Jackson Jambalaya

Snowden wrote about this a few days ago KF. Some good information there.

Of course, dictatorial control of the House by a Speaker elected by the absolute barest of margins possible is what David Hampton enthusiastically called "balance" in January 2008.

If a supermajority (3/5ths) is required for many types of legislation in the House then it seems to me that 3/5ths should be the minimum required to be elected Speaker. The job is too important than to be left to the decision of 4183 fools who voted for Billy McCoy in 2007.

JFP just published a short story on it. Instead of calling out McCoy, it said "lawmakers" . Who exactly do they think the lawmakers are?

You can bet your last dollar that if the legislation was instead being held up by a committee chairperson in the Senate who happened to be a Republican that the JFP would be naming names. They'd also blame Bryant and Barbour in the next breath.

71% of pet-owning women entering women’s shelters reported that their batterer had injured, maimed, killed or threatened family pets for revenge or to psychologically control victims; 32% reported their children had hurt or killed animals.

68% of battered women reported violence towards their animals. 87% of these incidents occurred in the presence of the women, and 75% in the presence of the children, to psychologically control and coerce them.

Why it Matters

My last comment re: Hampton got zapped so I won't say anything.

FYI -- Ward had 1 opponent in his primary and no opponent in his general.

Bailey had no opponent in his primary OR his general.

In my email to them, I mentioned that there HAD to be responsible, animal-loving, ambitious potential candidates in their districts, which would lead to expensive primaries AND expensive general elections for them both.

Ward represents parts of Benton, Tippah, and Union counties. Bailey represents part of Washington county.

why didn't they put this animal down immediately. I hope to god it's not still living.

I assume under this bill one living out in the "country" can still kill/execute, humanely with a kill shot, roaming/trespassing dogs and cats that are not vaccinated or near feral? If not, its a bad bill.

Anon 5:01, the bill contained this language:

1) Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as prohibiting a person from:
(a) Defending himself or herself or another person from physical or economic injury being threatened or caused by an animal;
(b) Injuring or killing of an unconfined animal on the person's property if the unconfined animal is reasonably believed to constitute a threat of physical injury or damage to any animal under the care or control of the person;

It was a GOOD bill.

If you want to read the text as it passed the Senate, go here:
http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2010/html/SB/3000-3099/SB3085PS.htm

Heard from a lobbyist friend of mine that David Waide and his idiot buddies at Farm Bureau ran a "smear campaign" against the bill in the last week, convincing the EQUALLY idiotic House Judiciary members that this bill would make it possible for PETA to come to Mississippi and get involved in how farm animals are treated.

Never mind the bill SPECIFIED domestic cats and dogs for the felony of aggravated cruelty. The only thing it did with farm animals was specify the process that must be followed for dealing with OBVIOUSLY neglected horses and such -- the ones Bert Case always reports about but no one can do anything about.

And never mind that the bill stated that nothing in the bill could be construed to prevent people from:

(d) Engaging in practices lawful under the Mississippi Veterinary Practice Act, Section 73-39-51 et seq., or engaging in activities by any licensed veterinarian while following accepted standards of practice of the profession, including, but not limited to, the euthanizing, spaying or neutering, earcropping, taildocking, declawing, or debarking of an animal;

(e) Humanely killing an animal that is suffering from an incurable or untreatable illness or condition or if there appears to be no reasonable probability that the life or usefulness of the animal can be saved;

(g) Performing accepted agricultural and animal husbandry practices on livestock or poultry, including, but not limited to, slaughter, butchering, food processing and marketing practices.

Morons.

It would be delightful irony if the next serial killer we are unable to prevent from developing (the bill did require psych. evals for people who tortured cats and dogs) decides to focus his/her rage on the people who held up this bill.

We need to put Farm Bureau in the spotlight. These jokers honestly believe the bullshit they shovel. Perhaps they should have to defend their "honest" feelings. I wonder what those are. I agree with above and wonder where they find the gumption to shoot down a bill that was, in all attempts, a bill to better define the line of those who are wantonly cruel and those who are acting in accordance with sane treatment of animals.

such a shame !!!

