ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis): Letter From a Man with ALS

A Random Letter From a Victim of ALS

By: Fat Lester

The following are the contents of an email that a friend and colleague passed along to me. He is raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) to help find a cure for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis).

Out of nowhere (he does not know this man - hence the anonymity - nor does he know how the man obtained his top-secret email address. That said, he found the letter quite the motivational tool to summon his best efforts in attempting to solicit donations from family, friends and social media contacts, and as one of those whom he asked to help spread his message, I was given his permission to publish the contents of the letter he received from an actual ALS victim provided I keep the gentleman's identity private and include no information that could lead to his identity being tied to the substance of the message itself.

Without further adieu, here is the letter minus the greetings and signatures:

Dear Peter,

On January 25, 2012 I was diagnosed with ALS. From that evening on-my life has changed drastically. I have always been a very active person but due to the progression of the disease, my activities are limited. I left work shortly after finding out I have ALS to spend more time with my family and to acquire much needed rest. My symptoms were, and still are, muscle aches/twitches, headaches, stiff neck, noticeable muscle loss in my chest/back, cramps in my legs/feet and general fatigue.

My upper body is my weakest and biggest problem at this time. It is now getting difficult or impossible to do some of my everyday activities because I can barely raise my arms. Shaving, bathing, dressing, getting in and out of the bed are all a challenge and require assistance.

The people at MDA of Greater New Orleans have been a Godsend. They are so helpful and are always willing to help you with any issue you face. The staff at the MDA clinic that I go to every 3 months is also wonderful – they are friendly, knowledgeable professionals that will do anything to help.

I have a very supportive family and close friends that are always there for me no matter what my needs are. My wife and I have met some great friends, other pALS (People Living with ALS) and their wives. We get together often for dinner and other activities and find that these are the most wonderful relationships. We are all dealing with the same struggles, even though we are at different stages with ALS, but understand what each other is going through. This group bond that we have as made a huge difference in our lives.

If it weren’t for organizations like MDA I would not have had the opportunity to meet these pALS and receive the help we need. I know there are more hard situations in the future, but with all the support I have, I will get through it all.

Thank you for supporting the Covington Lock-Up, MDA and my family.

Since we're keeping the author of the message anonymous, there will be no signature or goodbye message included here. That said, if that does not touch upon a soft spot in your heart, one must wonder if you even have one.

That disease (ALS) is among the most debilitating and torturous illnesses in the history of mankind, and my heart goes out to everyone and anyone who has ever suffered from it, God rest their souls.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)

The friend posted a blog about ALS, why he is motivated to help find a cure and why he feels that you and anyone else reading his blog should donate to the MDA Lock-Up event Thursday, May 23 in Covington, Louisiana. The friend will be "arrested" as a "repeat offender" and will need to post "bail" (your donations) in order to be granted release from the makeshift holding cell at the restaurant at which the event is being held.I will ask all readers of this blog though to please consider donating anything you can --- even if its just a single dollar --- to his "bail bond" as finding a cure for ALS is about as good a cause as one could conceive of to financially support.
If you can afford to help out, please do so, and know that his company, EGAN Medical Equipment, will be matching each and every dollar donated up to $1,000.

Gun Ban News: Tulane Students Cite "Widespread Rape" in Calls for Security

Tulane's Campus Gun Ban Leads to "Widespread Rape" of Female Students

Tulane University's female students have been among if not the most commonly raped demographic of people in the entire world for at least a decade now. When I was a student at the institution, I took note of this, and being a women's rights advocate did the only rational thing I could think to do: request the school eliminate its campus-wide gun ban in an editorial which was featured I the campus newspaper.
Thinking I'd done a good deed in helping protect the poor women being victimized while leaving campus, you can imagine my surprise the next week when I saw this: http://www.thehullabaloo.com/views/article_5021235c-7d42-56b3-9425-f25942f0800a.html.

The paper received a record 450 responses by the print deadline and countless more afterwards. They dedicated the entire op/ed page to the least vulgar of the hate mail that poured in for weeks afterwards. I received one email from a fellow student who commended me for standing up to the liberal institution and fighting for what is right.

For what it's worth (for those who read the hate mail linked to above), Kira McAllister refused to accompany me on my walk home from campus. I did email her and request that she do so.

The fact that this has gone on for a decade because the criminal waiting two blocks away have guns and the students do not is heinous and I hope that eventually one of those rape victims has the courage to sue the school for the physical and psychological harm she had to endure because Tulane threatened to expel her if she dared protect herself.

For anyone interested, I wrote a more in-depth and more general dissertation of the problem in which I posed the question of whether or not universities are actually encouraging such violence by placing the students at a disadvantage. Anyone wishing to read it can find it here: Do Colleges, Universities Encourage Violence Towards Women?

I think the answer to that question is patently obvious. Please share your thoughts on the matter should you feel strongly enough about the issue to do so.

Please don't take my word for it though. If anyone thinks this is even remotely exaggerated, please see the following, which I had no part of: http://jezebel.com/5877160/tulane-university-students-invoke-widespread-rape-in-calling-for-increased-off+campus-security 


"I'm pretty paranoid in general.  I carry around pepper spray with me everywhere I go,” said Tulane University student Angie Baroffio." http://www.projectnola.com/the-news/news/42-fox-8/177260-off-campus-crimes-have-loyola-tulane-students-on-edge

Mississippi Gulf Coast: Great Beaches, Better Prices

Mississippi Gulf Coast: Great Beaches, Better Prices

As those with whom I am closest are already aware, in early 2012 I made a fairly significant move from Covington, Louisiana to Long Beach, Mississippi. The move was motivated by a desire to reside literally ON the beach, and have the luxury of walking outside and fishing, sunbathing, etc.

For the first six months or so following the move, I was commuting to-and-from Covington from Long Beach, a round-trip that comes out to approximately three hours per day.

Needless to say, it wasn't long before I'd grown weary of the excessive drive time, not to mention all of the lost productivity that comes with it. I decided within weeks of the time I began residing along the coast that I would eventually be taking my talents and my business interests to Long Beach. A little over half a year later, that process is well underway, a commercially-zoned piece of property secured in downtown Long Beach to go with the beachfront condominium in which I've been residing was the missing piece. I am presently in the process of moving all of the inventory and equipment from Covington to my new "home town".

Long Beach is everything I had hoped it would be and then some. While the fishing isn't always great, it's not altogether bad either. There are days when the fish are biting and days when they're not.

Likewise, there are days when the beaches are full of local talent (and/or tourists), and days when the only females on the beach are their with their husbands and/or children.

The change has done me some good. The increased sun exposure has led to significant weight loss on my behalf, which is likely the result of increased testosterone levels, a little-known side-effect of men soaking up the sun's natural rays on a regular and consistent basis.

About a month ago, a beautiful girl came into my life from literally out-of-nowhere, and as much as I tried to fight it I fell in love with her immediately. She couldn't help but comment repeatedly during our first couple of outings together that the physical attraction she felt for me was unlike anything she's ever experienced. While I may otherwise overlook such remarks as pure flattery, I've seen myself in the mirror lately and quite frankly I can see where she's coming from.

