Tea Party not organized against tax renewal

The Red River Tea Party is not taking a stand on the Bossier City Tax renewal. A spokesman for the local Tea Party said that any signs people are putting up encouraging a ‘no’ vote only reflect their individual view.
Some signs have appeared in Greenacres Place in the last couple of days. The TEA in Tea Party is an acronym for taxed enough already.
As I have said, ad nauseum, this is a renewal of a tax that was put into place 20 years ago, it is not a new tax. The City Council had rolled the 6 mill tax back to 4.86 mills, but rather than proposing a new tax, they just voted to renew the tax that is in place.
I fully understand anyone who wants to demand accountability from elected officials. The problem with voting this tax renewal down is that the people you will be punishing will the citizens of Bossier City and some very fine individuals who have sworn to serve.
Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.

Pay the ransom for our police and firefighters - they would do it for you

Blog post at Save Bossier

If Tea Partiers mean what they say

They will heed this advice. Tea partiers are in favor of smaller government and fewer taxes. If they hope for success, the must walk the walk as well as talk the talk.
John Samples directs the Cato Institute’s Center for Representative Government and teaches in the government program at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C.

1. Republicans aren’t always your friends.
2. Some tea partiers like big government.
3. Democrats aren’t always your enemies
4. Smaller government demands restraint abroad.
5. Leave social issues to the states.

H/T to Below the Beltway

Sibley man confesses to rape of child

A Sibley man walked into the Webster Parish Sheriff’s office yesterday and confessed to forced sexual acts with a young girl. The unusual part of this was that no report had been made.
“It was an unusual confession,” criminal investigations supervisor Maj. Steve Cropper said in the release. “In this case we had the confession of a perpetrator, but no victim. So this investigation began differently.”
Phillips turned himself in after his young victim divulged her experiences of abuse to her church youth pastor and mother, the release states.
James Reuben Phillips II was booked on a charge of aggravated rape of a child under 13 years of age. He was transported for booking to Bayou Dorcheat Correctional Center.
Full story in The Times

Peeping Tom arrested in North Bossier

A Bossier City man was arrested early Saturday morning for being a Peeping Tom, for simple assault and trespassing, said Bossier Sheriff Larry Deen.
Courtney Dennard Fears, 29, of the 1700 block of Castlewood Drive, was taken into custody after he was seen peeping in the window of a neighborhood residence. After being confronted by the witness, Fears balled up his first and made as though he was going to hit the witness.
After Bossier Sheriff’s deputies arrived, the witness positively identified Fears as the one he confronted as the Peeping Tom. Fears was standing in the bushes at the window of the neighborhood residence, on the property without consent.
Fears was transported to the Bossier Maximum Security Facility and booked. His bond was set at $2,200.
From Bossier Parish Sheriff

Bossier City Voters Face an Inconvenient Truth

This Saturday Bossier City Voters will go to the polls to answer a very simple yes or no question. A lot of those voters are upset with the mayor and council for what they percieve to be mismanagement. Some people are questioning why the current 6% rate was rolled back to 4.86% when the city was facing shortfalls and the nation was in a recession.
Some people think that the facts were hidden from the public in order to have a smooth election cycle last year. Had this been foreseen, there certainly would have been a plethora of challengers; as it was, only the at-large incumbents were challenged. They both won. All of the other incumbents had no challengers.
Of course, if people had been paying attention, they would have known what the situation was. The problem was that no one attended council meetings unless they had a specific issue to address. No one kept up with what the council was doing.
In addition to this, the Tea Party movement is making waves all over the country and their target is government spending of any kind. A number of people are saying that they will not vote for the renewal in order to send a message to the mayor and council.
The problem is, they are not going to be sending the message they intend.
What they want to tell the elected officials is ‘We believe that you have not managed our money very well and we are very unhappy about it.’ That’s the message they intend to send.
The inconvenient truth for voters is that the message they will actually send is ‘fire 30 more policemen and 30 more firemen, we want a tax cut’.
The other message you are sending is to the policemen and firemen themselves, and that message is ‘take a hike’, we don’t need your services any longer. Morale is already very low, and this would be devastating.
I truly don’t think that people really want that outcome, but they must understand that if this dedicated tax is not passed, the cuts will be made in the public safety sector because that is where the revenue goes. This will come on top of a 13% cut already made this year.
That simple yes or no question is whether or not you want to maintain the police and fire departments at their already reduced levels?
Yes or no?

