Monday Reads

Good Afternoon and sorry this is so late!

My gig was a bit of wild ride last night and I really had trouble sleeping after I got home.  The weather is in that place where you need a/c in mid afternoon and heat at the earliest hours of the morning. I got up at like 3 a.m. to flip the furnace on.  My guess is the temp would’ve been comfortable for most of you but for some reason the cold got to me.  There’s a lot of things in me that must’ve changed during the 20 years I’ve lived in New Orleans.  Last weekend a Swiss woman told me that she was having difficulty understanding my accent.  Accent?  Me?  I guess that’s developed along with some other things.  I know that my jazz chops are much better and odd rhythms no longer frustrates me.  But, before I wax too poetically about things I’ve gotten used to and sound like some starry-eyed post Katrina transplant, I’d like you to know that there are things down here that are still very jarring and irregular.

This story was done by the closest thing we have to state paper, The Advocate.  They’ve done some really great investigative journalism recently and this one story deserves to go national.  It’s not about New Orleans per se but the one of the outback parishes.  Eight people have died in custody over the last ten years in the Sheriff’s jail of this very rural parish with a low population.  This story deserves some national attention.  This is what happens when you make a criminal justice system handle the mentally ill and populations you just deem unfit for a community.

Since 2005, at least eight people have died in the custody of the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office — in its jail or after an arrest — according to records compiled by The Advocate. Seven of those who died were inmates. At least two of those seven suffered from mental illness.

One was Sonnier. The other was Michael Jones, who died in 2009 after an altercation with the corrections staff. Last March, a judge ruled that two Sheriff’s Office employees, including former warden Wesley Hayes — who allegedly sat on Jones to subdue him — were responsible for his death.

Sonnier’s death has received comparatively little attention. The family settled its case against the Sheriff’s Office for $450,900, but confidentiality agreements prevent them from discussing it. However, public records, transcripts and other documents tell a disturbing story of how Sonnier died. Taken together, the deaths of Jones and Sonnier raise pointed questions about how the Iberia Sheriff’s Office cares for mentally ill inmates.

It’s a problem facing wardens across the country. Designed for short-term stays, jails hold mostly pretrial detainees and inmates sentenced for minor crimes. In Louisiana, though, they often play host to longer stints as well: Sheriffs hold state and federal prisoners at fixed daily rates.

Jails and prisons are not equipped to treat the mentally ill, said Dr. Richard Lamb, professor of psychiatry at the University of Southern California Medical School, but they increasingly have no choice.

“It used to be if you were mentally ill, you would be in a hospital,” Lamb said. “As the hospitals emptied out, there were fewer and fewer beds, so people who had a mental illness, and who had anything disruptive or antisocial, began to be put in jails and prisons.”

A 2006 report by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated 64 percent of jail inmates had mental health problems. One 2009 study estimated that rates of serious mental illness are up to six times higher among inmates than in the general population.

In an interview with The Advocate, Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal acknowledged that his staff is ill-equipped to handle such people.

“I don’t think any jail should have to house a mental patient,” Ackal said. “We’re not psychiatrists. We’re not psychologists.”

So much of this complete lack of a social contract has to do with the Reagan Revolution which deemed government the problem and screamed loudly that deserving people aren’t getting ahead because other folks are taking it from them.  You can see how these policies have allowed parts of the south to display their pre-civil war behaviors and attitudes proudly.  Bigotry is once again religious freedom. Poor people deserve to be shamed and starved to death.  There are many Koch-sucking Republican governors ruining their states but Bobby Jindal’s Reign of Terror in Louisiana stands as a singular learning experience.  This brilliant analysis in The Observer talks about the kind of behavior that puts a psychopath in high office instead of dead on the floor of a prison cell.  Mental illness accompanied by poverty gets you a form of state execution.  Mental illness accompanied by hubris and the ability to spout total nonsense about the economy and the US form of government gets you the campaign dollars of billionaires and the ability to package yourself into some statehouse.

A career that once stood for the wildest American dreams of immigrants’ children now looks like a different archetypal story: a story about the dangers and the limits of ambition. Seven years into a disastrous governorship, it now seems clear that Jindal never took seriously his obligations to his own state. Louisiana was another stepping stone in a career full of them—and Louisiana got stepped on.