The sun exposure coupled with stress and a lot of exercise has me in the best shape I've been in since high school, and the combination of factors has me as happy as I've ever been in my 30 years on earth. I just thank God for the past six weeks (and in a more general sense the past 7 months), and hope and pray that the string of recent blessings continues.

Oh, one other thing worthy of mention is the fact that Long Beach is effectively a ghost town where the pre-Katrina homeowners cannot give away their property, so anyone looking to snatch up a nice house, apartment or condo on or near the beach may want to take a close look at Long Beach. I did, and as of today it ranks among the very best decisions I've ever made.

New Orleans Home Health Care Nurse's Assailants Caught

About a week ago, there was a horribly tragic story in the New Orleans Times Picayune about a home health care nurse who was brutally gang raped while on her way to see a patient. The news shook the community, and the healthcare community in particular.
While there is really no positive way of looking at the crime that took place when that poor woman was victimized, there is one small bit of good news to the story.

The NOPD (New Orleans Police Department) has made an arrest in conjunction with the case, and appears to be hot on the trail of the others suspected to have been involved in the crime. All I can say is that I sincerely hope they catch every single one of them, and that they (if found guilty) never see the light of day again.

Home health care nurses routinely make visits directly to the homes of patients, where they do things like change wound dressings, bathe immobile patients, clean wounds and so forth. They are different from home health aids, which are more like babysitters for the elderly than an actual skilled RN.

Growing up in a household with two healthcare professionals as my parents, I can definitely relate to this poor woman's agony in a way not everyone can.

I hope the DA assigns his best prosecutors to the case, and I hope the defense lawyers aren't any better than they have to be, as if these guys actually did what they are accused of, they need not be allowed to interact with normal society again - every again.
For more on the arrest that was made, there's a pretty good article at the Nursing Ethics Network: http://www.nursingethicsnetwork.org/arrest-made-in-gang-rape-of-home-health-care-nurse.html.

Author's Note: The nurse who was victimized was not employed nor affiliated with my family's respective businesses in any way, although our hearts do go out to her and she is nonetheless in our prayers. Nobody should ever have to endure that. Ever.

Regarding Senator Vitter's Proposal to Drug Test Welfare Recipients

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06, 2011

My favorite U.S. Senator, David Vitter, R-LA, recently published an editorial at USNews.com arguing in favor of random drug testing of federal welfare recipients. While I do not necessarily disagree with the Senator's premise or logic, I do believe that the proposal outlined in the column does not do enough to sufficiently address the monumental waste of taxpayer funds as it pertains to drug addiction.

I most definitely believe that Senator Vitter's heart and mind are in the right place with this proposal. I certainly do not want my tax dollars being used by welfare recipients to purchase illegal drugs.

However, I would like to know what the relative cost would be to put welfare-recipients who are addicted to drugs through treatment versus simply continuing to support their lifestyle? I would be willing to be that the latter actually costs less to the taxpayers.

I believe that any such program should include a provision mandating that anyone arrested for possession of illegal narcotics be sentenced to drug treatment rehabilitation instead of serving time in jail/prison.

The cost of incarcerating non-violent drug offenders far outweighs the cost of their monthly welfare check. If we're serious about reducing wasteful expenditures of tax dollars, let's invest the money currently being used to incarcerate drug addicts into inpatient detox and rehabilitation. This will (by my estimation) more than quadruple the savings as individuals currently incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses could become taxpaying citizens themselves rather than having their entire lives destroyed permanently on the taxpayers' dime.

I'm all for the testing of welfare recipients, but I will reiterate that if the proposal's real intent is to reduce wasteful government spending at both the state and federal level, any such legislation should also seek to reform the criminal justice system in such a way that nonviolent drug offenders receive treatment instead of jail time.

Help Restore Louisiana's Wetlands & Coastal Ecosystem

I recently created a petition to the United States Congress (House and Senate) and the U.S. President, asking the respective bodies and the individuals in positions of leadership within those respective bodies to please commit to restoring Louisiana's wetlands and coastal ecosystem.

You can read (and sign) the petition here:  https://www.change.org/petitions/restore-louisianas-wetlands-and-coastal-ecosystem

I would very much appreciate it if anyone and everyone reading this would take just a moment to check out the petition, and if you agree with it, please also sign it. It's pretty hard to envision a scenario in which anyone would have any major objections to this goal.

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

TIGERS WIN! LSU Defeats Alabama 9-6 in Tuscaloosa - 11/05/2011

November 06, 2011

TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA - To say that I am pleased to report what I am about to report would be the understatement of the century. So, without further adieu, LSU has defeated Alabama in a game dubbed by analysts and commentators as the "Game of the Century.

The Tigers defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide 9-6 in overtime in Tuscaloosa in a game in which the defenses dominated from start-to-finish, and in which neither team scored a touchdown.

The Tigers came close on Morris Claiborne's interception return in the third quarter. Alabama nearly got in the end zone in the fourth quarter on a pass from Marquis Maze that was picked off by LSU safety Eric Reid at the LSU one yard line. Reid literally ripped the ball away from the Bama receiver in the air and came down with it without the ball ever hitting the ground. The receiver was wide open on the play until Reid seemingly came out of nowhere to cut off the route at the last second, timing his jump perfectly and fighting for the ball until he had clear and indisputable possession.

Both teams' defenses dominated the game, and LSU quarterback Jarrett Lee threw twice as many interceptions as he had all season leading up to the game. Luckily for the Tigers, embattled backup QB Jordan Jefferson played well enough to get his team the victory.

LSU held Alabama star running back and leading Heisman Trophy candidate Trent Richardson to 89 yards on the ground on 23 carries. Richardson also led the Tide in receiving with 80 yards on five catches.

The difference in the game turned out to be special teams, with LSU getting great performances from punter Brad Wing, who punted six times, pinning the Tide inside its own 20 on four of them, including a 73 yard punt he booted from inside the LSU 10. The ball sailed over receiver Marquis Maze's head, rolling another 20 yards before finally being downed at the 18. Alabama coach Nick Saban was clearly frustrated with that play in the post-game press conference, offering few words while holding nothing back in terms of his body language and tone.

LSU junior kicker Drew Alleman connected on all three of his field goal attempts, which accounted for all nine of his team's points.

Alabama kickers made only two of six field goal attempts, including one from over 50 yards which was partially blocked. In fairness to the Crimson Tide's kickers (two of whom played with each missing at least one field goal), with all four misses coming from at least 45 yards out, two of which were 50-plus yard attempts.

As even as the two teams are, the biggest difference between the two may ultimately be the coaches. LSU's coach is a slightly better coach and strategist than his rival from Tuscaloosa.

LSU defeats Alabama 9-6.  Geaux Tigers!

Bad News for LSU: Thomas "Crazy Eyes" Ritter is the Lead Referee for LSU-Bama

Baton Rouge, we have a problem. I was shocked and dismayed to learn that Thomas "Crazy Eyes" Ritter is working as the lead official for the LSU Tigers' epic showdown in Tuscaloosa against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

LSU fans will remember Tom Ritter from the LSU-Auburn game a few years back. You know, the one Auburn "won" 7-3.

