October 2019 – Page 3 – Sound Off Louisiana

State Sen. Regina Barrow characterizes “Did Gov. Edwards drop the ball on Johnny Anderson or has he been unfairly attacked?” as “loaded” as she, challenger Chambers defend Edwards’ actions.

State Sen. Regina Ashford Barrow (District 15)

Gary Chambers, candidate for Senate District 15

The meeting of the Baton Rouge Press Club (BRPC) of Monday, October 7, 2019 was a battle of contenders to represent Louisiana State Senate District 15. The candidates are incumbent State Sen. Regina Ashford Barrow, and challenger Gary Chambers, who is the publisher of the Rouge Collection. Let’s take a look at some of the things the candidates had to say, shall we?

Sen. Barrow characterizes as “loaded” Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns’ question entailing whether Gov. Edwards “dropped the ball” entailing his hiring of Johnny Anderson or whether Truth in Politics’ attack ad featuring the victim and/or the RGA Right Direction PAC attack ad are unfair. Chambers responds to the question after Barrow concludes her remarks.

Now, as is obvious by the video, both Barrow and Chambers staunchly defend Gov. Edwards and stress that Anderson has not been “convicted.” Fair enough. For the record, Johnny Anderson is black. We wonder if Barrow and Chambers would so staunchly defend Edwards if they were aware of similar circumstances entailing Caucasian Stephen Holliday.

Here’s the deal: Edwards’-then Secretary of Wildlife and Fisheries and former U. S. Congressman, Charlie Melancon, insisted upon the resignation of Holliday once he (Melancon) became aware of Holliday’s CONVICTION of domestic abuse for punching his 14-year-old daughter in the face with a closed fist. What did Edwards do upon learning of the forced resignation? He: #1) instructed Melancon to exit stage left, and he #2) demanded the re-hiring of Holliday, who continues to be employed by Louisiana taxpayers to this very day.

Of course, both Barrow and Chambers could be excused for not knowing about Holliday’s incident because the mainstream media aren’t about to reveal it to them and, for whatever reason (perhaps saving it for the runoff?), neither have Edwards’ Republican opponents. Nevertheless, Barrow and Chambers ought to find the contrasts of treatments of Anderson v. Holliday (and their opposite races) to be at least modestly curious!

Speaking of mainstream media, let’s see what these candidates think of Dr. Omar Dantzler’s claim that “racism” is behind the mainstream media’s efforts to quash his campaign’s existence.

Barrow and Chambers respond to Dantzler’s claims of the mainstream media attempting to quash his campaign’s existence.

Now, unbelievably, Chambers states that he is “unfamiliar” with Dantzler’s candidacy and that the fact he is not familiar demonstrates the bias in the mainstream media. Perhaps had Chambers known of Dantzler’s candidacy, he may not have declared, “black voters have one choice on election day, John Bel Edwards.” Here is an excerpt from Chambers’ article:

I am not the type of person to give blind loyalty. Too often in the black community we believe if we challenge someone that we don’t support them, when that simply is not true. I endorsed Governor Edwards in 2015 and I’m doing so again today. This election is too important to yield power over to Trump supporting conservatives who will implement failed policies that we’ve seen before.

We can’t speak for Dr. Dantzler, but we have to believe he would feel endorsing Edwards over him constitutes “blind loyalty.”

Nevertheless, taking Chambers’ claim of unfamiliarity regarding Dantzler at face value (and there’s no reason to suggest he did have any familiarity with Dantzler’s candidacy), we note two points that are readily apparent:

#1) the media efforts Dr. Dantzler alleges have been in place to quash his candidacy must be working if someone with the notoriety of Gary Chambers is “unfamiliar” with his candidacy, and

#2) even given the media suppression Dantzler alleges is taking place, Chambers likely needs to broaden his research on who all is running for Governor!

Perhaps subscribing to our blog may assist as he would have received this post educating him on Dantzler’s candidacy and his platforms on many issues. We are willing to bet they are strikingly similar to positions that Chambers would take were he running for Governor.

Now, we’re going to break today’s forum into two segments, and the second will be published on Wednesday. For now, however, let’s wrap up this first segment with the candidates’ responses on what they intend to do if the proposed City of St. George measure passes on Saturday:

Barrow and Chambers provide their answers on what they intend to do if the St. George initiative passes on Saturday.

Now, supporters of Chambers asked us to provide the segment of last week’s Fields/Smith forum where moderator Delia Taylor went to announce the speakers for today’s forum and could easily cite challenger Gary Chambers but struggled mightily to recall the “other candidate in the race.” We’re certainly happy to oblige by instructing any such folk who may be interested in seeing that to merely advance to the 47:29 mark of this video.

We’ll get segment two of Barrow v. Chambers published on Wednesday, October 9, 2019.

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Community organizer Belinda Parker Brown refers to media and opponents’ treatment of Omar Dantzler’s gubernatorial candidacy as “sophisticated bondage.”

