Need help from expert researchers ASAP......PLEASE help....thanks!

[AnnInLa]

Fellow DUers, Cheney is coming to our town Friday (tomorrow) to endorse one of our local candidates for state legislature with a high-priced plate dinner. Our local Dems for Kerry group has called a press conference (among other planned activities), and I had this email in my mail early this morning. I know that most of the info needed is local to Louisiana, but you guys are such experts that I thought maybe if you do not work during the day, you could help out????? We are a small group, and this seems a BIG task. Please send any info uncovered to me as DU mail, and I will get it to Stephen (don't want to give Stephen's email addy here because of freepers.) (As an aside, our Kerry headquarters in Lafayette, LA has been broken into twice, and thoroughly trashed, and all of our signs, and materials stolen. Police are doing what they can (?)) Thank you very much if you can help our little group!







Greetings All,

I AM IN URGENT need of some RESEARCH - FACTS AND FIGURES on the following
topics...

SUGAR CANE (Feel free to use this week's TIMES - front page article) -
How much is CAFTA hurting Louisiana's Sugar Farmers?
How much Sugar is projected to be imported from South America?

Assault Weapons Ban
What did BUSH do about this - was he quoted saying ANYTHING about
this ban expiring?
What are POLICE officers saying about this?
Are there any CRIME STATISTICS that prove this should have been
Extended?

No Child Left Behind
How has this UNFUNDED MANDATE hurt LOUISIANA SCHOOLS?
Could lack of FEDERAL FUNDING contributed to OUR CHILDREN BEING left
behind with NO BUS SERVICE?

LA Charity Hospital System
What FEDERAL Dollars does this program receive and has it been cut
in the past 4 years?
What FEDERAL CUTS have we had to endure as a state RE: Medical
Coverage/Assistance (Claude??)

Halliburton
How much RICE did Halliburton Purchase and from whom for their
CONTRACT in IRAQ (Monisha?)
What Percentage of Halliburton's revenue comes from the USA?
How much as the USA paid HALIBURTON in the form of it's NO BID
CONTRACTS?
List some examples of OVER PRICED items with Halliburton

ANY OTHER suggestions you have that will show how BUSH/CHENEY is NOT good
for LOUISIANA and that they are COSTING us more and we are getting little
back.

We are putting together a PRESS CONFRENCE for CHENEY's visit, that will counter the repub press conference... And I really need the help on the above items... If
you could let me know when you are working on a certain title/topic that
will help... I REALLY need all of this by NOON TOMORROW if at all possible
and if we are to be successful. PLEASE help in any way you can... And let
me know...

WITH ALL THE INFORMATION - I need it to be footnoted - attach the hyperlink
to the NEWSPAPER or the PENTAGON or whatever site you find with the
information on it for us to foot note this for the reporters... Last thing
we want to do is quote something wrong...

PLEASE HELP anyway you can... This is SO VERY IMPORTANT - the REPUBLICANS
ARE ATTACKING US HARD in the coming weeks... We must stand up and say we are
NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE and we have the FACTS on our side...

Let me know... And thanks...

Sites that will help...
www.centerforamericanprogress.com
Any and all BIG NEWSPAPERS - GOOGLE YOUR BUTTS OFF!

THANKS!

____________________________________
Stephen G. XXXXX
District 5 Rep / Webmaster
Lafayette Parish DEC
www.LafayetteDemocrats.org

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
C

[Eye and Monkey]

1. LA casualties in Iraq (link)

2 from Lafayette

http://www.icasualties.org/oif/ByState.aspx

[spooked]

2. Here's a possibility not on your list

I like this bit on Cheney and Scalia DUCK HUNTING TOGETHER AT A PRIVATE CAMP IN SOUTHERN LOUISIANA just 3 weeks after the Supreme Court decided to take up Cheney's appeal in lawsuits over his energy task force.

Would be nice to say something like "while Cheney and Scalia were OUT duck hunting at a private camp in ...thousands of people in Louisiana were OUT of work"

find the name of the place, and the numbers of out-of-work in Louisiana.


http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/jphuck/Book5Ch.2.html

THE CHENEY-SCALIA CONNECTION. In 2001, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was the guest of a Kansas law school and went pheasant hunting on a trip arranged by the school’s dean, Stephen R. McAllister. Just two weeks before, Scalia sat on the bench as he heard two cases in which the dean was a lead attorney and the state attorney general also represented the state. The cases involved issues of public policy important to Kansas officials, in which Scalia sided with Kansas in both cases. (Los Angeles Times, February 27, 2004)

Accompanying Scalia on the November 2001 hunting trip were the Kansas governor and a retired state Senate president, who flew with Scalia to the hunting camp aboard a state plane. (Los Angeles Times, February 27, 2004)

In January 2004, Vice President Cheney and Scalia spent part of one-week duck hunting together at a private camp in southern Louisiana. The pair arrived January 5 on Gulfstream jets and was guests of Wallace Carline, the owner of Diamond Services Corporation, an oil services company in Amelia, Louisiana. (Los Angeles Times, February 17, 2004)

The hunting trip came just three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to take up Cheney’s appeal in lawsuits over his handling of the administration's energy task force. This obviously raised doubts about Scalia’s ability to judge the case impartially. (Los Angeles Times, February 17, 2004)

In another conlict of interest case, Scalia addressed the $150-a-plate dinner hosted by the Urban Family Council two months after hearing oral arguments in a challenge to a Texas law that made sex between gays a crime. A month after the dinner, he sharply dissented from the Supreme Court’s decision overturning the Texas law. (Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2004)