In that game, Ritter pulled no less than five penalties out of his arse. Two of the imaginary penalties helped keep alive Auburn's lone touchdown drive, including one remarkable pass interference penalty in which replays clearly showed there was no contact between the LSU player and the Auburn receiver. The other three penalties each stopped an LSU touchdown drive, turning what should have been a 31-0, or at worst -24-3 LSU victory into a 7-3 loss.

Ritter has had it in for LSU in seemingly every game he has officiated involving the Tigers. The Auburn game was his most devious performance, but he's been consistent in that he has made awful calls in every game LSU has played in in which he has officiated, and 100% of them have hurt the Tigers' chances for victory.

It is despicable that this man is still officiating in the SEC, given his lengthy track record as the worst official in college football, not to mention his favortism for teams from the state of Alabama.

The "wild card" or "X-factor" mentioned by just about every analyst and pundit as the potential game-changer that could decide which teams wins this game may well turn out to be Thomas "Crazy Eyes" Ritter.

Don't be surprised if Ritter makes several bad calls down the stretch that ultimately cost LSU the game, or at least make it a much closer game than in would have been had any other human being officiated the game. If history repeats itself, the Tigers may well have to score two or three touchdowns for every one that will count towards the final score.

Don't be surprised if Ritter finds creative ways to kill any momentum LSU manages to build in this game with penalties against the Tigers that only Ritter can see, hence his nickname "Crazy Eyes". Don't be surprised to see the LSU defense snuff out the Alabama offense, only for Ritter to pull a yellow flag out of his you-know-where --- not because there was actually a penalty on the play, but because calling one on LSU helps keep a Bama drive going.

I hope I'm wrong about this one, but I've seen too many LSU games to be oblivious to the fact that Crazy Eyes has it out for us. Let's just hope his creative penalties aren't enough to sway the outcome one way or the other.

If we lose a hard-fought ballgame because Alabama outplays us or because they're the better team, I will be terribly disappointed, but I'll be able to live with the outcome. However if Alabama wins a game in which Thomas Ritter is the home team's Most Valuable Player, look for this blog and this author to make it a personal goal to see to it that that guy never officiates another SEC game again.

Fat Lester: The Novel

I received a spam email from Ebay the other day announcing some contest in which a participant (presumably the winner) could have a character in an upcoming novel named after him or her.

I deleted the email, as it did not interest me in the least. However, it did get me thinking. It's about time someone wrote an entire book about me. Yes, you read that correctly.

It is my humble opinion that an entire book should be written about me. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if opportunistic author were to publish an account of my unusually interesting life, it would constitute a grave travesty and a great disservice to the world.

Imagine if you were to combine Ferris Buhler's Day Off with Forrest Gump, substituting a remarkably good looking guy with a freakishly high IQ in place of Tom Hanks, that would in effect be the story of my (now close to 30 years of) life.

A country boy, son of an Irish immigrant who came to America having taken a vow of poverty as a Catholic priest, who got away with literally everything imaginable while in high school and college, only to rub shoulders with the likes of world leaders, professional athletes, embattled politicians and a list of other famous people way too long to list here - achieving great success and miserable failure all in a span of a couple of years.

Well, that's what would be written on the back of the book cover anyway.

From a financial standpoint, I'm quite poor, and my family came from literally nothing. I live in a remote, rural area that almost no one in the public eye (save for John Goodman, who has a house about 20 miles away) has even heard of - much less had any reason to visit. Also, there's not much about me that really stands out or makes me any more important than any other average Joe (hence the Forrest Gump comparison).

Despite my handsome appearance, women don't seem to be particularly fond of me (I guess I come across as weird --- working on a computer for 14 hours a day will do that to you). Despite the fact that I work 80 hours a week, I'm still pennyless. That said, I have had a couple of near-misses, any one of which would have made me a multi-millionaire had God, nature, the Devil and/or bad luck not intervened.

For example, I was due to sign a contract with the Planet Beach corporation, a worldwide tanning salon franchise corporation, that would have guaranteed me almost two million dollars for about six months worth of work, on August 29, 2005. That wouldn't have been a big deal had both myself and Planet Beach been based out of New Orleans, LA. August 29, 2005 was the day the levees broke, flooding the warehouse that contained all of the $4 million of merchandise the company was going to allow me to sell at a 50-50 split. To add insult to injury, the lady with whom I had negotiated the contract did not return to work after the storm.

Less than a year later, I had built an online empire selling medical equipment via an Ebay Store, had achieved the #1 overall ranking in all of the major search engines for my primary and dozens of secondary keyword targets, and was poised to seize control of the online retail market for the medical equipment industry, only to watch the business fall apart after selling WAY more than the company for whom I was employed was able to handle, both infrastructurally speaking as well as from a personnel standpoint. Once again, I had to postpone my target age for retirement from 25 to 30 - a number that in less than two months I will again have to adjust, this time probably to 35. If I'm not a multimillionaire by then, there's a good chance I'll just give up and try to reinvent myself as a 21st century John Galt.

That is why when looking back on it, I find it so remarkable that I've literally met hundreds of people, any one of whom most folks would consider themselves lucky to shake hands with. I don't particularly relish these opportunities as would most, and I certainly do not go out of my way in the slightest in order to facilitate these meetings. Yet, nonetheless they happen, and with an inexplicable degree of frequency.

In any case, if anyone reading this happens to know any author(s) who'd like to make a novel out of a true story of a normal dude who has lived more in 30 years than most people would in several lifetimes, please put them in touch with me.

My story is just too good not to be told and preserved for all to see long after my time here has ended.

One Thing San Francisco Got Right

As I was reading the news on my computer yesterday morning, I came across a headline in a San Francisco newspaper that would never appear in a Louisiana newspaper about a Louisiana industry or company: "Medical Marijuana Hydroponics Cultivation Company Announces Summer Products," it read.

The first line of the story was even better:

GrowOp Technology, the nation’s first medical marijuana-friendly hydroponics distribution company, announced today the launch of its 2011 summer product line up.

It has always baffled me how a state like California that is so backwards in so many ways could get this one particular issue right-on, while states in the southeastern U.S. that typically play the role of the calm, rational adult in a room full of crying children (New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, etc.) could get this one so hopelessly wrong.

(Neo-Nazi legislator Ricky Templet thinks he knows better than
God which of God's creations should exist and which should not.)

 So while California is allowing its citizens to enjoy their First Amendment rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (huh huh... I said penis, huh huh huh), and allowing their businesses to function free government intervention in a free market, generating revenue for themselves and the state, Neo-Nazi politicians in bankrupt Louisiana were busy turning back the clock all the way to the 1920's in enacting new prohibitions against recreational mood-altering substances.

Synthetic THC-like compounds have been an extremely popular (and until last week legal) product in Louisiana, as hard-working, tax-paying professionals and laborers would unwind with a little bit of the smokable potpourri, which they could enjoy and still keep their jobs since it wasn't illegal and didn't show up in a drug test.