Belinda Parker Brown, a Slidell-based community organizer, lambasted the mainstream media’s treatment of the gubernatorial candidacy of Dr. Oscar “Omar” Dantzler, referring to it as “sophisticated bondage.” She did so at a rally entailing further reform of Louisiana’s criminal justice system held at the steps of the Louisiana state Capitol on Saturday, October 5, 2019.

Sound Off Louisiana subscribers will recall our extensive interview with Dr. Oscar “Omar” Dantzler entailing his candidacy to become the next Governor of Louisiana. During that interview, Dantzler stressed efforts to quash his campaign by the mainstream media and the other candidates. In the early portion of that video just linked, we indicated we’d have future guests to elaborate on Dantzler’s observation. Today, we provide that added reinforcement as we were graciously invited by Dr. Dantzler to a rally on the steps of the Louisiana Capitol for an event organized by Slidell-based community organizer Belinda Parker Brown.

Sound Off Louisiana was founded for the very purpose of permitting individuals to express their sentiments on any aspect of Louisiana government, and Ms. Brown gathered a large contingency of individuals who have plenty to say about Louisiana’s criminal justice system. Let’s take a look at the fascinating videos which we believe are some of the best videos we’ve ever captured in the history of Sound Off Louisiana:

Brown lambasts Dantzler’s treatment by the mainstream media during this campaign for Governor of Louisiana.

Brown delivers a true “fire and brimstone sermonette,” after which she is praised by Youth Pastor Cory Ricks of New Orleans’ third ward.

David Frank, who has formed One Voice Now to maximize social media’s ability (as well as PBS stations across the nation) to advocate for specific causes entailing governmental operations, addresses the attendees at the rally.

Youth pastor and rapper Cory Ricks addresses the crowd and includes a rap song for its listening pleasure!

A small group of speakers addresses the audience to include Alex Carter (pictured above), who gave an impassioned testimony of his father dying from injuries sustained in prison after having been severely beaten for having a child with the sheriff’s daughter.

It was our honor and privilege to videotape segments of this rally for publication. We will note that, just as Ms. Brown and Dr. Dantzler observed for the campaign, we saw not the first representative of the mainstream media there to cover this gathering. Perhaps they feared that, by airing the concerns expressed here, Gov. Edwards’ re-election efforts may be hindered.

If so (and we can think of no other explanation), then we have indeed reached a truly sad state of affairs if people’s voices expressing perfectly legitimate concerns about any aspect of Louisiana government are quashed for fear that the expression of those concerns and sentiments may impede any elected official’s re-election efforts!

After Sound Off Louisiana poses simple question of Gov. Edwards’ stand on reparations for slavery, two national publications follow supplying evidence of his family’s extensive past slave ownership to include “spacious family homes” built entirely by uncompensated slave labor.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards

On Monday, September 23, 2019, Sound Off Louisiana’s Robert Burns, upon reflection of national news features on reparations for past slavery, asked each of the three candidates for Governor appearing before the Baton Rouge Press Club for their thoughts on the matter. The following video captures their responses:

Burns poses the question regarding reparations for past slavery and Gov. Edwards, Mr. Rispone, and Congressman Ralph Abraham provide their responses.

As is obvious, Gov. Edwards, who responded first, stated that reparations is, “not something I have studied or am considering.” Three days later, the Washington Times found Gov. Edwards’ response noteworthy as it published a feature and made more than a few interesting observations, to wit:

In the case of Mr. Edwards, slave labor appears to have been instrumental in the family’s rise to affluence. Records show that spacious family homes, such as Edwards Manor near Wilmer, were built by slaves who used timber they cut and hued from the family’s extensive land holdings.
Conveyance records in the St. Tammany Parish Courthouse show Daniel Edwards, a friend of Andrew Jackson’s and the family patriarch who first held elected office in Louisiana, buying and selling slaves.
The governor’s great-great-grandfather, Nicholas Stone Edwards, then became a member of the exclusive “planter” class, which historians generally describe as people who owned more than 20 slaves.
Census records show Nicholas Stone Edwards expanded the family’s slave ownership. In 1830, he owned 35 slaves. By 1860, on the eve of the Civil War — in which he fought on the Confederate side leading what was known as the “Edwards Guards” — the family’s slave holdings had swelled to 57 people.

Now, let’s take just a moment to reflect upon the next words uttered by Gov. Edwards: “I am focused on making sure we have access to increased opportunity and prosperity.” We seriously doubt that Dr. Oscar “Omar” Dantzler, a black opponent of Gov. Edwards, would agree with that assessment, to wit:

Dr. Dantzler, in an interview with Sound Off Louisiana on Monday, September 16, 2019 states his resolute believe that “one of the candidates” (Edwards?) has, “paid highly money to make sure that I be concealed from the public,” entailing his candidacy for Governor of Louisiana.

If Dr. Dantzler’s statement is true, that’s a very interesting way to “increase access to increased opportunity and prosperity.”

