Hard to believe – and they actually have legislation allowing these practices –
Harris is right that he’s not breaking a rule. Louisiana’s ethics laws, written by the Legislature, allow lawmakers to author, advocate for and cast votes on bills that would enrich themselves, their relatives and their clients, as long as others in the same affected industry would benefit similarly. Regardless of the law, political watchdogs say, such advocacy is troubling.
“If someone has a financial interest in legislation before them, we just can’t imagine that person to be a neutral judge,” said Pearson Cross, a political science professor and an associate dean at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. “Would you want someone on a jury who will gain financially depending on the outcome of a particular decision? It just shows the craziness of our system.”
Also note the use of these laws to prevent competition …
Yet, within weeks of introducing that bill, Harris proposed two separate bills that would have benefitted Leebo’s, a chain of convenience stores and gas stations that he owns, by making it more difficult for larger retailers to sell gas more cheaply than he does. One bill, critics said, would have raised the price of gas by at least 4 cents a gallon at those large retailers.
BUT you might also say it’s an attack on Monopoly Corporations???
You sure have a lot going on there!!
And …
Was just watching some of Michael Moore’s “Columbine” and noticed that the WELFARE
program … not sure of the state … was put into the hands of Lockheed Martin!!
This was the case where a 6 year old girl was shot by a six year old boy in school when the
boy found at gun at his uncle’s home. He and a sibling had been left there because their
Mother was being evicted from her apartment AND because the mother had to travel an hour
on a bus in order to make $5.50 an hour working away from home under new Welfare rules
to repay what she was getting from Welfare. MM said that the end of the Cold War had moved
Lockheed into seeking other revenue. So was Dick Clark profiting from taking on employees
on Welfare which somehow secured a subsidy for his eatery in one of the malls.
MAY I ALSO ASK … How is New Orleans doing, in your opinion?