Apparently, the taxpaying citizens having just a little bit of fun is more than Nazis like Louisiana State Representative Ricky Templet, who sponsored the abomination of legislation that has since become (a very bad) law.

Shame on you Ricky Templet of the National Socialist Party of Louisiana for once again seeing to it that Louisiana remains the laughing stock of the nation. Big Law Enforcement and their crooked lobbyists may increase their annual bribes to your campaign war chest, but you've done a horrible, horrible thing to the state of Louisiana and its citizens. It's a crying shame when California can honestly say that on at least this one issue, the voters and politicians of that state are more levelheaded and not nearly as irrational as a majority of members of Louisiana's state government.

Northshore Gas Station Hit with Lawsuit

A woman who slipped and fell in the parking lot of a Northshore convenience store has filed suit, alleging that the store was negligent is failing to clean up "oil or other slippery substance" that was present in the parking lot of a Kangaroo Express in St. Tammany Parish.

Julia L. Moore, also of St. Tammany Parish, claims she broke her wrist while attempting to break her fall after she slipped and fell in the parking lot after apparently walking over the allegedly slippery substance. Naturally, she is seeking damages to compensate her for her pain and suffering resulting from her injury, as well as for medical expenses. Ms. Moore claims her injury required surgery, and it's safe to assume she's either sporting a wrist brace or a heavy-duty wrist splint these days.

According to Michelle Keahey of LouisianaRecord.com, the plaintiff is accusing the Kangaroo Express (officially known as The Pantry Inc.) of negligence for "failing to maintain safe premises, failing to remove oil or other slippery substance from the parking lot area of the gas station and convenience store, failing to clean up or remove a spill after being provided constructive or actual knowledge of the spill."

The defendant had the case relocated to Federal District Court in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Newt May Be GOP's Best Matchup vs Obama

Newt a Sure-Thing Winner Over Obama in 2012

While Newt Gingrich's campaign staff may be in need of a makeover, he still remains an exceptional candidate. In a one-on-one matchup versus Barack Obama, Newt may well represent the GOP's best shot.

Newt Gingrich at the RLC in New Orleans

Where Newt elevates himself from the rest of the pack is in the specifics of his proposed policies and solutions. He is by far the best of the candidates in the current field at articulating the specific reasons why Obama's policies are destructive for the country, what he would do to correct the problems Obama has caused and why.

I had the privilege during last year's SRLC (Southern Republican Leadership Conference) in New Orleans of attending a private meeting with the former House Speaker in which he met with local Tea Party leaders to discuss the direction of the country. I was extremely impressed with Gingrich's depth and breadth of knowledge about the intricacies of the problems facing the country - both in a practical as well as a legislative sense. Newt would not only win the election should he get the nomination, he has the answers to actually fix the problems plaguing the country.

When I try to envision how each candidate in the GOP primary field would fare in a one-on-one election versus Obama, I see Newt being the least risky candidate. I just cannot see Obama defeating Gingrich in a mono-a-mono matchup. I can't say that about the rest of the candidates.

Newt is probably the most intelligent of the bunch --- the man is a certifiable genius. He is the most accomplished as a legislator, having balanced a budget and secured tax cuts in spite of the Clinton White House. Newt is also probably the best debater of the lot, especially when the debate is occurring between Obama and a Republican.

Make no mistake, Newt would absolutely obliterate Obama in a debate. It wouldn't even be close - not even remotely so. The extent of the shellacking would excite Republicans to cheer him like rabid LSU fans in Tiger Stadium in a home-game against Auburn, while sending Democrats running for cover.

Contrary to what the media would have you believe, the field for the 2012 Republican Presidential Primary features a number of very strong and extremely qualified candidates. Of those candidates, it is my belief at this point that Gingrich offers the best shot at defeating Obama.

Newt at the RLC in New Orleans



Newt Announces 2012 GOP Candidacy



Newt in the New Hampshire GOP Primary Debate

Fun Zappers Hand-Held Bug Zappers Make Killing Insects Fun

I moved into a new apartment a little over a month ago. The apartment is a dream-come-true, however that is not to say it is not without its own share of problematic issues.

Before I get to the drawbacks of living here, I'd like to state a few of the positives in order to put everything into perspective. First, the building is basically a one-room apartment that was converted from a boat house into a livable space. Two rooms if you count the bathroom. It literally overlooks a tributary of the Tchefuncte River near Covington, Louisiana.

The balcony (and the majority of the apartment) was literally built out over the water. What used to be a boat house was built on top of a garage with slightly over half of the building hovering over a boat slip (a human-dug extension of the river/canal on private property that exists for the purpose of parking a resident boat). The part that is out over the water is supported by reinforced wooden pilings.

The problem is that with all of this wood (specifically the shed, the bottom-side of the floor of the apartment overlooking the boat slip, and the inside of the apartment above the ceiling), wasps and hornets have found the place to be a haven of sorts, with an ideal environment for them to build their nests. With all of the wood that is sheltered from the weather but technically not inside the living area of the apartment, the building is capable of supporting several dozen wasp and hornet nests simultaneously.

With the river below (and in particular its banks), the wasps have an ample food supply to support as many colonies as they decide to found.

Needless to say, I wasn't just going to sit back and allow these pesky insects to dominate my domicile. No, regardless of where I choose to reside, I am the master of my domain, and I refuse to allow a pack of stinging flies to take that away from me. Before they had even had a chance to sting me, I had already committed to fighting back and attempting to reclaim what was now my property.

While I was committed to winning this war by any means necessary, if I could achieve my objectives without the use of toxic chemicals and poisons such as wasp and hornet killer, which inevitably are inhaled by the person spraying them more often than I was comfortable with.

A traditional bug zapper wouldn't work, because these were some smart insects I was dealing with, and I just couldn't envision wasps and hornets flying into a hanging bug zapper in such numbers that they were eventually eradicated from the property. I needed a more personalized approach.

Luckily for me (not so much so for the wasps), I came upon a device known as a Fun Zapper. Fun Zappers are battery-powered, electronic tennis racquet bug zappers that can be swung like a tennis racquet in the pursuit of killing bugs. Within moments of laying eyes upon the device, I knew the Fun Zapper was the solution to my wasp problem.

One lazy Saturday I made it a point to kill as many of the flying, stinging insects as I possible could. Between myself and a friend who was there assisting, we killed at least 44 hornets and wasps, and largely rid the place of the pesky flies. Now, my apartment is peaceful again.

I can finally step outside on my balcony without being greeted by angry wasps who get up in my face and demand to know who I am and what my business is inside of their territory. My apartment is now my territory, and I owe it all to this convenient and fun electric tennis racquet bug zapper.

Tchefuncte River Website Now Live

It is my pleasure to be able to announce today that TchefuncteRiver.com, a website about the Tchefuncte River, is now live.  The site was build in just a few days, but from the moment it debuted was already the best and most in-depth resource about the Tchefuncte.

The Tchefuncte River is a small but wide river in southeast Louisiana that runs through the border between Washington and Tangipahoa Parishes, continuing on through St. Tammany Parish all the way to the Lakefront in Madisonville, LA.  The river is at its widest in Covington and Madisonville, where boating and fishing on the Tchefuncte are extremely popular means of recreation.