Now, let’s consider another case where Gov. Edwards’ actions directly defy his words of “increasing opportunity and prosperity.” On April 20, 2016, Gov. Edwards named Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, Louisiana’s first and, to date, only African American auctioneer in its history as a member of the Louisiana Auctioneer Licensing Board (LALB). Fifteen (15) days later, on May 5, 2016, Edwards rescinded the appointment and, on May 9, 2016, Phillips directly confronted Edwards over the move. Let’s take a look at Phillips’ confrontation and Edwards’ stated rationale for why he removed Phillips before Phillips could even serve at his first meeting after the appointment:

Phillips confronts Edwards on his decision to remove him from the LALB only 15 days after making his appointment.

Now, as is obvious on the video, Edwards described Phillips’ appointment as “a mistake,” because he’d made a “prior commitment.” That statement by Edwards is a 100 percent, T-total, unadulterated falsehood! How do we know? Because, after this bizarre incident transpired, we made extensive public records requests for all emails received by a few State Senators whom we were informed were being lobbied hard to deny Phillips’ confirmation. We welcome our subscribers to view the flood of emails received calling for Phillips’ head and decide the validity of Edwards’ official rationale above.

Actually, we would contend that Edwards’ “mistake” was the person he chose to replace Phillips. That would be none other than Jacob Brown, son of convicted felon Cecil Brown, who served time in Federal prison pertaining the Edwin Washington Edwards’ term as Governor from 1992 – 1996 (for which Edwards also served time in Federal prison). Brown wasted little time fleecing Louisiana taxpayers out of over $175,000 entailing auction contracts the Edwards administration awarded Brown. Brown was in dire need of the money to support an out-of-control drug habit!

It’s a fair question to ask at this point regarding whether Edwards has differing treatments for his appointees depending upon the color of their skin. We would submit that he does and, further, that Caucasian appointees are treated vastly more favorably. What prompts us to make such a claim?

Well, as everyone knows, Edwards, despite Johnny Anderson’s past reputation of extensive sexual harassment at Southern University, appointed him to his administration. Then, when Anderson reverted to “old ways,” right under Edwards’ nose, Edwards did the right thing and fired Anderson within mere hours (taxpayers ultimately had to pay $85,000 to settle a sexual harassment suit against Anderson). In doing so, Edwards did exactly what he should do (though we submit Anderson never should have been hired in the first place). For the record, Anderson is African American.

Let’s contrast that with a Caucasian staffer of Edwards at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF): Stephen Holliday. Mr. Holliday was convicted for domestic abuse for punching his 14-year-old daughter in the face with a closed fist. Edwards’ then-head of LDWF and former U. S. Congressman, Charlie Melancon, also did the right thing and demanded Holliday’s immediate resignation when evidence of the abuse conviction was uncovered. Holliday did not want to resign but ultimately did and then immediately went to Edwards telling him just what all had transpired. Edwards response? Melancon was quickly escorted out on stage left, after which Edwards opted to bow to the attorney cabal who placed Edwards in office via some $6 million in PAC campaign contributions and REHIRE Holliday.

Now, yesterday, we noticed that Brietbart did a second national feature on the Edwards family’s past slave ownership. They too had some interesting observations, to wit:

Breitbart News has confirmed the basics of the Edwards family history outlined in the Times article, though it appears the slave holdings of Gov. Edwards’ ancestors were more extensive than initially reported.
The 1850 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedule shows that Edwards’ great-great-great grandfather Daniel Edwards, a resident of St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, owned 26 slaves. That same census showed that Daniel Edwards’ son, Gov. Edwards’ great-great grandfather Nicholas Stone Edwards, a resident of nearby Washington Parish, Louisiana, owned 33 slaves. Daniel Edwards and his son Nicholas Stone Edwards owned a combined 59 slaves in 1850.

The 1860 U.S. Federal Census – Slave Schedules shows that Edwards’ great-great-great grandfather Daniel Edwards, a resident of St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, owned 57 slaves. That same census showed that Daniel Edwards’ son, Gov. Edwards’ great-great grandfather Nicholas Stone Edwards, a resident of nearby Ward 1 in Washington Parish, Louisiana, owned 33 slaves. Daniel Edwards and his son Nicholas Stone Edwards owned a combined 90 slaves in 1860.

The Edwards family was one of the largest slave holding families in Louisiana in 1860, and was near the top one percent of slave holding families in the entire country at that time, according to data provided by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, 1970.
In 1860, there were about 22,000 slave holders in Louisiana. Only 547 owned more than 100 slaves. There were about 390,000 slave holders in the country, of which about 2,300 owned more than 100 slaves.
In 1869, during the Reconstruction period, a new parish, Tangipahoa Parish was organized from parts of St. Tammany Parish, where Gov. Edwards’ great-great-great grandfather Daniel Edwards lived at the time, and Washington Parish, where the governor’s great-great grandfather Nicholas Stone Edwards lived.
The Edwards family has played a prominent role in the politics of Tangipahoa Parish ever since.

Perhaps Gov. Edwards has never “studied reparations” and is not “pursuing it” because of the sheer size of the checks he may have to write to some of his African American neighbors in and around the Amite, Louisiana area who are descendants of slaves who helped his family amass its vast wealth. Just a thought! At any rate, it’s interesting how one relatively simple question at a forum can blossom, huh?