions revolved around discussions of "incentives" for those companies. Jackson declined to say what kind of incentives and for what they would be used.
It was unclear whether Jackson was referring to companies expected to fill the under-construction Cyber Innovation Center/National Cyber Research Park, which local leaders hoped to use to entice the Air Force to make Cyber Command permanently at Barksdale Air Force Base."

10,000 New Jobs
Among those officials were the very ones who assured us that this was a 'done deal' and that we could expect up to 10,000 new civilian jobs once Cyber Command was in operation. More than $100,000,000 was allocated by state and local governments for the Cyber Innovation Center, and construction has already begun.
Let's be realistic. We were warned from the beginning not to put too much confidence in the Air Forces' planning.
Washington defense analyst John Pike, founder of GlobalSecurity.Org, suggested caution since not all military information warfare initiatives have blossomed on the civilian side.
And Pike said not all high-tech government enterprises spawn economic growth.
"Every time the Air Force has started thinking about itself as being an information operations service, as opposed to a 'hot steel on target' service, after a little while, they get down that road and they say 'You know, information operations just really doesn't have that much in common with air power.' It has a different set of tools, a different set of principles, a different set of skills."
Our leaders didn't listen and weren't cautious, and now, down the road, the Air Force is pulling out. Even if they do keep some sort of command, there is no certainty at all that it will be headquartered at Barksdale AFB, as 16 other bases have been under consideration for the command.
Incredibly, these politicians still have the rosy view that everything is just 'business as usual' and that this will all work out just fine.
It won't. There will not be 10,000 civilian contractor jobs. There probably won't be an Air Force Cyber Command at all, at least not in the form that was originally foreseen.
The $100,000,000 Cyber Research Park is fast becoming a boondoggle. It is time for our leaders to open their eyes, open their minds, and make some intelligent (for a change) decisions.

The Answer lies under our feet
One thing that is spurring the local economy in a huge way is the advent of drilling in the Haynesville Shale. The Haynesville Shale stretches across parts of Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas and holds an estimated 29 to 39 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, though the range of the formation is not fully known. This gas field will be one of the largest in the country, and is coming at a time when everyone is looking for cheaper sources of energy.
With the announcement of The Pickens Plan to use natural gas in ways that we haven't before, the potential is even greater.
In addition, Chesapeake Energy, the nation's largest natural gas producer and most active driller, announced that it has initiated a public education campaign called CNG NOW designed to promote the greater usage of America's clean-burning natural gas as a transportation fuel.
CNG NOW is an initiative that sets forth a clear plan to rescue America from decades of dangerous reliance on imported foreign oil and complements the transportation portion of the Pickens Plan announced by T. Boone Pickens earlier this summer.

Let's summarize: A Solution

• We are building a research park and construction has begun on the flagship building.
• Air Force Cyber Command is not going to happen.
• The 10,000 jobs are not going to happen.
• Unprecendented gas production is happening in the Haynesville Shale.
• T. Boone Pickens has announced that he is funding a program to get natural gas into cars.
• Shreveport has a GM plant that is laying people off.

The solution, of course, is to get the governor and a couple of mayors on a plane to Detroit. Meet with GM and see what it would take to get them on board with producing some new cars that run on natural gas (at the Shreveport plant of course).

Call Mr. Pickens and tell him you have a $100,000,000 research center you would like for him to use.

The virtual reality of Cyber Command was a nice dream. Let's leave the virtual behind and embrace the present reality - the potential that is the Haynesville Shale.

Haynesville Shale: Drilling expanding to Southern Arkansas

A couple of gas companies drilling in the Haynesville Shale formation in north Louisiana have acquired permits to drill at three sites in Columbia County in south Arkansas.
The Haynesville Shale stretches across parts of Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas and holds an estimated 29 to 39 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, though the range of the formation is not fully known. The Fayetteville Shale formation in central Arkansas holds an estimated 20 trillion cubic feet.
It's not clear whether the companies interested in Columbia County intend to tap the Haynesville formation, but the planned wells would go quite deep. Two wells would go 8,800 feet and one would go 11,000 feet, and one is to be horizontally drilled.