I have been enjoying this beautiful and scenic river for the past fifteen years.  I fist started going out on the Tchefuncte with a group of friends from St. Paul's School in Covington, Louisiana.  One of my friends' fathers owned a boat, and a group of us would wakeboard, kneeboard and ski behind the boat during the summer months and on weekends during the school year.

I now reside in a one-room apartment on the Tchefuncte.  One day while searching for information regarding fishing in the river, I observed a stark and utter lack of information on the web regarding this pristine resource. I decided to pick up the slack myself, and worked tirelessly for several hours until the website had been completed.

TchefuncteRiver.com is now the official website of the Tchefuncte River, and your first and only source for news, information about the Tchefuncte, articles and photographs involving the river and any events set to take place therein.

Dog Swallows Fishing Hook, Survives

A recent fishing trip out on the Tchefuncte River in Covington, Louisiana nearly turned disastrous when my two year old male pit bull mix Tank found a jug from a previous fishing adventure that was attached to about three feet of twine with a #4 steel fishing hook at the end of it. The hook still had a dead, dried-up shrimp attached to it from a previous fishing trip that was somehow overlooked while cleaning out the boat.

Needless to say, the dog found the jug with the dried-up shrimp on the end of it and proceeded to swallow the shrimp (and the hook). A friend alerted me to the fact that my dog was trying to eat a fishing hook, but by the time either of us could maneuver our way to the opposite end of the boat (where the dog was stationed), he had already completely swallowed it and had moved on to swallowing the twine connecting the hook to the jug.

Fat Lester's Pit Bull Mix "Tank"

In a split-second decision, I decided against attempting to dislodge the hook, figuring that it would be better to have the hook loose in his stomach than stuck inside his throat or esophagus. He is a large dog (90 pounds or so), but it was a large hook, and the risk of exacerbating the problem only increased with the prospect of an amateur like myself attempting to dislodge a fishing hook from a dog's stomach.

Instead of trying to get the hook out, I immediately grabbed the jug and cut the twine where there was slack at the end nearest the jug so as to not tug on the twine and risk setting the hook inside my dog's stomach. From there, I rushed the boat back to the dock and immediately took the dog to the veterinary ER (emergency room) on Florida Street in Mandeville, Louisiana.

After admitting him to the doggie ER, the doctor proceeded to ask me for a full account of what happened, and I was more than willing to comply, providing her with every seemingly insignificant detail of the event. From there, she proceeded to x-ray Tank to confirm my statement that I was sure I had not inadvertently pulled the twine enough to set the hook inside the dog's body. Sure enough, by the good grace of God the hook was still in the dog's stomach.  It had not been set (piercing beyond the barb so as to lock the hook in place), and had not yet entered the animal's intestines. This, as luck would have it, would turn out to be his saving grace.

The fishing hook swallowed by Fat Lester's dog Tank

Because the hook was still loose inside the dog's stomach, the vet was confident enough about the situation to attempt an upper endoscopy to remove the hook. Given that the alternative was a pretty serious surgery to go in through the dog's belly, cut open his stomach and remove the hook, Tank's fate rested in the potential success or failure of the endoscopy procedure.

For anyone unfamiliar with the term, an endoscopy is a minimally invasive diagnostic procedure used to examine a patient's esophagus, stomach and duodenum using a thin, flexible tube known as an endoscope that can transmit images from inside the patient's body to a TV monitor for an up-close, zoomed-in view. The device can be equipped with additional devices that can do such things as grab or latch onto small objects inside the patient's upper GI (gastrointestinal) tract.

An endoscope is a piece of diagnostic medical equipment used to perform endoscopies (the procedure defined above involving the lowering of the flexible, camera-equipped tube into the patient's upper digestive tract).

Anyway, the doctor briefed me on the situation prior to attempting the procedure. She informed me that if unsuccessful, she would have to perform surgery in order to save the dog, and I granted her approval to take whatever necessary actions needed to be taken in order to save the dog. She assured me that she would not perform surgery unless the endoscopy procedure failed.

Much to my relief, about two hours after leaving the veterinary emergency clinic, I received a phone call from the vet stating that the procedure was a success, my dog was doing fine and was recovering, and that I could come by the next morning to pick him up and settle up on my bill, which came out to more than $1,300.00. She advised against going to pick him up that night, as he was fairly heavily sedated with buprenorphine and was better off spending the night under the supervision of caring animal health professionals in the event something should go wrong in the hours following the procedure.

We had no such bad luck, and the next morning at 9:00 I went back to the animal ER and picked up my dog, who by then had worked up quite an appetite and was extremely happy to see me.

Thanks Dr. Stockton for helping save my dog!

Dr. Donna Stockton: Veterinarian who saved Tank Dog

For the Record: Jennifer Rexford Confirmed to be Fraud

In case you missed it:  I told this Jennifer Rexford character that I'd retract my first two posts and issue and apology, see to it personally that her story gets mainstream publicity and establish a charitable fund in her name to help with medical bills and immediately make a $150 donation towards it IF (and it turned out to be every big as bit of an if as it looked) she could provide independently verifiable information that substantiated her litany of claims.

She could not provide one single detail such as for whom she worked, the name of her supervisor, any officials within the agency, the name of the alleged doctor or nurse nor any other independently verifiable data.

FOR THE RECORD: I generally don't go around attacking sickly women who claim to have been victimized and are dying unless I'm pretty certain reality is far different than they would have you believe it is.

The kind of shit she's pulling is causing families to lose their homes, children to go hungry and an economy to take a critical and unnecessary blow. The Gulf South's economy is centered around 1) Energy; 2) Seafood; 3) Tourism.

Drilling has been completely shut down putting close to 100,000 people out of work. Tourism and seafood are down more than 100% as people around the country and world continue to harbor completely false paranoid suspicions about the Gulf of Mexico. I saw a poll of college students that showed that more than 25% thought the Gulf of Mexico is largely dead and contaminated and more than 15% believed the beaches are black with oil and tar.

Thanks to this idiot, that group of students went to Lake Tahoe instead of Pensacola or Navarre Beach, the family in Michigan stayed away from the shrimp and oysters at the restaurant for fear they were poisoned. In return, the restaurant owner stopped buying the shrimp harvested in the waters surrounding Venice, LA and 42 hotel employees were laid off. Six months down the road with sales still down and bills piling up, the shrimper and his family of six are forced into foreclosure. Their shrimp just weren't selling and when they were they weren't getting enough money for them to support their families. BP did NOT fulfill its promise to make those who make their living from Gulf Seafood whole (additional resources below), and eventually something must give. For families with mortgages, it's usually the house.

Thanks to this idiot, people are still in delusion about the impact of shutting down drilling in the gulf, allowing the government to get away with starving 80,000 workers and their families out of their homes, jobs and livelihoods.

Tens of thousands of people have viewed this scoundrel's videos and to date no one has previously bothered to point out the fact that HER WHOLE ACT IS BULLSHIT!