The Urban Family Council, which hosted the dinner, was not a party to the Texas case. But it backed a separate lawsuit that sought to overturn a Philadelphia city ordinance allowing gay couples who worked for the city to register as “life partners” to qualify for pension and health benefits. (Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2004)

[Eye and Monkey]

3. Sugar interests fear impact of CAFTA trading

http://www.thepineywoods.com/sugarCAFTA.htm

Sugar interests fear impact of CAFTA trading
Could collapse entire Louisiana industry, say Sugar Cane League president Melancon

By James Ronald Skains
Journal Correspondent

• Thibodaux, Louisiana
"The year 2004 could very well be the last year of existence for the Louisiana Sugar Cane industry," Charlie Melancon, President of the American Sugar Cane League headquartered in Thibodaux, Louisiana told the Piney Woods Journal. "If the Bush Administration has its way with its proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement, the imported sugar from just the five Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua included in the CAFTA Agreement could put our industry out of business next year."

In pursuit of "free trade," the Bush Administration is aggressively pursuing trade agreements with 42 countries. They are also pursuing Regional Trade Agreements with all the countries in North, Central, and South America modeled after the NAFTA Agreement (Canada, USA, and Mexico) which has proved so disastrous to the United States lumber and plywood industries.

On an annual basis, the U.S. consumes 8.8 million metric tons of sugar while it produces some 7.6 million metric tons and imports 1.2 million metric tons of sugar.

"If the Bush Administration continues its current course in the various Free Trade Agreement negotiations, the exposure to 27 million metric tons of sugar exports from the FTA countries - three times the U.S. sugar consumption- will destroy the U.S. sugar policy and industry," Melancon explained."If CAFTA or the other agreements are approved with the sugar tariff system as part of the deal, Louisiana's sugar industry will simply cease to exist. It will be a real disaster for this state. The sugar industry means $750 million to Louisiana's economy each year and 27,000 jobs"
<SNIP - MORE>

[Eye and Monkey]

4. George Bush: The Impact On Louisiana (specifics from Kerry Campaign)

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/files/070104_rural/louisiana.rural.pdf

GO TO LINK NOW!

[Eye and Monkey]

5. Charity's Problems

http://forums.politicsla.com/archive/index.php/t-2928

Louisiana's charity hospitals bracing for $91 million in cuts

By MELINDA DESLATTE
The Associated Press
5/4/2004, 2:30 p.m. CT


BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Emergency room beds, mental health care, some surgery units, dental clinics, family practice clinics and an array of health services for Louisiana's poor and uninsured will shut down at the state's charity hospitals as they try to fill in a $91 million budget hole, hospital officials said Tuesday.

"We're getting to the point that we're cutting enough meat from these hospitals that they're barely defined as hospitals anymore," said Robert Plaisance, interim chief of the eight-hospital system run by Louisiana State University.

Those eight hospitals in central and south Louisiana estimate they will have to cut $59 million to keep their budget balanced for the 2004-05 fiscal year, under Gov. Kathleen Blanco's spending proposal. The two public hospitals in north Louisiana, which run separately of the LSU system, told the House Appropriations Committee that they will have to cut $32 million.

"At this point in time, I have no earthly idea where we're going to get that kind of money for you to keep your head above water," Rep. Warren Triche, D-Thibodaux, told hospital officials.

About 19 percent of Louisiana's population — or about 832,000 people — are uninsured and depend on the charity hospitals for care, according to statistics.

Cuts at the charity hospitals are creating longer waits and reduced care while also jeopardizing the medical education programs that train new doctors, nurses and other health professionals, Plaisance said.
<snip - more>

[Jacobin]

6. Slightly off topic, Ann, but

Is that silly bastard coming to Louisiana to teal hunt? Is it that time of year yet? Is he dragging Scalia with him this time? I know he's friends with and hunts with Wallace Carline from Morgan City.

At least Tropical Storm Ivan is here to greet him! :evilgrin:

[Eye and Monkey]

7. Rice, LA, and Halliburton - "U.S. Rice Growers Push for Iraq Contracts "

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22638-2004Apr18?language=printer

U.S. Rice Growers Push for Iraq Contracts

By Dan Morgan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 19, 2004; Page A02

When the U.S. military took control of Iraq, many farmers across America's southern rice belt looked forward to reclaiming a multimillion-dollar market lost after a post-Persian Gulf War economic embargo against Saddam Hussein's government.

They are still waiting for the payoff. In an example of the limits of power, U.S. rice sales to Iraq -- once the top market abroad -- have been negligible despite U.S. control of decisions affecting trade and the economy.

Last week, the Iraqi Grain Board, made up partly of holdovers from the government of the ousted dictator, awarded its first contract for a major rice delivery: to Thailand for 135,000 tons, according to news reports. Earlier this year, a U.N. agency arranged for a 70,000-ton shipment to Iraq from Vietnam, which is not a member of the U.S.-led coalition ruling Iraq.

U.S. authorities say they are caught between helping American farmers and letting Iraqis have more say in the run-up to full sovereignty.
<snip>

"When contracts for food are awarded, those countries that helped in the effort to free Iraq should be the first" to make the food sales, Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) told a meeting of rice millers and growers in February.
<SNIP - MORE>

[Eye and Monkey]

8. 25 % Less Oil/Gas Rigs Working in Louisiana since Bush took office

Jan 2001 - working rigs in LA - 254
http://www.rigdata.com/rigcnt01.pdf

Sept 2004 - working rigs in LA - 192
http://www.rigdata.com/la.pdf