Lobbyists invent controversy or threat where none exists to justify their use to their clients.

This isn't the first time lobbyists for some group misrepresented the contents of a bill...both to the legislators AND to the group they represent.

If all else fails, a bill is represented as " big government" interfering in the lives of people. And, they will threaten to characterize the legislator who votes for it as supporting big government in the next election.

You know...the anything government does is bad approach.

Who was the lobbyist for Farm Bureau?

Likely they have a phalanx of them. You can search at the MS SOS site to see who they're using though it doesn't get bill specific.

Farm Bureau lobbyists are Samantha Cawthorn and Camille Scales Young. Cawthorn (scawthorn@msb.com) is the Public Policy Director for Farm Bureau and lobbies only for them. Young (cyoung@watkinsludlam.com) works for Watkins Ludlam and has a whole bunch of clients.

I think the real problem is David Waide. He's apparently not registered as a lobbyist with the SOS (unless he has another name I don't know) but I don't believe for one minute he hasn't been in touch with those morons at the Capitol. He doesn't have an email I could find, but if his is anything like everyone else at FB, it's dwaide@msfb.com. Probably NOT that though -- so here's the phone number they have listed for him, 601-977-4290.

Email Address: dwaide@msfb.com

Result OK

Log

Connect:
Get MX for msfb.com... OK.
Connect to mail.msfb.com...Failed.
= 602 Can't connect to the host: 'mail.msfb.com'
Connect to mail2.msfb.com... OK
= 220 hosmailscan3.sfbcic.com ESMTP Symantec Brightmail Gateway
> EHLO email-verifier.net
= 250-hosmailscan3.sfbcic.com says EHLO to 209.160.72.213:4879
250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
250-8BITMIME
250 PIPELINING
> MAIL FROM:
= 250 MAIL FROM accepted
> RCPT TO:
= 250 RCPT TO accepted
> QUIT

She is in her mid 20's, probably 25. Only been with Farm Bureau since last summer. You REALLY think SHE pulled this off?

KF, ROFL...is she pretty or endowed with other assets, too?

If she knows her biz even a little and interned somewhere, or can follow a mentor's instructions, I'd say she's got a better shot that some old,experienced dude !

Of course, there's a chance she's a dumb bunny that couldn't read the bill and misunderstood it and the guys just want to make her happy ...or just make her.

This is one of your wonderful " guy" moments, KF :-)

Waide did it. I just want to know how -- and why he isn't registered as a lobbyist with the SOS.

Nah, just a front for those that did.

Not knocking her at all and yes, she's pretty hot. I just don't think a 25 year old has the juice to go in the state capitol and kill a bill that overwhelmingly passed the Senate. However, I DO think her boss has such clout.

In Rep. Willie Bailey's defense, Rep. Bailey stated he was in support of the felony animal cruelty bill. Because of House rules, since the bill was first referred to the Agriculture committee (by the Speaker), Rep. Bailey's Judiciary B committee could not take up the bill until the House Agriculture committee (chaired by Rep. Ward) passed the bill.

Speaker McCoy, Rep. Ward, and Farm Bureau deserve full blame for killing the felony animal cruelty bill.

Rep. Chism, meanwhile, should be on the list of people not elected to office. Chism publicly stated he has a problem against making cruelty to dogs or cats a felony and thinks it should only be a misdemeanor.

Add Mayhall to that group who said he would not pass one because if a cat walked on his property he wanted to be able to shoot it! What an idiot as that is against the law now! A misdemeanor, but nonetheless, against the law. Additionally, David Waide is planning to run for Governor....imagine that! Can we say we will MAKE SURE HE NEVER TAKES THAT SEAT!!!!

Don't blame Bailey or the Judiciary Committee. They were prepared to pass it out, although there were a couple of vocal opponents (Ted Mayhall, John Moore) on the committee. It would have come out of Jud B, but Greg Ward wouldn't let it come to a vote in Agriculture.

This bill was killed as Snowden says in his blog - a Speaker, elected on the third ballot by one vote and tens of thousands of dollars swapping hands controlling every bill. Too bad the Speaker isn't a Republican - then this kind of misuse of power would get some attention in the "conventional media"!!