Former Jindal Director of Media Operations Taylor Huckaby Sounds Off to provide a rare peek into the inner sanctum of Jindal’s administration.

Taylor Huckaby, former Director of Media Operations for former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

 

Taylor Huckaby, a former member of Team Jindal who served as his director of media operations, recently wrote an op-ed piece in the Baton Rouge Advocate revealing some of the interactions between Jindal and his closest staff.  Far more revealing than even the preceding op-ed piece, however, was a July 9, 2015 interview with Statewide radio talk show host Jim Engster.  Huckaby readily exposed Jindal’s bigotry toward his fellow Indians and Jindal’s hypocrisy regarding state government transparency.  Engster did a superb job of asking the probing questions, and Huckaby answered them with unusual and rare candor, making him unique among Jindal current and former staffers.  The following audio clips are highlights of the Engster interview with Huckaby:

 


Huckaby reveals how he joined Team Jindal.

 


Huckaby reveals Jindal’s isolationist nature and the
tenacity of his gatekeepers. 

 

 


Huckaby explains Jindal’s priority of national perception
versus doing what’s best for Louisiana, Jindal’s obsession
with the utilization of
PRIVATE emails to obstruct
FOIA requests
from the media and public and, beginning
at the
1:24 mark, Huckaby explains how, at the 2011
election victory celebration, Jindal’s staff
insisted
that his Indian-American supporters standing behind
him on the platform be removed due to “bad optics.”

 

 


Huckaby states what life was like with the Jindal
administration once he revealed that he is gay to
key Jindal political adviser Timmy Teepell.

 


Huckaby outlines what he calls the “fringe
elements” of Jindal’s administration and explains
why it is
perfectly reasonable to expect that
Jindal performed an exorcism.

 


Huckaby first assesses whether Timmy Teepell has
done well in advising Gov. Jindal and then addresses
whether he (Huckaby) “respects Jindal as a person.”

 

Feel free to listen to the entire Jim Engster interview here.  Special thanks and kudos to Jim Engster and Taylor Huckaby for providing listeners with such a revealing interview and to fellow blogger C. B. Forgotston for quickly assessing its uniqueness from the vantage point of providing such a rare insight into Gov. Jindal’s inner sanctum.

 

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Cosmetology instructor Nelda Dural echoes Congressman Cao’s lawlessness claims regarding Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology.

Cosmetologist Nelda Dural

 

On Monday, July 13, 2015, The Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) will deliberate the revocation of the teaching license of Nelda Dural and her school, Iberia School of Cosmetology.  Sound Off Louisiana recently published this feature regarding LSBC Gestapo enforcement tactics against Vietnamese manicurists.  In that piece, former Congressman Joseph Cao, who is plaintiffs’ attorney in a class action lawsuit against the LSBC representing those manicurists, stated:  “The board seems to think it can operate in any manner it wants without regard to the law.”  As evidenced in the 8 1/2 minute highlight of Nelda’s sworn testimony before the LSBC on June 1, 2015, reckless operations appear to be the norm at the LSBC:

 


Dural sounds off on the LSBC (1:00 – 1:33 is actual complainant
stating that LSBC Executive Director Steve Young
told students “not to go to Iberia School.”)  From 1:30 – 1:33,
 ED Young himself is in video.  Dural got most heated about
why she alone is being singled out for needing two instructors.
As she indicated in her testimony,
 the LSBC approved an exception to the two-instructor statue
 requirement less than 60 days before Dural’s testimony!

Consider the following facts about Jindal’s LSBC appointees:

1.  Jindal’s first Chairman, Michael-John Gaspard, resigned when allegations of male sexual harassment of employees of his spa surfaced.  The nearly $9,000 in contributions to Jindal’s campaign simply wasn’t enough to excuse THAT type of misconduct!

2.  Gaspard’s replacement, Frances Hand, together with Executive Director Young, combine to get the LSBC sued (as well as them personally, though they’ve been released from liability personally) for discrimination and false imprisonment (see link at beginning of this post).  For the record, board attorney Celia Cangelosi was also sued personally, and she remains a personal defendant of the federal litigation to this day.

3.  In early April of 2015, LSBC official Winn Johnson pleaded guilty to selling answers to the LSBC cosmetology licensing exam for $500/pop.

In the above video, testimony is provided both by Dural and a complainant that ED Young informed prospective students not to attend Iberia School of Cosmetology.  If Young felt there was any imminent threat, he should have convened an emergency meeting of the LSBC and let the board take an appropriate action.  Instead, he became the “wild West Sheriff in town” and took matters into his own hands.  In doing so, he acted way beyond his authority.  Moreover, it appears his concerns were very likely unwarranted.  Through his reckless disregard for legal procedure which, as Congressman Cao asserts, appears to be a pattern at the LSBC, Young has opened himself and the LSBC up to a lawsuit by Dural for:  1) restraint of trade, 2) defamation, and 3) discrimination.

When Jindal first assumed office in early 2008, his then-Head of Boards and Commissions, James Quinn, would make one simple request of board or commission appointees.  That request?  “Please don’t embarrass us.”  Who could have envisioned that 7 1/2 years later Jindal himself would be an immense embarrassment to all of the State of Louisiana?  That fact notwithstanding, his LSBC appointees have most assuredly let him down on his one simple request.

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