I might post an online poll at the blog where all this has transpired asking if "rexford" should be adopted by society as a new synonym for the word "bullshit". Who knows, maybe it will catch on.

Someone had to put her in her place and expose not only skepticism of her claims but also the reasons none of what she said made any sense, as well as put on public display the fact then when confronted she cannot provide a shred of independently verifiable evidence about her story.

nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/04/longtime_oil_industry_champion.html

nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/04/longtime_oil_industry_champion.html

nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/04/bp_says_its_not_responsible_fo.html

Why Newspapers Won't Report Jennifer Rexford's Claims

Those of you who have been following the Jennifer Rexford agitprop scam are in for a real treat in this post.  Now might be a good time to go get some pretzels and a cold soda and get comfortable so you can maximize the enjoyment of watching as I demonstrate exactly why no news agency is willing to print Jennifer's "story" in their newspapers, discuss it on their television programs, radio shows, websites, blogs and any other medium you can think of that I might have missed.

In response to those who have privately questioned why I would even give her story the publicity it is receiving by appearing three different times on this blog, the answer is that I felt it was important that the record show that the woman claiming to be Comrade Rexler's story is complete and utter bullshit, and that she was publicly given a chance to prove otherwise and failed to do so.

The person claiming to be Jennifer Rexford left almost two dozen combined comments on the previous two posts.  The following is my response to those comments:

Re: Comrade Rexford

Comrade Jennifer, I am going to ask you to provide some specific information about your purported story.  If indeed your story does check out, I will do the following:

• Remove the previous two posts addressing this topic
• Issue a formal and public retraction and apology
• See that the story gets picked up by a major national or regional newspaper as well as wire services within not more than 72 hours following my receiving the information
• Establish a charitable fund in your name to help with your medical expenses and make a $100 opening donation

If, as I am expecting, you will be unable to pass the upcoming credibility test, public record will show that your story was debunked beyond the possibility for interpretation.

Please provide the below-requested information which can be submitted privately by using the form found here (use the "domains" field as you would the "message" or "body" field on a standard form).  If you wish to publicly show that you provided the information requested, you may do so in the "comments" field below.

Please provide the following information:

• The date at which you began performing Gulf oil spill cleanup restoration efforts
• The date at which your employment cleanup-related employment ended
• Your employer (the name of the firm)
• The name of your immediate supervisor (the one directly above you whom you answer to daily)
• The name of any other lower, mid and upper level managers/supervisors employed by stated firm involved or associated with the project(s) on which you allegedly worked
• Your job title
• Your job responsibilities
• Specific job duties that placed you most at risk of physically handling oil and oil-related byproducts with your skin, and job duties that placed you at risk of breathing in unhealthy contaminants that you claim caused your litany of medical conditions
• State of employment
• Parish or county of employment
• Name and clinic/work phone number of physician who will state on record that he or she agrees with your stated assessment of your purported conditions and their respective cause(s)
• Name, floor and unit of the supposed nurse mentioned in your allegations and in your vidoes
• Hospital in which said events were filmed
• Name of a physician with whom you had an in-office visit 12-24 months ago
• Signed waivers (one per person) to be sent via certified mail granting your permission for every medical profession whose name is requested above to speak on-record about your condition (I will pay all costs associated with shipping them)

If you're telling the truth and you really want to let the world know just how badly BP screwed you over, you should have no trouble providing me with the requested information.  Use the form linked to above to send me a private email address at which I can send you a mailing address for the waivers. If you are telling the truth, I will keep my word and uphold the promises listed above.

However, I'm not expecting to receive any much less all of the information needed to verify your claims.  You had asked why I didn't bother contacting you before annihilating your unsubstantiated allegations.  The reason is because you aren't going to send me that information and your claims will never be verified --- the same reason no one else will touch your story with a ten-foot pole.  Your accusations reek of unsubstantiated hearsay.  You have a chance here to prove otherwise, but I'm not holding my breath and neither should anyone else.

I am so confident that you are a disgruntled commie environmentalist wacko who fabricated a story full of nothing but lies and distortions intended to inflict damage to the one region of the country you and your comrades deem the biggest obstacle to your dream of an all-out dystopian socialist takeover that I was willing to place my reputation and social media following on the line and risk being viewed as a bully who picked on the sickly volunteer woman who is suffering symptoms including "severe neurological damage, paralysis, internal bleeding and death" in order to establish for all to see that you are a phony, a fraud and a scam artist.

This is your chance to prove me wrong.  The information needed for independent sources to verify your claims has been formally and publicly requested.  You can publish the requested information here on this blog and across the web proving me wrong and revealing me to be a heartless, soulless defender of big oil.

What if you send me the information but I refuse to publish it and claim not to have received it?  Publish the answers to your questions and a photograph showing that the certified mail was indeed received and another photograph showing the completed waivers along with the alphanumeric sequence 19U&IOF%F818@#7!1$24451L9GH4-23-88YUI71$ contained within the main content area of the page to any other page on the web (blogger, wordpress, tumblr, posterous, amplify and other services offer free blogs and have community features that allow you to quickly build a couple of links to your page/post from elsewhere on the site to ensure it gets indexed by search engines - for example, this would entail clicking "like" on someone else's post at Amplify, or leaving a comment or two).  Readers from this post can search for the specified character string and if you did indeed provide the information anyone reading this post will be quickly able to find it with a quick check of Google.

I've given you every opportunity to prove the validity of your claims and get your story out there.  Will you do the unimaginable and actually prove your accusations; or will the record show that your claims and of yet unsubstantiated allegations be shown to be false beyond any stretch of the imagination or any reasonable interpretation?

In the event of a dispute over whether or not the information was provided:

Search sequence for confirmation of certified shipment of signed waivers: 19U&IOF%F818@#7!1$24451L9GH4-23-88YUI71$

Search for the above sequence of alphanumeric character in the absence of evidence either in the comments below this article or in a future post confirming the truth or falsity of the purported claims by Rexford. The absence of information in the comments section of this post or in a post appearing on this blog seven or more days following this posting can be interpreted as an announcement by myself that she had failed to confirm the details of her story. I've already done three posts on this subject, so unless she surprises me and produces some verifiable facts I'm going to assume it's because her story is bullshit.

However, if she does provide the info, I will uphold my commitments outlined above and retract my two previous posts while issuing a formal apology.

Therefore, if you don't see or hear anything else about this story here on this blog, search for the string of characters.  If you find a page created by the purported Rexford claiming to show confirmation of certified delivery of signed waivers but find nothing on this blog confirming nor denying such a delivery, please notify me in the comments section.  If necessary, the USPS can ultimately state who is telling the truth and who is lying if the delivery were to be contested by either party.  POINT BEING, if this issue finally ends here, that means she failed to provide the info.  If she claims she provided the evidence requested and has proof of certified delivery of the signed waivers on a webpage not on this blog, it means she's likely hoping to claim I received the information but would not acknowledge doing so.  In such an event, the USPS will have proof either way whether or not something was shipped via USCM from her to me, and I will have videotaped recording of me opening envelope/package upon receiving it from her to verify its contents.