Survivor Villian Russell Hantz arrested in Lafayette

Lafayette Police say that Russell Hantz of Survivor fame may need another immunity idol after he was charged yesterday for simple battery.
He was booked into the Lafayette Parish Jail after pushing a woman to the ground in downtown Lafayette.

Two Saints head for the heavens in F-16’s

Jabari Greer and Drew Brees soared off into the clouds courtesy of the Thunderbirds, and courtesy of KTBS here is the video.

Living in Clover

Well, our friend Riley is . . .

Coming Up: Bossier Parish School Board Elections

Bossier Parish School Board elections are coming up in just a few months. Every member of the board will be up for re-election.
A lot has changed in the last four years.
Ken Kruithof retired after all of the scandals last year, and the board refused to mount even a regional search for a new superintendent. It was pretty well determined before any applicants were interviewed that D. C. Machen would get the job.
Machen was the Assistant Superintendent for Administration during the time that several employees and a vendor were stealing almost $1,000,000 from the system, a few thousand at a time. The board refused to hold anyone in a management or supervisory position responsible for the debacle. The (now) former employees were all sentenced to prison.
A lot of people were grumbling at the time, and some were outspoken in their criticism of the board, promising to hold them accountable at election time.
We’ll see.
It’s not a good time to be an incumbent in any office at any level. The Tea Party movement is very active in Bossier Parish, and they are out for accountability. Whether that will reach to the school board, I have no idea.
Rumors have been floating that Michael Mosura, the Board President, may run for the state legislature in 2011, the same rumor is making the rounds about Kostelka.
Qualifying will be in July or August, and we’ll find out at that time who’s in and who’s out so far as candidacy. I do predict that there will be more challengers than we have seen in the past.
Below is the current board.

District 1
Jack Raley
P.O. Box 85
Haughton, LA 71037
318-949-3675
jack.raley@bossierschools.org

District 2
Brad L. Bockhaus
111 Harvest Ln.
Haughton, LA 71037
318-949-6680
brad.bockhaus@bossierschools.org

District 3
Dr. Allison Brigham, VP
511 Lee Street
Benton, LA 71006
318-426-2911
allison.brigham@bossierschools.org

District 4
Tammy Smith
183 Willow Bend Road
Benton, LA 71006
318-965-9839
tammy.smith@bossierschools.org

District 5
Michael S. Mosura II, President
6014 Jason Street
Bossier City, LA 71111
318-742-3700
michael.mosura@bossierschools.org

District 6
William C. Kostelka
309 Audubon Drive
Bossier City, LA 71111
318-747-6966
bill.kostelka@bossierschools.org

District 7
J. W. Slack
2424 Douglas Drive
Bossier City, LA 71111
318-746-5752
jw.slack@bossierschools.org

District 8
Kenneth M. Wiggins
3201 Cloverdale Place
Bossier City, LA 71111
318-742-0251
kenneth.wiggins@bossierschools.org

District 9
Eddy Ray Presley
1816 Lee Street
Bossier City, LA 71112
318-286-9049
eddy.presley@bossierschools.org

District 10
Julian Darby
1130 Beverly Street
Bossier City, LA 71112
318-747-0818
julian.darby@bossierschools.org

District 11
Lindell Webb
1830 Venus Drive
Bossier City, LA 71112
318-746-0672
lindell.webb@bossierschools.org

District 12
Mack Knotts
5007 Kenilworth Drvie
Bossier City, LA 71112
318-747-4166
mack.knotts@bossierschools.org