Link to KSLA Story: Haynesville Shale drilling expanding to Arkansas

The Burchett Bandwagon

The motorhome parked after a day of campaigning by volunteers. With just a month left, campaigning in the race for Bossier-Webster Judge is heating up.

Fourth District Congressional Race: September Update

The race for Congress in the Fourth Congressional District remains interesting, if somewhat confusing because of the rescheduling of the September 6th primary.
It is tentatively rescheduled for October 4th, with early voting scheduled for September 20th through September 27th. The open election would then be held on November 4th, the same date at the presidential election, with early voting held October 21st through October 27th. If a runoff is needed, it would be held the first Saturday in December.
The candidates are chugging ahead, with the three Republicans, Dr. John Fleming, Chris Gorman and Jeff Thompson, each attempting to establish their credentials as more conservative than the others.
Polling for the Republican Primary indicates that Dr. John Fleming is in the lead.
A poll conducted by the Kitchens Group for Paul Carmouche in June showed Fleming with 27%, Gorman at 20% and Thompson 14%.
The latest poll conducted at the end of July by Southern Media and Opinion Research for Fleming shows Fleming with 43%, Gorman with 17% and Thompson with 15%.
Two independents are in the race, Gerard Bowen, Jr. (whom I support) and Chester T. Kelley.

Carmouche Looms Large
On the Democratic side, four contenders are active: Paul Carmouche, John Milkovich, Willie Banks, Jr., and Artis Cash. It is being generally presupposed that Carmouche will win the nomination, and I wouldn't disagree with that. Nor would I disagree with the poll which he commissioned which shows that in the general election, he would defeat any of the three Republicans with leads ranging from 13% to 19%.
The Republicans will have a hard time painting Carmouche with liberal colors. I'm sure they will attempt to do so, as this is the usual modus operandi. In this case, it just won't work. He is well known, having served as DA in Caddo Parish for 30 years, and is generally well thought of. None of the Republican candidates have any experience in public office, and none have the name recognition that Carmouche enjoys. The fourth district is a conservative district, not a Republican district. I suspect that most voters believe that Paul Carmouche has more truly conservative instincts and leanings than any of his Democratic or Republican opponents. Carmouche will not be controlled by the National Party and its leaders. I am not sure that the same could be said for the Republican candidates.
The race belongs to Carmouche at this point.

Ike is on the way

It's too soon to tell for sure, depends on what Ike does over Cuba. If the hurricane stays over land, it could weaken dramatically. If it skirts to the north, it could gain strength in the Gulf. At present it has sustained winds of 135 mph. Present projections have it taking dead aim at Houma - the same path that Gustav followed.The forecasters believe that they can have a good idea of where landfall will be by Monday night.UPDATE: SundayThe NWS is now predicting a more westward course toward the Texas coast.

Dog Tired

Attorney Sam McAllister’s dog Marie Antoinette is exhausted after a day of campaigning.

Air Force CBAT Mission Trashed

In addition to Cyber Command being put on hold, the CBAT mission has now been shut down. The Times reported the decision this morning.
“After a thorough review, we have determined the best way forward for our airmen and the combatant commanders is to optimize our existing training venues,” says Vicki Stein, current operations spokeswoman for the office of the Secretary of the Air Force. “Therefore, a new training venue is not required.”Barksdale had been one of three finalists for the proposed training mission, along with Moody Air Force Base, Ga., and Arnold Air Force Base in Tenneessee.
In April we wrote:
On top of the announcement that the decision on CBAT (Common Battlefield Airmen Training) has been delayed until this fall, The Air Force also says that a decision on cyber command has been pushed forward until fall of 2009. Barksdale is one of the bases being considered for CBAT.The Air Force also announced that localities shouldn't invest large sums for infrastructure in anticipation of landing Cyber Command. This would appear to be aimed at Louisiana, where a total of $107,000,000 has been committed for just such projects. The governors of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Virginia all received letters from Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne notifying them of the decision. The $107,000,000 was committed with the idea that the returns from thousands of support jobs would make it a good investment. Since the Air Force has announced that this will be a virtual command, this could still pan out to some degree. Although this does call into question the judgment of some local leaders who insisted that Cyber Command was 'a done deal', they still could take a realistic approach to see that the investment pays off. Perhaps they can expand the vision to include other training that would attract welcome industry to the area. The investment doesn't have to be lost; indeed, they may find that they have done the right thing for the wrong reasons.
Why are our local leaders still insisting that everything is hunky dory as they proceed to spend $100,000,000 on the Cyber Innovation Center. What good will this do if the training they provide sends people out of state to use their skills.
Local government, rather than chugging along looking at all the signs with their rose-colored glasses, should get off their collective butts and change the mission and use of these facilities.

