Saturday, January 09, 2010

Man of the Year Vs. Apeshit Rich Guy

Yeah, I know I could have been more creative with the title, but sometimes simplicity works.

First, read Eli's post here.

I got some audio recordings of it last night right after the event, and I thought it was a joke at first. This is pretty outrageous. I fully understand why he wants Letten to disappear, but to admit it in public is borderline insane.

I tend to agree with the gist of this sentiment:

Anonymous said:

Now do you understand why Georges want to replace Jim Letten?!!!???!!!??!! His stance at the OPDEC was not a coincidence at all. He is worried that he is about to go down in a public corruption scandal himself. Its going to get really ugly now and expect so see a faux racial card played to get rid of Letten by some white power brokers who are policially corrupted.

Of course I understand why he would want to replace Jim Letten, I just never dreamed he was stupid enough to say it in public. He's either really scared or really stupid, or both.

Was the purpose of that comment to rally crooks in Jefferson Parish? Last time I checked they don't vote in Orleans.

I'd love to be in his war room listening to this idea hatch.

"Hey...Hey....what if we attack the most popular and well respected guy in the city?!?"

Brilliant. Was that the same person who thought of the dog commercial?

Just so happens the guy he's wanting to replace won Gambit's Man of the Year. Two things I want to point out in this piece:

Letten, meanwhile, had earned his stripes in the U.S. Department of Justice's Organized Crime Strike Force as a hard-nosed prosecutor. He had recently convicted several suspected Mafia chieftains for trying to take over Louisiana's nascent video poker industry.

A little foreshadowing on Mr. Dubos' part?

Former city technology boss Greg Meffert, his wife Linda and former Meffert partner Mark St. Pierre were charged in November in a 63-count indictment for conspiracy, wire fraud, bribery, money laundering and other charges. The case stems from City Hall's crime camera debacle. The City Hall investigation is "ongoing," Letten says.

"Ongoing" being the pregnant word in that sentence. Are there more charges to come in "The
Case of the Cockeyed Crime Cameras"? Now who could that be?

Meanwhile, I ate a big fried shrimp Po-Boy the other day and got heartburn. I stopped by a drug store near the Yenni building to get some Pepto-Bismol and I'll be damned if they weren't completely sold out...clerk said she couldn't keep it on the shelves. Weird.

28 comments:

jeffrey said...

I can't stop laughing. Is that wrong? I am going to watch and re-live and link back to this video as often as I possibly can for maybe a year or so.

He's either really scared or really stupid, or both.

Ooh Oooh I know, I know! It's both, isn't it?

Frolic said...

I get the silly pandering, but I don't see the argument that Georges wants Letten out to protect himself.

It's not as if a change in the top would halt ongoing investigations by the staff. And it's hard to imagine Obama appointing someone who is going to drop public corruption investigations.

Maybe Georges does believe that dumping Letten would end an ongoing investigation. He's be pretty dumb if that were the case.

Isn't Letten a childhood friend of Mitch? I remember reading that elsewhere, but didn't see it in the Gambit profile.

Anonymous said...

Is Costi Georges still an Asst. U.S. Atty?

Frolic said...

Another point: I'm pretty sure the Obama administrator doesn't care who the mayor of New Orleans wants for US Attorney. The only mayoral candidate who could claim some influence in the matter would be Mitch, and that would just be through his sister.

I'm no supporter of Georges, but I just don't see how this theory makes sense.

Civitch said...

Maybe Georges' decision to go public with his secret hopes wasn't borne of his fear or stupidity (although he has both in spades) - maybe he knows that Letten is getting closer and closer to indicting a host of folks, and if that number includes Georges, he can now say it is payback.

Kevin Allman said...

Frolic: I interviewed Letten a couple of years ago (not for Gambit) and this is what he said about the Vitter and Landrieu families:

"I didn't know the Vitter family as a kid. The whole Landrieu family all went to St. Matthias and I knew the ones close in age to me initially and eventually the whole family. Mary was a couple of years behind me. She wasn't in my class, but always very nice."

Joe Laura said...

While I agree the crooks in JP do not vote in new orleans but there money is green last I checked.

Anonymous said...

I have been despondent, aggravated and relatively unmotivated and undecided in supporting anyone the mayor's race (aside from already making up my mind I was opposing Georges and Henry).

But now, I am fully devoted to opposing Georges with every fiber I can muster.

Anonymous said...

I have been despondent, aggravated and relatively unmotivated and undecided in supporting anyone the mayor's race (aside from already making up my mind I was opposing Georges and Henry).

But now, I am fully devoted to opposing Georges with every fiber I can muster.

Frolic said...

Kevin: Thanks. That was the interviewing I was remembering.

A little off topic, I know, but in all the talk of Mary backing a Republican US Attorney, I don't think any of the press (local or national) has mentioned the personal connection between Letten and Landrieu family.

Not that there aren't plenty of other great reasons for her to support Letten, even though he was a Republican appointee.

Anonymous said...

Out of pure curiousity has anyone had the privilege of hearing Jay Batt & Claude Mauberret's comments on John Georges remarks? The reason I ask is that all three are joined at the hip in this election and working in conjunction with each other behind the scenes.

Claude Mauberret & Batt have some serious explaining to do why they support Georges so vehemently. Mauberret recently said that there was no way he would fix the city's current assessment system and asked the other candidates at a recent forum what would they do if a campaign donor or public official from Baton Rouge asked to lower taxes on a particular property. This idiot told the crowd he lowers the property taxes on properties when city & state officials ask him too.

All three of these guys are in cahoots with each other and there is more to come with respect to all of them. What we have is inter-parish politics intertwined.

It is unfortunately amazing at just how stupid or uninformed the local voters are with respect to who the crooks are in government. Disheartening.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone have audio or video of when "This idiot told the crowd he lowers the property taxes on properties when city & state officials ask him too."?

I am very much anti-establishment in the Assessor race.

Anonymous said...

Alliance for good government forum

Anonymous said...

Mauberret boldly proclaimed that at the Alliance for Good Government even last week. Hopefully someone has video they can show the public on it. The audience members gasped and some just laughed in astonishment that Mauberret said that but what was equally astounding was the Alliance for Good government actually endorsed this nitwit after he said that.

Clancy DuBos said...

To follow up on Kevin Allman's clarity about Letten and Mitch Landrieu: yes, they all went to St. Matthias, but Letten is 56 an Mitch is 49. (Mary Landrieu is 54.) Letten and Mitch Landrieu obviously are not childhood friends.

Anonymous said...

The fact that the alliance endorsed mauberett over lemle and clarkson over Marshall really exposes it as a sham....and possibly worse.

Anonymous said...

nola.com's comment thread underneath the article on the nova scotia lodge is full of interesting information, speacking as you were of pepto.

Robeson said...

I would not be surprised to see the FBI following every footstep of Claude Mauberret after that remark. I can't wait to see what other organizations or media (if any at all) actually endorse this crook.

Why can't New Orleans get it right for once? The last thing this city needs is Heaton on the city hall and Mauberret running the Assessors office with all of the old assessors hired as subassessors.

Anonymous said...

Has the T-P not picked this up at all? If not, why not?

Frolic said...

Clancy: Thanks for the extra info. Obviously the age difference makes it impossible for Mitch and Letten to be childhood friends.

Nevertheless, I still find it strange that in all the talk about whether or not Mary would back Letten, I don't recall the local press once mentioning that she's known him most of her life (and by press, I guess I mean Gambit and the TP, since I don't follow radio and TV news enough to know what's said).

More than anything, it says something about New Orleans culture that no one literally felt it worth mentioning.

Or maybe nobody knew about the connection. I've only seen it reported in that interview Kevin did for New Orleans Living Magazine, which is a women's interest publication.

Anonymous said...

Georges wanted his brother Constantine to be US Attorney and fought really hard and dirty for that after Jordan left. He lost to Letten, and I think that's the source of the sour grapes. Once you piss Georges off, he never forgets.

Anonymous said...

this was posted on the nola.com FQ forum:

"My encounter with John Georges today: Early afternoon, I was walking on Royal (sidewalk, riverside) toward Canal and came to the St. Louis intersection. As I was crossing, a large white SUV (Escalade?) came up quickly, didn't want to stop at the stop sign for me (but did when I gave the driver a look), and was at an angle as if to turn to the left. It struck me as odd, being that there are barricades to prohibit a left turn onto Royal from St. Louis, so I chalked it up to a tourist not knowing. Wrong. After I crossed St. Louis, the SUV pulled onto Royal by driving onto the sidewalk and to the side of the barricade. The SUV then parked in front of Vintage 429. I was thinking...who is this jerk? First, the driver coming up to a stop sign wasn't going to even yield the right of way to a pedestrian and then just drives around the barricade like the rules don't apply to him/her. Well, guess who got out--John Georges. As if video poker, junk food vending machines, political dirty tricks, etc. aren't bad enough, my 30 seconds of encountering his behavior was enough to make him appear even more loathsome."

http://www.nola.com/forums/vieuxcarre/index.ssf?initial=true

Anonymous said...

Wonder if Mitch Landrieu will take time out of his campaign to go be a character witness for his good friend Mike Thompson?

http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201001110250/NEWS01/1110307

Federal trial begins today for former reservoir official
The Associated Press • January 11, 2010

A federal trial is set to begin today for former Poverty Point Reservoir District Executive Director Mike Thompson, accused of using district employees to perform work on his private property.