It won't matter.  Her story is a steaming pile of bovine excrement and it's not going to check out when given the credibility test.  If she does try to lie about providing the info, someone please inform me so that the authoritative and decisive documents eliminating all doubt can be requested.

NOTE: In the ostensible event that your described medical condition is accurate (as is proven through correspondence with your medical caretakers and verification of their identities and contact information), albeit not a result of Gulf cleanup work, I will still establish the charitable fund and make the $100 donation --- IF --- you do the following:

A) Admit you lied and made up the part about your medical condition (if that even checks out) being related to the Gulf oil spill or the ensuing cleanup efforts - both here in a guest post on this blog as well as on your own site and in a YouTube video
B) Apologize to the people of the State of Louisiana, the Gulf Coast region, BP and anyone else who may have read your claims and/or watched your videos
C) Delete all Youtube Videos alleging your condition is related to Gulf cleanup work and any websites and/or blog posts claiming likewise
D) Agree to use social media more responsibly in the future

Granted, I still have serious doubts about Rexford's purported medical condition that are every bit as significant as my other doubts about her wild and until yet unsubstantiated claims. We shall find out though, as her actions will leave no doubt about exactly which if any parts of her story hold water and which (if not all) do not.

Bullshit Called on Jennifer Rexford Story

The following is an addendum to the previous post appearing here at the World Domination Blog entitled: Jennifer Rexford Oil Spill Agitprop Video Debunked as Fraud.

Here are a couple more points that really don't need driving home as this woman's lack of credibility has already been sufficiently put on display, but I'm going to drive them home anyway.

I majored in so-called "Media Arts" in college. I have worked professionally in journalism as well as in numerous other capacities involving media, not at all excluding the present tense.

Investigative journalists across the country would be fighting each other to the death to get first dibs on a story like this IF IT WERE CREDIBLE - or - if it had a high likelihood of being at least partially true. There is a reason zero legitimate news publications, credible blogs or websites have reported on this.

All of the so-called reporting is coming from Tumblr and other low-end content free blogging services that did little more than rehash the woman's claims without so much as attempting to verify their credibility. The reason no one is taking her seriously despite the fact that more than 16,000 people have viewed her YouTube video. that this woman is completely full of shit and that much is patently obvious to those who specialize in investigative reporting.

There's also a reason she is not coming forward and contacting elected officials and credible news media with her story. Instead, she's relying on an unconfirmed identity that may or may not be her real name. Instead of taking her story to a sympathetic press, she instead finds herself using YouTube, Tumblr and other free online user-generated content services that do not require proof-of-identity and offer no assurance of credibility whatsoever.

I don't necessarily doubt that the woman has severe brain damage as she claims, but it didn't come from performing post oil spill cleanup work.

UPDATE: Why Newspapers Won't Report Jennifer Rexford's Claims

Jennifer Rexford Oil Spill Agitprop Video Debunked as Fraud

I live in South Louisiana, have spoken with those on the front-lines of the cleanup efforts and I am EXTREMELY skeptical of the credibility of Jennifer Rexford's claims made in a series of bizarre but apparently fictional YouTube videos.

Rexford is the ostensible identity of the woman who released a series of YouTube videos in which she fires off a litany of allegations involving her health and supposed misdeeds by British Petroleum (BP). These include an array of what she described as "symptoms" including but not limited to death.

The woman purporting to be Jennifer Rexford charges that she came down from her home in Florida to help with the cleanup and Gulf restoration efforts. She claims she has succumbed to a bizarre combination of severe symptoms resulting in death, although she did not specify if death had already occurred, was likely to occur or may occur at some point in the future.

In late October - when the cleanup efforts were wrapping up and well before residents and cleanup workers had five-plus months to recover from whatever ill-effects they did incur as a result of contact with oil and tarballs breathing in whatever fumes were present since the cleanup ended - I represented a top statewide elected official at a meeting of the Louisiana Shrimp Association in Buras, Louisiana. The shrimpers and fishermen were the initial first-responders and performed the bulk of the cleanup work, and virtually all of the high-risk work.

For almost two hours I sat and listened to the concerns being expressed by those on the front lines and not once did any of the 150 or so people in attendance express any concerns about their post-spill health some six months after they had begun their cleanup work.

[Photo: Jennifer Rexford, the woman behind the bizarre but apparently fictional videos]

If anyone should have suffered debilitating illness as a direct result of the spill it should have been the shrimpers, fishermen and oystermen of Southeast Louisiana. If anyone participating in the cleanup effort were to have come down with oil spill-related symptoms such as those described in the woman in that video it would have happened when they were being repeatedly exposed to the oil and had high levels of the associated contaminants in their symptoms.

The exception would be the potential the spill may have for contributing to multifactorial diseases such as cancer that could manifest themselves at some point into the indefinite future. Note the key words here are potential, may and contributing. The illnesses that would fall into this category are widely understood to be the product of a number of factors including but not limited to diet, lifestyle, genetics and any instances of unusual or extraordinary exposure to toxins, contaminants and such.

The shrimpers expressed concerns about the fact that it isn't known whether or not their involvement in the cleanup efforts will CONTRIBUTE to the development of diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's and others later on in life. No one once indicated that after six months of cleanup work they had experienced any noticeable ill effects from their work in the Gulf recovery efforts.

If indeed this woman's claims were valid, there would have been other examples from some of the thousands of people who had significantly higher levels of exposure than the woman in the agitprop video.

In addition to all that, there is the question of what if any effect the cleanup work had to do with the the woman's condition and its associated symptoms.

Severe neurological damage, paralysis, internal bleeding and death were the "symptoms" listed by the D-list propagandist appearing in the video. Nobody has contacted the local media or any of the numerous high-ranking elected officials both on a local and state-wide effort with whom I am close with. People who worked in the cleanup would be calling Billy Nungesser's office, the office of Senator David Vitter, Mary Landrieu's office and Bobby Jindal's office and demanding they take action, which I know for a fact any of the four above absolutely would should such a matter be brought to their attention (and be truthful and valid).

The woman made no mention of --- wait for it --- going to see a doctor.  It would seem logical that someone experiencing severe neurological damage, paralysis, internal bleeding and death would maybe consider going to the ER and getting a diagnosis and ostensibly medicines and/or whatever other treatments are needed to stabilize and/or cure the condition. [Side-note: It's taking everything I've got right now to refrain from writing in all caps and ending my sentences with series of exclamation points. The degree of this pathetic clown's bullshit may be eligible for a place in the Guinness Book of Records.]

The scary clown mentioned absolutely ZERO names of towns, parishes, locales and jurisdictions that would have inevitably come up had a real Louisiana local or out-of-town volunteer (or paid) cleanup worker been involved with the video. She did not mention Billy Nungesser's name, which she would have done had she been telling the truth.

Her story is completely inconsistent with the hundreds of people I've personally spoken with who actually were involved with the cleanup efforts, her symptoms are inconsistent with exposure to petro-chemicals, inconsistent with the symptoms of actual illnesses and inconsistent with each other.

This woman is 100% full of shit and needed to be called on it.

Due to the incendiary nature of this woman's agitprop, I decided it was best not to embed the video into this post or even link to it. The fact that over 16,000 people have already viewed it is troubling enough, and I don't think it merits the additional exposure. I will provide the URL though for anyone who wishes to assess the video for themselves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MouIgUtgbgM

UPDATE: Bullshit Called on Jennifer Rexford Story

UPDATE 2:Why Newspapers Won't Report Jennifer Rexford's Claims

Hermain Cain Meets Fat Lester

I had the honor and privilege of meeting 2012 GOP Presidential Candidate Herman Cain at a Tea Party event in Mandeville, LA a few weeks back. Mr. Cain was the keynote speaker at the event, which also featured contributions from New Orleans radio personality John Osterlind, St. Tammany Parish radio personality Jeff Crouere and distinguished gentleman and businessman John d'Hemecourt of Abita Springs.

[Photo: GOP Presidential Nominee Herman Cain visits with right-wing conspirator Peter Egan Jr., aka: "Fat Lester"]

Mr. Cain delivered an inspiring speech in which he laid out his philosophy as a candidate for the United States Republican Presidential Nomination in 2012. He spoke of the government's reckless and ever-growing irresponsibility, and promised that if chosen to represent the Republican Party in the 2012 Presidential Election, that he would be the candidate who finally reversed course in hopes of righting the ship. The question implicit in the words "in hopes of" is not whether or not Herman Cain possesses the ability to lead the country back to greatness, but whether or not the unprecedented spending and borrowing that has taken place since the Democrats seized the House in the 2006 mid-term elections in the face of an already massive debt (present BEFORE they took office - they've increased it by an average of $4.07 billion per day SINCE they gained control of Congress). Each year that Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House of Representatives the Congress set a new record for national debt. That rise has increased dramatically since the election of Barack Obama as President.

Mr. Cain's speech was not particularly heavy on policy or specific issues per se, as can be expected for what ultimately wound up being something of a quasi-announcement that he would seek the GOP nomination for the Presidency. While technically at the time of the event his now-campaign was simply announcing the formation of a "Presidential Exploratory Committee", he left little doubt that he planned to enter the Republican contest as something of a "dark horse" candidate (no pun intended).

[Photo: GOP Presidential Candidate Herman Cain addresses the crowd at a Tea Party event in Mandeville, Louisiana]

The fact is that Herman Cain is not a politician, and has none of the baggage that all career politicians who have been in Washington for any significant period of time bring with them. Perhaps most significantly, the reluctance to implement the "radical" changes (as Chuck U. Shumer and Dingy Harry like to say) necessary to ensure the long-term economic and financial viability of the United States, the Federal Reserve Bank id its currency. The reality is that the last President in recent memory to positively impact the state of the government had a successful career in the private sector before seeking the governorship of the only state where Hollywood icons have repeatedly contested for (and won) multiple terms as chief executive. Those that have followed (and those that preceded) him have been career public sector elected representatives whose idea of running a business involves laundering taxpayer money to campaign donors who then reinvest it in that Congressman or Senator's "business" ventures, and look where they've taken the country.

Of all the names mentioned so far as possible Republican Presidential contenders, with the exception of Donald Trump who is only putting on a show for the sake of publicity and who is a RINO (Republican In Name Only) at best, none can boast the kind of private sector or executive-level success and experience in general that Herman Cain has achieved. Cain, the son of working-class parents in Georgia, grabbed the American dream by the (fill-in your choice of body part). He knows what working people go through in life, knowledge foreign to far too many in the Washington establishment in both parties.

Finally, in Herman Cain Americans have an opportunity to vote for a black man for President of the United States, not because he's black and it's long-past time the country elected a person of color if for no other reason than to break the taboo, but because if his resume, his mammoth intellect and his charisma are any indication, there's a very strong probability that Herman Cain may very well be the best and most qualified man for the job.

I've now met three four of the top six or seven names being mentioned in association with the GOP Presidential nominating contest, albeit one has been mentioned only as a potential candidate for Vice President as he has repeatedly proclaimed that he planned to seek reelection to his state's governorship and would not seek the Presidency - at least not before his 42nd birthday. This Southern Governor only became eligible to run for the Presidency since the summer of 2006. Anyone not know to whom I am referring?

I know this has gotten a little bit off topic since this is a post about Herman Cain. However, this latter candidate whom I have refused to name (in this post - c'mon, you should know this one) presents a couple of very interesting dynamics as a potential VP consideration. First off, in the ostensibly unlikely event he should team up with Herman Cain, they would represent the first major-party non-white Presidential ticket in the nation's history. Second, should this person join up with another candidate such as say Newt Gingrich, whom I have also met during the SRLC last year (2010 for those of you in Rio Linda) when he consulted with myself and about two-dozen other Tea Party leaders in New Orleans about the prospect of a potential Presidential bid, it MIGHT present a scenario in which I could potentially vote for a different ticket IF the Herman Cain campaign had not won any primary contests before Louisiana's, MAY feel compelled to vote for a ticket other than Herman Cain's. Unless and until that happens, at this point, he's definitely got my vote in the Louisiana GOP Presidential Primary.

[PHOTO: (from left) Peter and Pamela Egan, Herman Cain and Fat Lester]

About Herman Cain (Source: Wikipedia)

Herman Cain (born December 13, 1945) is an American newspaper columnist, businessman, political activist, and radio talk-show host from Georgia. He is best known as the former chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza. He is a former deputy chairman (1992–94) and chairman (1995–96) of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Cain's newspaper column is distributed by North Star Writers Group. He currently lives in the Atlanta suburbs.

Cain was born and raised in Georgia by working class parents. He earned a bachelor's degree in Mathematics at Morehouse College in 1967, and while working for the U.S. Department of the Navy, a master's degree in computer science from Purdue University.

After completing his master's degree, Cain left the Department of the Navy and began working for Coca-Cola as a business analyst. In 1977, he joined Pillsbury where he rose to the position of vice president by the early 1980s. He left his executive post to work for Burger King – a Pillsbury subsidiary at the time – managing 400 stores in the Philadelphia area. Under Cain's leadership, his region went from the least profitable for Burger King to the most profitable in three years. This prompted Pillsbury to appoint him president and CEO of Godfather's Pizza, another of their then-subsidiaries. Within 14 months, Cain had returned Godfather's to profitability. In 1988, Cain and a group of investors bought Godfather's from Pillsbury. Cain continued as CEO until 1996, when he resigned to become CEO of the National Restaurant Association – a trade group and lobby organization for the restaurant industry – where he had previously been chairman concurrently with his role at Godfather's.

Cain hosted The Herman Cain Show on Atlanta talk radio station News Talk 750 WSB, a CNN radio affiliate until February 2011 and serves as a commentator for Fox News Business and a syndicated columnist distributed by the North Star Writers Group. In 2009, Cain founded "Hermanator's Intelligent Thinkers Movement" (HITM), aimed at organizing 100,000 activists in every congressional district in the United States in support of a strong national defense, the FairTax, tax cuts, energy independence, capping and cutting government spending, restructuring Social Security, and defending the U.S. Constitution. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Cain