Saturday's Party Primaries Postponed

Secretary of State Jay Dardenne said that it will be impossible to hold the scheduled party primaries Saturday. Locally, that means that the candidates will have a little more campaigning time against each other before the parties have to choose.
I cannot see this hurting Paul Carmouche, who will be the likely Democratic nominee. It will just keep the Republicans attention off him and on each other for a longer period.
This article at Central La Politics also has a link to the main story in the Advocate. I attempted last night to access the Secretary of State's website for a press release, but the site was down.

Hurricane Gustav: Northwest Louisiana Local Warnings

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
HURRICANE GUSTAV LOCAL STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
704 PM CDT MON SEP 1 2008

CADDO-BOSSIER-WEBSTER-LINCOLN-DE SOTO-RED RIVER-BIENVILLE-JACKSON-
OUACHITA-SABINE LA-NATCHITOCHES-WINN-GRANT-CALDWELL-LA SALLE-
HARRISON-CHEROKEE-RUSK-PANOLA-NACOGDOCHES-SHELBY-ANGELINA-
SAN AUGUSTINE-SABINE TX-

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS OF 40 TO 50 MPH WILL BEGIN TO IMPACT
THE SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF NORTHEAST TEXAS...MOST OF NORTHWEST AND
NORTH CENTRAL LOUISIANA...ALONG AND SOUTH OF A LINE FROM MONROE
TO RUSTON AND THE SHREVEPORT AND BOSSIER METRO AREA ONTO NEAR
MARSHALL...HENDERSON AND RUSK TEXAS. THESE WINDS WILL START
TONIGHT AND CONTINUE THROUGH MOST OF TUESDAY. TROPICAL STORM WIND
GUSTS NEAR 60 MPH WILL BE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE THE LOWER TOLEDO
BEND AND SAM RAYBURN COUNTY OF DEEP EAST TEXAS AND WEST CENTRAL
LOUISIANA.

INLAND FLOODING:
GUSTAV IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 6
TO 12 INCHES OVER PORTIONS OF LOUISIANA...SOUTHERN AND WESTERN
MISSISSIPPI...ARKANSAS AND NORTHEASTERN TEXAS...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF UP TO 20 INCHES POSSIBLE THROUGH THURSDAY

Read the complete warnings:

Hurricane Local Warnings

River Flood Warnings

Bossier City opens Centurytel as shelter: supplies & volunteers needed.

Bossier City tonight opened the CenturyTel Center as a shelter in an effort to take in more of the thousands of hurricane evacuees who have descended on Shreveport-Bossier City.
The arena can house 1,400 people.
Volunteers needed!
Supplies needed include:
• Towelster
• Washcloths
• Personal hygiene items such as soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc.
• Adult Diapers
• Baby Diapers
• Baby Bottles
• Baby Food
• Baby Juice
• Baby Formula
According to a Bossier City news release, clothing items are not needed. Donated items listed above can be delivered to the north gate of the loading area behind the CenturyTel Center.

video of Mayor Walker making announcement.

Bossier, Webster, Caddo Courthouses will be closed Tuesday

The Webster, Bossier and Caddo Parish Courthouses will be closed on Tuesday. All schools in Northwest Louisiana will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, including LSUS, BPCC and Southern University Shreveport.
Barksdale AFB is asking that only essential personnel report Tuesday.

Gustav Forecast from KTBS

What to expect: