Comments for Pathfinder at http://www.theind.com , comment 1 to 26 out of 20 comments http://www.theind.com Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:29:53 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21525 That little power-hungry midget needs to stay the hell out of Lake Charles. He doesn't represent us yet and, with friends like Diaper Dave, he ain't going to represent us anytime soon. - LCDerouen Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:42:50 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21506 " I fear that we would have already invaded Iran had McCain been president" Quite possible. But don't count Obama out, yet. He still has at least a year more in the White House, and Iran is sending warships to the Egyptian coast to "stop piracy" today. Nothing spells re-election like a new war....:) - ragin_cajun Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:06:31 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21482 Gotta add some comments here. Soop said: "The far right didn't like Bush the elder in '92 because he broke the no new taxes pledge, they voted for Ross Perot which gave us all Bill Clinton." Don't worry, the Praetorian Guard media and the corporation that runs presidential debates have managed to prevent third party candidates from raining on the two-party dictatorship by barring third party candidates from debates. "Who in turn not only gave us illegal immigration but government run healthcare and the current record deficits." I find this statement amusing. Did illegal immigration not happen before Obama? Did you know that deportations have actually increased under Obama? Not that I am defending him. The corporatocracy likes things the way they are because illegal immigrants offer cheap labor that can be evicted spontaneously without accountability, and Obama is not about to change that. How is health care "government run" when we are buying insurance from private companies? Sure, the mandate is there and I do not support it, and there are some changes in the law, but to call it "government run" is just one of those cliches that allows people to stop thinking. To believe that record deficits would not have happened after the economic collapse is absurd, and to think that the Federal Reserve has nothing to do with it is just as bad. The status quo is running on Keynesian economics. The other party just would have run up record deficits on different tabs; making war seems to be popular. Your roundabout way of blaming things on the far right is not entirely accurate, I believe. There was a huge surge of young voters who voted for Obama, and disillusionment with the Bush/Cheney style drove independents to the Democratic ticket in droves. Again, not that I'm supporting Obama. He has proven to be quite the stooge of the corporatocracy. Ragin, I agree with you about there being not much difference between Obama and McCain, although I fear that we would have already invaded Iran had McCain been president, or started some other overseas tragedy far eclipsing the Libya intervention. But you too are trying to put all the "blame" on "softies" within your party, as if things would magically improve if everyone just thought the same and voted the same party. - Resident Mon, 29 Aug 2011 23:56:45 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21368 Soop -- How different was Bush the elder from Clinton, anyway? Should I have voted for him and patted myself on the back for keeping his democratic twin out the white house? How different would McCain have been from Obama? Had McCain been president, he would have signed healthcare reform into law, too. he would have given us record deficits, too and used the exact same justifications that Boustany is using right now. And McCain would have gone along with defacto amnesty for illegal immigrants. McCain or Obama makes almost no difference. How can voters expect their Congressmen not to compromise their principles and their vote when voters themselves do for no other reason than to keep out "the other team". What has REALLY given us the last two Democratic presidents is liberal Republicans. of the type that you see all over Lafayette and Louisiana I might add. think about how many republican officeholders have switched parties. think any of them have any commitment to anything? the strength of their convictions? - ragin_cajun Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:47:17 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21353 Things have indeed changed, Ragin, but not as much as you think. It was as simple 20 years ago as it is today. The last two Democratic presidents have been the direct result of the far right's "vote." The far right didn't like Bush the elder in '92 because he broke the no new taxes pledge, they voted for Ross Perot which gave us all Bill Clinton. In 2008, the far right didn't like John McCain because he was soft on immigration (among other things), they stayed home instead of voting which gave us Barack Obama. Who in turn not only gave us illegal immigration but government run healthcare and the current record deficits. If Boustany ended up in a runoff with a Democrat, I have little doubt those on the far right would just stay home and pout. And then if the Democrat won, according to the far right, it would be the fault of everyone else but them. All the best, Soop - Soop. Fri, 26 Aug 2011 11:36:55 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21316 Farrow -- You raise an excellent point. The "Tea Party" is not a single political entity. There is a "TEA Party" group in New Iberia, and I THINK, I'm not sure and I'm not a member, they dislike Jeff Landry and dont' trust him. You could ask them, they have a website. Of the two "TEA Party" groups in Lafayette, I don't think either one of them expressed a preference either way during the race between Magar and Landry. So when the writer says Jeff Landry "found a home in the Tea Party", I'd be curious to know which one he's talking about. Maybe he could clear that up for us.... - ragin_cajun Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:56:49 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21313 I live in Landry's district and I did not vote for him: I do not support the Tea Party and would not vote for one of its candidates. However, was Landry the Tea Party's original choice? Was it not Kristian Magar? I don't know -- that's why I am asking. - Farrow Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:28:06 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21312 "so the next Congress can continue and make deeper the cuts to the budget to get us "Beyond Balanced" and actually paying down the debt. " I couldn't agree with you more. " a government shutdownn is always bad for Republicans." I couldn't disagree with you more. " The idea that he voted for the best deal possible will play well in LC." We'll see. It doesn't play very well with me, that's for sure. " If Landry would have.... it would have been ... how he would have voted...." Let's talk about what actually DID happen. This is all crystal clear, very simple. There was a vote to raise the debt limit. If the debt limit had NOT been raised, then the Executive Branch would have been forced to cut spending. Default was not the only option. Government shutdown was not the only option. The third option was to cut spending. Landry voted against raising the debt limit. So did Vitter. Boustany, on the other hand, voted to raise the debt limit. After the CR "deal", how in the hell does anybody defend the debt limit "deal". Can't wait to see what, if anything, gets cut now. And a "Super Committee"?! Boustany says that if the Super Committee can't come up