It would be one thing if Jindal could point to a prospering state and a balanced budget in order to stake his claim to the presidency. Instead, he’s operated under the theory that results are less useful than ideological purity. In the process, Jindal effectively signed over control of his state’s budget to Republican kingmaker Grover Norquist and his anti-tax lobby, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR). Jay Morris, a Republican state representative, says that the budgeting process under Jindal boils down to this: “‘ATR says that’s a tax increase.’ Or, ‘ATR says that might not be a tax increase if you do blah, blah, blah.’ He feels that’s the best way to run for national office. It’s just not a good way to run Louisiana.”

Obviously, Morris is no fan of the governor, so take his words with a pinch of salt if you like. But it’s striking to hear how often they’re echoed these days—not just from the left, but from Jindal’s fellow conservatives. Here’s American Conservative writer Rod Dreher, a Louisiana native: “Jindal is sacking his own state to preserve his viability as a Republican presidential candidate—specifically, so he can say that he never raised taxes.” And here’s National Review contributing editor Quin Hillyer: Jindal’s tax policy, which actually taxes the poor at a higher rate than the rich, is “a moral abomination.”

The irony is that this hyper-ideological style of governance seems to have backfired. Jindal’s probable rivals, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, may not be able to point to gangbusters job growth—but at least they can’t be saddled with a failed state.

The deeper irony is that Louisiana’s budget crunch called for the very talents with which Jindal was so richly blessed: a wonkish engagement with policy details, a McKinsey-honed love of number-crunching, the sense of creative policy entrepreneurship that once had him reimagining Medicare as a Congressional intern. It’s easy to look from that Bobby Jindal to this one—from the rising star to the floundering governor—and ask: Can this be the same person?

A similar story line plays out in Governor’s mansions all over the country of once promising Republican  pols. Chris Christie’s sadistic management style is starting to show up as Bridgegate unfolds. Stock up on popcorn. The aides are turning on one another. This should be interesting. Oh, and Salon once more graces us with my word of the week. His aids are labelled “scheming lunatics”.  I don’t imagine these lunatics will find themselves dead on the floor in some New Jersey Jail eventually.  Simon Maloy labels the Christie aids as outright sociopaths for enjoying the distress of commuters stuck trying to cross the bridge.

A recent poll shows that most adults in NJ think Christie knew about it and probably tacitly–if not outright–approved the traffic slow downs.  He’s not quite as unpopular as Bobby Jindal, but he’s getting there.

New Jersey residents generally do not approve of the job Christie is doing, nor do they view him favorably. Just 35 percent say he is doing a good job, compared with 54 percent who say he is not. Only 30 percent see him in a favorable light, compared with 47 percent who do not.

Then there’s Florida’s governor Rick Scott.  He’s another two termer re-elected by a state full of masochists. The man is still fighting Medicaid Expansion while people tend to overlook his oversight of a huge amount of Medicaid Fraud while being CEO of Columbia/HCA.   This is a huge conflict of interest along the lines of Dick Cheney–former CEO of Halliburton–systematically lying us into war.  But, even the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald basically say Scott presided over a company that systemically defrauded the U.S. Government.

Scott started what was first Columbia in 1987, purchasing two El Paso, Texas, hospitals. Over the next decade he would add hundreds of hospitals, surgery centers and home health locations. In 1994, Scott’s Columbia purchased Tennessee-headquartered HCA and its 100 hospitals, and merged the companies.

In 1997, federal agents went public with an investigation into the company, first seizing records from four El Paso-area hospitals and then expanding across the country. The investigation focused on whether Columbia/HCA had committed Medicare and Medicaid fraud.

Scott resigned as CEO in July 1997, less than four months after the inquiry became public. Company executives said had Scott remained CEO, the entire chain could have been in jeopardy.

During his 2010 race, the Miami Herald reported that Scott had said he would have immediately stopped his company from committing fraud — if only “somebody told me something was wrong.” But there were such warnings in the company’s annual public reports to stockholders — which Scott had to sign as president and CEO.

Scott wanted to fight the accusations, but the corporate board of the publicly traded company wanted to settle.