There were nearly 150 instances from 1997 to 2002 in which an employee purportedly billed the district for performing personal work for Thompson, prosecutors said.

The services ranged from repairing Thompson's chain saw in 1998 to installing two fans and cable television in 1999, court records said. Another bill for 11 hours in May 2002 was for traveling to New Orleans with Thompson to transport a door, according to the documents.

Poverty Point Reservoir, a 3,000-acre lake north of Delhi, was completed in 2001. It's now a state park. Thompson's brother, state Sen. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi, spent more than 25 years securing state funding for it.

Mike Thompson was indicted by a federal grand jury in Shreveport in June 2007 on one count of violating the Hobbs Act, which was created to combat racketeering in labor-management disputes but is frequently used in connection with cases involving public corruption, commercial disputes and corruption directed at members of labor unions.

In June 2008, he was again indicted by a Shreveport grand jury along with Billy Coenen, district attorney of the 5th Judicial District, and Terry Denmon, a Monroe engineer.

The three men entered not guilty pleas Aug. 8, 2008, to one charge of conspiracy and eight counts of mail fraud.

The charges stem from a land deal at Poverty Point Reservoir, where Thompson was reservoir district executive director and Denmon was lake project engineer. Coenen represented the district as its attorney.

Lawyers for all three men, including Alexandria attorney Mike Small who is representing Mike Thompson, have indicated they believe the case should be deemed an alleged violation of the state ethics code rather than a federal crime.

In fact, defense attorneys and the prosecution have agreed to wait on a U.S. Supreme Court decision on a similar case.

Small said the Supreme Court could rule on the case from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals this spring, so he doesn't see that trial beginning anytime soon.

Anonymous said...

but Letten is 56 an Mitch is 49. (Mary Landrieu is 54.) ...

So that means when Letten was 18, Mary was 16... I wonder what she looked like then? Think Letten ever "knocked those boots"?

Anonymous said...

James David Cane did.

Anonymous said...

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/01/john_georges.html

Times Picayune article on the single shot to Georges head due to a itchy tongue trigger.

The comingling of tax assessments and his Mayoral run are very interesting to say the least. The Mauberret/Georges information has legs.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, probably no boot knocking went on between
Letten and Landrieu back in the day. I would love to knock
boots with Letten but I know he is married so I just entertain the thought. I am still wondering what his zodiac sign is. Maybe Clancy Dubos can give us that information when Letten wins "Man of the year award" for the second straight year in a row. He doesn't act like a Scorpio--thank God. Scorpios and me clash. And besides, those Landrieus know everybody. Hell, I even know Mary Landrieu. Even though she has been ticking me off lately.

If Letten and the Landrieus ran together back in the
day then "oh well" because Letten was appointed by Bush
and Ashcroft not Mary Landrieu and it irritates me that she
isn't pushing the Obama administration much harder to put
Letten's reappointment in writing. Vitter is at least jumping on top of that. Save me the dark conspiracy theories please about Vitter and prostitutes. Don't go there. I vote a man out of office because of his policy issues and not his penis issues. Vitter gets my vote of approval on plenty of issues.

Anonymous said...

The connection between Mauberret and Batt is none other than the notorious and infamous former Orleans parish Assessor, Ronnie Burke. He is one of the backroom boys of the Alliance for "Good" Government. He is one of a long line of ancient and legendary "assessment deal makers and kingmakers" that made it a political art form. Burke pulls strings and Mauberret moves.

Yup, the same Ronnie Burke up to his a$$ in alligators in Jefferson Parish who was forced to resign and is under the media microscope. There are VERY deep political connections between old families who have held the Assessor posts across parish lines... if you get the drift and connect the dots.

Burke's family and Mauberret's family as former Orleans Assessors for DECADES are totally joined at the hip. HE is the "Commander." Yup, the same Ronnie Burke who chronically offers up Gressett the shill, for elections to divert media, dilute a few uninformed votes and attention from the candidates Burke doesn't want. If you notice in this race Gressett ONLY attacks Janis Lemle. Gressett ran in the last Assessor race against Nancy Marshall, the IQ candidate who ultimately won. Gressett falsely claimed and advertised HE was the IQ candidate to divert votes! He also falsely claimed he was endorsed by the "PRC" in his ads. He formed a shell corporation for the election and called it the "Property Rights Commission so he could claim he was endorsed by the "PRC!" Patty Gay at the Preservation Resource Center, the real PRC went bananas and sued his butt and the ads disappeared. He is shameless. LOL!If you really want to laugh one day, Google Mr. Gresset, the perennial stage stooge and Burke handyman. Voters are totally clueless. That is why these guys could play the game with the rules they want. Zombie, your blog changes everything.... You are re-making the rules. Congratulations on your award. Well deserved.