with cuts everybody can agree, then triggered cuts in Medicare and Defense spending. Think that'll play well in Lake Charles, too? Boustany said that they just couldn't cut 50 years of government spending all at once, so they had to cut the debt limit deal. You really think that'll play in LC? C'mon man. I think things are very different now than they were 3 years ago, and Boustany doesn't have a clue how much has changed in voters' minds. Maybe he'll get a clue in the next few months, but he doesn't have an open mind from what I could see at his town hall meeting. He is more concerned with trying to CHANGE minds. Jeff Landry doesn't have that problem. - ragin_cajun Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:11:27 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21308 An alliance of Landry and Vitter? What a perfect opportunity to kill two terds with one stone. - rambeaux rawlings Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:30:25 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21306 Ragin -- Simply put, yes. The idea that he voted for the best deal possible will play well in LC. As others have pointed out since, Landry had the luxury of voting no once the votes were counted. If Landry would have truly been the swing vote, it would have been interested in seeing how he would have voted. It is the same reason Landreau has been able to vote "against" her fellow Democrats in the Senate on a number of issues. Democrats had such a majority that they weren't going to get upset that Democrats in conservative states had to vote against a particular bill. I'm not saying Landry was given cover by Rep leadership .. just that he realized he would have cover since the bill already had the votes to pass. He can now say he would have held firm, but what in practice would he have done? He obviously is not against raising the debt ceiling because he had already voted to do that previously. And say what you want, a government shutdownn is always bad for Republicans. That is why I personally wanted Republicans to pass a bill to make sure seniors got their checks and military folks got paid. That way it could not be held against Reps that granny and soldiers were being thrown out into the streets by Republicans. The focus for Republicans now should be to elect either Boustany or Landry to the post so the next Congress can continue and make deeper the cuts to the budget to get us "Beyond Balanced" and actually paying down the debt. All the best, Soop - Soop. Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:09:53 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21290 Boustany is a good man but he is a limp noodle. No spine. I'm voting for Landry...even with his faults. - noname Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:11:10 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21284 Landry voted against the debt ceiling because he knew it would pass. He is a vote whore. Boustany is a good man and does not grandstand like the little boy Jeff. I will vote for Boustany over Landry any day. And why is Jeff hanging around with Vitter anyway? He wants to ride the whore-mongers coat tail, thats why! But people in our district have his number!! GO BOUSTANY!! - the original northsidian Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:32:29 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21275 Landry will not run against Boustany in the 2012 Fall elections. He has his eyes set on something bigger in the 2014 timeframe. The challenge for him will be how to stay in the spotlight for the 2 years that he is not in Congress. - SWLA_Cajun Wed, 24 Aug 2011 20:25:14 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21270 I like that Rep. Landry also takes an active role in trying to help other conservative Republicans get elected to office, such as the State Legislature. Prime opportunity right now in Acadia Parish to replace a fiscally liberal Democrat State Rep. with a fiscally conservative Republican challenger, and Rep. Boustany appears to have no intention to lift a hand. Rep. Landry has already helped. I like Rep. Boustany. He's a good guy and votes pretty conservative, but it would be nice if he could help the conservative and reform movement within Louisiana's state government as well. - RCajunrunner Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:29:28 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21268 chrystal, I think you're exactly right. Good point about the fact that he actually did vote to raise the debt limit, just couched in an impossible condition for a Constitutional amendment to balance the budget, that everyone knows has zero chance of passing in both parties. Landry puts on a good Cajun show of smaller government and so forth, but I don't believe for a second that he is any different than the Establishment Republicans that make up most of his party. I have no doubt that he played a political move to "vote against he president" because everyone knew the debt limit was going to be raised. If a Republican president were in power, Landry would have immediately voted to raise the debt limit because his Foxaholic constituency would have been told that raising the debt ceiling was good and necessary. Landry is full of empty cliches and will vote for the Republican style of big government every time. He won't be re-elected, though. Sadly, it's not any better to have Boustany who is already bought and paid for and has no qualms about displaying his allegiance to the Establishment. - Resident Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:12:30 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21267 Landry is pandering to the mono-issue, mouth breathers and he's a lock to get that 25% but beyond that, hanging with the whore monger isn't enough to get him elected. Does Landry have an original thought that isn't a repeated soundbite? - holeinthedonut8 Wed, 24 Aug 2011 18:58:33 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21254 Landry was never "against" raising the debt ceiling, he voted for the original cut,cap and balance bill which allowed the raising of the debt ceiling, but conditioned it. It was only on the conditions whereby Boustany and Landry disagreed. Again, they both want the same things, it just a difference in the paths forward where they disagree. Landry knew his vote was not critical to passage and therefore could make a good campaign moment. - chrystal Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:21:22 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21253 To call Boustany a "moderate" Republican is laughable. Both he and Landry probably agree on 99.9% philosophically. The only difference is that Boustany is not a slash and burn, shoot from the mouth type. They have different styles and I think Landry's style will not play well to the majority in Southwest La. - chrystal Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:51:34 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21252 I have no beef with Boustany. I happen to believe a man with no moral compass personally will not have one professionally. I have not forgotten or forgiven Vitter his whore-mongering. Lie down with dogs, you're gonna catch fleas. I wouldn't disregard the fleas Vitter still carries. - BoFred Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:38:51 +0100 http://www.theind.com/cover-story/8886-pathfinder#comment-21251 Both Boustany and Landry are good men. It is a shame that we will loose one of them as well as a congressional seat. I could easily vote for Jeff Landry if I lived in the district.That said, I wish that Ron Paul was 10-15 years younger.... - John Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:21:55 +0100