In December 2000, the U.S. Justice Department announced that Columbia/HCA agreed to pay $840 million in criminal fines, civil damages and penalties.

Among the revelations from the 2000 settlement:

• Columbia billed Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs for tests that were not necessary or had not been ordered by physicians;

• The company attached false diagnosis codes to patient records to increase reimbursement to the hospitals;

• The company illegally claimed non-reimbursable marketing and advertising costs as community education;

• Columbia billed the government for home health care visits for patients who did not qualify to receive them.

The government settled a second series of similar claims with Columbia/HCA in 2002 for an additional $881 million. The total for the two fines was $1.7 billion.

On Scott’s 2010 campaign website, he admitted to the $1.7 billion fine, though the link is no longer on the site.

Is one of the goals of aspiring Rapture nuts a desire to bring down the U.S. prior to their end time delusions?  Why do we get so many governors these days that are intent on destroying their own states and making the lives of their citizens miserable?   What is it that gets these sadists elected?  Is this just the strange fruit of Citizen’s United?  Is this how we’re getting murderous police departments and governors that openly commit crimes and get second terms in the process?

Sam Brownback–having wrecked the state of Kansas’ economy–is now busy with the real work of a sociopath.   How’s this for separation of church and state and uber pandering? 

On April 7, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) signed a bill outlawing the most commonly used abortion method for women in their second trimester. Kansas is the first state to pass such a ban, which doctors say may force women into choosing more dangerous forms of abortion.

The moment was historic—so historic, that on Tuesday, Brownback took a victory lap around the state, signing the bill again in four separate private ceremonial re-enactments. Each location was at or near a Catholic school, so children could attend.

He started at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Lenexa, just south of Kansas City. Arriving around 9 a.m., he gave some brief remarks in the church’s ballroom facility and signed the bill on a blue paisley tablecloth. There was a photo op with students. He passed out some gubernatorial clicky pens.

“The people of Kansas do not support dismembering children,” Brownback said.

Then it was off to the airport to make his next appointment, St. Mary’s-Colgan High School, 100-some miles to the south in Pittsburg. Same blue tablecloth, same tableau of supporters flanking him with children and babies. Members of the student government and selected representatives from each grade watched him re-sign the bill.

Again, at Bishop Carroll High School, in Wichita, 160 miles due west. (His staffers say the total cost for taking out the state plane was around $1,000.)

“It’s important legislation that will go nationwide,across the country,” he told the students gathered, while protesters outside held signs.

One more time, at Thomas More Prep-Marian High School, where school officials say well over 100 students showed up.

Kansas–now heading towards a huge fiscal crisis–will get to wrack up legal fees for pricey lawyers trying to once more to tilt at the windmill of Roe v. Wade.  Afterall, zygotes are so much more important than living breathing children whose educations, health and futures are being gutted by Brownback-inflicted budget troubles.  A Topeka waitress lobbyed the Holier-than-Thou one via a note on his check.

Jumping on Facebook she wrote, “You guys 911 emergency. It’s my last shift and I am waiting on our governor. What should I say to him. This is not a test. Go.”

According to Hough, she wasn’t trying to be malicious but she didn’t want to waste a once in a lifetime moment.

“I just knew I had to say something, or I would regret it,” she said, adding, “It was my last shift at the restaurant, as I had quit, so it worked out nicely.”

Hough said she ran it past other staff members, including her boss who didn’t appear thrilled but laughed, before going ahead.

According to Hough — who said she believes education is the “foundation” of a progressive country —  the governor still gave her a tip, using the customer copy to leave her  10 percent.

Despite his recent re-election, Brownback is unpopular in his state having slashed taxes while cutting services and creating huge budget deficits. The conservative governor recently cut funding for schools in the state in an effort to keep the state solvent, forcing many schools to close early due to a lack of money.

I’m not even going to repeat the story I wrote about on Friday where Texas’ crazy ass governor is sending National Guard to protect the state from the U.S. Army based on paranoid conspiracy theorists.  Will Texas be insane enough to give this dude a second term too?

Anyway, I just can’t believe that after all these costly failures that any state would turn itself over to a Koch-backed Destruction Machine.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?